Good morning! It seems like so long since I have camped or posted! Between school, work, doctors and icky weather, it has been so hectic here.
Our 1st camping weekend of the year was not hectic, but a fun though rather melancholy weekend. We took the camper and also rented a sleeping cabin at a local county campground to celebrate our youngest’s high school graduation.
It is hard to believe our youngest is graduating. I swear he was just measuring (repeatedly) to see if he was taller than me. Now, he definitely is taller than me, he also is definitely excited to graduate. The weekend and Graduation Open House were a fun, relaxed way to celebrate.
The sleeping cabin with outside picnic tables, was a nice size for our smaller family. As we get older, our family gatherings are smaller. The change is hard sometimes. I grew up with large holidays since my father was 1 of 10 kids. It is still nice to get together and celebrate- just different.
Of course, the small group of high schoolers really enjoyed an evening campfire at the sleeping cabin- it was little loud, just like my family holidays. Sooo much fun!
The sleeping cabins are along a river, with just a few campspots really close. I wanted a close spot so we could easily walk decorations and food over. We arrive early Thursday morning to get ‘the’ spot.
No luck.
The campspot we wanted was already taken. Thankfully, the host was driving around and showed us a different spot.
It was still close to the cabin, even facing the cabin, but we had not considered it. We thought it was a tent spot since it did not have a gravel driveway. Usually, it can be part of a group with 4 campers facing inward and sharing a firepit. But the host had us face the road so we could see the cabin and take stuff over easier. It worked great.
The weather even was great for the graduation open house on Saturday, a bit breezy in the afternoon but sunny. The wind quit just in time for a bonfire.
I was glad for a nice Saturday. When we arrived Thursday morning we could see our breath! On Sunday, there was rain and lightning!
Sunday’s lightning made the camper’s electricity blink. We don’t have a surge protector and in over 30 years, it has never been a problem. We have had other storms (even hail) and electricity blinks, but everything was always fine. Now, we are trying to decide if we should get a surge protector for the camper
When we went out in the drizzle to hook up the camper to the truck, the legs wouldn’t extend or retract.
In the rain, the husband quickly checked both fuses but they were fine. He thought it was a blown switch that we would need to fix later-so we decided to use the crank.
Thankfully, the husband had fixed the access hole to the manual crank for the landing gear.
Shortly after we bought our 5th wheel, he noticed the hole to access the crank was off by 2 inches! I am so glad he drilled a new hole right away and didn’t procrastinate (usually my problem). We were able to hook up the camper and head home. Later, he messed with the fuses and wires. We still aren’t sure what it was, but it works now and we have the crank as a back-up.
Even with the weather, I am thankful that we had such a fun, relaxed, though melancholy camping weekend. It was great to celebrate the youngest’s graduation and to see friends, relatives and not-quite-loud highschoolers!
Happy Camping (or enjoying graduation mints!!)
Frugal Campasaurus