We went to the cabin for the weekend. Wife got away late from work, we left 8:30 PM, got to the cabin at 11:30PM. Kids traveled well, overall it was an enjoyable trip to the cabin.
We parked on the gravel road "ditch" across from the neighbors cabin for the night. Slept well. Was actually a nice grassy/ treed spot. Arriving late was good because our hosts only got there 20 minutes before us !
Get up Saturday morning, made a quick breakfast, then the neighbors are complaining because they are expecting company and want them to park where we are parked, even though it isn't their land. Even though there is lots of other parking. Never did see any cars parked on that area the rest of the weekend either. 5th wheel jealousy ? They have 2 5ers parked permanently on their lot in addition to the cabin. No room to park cars on their lot.
The host cabin driveway has trees and shrubs on either side by the "curb". Haven't been trimmed in a while. The actually opening at the trunks is about 12 feet. Only about 9 feet of opening up at the branches level, even less above that. The opening is 90 degrees to the road. No way we were going to attempt that at night.
We wait for our hosts to appear before backing our 40 foot trailer in. Did I mention the road was narrow ?
Finally they get up, have breakfast, etc. By this time it's 11AM. We discuss the trees. They either forgot how big our trailer was or didn't comprehend. In spite of being in it numerous times. We attempt a back in. Kayaks on the roof catch the (untrimmed) branches overhanging the driveway. Pull onto the road, blocking it. Unload the kayaks. We are going to use them anyway, so they need to come down.
After a few tries we manage to wiggle the trailer in. By this time it's noon. It was difficult to judge what the actual line should be because of the obstacles. Tore the mud flap off the truck due to a pile of dirt hidden in the grass beside the road.
The trailer fits beautifully once it's in past the trees. The host is impressed. If only they'd trim those trees ! Owner says he probably will now.
We proceed to enjoy the weekend, but there is always stress. Turns out the water at the cabin stinks and isn't drinkable. Luckily we brought some drinking water, but I still have no choice but to hook my trailer up to their water for washing, toilets, etc.
There was more miscellaneous low level drama. Really detracted from the weekend. I'll have to think very hard before committing to repeating this visit.
The cabin owner is thinking of getting a 5er and spends most of the weekend asking me questions. It got tiring after a while, but he is a nice guy. Has a real conundrum about spending money on a truck and trailer, but yet seems tired of being "stuck" at the cabin. It didn't help that his daughter and her family were camping at a beautiful high mountain lake the previous week and kept talking about it. Plus every summer the cabin is a bunch of maintenance and it is in dire need of an upgrade. Last summer was a new roof. Now it needs a new well. The entire interior is right out of 1974, when it was built.
The owner never gets a break. I was tired just listening to all the work it was to own the cabin, let alone doing any of it.
It doesn't help that they have an acre of grass on the lake front between the cabin and the lake. He has a new riding mower just to cut it. The old one got stolen from the garage last winter.
I got my wife to drive half the trip there and all the trip back. No backing up or hooking up or unhooking though. But most everything else including a fuel stop.
She did OK, but isn't ready to drive alone. I think she found it a real eye opener how much attention it takes to drive a big rig in a defensive manner. I make it look so easy, but then I've been doing it forever, since 1998. I drive with one hand on the wheel, relaxed, doing a steering correction about once per mile, she has 2 hands on the wheel, doing a steering correction every 10 seconds.
She learned a lot about defensive driving on our trip. I'm happy she drove. It was a good experience for her.
I'm not sure I found this to be an enjoyable trip. There were moments where it was, but there were too many constraints to really enjoy it. Every time I did something I was bumping into something or someone, physically or otherwise.
The cabin only had 1 garden hose outlet. Our trailer hose reached it. But the hosts needed to use the hose to fill the kiddie pools. Their beach has no sand and is muddy. Besides, its 200 feet to the water from the cabin and the adults want to sit on lawn chairs at the cabin, not the water. So they have some kiddie pools. So the water to our trailer gets unhooked about 5x a day. Finally I just leave our trailer unhooked during the day.
We ran on solar and batteries all weekend. Which was no problem because the sun was shining and we didn't need AC or the microwave. No way I was going to attempt a power hookup !
Not sure what the moral of this story is. I'm moderately frustrated with how the weekend turned out. I'll be way more careful of what I commit to in the future, especially with these people. And I really, really love our 5th wheel trailer, especially compared to owning a cabin.
