Winter camping - a learning experience
The forecast was for mid 30's in the daytime and dipping to mid 20's at night and all was clear when we decided to camp for our visit up north for Thanksgiving. We knew it could be a little "iffy" but...
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Thanks for the kind words. We where joking the whole time that "adversity is the spice of life"....
I didn't want to make a huge long post of it at first, but I only told half the story:
The first night we arrived just as it was getting full dark. Our TV has the worst factory tires on it (just bought a few months ago) and gets stuck at the slightest hint of slipping. The access to the campsite was through a dip with a 90 degree left at the top of the other side. Water hook up right on the downhill corner. Of course being covered in snow made it impossible to be sure where the gravel might be underneath. So we made it half way and got stuck. The owner of the CG said we'd get it all sorted out in the daylight with his tractor and suggested we just level up and sleep there. He brought us an extension cord to reach electric. I unhooked the TV and used leveling stackers for traction and at least got it out so we could go to dinner with the family that night.
Here is the first morning -- half in the middle of the turn. It had started to slip back towards another trailer, so I stopped completely before anything serious went wrong:
and here is looking where the site is before we got all sorted out -you can just see the water and sewer about dead center of the picture:
The worst part of the second night was when I heard the heater stop burning. You know the sound - fan only versus fan and gas burning to make heat. I wasn't sure of it for second and reached down and felt pure cold air blowing from the vent. I shut if off completely and we waited for a few minutes and I cycled it back on. It fired for a second then stopped. We waited some more. I told my wife that "this is the last try" when I cycled the control once more. It fired and continued to work and didn't shut off again for about 8 hours.
I joked with people in the CG office, while waiting on the tractor to come right it all, that this was the most excitement they had had in weeks!
I didn't want to make a huge long post of it at first, but I only told half the story:
The first night we arrived just as it was getting full dark. Our TV has the worst factory tires on it (just bought a few months ago) and gets stuck at the slightest hint of slipping. The access to the campsite was through a dip with a 90 degree left at the top of the other side. Water hook up right on the downhill corner. Of course being covered in snow made it impossible to be sure where the gravel might be underneath. So we made it half way and got stuck. The owner of the CG said we'd get it all sorted out in the daylight with his tractor and suggested we just level up and sleep there. He brought us an extension cord to reach electric. I unhooked the TV and used leveling stackers for traction and at least got it out so we could go to dinner with the family that night.
Here is the first morning -- half in the middle of the turn. It had started to slip back towards another trailer, so I stopped completely before anything serious went wrong:
and here is looking where the site is before we got all sorted out -you can just see the water and sewer about dead center of the picture:
The worst part of the second night was when I heard the heater stop burning. You know the sound - fan only versus fan and gas burning to make heat. I wasn't sure of it for second and reached down and felt pure cold air blowing from the vent. I shut if off completely and we waited for a few minutes and I cycled it back on. It fired for a second then stopped. We waited some more. I told my wife that "this is the last try" when I cycled the control once more. It fired and continued to work and didn't shut off again for about 8 hours.
I joked with people in the CG office, while waiting on the tractor to come right it all, that this was the most excitement they had had in weeks!
