Huntington Beach State Park - 2nd Outing = Sophomore Jinx

[charming]

Finally had time to take our motorhome out for a 2nd time and due to my work and other commitments, we decided to go back to Huntington Beach State Park.

Most of the problems were brought on by time constraints prior to the trip. Now this is just 5 - 6 miles from our home, but I still work and I'm still active in a service club. So through the weekend and right up until Wednesday morning I was super busy with everything BUT getting ready to spend a couple of relaxing days at Huntington Beach. :R

Instead of having everything ready to go Wednesday morning, we were still rushing around trying to load up all the must have new toys and duplicating each others efforts. So instead of arriving around 2 PM we finally checked in at 4:30 PM. We ended up with one of the most lopsided lots at Huntington and the navigator (me) miscalculated the placement of risers. The first night was spent climbing up hill, inside the motorhome. We also discovered the batteries in the control for the A/C were dead. The A/C ran 24/7 - the park store doesn't carry batteries.

Tired and hungry, we discovered the new grill needed assembling. I ended up cooking dinner inside. In all our duplication of efforts the milk was left at home. Besides not carrying batteries, the park store does not carry milk. Lucky me, I got to cook breakfast, inside also. While doing something I hit the wrong switch and turned off the water heater. Fooling around, too stubborn to get the book out, we put it in lock out mode. No hot water the whole last day and most of this morning.

To top it off, while packing up this morning the electric from the park kept tripping. Eventually, dirty dishes, dirty grill, etc. we headed home.

The good - The park was beautiful as always. The weather was perfect. We rode our bikes all the way to the jetty on Thursday plus we got to use our new dining tent.

We spent the afternoon today cleaning and putting everything in its proper place so next trip all we really need to do is pack our food and clothes. DH has a ton of socks and t-shirts he plans to have something stored in the RV. Of course we are learning that when you purchase an RV you also develop this need to buy accessories. :B

We have 2 new traditions when we take the motorhome on the road.

1. Hot dogs and potato chips night one.
2. Pizza when we get back home.

[TyroneandGladys]

Gladys starts several weeks before a short trip and a couple of months before a long trip in making extra on suppers and we freeze up dinners in individual containers for suppers. Then supper is only fixing a salad and reheating two dinners. For loading food what works for us is that Gladys puts all out on the kitchen table and only after she has put EVERYTHING out and double checked herself then I load it. We also have one area by the door for "forgotten" items if we think of something that needs to be loaded it goes in that area till the next trip out to the RV.

[charming]

Michael in MN wrote:
🙂

On our third trip, a couple hours from home, we realized that we had forgot the food.

On a recent driving trip to visit friends one state over I had packed a nice lunch for us. Which I left sitting on the kitchen counter. 😮 Plus, we usually don't leave the beach mid-morning or afternoon on a weekend, but we did this time and OH BOY the traffic getting out on hwy 501! DH decided we should get out of it and took another road and when we discovered - no lunch, we were in the middle of no where.

[magnusfide]

Don't feel badly. Many years ago in our tt the toilet began leaking.

Speaking of checklists, we put emergency re-start instructions for the water heater, genny, etc in clear protectors and tape them to the inside of the cabinet doors. No fumbling for instruction books. Another list we have done this way is the list of appliances and their amps so we don't exceed the max by using too many or those in the wrong combo.

Hopefully you both will chuckle about this trip. We've all BTDT.

[bakerkids]

LakeN wrote:
FYI: original post refers to Huntington Beach St Park. Not the same as Hunting in the "Tab pic." These parks are often confused.

You're so right! I read that late last night and apparently glanced over it, because I'm aware many confuse the two. I'll remove my post.

[D_E_Bishop]

Sounds like a lot of fun. DW and I decided after the sophmore trip mess up, that we would just buy what we needed in those cases, but with a towed it is easy. We also developed (read that, The DW developed) a series of check lists and food is the best one for me as it's her job to buy all that stuff. Yeah, like that ever happens.

[LakeN]

FYI: original post refers to Huntington Beach St Park. Not the same as Hunting in the "Tab pic." These parks are often confused.

[Michael_in_MN]

🙂

On our third trip, a couple hours from home, we realized that we had forgot the food.