Lots of lessons... lots and lots of lessons :)
Now I remember why I learned to fly and bought a plane, seriously! It was one holiday weekend driving to my former inlaws summer lake house and a six hour drive that should have taken 3 hours. Haven't flown now in 10 years and need to "get-away".
Driving up I-75 to northern MI on a holiday weekend towing a TT with a sedan near max rated towing capacity wasn't fun until we finally cleared the bulk of the traffic. No real problems, just not a lot of fun :(
Which leads me to the next point. Having the EXACT address of the campground before leaving would be helpful. Little did I realize this is a HUGE complex stretching for several miles.
Gas mileage when pulling a trailer behind the sedan SUCKS. I was kinda laughing at someone that ran out of gas when I realized I needed to start thinking about my own gas situation.
Trusting the advice of someone who has visited the site and stated each site has water and a gray water crock, was a bit misleading. Community water site was right next to their "permanent" site, they thought everybody had one... WRONG. Luckily I discovered that litte secret before backing in and another community water site was only a couple away.
Setting up camp for the 2nd time EVER in the dark, after being on the road for 6 hours was not a lot of fun. At least it wasn't raining. Wife needs to learn to NOT stand behind the camper with the flash light. I finally convinced her to stand next to the power tower so I could at least have a target to aim for.
Since it was cold as ... during the night and I knew the heater would have to run, I manually switched from the nearly empty propane tank to the full tank... and forgot to turn on the propane tank.
Remember the water? I was desperately thirsty and got a glass of water. Holy******did that water taste awful. I don't ever remember anything tasting that bad before. I had "sanitized" the storage tank with chlorine and rinsed it out. So, unless there's a problem there, it's the alleged potable water at the campground. We had no choice but to make coffee from that awful water, and it was barely tolerable. We now have a 2.5 gallon container of spring water :)
Remember the gray water crock at the campsite... it requires a regular garden hose, so we'll have to drive to the dump station on the way out.
Sitting here in this somewhat rustic campsite on a laptop, communicating with the world via the internet enjoying adult beverages while dinner is cooking in pans suspended over the wood fire. Listening to some nice island music playing off a 2T drive filled with videos and music :)
Just looking at our planned trips, what I've financially invested so far, we will be way ahead of the game. I'm finding it to be somewhat relaxing. If we do a long Christmas trip we're talking about, then we'll be way ahead of the game.
19' TT is a bit small, however, I've had several people say that this size trailer was their favorite and they were always sorry to have upgraded. Since I'm already at max tow wt, upgrading will require a tow vehicle capacity increase.
The jury is still out, but I can envision this becoming a way of life. Big keys, I really need to fill up and carry my "own" city water. Still need to buy some more stuff, including some party lights :) Need to figure out the best way to securely carry my homemade wine. It's one thing to go pick out one of 15 different kinds of wine, completely different to carry enough to drink. Need to find containers that efficiently fill the fridge space, rather than waste space. Still need to fix a few minor issues on the trailer. Biggest key of all, I need to remember that I'm not going to travel with all the comforts of home!
Driving up I-75 to northern MI on a holiday weekend towing a TT with a sedan near max rated towing capacity wasn't fun until we finally cleared the bulk of the traffic. No real problems, just not a lot of fun :(
Which leads me to the next point. Having the EXACT address of the campground before leaving would be helpful. Little did I realize this is a HUGE complex stretching for several miles.
Gas mileage when pulling a trailer behind the sedan SUCKS. I was kinda laughing at someone that ran out of gas when I realized I needed to start thinking about my own gas situation.
Trusting the advice of someone who has visited the site and stated each site has water and a gray water crock, was a bit misleading. Community water site was right next to their "permanent" site, they thought everybody had one... WRONG. Luckily I discovered that litte secret before backing in and another community water site was only a couple away.
Setting up camp for the 2nd time EVER in the dark, after being on the road for 6 hours was not a lot of fun. At least it wasn't raining. Wife needs to learn to NOT stand behind the camper with the flash light. I finally convinced her to stand next to the power tower so I could at least have a target to aim for.
Since it was cold as ... during the night and I knew the heater would have to run, I manually switched from the nearly empty propane tank to the full tank... and forgot to turn on the propane tank.
Remember the water? I was desperately thirsty and got a glass of water. Holy******did that water taste awful. I don't ever remember anything tasting that bad before. I had "sanitized" the storage tank with chlorine and rinsed it out. So, unless there's a problem there, it's the alleged potable water at the campground. We had no choice but to make coffee from that awful water, and it was barely tolerable. We now have a 2.5 gallon container of spring water :)
Remember the gray water crock at the campsite... it requires a regular garden hose, so we'll have to drive to the dump station on the way out.
Sitting here in this somewhat rustic campsite on a laptop, communicating with the world via the internet enjoying adult beverages while dinner is cooking in pans suspended over the wood fire. Listening to some nice island music playing off a 2T drive filled with videos and music :)
Just looking at our planned trips, what I've financially invested so far, we will be way ahead of the game. I'm finding it to be somewhat relaxing. If we do a long Christmas trip we're talking about, then we'll be way ahead of the game.
19' TT is a bit small, however, I've had several people say that this size trailer was their favorite and they were always sorry to have upgraded. Since I'm already at max tow wt, upgrading will require a tow vehicle capacity increase.
The jury is still out, but I can envision this becoming a way of life. Big keys, I really need to fill up and carry my "own" city water. Still need to buy some more stuff, including some party lights :) Need to figure out the best way to securely carry my homemade wine. It's one thing to go pick out one of 15 different kinds of wine, completely different to carry enough to drink. Need to find containers that efficiently fill the fridge space, rather than waste space. Still need to fix a few minor issues on the trailer. Biggest key of all, I need to remember that I'm not going to travel with all the comforts of home!
