More on SPOT, Animal Kingdom and My First Tow

More on SPOT

Today, I learned that Track Progress entries are not sent to the WheresKathyD@gmail.com email address, only Check Ins go there. I expect that’s not the last thing I’ll learn about SPOT and I’ll try to keep you up-to-date as I learn stuff.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Yesterday, my friend Karen and I went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This was my first time (and my last time) there. We started exploring the park about 9:30 am and finished by 1:30 pm. Of course, there were some things we didn’t do, such as ride the Mt Everest Roller Coaster, but we did ride the train and take the safari through Africa.

It was extremely hot – supposed to get up to 96, but there was a wonderfully refreshing breeze and this park is fairly wooded compared to the other Disney parks. I also had brought with me and wore my Arctic Tie. It’s a kerchief filled with crystals you soak in water for about 20 minutes

We did see a lot of animals, and REAL animals, not animatronics like at the other Disney parks. We saw lions, and tigers, but no bears, oh my :). However, on the safari, we drove right into where the animals are kept – right out in the wild. There were black and white rhinos, elephants, including a baby, ostriches, warthogs, antelopes, tommy gazelles, and other 4-legged deer-type creatures. We also got to see two piles of ostrich eggs – those eggs are HUGE!

On the way home, we stopped at Outback and had a delicious dinner. I then went home and crashed. The heat and walking really took it out of me.

My First Tow

Today, I hooked up my camper for the first time and towed it to Camping World. Since I’m here writing this post, it’s obvious that none of the events I imagined occurred. I didn’t back my truck into the pond or pull the camper too close to the side of the pond and lose it in there. I didn’t have even one flat tire. I had the correct hitch ball size. I won’t bore you with any more of my unfounded, ridiculous imaginings.

To get ready to hitch up, I first had to remove all of the junk I had stored that might scatter around as I drove, take off the tire covers, raise the four jacks that are used to add stability to the camper, remove the tire chocks raise the camper high enough so I could lower onto the hitch ball.

Then, came the moment of truth – backing up the truck so the hitch ball was under the hitch. As you know, most of the time, I will be doing this by myself without a spotter. Today, I lucked out – Karen came down and helped me. I also had bought a couple of rods to mount on the hitch ball and hitch. They stick up so you can see them in the back window, the object is to line them up. When they get close, you can then check to see if you have to make adjustments.

I tell you, after doing this, I am definitely going to buy a back-up camera I can mount on the bumper. It transmits to a small screen you mount on your dashboard. Camping World has one on sale this week, but it’s out of stock. I think I’ll order it on-line in the next day or so.

It didn’t take too many adjustments and we were able to drop the hitch on the hitch ball and fasten it. As soon as we had the hitch in place, I pulled the camper out and down the street a little (and didn’t even steer it into the pool).

That’s when the real fun started. I hooked up the electrical cord from the camper to the truck and guess what: ALL of the lights worked! Isn’t that great? After hooking up the electric, I thought I’d try to back up and see how it worked. Well, basically, I could hardly get it to back up. It was as if the trailer brakes were on.

THEY WERE! Once we pulled the electric plug, the trailer brakes were no longer locked. I seemed to remember something called a brake breakaway switch, but couldn’t find it. That is, I could find the switch, but not the cable to connect the switch to the camper.

Well, to make an extremely long story short, I left the electrical cord out and towed the camper to Camping World without benefit of camper brake lights and turn signals. It’s probably 10 miles there and I was on back roads with Karen traveling directly behind me, so it may not be as dangerous as it seems.

One of the many things that Camping World will be doing is replacing the breakaway switch and cable. They will also be doing a 45-point inspection, replacing wheel bearings, installing metal valve stems on the four tires in use, installing 2 Shur-flo fans, and doing roof preventive maintenance. When I pick up the camper on Tuesday, May 11th, they are going to give me their RV orientation, which consists of explaining and demonstrating how everything works. In view of my advanced age and impaired memory, I plan to record this information and take notes as well.

Until next time…