My First Official Night in a Campground

Last night was my first official night in a real, down-to-earth campground with my travel trailer. I’m at the Best Parks of America Atlanta-Marietta RV Resort off Cobb Parkway in Marietta, GA. I turned off my light to go to sleep at 8:50 and slept through until about 5:30 when I read for a while and then went back to sleep until about 7.

I would normally have stayed up to watch The Closer and Rizzoli and Isles, but did not have what I needed to hook up to the campground cable. Besides which, I was mega-tired from working in the hot sun to back up my camper, unhitch it and attempt to set up everything.

The backing up went surprisingly well. In just a few short minutes, with some pulling forward and backing up, I backed the camper into my spot with a little help from the fellow in the camper across the street. Actually, I think he was more concerned about his pickup truck than about whether I got backed up right.

I was able to unhitch the sway bar and spring bars with hardly any effort. It’s amazing how easy it is when you remember to take out the safety clips. I had a little difficulty getting the four stabilizing jacks to go down. First, I couldn’t remember which way you had to crank them and secondly, they wouldn’t move either way. I went from jack to jack trying desperately to get one of them to move. Finally, on my second time around, I was able to get one to go down. Once they were loosened, they went down very easily, but oh, the first turns were almost impossible. I won’t mention his name, but my cousin Elwyn tightened them up so they wouldn’t come down while I was driving.

I also was unable to get the cap off my PVC pipe that holds the sewer hose. My brother-in-law Don put that on so it wouldn’t come off while I was driving. I tried to get a pipe wrench at WalMart but they didn’t have one. My brother Ray suggested channel-lock pliers. I got some this morning and got it off with no problem. Now, I’ll have them if I need them.

By the way, I used a Sharpie to mark the back right-hand jack with the direction it should go. When you get old and feeble-minded,you have to do whatever you can to remember.

I turned my refrigerator on for the first time yesterday evening. By this morning, the freezer and refrigerator were both cold. I’ve got some soda, some hot dogs, some cheese and some wine cooling in there. If it’s not raining later, I plan to grill some hot dogs.

This afternoon, I went over to the Shower Suite and took a shower. Wow, I think it’s the nicest shower I’ve ever been in. Maybe I’ll take my camera with me tomorrow so you can see what it’s like.

In the meantime, I think I’ll read a little and relax a little more. Boy, this life on the road is sure tough, isn’t it?

Until next time…