Day One

We made it to Buck Creek State Park around 4pm. There’s a “Meet the Naturalist” event tomorrow and all of the electric campsites were full (guessing it’s not from that event, but who knows?). We don’t need to have electricity for our setup, but the feeling was sort of along the lines of “Why not stock up while we can?” Plus, the fridge seems to be using a lot more juice than we thought it would. We’ll definitely need to fiddle to get that sorted out for the extended backcountry trips.

We have one neighbor in an adjacent campsite, a family with two young children that are stubbornly and insistently fascinated by our setup and keep wandering over. One is a young boy in a diaper (who looks exactly like the Dancing Baby screensaver), the other is his older sister, maybe three years old. The parents, beleaguered by everything, keep yelling obscenities and threats at their youngchildren. This hurts my heart, but there’s not much to be done in this situation. I do wonder what the lure of camping is if you’re just going to yell at your kids the whole time. Our window fan may come in handy tonight as white noise.

Lessons from Day One: Be prepared for the fact that new gear (even from a quality company like Rhino Rack) may be subject to issues right out of the box. This was our first time actually using the awning extension wall and one of the strap tabs pulled out, having not been fully caught in the fold during the sewing/manufacturing process. That’s not a big deal, but a bit annoying, and genius-me didn’t think to pack a sewing kit. “Doh!” I have the feeling that’s going to be the word-of-the-day for the next few weeks.

Note to Self: You remember, don’t you Mare, that the first night sleeping in any new place is always tough? (Backpacking, traveling, Dominica, moving?) In Dominica, it was roosters, feral cats, mosquitoes, and tree frogs. It’s always something, but it gets better. Wait for it. Also: pack more fresh fruits and remember to take your shower shoes to the the shower.

Random Gearhead Facts:

• The solar road shower is reading 93 degrees after sitting in the sun on the road all day.
• It’s 78 degrees (air temp) in the trailer at 8pm, with the sun angle pretty low in the sky.
• The tongue weight was a little uneven, so we moved two gallons of water and a heavy bag of snacks back to the galley to offset things a bit.
• The refrigerator is taking time to reach some sort of equilibrium. A freezer full of frozen solid items seems to influence it, but it isn’t quite clear if it makes it run warmer or cooler (mostly because I neglected to snap the lid completely closed this morning after I tried to add my kombucha, but spilled it because the lid wasn’t completely on and had to clean it up, virtually as Len was pulling out of the driveway).
• A sign that reads “Absolutely no bobtail parking” means that you can’t park the cab of a tractor trailer in that spot, but a teardrop trailer is AOK.