Maiden Voyage

All Loaded Up and Ready to Go!

Against the better judgement of a typical camper we decided our first trip would be 900 miles away!  Although not entirely true seeing we spent all of March and half of April playing with the new toy in the driveway.  The only thing we hadn't really experienced was the lovely dumping of the tanks.  My husband has towed many things and is an excellent driver so no worries about all that.  I packed everything I could think of for this trip.  We were not only taking the new camper for the first time we were traveling in a pack of seven!  This includes one 18 year old girl who has never camped, the four of us and our two chocolate labs.  I packed two tents and a screenhouse that never saw daylight among other items that never were needed.  Let me say how easy a full size travel trailer makes things!  Incredible.  And as far as the dumping went we were on one site for four days, moved and dumped then spent the rest of the trip on another and of course dumped on the way out.  And we did so like pros.  We skipped the line at the station and just dumped at a camp site that had sewer.  We were in and out before the guy first in line each time.  Granted I have forbidden the use of the camper toilet for #2 purposes so maybe that helped?  I don't know but it was no where near as dreadful as I thought it would be.  We had electric and water hookups so life was good.  We've mapped out a bunch of new sites that will work for us now that we have a full size unit too.  I'm not sure how easy life will be once we are dry camping in our favorite state park here in MA.  But it will be easier that is for sure.  Now I get it and I love it.  Next time I will pack a fraction of what I took this time.  The fact that the entire front end of this camper is a big pass through made it very easy for me to bring everything too.  The only thing we ended up needing once we were into it were some leveling blocks.  The Aliner was short and simple with one axle, leveling was a breeze.  And not that it was hard with the new camper but it was more sensitive to an uneven site and I didn't back any wooden blocks (sorry I am not paying $70 for orange legos, altho we did pick up a couple leveling ramps).  We did find that the camper moved around a bit and we think that's from the tires moving back and forth slightly.  We blocked up well under our scissor blocks (see pic below) as we watched our neighbor with a new 40' giant bend his.  Maybe a couple BAL tire levelers in our future?  There is a little bit of water coming into one of the LEDs up front but not all the way.  We'll stop by the dealer on our way out to our next trip.  Otherwise no issues!  I will be making a check list though..... antenna down?  gas shut off? ....

In Her Element. Myrtle Beach State Park.

Skywheel

Kenzie on the Zipline

T.I.G.E.R.S.

Our trip to Myrtle Beach was awesome this year.  We explored new adventures including Alligator Adventure which was a blast and very interesting.  We got to pat huge turtles and watch the alligators feed which was great because we didn't see any alligators at Huntington State Park this year.  The water seemed low most places so maybe that's why.  The SkyWheel was awesome and again I set aside my fear of heights, thank goodness! We also visited things we have before like Wonderworks which had more to offer this year than it did last year so it was a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be returning to the same place two years in a row.  Kenzie did the zipline and loved it and we shared all these things with our "foster daughter" which seemed to make things nice for all of us because we all love to share things we enjoy with others.  So we took a picture with a baby tiger at the T.I.G.E.R.S. exhibit too.  Mike tried crabbing at Pawley's Island and we saw friends and family from the area that we hadn't seen in a long time.  The weather was perfect and the girls including myself all got a bit too much sun but no one complained a bit.  We found a doggie spa for Deogee and Hailey so we were able to go out and enjoy the attractions and shopping without worrying about them.  The spa had couches and a pool, lol.  They had a nice vacation too!  The ocean was wonderful, sunrises to sunsets.  We really enjoyed our break from reality this year but it sure did make it hard to come back to the North where it seems cold not just weather-wise but people too.  Every year I come back and ask myself why we stay up here but they I remember the paycheck.  Someday that won't matter as much as it does today though.  Someday we may not come back.

Petting the Turtles

Deogee and Hailey

Sunrise on the Beach

So now we are looking forward to Memorial Day weekend at Otter River State Forest.  Our old reliable.  Our camping friends will probably be very surprised as we are well known for our professional tenting abilities.  I am sure we will be judged, lol.  But that's okay because at the end of the day it is all about getting out there and enjoying the outdoors, family and friends.  Seeing and going places you otherwise would not.

  Happy Camping!