Our Latest Adventure

We left home last Thursday and started our journey north east to Ohio to pick up our brand new trailer. We left ahead of time so that we would have a chance to look at some campgrounds along the way that would accomodate our new beast of a trailer. It was a long trip up there, but we had a good time along the way.


I was nervous the whole morning before we went to pick it up. I was afraid there would be just too much information to remember during the walk-thru and I did not want to get out of there without Steve knowing exactly how to work it all. Once we arrived I was more nervous that we would never get to leave. They were very busy that day and the initial walk-thru took about 5 minutes and I was more than worried about that. After chasing down different people to get everything taken care of, Steve finally got someone to give us all a proper walk-thru, and just as I imagined, there was SO much to know. Steve seemed to be absorbing it all and acted like it was easy peasy, I was completely lost in my excitement for our new toy and was not paying attention at all. After all of it was over, Steve backed up, hitched it like a pro, and we were off!


First stop, East Fork State Park in Ohio. It was a nice park. We had a nice secluded spot, which was nice because I'm always afraid the dogs or kids will bother other campers. When I reserved this spot I picked it because their website said it was long, had plenty of room for slideouts and had room for a large tent as well (which we used the night before we picked up the trailer). Well, this beast barely fit. We were as far back as possible and just barely fit in without sticking out into the road. I would go into detail about this first backing experience, but that seems like something Steve might want to post about....maybe he could title it, "The Million Point Turn", or something to that effect. All kidding aside he did a great job keeping his cool, I would have given up long before and settled for camping in the middle of the road. After sleeping for a little while (on an incredibly comfortable mattress, I might add) we got up, had breakfast, and were off to the next place.


Next stop was back to the Barren River State Park in Kentucky. I really enjoyed camping there. There were two families parked on either side of us that were very friendly. We enjoyed talking to them and the kids enjoyed playing with their kids. Steven made a fast friend with a little boy who loves cars as much as he does. Adelyn enjoyed the air conditioning and movies, and only came out briefly to play with Steven and his friend. Later, Steve took them both to the park to run themselves silly, and they did just that.


There was much more to see there, and I wish that we could have taken advantage of it, but there just wasn't enough time on this trip. Maybe we'll get to go back one day and see the caves and visit the Dinosaur Park.


We ended our trip by bringing the trailer to rest on base. Getting through the obstacles at the gate were a tad stressful, but we made it through without a scratch! If you saw the trailer and saw the obstacle you just wouldn't believe that we made it through. We parked her here in spot 18 and we haven't wanted to leave. We've made a few trips back and forth between the house and the trailer, but the majority of our time is spent in our new home. The kids love it, and Adelyn even cried when she thought we were going to stay in our house, the dogs don't care where they stay as long as we are close by and the a/c is cranked down low, and so far Steve and I have no complaints.

-Katie

It's Really Happening!

It hit me today as Steve and I were trying to plan what weekend we will be able to pick up the truck, trailer/camper, and our moving trailer, this is really going to happen! I mean we are talking about just a couple of weeks now. The truck should be done next week and the trailer is supposed to be ready just in time for Steve's birthday (which is not far at all).

We are trying our best to plan around his schedule for work, and also give ourselves enough time to pick up each item. We will only need one day for picking up the truck. However, both trailers will take quite a bit more time. When we pick up the camper/trailer we will be driving around 600 miles to get it. So the trip there will take around 10 hrs, that's one whole day driving. We will do the paperwork, let them show us how everything works, hook it up and probably find a place to stay over night that is not too far away, just in case we have any issues. Then the dreaded 10 hr drive home, that will be considerably slower because we will be pulling a heavy trailer. And last, our moving trailer. We will drive all the way to Buffalo Gap, to pick it up, spend some family time there, then head to Ponder and drop off a few items, and have more family time, then drive back to TN and figure out what the heck to do with two giant trailers, neither of which fit in our driveway.

So today I am supposed to be calling places where we could store our camper until we are ready to live in it full time. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten anyone to answer yet, and they don't have direct emails so I guess I'll just have to be patient and wait for someone to call me back.
I am so excited just trying to think of where we want to go first....do we want to just wait until there is space on base and set up there? Do we want to try out the state park near here that we haven't seen yet? Do we want to venture into Arkansas where we already know it's beautiful? What to do, where to go? So many choices and I'm just too excited to choose!

I'm so happy that it's all happening. I think this will be a wonderful experience and I'm looking forward to all the different places will be able to show the kids. There is something so special about camping together, and traveling together as a family. I loved it growing up and I think they will too.

-Katie