L&K Take America

I anticipate that there will be a number of things I will need to acclimate to during the course of this adventure and several others for Luna to adjust to. I’m not sure which will be more difficult for me. The first was about 30 seconds after we got into the car. Typically, Luna rides on my lap while we drive. I know, I know, I know…not the best idea. However, we have it all figured out. I simply wedge a blanket between the door and my seat so she has a place to curl up and put her head and voila, both my hands are free and she doesn’t slide around when I stop. Go ahead…judge me. A cop in Boston recently did (no, it’s not illegal in MA) and scared the crap out of me in the process….and then I cried.

Anyway, after the demo, it was abundantly clear that Luna would NOT be riding on my lap for this journey while towing this thing. We had a brief conversation and she gave me one of these looks:

before laying down, curling up and sleeping for much of the trek.

The trip from Bedford, NH to Henderson, NY is about 400 miles, which should take about 6 hours. However, it was obviously pouring rain for a significant portion of the trip and of course I had neglected to call E-Z Pass prior to 9am that morning to change my pass from a two axel vehicle charge to a 3 axel vehicle charge. Because this is a government run agency, you clearly cannot make the adjustment over the phone and instead have to physically go into a location, so I had to make that extra fun stop too. To top it off, I was only going about 55-60 mph the whole trip. As a result, this became an 8 hour trip, which made my arrival about 8:20pm…just in time for sunset.

When I was planning this adventure in my head, I told myself I would NEVER set up at night. That absolute was clearly thrown right out the window on night #1, which reinforced why I had made that rule in the first place. Not only had I haphazardly thrown a Jeep full of supplies into the trailer prior to departure, but I hadn’t made the bed, unpacked critical supplies (a.k.a. wine glasses), or put snacks within arms length during the drive. So, I was hot, hangry and amongst chaos within the camper.

Luckily, I had planned the first stop to include one of my backup brains – Mike was there to the rescue. He had picked up a hot dinner and a bottle of wine and arrived approximately 5 minutes after we did. He was actually the reason for the selection of the first stop. He had a training outside of Syracuse, NY on Tuesday, so I thought it would be a genius idea to plan the first stop at a convenient place for him. What I hadn’t done, was properly Maquested (yes…that site does actually still exist) the distance between the campsite and the location of his training. I was under the impression that it was about 25 minutes away, when in actuality, it was about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Woops! Seems promising for my geography skills for the rest of the trip, doesn’t it?? Fortunately, Mike is very forgiving, or at least he knew I was in a fragile state and made it seem like no big deal when we made this discovery.

Prior to eating and wining, we had to unhook from the Jeep, stablize the camper, and hook up electric & water. Seems simple enough, right? Well, luckily, Mike remembered what the demo guy had said because I was pretty much useless, and completely distracted because the No-See-Ums were out of control. We were able to get the essentials set up and decided I would set up the rest while Mike was at his training the next day. In the initial setup craziness, we let in approximately 3,000 tiny bugs, so the electric flyswatter that Mom had given me 3 years ago quickly rose to become my most valuable possession.

The next morning I was determined to prove that I was capable of doing this on my own, which translates to: emptying the black water (a.k.a. Sewage tank). DUN DUN DUN!!! This is not something I would have EVER thought I would even consider doing. This endeavor required some significant mental preparation. In the 90 degree heat, I double gloved myself, put on long pants and sleeves, and did some breathing exercises (semi-controlled hyperventilating) before attempting to hook up the hose. The first thing I had to do was open the hookup for the drainage pipe in the ground, which is a giant PVC pipe with a screw cap that descends into the abyss. As I approached this thing and slowly unscrewed the cap, all I could think of was the guy who was bitten by the snake while on the toilet. Shaking that image out of my head, and throwing the cap while jumping back (just in case) I hooked up the first end to the hole in the ground, and then quickly walked towards the hookup on the camper. BOING! I’m snapped backwards, mid-determined-stride…the hose is too short! Eek! Not only has this completely interrupted my mo-jo, now I have to trek to the “store” at the camp to purchase a longer hose (probably at 3 times the cost of Camper’s World), trek back to camp, unhook the old and rehook the new pipe. Finally I get it all hooked up, triple check the connections, hold my breath and open up the black water valve. NO LEAKS! However, it seems unnecessary for them to make the attachment that goes into the ground clear. Yick.

After it seemed to finish draining, I then emptied the grey water and rinsed the tank. Then I realized that the angle of the hose made it so it was still full of water that I had to figure out how to empty. Mind you, this isn’t your typical hose. It is more like a limp, precarious, giant bucatini noodle. Anyone who knows me relatively well, knows that I have tiny hands. Tiny hands + giant flimsy hose filled with sewage = potentially traumatizing, trip ending disaster. Despite the obvious odds, I successfully completed this task, while only changing my gloves 4 times. WOOHOO!! Yes, I fist pumped the air upon completion.

I then disinfected, organized the whole camper with room to spare, and cleaned everything…with bleach. I also figured out how to make the hot water heater work (sorry for the cold shower, Mike) and went and explored the tiny town of Sackets Harbor. That night, we talked with some “locals”, made a fire, and baked dinner in the weird convection oven/microwave contraption. The next morning, Mike left very early to head back to Boston and I stayed to pack up, reattach the rig and head to destination #2!

Without a doubt, I would have been seriously reconsidering the trip altogether had Mike not been there to work through the initial kinks. Thanks, Mikey!

The KOA site was on a little island/peninsula in Lake Ontario. There weren’t any frills, but it was a beautiful setting.

The rig in Henderson, NY

Lessons of the day: Double check you Mapquesting.

Oh and measure the length of your sewage pipe prior to attempting to empty it. Blech…