A Disastrous Day

The day started fairly well; we had a lot of items and bags still to load into the truck to take to the rig, but after fixing a good breakfast for my mom and ourselves we were finally on the road at 9:15 AM.

Normally we avoid the interstate highways unless we need to get across the country quickly, but today we were anxious to get set up and settle in for the week. Perhaps that was our first mistake. The route we took off I-75 was all new to us and there was a poorly marked detour which caused us to do some circling around and back tracking. That should have been our first clue that things were not going to go well for us. We missed the turn off to the campground as there were no signs advertising the campground and the road sign was very small. Strike two. After stopping at the security guard's hut to check in and get our site we were directed to Section A. Section A's entry way was blocked off by traffic cones and the next turn was a 'No Outlet' street. Strike three and Denny started losing it. Very difficult to turn around and we almost hit a post. This is not looking good.

We entered at Section B and it appeared at first that each section was independent of the other with no connecting drive but I finally spotted a cut-through and got us to Section A. The sites are all pull-throughs and we got leveled and set up fairly quickly. Denny was working outside getting very sweaty due to the heat, so I reminded him that we had no ice yet so he had to run up to the campground store. That was the ball game, folks--Denny was so distracted and out of kilter and out of the camping habit that he had put up the tailgate to the truck before pulling away from the kingpin hitch. Those of you with fifth wheels will understand. While I was inside the rig putting things away and setting other things out the rig suddenly lurched forward and through the closed windows and air-conditioning I could hear Denny swearing. He had bent the tailgate of our truck badly when it hit the king pin hitch as he pulled the truck forward. The latch lift handle to pull down the tailgate was jammed and it didn't look like we'd even be able to get the truck out from underneath the fifth wheel. Denny was finally able to pull the side of the tailgate away and the tailgate came down but it is ruined (along with our special graphics).

This is why you have check-lists, people. And follow them. Denny was in a hurry, he was distracted, he was hot and sweaty and miserable and angry and he JUST DIDN'T PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT HE WAS DOING. This is a very expensive mistake. A. Very. Expensive. Mistake.

Shall I add to it? Sure, why not? Our DISH TV service isn't working properly because the rig was in storage with the electricity off so the DVR couldn't update itself so we don't have our programming. Hopefully that will fix itself. The desktop computer had to be rebooted when the printer hiccupped and now it won't come on. Thank goodness for the laptops. The last time this happened Patches had walked across the keyboard and caused some strange lockup but the computer was fine when I turned it on the next morning. So we'll give it a rest tonight.

We were SO looking forward to being back in the rig and back on the road and this is just not a good start. But stuff happens. It's a part of life, we'll deal with it and go on. But for now, it stinks. Sigh.

Happy Trails.