Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Maiden Voyage

We wanted to take the camper on an easy & close "first time out" trip to figure out everything we don't know about loading the trailer, towing, parking, water/electrical hookups and all the other things that come with it.
Since we didn't head out until Saturday, lots of campgrounds were already full, but Brian found a Clackamas County park that's a little off the radar and had plenty of space.  Barton Park is on the Clackamas River in Estacada. It's just about 30 miles from our house and only 10 miles on the other side of Portland.  We stayed at the East campground in a pull-through site (yay--no backing in!) that had a good size field behind it for the boys to run around in.
The boys loved hanging out in the camper!  We played a few board games and then walked over to the playground to find that it was about as old as Mom and Dad but they enjoyed it, anyway.
A few of you have asked what our kitchen looks like, so here it is:
There's a double sink, a 3-burner stovetop, a teensy little oven and a microwave up top. (You can see the bunks in the background with the bottom one folded up where we've stored the bikes.)  Amanda made (real-from-potatoes) french fries in the oven while Brian did the burgers on the camper's grill.
He even caved and bought firewood from the park rangers so the boys could roast marshmallows. He taught them how to build a roaring fire that any scoutmaster would be proud of. And though it looks like Everett is about to poke Dad in the head with a marshmallow stick, we had no mishaps--although Aaron's roasting vs. eating ratio was a little lopsided as he learned how to not catch them ablaze.
All in all, it was a great quick trip.  We learned a lot--like don't forget the coffee!--and even made it through the experience of dumping the tanks for the first time with a minimum of fuss, although Amanda will be sure not to wear sandals next time...(nothing gross happened, but imagining the potential made her a little jittery). We go out next Thursday for a long weekend in Stevenson, Washington. See you soon!

1 comment:

  1. You guys look like you're getting the hang of the whole rv thing pretty quickly! I hope you have lots of great adventures this summer!

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