Shakedown cruise

The majority of the work is done!  Only touch ups left and serious cleaning.  But we needed a break.  Tara needed someone to deliver our table to a customer in Ft. Morgan.  We wanted to camp.  God blessed us with unexpected money again.  Enough to make a short trip to Jackson Lake in Wiggins, Colorado.  So we offered to deliver the table for some gas money and camp at the same time.              

You can get only so much helpful advice before you realize, at some point, that the only way you will learn to tow a trailer is to tow it…

Bill and I loaded the trailer and hooked it up like a pro!  We were pleased as punch to say that we had successfully achieved lift-off.  We slowly pulled away from the curb with the cat hanging out in the trailer and the dog, three kids and two nervous adults stuffed in the cab.  Would our little truck pull the trailer? Had I loaded it down too much? Would the brake controller work? Would we wreck the whole thing before pulling out of Keenesburg?  I obsessed.

The DH slowly circled the block, setting the brake controller (just in case you need to stop the trailer and not the truck) and practicing his turns.  Only one little curb check. Then we decided to brave the highway and head out on our first adventure.

He accelerated up to 65mph and I held my breath, watching the temperature gauge hovering at 50 percent.  We made it to the lake without a hitch and parked our trailer at a dry camp.  Since we were boondocking, it was an excellent time to test out all the systems, including the animals and humans.

We survived our first trip!

We swam at the lake, roasted marshmallows over the campfire and cooked breakfast over the stove.  Rode our bikes (which were hitched to the back of the trailer), got eaten alive by mosquitoes and walked the dog.

After a brisk swim, we packed up camp and dumped the tanks.  This was DH’s first experience, so I did that yucky job… Then headed down the road to deliver the table. 

After we got back home, we compared notes.  The first item on our list was making the trailer functional.  I hadn’t had a chance to fully settle in before we left.  The battery lasted two full days and the propane tank kept our refrigerator running beautifully.  It all worked beautifully.