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The First Trip

It was really rather a whim that we bought this trailer when we did. We were just looking around to see what was available for the next season. But as I said earlier, we’ve been looking at this particular design for several years. When it became available for the right price at the dealer we’d really wanted to deal with any way, I knew it was time to sign.

Once we got the trailer in our grubby little paws, we had to wait. A full week. The waiting as Tom Petty says, is the hardest part. We planned to make the initial shakedown trip To a local park some 40 miles west of Rochester.

Trouble, right off the bat. The day we were to leave we got a rainstorm in the Rochester area the likes of which I have perhaps seen ten of in my 50 years. To say that it rained would be something like saying the Beatles turned out a few hit records. By the time Donna and I that home from work it had, more or less, stopped raining. We decided we’d waited five years, and we weren’t waiting any longer. Forget it, we’re going.

We headed west out the Lake Ontario State Parkway, to Lakeside Beach, and picked up SR18 there, and went the 20 or so miles further to Golden Hill State Park. It’s a beautiful little park and would’ve made of beautiful first night in our new camper. Trouble was, by the time we get out there, the wind and rain had picked up again. With the 35 mile an hour winds, combined with the rain, We decided discretion was the better part of valor.

We went back east along the parkway until we came back to Hamlin Beach State Park. This is a place that we camped many times before. It has a good deal more tree component to it than does Golden Hill, and is set a little further back from the shore of Lake Ontario. It was at this point that I was confronted with the campers worst nightmare; setting up a rig you’re unfamiliar with, in the dark, and the rain.

Well, perhaps it’s unfair to say we were unfamiliar with the trailer. After all, we had an entire week with it in the driveway setting up and tearing it down. This proved to be enough to get us by.

By the time we get fully set up, the weather lessened somewhat. It stopped raining and the wind lessened. The water, however, continued to fall off the trees an end to the trailer all night, giving one the impression it was still raining. Add to that the sound of the rolling lake, and you still had a real experience.

Next morning, here’s what the camp looked like. [1]

Drill the frames for the bigger version of each pic. You may note how close we ended up to the power pole in the middle of the camp site.

It was here I cooked our first breakfast in the new trailer. Bacon eggs, coffee, toast, etc. Just basic camp fare… but wonderful, none the less.
[2]

Now we had originally planned to stay two nights, despite the fact that Donna had a hair appintment in town. But with all the rain, the wet site wasn’t very attractive, and we decided we’d take the trailer back home, and re-supply, while Donna went to the Hair Palace, and then go right back out, to Lakeside Beach, which is a little more open and therefore likely to at least be drier.

That’s the next entry.