Day 1 - 6/3 - Raleigh to Roan Mountain State Park


The adventure has officially begun, though a bit later than anticipated.  


Perhaps I shouldn't have waited until the day of departure to start packing, but let's call that a lesson learned for the next adventure.  In this one, that lack of preparation delayed the start by a couple of hours so we got going a bit later than anticipated.  After a third attempt to get the grill that attaches to the side of the camper going, it still wouldn't give off enough heat so we are officially going without.

The drive to Roan Mountain went largely without issue.  It included the usual traffic on interstate 40/85, but that was expected from the get go.  The most exciting parts were when the road would go uphill near Boone.  There were some long runs at high gradients and the van was put to work.  But it managed and we got there in the end.

The challenge for the day started when we found our campsite.  While the website described that the sites were on a slope, it didn't mention that they were also at nearly a 90 degree angle to the road from a single lane road.  The combination of the slope and the tight corners were quite a challenge for this new trailer driver and we ended up having a near jackknife situation as we backed the camper into the site.  As it turns out, we learned that the jackknife situation when backing up can actually have the trailer contact the rear bumper.  Sigh - more on this later


Once the camper was in position, we started the set up process only to feel a drip-drip on our heads.  That drip-drip rapidly escalated into a full on mountain thunderstorm which left us scrambling to get everything set up and avoid getting soaked.  And we had two senior citizens who were experiencing their first camping trip.  What a start to their camping experience.


Once set up, we just sat in the camper while waiting out the storm.  Once it passed, we went to get our dinner ingredients out of the back of the Whale only to find out that it didn't want to open!  After a LOT of troubleshooting, including climbing over all the equipment we had packed, we finally realized that when we jackknifed the trailer and contacted the trailer into the rear bumper, we had dented the bumper and it pushed up the top of the bumper preventing the rear door from opening.  As a temporary fix, we ripped off the black traction strip and then the door would open.  


With our temporary solution in place, we pulled out the electric griddle and cooked up some quesadillas for dinner. Then we went to wash dishes only to realize that we had thrown on the hose connection for our drain. Did I mention that we packed up this morning in a rush? Sigh.


If this is how day 1 went, it may be a long trip. Oh well, we’re on our way.


Total miles traveled - 214

# States (Provinces) - 2





Comments

  1. KoyCamJune 9, 2023 at 10:41 AM

    Oh My Brian. Are you sure you weren't telling me the plot to a new Lemony Snickets episode? Murphy's Law is hard at work! Glad you are safe and this just makes for good memories and laughs. ~Chris S.

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