Camping at Lodge - Our Maiden Voyage

Though the trailer was purchased in March, it took us all the way until May 16 to use it. Getting it ready, familiarizing ourselves with an appliance of this size, was no simple task. Thankfully, Quent has mostly taken this on. He has been great about this role, and I have been sufficiently overwhelmed with Airbnb prep anyway, so it works out. (Our videos of the instruction we got when we bought it have been helpful too and we've referenced them more than once.)

So after we filled the fresh water tanks, and put chemicals into the grey and black water tanks, and filled the propane tank, and tried and failed to get the fridge running, and finally figured it out, and stocked it with food, and clothes, and sleeping bags, and tools, and camping chairs, and miscellaneous supplies, and hunted down a place to go, and hooked it up to Quent Sr.'s truck, and hauled it up, and got it parked, and leveled, WE WERE READY!

And then the rains came.

May had been so beautiful and pleasant and right about the evening of May 17, there was a cold snap and 2 days of rain. But it didn't matter because WE WERE IN A TRAILER!

The Lodge Campground was fantastic. It is off the beaten path, away from the noise of the road, by a stream, and has a small loop of only a few sights but there are dumpsters and a bathroom. Score! It is also only about 15 minutes up the canyon which worked well for us - I was able to conveniently come back into town after only 1 night to pick up our milk delivery and do some work in the yard. (Our house was rented on Airbnb through May 19.)

And the trailer has been a huge hit on so many levels. It was warm and dry despite the rain and cold. AND the bed was so much better than an air mattress! That was a miracle story. The mattress it came with was thin and flimsy. Dianne and I had brainstormed solutions we'd hoped would make Q Sr. more comfortable. Then, ON May 17, after only 1 night of sleeping on the thinner mattress, I'd stopped by Quent and Dianne's to put our milk in their fridge and Dianne mentioned a friend of hers was GIVING them a new trailer mattress she had bought on Amazon, which was the wrong size for her needs, and Amazon was sending her a new one, but didn't want to bother picking up the old! She had spent $200 on it, and it was ours for free! So we were able to cram it into our van, and I brought it to Q for a birthday present.

We celebrated his birthday while we camped, and that was a hit too. Quent and Dianne brought dinner that evening. It was cold so we all sat around the table IN the camper, less Q Sr who sat on the bed, and dined on a lovely meal of rolls and salad and pulled pork and beef tenderloin, and coleslaw and potato salad. YUMMY! Then we built a fire to warm up outside and roasted s'mores for dessert while we told stories and gave gifts. The kids and I got him shorts, a shirt, and the book, "The Princess Bride." It was a very fun night.

(Left: the birthday boy with his little piro. Below: Mimi and Gaga up at Lodge Campground for the celebration of Q's birthday.)

The pianists with their fans,
Mimi and Gail.

The following morning we were back at Quent and Dianne's to shower before heading off to the girl's piano recital, which I mentioned in the post, "Oh! The Talented Children." So the closeness of the Lodge Campground to town really did hit the spot.

Later that afternoon I left Q and the kids to fish. Arthur has really been excited about fishing, and our camper backed up to 2 nice fishing holes. The kids did SEE fish, but none were caught, but not for a lack of patient sitting. Arthur CAN sit still when he wants to, apparently. We think being out in nature is EXCELLENT for him.

So while Q and the kids adventured, I was off to get Kai from SLC. He was done with his Saturday classes so he got to join us for an evening in the trailer before our trip was done. And even with his added bigness, it didn't feel too small. Because he was too long for the bunks, I thought he would share the bed with Q and I would take a bunk. But he thought that would be weird, so I happily kept my more comfortable spot and he squeezed into a bunk and used an over-sized pillow too because I'd forgotten his. THAT was a bummer. He wound up putting his shoulder out, which as of today (now in mid June) has cost us 3 different trips to the chiropractor and one trip to the PT. But Kai was a champ about it. And Arthur and Eloise were somewhat civil about having to share the table bed. (They all swapped beds each night so they could get a taste of what all the beds were like.)

And it was wonderful to be all together as a family. We finished reading "Papa Married a Mormon," and were inspired afresh with it's message of religious tolerance and love and acceptance. We were put to sleep by the rain. And we were in quite a messy state for Sunday.

 Of course, messy is relative. I was nervous that six people AND all of our stuff would mean a space of total chaos while we camped, which I knew would feel claustrophobic quick. But I snapped this pic to illustrate that it hasn't been too bad. There is plenty of storage for food and supplies for a much longer trip than this has been. And since we don't need to use the shower, our clothes have been neatly contained there in the bathroom in baskets and out of sight.

It was my plan to head again to Quent and Dianne's for showers before taking the kids to church. Q was going to stay behind and check us out of the campground. I wasn't thrilled with this plan - I wanted us to be able to help him with check-out AFTER church though it would be tight (check-out was at 2) AND I was nervous about his jeep hauling the trailer. Apparently Q didn't want to check-out alone either, and after I thought I'd confirmed the plan to go to church with ALL the kids the night before, Kai announced on Sunday that he was staying behind to help his dad.

For reasons I'll touch on later, I'd been in a fragile physical and mental state since the previous weekend. My knee, which had done a freaky locking thing when it looked like the deal to by the trailer was falling apart way back in March, had been bothering me from time to time, and now, as I cooked breakfast in the trailer, it seized again. I laid down and gave kids instructions on finishing breakfast and cleaning up and prepping the trailer to go, and decided then that none of us would go to church - I couldn't do it on a bum knee without Q, and he probably did need us to safely bring the trailer home. Q carried me to the van, Kai drove, and we trailed Q in his jeep pulling the trailer. I was stressed and worried the whole way, but we made it safely.

For me, it was a less than stellar ending to an otherwise pretty fun weekend. But I hope for the kids, it simply was the end, and a successful end, to our very first trip in the trailer. I think we successfully turned their feelings of being fed-up and finished with Airbnb stays around! If a stay means another camping adventure for us, we should be blessed to really USE this purchase, and have a lot of fun doing it!

PS: In the spirit of Walden Pond, I thought I'd keep a record of costs here. The campsite was $20/night, for a total of $60 for 3 nights. Filling the propane tank cost $18. We ran the fridge the entire time on propane, as well as cooking on the propane stove, and Q reported when he went to fill the tank again that we'd only used 1/6 of the propane! We WERE unable at this time to figure out the hot water heater, and one of the burners on the stove would light, have this tiny flame for a few minutes, then there would be a big propane explosion over the whole stove and it would go completely out. Needless to say, the trailer will be taken back to the folks who sold it to us so these problems can be addressed. The batteries were the real bummer. After pretty much only using the lights for 2 days, they were completely dead! Thankfully, we had so many trips into town, Q was able to charge them at his office on Saturday and we were fine to supplement with flash lights too. We bought a collapsible camping stool for $10, which fits nicely at the end of the table inside when we all need to eat indoors, and stores nicely out of the way when we aren't all sitting up to the table. Finally, we opted not to drain the tanks until before our next trip, but found that there was no fee for that. Thrilled the cost of camping does not eat into our Airbnb profit too much!