ON THE ROAD AGAIN…

27 July 2013

ON THE ROAD AGAIN…

On Wednesday, 24 July, we pulled out of Ray's brother and sister-in-law's driveway, heading back on the road after a five month hiatus. This time, we weren't just traveling in our thirty foot motorhome. No, this time we were also pulling the little yellow car behind us. Sounds so simple, doesn't it?

In reality, it is rather simple. Except that it is was new to us and we tend to be people who obsess over 'new to us' ventures. And, except that we had never in our lives hooked up a tow bar to a tow plate. The whole process took us probably three times longer than it should have. But once we were convinced that everything was where it should be and locked in properly, we were okay. Mostly.

Since I do all the driving and had never towed anything before, I was still a little anxious, even after we got on the road. The tension showed up in how tight my shoulder and neck muscles were as I drove. We chose a short trip for this maiden towing experience. We traveled up I-79N to I-90E, headed to Evangola State Park near Irving, NY. It was a trip that Google maps said would take about 2.5 hours. What Google maps couldn't take into account was the fact that our little car's owner's manual said never to tow it at speeds above 55mph.They also couldn't know that I would have to stop to eat lunch and take a twenty minute power nap. So, the trip took us closer to 4 hours. But, that was okay, we expected as much.

What we didn't expect was that New York State Parks would include a surcharge 

for non-resident campers and that the senior discount, as well as the "camp Sunday through Thursday discount" only applies if you are a New York native. And, because we failed to fully examine the information, we realized after we unhooked the car, and leveled the coach on our site, that we didn't have water hook ups. That wouldn't have been a big deal either, except that our fresh water tank was empty. So, we had to move the coach to the place where we could partially fill the fresh water tank, then back in again, level again, and finally hook up the electric. None of these probably would've seemed like a big deal in the past, but considering the knot of tension in my neck and shoulders, it seemed like a big deal at that moment. I was singing, "I hate NY" :)

But, we stayed two nights, mostly because we could, and especially because we were trying to ease back into travel mode after so many months of being basically stationary. And, I was very proud of us when we were leaving Evangola SP, because we managed to hook up the car to the motorhome without incident, all locked up and road ready. 

We even made the correct turn as we left the park. Too often, if we are going to make an error in directional judgement, it happens on our first turn from the campground, or (as my next post will relate) as we get close to our destination.

Yep, we're back on the road, again.