Still on the road...

Day 2/ Lincoln State Park

We left Carter Caves in Kentucky and headed to Lincoln State Park in Indiana. Also a beautiful park! I had a very nice fellow camper back the trailer up for me on our first day. On the second day, I did it all by myself!

The first thing you are suppose to do after backing in a camper, is to put the chocks out, the little yellow things that keep the camper from rolling away. Well, we looked everywhere, and no chocks. We must have left them at the last camp. I guess I forgot to pick them up and drove over them? Lloyd said this isn’t possible, but I think it is.

The next thing do (after finding some make-shift chocks) is to do the hitch thing. But where were Lloyd’s instruction? I had to think about it for a few minutes, but then I remembered setting them on the back bumper of the truck when we pulled out… No chocks and no instructions. Oh, and the driver-side “back up” mirror blew off as I was driving down the highway. Our second day on the trip, and we already needed a Walmart run.

It started to rain just after we got camp set up so we headed to the Lincoln National Park which is just across the street from Lincoln State Park and had an indoor museum. Who knew Lincoln spent his childhood in the woods of Indiana?! Well, he lived there from the time he was 7 until he was 19. We learned all about his childhood and his family, watched a movie about his life, toured the museum, and walked the hiking trails around the national park. Which were beautiful hiking trails, by the way. It rained a bit while we were touring the national park, so we jumped in the car, asked Martha (Nicholas named the GPS “Martha”) how to get to Walmart, and sure enough, she got us there!

After the Walmart run to Boonville Indiana, we went back to the Lincoln State park and enjoyed a beautiful evening! We cooked dinner and then went for a hike. We found a great swimming spot on the lake so we went back to camp for bathing suits and swam and played until it was almost dark!

Fortunately, I had gotten to the part in Lloyd’s instruction manual about the water pump. I knew we had water in the fresh water tank, I just couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t coming out of the sink! Then I remembered the “water pump switch." I’m not sure what else is in that manual that I need to know. Like I said, I only read half of it. But handling a camper is a lot of work. Especially for someone who has never paid much attention to things like water pumps, batteries, tire pressure, fuses, power amps, and leveling. And “leveling” can be a real pain! That night of the tornado, we were so “unleveled” that I had to pull the slide in because I was sure we would tip! But I have learned! The first thing I ask when we pull into a camp is for the most level site (and one that is easy to back up into) and so far, the little gatekeeper guy has set me up well!

Overall, our first two days on the road were really super! The kids loved the parks and we all would have loved more time in them. By the end of the second day, Garrett and I were hitching and unhitching like pros, and we set up and break down camp very efficiently! I even had a nice man and his grandson comment on what a fantastic job we do getting it all done! I didn’t mention that it’s easy to do it quickly when you leave half your stuff behind! ;-)