Traveling No. 1

When I thought of retirement, I dreamt of traveling this great country.  Of seeing the places I’ve never seen and those I saw when I was a child and those only viewed through the prism of television.  Along with those dreams came the horror of hotel bills, weird rooms and no puppies to share the journeys. 

There was a solution.  Camp!  When I was a child we Always went camping.  Those were our vacations.  They were also always educational, as Mom and Dad were Really Big on Education.  After all, when I was seven, my Dad became a teacher.  Yes, education was Very Important in our famiy.

I did not want to tent camp.  There is nothing more uncomfortable to older bones than sleeping on hard ground.  The other options were an Aliner-type of camper, or a tear-drop style or even a trailer-tent.  As I started looking, the Aliner was my first choice.  I’d need another vehicle as my beloved Altima was getting old and not designed to pull anything.

When I went looking for a car back in 1999, I thought first of a sporty or sports car. My mid-life crisis car.  And I tried several.  Hated them.  Noisy, not enough power, uncomfortable… So then I looked at mid-size, because I’m worth it.  No more tiny cars for me!

The first time I drove a standard Altima, I was hooked.  It was My Car.  And I loved Elsie.  I had her for 15 years and she was great.  Powerful enough, large enough and tons of fun.  But now . . .

Well, I tried everything, keeping in mind that I had two dogs (Trixie and Piper) and they needed room, and I needed to pull a small trailer to travel.  Eventually I settled on a 2014 Rogue that depending on what source could pull either 1000 pounds or 1500 pounds.  Not much.  Not much at all,

The Aliners were too much weight-wise and cost wise, so I kept looking.  Eventually I found these little trailers called “Runaway” that weighed only 750 pounds.  That included an air conditioner, mounted on the front.  As luck would have it, one came up for sale in East Hartford (the town next door) for a reasonable price and I bought it.

 

 

Teeny Haven (as I named it) was as basic as could be.  A box on wheels.  From Runaway:  “Inside dimensions are 46.5" wide x 94.5" long x 46" high - overall length is 12' 3" with tongue, width to outside of fenders is 65" and outside height is 64"”  Over time, I personalized it with graphics outside  and a bed box with underneath storage inside. 

After the graphics:

 

 

 Notice the Husky?!? 

 

I drove to an empty lot here in town and practiced backing up.  The trailer has a very short “throw” or tongue.  When it starts to turn, it TURNS.  It very easily jack-knifes.  The trick is patience, lots and lots of patience, and plenty of practicing. 

Hauling a trailer takes a different mind-set.  You must be aware of how much space is between you and anything in front as braking takes longer.  Starting takes longer and is slower and your gas mileage is going to suck in comparison to regular driving.  Plus your whole vehicle is longer and heavier.  I got used to it very quickly, though and really enjoyed it.

As a first adventure I loaded up and we (me, Trixie and Piper) went to Roland Nickerson State Park on Cape Cod.  The first three family camping trips were to this park and my memories of those vacations (I was six, seven and eight years old) are precious.  The park did not disappoint.  It was as beautiful and wonderful as I remembered.  We only went for a weekend, but I learned and remembered a lot which would come in handy in future adventures.

 

 

 It is amazing the amount of crap you have to haul!

 

RNSP is inland on the cape and has this beautiful pond/lake.  Piper and I played fetch and I really wished I had my bathing suit (it was October) as I could’ve taught her to swim.  She would fetch as long as her feet hit bottom.  Trixie HATES water unless it’s to drink.

 

 

Long suffering Trixie.  “I do not like water, Mom.  Thank you, NO.”

Piper is such a goof!

We were only gone for a long weekend as a practice and trial camp.  It went well and proved that this was “doable.”

Once home, it was time to unpack and wrap up Teeny Haven.

 

While we would only have a couple of more “adventures” with Teeny, this little camper got me started.