~Monday, June 15, 2020~
Official Day 1
Up early-finally getting down to Del Mar today to spend 1 month with Devin, Hannah and the grandkids. This is the start of our exodus from the Bay Area and the day that we officially begin our year-long journey. Kind of sad since it’s been our home for 26 years. On we go to our new chapter.
I left to do a few errands like buying hitch pins for the bike rack, DEFT for the diesel truck, a Starbucks run and a gas up. Darn that it wasn’t Costco diesel which seems to have the best prices. When I got back to the campsite, I backed up to the trailer and did pretty good with lining things up. Then to get the bike rack all setup...except the pins I bought would only fit on one end and not the other. The configuration was different then Jeff thought, so off he went back to try for a smaller version and ended up with a bolt to get us by for the time being. The plan originally was to leave around 7:00/8:00 ish. I don’t think we left Skyline until 11:00 a.m.. which meant arriving at the Del Mar campsite in the dark. Normal people would have taken care of everything the night before, but we were trying to pack too much into the 5 days we were at Skyline. Jeff drove the first ⅔ today, and me the remainder which meant, guess who gets to park the damn trailer in the dark???
We were talking to Hannah and Devin as we got closer to the main gate at Camp Pendleton so Devin could sign us in. The glitches:
#1-Devin’s military card was missing an insignia on it that showed his veteran status. The desk clerk was a super nice guy and said you’re lucky that I’m working tonight. “If you had had anyone else, you guys wouldn’t have gotten in tonight”, he said. Thank goodness! Devin will have to sign us in again in 3 days when we move from Row A (beachfront) to Row C (still a 5 star ocean view).
#2-arriving in the dark. Nothing like trying to park your rig without headlights so as not to annoy your new neighbors, and then being of complete idiot status, when you see all the dad’s come running to help you park. Embarrassing to say the least. It took me about 15 minutes to back up into the site, but I did it!
#3-set up. After Devin and Hannah left, we began setup. However, when we pulled in we weren’t thinking about the slideout clearance and we were encroaching too much on the neighbor’s space. I guess we’ll have to reposition in the morning. They were super understanding people!
#4-chocks. We placed the stacking blocks under the hitch, but forgot to place the chocks in front of and behind tires. Jeff really could not believe we skipped this very important step, especially since he just shared a story about a couple he “follows” . They had forgotten to chock their tires where their 5th wheel began to roll, only to have it conveniently stop on a propped rock, preventing it from hitting another trailer. happened since he had just told me a story about a couple he “follows”, that made the same mistake, only to have their trailer begin to roll and luckily stop by a conveniently propped up rock. Anyway, after we got the tires chocked, we had trouble loosening the hitch from the ball (not enough grease) and in the process, the tongue jack got loose from the blocks and started sliding only to stop and rest itself on 2 chain links at the hitch. Close call for sure. I don’t care what time it is, it’s definitely margarita time after 3 hours of trying to set up. Ugh!!!