~Tuesday, August 24, 2021~
Day 436 (Travel Day)
The time was all too fleeting with our son’s visit. We certainly packed a lot into 4 days and it was terrific that every experience we encountered was new for each of us. We’re sad to say goodbye, but look forward to all being together for the upcoming Holidays.
Shane’s flight wasn’t departing from Buffalo until 5:30 p.m. but we had a 400-mile day ahead of us so needed to drop him off sooner than later. Since the trailer wasn’t about to journey through an airport parking lot, it felt strange saying our goodbyes at a corner McDonald’s across from the airport. His flight would take him to Colorado where he had a 3-hour layover, then would be gaining 3 hours by the time he’d be back in California. He’ll be one tired young man. Since we had nothing but go, go, go on our visit together, he was looking forward to some reading/chill time at the airport waiting for his flights.
About 2 hours later, we were in Syracuse, NY where we had previously scoped out a Trader Joe’s store to stock up on a few goodies before heading to boonie land in the Adirondacks. But here was the challenge….no where to park the truck/trailer. The best we could do was a Best Buy parking lot across a busy avenue.
Jeff stayed with the dog since it was too warm to leave her in the truck. Getting to Trader’s in a roundabout way was not a big deal without a cart, but WITH a cart….a completely different story. With my pigtails, fishing hat and grocery cart in tow, people might have mistaken me for a homeless individual. That must have been the fastest Trader Joe’s shopping I’ve eve done since we were trying to get to our campground before dark. About 45 minutes later, I returned and hurriedly put the perishables away while my sweet hubby made the trek back to drop the cart off.
As the hours and miles went along, it was becoming all too clear that we wouldn’t be making it to our destination before dark. We didn’t arrive to Buck Pond Campground Adirondack Park in Vermontville, NY, until 10:15 p.m. Our most recent night time arrival was in Amish Country, but that one was a very easy back-in situation. This campground on the other hand, was a bit more challenging because of the trees and a gentle uphill slope. Though we had a lovely distraction of a pine-scented forest, it wasn’t enough to keep us from being frustrated. We absolutely hate arriving in the dark. And to top it off, Jeff’s backing in was approaching from the passenger side which is always more difficult where you really can’t see what you’re doing, and compounded by darkness, makes it nearly impossible. With headlamps and flashlights, I looked like an air traffic controller trying to lead the way. As I constantly checked both sides to make sure there were no imminent collisions with a tree or firepit, our team effort took about 20 minutes. Thank goodness there were no neighbors directly around us which would have just added to the challenge of getting in (not easy to stay quiet when directing). In a nutshell, we managed to not kill each other in the process. Now for some much needed rest for Hank, towing all those miles today!!
While we were setting up, we had a few issues with our stabilizers and tongue jack. The funny thing was they were doing the opposite things. The stabilizers were not going DOWN all the way (Jeff thinks it’s a simple “greasing” issue 🤞), and the tongue jack wasn’t lifting the hitch UP far enough to get it off the ball of the truck. There’s always a backup method operating these two MANUALLY (thank goodness!). So it looks like a little investigation is in order. The to-do list is growing for sure, though nothing too crazy. For our fellow RV owners, we will post the list soon, so you know you’re not alone.
I think it was about 12:30 a.m. by the time I hit the hay after setting up and putting away the remainder of the groceries (I know...early for me). Even though Jeff insisted on doing ALL the driving today so I could catch up on my movie/photo editing and website managing, he couldn’t get to sleep, being too engrossed in his new Wilbur Smith novel.