We left the sanctuary of our home with high hopes that all would go well with our trip and it started out near perfect. Notice I said near. What would be a trip without at least one little small glitch. We didn't forget keys, we checked our lists and lists of lists and we had everything! We were so proud of ourselves. We gassed up before arrival for pickup and made sure everything was loaded and in a safe place for travel. We are on a roll.
I then proceeded to back the truck up to the hitch which was almost perfect (pat on the back as I am getting good at this). Dear hubby prepared to now do his part of hooking the trailer up. Whoops! The blocks on which the trailer set had managed to settle into the ground a little. OK, a lot! My near perfect backing up was to no avail because we could not crank it high enough to get the hitch in. Dear hubby decides that I need to back the truck up onto two boards approximately 8x8 inches and still manage to perfectly line up the truck and trailer without running him over. Now, I might be getting good, but some things are just a little on the iffy side.
As I made several feeble attempts, I was proud of Hubby for not yelling as it was only 7 am and the owners might not have been up yet, but the frustration was etched into his face. Regardless I kept trying and finally managed to balance precariously on the 8x8 blocks and line it up. Success! Now all that was left to do was turn it around.
I got into position and hubby was directing from passenger side of the truck. Now anyone who has attempted to back a trailer knows that it is actually better to have said advisor outside the truck, but having had only two cups of coffee and Hubby only 5 hours of sleep it didn't quite register at first. I finally realized we had two blind spots and couldn't move. So Hubby realizes that he does need to direct from the outside. Without having to pull forward and backup too often, we managed to get it turned and we were on our way to the gate.
We had not taken the time to eat before leaving, but brought our breakfast with us. We decided to stop at the gate entrance and have breakfast. We were enjoying our meal when we noticed the owner had wandered out to take his trash. He stood there watching us for a while and I am sure was wondering what in the world we were waiting for, but didn't say a word. Breakfast under our belt we were off to terrorize the morning commuters.
To get on the freeway there are two turn lanes. We chose the right lane to be able to make a wider turn. I glanced into my mirrors and noticed we were alone in the lane, but there were about 15 cars in the left lane. No one wants to get stuck behind a trailer evidently. Little did they know who was driving and I was empowered by a 5.7 Hemi and it takes little effort to pull the trailer. Vroom we were off and got up to speed quickly which surprised more than a few of the 15 cars that were thinking they would get the jump on me. On the freeway to even passed several of the cars determined to get ahead and I wasn't even up to the speed limit yet. People are very strange sometimes. We were officially on our way.
It was a beautiful day and we were enjoying the drive until we hit the TriCities. Signage is terrible and of course we managed to take the wrong turn. We got turned around and headed back to where we thought we could get back on the right highway. Wrong! Signage was worse and we ended up going about five miles past before we could find a place to turn around. Back on the highway we were confident we would get it right this time. Wrong! Signage was more confusing so we missed it again. We kept driving looking for a turn around exit and then suddenly there was a sign that said Portland. We had to go through a congested area, but somehow ended up where we should have been the first time. We were on our way again.
Then we merged onto Highway 84 in Oregon. Oh my goodness!!! I thought I had run into a brick wall. The wind was unbelievable. At that point I think we might have been lucky if we were getting 2 miles to the gallon and we were peddling as hard as we could. That Hemi was screaming and doing the speed limit was a joke. Finally we turned south and it was such a relief, well sort of. The wind was still strong, but now we could at least keep up to speed. We finally made our first night destination. It was a really nice park and the lady there made sure we had a sight that was easy to get into. It was soooo quiet.
After a week, we reluctantly packed it up and headed home. We headed out for our first stop on the way home. It was a beautiful day and we just took our time and enjoyed it. We found Boardman, Oregon and decided to stop to get gas before we traveled the remaining one mile to the park. I swung the trailer out to miss a telephone pole and then suddenly there was a jolt and a crunch. I managed to not miss a short bright yellow post guarding a fire hydrant. I bent the axle pretty good. We limped off to one side of the station and called our Road Side Emergency group. Five hours later, a truck with a flatbed took away our sad little Beast. I don't know if he will ever forgive me. We stayed in a motel that night and then went to Hermiston the next day to find our trailer repair shop. It was very sad sitting there with it's bent wheel. We were informed there wouldn't be anyone there until Monday so we had to say our goodbyes and hit the road for home. It was a very sad ending for such a great trip. Lesson learned, no matter what swing extra extra wide and watch our for stupid yellow posts.
It only took them a week to fix the axle and we did manage to get him back to the storage facility without further incident. Now we had to get the siding fixed. We took our little Beast to what we thought was the best RV dealer in town. We wanted him restored to better than new condition. This little episode of repair took 2 1/2 months. I was beginning to think the Beast had requested new owners and would never return to us, but finally the call came. We were so relieved that we had not had snow as of yet. I had visions of having to dig out a spot to park. It did however snow the very next day. I am very grateful that we have a merciful God! After arriving at the storage area, we both just looked wistfully at our little Beast as we suddenly realized this would be our last adventure until the 2012 season. It was very sad. We have learned a lot about trailer travel and a lot about ourselves this past season. We conquered a lot of fears and learned about a few new ones, but all in all it was a fun season for us. Now we are dreaming and planning our trips for next year. We are also dreaming of retirement in three years and the travel adventures we will have. Where will the road take us in the future? Who knows, but the Beast will accommodate us quite comfortably and will probably make sure we don't have a dull moment.
