Maiden Voyage—Day 1
May 20, 2016I fear I may never go camping again.
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| The view from our bedroom window |
Is it possible to become spoiled in just two nights?
Our first two nights on the road we spent at French Creek State Park in Pennsylvania. Wednesday night was cool and drizzly with occasional spells of fairly heavy rain. Here’s what I kept thinking about:
RV glamping: Prep
dinner in a warm, dry, well-lit kitchen. Roast the chicken in the convection
oven; steam the green beans on the stove. Eat at the dining table—still warm
and dry. Run hot water and washes dishes in the sink. Decide whether to lounge
on sofa, sit in recliner, or sprawl on the bed to read, write, play a game,
talk, or watch a DVD. At bedtime, pull the shades, change into jammies, use the
warm, clean bathroom and brush teeth; snuggle into the queen-sized bed (adjust
sleep-number on the mattress if desired) and turn out light. Sleep comfortably,
knowing that if you need to use the bathroom in the night, it’s only a few
steps away. In the morning, enjoy the view from your bedroom window and marvel
at how fresh-washed the world appears after a rain.
Mind you, I love camping! But it turns out that on cold,
rainy days, I like glamping even better.Of course, we had to get there first.
And that wasn’t quite as idyllic an experience. In fact, it
was almost enough to make me wonder
whether we had made a very big mistake.
First disillusionment: Driving this monster is even more
stressful than we had anticipated—even for Steve, who is generally unfazed by
anything driving-related. It didn’t help that we started out in heavy city
traffic and progressed to busy highways under construction. Narrow lanes with
high barriers where the shoulder ought to be narrowed even further at the
(many, many) toll plazas—several of which showed signs of having been
significantly battered by vehicles scraping (literally scraping) through. (Note
to travelers: An Illinois I-Pass works for New Jersey and Pennsylvania tolls.
We haven’t yet figured out how it knows how many axles to charge us for.) And then there was the matter of the narrow,
hilly (we're in Pennsylvania, remember?), winding country roads leading to the campground.
I have become a big advocate of trimming low-hanging branches. We had read
reviews of the campground warning that getting there could be a little hairy.
We’ll be taking those seriously from now on.
Second disillusionment: You can forget that image of gliding
serenely down the highway, perhaps even getting up to make a sandwich while
underway. These buggers are NOISY. Everything rattles: window shades (all 16 of
them) and screens, interior and exterior doors, and of course the contents of
the kitchen cupboards and drawers. And remember that road repair I mentioned?
It makes for a very bumpy ride. I had no inclination to try to move about the
cabin, much less whip up a tasty snack. (It isn’t legal, anyway, I believe.)
Third disillusionment: Your GPS is not your friend. Your friend would understand that you do not want to drive a behemoth of a vehicle on roads the width of toothpicks. Your GPS does not. It has neither the sense nor the settings to choose wide, smooth roads over terrifyingly narrow, bumpy roads. Nor does it comprehend that if it sends you on said treacherous roads, you will have to drive at about 20 miles an hour, adding hours, if not days, to the estimated arrival time. No, your GPS is not your friend. At best, it is a grudging ally, giving you directions under duress and hiding its resentment with a falsely cheerful tone.
Fortunately, the whole process is a little like childbirth. As soon as it’s
over, it all seems worth it. But we are hoping that the driving part gets
easier with experience.
All this nature—and interesting people, too!
We had heard that RVers are friendly. Well. We had pulled into our very first camping site of our very first trip, and before we even had the leveling jacks down, a man with a charming Aussie accent called through our window, "We have the same model, don't we?"
Meet our new friends, Steve and Ann. Their Winnebago Forza is basically the same RV as our Itasca Solei, just under a different name. (Like Kenmore and Sears refrigerators.)
They've been RVing for 15 or 20 years, so they had lots of good tips for us. Ann even gave me a guided tour of their cupboards to help me figure out the best places to put things. And did I mention that they are interesting? They live in Adelaide and own an RV in the US.
All in all, Day 1 was a pretty good day. And (spoiler alert!) Day 2 was even better! Stay tuned.
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