Excited and terrified

For me doing something new is exciting, but I am also very good at catastrophizing. I guess that is the project manager in me always thinking about what can go wrong. But as some have said, feel the fear but do it anyway and that is why I was on the road just before 9:30.

I was an hour behind schedule, but not due to hooking up because I did that the night before. Just last minute packing and organizing. I pulled into the grocery store about five miles down the road just to double check all connections etc. I ran into my friend Reggie and he said I looked pretty cool with the little camper, and the racked bike, kayak, and skis. I considered it good luck to run into him.

I planned my route to avoid a lot of lane changes around the twin cities and that worked well. However, I did start to panic when I saw the miles to empty dropping by 20 mile increments in what seemed like every two minutes. I resigned myself to terrible gas mileage and more stops than I had planned.

Once I got into Wisconsin, traffic was pretty light but it did begin to drizzle and I had a head wind. I got used to a bit of drag as truckers came up on me, but the trailer stayed steady.

When the truckers turn on their turn signals, I flash the lights to let them know they are clear like my dad did and there is a feeling of connection when they blink back after completing the lane change. I definitely feel like the truckers gave me more distance and respect as a fellow trailer hauler although mine is so minuscule compare to them.

I got comfortable making limited l changes myself. Mostly it was for disabled vehicles because I was five to ten under the speed limit most of the drive. I also purposely stayed behind a tractor trailer who kept weaving over onto the right shoulder and then swinging back.

But with the extra stops and Buddha liking to take long potty walks, it was a little after seven when I pulled into the campground. Fortunately, the ranger was there and able to guide me to my spot because it was not well marked and it was getting pretty dark.

This is where my practicing hooking up and unhooking in the driveway came in handy and my checklists that I created using chatGPT and then expanded and adjusted for my trailer. I put on a head lamp and got to work. By the time my 7:25 alarm went off to remind me to bring in the bird feeders( well won’t need that for a few weeks), I was walking Buddha.

I was impressed with myself until I tried to get the refrigerator on AC. It kept reverting to propane even when I shut off the propane. I couldn’t get the furnace to turn on either which had worked like a charm at home. So I decided to check my shore power connection and “sure” enough, I needed to flip the breaker for 30 amp. There’s an edit for the checklist.

After experimenting with a few places for Buddha, I was like of course, she wants to be up at people level. No sleeping in the floor for her! She now has the other seat at the table.

I was too tired to cook so I had hummus and carrots and sardines and crackers for dinner. It made me think of Uncle Felix in Christmas in Connecticut saying pichu pachu as the lead character Elizabeth Lane is having sarindes for breakfast. He brings her a gourmet breakfast from his restaurant.

I played a few rounds of solitaire with real cards. Then I made some tea, read a bit of the YA book that is my current fiction selection. It was lights out early and no alarm set!