Hey Guys, MiaT is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This means I get to link you to awesome stuff, and I will make a little commission to help keep MiaT up and running!
Hey There!
Whew, y’all. We made it!
Rosie Lee made it safely there and back again on her maiden voyage! We spent a wonderful few days in Myrtle Beach.
While we did not get the water or propane hooked up or the outside painted, we were able to get the inside done – new flooring laid, seat boxes replaced, kitchen painted, AC and fridge installed, and the closet removed, so we were quite cozy.
It was down to the wire the entire week leading up to our departure to see if we were going to make it. My father was working on the large things that needed taking care of like the electrical and welding. He took her into my brother’s tire shop, and he and the employees did a late-night work session to get her road ready. While he was handling all of that, I was gathering the essentials to pack and working on the awning. I was frantically finishing the awning down to the very hour we were supposed to leave!
Fortunately, we got it all done and loaded up just a bit behind schedule. We all rode down together in my parents’ pickup. Our little camper isn’t a very heavy load for his truck, but my father was worried about pulling her too fast so we drove about 65 mph . . . well . . . at first. Toward the end of the journey we were keeping up with traffic at some higher speeds and she handled just fine.
It was funny seeing our tiny camper in the middle of the huge campers/RVs around us at the campground. Even the smallest campers nowadays are nearly double the size of little Rosie Lee. When we dropped her in our spot, the boys just twirled her around by hand so she was horizontal in the spot facing the road. Our neighbor pulled in and was parking and called over that they’d straighten their rig out so as not to crowd us, and I laughed. There was so much extra space in our spot that they couldn’t have crowded us if they tried!
Since our propane wasn’t hooked up (and The Fellow sleeps later than I do), I used a plug-in electric burner outside on a picnic table to make my coffee in the morning, and it worked wonderfully.
The mini-fridge we put in the camper is actually my fridge from college; it’s still kicking. I’d forgotten how well it cools because we had it set too low at first and things froze!
The awning worked as planned, but we will need to get a second set of anchor hooks that screw into the ground to make it really secure. The wind blew it down twice while we were there and it wasn’t too windy of a week.
I did a fairly good job of making my lists of things I thought we’d need, and everything went very smoothly.
A gal at work camps often and recommended that I buy chip clips for in the camper, and they proved very useful. I clipped the trash bag into a pop-up laundry hamper and to secure it to our table so it didn’t blow away. The Fellow likes to recycle, so I think I’m going to look for a pop-up 3-compartment trash bin for us to take on our trips. My string of lights for across the awning was too short, so I bought a second set. We needed a second rug to keep the sand from being tracked in which I grabbed while we were down there, and my father reallllly wants me to get a larger indoor/outdoor mat.
Other than that, the only thing I really forgot was the toothpaste! I had left it out for The Fellow to brush his teeth before we left, and while I grabbed the toothbrush I missed the toothpaste. But that was an easy fix.
Overall, the trip went smoothly and it was exactly what I hoped it would be!
