Our Maiden Voyage

During our two trips south to inspect and purchase The Cabin, we drove by Lake St. George State Park.  We had never camped there, but it’s less than an hour from home and seemed a nice soft maiden voyage.  Our granddaughter Haylee enjoys camping, so we decided to invite her along.  So the first weekend after we got our RV, we went to Lake St. George.

The sites there are fairly close to the road, but the lake was beautiful.  Parking the RV was easy, as we were out in the open on a flat patch of grass.  The majority of the state parks in Maine don’t have hook-ups and this one was no exception.  Not a big deal for us at all, who were accustomed to camping in a tent right up until we bought an RV.

We got everything set up, feeling elated at being able to level the rig on the first try.  When we were settled, Bill and I agreed that, if we still had our tent, we’d still be putting the poles together and trying to find all the stakes.  We could see, over near the bathrooms, a fancy set-up with an outdoor TV, outdoor fridge, rope lights around the site, and a stereo with 2 large speakers.  Pretty snazzy!  When Bill walked by there, the gentleman introduced himself as the campground host.  Very friendly.  A campground host stays at a campground for free, usually all season, and help campers when the ranger isn’t around. 

We put our food out (carried in from KFC since we were a late arrival) on the picnic table and started our dinner.  As we started to eat, the campground host came out of his rig and began playing music quite loudly. And then he picked up a microphone and began to sing.  This was a karaoke machine!  We chuckled a bit and continued to eat.  The singing continued, with enough volume to be heard all over the park.  Luckily, he had a nice voice, but I’m not accustomed to camping and a serenade at the same time.  When the karaoke had gone on for about an hour, I decided to take a walk down to the reception hut.  The noise just wasn’t at all what I expected in the great outdoors.  I spoke to the greeter at the entrance and she seemed surprised that we weren’t enjoying the concert.  But she said she’d speak to the ranger.  The whole thing was puzzling to me, because I’m pretty sure the campground host is supposed to help with noise control, not contribute!

The concert terminated on its own, but we did see the ranger stop later on and speak to the campground vocalist.  After that, the host wasn’t so friendly towards us, but at least it was quiet.  The evening was calm, although we did hear a lot of traffic noise from the road.  We took Haylee to the beach area and she got to play on a very nice playground structure there.  She even went swimming the next day, even though the water was still cold that early in the season.  We had a campfire (with smores of course).

 Haylee thought the dinette that turned into a bed was very cool, so that’s where she slept.

All in all, it was a pleasant maiden voyage, although we decided it wasn’t really our idea of state park camping.  Not woodsy, too close to a main road, etc.  But we did get a taste of our new camping lifestyle.  Carrying our house behind us.

Meet the cabin

Now that we had made the decision to buy an RV, we had to decide what kind.  Travel trailer?  Third wheel?  Class B?  Class A?  We did our research and decided a used Class A would suit us the best.  Then we researched the different models to see what options and floor plans would appeal to us.   Living in Maine, 3 1/2 hours from the Hew Hampshire border, our options for shopping in person are a bit limited, but luckily most dealers have their inventories online.  After searching online for a number of weeks at dealers within a 200 mile radius, we were beginning to think we would need to take a week in the Carolinas or Florida to find what we wanted.  The selection just wasn’t there.

We hadn’t really been looking at Damons, but I finally stumbled across a 2008 Challenger at a dealership on the Maine/New Hampshire border.  The layout, options, condition, and price were all acceptable. We called and booked an appointment to see it the following Saturday.  Fortuitously, our brother-in-law John was in Naples, Maine, having driven up from Florida a few weeks earlier.  He was willing to come with us to look at the RV.  He and Peggy have own several different rigs and, although we had actually inhabited it for a few days, we didn’t realize/remember that their current Class A is a Damon Challenger, too!  Just a different model.  So he was the perfect second opinion to have along on the trip.

The salesman who showed us the RV was very helpful, but it was really John who gave us the cook’s tour.  He’d put his hand on a basement compartment handle and say, “Now here’s your propane tank…” or “This fridge will run on either propane or electricity.”  He and Bill did everything but kick the tires, inspecting the vehicle from top to bottom.

 

In the end, we went inside and worked out a deal.  In addition to purchasing the unit for a better price, we asked that a new rear camera system with side and rear cameras in color be installed.  The next weekend we drove down to pick up our new baby.

We got a full tour and orientation to all the systems.  I drove the car and Bill drove the RV home.  I must admit it was a bit nerve-wracking to watch his driving from behind.  I could see some curb hopping and at one point he got stuck in a left lane on the highway.  But we made it home in fine shape. 

Here she is on her first day in her new driveway.  Welcome to the Cabin!

 

When the cabin was a sprout

My husband Bill and I have spent the first 15 years of our marriage in sometimes widely varying frames of mind.  These can range from chaos and anxiety to harmony and relaxation… and everything in between.  When we got married we had 5 children between us and did our best to form a new “blended” family.  A few years into this transformation, our first grandchild was born.

At various times along the way, Bill would turn to me and say, “Where’s the key to the cabin?” or “Let’s pack up and go to the cabin.”  Of course, we had no such cabin.  We’d simply struggle through whatever crisis we were having at that time and come out on the other side.

One year Bill found the key to the cabin in his Christmas stocking.  True, it has no “teeth” so it won’t open any door I know of.  But it symbolized that place we could go to when things got tough.

This year we took a vacation in the middle of a really outrageously cold and snowy winter.  We visited Bill’s sister Peggy and her husband John, who had become “snowbirds”, living in Maine during the summer and Florida in the winter.  They live in a sunny mobile home park in a beautiful renovated manufactured home.  They took their motorhome out of storage and arranged to park it across the street, so we could have our own space… a guest suite!  Somewhere during that visit, a seed sprouted and we began to entertain the idea of buying a motorhome.  We could use it to tool around in Maine and environs in the summers and then, when we could finally retire, take it for a long trip across the United States.

All we had to do now was wait to see if the little sprout could take root and grow.