This is the first long trip in the trailer, and on our first day everything went great! We left at 10 am and arrived in the city of Mt Shasta (about a half-hour north of Lake Shasta) in a lovely KOA, at 5:30. Due to the Labor Day weekend, we endured slow stop and go traffic on 280 and 80, but without stress because we have no deadlines. Our new Ford F150 V6 had no problem pulling the 23′ Creekside trailer up the mountain grades.
Now we are enjoying sitting under a pine tree, outside our rig after arriving here, with a bottle of Tolosa Pinot Noir partnered with cheese and crackers.
The important confirmation today is that I have great confidence in my driving pulling a larger trailer. Our lunch stop was in Dunnigan (the first city north of Woodland after the 505 merges into I-5) and I did a really good parking job. After pulling into the parking lot, I had to go past my selected ‘trailer’ parking spot, then back-in, making a 90 degree left turn. What made this successful was the backup video camera system my family got for me for my birthday – a camera at the back-end, and one on each side – which made the back-up process smooth. Sue didn’t even have to get out of the car to guide me!
Our day started today with balloons!
They were set by our trailer at 7 am, by Joyce Fisher, on behalf of Sue’s Monday Night Women’s group from church, wishing us safe travels and Sue a happy retirement. I caught a glimpse of Joyce before she left in her car, just as I was sitting down on the front patio for my morning devotions. I hugged and thanked her before she drove away. She smiled and said to me: “Take care of our girl”
Joyce, we’ve had a good start to our long trip, and, I will.
Thanks for following along with us on our journey!
Ted & Sue
