This morning we got up at 7:30 a.m., a bit later than our usual practice, because we got to bed quite late. We ate breakfast and packed up, and then started out on our morning walk. It was our first chance to walk around and look at the campground at Cliffside Park. We've been dancing so much (six or more hours a day) that we haven't had time or inclination to take our regular walks. We enjoyed seeing all the birds, especially one flashy yellow finch. The park has really extensive recreational facilities outside the campground, including soccer and baseball fields, tennis courts, picnic areas, and playgrounds.
When we looked out our windows first thing, Hardy and Judy were already on the road on their way to Gunbarrel City for a family event. John and Sandy came by later to say goodbye and wish us safe travels.
After stopping at the dump station to dump, we left the Milwaukee area at 10:30 a.m. and arrived at Shamrock Park in the Village of Berrien Springs, Michigan, at 4:00 p.m. That bare sentence encompasses a rather stressful day of driving. Traffic and construction areas contributed to the stress.
Our first stop was for lunch. There were no convenient stopping places along the toll road, so we finally gave up and took an exit. Wrong move. The exit led northward towards some casinos, but they were nowhere near the exit. Then we were stopped by a looong slow train. We found a Speedway that advertised diesel at a good price, but after we pulled in and I scouted all around, I couldn't find the diesel. I finally went inside to ask. The clerk told me that pumps 17 and 18 were diesel. When I went outside to look, those pumps were out of service. We pulled into an empty parking lot and ate a late lunch. We were in a rather poor neighborhood, so no appealing scenery to eat lunch by. Then we had to find our way back to the freeway.
Our next stop to try to get fuel, we pulled in behind another RV at the only diesel pump for cars and RVs at a TA Travel Center. After a wait, the RV moved on, and we pulled up to the pump. I had to go in to leave my credit card before pumping. Then the pump kept cutting off, so I ended up with less than a full tank. After paying, we waiting another ten minutes for the driver in front of us to return to her vehicle and pump her gas. Finally we were back on the road.
By the time we arrived at our campground, we were pretty frazzled. It's a nice park, but the site was not level. We had a hard time getting level, trying first one combination of boards and blocks and then another. We cleaned the bugs off the end cap and the truck, but had to spend lots of extra time and work to remove some tarry stuff that had been thrown up onto the side of the truck, probably from the construction.
As usual, being stressed led to our losing track of our routine. After leveling and cleaning, we put down the jacks and raised the trailer off the truck. When I started to pull away, I noticed that we hadn't unhooked the power cord or emergency breakaway.
Next, it seemed that something was stopping the truck, so we raised the trailer a bit more. After trying to pull away again, we realized that we had neglected to put a wheel chock behind a rear wheel and back into the chock to relieve the pressure on the hitch before opening the jaws of the hitch. We were trying to pull away with the jacks down and the hitch still hitched! Fortunately, nothing was damaged.
Then when we extended the bed slide, it didn't go out all the way before the motor clutched. We couldn't find anything in the way, so we brought the slide in and sent it out again, and this time all went well.
Oh, did I mention we "lost" an hour moving from Central to Eastern time? By the time we were all set up and went for our walk, we had a very late supper.
The park is on the banks of the St. Joseph River. We'll appreciate it even more tomorrow after a good night's sleep, I'm sure.
I'm looking forward to checking out some "U Pic" farm stores, hoping to find strawberries and blueberries in season.... Ken also found an interesting natural food store in town that we'll visit tomorrow.
0 comments:
Post a Comment