Getting ready for pandemic camping

It's been nearly four years since my last post, something that's hard to comprehend! But in the interim, I've gone through cancer and recovered, we've moved twice, we've upgraded our trailer since we needed to live in it for a bit, and we've retired. So too much has happened that kept us from actually camping. Now that 2020 and the pandemic are here, we are planning a trip to see hubby's mom (who will be celebrating her 97th birthday) while we still have the chance. So we're back in business as campers!

As we look forward to our long trip, we have taken a shakedown cruise for a couple of nights at Lake Pleasant's Desert Tortoise Campground near Phoenix, AZ. This is a georgeous regional park, with a huge lake for boating (hubby loves both sailing and paddle boarding), biking, and hiking. We had scoped it out a bit ahead of time to get a sense of which site we'd like best, so we ended up with a great site overlooking the lake. Only reserved campsites are open at present. Camping is available on the shoreline, but not now during sheltering-at-home. First come, first served. We continue to be most comfortable with reserved spots so there is no anxiety about whether we'll get one.

We had spent quite a bit of time at home getting the trailer ready. We now have a 34' toy hauler, and we wanted to bring our e-bikes with us. Hubby figured out a way to use the retractable bed in the main room to secure the bikes as we travel, and then the dogs totally love the bed as a "dog bed" during the day especially with the view. There's plenty of room for us in the trailer, even with the bed down we have a couch and two recliners.

As we were leaving for these couple of days, I found myself more excited than I had thought possible. I have loved camping with my family (human and canine), and it was an amazing outcome after cancer to be able to do so once again. Hubby was too concerned about the noise the stabilizing bars made to really be able to enjoy the moment of departure. Fortunately, in this case, we had only about 20 minutes to go before we were pulling into the campsite.

While the campsite was clean and well appointed, with amazing views,

there were some issues with layout. This was site #151. If we had parked in the logical place, the door would  have opened into the bushes while the water and electric would be on the correct side. If we had had a class C or A RV, we could have pulled in and the door would open toward the picnic and fire area, but the gas and electric would have been on the wrong side. As it turned out, we decided to park perpendicular to the parking spot (since this was possible in this pull through).

We needed an extension to the power cord, which had to run from the back side of the trailer and to the water tube for the same reason. But with some electrical work by hubby, we had it all set. In the end, everything worked except for the microwave. We'll have to figure that out...it may actually be the microwave itself. TV worked fine with streaming from the computer and a Verizon hotspot, though we'll need to have a strong cell signal to make this work as we travel.

All in all, we feel pretty ready for this summer's trips, as long as Covid-19 doesn't force us to stay home...and we had a really lovely couple of days at Lake Pleasant.