Adventure is Worthwhile

My home went on the market a week ago. It took over a month longer than expected but what can I say downsizing your life is not easy, my realtor had a COVID positive test result 3 days after we met at the end of July and endless contractors failed to show up after scheduled.

With all that going on I needed a break and I found a 50 amp spot up near Lake Oroville which is dangerously low on water and so had availability and even though the wildfire smoke is bad here, it is that bad at the house. I needed to get over some of my apprehension, I had never tied into water, I had never dumped my black or grey tank and never backed into a spot. Time to figure it out.

I pulled into Bidwell Canyon and saw I chose a bad spot but they are multiple here - the parking pads are sloped some are sloped and angled and there was a big hump at the end of my spot I needed to drive over before the parking slot dropped about 6-8 foot down a slope and bent to the right. I tried positioning myself as good as I could to back down and then angle slightly and I hear the horrible grinding noise that I am dragging somewhere. Okay take a breath and try again, same issue again. Now I have to find a way to come at this from the opposite angle I need to be to keep from dragging my stabilizers on the front of the trailer. Meanwhile Ava doesn't know what is going on and is getting frantic from the metal scraping and blocking my mirrors.

So I go in tight to the right hoping I can swing the end from hitting the hookups. I come in and I am 12" or less off the hookups (closer than I'd like) but on the stairs side of my trailer I have 3 feet of pavement before it dives down a hill and my stairs can come down. I look at the trailer and truck (more on the truck later) and there is no way I can be level front to back or left to right but amazingly I am. I just need to use some blocks under my back left stabilizer as its 6" inches lower than the right.

So far I've hooked up water, hooked up to 50 amps and dumped my black and grey tanks and spent the first two days getting used to living in the space without having a home as backup for showers, laundry, cooking and bathrooms, and organizing it properly. A few lessons learned -Once you dump the black tank close the valve otherwise it is like a straight line to the sewer coming up through your toilet. The same scent will happen if you leave grey valve open too. Induction burners are wonderful things but they are very hot and heat up your trailer. On a 100 degree day you can create ice with your AC. I noticed after the first day my ability to cool the trailer was not going well and I thought oh great here we go. So I gave it a break and turned on the fan when I hear stuff crashing on the roof of the trailer that sounds like a bunch of acorns and stuff falling or ice crashing. I had froze up my condensor coils. Now I run in cycles a hour or two of AC a half hour of fan and its much better.

The house now has multiple offers and I need to make a decision tomorrow. The house is empty and I can leave now, but I'm booked here until Wednesday and need to grab a few last minute things from garage at house (my back up inverter gen, my solar suitcases and my cleaning items). We'll head back Wednesday and park in the driveway so I can unhook and grabs supplies and take care of that stuff. Hopefully the next post will be officially on the road, my destination is Michigan to see my family I have not seen since July of 2019 spend a few weeks and then start heading west back across Rockies to be in Washington for Thanksgiving. For now never believe you aren't capable and do the things that scare you...Adventure is Worthwhile.