I Had a Baby!!!

Back in July of 2008, Thomas Beatie, was supposedly the first man to give birth. Of course, you have to decide for yourself whether or not a woman by birth who gets herself changed into a man is really a man or not. I mean, come on. All she did was have her boobs removed. She left all the female plumbing in place. To me, that makes her a woman with no boobs. I on the other hand am a man with big boobs. And, according to Humana, I gave birth in May of 2008. That obviously makes me the first man to do it. Sorry, Thomas.

Earlier that year, sometime in February, I was doing my crossing duty when a parent's car stalled out. We got him out of the parent pick up line, and, when my duty was over, I rounded up a custodian, and we pushed the man's car until it started. In the process, I hurt my right heel. It wasn't anything major. Just a little twinge.

Later that evening, I opened up the school studio for the Tiger cubs. I do that every year. I noticed, as I showed the kids how a broadcast works that my heel seemed to be getting worse. No stranger to plantar fasciitis, I just assumed it was a little overworked and would be better the next day.

Boy was I wrong. When I got out of bed the next morning, I nearly fell down from hopping to get off that foot. It hurt so bad I could barely hobble around on it. From that time on, I suffered with that heel for three months. It would get a little better. Then it would be bad again.

One time, I was walking to the kitchen. As I did, a piece of that metal they use to hold the carpet edges down that had evidently gotten messed up, snagged my good foot. I was harpooned on a solid inch of sharp metal. I shifted my weight quickly to my right foot with the injured heal and sent a pain shooting through myself like I had never felt before. I panicked and ended up falling sideways onto the kitchen floor. I landed on my left hip, shoulder, elbow, and wrist.

I laid on the floor for awhile unable to breath. For a few seconds I even entertained the idea that I was dead. Then I started hearing a strange thumping sound down by my feet. It kept going tharrrrump, tharrrump, tharrrump. I gasped in a painful breath and bent my head to see what was making the noise. It was blood spurting out of my foot and hitting the plastic trash can. I stayed there watching it without really understanding what I was seeing.

Suddenly, number two son comes running into the room shouting, “Dad, are you okay?” I told him to get his mother. He stood there asking if I was okay until I screamed at him to leave me alone and get his mother. She came down and slowly helped me get up. We got the bleeding stopped, cleaned up the wound, bandaged it, and I went up to bed. Fortunately, even with all that blood, the wound to my good foot was really pretty minor and didn't ever hurt to walk on.

A few weeks passed during which the pain came and went until one day everything changed. I was sitting on the couch late that night watching television. Rachel and the boys were all upstairs in bed. I stood up to go up myself and felt something happen in my heel that sent a jolt through me. I lifted it up off the floor only to discover that that hurt even worse. I tried to walk, but couldn't. Anytime I lifted up my foot, the pain was more than I could take. At one point, I even felt like I was going to pass out. I ended up dragging my foot all the way to the stairs. I went up one stair at a time on my butt. I would kind of roll my heel up the step keeping pressure on it.

Once I was in my room, I put on the brace that I usually wore at night and happily discovered that it stopped the pain. I was equally lucky in the morning to learn that wearing a shoe put enough pressure on it, too. Just the same, I had had enough. You are probably thinking, “Why didn't the idiot go to a doctor?” I honestly thought it was just flare ups of my plantar fasciitis. When it got this bad, I wasn't so sure anymore. I called Sports Medicine and made an appointment. The doctor told me that I had pretty much trashed my heel beyond repair. Instead of fixing it, he proposed putting cuts in my Achilles tendon to lengthen it and take the pressure off.

I had the surgery at the end of May, right before school got out. I knew I would need the whole summer to heal. After that, my heel was as good as new. I haven't felt a twinge of pain since.

A few months after the surgery, I got a call from the doctor's office telling me that Humana had turned down my claim, but not to worry. They would resubmit it. We couldn't understand why they would turn it down, as everything had been pre-approved.

A while later, the claim got rejected again. The doctor's office asked me to contact Humana and find out what was up. I spent almost two hours on the phone trying to do exactly that. Finally I got transferred to a very nice woman with a Wisconsin accent. She was able to determine that the reason for rejection was that the treatment did not match the diagnosis. She put me on hold while she tried to find out what the code was. When she came back, she told me that I had been pre-approved for the surgery to lengthen my Achilles tendon. However, according to the coding on my claim, the doctor had not done the surgery. Instead, he had delivered my baby. She and I had a long laugh about that. We weren't ever able to determine who got the code wrong, Humana or the doctor's people, but she was able to fix it, and, the claim went through with no problems.

I still find it amazing that the Humana computers are so thorough that they can find a diagnosis/treatment mismatch, but they can't catch a treatment that doesn't match the sex of the patient. Anyway, I never did get my face on the cover of a magazine for being the first documented case of a man giving birth. I actually think that is a good thing. I bet Thomas Beatie wishes she hadn't gotten all that attention either.

Palmetto State Park: Spring Break 2012

Well spring break finally got here. Of course, it went by as fast as anything. Today is Friday, which means all we have left is your basic weekend. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

We headed off for Palmetto State Park on Tuesday morning. N2S and I had planned on being at Storm's house at 9:00, but just as we were leaving, Rachel asked if I could figure out why the downstairs TV didn't have any sound unless you played a DVD. I asked her if she had changed anything in the menu, whether she had tried any other channels, and whether or not she had shut everything down and restarted it. She said she had, so I played with the wires. I even went upstairs and got the wires off the loft's TV, but nothing worked. I decided to completely turn off the cable box, but it was taking so long to reset itself that N2S and I went ahead and got our stuff in the truck. Rachel had the upstairs TV, and I would call for service when we got home from our trip. As we were getting stuff in the garage, we suddenly heard TV blaring through the wall. Restarting the cable box the second time seemed to have done the trick.

We grabbed Storm, got a tank of gas, and went to get the trailer at Packrats. I explained to both boys exactly what I needed them to do to help me back up to the hitch, since my tennis ball system doesn't work with this lower one. It took awhile to get it done with my getting out of the truck and looking for myself a few times. They didn't seem to understand that the ball of the hitch needed to be directly under the round part of the receiver.

Once hitched, everything went well. Traffic was a bit heavy on I10 the whole way, but not enough to stop our progress. We checked in at the park headquarters just before noon. Then we drove over to the campground, where we were assigned site #17 right across from the park host.

Backing the trailer into site #17 was not a good experience. There was a tree in the way, and there was nowhere to pull ahead and straighten out. The boys tried to guide me in, but they just didn't seem to understand what I needed from them. One of the park hosts, a wonderful lady from Gonzales, gave us some help. Even then it was kind of hard. At one point, I was following her directions and heard a strange little noise. I stopped and asked her what it was. She said, “Oh you just jackknifed a little bit.” Well that little bit put a little dent in the Colby T. (I told the boys we needed to put a bandaid on it.) I just couldn't be bothered about that little dent. Those things just don't upset me like they used to. Anyway, we finally got backed in and set up.

It took a few minutes to get everything put where I wanted it in the Colby T. I was disappointed that I did not find scissors in my toolbox. Rachel told me she had bought me some when she bought it and all the little tools for it. I don't know where they went to. I needed them to cut the Velcro for hanging my “Welcome to the Colby T.” sign and a few other things I had in mind. Storm produced a huge murder weapon of a hunting knife from his back pack, but it cut too jaggedly for my tastes. I told the boys to remind me to get a pair of scissors at Buc-ee's.

So, okay... I have said before that there was a slightly bigger trailer with bunks that was almost the same price. I didn't buy it because it didn't have that “I LOVE” it feeling I got when I first walked into my model. I said that I was buying for ME, not the people who might occasionally join me. I am going to stand by that. We had plenty of room on this trip. Yes, we had to shift things around every once in awhile, dependent on our activity, but we were not too cramped in the space. That said- I will like the trips by myself even more. There were so many shoes and things all over the place, that it did make me a little nuts.

We decided to go on to Buc-ee's to get some lunch. It is only about five miles from the campground. I had planned on getting them two meals there during our trip. I love the place. This time, however, it was a crowded nightmare. Coming from the state park, we were able to drive right in to the parking lot. Coming from the highway, there was a line of cars about 100 long waiting to get in. There was also a bottlenecked area of the parking lot where cars were trying to get back out to the highway. Fortunately, we were turning right when we left, and there was no waiting. Inside the store, I instantly got that awful NIOSA crowd feeling. You couldn't walk more than five steps without someone either stopping in front of you or crossing your path and nearly colliding with you. The place was a frapping madhouse!

The boys each grabbed whatever food they were planning to eat for lunch. I bought some peppered dried beef and a huge sack of jerky. I was happy because they were both zero carb products. A lot of the jerky out there has sugar in it. Anyway, as soon as we were able, we got out of there. The moral of that little story is: Don't go to Buc-ee's close to lunch time!

We went back to the Colby T. and ate our lunch in the cool comfort of air conditioning. It was about 80 degrees at the park, but the humidity was unbelievable! Palmetto State Park is in the middle of the Ottine Swamp. That and the San Marcos River running right through it can make for some really humid conditions this time of year. When I camped there last summer in the popup, everything was so dried up that humidity was no issue. I like this better. I'll say more about it later.

After lunch, we decided to go fishing at Oxbow Lake. You can either cross the San Marcos River and walk over, or get in the truck and drive around to it. We opted for the walk, but the river was about a foot over the walkway. That is normal, and it is safe to cross. N2S and I, however, did not want to get our feet wet and then hike to the lake with soggy shoes. He and I both have very delicate skin on our feet. Storm went ahead and walked over and was waiting for us when we got there by truck. It really didn't matter how you got there- fishing was a waste of time. The lake was really muddy from a helacious thunderstorm they had a day or two earlier.

I didn't even bother to fish. I took pictures and enjoyed the awesome feeling of blistering sun for the first time this year. I am not being facetious. I love that feeling of the hot sun hitting my skin. I know it is bad for me, but I still like it. Face it folks- We all have some things that are bad for us that we like just the same. The boys drowned about two worms each over about 90 minutes. They actually stuck with it longer than I would have. Storm had the only catch. Somehow, he managed to hook a nasty disgusting washcloth that had been sitting on the bottom of the lake rotting for what could have been years. It was GROSS!

After awhile, even the boys got tired of fishing, so we headed back to the Colby T. N2S and I changed into shorts, and we hit the trails. We hiked for over ninety minutes at a pretty good pace. This is where I am going to talk about the humidity again. Last summer, the park was completely dry. The only water I saw there was the San Marcos River and Oxbow Lake. The river was so low that I walked across it with the water about two feet below the little walking bridge. The swampy areas along the trails were bone dry. The palmettos were dry and even brown in some spots. It was still beautiful in the dry heat of July. The theme for this trip, however, was moisture. The swamps were filled up with water. Creeks and streams were flowing under all the trail bridges. Low spots on the trail were wet or actually puddled. Since everything is crushed granite, there is no mud. The air around you on the trails is heavy and humid. Life was abundant. Insects were buzzing, birds were singing, and spring flowers were showing off everywhere you looked.

I don't like to get all preachy. I am an ordained minister. Did ya'll know that? Just the same, I usually keep my mouth shut when it comes to spiritual thoughts unless I am talking to a fellow believer whom I have a closer relationship with. Not today- Sit down and listen! Reverend Jim is about to preach. You people who are bothered by that type of thing have my permission to skip the rest of this paragraph. Okay... Last warning... Here I go: Walking on the trails of Palmetto State Park with all their lush beauty, I could not help but feel the awesome presence of my Creator. Science be damned! I can not and will not believe that all the beautiful balances of nature that I was witnessing on my hikes were unplanned. Okay... that wasn't so bad was it. I never was fond of Pastor Jeff's longer sermons.

We got back to the trailer and settled in a bit. I microwaved dinner for the boys and brewed some delicious Keurig coffee for me. Then we got the TV out and set it up, but none of us really wanted to watch anything. We were really just testing it to see what channels we would get. We were pulling in some from Austin and some from San Antonio. We got the new poker set out and played Texas Hold'em for several hours. N2S was the big winner. We played until the first person got knocked out of the game. That was me. Then we got ready for bed.

Converting the trailer for bed was a little more challenging with extra people. By myself, I just moved all the stuff on the table to the sofa. This time, the people needed to sit out of my way on the sofa, so we had to find other places for stuff. Our plan for sleeping the first night was me in the bed, N2S on the sofa, and Storm on the floor. At night, I allow peeing in the toilet (nothing else!). During the day, there is no reason not to use the park restrooms. Unfortunately for Storm, that meant that during the night, I had to walk past him to get to the bathroom. I used my iPhone for light and carefully went by him.

In the morning, Storm got right up and headed to the bathroom, so N2S and I converted the trailer back to daytime use. It was easier to do without the extra body in the way. Then I made some coffee and got the boy's donuts out for their breakfast. We watched the Today show until they switched to a fashion segment. Then we dressed for the road and headed off to find some geocaches.

The first cache was called Scary Bridge. We drove about five miles down a dirt county road until we got to a really old wooden bridge. All the metal was rusted, and it creaked and groaned as we drove over it. After we crossed, I parked the truck and we went back and walked on it looking for the cache. The bridge was really beautiful. The metal work on the top had some floral ornamentation, and GONZALES COUNTY was stencil-cut into a panel up there.

The cache was actually about a football length down the road on the other side of the bridge. It was in a knothole of a big old tree. We found it, signed it, and put it back. While signing, I saw that a Kenneth Hanks had signed it and given his phone number with the comment, “Call me. I want to play.” I figured it was someone in the area who had come across it some how. Since I have a good friend, Clay Hanks, whose family is from Gonzales County, I decided to call. Turns out the guy's name is actually Hanke, and someone had put that in there as a joke. I was evidently the first person to call him. I asked him if he wanted me to cross his number out. He did, so I did.

N2S was a little freaked out by the bridge, so we decided to just keep going from the other side to see where it went. It came right out on the highway to Gonzalez. I figured we should go ahead and travel to Gonzales so I could get myself some scissors. It was only about ten minutes away. While there, we stopped at the old Buc-ee's. It is just a regular convenience store, but they still operate it under the Buc-ee's name. We were looking for a cache that is supposed to be there, but it was too crowded to even try for it. They didn't have any scissors there except a tiny pair in a $7 sewing kit. I knew WalMart was right down the road, see we headed that way and bought a pair for $2.

N2S had seen a sign about Pioneer Village so I offered to take the boys there. It wasn't opening until 1:00 so I made a deal with the boys that, if they let me eat barbecue for lunch somewhere, they could go to Buc-ee's to get their dinner again. They were all for that, but we didn't see any BBQ places before ending up out of town heading toward Shiner. N2S asked if that was where Shiner beer came from. I told them it did and asked if they would like to go see the brewery. They were down for that, so we drove the fifteen or so miles further to Shiner.

We got there just after a tour had started. I was taking a photo of the brewery when the guide called and asked us if we wanted to tag along with that tour. We ran over there and joined them, and she said, “Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to turn off your phone, and put it in your pocket. There is no phone or camera use inside the brewery.” After the tour, they gave me a beer and three tokens for refills. I used one to drink one more sample and gave the boys each a token to keep as a souvenier. Then we went out and took some photos of the brewery before getting in the truck. That was when I learned that Storm had taken a photo inside the brewery. I told him that I was very disappointed in him. He said he just wanted a picture to show his mom the fancy carved-wood chair they had. I told him how what he wanted was unimportant. Rules were rules. He knew that when he was with me, I expected him to follow the rules.

As he and I were discussing the situation, an employee came over and told us not to worry about it. She felt it was a silly rule anyway. She offered to send photos of the inner chambers to Storms phone, but he declined the offer. I'm glad he did. We later discussed how wrong she was to have even offered.

We left there looking for Frank's BBQ, which Storm had seen on the way into town. When we got there, it was out of business. Instead, we ended up at a steak house that I had been to before on another trip with Jack and Mike. Before the waitress (YES, I still use that word. Deal with it!) came to take our order, I noticed that Storm looked kind of sickly. I asked him if he was feeling okay, and he broke down in tears. He said, “I am reflecting on what I did wrong. I am ashamed of myself.” I looked him in the eye and said, “Good, Storm. You should feel bad about it. You made a mistake. You learned from it. Now class is over. Let it go, and don't let it spoil your day. I am proud of you for taking it so seriously.” Well, that seemed to make him lighten up. He went to the restroom to wash his face and came back his normal cheerful self.

An elderly couple across from us were evidently the owner's in laws. They chatted with us throughout our meal. They were from the same town in England. She had married a American GI and come to the states a long time ago. Her husband had passed, but somehow, which was not explained, she was now married to this other man from her home town. Anyway, they were a lovely old couple, and talking with them about our trip and my days in England as a child was a high light of the trip. She reminded me so much of my mom, my mom's Scottish friend Marion, and English friend Jan, that I kept tearing up a bit. It was as if she were a blend of all three of them.

After lunch, we got back on the road and headed to the Pioneer Village. I used OnStar to find it, since I wasn't sure where it was in Gonzales, and we only had about two hours to get there and see it all before closing. OnStar couldn't find it. I told him it was the first thing to come up on Google, but he said they did not use Google. I had to fire up my iPhone and give him the address I had seen earlier. That worked, and the guy told me he was updating their database for future reference.

We were the only people at Pioneer Village when we got there. It was really fun walking around and looking at old time buildings. In one old cabin, they had an upstairs loft where the kids had slept for safety. I climbed up the tiny stairs just enough to peak in. When I was ducking my head to go back down, a big cat nibbled on my ear. It came out of nowhere and scared the huhah out of me. I have never liked cats. This is why!

We rolled on from there to find a geocache called “Why Can't I Own This?”, which turned out to be hidden in the Buc-ee's parking lot. We were going there to pick up dinner for the boys anyway, so it was pretty convenient. It was hidden under the base of a light post. A lady was there walking her dog, so it took awhile for us to get it. After that, we got our stuff and headed back to camp.

We were supposed to go fishing, but it was getting pretty late. I told the boys that I needed to go for a walk after eating the steak I had for lunch. I was going to drive them over to the lake and walk the lake trail while they fished. Then we decided to fish in the morning. They were hungry and tired, so I took a nice long walk on the San Marcos River Trail by myself. It was really hot and humid, and I worked up a bit of a sweat. I walked a lot faster than I did with the boys earlier. It was nice to get in the air conditioned trailer when I returned.

The boys ate their dinner while I processed some of my flip videos on the computer. Then we played Scrabble for several hours. I won every game, Storm always came in second, and N2S came in third every time, much to his chagrin. Storm is not as strong a student as N2S, so N2S had smugly announced how he was going to sweep Scrabble like he swept Poker. Storm actually held his own. We had to challenge a few of his crazy words, but for the most part, he did great.

When it got late enough that I could barely stand sitting there anymore, the boys wanted to play yet another game of Scrabble. I told them I was willing to play another game, but I would not be getting up to go fishing. They decided they didn't want to fish anyway, since there weren't any fish in the lake. I made myself some coffee, and we played one more game before finally converting the trailer to sleep formation. N2S said the sofa hurt his back the night before. This time, he was supposed to be on the floor, but he chose to sleep on the wall side of the bed with me instead. Storm slept on the sofa as planned. He actually liked the sofa. It was much better for me. All I had to maneuver past in the dark was the collection of shoes that were scattered around the floor.The trailer felt a lot less crowded without a body sprawled there, too.

We got up and had breakfast. The boys were supposed to have kolaches from Buc-ee's, but the order got messed up and only Storm's were in the bag. N2S had a microwave dinner instead. This was a big moment for me. In the past, it would have ruined N2S's day to not get his kolaches. He would have stayed angry and sullen for hours. This time he didn't seem bothered at all. Breakfast was peaceful. I had several cups of coffee and an Atkin's bar.

After breakfast, we started packing some of the stuff up. We stowed the coffee maker and TV and put the dinette down for travel. Then we got our personal stuff together and put it in the truck. I cleaned the bathroom, dinette table, and kitchen counters really well. Then, we all took one last hike on the Palmetto Trail, before hitching up and heading home.

Hitching up was an ordeal. I thought the boys would be able to help this time, but they still didn't get it. At one point I looked at the boys in the mirror to see them pointing in different directions. The park host saw me getting frustrated and came over to help. He was trying to teach me a new method involving backing the rear corner to some imaginary spot that made no sense to me. People just don't understand that I have a visual interpretation problem. My brain can not translate what it sees in a mirror into usable information. I have a method that works for me, and I should have used it. As a result of not doing it my way, hitching and backing failures on this trip have undermined my confidence to the point that I may limit myself to campsites with pull throughs.

We got home without any problems. I chose to follow alternate 90 through Belmont and Seguine. It was a beautiful drive with no traffic. We joined IH 10 just west of Seguine and fought traffic the rest of the way home.

Back at Packrats, I could not get the trailer in the correct position. I had the same problem by myself last weekend. I actually called Packrats and asked if I could have another space. Kevin was covering the phones, but didn't know what spaces were available. He drove over and tried to help me get backed in correctly. I would follow his instructions and get out to see what it looked like. Then, I would tell him, “Okay... Come look from this side.” He would see right away that I was angling toward the trailer two spaces over. Not a problem, unless they rent out the space between us. The problem is that that, when looking at the fence, the two spaces to the right of mine are angled at about 25 degrees. When you back up using the driver's side mirrors, it creates an optical illusion. You think you have your back end parallel to the fence line, but it is angled wrong. I am going to solve the problem with a piece of PVC pipe I have laying around. I'll put it on the ground, laying at the correct angle from the fence post to help me back in better. If that doesn't work, I'll invite Jack to come and teach me how to do it.

Well, it has been three days since we got home from the trip. I am already eager to get back out on the road. I am going to see if I can find a place in Bandera that has pull-throughs that is closer than the Koyote Ranch. I love that place, but it adds another 30 or so miles to the trip. Then, to get to the State Natural Area, you have to drive all the way back to Bandera. Maybe the Pioneer River Resort would be a good one.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about this trip!

Maiden Voyage in the Colby T

Well, I am sitting in absolute comfort inside my brand new Skyline Mountain View Retro 140 travel trailer. I bought it last Saturday, the 25^th of February at Ancira RV. I had given some thought about a real trailer for a while, but never really considered making the switch. Then I saw this one on the Ancira web site and could not believe how low the price was. I knew I wanted to see it.

I took Casita Jim, my little Coachman Clipper pop-up to Ancira after school last Wednesday. It needed some AC maintenance. While I was there, I looked at the Retro 140. The moment I stepped inside, I felt like I was at home. It was exactly what I wanted. It was small, but had everything I needed. I told the salesman that was showing it to me that I would have bought it last year instead of the pop-up, if they had had one. He suggested a trade in. Believe me, that was the exact second my mind was made up.

Ancira gave me nearly 75% of the cost I had paid for my pop-up as a trade in. Everything seemed to be falling into place, telling me that this was the right thing to do. Even at church the choir started singing Camping in Canaan's Happy Land during the time I was praying on it. Anyway, N2S and I went out there on Saturday and signed the papers. Then they gave us our orientation and let us get my stuff out of the pop-up,

I was really anxious to get out and try the trailer out, so I booked Guadalupe River State Park for a one night trip. I had an obligation on Friday afternoon, so it worked out okay to just leave on Saturday and stay over the one night. It made for a really long week waiting for it.

I decided to give the trailer a name. Last time N2S and Storm named the pop-up Casita Jim. That was fine with me. N2S recommended Casita Jim 2 shortened to CJ2 for this one. I didn't care for that so much. I was still thinking about a name when we took Storm to see the trailer on Sunday afternoon. He was saying how nice it was and I started singing, “Well we're moving on up to the east side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky...” from The Jeffersons. That's when it hit me. I should name the trailer after the Colby East, the building the Jeffersons moved into. I was gonna call it the Colby West, but decided I liked Colby Texas better.

I had a little Facebook contest to see who could guess where the name came from. I got some great answers: parent's middle names, names I wanted to name my sons- but didn't, names of pets, places I wanted to go, athletes I admired, and many more. I finally gave them a clue, but it didn't help. The clue was “A Friend in Need”, which was the name the episode of the Jeffersons where we first met Florence. The next day I gave them a whole string of clues that would automatically come up with the Jeffersons, if you put them all in a Boolean search: Zara (Zara Cully played Mother Jefferson, Ralph (the doorman), Berlinda (Berlinda Tolbert was the beautiful Jenny Willis), bloody mary (Mother Jefferson always drank them “for the vitamins”), and tetrachloroethylene (a dry-cleaning solvent). That put an end to the contest pretty quick.

I just made a pot of coffee in my house pot. I replaced it with a Keurig in January. Now, I don't really like any other coffee but Keurig! I'm gonna have to get one for the trailer. No, really.

Well, last night, I got everything ready for the trip. Most of the stuff I had to get ready is stuff that will stay in the trailer from now on. That is one of the beauties of this thing. Rain or shine, all I have to do is hitch it up, pull it where I want it, unhitch it, and plug it in. There is no set up or take down at all. Since it is not closing down, you can pretty much keep whatever you want inside, as long as it is not overloaded, and you keep it balanced.

This morning, I got up and gathered the last few things I needed. I wasn't in any hurry today. My goal was to get set up somewhere and get stuff settled in. I planned on reading all the manuals to make sure I new how everything worked. I wasn't coming for an actual “park experience” of trail hiking, etc. I actually left the house at about 10:00 AM.

I got to the storage lot and made an unpleasant discovery. The yellow tennis balls that I use to back the truck up to the trailer are too short to use with this new hitch! I used them to pull the pop-up to Austin a few weeks ago, but this hitch is a lot lower. The pole on the ball is too short to see over the tailgate. That meant I had to do the back up, get out and see, correct my aim, get out and see thing. That took about ten minutes of work to do, but I finally got it. No other way to do it by yourself.

The weather was a bit windy, which made me a little nervous. It turned out to be no big deal. I already drive slower than most people anyway. I think the wind is more of a factor if you are going fast.

I drove to Farris Stadium to do some backing practice. I backed into my pre-selected spaces twice without any problems, so I just decided to move on. I drove on to Guadalupe River State Park and got here within the hour. I was nervous when I saw that all of the spots in the park were reserved. I like to pull straight in to the one across from mine and then back in. If there is a trailer there already, you can't do that. The ranger told me not to worry. If I couldn't get it backed in, just call and they would come and give me some help. Unlike most men, I have no pride in these situations that would prevent me accepting help. It turned out to be no problem. The sites may all be reserved, but it is 3:45 PM and half of them are still sitting empty, including the one across from me. I had no issues with backing in at all.

I spent about two hours unpacking and rearranging all my stuff. I kept changing my mind, or in some cases, it just wouldn't fit where I wanted it. I need to get some of those plastic drawers for some of it, but I forgot to bring the tape measure to measure and see what will fit in the cabinets. I am going to use a piece of a cardboard box and write measurement marks on it for when I get home.

N1S said I could use (maybe permanently) his small television from his bedroom. He took a bigger one to college and then inherited his grandfather's huge one. I hooked it up and was blown away to discover that you can get about 30 different digital stations with the antenna. Back in the day, there were only about 6 choices. Nice! The picture is just as good as cable at home. I don't plan to watch TV much, but when there is bad weather or something, it would be nice to see what's up. Spurs games would be good, but they are usually only on a cable channel, unless we play major market teams and they end up on ABC, NBC, or CBS. No game tonight, anyway.

Oh, one funny anecdote.... There is a large window on one side of the trailer that is also the emergency exit. I couldn't get it to open. There were no directions in the manuals or anything, but it has a screen, indicating that I should be able to have it opened. I knew how to do it, but it just wouldn't go. I called the dealer and they told me I was doing the right thing, but might not have moved the latch. I looked and looked but couldn't find one. Then I just tried REALLY PUSHING the lever and it popped open. I was afraid to use that much effort, because I thought it might fly off and go crashing to the ground (like those airplane emergency doors). Anyway, live and learn.

The night was really comfortable. I used the heater, since the temperature went down pretty low, and because I wanted to test it out. I fell asleep right away and woke up pretty early. I made a pot of crappy coffee and just sat around for awhile. [The coffee was Starbuck's Christmas Blend. I used to love that. I'm telling you, the Keurig has totally changed my tastes for coffee. I actually drink frufru flavors like Mountain Blueberry, Rasperry Chocolate Truffle, and Golden French Toast.] Then I decided that, if I got everything ready to go, I just might make it home in time to get to church. I was supposed to be the reader today, but since I was at the airport picking Rachel up last Sunday, I didn't realize that. Of course, none of us lazy Baker's ever checks the answering machine so I missed the call to remind me, also.

Church wasn't meant to be. I had one hell of a time positioning the trailer back at the storage lot. My space is next to one that is angled. I just could not visualize how to back it in so the back of the trailer was parallel with the fence. Every time I thought I was correcting it, I just ended up making it worse. I finally got it after about 20 minutes of trying. By then, it was too late for church, so I mowed the lawn instead.

I thought I had a bit of a disaster when packing up this morning. When I was putting the antenna down, I wasn't entirely sure how to do it. I went ahead and cranked it down, but forgot that it had to be lined up right, I went outside to look. It was down but it was hanging off the edge of the trailer. I was a little worried about that but cranking it back up and turning it the right way fixed everything. There are two little triangular notches that need to lineup. I just didn't know that.

All in all, it was very successful trip. I feel good about towing the bigger trailer, and backing up was no problem until I got to the storage lot. I organized all the cabinets and tested out most of the appliances. Best of all, I got to just experience how easy it is to use, and how cozy it is inside. It may be a little too cozy on the next trip. I'll have to share my little slice of heaven with two big rambunctious 16-year-old boys. We are heading up to Palmetto State Park (my favorite) during Spring Break in nine days.

[THIS JUST IN: Rachel just told me to buy myself a Keurig for the camper as my 25th anniversary gift. Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!]