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!!!!!!!!!!!]