The Shakedown

For our first trip, we wanted to go somewhere close so that if we forgot anything or had any trouble, we wouldn't be far from home and possible bail out.

We figured we would try Normandy Farms Campground which is in Foxboro. We'd been there years before evidently but neither Deb nor I could remember anything about it. We also chose it because it was open before Memorial Day and we were itching to take this beast out.

I checked the online reservation system and found that even now, nothing was available on the weekends during April. Oh well, let's go during the week.

So we made our reservations and waited impatiently for the departure day to arrive.

The ride over was uneventful. We had a brief hesitation when we realized we were going to have to go under the low bridge in town to get to the highway. We considered going an alternate way because we couldn't remember how low that low bridge actually was. As we got into town and were considering going the long way around, Deb saw a sign saying the bridge was 13 feet, 8 inches.

Plenty of room - I think. After going up on the roof to measure the height and finding the rotted vent covers, I hadn't actually measured the height of the rig. I was pretty sure it was no more than 10 feet tall though.

I think.

We made it through without scraping any assemblies off the top and made our way to the campsite. Of course, we had no radio because I don't have the stupid NAVIGATION DISC!!!!

Got in, found our spot and I did the thing I'd been waiting to do. Yes, I deployed the self-leveling jacks!

It was like one of those Movie Motion rides where they sit you in a pod that bucks and lurches back and forth while they play a movie in front of you. There was no movie on this ride but it was a funky trip as the thing raised us up and leveled us out.

We then put the slides out, extended the awning, hooked up water and electric, and broke out the drinks!

Woot! This was working out perfectly.

A few minutes later, I had to start a list of the things we forgot...

The big thing was the camp stove regulator. A few weeks ago, when I was crawling around under the rig looking for places that mice might find a way in, I found an LP gas line that ran from the tank back underneath and was zip-tied to a strut. I didn't know what it was doing there but it made me wonder if I could use it to feed the camp stove. Our camp stove runs on those little propane bottles that are specially designed to run out while you are in the middle of cooking your steaks. I'd seen gadgets in the RV catalogs that let you connect your stove to your main LP gas tank on the rig so you wouldn't have to deal with those bottles. Maybe that's what this is?


I took this picture of it and posted it on an RV forum and asked if I could use this for my plan. The response that I got back was that this was an Extend-A-Stay which was actually designed to connect to one of those large propane tanks that feed the big BBQ grills. The idea is that if you are parked for a long time in one spot and need propane, you don't need to take the rig to a propane station. You just take one of those tanks to a station, fill it, and bring it back and connect into this hose which feeds into your main tank. Cool but not what I wanted.

But, they also said that the connection has another port on it to which you can connect a hose that will connect to smaller camp stoves - like mine - doing away with the small bottles. Bingo!

I went to the RV store and got a 12 foot hose designed for this purpose. I choked at the $50 price tag but think of the convenience!

Well, at the site, Deb told me to fire up the grill for hamburgers so I opened up my package and hooked it into the tank. I got out the grill and went to make the connection and realized that I didn't have the regulator that connects from the bottle (now the hose) to the grill. Crap!

Thinking back, in the haste to get everything out of the old camper and get it down to the dealers for the trade-in, I must have put it in the basement and not realized it was not on board for the trip. Nooooo!

Well, no grill for this trip. We managed to cook the burgers in an electric fry pan but it just wasn't the same.

The other thing we need is a step stool for getting in and out of the rig. The new rig has an electric two-tier step that automatically deploys when you open the door or flip a switch. It's really great compared to our old one that  we had to wrestle down but it's just a little bit higher off the ground than we were used to. Not a big deal when we were in the driveway but remember when I deployed the jacks just a few minutes ago? Well, guess what, they raise the rig up about another 6 inches off the ground.

Skip found out about this first when he bolted out the door the first time and wound up on his face after plummeting to Earth from the top step. Ouch!

Even for us though, that last step is pretty high off the ground. A little step stool will be just about right for next time.

We also didn't bring a coax cable for the TV hookup. Now we never had a TV in the old rig and never missed it. This beast has two TVs and we really didn't think they would get much use either but it just so happened that the Bruins were playing in a game seven on our first night and I was thinking I wouldn't mind watching the game.

I put up the antenna but couldn't find a station that carried the game. I don't know that I would have gotten it on cable either but not having a cable meant I couldn't even try.

There were a few other things as well and certainly nothing critical so all in all, not a bad first trip.