This past weekend we took our 5th Wheel out for it's maiden camp-out to a nice State Park near home basically just to get the feel of it and spend time with our adult kids and friends. We had a toybox before so this was new territory in some ways.
First of all when you request a spot with full hook-ups, make sure that they understand that this is water, electric and sewer. We got there and to our suprise the "full" hook-ups did not include sewer although it was available at a dumping station just down the road. This meant that after a full day of showers, dishes and flushing you had to break everything down, hook back up, go dump, come back and start the leveling and set up all over again. Not my idea of fun unless it's really necessary.
Secondly, if you bring a dog to a public camp site and this pet barks at every single thing that moves please consider boarding your pet or keeping the pet inside. My son brought his Yorkie and they were next door to us. Every morning between 6am-7am this damned dog woke up every single camper within a 10 lot radius all around us. This morning DH grabbed the dog and knocked on their door and told them to keep their dog inside or go home with the dog since it was definitely bothering everyone. One dog behind us came within 2" of biting my 1 year old grandbaby. That dog would not have lived to see another camp-ground had he connected with that baby. I do bring my pistol with me. This was the 3rd of countless times this dog broke away from his leash. A much better leash was needed for this animal.
Water is NOT the same everywhere so make sure to grab a case of water at Sam's or Costco or fill your own before leaving. The water at this park wreaked the chlorine and tasted the chlorine something terrible to the point that even boiling it did nothing to help. Thankfully our friends were coming in later that evening so we called ahead and asked them to pick us up a case.
Now we haven't had a drop of rain in over a month..................until our camp-out. LOL It was unexpected so at 2am there were at least 30 people outside quickly dropping their canopies down on one side to allow the water to run off. We already had our tied down in the event of wind gusts. Of course my son didn't drop his before it literlly collapsed under the weight of the water so we were dismantling his altogether. That's going to be a very expensive lesson for him. We had terrible lightening which becomes 3-D when you have a skylight directly above your bed. I'm going to go pick up some foam core and cut it to fit snuggly in the skylight this afternoon to resolve this problem.
Test out your matresses on a short weekend before going long term. OMG, this matress is not fit for a jail cell. I will be shopping for a good memory foam 2" topper or just get the 8" memory foam matress and be done with it.
Measure your oven's interior before buying baking pans. A normal cookie sheet would NOT fit into this oven which made biscuits and cinnamon rolls a bit of a challenge this morning.
FIRST AID KIT is a must. I literally grabbed mine out of my SUV as we were leaving the house. It came in handy twice for a small cut and a burn. I think I'll just buy another one for my SUV and simply replace anything we use from each trip.
We really had a great time but definitely took advantage of this small trip to use as a learning curve. We had our other camper for so long that we literally wanted for nothing. Starting over with this one left us needing alot of things that we forgot but thankfully the kids and friends had what we needed. I kept a running list and will get up from here now so I can get those things loaded and ready.
First of all when you request a spot with full hook-ups, make sure that they understand that this is water, electric and sewer. We got there and to our suprise the "full" hook-ups did not include sewer although it was available at a dumping station just down the road. This meant that after a full day of showers, dishes and flushing you had to break everything down, hook back up, go dump, come back and start the leveling and set up all over again. Not my idea of fun unless it's really necessary.
Secondly, if you bring a dog to a public camp site and this pet barks at every single thing that moves please consider boarding your pet or keeping the pet inside. My son brought his Yorkie and they were next door to us. Every morning between 6am-7am this damned dog woke up every single camper within a 10 lot radius all around us. This morning DH grabbed the dog and knocked on their door and told them to keep their dog inside or go home with the dog since it was definitely bothering everyone. One dog behind us came within 2" of biting my 1 year old grandbaby. That dog would not have lived to see another camp-ground had he connected with that baby. I do bring my pistol with me. This was the 3rd of countless times this dog broke away from his leash. A much better leash was needed for this animal.
Water is NOT the same everywhere so make sure to grab a case of water at Sam's or Costco or fill your own before leaving. The water at this park wreaked the chlorine and tasted the chlorine something terrible to the point that even boiling it did nothing to help. Thankfully our friends were coming in later that evening so we called ahead and asked them to pick us up a case.
Now we haven't had a drop of rain in over a month..................until our camp-out. LOL It was unexpected so at 2am there were at least 30 people outside quickly dropping their canopies down on one side to allow the water to run off. We already had our tied down in the event of wind gusts. Of course my son didn't drop his before it literlly collapsed under the weight of the water so we were dismantling his altogether. That's going to be a very expensive lesson for him. We had terrible lightening which becomes 3-D when you have a skylight directly above your bed. I'm going to go pick up some foam core and cut it to fit snuggly in the skylight this afternoon to resolve this problem.
Test out your matresses on a short weekend before going long term. OMG, this matress is not fit for a jail cell. I will be shopping for a good memory foam 2" topper or just get the 8" memory foam matress and be done with it.
Measure your oven's interior before buying baking pans. A normal cookie sheet would NOT fit into this oven which made biscuits and cinnamon rolls a bit of a challenge this morning.
FIRST AID KIT is a must. I literally grabbed mine out of my SUV as we were leaving the house. It came in handy twice for a small cut and a burn. I think I'll just buy another one for my SUV and simply replace anything we use from each trip.
We really had a great time but definitely took advantage of this small trip to use as a learning curve. We had our other camper for so long that we literally wanted for nothing. Starting over with this one left us needing alot of things that we forgot but thankfully the kids and friends had what we needed. I kept a running list and will get up from here now so I can get those things loaded and ready.
I do keep some tools on board like screw drivers like the type where you can change out the tips on them, wire cutters, vice-grips and stuff like duct tape, rubber washers for the garden hose a roll or two of electric wire & tape and fuses [check to see if your camper has any fuses] and spare bulbs.