We FINALLY got out for the maiden voyage in our “new to us”
Casita. This was just intended to be a short overnighter, just kind of a shake down trip to see if we would have any problems. Plan was to leave the house by 9:00am on Saturday and return home on Sunday. As I was filling the trailer with a few gallons of fresh water our 1st problem came up. When I flipped the hot water heater bypass valve to not bypass the heater and noticed water leaking from the little lever itself. It was more than just a drip. This wasn’t good. Luckily I live within a 12 minute drive to Camping World……so off I go. Got back from CW with the new valve and we’re not going to make out 9:00am departure, as its now 10:00am. Got the new valve installed with no trouble, so now we continue to pack for the overnighter. Hum…don’t forget anything.
We’re off…….. OUR 1st camping trip with a REAL trailer. LOL.. It’s a few hours later (noon) than we would have liked, but we’re not going far, so all is good. We arrived to our campsite about 1 hour after leaving home (told you it wasn’t far). We are at “Tortilla Flat” Campground for our indoctrination to
Casita living. We got all set up with very little trouble. I did have some problems getting the water heater to go, but we finally got it. I have some water heater questions, but will save those for another topic.
We found this campground to be very nice. The campsite was really flat, but I think I will get some of those colored blocks to put under the tire if needed for leveling. The camp host came by a while after we got there to make sure everything was ok. Nice guy. There was quite a few other campers and trailers there but still many open spots too. They have water and sewer at each site, but no electric. We did use the water, but didn’t hook up the sewer, figured we would dump the tanks later. We were in the lower loop of the campground and had a nice view from our campsite.
Also on this trip we thought we would try out “geocaching” . Its kind of a treasure seeking game using a gps. I got the coordinates off the internet of a couple treasures that were hidden in the area. After camp was set up, we headed out to find that hidden treasure. We walked about a mile in some rough terrain and finally gave up for the night as we felt it was getting to close to dark. We saw the error of our way and decided we would try a different approach toward finding the same treasure in the morning.
When we got back to the trailer I thought…. Yes, its happy hour!! Whoooo hoo! After a hike like that, could use a beer. “Hey honey will you grab me a beer out of the fridge…….please?” Jodi replied “ umm, I didn’t pack any beer!” “Oh ok” I said, “how about a wine cooler” (she would never forget those!).. … “Umm, sorry I didn’t pack any wine coolers.” “Ah, what do we have for happy hour?”… “Nothing” So we made the short drive over to Tortilla Flat general store and bought an expensive 6 pack. We’re not big drinkers, but we did enjoy the beer while taking in all the excitement of our day. Life is good!
I have a digital volt meter plugged into the 12volt outlet for the tv. I watched it closely to see how our
battery was doing because we didn‘t have shore power. When we arrived it was 12.9volts. We played Yatzee with 1
light for a couple hours. We didn’t use more than 1
light at a time all night. In the evening we turned the
furnace on and set it at a fairly low setting. The temps were not to cold, it was 47 deg when we went to bed about 9:30pm. I awoke at midnight and looked at the outside temp gauge and was surprised to see it was now 55 deg outside. In the morning it was 51 deg outside and 65 inside. The
furnace kicked on a few times during the night. The volt meter was still reading 12.6 volts this morning, so all was fine.
Sorry this is getting fairly long…. All in all we had a fantastic time for our first “one nighter” in the
Casita. Everything worked just as it should. The campground was nice and clean and friendly. (However one guy a ways away ran his loud
generator all day long, shutting it off at 9:00pm sharp). I would return to this campground without hesitation and we will. It’s a great little get away only 1 hour from home with some good areas to walk. We’re making a list of things that we will need to get soon, like an outside stove, a second “zero gravity” chair, some
LED lights inside, better pots, pans and just general stuff.
Cant wait till next time.!
Here are some pictures in no particular order