Travel Trailer Test Trip Take Two

Our First Campsite

The Silver Strand State Beach is literally 5 miles from our house and was the perfect place for us to try out our new wheels/home.  Perfect, except that beaches are sandy and sand is dirty, so I was never totally comfortable at this site.  Since we live at the beach, camping at the beach was not a big deal for us.  It was nice to be able to drive home to pick up things that we forgot or might need.  

On Take Two, we got to know Betty a little bit better.  I learned what sort of cleaning supplies I needed.  Jeff got to practice backing into a parking space, which fortunately had two empty spaces beside it when we arrived.  When you haven’t done this before, it is not intuitive.  I have yet to try, but will once Jeff is super comfortable.  I am now much more comfortable riding with him, so that is a great first step for me.  I try really hard not to be Bossy Pants while he is driving. 😊

Finally a successful launch of our new rig

At the Silver Strand, we really didn’t get a chance to cook much since we were only there for a weekend and Jeff had to go to work on Monday.  We also had a charity dinner on Saturday night, so it was sort of ‘quick and dirty’.  While getting ready for the charity dinner, I found that even a speedy cold shower still uses a lot of water.  The issue is not fresh water, since we had water and electricity at this site.  What you must be concerned with is the usage of your gray water tank.  We have a control panel that tells you what % of your various tanks you have used.  Black is the sewer, gray is the shower and sinks and we also have a fresh water tank that we were not using on this trip.  

I learned quickly that you should take a “Navy shower” when traveling in an Airstream.  This means that you get yourself wet and then turn off the water.  Then, you soap up and turn the water back on again to rinse.  Repeat for shampooing.  Shaving your legs is really not recommended under any circumstances, but this is of course what I did.  Did I mention that it was a cold shower?  Jeff wasn’t home at the time, so I was left to figure it out on my own.  I didn’t break anything but as it turns out, our propane powered water heater does not work.  So, 40% of the gray tank later and a cold shower, I was ready for our outing.  I would get much better at the Navy Shower in the future.

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