Breaking In the New ORV

A couple of weeks ago while in Colorado The Princess and I traded in our travel trailer for one more suited to the undeveloped Forest Service land we enjoy. Usually the best sites are at the end of a very long and unimproved gravel road. We had been looking for more than a year to find the manufacturer and model that would serve us well into the foreseeable future.  We decided on a travel trailer built by Outdoors RV in Oregon. (https://outdoorsrvmfg.com/) They build off road, four season rigs to allow longer periods of time in the forest.  The people at Holiday RV in Poncha Springs, CO were easy to work with and had the unit ready in just a few days after a deposit was made. (https://www.holidayrv.net/)

This past weekend was the first opportunity to actually use the new toy.  We went to Giant City State Park in Southern Illinois a couple of hours from home to actually try out all the appliances, electronics and the new automatic leveling equipment.  Arriving on a Thursday to claim a “walk-in” site for a few days was the only way we could get a campsite. By midafternoon on Friday every site was claimed. 

It took a while to get the larger trailer backed in on what at first appeared to be a level gravel pad.  The Princess pressed the button for the leveling spectacle to begin. The stabilizers hummed as they moved up and down.  The front jack extended and then retracted.  The whole process took what seemed to be a long time and ended with the wheels on one side of the trailer off the ground. At that point we started over added blocks under the high side wheels and then pushed the magic button one more time. It is strange to see the front electric jack off the ground but I was told that is how it works.  I think we need to get used to the process before it becomes easy. 

Friday found us driving over to the Garden of the Gods Recreation Area in Southeast Illinois.  The trees were just beginning to change and there was a chill in the air when we started our hike. It was a perfect fall day. This area in known for the rock formations formed by erosion along the top of the sandstone cliffs. We were told that more than two million people visit this area every year. Like a lot of the big National Parks, The Garden of the Gods is showing signs of being loved a little too much with too little funding to keep up the trails.

We took advantage of some of the trails in Giant City Saturday morning.   The rock formations were beautiful, with the trail winding through narrow slots between the large limestone blocks broken off from the cliffs.  It has been years since we had explored this recreation area and forgot about the 150-year-old graffiti carved into the rock.  The oldest we found was from 1840.  There were a lot more names carved from the 1870’s.   Unfortunately, there are also a lot of more recent scribblings on the rock faces, I’m not sure when the graffiti becomes historic, but I know it has to be at least older than I am.

The inaugural run with the new OVR went well.  All the parts work.  However, we did discovered that I left all of our dishes and most of the cooking utensils in the old camper, but a run to Walmart fixed that.  Already looking forward to whatever adventure we cook up for 2020.

Dennis