Getting started!

As I write this, it's Friday evening, our third night in the trailer and the end of our second full day in this new life. We have settled right into a trailer routine--we're experts, as it turns out, and the change of trailer has had little impact on what needs doing and when. There are some differences in the overall experience, though.

I miss the open-air feeling of the tent trailer. I miss being able to talk to Frank through the "walls," when one of us is out and one is in. (Walls aside, the trailer has insulation and modern windows and is very quiet inside. This is 99% a good thing.) I very much dislike waking up to condensation on the windows, which was an issue maybe once in our year in the tent trailer and is a daily occurrence here (at least until we get to the desert).

I like the big back window as much as I expected to, with it's view of the woods. Visibility through that is better than through the tent trailer screening, and it's right next to our seats at the table.

I love not having to unzip nine windows every morning and close them again every night. Here, we have six windows to open and close just by giving them a shove.

I LOVE the dual-battery setup and the LED overhead lights. The lights are very bright, so our lighting is better than at home! And we could run every light in the trailer if we wanted without causing a blip in our power supply. We are continuing our twice daily running of the generator, but I'm not sure the trailer needs it. It's good for getting our various devices charged up, though, and the overall feeling is one of abundant 12v power. Nice!

So far we have used the bathroom only for storage and middle-of-the-night calls of nature, but it's nice having it, especially in the aforementioned middle of the night. And I'm sure the shower will be lovely for hair washing when I need better than my daily sponge baths (which are as effective as I was surprised to find them on our first trip). 

I can't comment yet on what it is like to find an RV dump and dump black water because we haven't had to do that yet. Saturday the 22nd will be that big adventure.

And then there's Miss Rigby. The first night I think she convinced herself we were parked in the back yard: she was totally relaxed and pestered us most of the night, like, "Okay, let's go inside now." Aggravated by the constant interruptions, I finally opened the window shade at the head of the bed and didn't hear a peep from her until morning, when I found her wedged, sausage-like, into the small cubby of the head board. That's where she spends most of her time since except when I haul her out to walk or eat or stop being ridiculous. I decided to go with it and put her favorite sweater in there to sleep on. Daytime is terrifying for her, but at night when we close all the shades she's more sociable. And, hell, at least she's handling it. I remain hopeful that she'll soon take campground vagaries in stride.

We took her for her first hike today, along the trail out of the Ida Creek campground. We chose that trail deliberately because it's usually empty and she was quite enthusiastic about it in 2015. It was a successful outing. She minced her way across the rivulets instead of leaping over them, and she showed a bit more tendency to try to go off-trail (ignoring my tugs on the leash), but she was quite intrepid and seemed to enjoy herself. When we got back to the trailer, she was strutting about, feeling safe and sheltered. In retrospect, we should have sat quietly and let her have that confident time, but we were hungry and started banging pots around, and she went back to her hidey-hole.

This afternoon, I wanted a nap, so I dragged her out of the hole and curled around her on the bed, then pulled a blanket up over both of us. Your dad joined us, and the three of us slept that way for a couple hours. Sweet!

Saturday update: Perhaps resigned to her fate, Rigby has come out! She has a new favorite spot atop the fridge where it's warm and sheltered but with a view of us and the windows. We're in town for groceries and to wish MJ a happy birthday. Then back to the woods!