Day: October 22, 2018

 

DAY #1.

After a lovely sunset over Lake Osakis the night before, the morning began warm (for this fall) and clear, a perfect send off to start the trip.  I locked up the house, hooked up the trailer to the truck and at 8:20, hit the road, beginning the long trip.

I don’t like freeways, I find them boring, and because of that I try to use them as little as possible, and I don’t see this trip as being any different. It’s not that I’m averse to using them,  they’re great for making time and far less fatiguing, it’s just that you don’t ‘see’ and ‘feel the countryside your travelling through and on this trip, that’s what it’s all about.

As the miles added up, cruising down the state highways and county roads of Minnesota and then into Iowa I could see the small towns, and farms with their combines in the fields getting in the fall harvest.  The sky remained clear and the weather warm and the truck was running just fine towing the trailer, even with a really strong wind out of the NW.  Google maps (my co-pilot) gave me accurate (if sometimes slow) instructions and down the road we went.  The only down side was the truck reading 8.9 mpg. I knew mileage was going to be bad but I was still hoping for a little better. After my second stop to fill up, I found myself thinking, I’m going to be seeing a lot of gas stations on the trip, kind of a bummer.

Eight hours after leaving Osakis, arrived at Pammel State Park just outside Winterset, IA,  and pulled into the site to hook up. Nice place and I was kind of surprised that there were quite a few trailers there camping.  Set up went as planned until I went to plug-in for electric.  It seems the box was farther away than 25′ from the trailer and my power cord wasn’t long enough (it’s 25′).  I thought no problem, I have an extension power cord.  I got it and went to plug it in and guess what?  It didn’t work.  The end that plugs into the site box fit but the other end that plugs into the trailer was a  different configuration than what I needed.  Thankfully I had a plan B.  I took my outdoor extension cord and plugged that in and yeah, had power in the trailer.  I wouldn’t suggest doing this on a RV that uses a lot of power but for my little trailer, it worked fine.

Day one started well and finished well.  It was a long day on the road.