The parking lot
Waking up after that first night at the gas station was a lot calmer than I had anticipated. We have a history of crazy first night in a new-to-us travel trailer experiences and so far we have not let tradition down. The craziest thing that happened was that the kids woke up hungry. Which is not at all crazy because that’s how they wake up every morning. Unfortunately one of the things I had not managed to do before we left was go grocery shopping. Remember, I had a completely different day planned than the one that happened.
I got our campsite sorted and now I could focus on the second most important item on my to-do list this morning: breakfast. We needed somewhere to accommodate our large size so we decided to visit the restaurant next door. We braved taking hungry children into a sit down restaurant, luring them with colouring books and the promise of pancakes.
Back on the road
Now all fed and happy it was time to get back on the road. We had made the drive from Hope to Chilliwack countless times over the years but this was a whole new experience. This drive felt so much calmer already compared to the night before. We had tons of time!
The first campsite we booked into require a reservation but are all a first come, first serve situation. Pulling our giant rig off to the side we decided to walk around to pick our site. After finding one we liked the boys and I hung out while Lukas went to grab our vehicle. Apparently he went at just the right time because he got stuck behind two other people who were trying to park into their campsites slightly ahead of ours. This was not an issue for us because we were not in a rush. It did however cause some stress for the person waiting behind us. Apparently they were in a hurry because they complained to the passing camp ranger (as though they would be able to make the people park faster…) who smiled and said it looked like the people ahead of us were almost done.
The sport
I quickly learned and was not prepared for how much of a sport it is to watch people park trailers. Our neighbours actually grabbed their lawn chairs, a couple drinks and sat to watch the show. They watched as the first guy got his fifth wheel put in place. Then the second guy who had to take a couple runs at it. As our turn neared closer I was becoming increasingly more nervous. We had never parked into a campsite before and I had heard that backing up a trailer was a true test of a marriage. Well thankfully we passed the test and got our trailer into our site. I’ll give my in-laws a special shout out for having a farm which allowed my husband plenty of opportunity to back up large trailer combinations because he really carried us in that moment.
Finally, we were in place and unhooked. It felt as though one giant hurdle had been accomplished. We made it!
