WE FINALLY HAD A TRIP THAT WENT OFF WITHOUT A HITCH!!! There were certain goals I had for this first year of camping. One was to have a trip where everything seemed to 'gel'. Another goal was to have my husband actually look forward to a camping trip and be able to say at the end, he really enjoyed himself. Finally, I wanted to be able to leave on the spur of the moment and just 'get away' with the dogs as our only company. I think all of those goals were met!

We stayed clost to home in Columbus and were very pleased with the campground. Our 'neighbors' were mostly contract workers there' some with their families, so they were pretty quiet. It was a large campground equipped with everything you could want and it was clean and the owners were very friendly. I think this used to be a KOA camp.

We got everything set up quickly and without a single argument :) The only challenges of the trip were walking all three dogs at the same time and them getting me up at all hours of the night, worrying that they had to go out. AS soon as one of their tags began to jingle, I was 'up'. Doesn't bode for real sound sleep. The other challenge was Randy getting sick off the hamburgers Friday night. I am not sure if it was bad meat or a bacterial thing on our plates...we had (notice the past tense) flexible/washable plastic plates. Unfortunately, they were cut into by sharp knives from previous meals, and though I am careful to wash them, I am not sure that was good enough to get into the minute crevices. Regardless, we ditched the plates and decided on some good ol' Correl and paper plates.

The microwave was another 'lesson learned', but not anything I'd call earth-shattering. It was in a cabinet above the stove where the prior owner had stored his microwave. Apparently there wasn't enough ventilation there and while nuking the baked potatoes, the darned thing overheated and stopped working. I thought I blew a fuse, but once it cooled off, it started working again. So I moved it. Also, those microwavable baked potatoes take too long to cook...after nearly blowing the thing up, the potatoes still weren't done.

Teardown went well, though very hot. As always, the awning was a challenge and almost had us 'at it' again, but we were able to 'maintain.' Need to work on finding the air conditioner filter and clean it...some dust was falling out of it while we were bouncing over the roads to get back to the highway.

On the way back we entertained the idea of making our next camper a travel trailer. We would like to get something different in 2011. We could do an SUV that we could hold on to and I believe we'd be able to get a TT cheaper with the queen-size walk-around bed we want and a possible slide out. That way, we could try that combination out and compare the motorhome with the TT and make an informed decision when we move.

Next trip may be an impromptu in September, but hubby is thinking Vegas. If that happens, we are scheduled for Nashville/Brown County in October.