Adventures in Vacationing - Day 1 - August 15, 2010

So we got up at 7:30, showered, got dressed, finished packing and hit the road at about 10 a.m. Quick stop at McD's in Nisku for breaky then on the road. It was funny getting used to towing the trailer again, it has been two years and even Connor commented on "it's really bouncy". We listened to Harry Potter: The Deathly Hollows audiobook en route, in preparation for the movie this winter (November release of part 1). We stopped briefly in Lloydminster on the Alberta side for fuel and a quick Subway break. Onward to Prince Albert where we again fuelled up, grabbed some snacks and went the last stretch to Prince Albert National Park. We checked in, pulled into our site and this is where it began to get interesting...

We figured we were close enough to the plug ins for our services, unhooked and began to set up the trailer. When we went to pull out the pull out, we ran in to a little trouble. The kitchen pullout hit the water post. Quickly, we buttoned up the trailer enough so Tim could hook back on and pull it forward a bit. When he hooked on the trailer to the ball, the trailer was too low to lock on to the ball properly but he figured it was good enough to pull it forward. Famous last words you say, you would be right! Pulling forward wasn't a problem but we wanted to back the van on to blocks and get the trailer on a block to level it left to right. When Tim backed up, the trailer bounced up, off the hitch and promptly hit the ground. Being tired from the long trip and frustrated with our predicament, Tim asked ME what to do. "Where is the jack for the van?" I asked.

Quickly we unloaded the back of the van, no easy feat considering that we had beach toys, extra shoes, food, suitcases, games (bocce, badminton), and a plethora of other camping gear. Tim got the scissor jack out, under the hitch and started jacking!! We got it high enough to put the hitch dolly leg down and used it to get us high enough to hook back on to the van, locked onto the ball and actually got the trailer situated and set up without further incident.

Connor, now 10 years old, is finally strong enough to crank the trailer up.

We finally got the trailer up, made organic beef bratwurst for supper and watched "Over the Hedge" before collapsing into bed... long day!