Day #6 - Our First Week Ends Well

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 – Day #6

Lexington SC to St Helena’s Island, SC

high 65; cloudy, then rain

Our patches held up to morning ablutions and breakfast dishes! We’re still holding our breath, but it was a good start.

Kelly went to Wal-Mart to return a large unneeded storage box, drop some stuff off at Goodwill, and put gas in the truck. Suzie did laundry and started the packing.

Our 125-mile trip to Tuck in the Woods Campground on St Helena’s Island was an easy one. Kelly was quite stressed about our RV battery. It was completely dead, so we were running the fridge on either propane or the truck battery. Using the truck battery puts a strain on the alternator, but we weren’t sure how bad it would be. Every time Kelly walked past the trailer, she was sure she could smell burning electrical. Suzie smelled nothing. Kelly was sure the trailer would burn to the ground. Suzie reminded her that we had a Plan B and that she couldn’t get out of the trip that easily.

St Helena’s island is reached via a narrow two-lane drawbridge. While it was very pretty, it caused us to both grip various parts of the truck quite tightly and hold our breath. We arrived without incident and set up without any problems.

A side story – Kelly has been working to learn how to roll her kayak. One of the first steps in this process is to hang upside down in the water, without falling out of the kayak, for at least ten seconds before beginning the rolling steps. Kelly tends to count to ten in about two seconds. I teased her that, given how well she’d been holding her breath while towing through mountain passes, across narrow bridges, and so forth, she should have no more problems with that 10 count. At which point she suggested that I count the number of fingers she was holding in the air.

Back to our day – Kelly checked our repairs after dinner and announced that both were continuing to hold. Yippee!

The Tuck in the Woods campground was quiet with large spots for RVs and lots of trees.  Everything was clean and tidy.  There was a pond with a boardwalk.  Even though there were signs warning of alligators, we saw none.

We got the TV working on Kelly’s laptop and were able to watch the end of President Obama’s speech and a bit of Biggest Loser. When the rain started, it was so loud on the roof of the trailer that we couldn’t hear the TV.

This first week is wrapping up to be a good one. We were able to solve the problems we encountered and we developed more self confidence. We also learned some new skills. We can hitch the trailer to the truck pretty quickly. In most conditions, Kelly can tow the trailer easily. Suzie learned how to hook up and clean out the sewage system. We still need to learn about electricity. Our backing-up-the-trailer-into-a-spot skills need some work. And, one of these days, Suzie is going to tow it!