Day 688, The first road trip

The Traveleze ready to go.

With the Traveleze fully loaded, four of us, Christian, his daughter Stella, Tracy and I set out for River Bend Campground and the Traveleze's first outing.  Remarkably there is a lot of storage in the trailer and I didn't even come close to filling it up.  The truck provided ample storage as well and I even packed firewood, flip fold mattresses and an obscene amount of food.  The weekend forecast was for rain, but at the moment the skis are clear and we all hoped it would stay that way.

Setting up the Traveleze

With four of us camping, Christian brought along his huge family tent, and he said it was water proof, or at least fairly resistant.  The plan was for Tracy and Stella to stay in the trailer and Christian and I would endure the weather in the tent. 

Our road trip would take us over the middle Santiam Pass, a road that has several areas that are literally sliding down the hill and have caused enormous bumps.  This would be a great test for the suspension of the Traveleze.  In several areas I slowed to a near stop to go over the bumps.  It was a pretty easy drive and we made it easily to the campground.

The weather was holding and we found our campsite with ease.  In no time, I back the Traveleze into place and we quickly set up camp.  Christian's tent was awesome and looked like it could handle rain.  I hooked up the power and got the refrigerator working and for the first time I hooked up the water and gray-water holding tank.   The trailer was in full operation.

By late afternoon the weather turned and it started to pour rain.  This was the first time the Traveleze has ever been in the rain and I was a bit nervous to see if it was water tight.  I was please to see that it was.  With the rain pouring down and not much to do, we played several rounds of Farkle/dice.

One of the big moments for me during the restoration process was Tracy and I talked about making a meatloaf in the oven and tonight is the night.  At 5 o'clock we fired up the oven and put in the meatloaf.  We quickly discovered that the side of the oven gets hot too and we had to stuffed a towel between the oven and the dinette seat.  A little over an hour later we all sat down at the table and had an amazing dinner.

Christian and birthday cake

Tonight we also celebrated Christian's 46th birthday, which is actually on Monday.  Tracy had baked a white cake and we put whipped cream and fresh strawberries and blue berries on it.  Christian was surprised and blew out the candle on his cake.  I also packed along a gift I had purchased for him at the Portland Swap Meet in April, it was a vintage Volvo hubcap clock.

We all had a great time and the little trailer was a perfect cozy retreat in the woods.