EclipseTrip 20170819
This was supposed to be the Dayton trip – where Deb and I go visit her family there. But part way into planning, it was realized that there’d be conflict between grand kids there and wanting to visit with Dayton family. So, the trip morphed into a trip to Galena since we’d never been there and was about the same distance. We wanted to stay away from the eclipse craziness. Besides, this trip was about getting the kids trailer back on the road for a shakedown cruise as well as trying out the new Propride hitch.
So, we spent a week getting ready for the trip and didn’t quite get everything ticked off the list. Installing, adjusting and re-adjusting the new trailer hitches took quite a bit of time. We also got the Tow Vehicles and Trailers weighed and got a few surprises as to how much everything weighed. We also did some final adjustments that transferred more weight forward on the van and back to the trailer. I fixed the dinette light, installed a dump hose storage tube, a chain for the dump hose support and a few other things.
We managed to leave fairly early (before noon), but between extra stops, didn’t get into the camp until well after
5pm. We went to Rustic Barn Campground, off highway 61 in southwest Wisc. http://www.rusticbarnrvpark.com We dropped the trailers and headed out for supper.
The camp host was great, friendly, helped us set the trailers to get
the most of the sunset
view. The camp was clean, neat, mostly level with clean, nice bathrooms/showers, a community room, outdoor games. The second night we were there, they had their (1 of 4) community nights with a
DJ, home-made root beer, snacks and dancing. The girls made the most of the dance floor. This park is definitely on our “will go back some day” list.
The next day we spent in Galena – walking main street, hitting shops, eating lunch and having the BEST gelato.
We took a trolley tour to see the non-downtown sights and gather in some of the history. Afterward, we went back to the trailers for a short nap, then went out to a lookout over the river and drove out to Potosi to hit up the brewery for some craft beer. Then home for hotdogs on the grill and a bit of drone practice at sunset. (we forgot to focus the camera – 8^{ we need more practice) .
As usual, the next day we were worried about storms and rain so we tried to be quiet breaking camp before 8am – and finished around 8:30, leaving the noisy stabilizer jacks and hooking up till after 8. It was supposed to be a full test of dumping etc, but because we were in such a hurry, I helped out with some things on the kids trailer.
The hitches worked pretty much as expected. The girls did feel some push from semi trucks as they passed – just not the suck in and sway like we did with old hitches. The coincidental thing was when we pulled in – the trailer next to us also had a Propride P3 – so we had three of them in a row.
It was a good trip with no major problems. We did see some of the eclipse on the way home and were very glad we didn’t try to go into the path of totality.