Walkabout on Wheels

August 31 – September 2, 2006

So what else happened at Tiger Run? Not much really. We were only going to be there for a few days, since they were all booked up for Labor Day Weekend. On Friday I had an appointment to fix my tooth, thank goodness, so that morning we walked around Breckenridge and had lunch. Afterwards, I suggested we go to the children’s museum I saw on the trolley ride the night before. Everyone agreed, and we started walking. Then Z saw a horse-drawn carriage, so there was nothing to do but ride it to the children’s museum. It turned out to be just three or four blocks away, so we felt a bit silly, but Z had a good time.

The children’s museum was small, but it had some pretty neat stuff in it. One thing that had everyone amazed was this fake snow stuff. Apparently, it is used to absorb all wetness in diapers. There was a sandbox full of it, this powdery, flaky cold stuff. It was pretty weird.

Next, we all tried on costumes. Brian was pretty adamant I try the parrot costume seen here. It was a bit of a tight fit, but I made it. Ian became Babar, or is it Cornelius who wears that hat? And Z, of course, was a princess. I don't know why we didn't take an offical picture of her dressed as such. It may be that we are trying to deemphasize that whole thing.

Z came with me to my dentist appointment afterwards, which was actually great. She was well-behaved and asked questions about the procedure, and asked if she could see what they were doing. She kept the dentist and her assistant amused by having conversations with them on various topics, aside from her questions about my teeth.

That night, we had dinner at an Italian place, and we come to our next rule about RV camping.

Rule #3: Do not eat shellfish the night before departure!

Brian was sick all night into the morning. We believe it was the linguine alle vongole. So we had to stay another night at the campground. This wasn’t easy to accomplish since we had bothered them about staying longer, but then had cancelled that to head to Tahoe. After actually going to the office and speaking with them in person, they were able to give us one more night at the same site. Relief!

The next morning, Brian still wasn’t feeling great. So Zorah went to the playground, which was right across from our site, Ian did the stabilizers on the trailer, and helped me with the awning while Brian slept. Then I did all the hookups, the slide-out room, and went to the dumpster with our trash. And then, I faced the daunting task of hitching the trailer to the truck.

Now, this may not seem daunting to some of you, but it really isn’t easy. Though I have been driving for 16 years now, and fancy myself to be more than competent, this is different. You think you need precision and accuracy to parallel park in the city? Ha! A trailer hitch is a little cylinder about 3-4 inches wide. The hitch in the truck is a U with 1 inch of funnel on either side. You have very little room for error. I tried countless times to get it right. Here, I was three inches too much to the left, then I was 1 inch too much to the right. Back and forth, back and forth I went right across from the playground. Of course, this was peak playtime, too, so I tried to ignore the parents and children swarming around right in front of me. ‘They have better things to do than laugh at me,’ I thought to myself as I became flushed and frazzled.

Finally, I got it right, and felt the satisfying ch-THUNK! I felt like jumping up and down, giving an arm pump, or Tarzanning. Instead, I played it off and casually turned off the truck, got out, and locked the hitch. Mentally, though? The 1812 Overture and fireworks. LOL.

Woke Brian up, and we were out of there.