mmmmm.... waffles

I picked up my new trailer today!



I love it already. I haven't even gone camping in it yet, but it feels very comfy inside and has everything I need. Backing it into its parking spot on the other side of the road took some time -- my brother was watching where I was going and advising, "Turn the wheel left! Now right! Back straight up!" It took some back and forth and it's kind of crooked in its spot but it's in there and I didn't get panicky or freaked out and I'm sure with practice it will get easier.

Now I can load up supplies and start getting it ready for our next trip, which will be in October. Plenty of time to make sure I have everything I need and get accustomed to where things will go.

And the van is gone! They're confident it will sell quickly. I hope the next owners get a lot of enjoyment out of it. It's a nice van, just not the RV for me. The van had to get me one more time before it went on its way -- the day before we were scheduled to pick up the trailer I went to put some gas in the van and found that the battery had gone bad and wouldn't hold a charge, so I had to get a new battery for it before I could take it to trade in. Which was a pain, because the batteries for those vans are big and expensive and heavy, and the battery is not under the hood, it's under a panel in the floorboards in front of the driver's seat. I went to AutoZone to buy a battery, but they wouldn't install it because they said it would take too long. Ended up having to drive to a Ram dealer to get it installed (I can't do it myself, I can barely lift the battery, there's no way I could haul it up and over to a spot under the floorboards, and it's a complicated install with lots of fiddly screws and nuts and bits of clamps and things. I watched video on how to install a battery in a Promaster 3500 van once, it was over 20 minutes long and I said, yeah, no, I ain't doing that.) And I had to use the jump starter to get it started again every time I stopped and turned the engine off anywhere. But it got done, and the van is officially handed over to the RV dealer now, so I don't have to worry about it any more.

I know a few things I'll need for the trailer, but I've got all the supplies from the van and from the trailer I had before, so I'm pretty well set.