It has been quite some time since I’ve posted anything here. It’s not without reason, I’ve been busy doing things, just not writing about them
As previously mentioned, in 2021 we upgraded to a newer boat and purchased an RV trailer. Well, we USED them. Just as frequently as we could.
The previous post to this one had us at My Old Kentucky Home State Park. The campground was small, and very hilly, but nice none the less. It was a good place for a shake down and get us used to camping. What I did discover during that trip was how unstable I felt towing our trailer with our 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee. On paper the numbers worked, but in practice, it was a bit too puckery for my taste. Ahem, puckery, you know, clenched up. Tense.
To sum it up, the wheelbase on a smaller SUV is shorter than say a pickup truck so the trailer can exert lateral forces more easily. Kind of like a lever. The effect is the trailer sometimes steers the truck. This means the driver has to correct for it. Then correct for it. Then correct again. This was especially pronounced when being passed by other vehicles on the highway, and really pronounced when passed by a semi. It was exhausting to drive and not a great low-stress start to a camping trip.
Our trip to MOKH was just the two of us. We wanted to work out how to use the trailer before we introduced the kids to it. Our first trip with the kids was to The Kentucky Horse Park a week or two later. Since this was a new experience for them, they were both excited and anxious, and had a hard time falling asleep. Our kiddos, especially at that time, needed a normal routine. Camping was a whole new routine for them and we got to see some not great behavior. Thankfully it was just a weekend Friday evening to Sunday. We visited the Horse Park Saturday and got plenty of exercise in as the place is pretty good sized. That night was better.
It was after the trip to the Horse Park that my wife and I had a good discussion on how things were going. What worked, what needed changes. One item that needed to be addressed was our tow vehicle. I mentioned above that it took quite a bit of effort to keep us on the road when towing with our Grand Cherokee. We decided that we needed something bigger to make the experience better. Plus, something that we can put stuff in the back of. We were already at the upper limit of payload on the GC and would need to replace it eventually as the kids grew. A 1/2 ton pickup would be a better option.
Now, I loved my blue Grand Cherokee. It was a model with a Hemi and it had a tow package. Full time all-wheel drive. It was fast and sporty and I hated to part with it. But life sometimes has those hard decisions. What is the right thing to do? Well, we had a trip coming up and it was going to be a long one. It was crunch time, so the decision was made. Time for a pickup truck.
I shopped around to all the brands of 1/2 ton pickups. I test drove a GMC/Chevy, a Ford, and a RAM. I looked up the specs and decided against the Toyota and Nissan offerings. In fact, I had not known that Nissan was making pickups at that time. I guess I wanted to “buy American”. Well, we bought mostly American as we got a RAM 1500 Laramie, in black. They only have them in Hemi 5.7, but our is a model with the etorque engine. It does some interesting things with regenerative braking and adding 140 ft/lbs of torque when starting from a stop. It helps to get the trailer going a little easier.
Shortly after we got the truck, we were headed to Florida. Destination: Fort Wilderness Campground at Walt Disney World. My wife and I have planned on visiting WDW every year as it is one of her “things”. I have a good time with it as well. Plus, the food is good! We bought into the Disney Vacation Club, which is very similar to a timeshare, but based on a points system. Well, we had points that were going to expire, so we converted them into a stay at the campground.
Disney is very good at hospitality. That’s an understatement. The campground is no less accommodating than any other hotel or facility on the property. We got a mid-tier spot, which included a concrete pad for the trailer as well as a sewer hook up. The pad was incredibly level, with just the tiniest slope for runoff. They even included a cable TV hookup and WiFi Internet. This is a premium resort, with the added feature of sleeping in your own bed. It was a good week spent visiting the various WDW parks.
A month after the Disney trip, we again looked up the Kentucky State Parks for our next adventure. This time, we found a place relatively close to home, Taylorsville Lake State Park. There is a section at Taylorsville that is kind of off on its own. There are 5 or 6 spots down a side road and it is very quiet. The kids were able to ride bikes or scooters up and down the road without having to deal with a lot of traffic. The only down side for this place is the gigantic horse flies. They seemed to be very attracted to me and I got repeatedly bit as we were setting up. My wife took pity on me and dosed me with bug repellent and that did a good job of keeping them away.
While were were there, we drove to a few different spots on the lake. We just wanted to get a feel for the place as it was pretty good sized and close to home. There is a very nice boat ramp near the campground, so I think that will be were we will put in when we bring the boat. There is also a pretty big marina, where we got some bait. We spent the rest of our time fishing at various spots around the lake.
We are a very big fan to Taylorsville Lake. So much so that we camped there again a month later in August. It was hot, but the fishing was good and it was a perfect weekend.
Our last trip of 2021 was to Kincaid Lake State Park. This lake is almost 2 hours away from Louisville, towards North East Kentucky. It is close by the town of Falmouth and has become one of our favorite campgrounds. Much like Taylorsville, we were able to find a quiet road away from most of the campground. The downside of this location was almost zero cell phone reception, which is both good and bad. We were able to take advantage of some of the amenities, such as miniature golf, which the kids loved. We also got some fishing in, especially near the dam and the dam tail-waters. This trip closed out 2021 for us.
At the end of 2021, we had put 2729 miles on the trailer when it went into storage. There were also numerous fishing trips during the year to our favorite local lake, but I didn’t document them, and quite frankly, I’ve forgotten when we went. It was a good time, though.
There were other hobbies used or explored, but I forget. It was a couple of years ago at this point. A shame that I didn’t write about them, but so be it. Here we are.