Camping lessons shared,meeting new friends a plus

MOSES LAKE - A week of camping at Potholes State Park passed by in short order. We arrived on Wednesday, May 18. My mother, Enid, and Uncle Vern followed us from MarDon Resort and visited for an hour or so. They wanted to go for a drive and meeting up with us 20 miles from Moses Lake was a good reason for a chance of scenery.

We plugged in the electricity and extended the slide-out, so they could have a look inside. Uncle Vern was willing to assist helping me with the rest of the setup, but I wanted to visit.

After our visitors left we finished making the travel trailer our home for the week. My wife, Garnet, worked on the inside and I completed the outside chores. Within 30 minutes we were in place and camping.

We have stayed away from some of the camping trinkets or ornaments other campers display, such as the various lights to adorn the outside. However, I'm always willing to try a new object or tool if it makes a specific task easier.

Two items I consider a must are wheel chocks. At first the reason for sticking them in front of one and behind another wheel wasn't clear to me. After all, we seem to always park on level or almost level ground.

Then one day we watched as a couple in a neighboring motor home hastily break camp and prepare to leave. It seems they were being eaten alive by mosquitoes. We had the same bugs around us and they were water insects, yes, but not mosquitoes.

Garnet and I watched, somewhat amused, by the quick actions of the couple, as everything was put away in what must have been record time. Everything except one chock in front of one wheel.

Before I had a chance to walk over and remind the couple there was one more item to put away, the motor home was started, put in gear and the vehicle moved about two inches. The driver tried again and didn't gain any ground this time.

Realizing what was going on, the man jumped out, put the chock away, jumped back in and drove away, somewhat embarrassed, I'm sure. But this was a good lesson-learned for me. There is no way our trailer is going to move but an inch or two with a chock in front of and behind a wheel.

Another item I just purchased and used during this first trip of the year was a device allowing another water faucet where the park freshwater faucet is located. The park faucet is threaded onto the top of the device. There are two ends to this device. One end has the threads to attach the water pressure regulator and filter. The second end is a water faucet.

If water was needed outside the trailer, I could go to the outside shower, but water is dispensed through many holes, just as in a shower. This new mechanism provides lots of water in a timely manner. The second use for this tool is stated on the package, but not realized as extremely useful until I was unhooking the freshwater.

There is still pressurized water in the hose when the park water faucet is turned off. It didn't take but one try to learn disconnecting the hose at this point resulted in a spray of water until the pressure was released. The solution was to ask Garnet, who was inside the trailer, to turn on an inside faucet to release the pressure. This new tool allows for the release of water pressure at the site, a simple task taking a matter of seconds.

The close proximity of the park to our house, 23 miles, allowed us to return home when needed, as to attend a meeting, feed the cats or mow and water the lawn.

One of the enjoyable aspects of camping, close by at Potholes or across the country, is the chance to visit with local friends and meet a variety of people from outside the immediate area. This camping trip, because we were so busy during the day, we didn't have a chance to visit with local friends.

But when we returned to the campsite on Friday, May 20, there was one travel trailer and two large motor homes next to us. One of the motor homes had three of the storage compartments open. All were full of firewood, so I instantly knew these were experience campers.

The three couples, all friends, were Konrad and Michelle Samczyk from Enumclaw, along with Pam and Loren Henifin and Abel and Trina Garcia of Bonney Lake.

These 30- and 40-something couples were in Eastern Washington to soak up some sun. They had a couple kayaks and a larger boat for fishing and water skiing. Their dogs were well behaved and it was entertaining to watch them chase the Frisbee and other toys. 

Two of the men worked for Boeing. Abel is an airframe-and-powerplant mechanic who makes flights to Moses Lake as part of his job testing airplanes.

Various lawn games are taken on camping trips to keep youngsters busy, so it was interesting to see these couples compete in a beanbag tossing game and other games of chance.

When I commented on the amount of firewood they had on hand and the fact they always seemed to have a fire going one of them said, "We've been over here when the temperature was 100-degrees and we always have a campfire."

Konrad and Michelle left a day before we did and the others stayed for a day longer than we did. We shared their campfire during our last night at the campsite, visiting and talking about life in general.

Loren and Abel asked if they could help me break camp and hookup the trailer, but I declined. With Garnet on the inside and me on the outside we took our time, accomplishing our tasks slowly. We were reluctant to leave for sure. We enjoyed our time, but one week wasn't enough time for us to do all we wanted to accomplish during the trip.

"I'll call next time I'm in Moses Lake," Abel said as we were departing.

"Please do," I said. "We'll take you out to lunch or dinner."