How we started

We picked up the truck in Seattle on March 19th and drove to Eugene, Oregon to pick up the travel trailer from the dealer. We spent the weekend in Eugene and Springfield practicing the towing, driving, setting up and breaking down. We also had fifteen boxes of stuff to unpack, everything from clothes to rice and the rice cooker. On Monday, the 23rd, after sorting out a couple of questions for the dealer, we were on the road!
First stop, Roseburg, Oregon to visit my cousin, Dennis Ihara and his family. We found a beautiful RV park on the fork of two rivers, next to a huge public park. The owners/operators were a wonderful couple with a couple of teenage boys who made us rookies feel welcome and comfortable.
Then came the treacherous crossing of the Cascade mountains at the Oregon-California border. Howard was very apprehensive about the truck’s ability to handle the job of pulling the trailer (and all our stuff) up the long hill climbs, but we took it slow, in the breakdown lane along with lots of other truckers, and made it fine. Stopped for the night at a little town called Weed in California. There was a beautiful view of Mount Shasta, clear and still snow-covered. Unfortunately, the campground we stayed at was awful, located between the interstate, railroad and a truck stop. All the RV’s were wedged in next to each other, and the bathrooms and showers didn’t work.
Which brings us to the subject of our facilities. We now live in a 29' travel trailer, which we pull behind Howard’s truck. There is a bedroom with a queen-sized bed, closet space, night stands, skylight, screen door and a small shelf for a TV. The bathroom has a shower (hot & cold running water), sink, toilet and linen closet. The kitchen has a microwave, refrigerator/freezer, pantry, stove/oven, double sink and storage cupboards. There is a dinette that comfortably seats four, and an entertainment center large enough for a TV and stereo tuner or VCR/DVD. We also have a couch that folds out to a bed and two lounge chairs next to the rear picture window. We have heat and air-conditioning, and lots more storage that we haven’t even used. There are windows everywhere that have pull down shades for evenings. Most of the windows have screens so you can open them for fresh air.
The best feature of the trailer is the slide-out. It is three feet deep and fifteen feet wide. It slides out from the side of the trailer to increase the floor area of the main living area. The sofa bed and dinette are in the slide out, and there is vinyl flooring in the kitchen part of the room and carpet in the living part. The slide-out is powered by electric, so it moves in or out with just a touch of a button.