Hitch Girl

A couple weeks ago (September 15-18) we completed three nights of camping in what is probably our last camping trip in our new camper for the year.  We purchased our 2020 T@B 320S camper on June 4, and promptly took a three night shakedown trip to Lake Kegonsa State Park, which you can read about here.   From June 4 to September 18 we have had seven camping trips for a total of 24 camping nights.  We have towed the camper about 2220 miles.  Given towing for camping trips and from where it is stored to home we have probably had about 22 hookups and detachment of the camper from our tow vehicle, a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited.  With that number we have gotten into somewhat of a routine for hitching and unhitching the camper.  My Hitch Girl, or my wife, is the one who usually operates the trailer tongue jack as the handle is on her, passenger, side of the camper.  I was surprised that it has been five blog posts since I last wrote about my wife.  I know how much she likes it when she is the star of my blog post.  When she sees the title she will ask, "Now what did you say about me?"

Hitching and unhitching the camper can be quite a chore.  On the T@B forum and Facebook page there are many complaints about the difficulty of this operation, particularly unhitching the camper. There are times when we have to shove back or pull forward the camper, but most often it is been non-problematic which I attribute to my hitch girl.  The crank is on the passenger side of the camper so she tends to do the cranking, while I do the seven point electrical hookup and connect the safety chain on my side.  I also handle whatever wheel chucks we place to prevent the camper from moving forward or backward as we unhitch or hitch.  I think perhaps there were one, maybe two times, where we realized the hitch was not coming off so she had to move the camper a slight amount, while remembering to move the wheel chock, and then made a second attempt. Of course, camping is not about hitching or unhitching the camper from the two vehicle.  It is about the experiences.

Wild Asters

Of our seven camping trips this year five had rain, with the one to Peninsula State Park in early August having the heaviest total rainfall.  We arrived at Peninsula on a Monday and departed on a Thursday morning. Both Monday and Wednesday rain started in the mid-afternoon and lasted into the evening.  At times the rain was really heavy.  We did not have rain on our trip camping about 15 minutes southwest of Boulder Junction at the end of August, nor at Hartman Creek State Park this month.  Although at Hartman Creek we woke to what sounded like rain, but it turned out the humidity was so high and the fog so thick that water had congealed on leaves and was dropping off the tree leaves so one thought it was precipitating from the sky.  By about 11:00 am the fog was clearing and it gave way to a nice day.

We had never been to Hartman Creek before, but a friend of my wife camps there fairly regularly with her husband.  So we decided to try the place.  It is a popular campground, but strong winds went through near the end of July and destroyed some of the tree cover, particularly in the area where the campground was cut into a pine plantation. Some vehicles, campers, and tents were destroyed.  If you would like a site with a lot of sun, there will be some sites at this campground.

Some of the campsites affected by the storm

Hartman Creek State Park has a few small lakes created by dams. Part of the site being on a moraine from the effects of the Wisconsin Glaciation, which ended about 12,000 years ago, the streams and small lakes have created a small island of a north woods feel in East Central Wisconsin.  The Ice Age Trail goes through part of the Park, and the Hitch Girl and I hiked much of that trail on that foggy Monday morning.  What struck me about the park was the amount of mountain bike trails it contains.  This park is said to be very busy park during the summer, as it is family friendly, and not too far from some heavily populated areas (think Green Bay and the Fox River Valley).  While most of the campers on our this trip fit the demographic of me and the hitch girl (i.e. retired), there were some campers who were quite young, and one couple had an infant.

Woolly Bear Caterpillar

While at the swim beach one afternoon a small baby turtle appeared in the water near shore.  The turtle was less than 2" long from head to tail.  It appeared to be a snapping turtle.  One guy picked the turtle up and after he left, I could no longer find the young turtle.

Baby Turtle

One night my wife woke up, or in her case perhaps had not fallen asleep, and realized we had not put the cooler under the picnic table bench.  Depending upon height above ground of the bottom of the bench slab we either stick it under the bench of the picnic table or stick it in the car so as to avoid nighttime critter robbers from getting into our food.  When she got up she could see a waning moon through the trees.  I could swear that I too was awake when she inquired about the cooler, but drowsy, when she made the comment, but she says I had been asleep.  I offered to go out to do it, but the Hitch Girl stepped out to put it under the bench.  Raccoons are not the only pests we usually have to deal with.  Luckily for this trip the mosquito population was low.

To avoid the spread of pests through the use of firewood we end up buying firewood near our place of encampment.  Many state parks usually have it available, so we purchase at the park, and if not present, firewood can usually be had at a place just outside the campground.   At Hartman Creek the firewood is run by the Friends Group and I think they provided the best firewood we purchased all year--nice dry hardwood, in nice sized pieces.  On September nights when early darkness envelopes the campground the flicker of a campground fire is the commonality among campers.  Some people build big fires.

Campfire

Over a period of four months we spent 24 nights in our new camper.  On only one of the seven trips did we hookup to electricity, and with the hot and humid weather on that trip we actually used the air conditioning for about 20 minutes to cool the camper  as we sat and relaxed while a strong thunderstorm worked through the campground.  We have much more to learn about our new camper, but for the most part we are just fine not using the radio, television and a few other amenities that it provides.  Having tent camped, we are used to, and still do, cooking, eating and pretty much living outside, which suits us just fine.  The Hitch Girl is happy with that, and of course operating the hitch.

Photos by author, September 2019