Kentucky Horse Park

Finally...after the long cold winter we took our maiden voyage

Planning trips are an experience themselves.  Our plan was to take several local trips between April and August to get comfortable and learn what the heck we are doing.  I would recommend the mobile application "ALLSTAYS CAMP & RV".  It does have a cost (5.99 I think) and I normally never pay for an application but this one is very useful in researching and making online reservations.  We started making reservations back in January.  During the winter months I did a lot of reading and we went to the RV whenever possible to organize and learn all we could prior to pulling out the first time.  Thank God for YouTube as I have watched many hours covering RV electric, plumbing, water heaters, furnace, and air conditioning.  Man, just understanding the gray/black/fresh water take system was as complex as any algebra I ever had in school.  And don't even get me started on learning how 12V vs 120V, AC vs DC, Amps/Volts/Watts...again algebra is less complicated.  This really helped https://rvshare.com/blog/rv-electrical/

Our first trip was only 20 minutes down the road to the Kentucky Horse Park in Georgetown, KY.  Our goal of this trip was to just successfully set up, live, and get home without incident...and oh yea to not do anything worthy of a YouTube "what not to do" video.  Upon arriving we tackled the dreaded trailer backing process.  I remembered a hint that putting your hands on the bottom of the steering wheel will make it much less complicated.  Just move your hands in the direction you want the trailer to go.  Jennifer ground guided using a pair of walkie-talkies which really helped.  Our spot was (A08) on the outer loop.  On a Wednesday there was hardly anyone there.  Check in was a snap since we make reservations through the AllStays App.  Did, however, notice a sign on the register saying "No septic tank connection available".  This added a wrinkle to our set up plan as I was going to have to tackle the dreaded tank dumping a bit earlier than I though we would.  We took our time (3 hours) to do the initial setup making sure to not overlook the obvious.  Oh yea, make sure you unhook your hitch lock before you try to disconnect.  The tongue jack sure labored lifting my truck before I realized the snafu.

Leveled, water/electric connected and its time to de-winterize.  Now, we could have swung by Bluegrass RV on the way and dropped about 50 dollars to have this done but again we watched ALOT of YouTube.  The process was not that difficult and all seemed fine.  Last step was to fill up the water heater...snafu #2.  There are 2 valves on the water heater and both were set to "shut"...so my logic was if that was the winterized positions the normal positions would be the opposite.  So I turned them, flicked on the hot water switch and thankfully heard the gas pilot light come on.  I went on about my business thinking I had mastered that.  We kept checking the water periodically throughout the day to see if it was hot.  It was hot for a second then went cold.  Humm, maybe it just takes a long time to heat water the first time. Jennifer decided she would try out the new shower...hopped in with a quick "yea the water is hot" only to hear her say "holy hell that's cold".  Uh oh, I am now down on my knees with a flashlight looking at the miniature water heater hoping like hell I could get this fixed quickly as she is standing there in a towel covered in cold water.  I broke down and got out the manual and low and behold there was a picture showing an example of hot water heater normal operations.  Opening both valves was mixing the hot water with cold from the bypass valve.  Learned a good lesson on that one...read the dang manual. A quick dinner out and a small camp fire, we called it a night.   Sure was nice to visit the onboard bathroom in the middle of the night instead of the walk in the dark to the port-a-potty.  Woke up at about 3 to a bit of a chill...no problem a couple clicks on the thermostat and back to sleep all warm and toasty.

Awake the next morning ready to prepare our first breakfast...snafu #3.  Jennifer was getting all the breakfast items together as I fired up the gas burner on the stove top as we had practiced over the winter.  Biscuits were on the menu and it hit us that we had not tried the oven.  No problem, I have lit pilot lights on stoves before and this would be a snap.  I actually did get the manual out this time just to make sure.  I held in the knob and lit the pilot light as instructed only to have it go out when we adjusted to the desired temperature....3 matches later still no oven heat.  So my male brain takes over and I figure just turn it to the temperature we want and light the pilot light.  After dodging a cool blue fireball that singed the hair on my hand, we had heat.  Jennifer was way too amused.  Spent the rest of the day just organizing, several trips to Lowes and Camping World to get all the stuff we never thought of.  Finally set up by mid afternoon enjoying the great weather

The campground does not have a lot of activities so we just enjoyed the warm weather and took a short bike ride around to see how everyone was getting along.  There was a lot of folks starting to roll in hoping to escape the winter blues. The temperature was in mid 70's but there was a really strong wind, so no awning.  There is always something to piddle with in a campground so time flies by.  A visit from my mother, a delicious grilled ribeye with mac and cheese and another night of great sleeping.  Day 2 in the books.

Friday was even warmer but still had periods of wind making bike riding more laborsome that it should be.  The last thing to try was the AC.  So we close all the windows and flip the switch to AC and NOTHING!.  And we were doing so well.  A call to Bluegrass RV to be told they did not have technicians available to come out to our campsite.  Oh well it was not that hot, thank goodness.  So a nap was in order for the both of us.  A few minutes of reading a national geographic article and I was enjoying some good sleep.  Had a great visit from our friend Stephanie and her 4 year old daughter Krista who has a ton of energy and a future in the music industry as she could sing for very long period of times 😝.  She had such a good time.  Some hot dogs and burgers on the grill and it was time for the campfire.  Jennifer found the coolest set of awning lights at Camping World.

We did watch a good move on DVD "16 Blocks".  Check out my review if interested. 

Saturday morning we thought would go ahead and break camp in light of the impeding bad weather forecast for the weekend and swing by Bluegrass RV to get a diagnostic check.  Got a call from Bluegrass RV as we were halfway through the breakdown to be told the technician was leaving early.  As the clouds were building we decided to call it and head home.  Scheduled a maintenance visit for later next week.  Breakdown and hooking up was uneventful and we pulled out.  Next stop...the dump station.  As the rain was about to begin I connected the drain hose to the black tube on the RV labeled "septic connection" to drain the black tank first as all the YouTube videos explained.  A quick tug on the 'black tank" lever...and I hear a rush of water coming from the "Waste Water Holding Tank" labeled black tube that did not have the drain connected.  Oh crap, just learned the difference between the two drain tubes albeit a few seconds too late.  Thank God Jennifer suggested that we only went #1 on this trip in the RV and use the bath house for #2 until we know what we are doing (she is so smart that way). I immediately shut off the valve but the damage was done.  I had a cap on the black tube but I quickly realized that there was no way I could get the cap off and the drain hose connected without some big time exposure to our black tank contents.  I could only laugh at my predicament and be thankful as I imagined what could have happened had I ignored Jennifer's advice.  A small bit of urine and septic chemical on the ground and I had the drain hose swapped.  The black tank first then both gray tanks drained and just got finished before the rain started to really come down.  

Rainy ride home, a stop to unhook and we were home within the hour. Next stop Green River Lake Campground