Fredericksburg KOA Trip, Fredericksburg, VA (Part 1)

When? March 1-3, 2013
Where? Fredericksburg KOA, Fredericksburg, VA
Cost? $48/night
Hookups? Full
Type? Pull-through
Site #? 106
Check-in? 3pm (I think)
Check-out? 11am or Noon

Characters? Heather & Jon

Weather? COLD! Highs in the 40s, Lows in the 20s

Preparation
With all good trips comes the nitty gritty of planning the trip. Being the planning guru that I am (ok, ok, I'm just a bit OCD about details), this fell to me. We knew we wanted something kind of close and in March. My schedule's a bit crazy, so we picked the weekend that worked the best for us, March 1-3 in Fredericksburg, VA.

Over the weekend before the trip, we ran to Walmart (again). We were on the hunt for a couple of small things and then remembered we needed to figure out storage in the wardrobes. We spent a good 20 minutes standing in that aisle trying to figure stuff out. Armed with everything we needed in our cart, we were ready for the trip (storage wise).

We started to watch the weather like hawks in the week leading up to our trip. The forecasts were all over the place. Mostly, we were worried about how cold it was going to be. Initially, temps were forecasted to go down into the teens... that's too cold, even for a 4-season rated trailer. Ok, so the trailer could handle it, but we didn't want to. We decided Tuesday that we'd still be going based on the latest forecast.

With that decision made, I started getting meals ready and making graham crackers. Yes, making graham crackers. I'm slowly working on going gluten free to see if it helps with a medical issue, so why not give them a try? Here's the recipe I used.

Packing
We started packing Thursday night. Nothing big, just getting stuff organized into piles. Friday morning, we woke up, had breakfast, and started packing up clothes. Since it was going to be anywhere between 20 and 40 degrees, we packed warm clothes.

Jon was relegated to packing up things for the back of the truck, while I set about packing the inside of the truck, food, and clothes (into one bag). Hm, I think we need to revisit this one for our next trip!

Seriously too much stuff

Hitching up
We got to our storage place and started to prep the trailer for the trip. I removed the tire covers, put the license plate on the trailer (a story worthy of a post of it's own), did a couple of things in the trailer, and did whatever else Jon asked me to do (like get the battery strap on... another thing worthy of a post of it's own). I have no idea what Jon was doing. I was just keeping busy and out of the way.

It was finally time to hitch up. We've only done this one other time, so we're still learning. We managed to get everything perfectly lined up. I'm still debating walkie-talkies to communicate. Once the hitch was on & secured, we rolled out! (Ok, we checked the lights, signals, and all that and THEN rolled out.)

Any RV people who are reading this, how do you connect your break-away cable? Ours is a bit long, but we have no idea how to make it shorter without it being too short.

Travel
We picked the Fredericksburg KOA specifically because it's close to where we keep our trailer. By "close", I mean under 2 hrs. Jon pretty much white-knuckled it all of the way down. I helped keep an eye out when I could and helped guide him to be in the correct lane when necessary. Other than that, I played Candy Crush, checked email, or blooped on Facebook. I might have also busted out some car dancing.

Campground - March 1, 2013
We pulled into the campground and checked in.

Pulling into the campground

While we were checking in, the guy at the front desk gave us the option of where to go, so we picked site 106 - "the island". Cool little spot.

Campground map

We pulled over to the campsite and got busy unpacking the truck. While Jon was doing "outside stuff", I started bringing in the storage containers and put them into the wardrobes. I also put the shower caddy in the shower stall.

Wardrobes - storage containers from Walmart, hangers from Camping World, shoe organizers from IKEA, Command hooks from Camping World, bathroom stuff JCP & IKEA, Step stool from Bed Bath & Beyond

Command shower caddy from Amazon

Once Jon was ready, we put out the slide, pulled in the slide, moved the trailer, put the slide back out, unhooked, and then leveled. We didn't have to do any side to side leveling, just front to back (again, walkie talkies would've been helpful here!) After we got leveled & Jon got us hooked up to the campground stuff (water & electric), I turned on the fridge/freezer and got it going while I finished getting settled in. At some point during all of this, we also opened up the awning to air it out a bit.

Awning opened up. It's a lot bigger than we remembered!

After getting things set up, we decided we wanted to get a fire going... even though it was about 36 degrees out (I think that was the feels like temp). So, back to the front desk to get some firewood. We got back to the campsite and started trying to get the fire lit. The wind started to kick up and every time we'd get it lit, it'd get blown out. Jon finally said "screw it" and got his firestarter lit and threw that in there.

So. Cold.

While we had the fire going, I decided I'd just cook dinner on our little propane stove and then reheat it inside after we were done (we were having tacos). Then, we decided it was time for S'mores. Yes, before dinner.

S'mores? Comin' right up! (Largest marshmallows ever, btw)

Mmmm, tasty!

Those graham crackers are the best graham crackers I've ever had. Seriously. I'll be making them again.  It was so cold out that the chocolate didn't melt at all! Ah well. The marshmallows were messy enough as it was.

After we were done, we cleaned everything up and I went inside to finish heating up/prepping dinner. Jon put out the fire and we settled in for tacos & the evening. Jon did have to go back out to disconnect the water for the night (the temps were going below freezing). So, we filled up a portable sink with water so that we could flush the toilet, refilled our cups with drinking water, and he went out to disconnect.

Once he came back in, we played a couple of games of Rummikub and then headed to bed. (For what would possibly be the most uncomfortable "sleep" in a LONG time.)

Night night lil Lance!

To be continued in Part 2...