The Shakedown Cruise

Last weekend, my wife, daughter, and I joined some friends and went camping on the Southshore of Lake Bastrop. The intended purpose of the camping was to shake down my new Airstream and check out all of the systems, and my mission was accomplished!

The AC worked GREAT, as did the city water, water heater, refrigerator, and black and gray water systems. I had my first experience at a dump station-- I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, but I can already tell it will be my least favorite part of camping. Still, it's well worth it to have facilities right where you need them, especially in the middle of the night.

The crew included Mary, McKenzie, and me in the Airstream, my friends Dave and Sharon and their 4 kids in their Dutchmen RV, and my friends Greg and Denise and their daughter, in a tent (yup, I'm working on Greg to get an Airstream too. I think I almost have him!).

We had intended to camp a little closer to home, at City Park on Lake Austin, but Dave scouted it out Friday morning and found all their RV sites were booked. But being the Boy Scout that he is (we call him Camper Dave among numerous other nicknames), he had already taken the precaution of reserving us a couple of sites out on Lake Bastrop.

So Friday afternoon, as soon as we could get out of work, we raced home, prepped the Airstream, picked up some food, and did the quick 1-hour trip out to Lake Bastrop. It's a really nice park, in the middle of the pines, very close to the Lost Pines Scout Camp that I went to often when I was in Boy Scouts of America.

We had a great time, with only a couple of mishaps. The first was that the camera was left out in the rain, so we only got a few pictures before it got wet, and I didn't want to use it again until it dried out.

The other problem was that the top, fore awning bracket popped off right when I first tried to deploy the awning. So we tied it back, and I wasn't able to use the awning for this first trip. One more thing added to my long list of repairs, move it to the top!

So here are the few pictures we have:

Here's me looking goofy in front of my Airstream.

My friend Camper Dave, with me in the background, checking the dump valve I think...

Below, the reason I decided to get an Airstream in the first place! :)

Here's The Crew, sitting under the only WORKING awning in our group... (can you tell my wife takes most of the vacation pictures?)

So we have a couple more pictures on my friends' camera that I want to post, but that will have to wait. I'm looking forward to making a couple of repairs, and then getting the trailer out one or two more times before I take apart the rear end over the Winter.

I just want to thank once again Dave and Sharon for helping this RV newbie, you made it so much easier for me. And thanks to Greg and Denise for coming with us to help "kick the tires." And most of all, thanks to my wife Mary for putting up with my Airstream obsession, and for even having fun while doing it! :)