Dana was right......

Right after I sent the email with the link to this blog, Dana emailed me and said the address should have been http://www.tt.com/ (tt being short for trailer trash). But I'll get to that in a minute.

I got back to the house with the trailer at about 10:30 or so. By the time we loaded it, made a last trip to the store & ATM, grabbed a burger at In-N-Out and hit the road, it was about 3:00. I had picked the trailer up in Newcastle and reset the truck's MPG computer when I hooked up. Newcastle is “uphill” from home so it probably wasn't realistic to expect the mileage not to drop way off as we got going. As we drove through Sacramento on I-80 though, it stayed higher than I expected, about 11-12 MPG. When we got onto I-5 north, things changed. The winds were blowing south, we were driving north and the tachometer confirmed what we could hear – the truck was working a lot harder. The MPG average fell, and fell, to about 8 MPG. The wind also made the handling of the truck and trailer pretty interesting. Crossing the tall bridge just west of SMF and going across the elevated section beyond it was a treat. No major fishtailing and we stayed in our lane, but not a great way to start off the trailer experience.

I made a few lame attempts to draft some tractor trailers, but figured that probably wasn't a good idea. The wind finally died down when we got to Clear Lake, Konrad's old haunting grounds, and former home to at least one reader who I won't embarrass by naming. As we were getting close to 101, it was starting to get dark. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of backing into a camping space in the dark, so we decided to detour south on 101 about 5 miles and partake of the free “camping” at the Ukiah Wal-Mart. Yep, I suppose that's a little trailer trashy.

Up to this point, there hadn't been any issue with maneuvering the trailer, It just kind of followed the truck and except for needing more pressure on the accelerator, it was almost like it wasn't there. That changed when I made a left turn and didn't allow enough room for the trailer to clear the island. I felt the trailer pulling back on the truck and looked in the mirror to see the trailer hopping the curb of the island. Not having learned my lesson, I did it again about 30 seconds later turning into the parking lot. Doh !

So after about 5 minutes of driving in circles in the parking lot looking for just the right spot, we'd arrived. We parked near some rather colorful and interesting “rigs” as you can see. We got inside the trailer and found that all the pots, pans, food and other goodies had been launched from their storage places by my four-wheeling across the curbs. Nice.

The Ukiah Wal-Mart turns out to be a happenin' place on a Friday night. Cars were coming and going until at least 11:00. At about 2:00 AM, some people came in with a trailer and starting doing repairs that apparently required using a hacksaw, hammering on metal, and plenty of loud, animated discourse. And after they left, there was the completely foreseeable arrival of the vacuum cleaning truck. He sounded like he kept circling us as if we were the infield at a Roseville NASCAR event.

So with campgrounds, as with many other things, you get what you pay for. But you don't have to be head greeter down to the Wal-Mart to figure that out.