Closing out 2015
A friend of mine remarked on Facebook that we sure are trying to get our money’s worth of this RV. I’m unable to argue!
Adventure racing!
Looking back, RVing was a natural extension (to me, anyway) of a desire to do more obstacle course races. While I didn’t necessarily do any more this year, I was able to use Qubie to partake in two that I did last year and I feel like it added considerably to the experience.
In August we traveled to Charlottesville, VA and stayed at the Charlottesville KOA for my third straight Virginia Spartan Super at Wintergreen Resort. We drove up Friday night with a minimum of fuss — the last few miles of narrow, winding country roads after dark was a bit unnerving — and got up early Saturday for about a 45 minute drive to the venue. I finished the race and we spent the afternoon and night relaxing at the KOA before pulling up stakes Sunday for the leisurely trip home. This is what I’d dreamed of!
In November we headed to Lake Wateree State Park in South Carolina for the Virginia Carolinas Beast, this time with my race buddy Matt along for the ride. Another
perfect trip and only about 20 minutes from the race venue. I honestly don’t think you could even find a hotel closer! Being close to the venue and staying the night of the race and leaving the next day makes for a relaxing and supremely enjoyable experience.
Thanksgiving at the beach
I booked our Thanksgiving trip at a site at Ocean Lakes RV campground in Myrtle Beach, SC in early May, only 3 days after we ordered Qubie and long before we had her in our hands. Optimistic? Sure. It was something that we’d looked forward to the entire year. We made the most of it! This was also our first big trip with our two cats. Neither of them liked it very much, but at the end Skittle was sleeping in Julia’s lap on the way home which I call a vast improvement.
Winterizing, because surely we’re done this year
We’d visited our local lake for what I thought was the last time earlier in December, staying at the type of site that got us into RVing to begin with. We had the park mostly to ourselves right on the water, tried out the S.S. Juju (the 2-person kayak I’d acquired using credit card points), made a fire and marveled at our year.
At the end of the trip I winterized for the first time since it was going to freeze soon and I assumed we wouldn’t be going back out again until spring. Emptied the water heater, blew out the water lines with the compressor, fought with the Dometic icemaker solenoid for a while to get it drained, and poured waterline antifreeze down the various drains. Not too terrible!
Dewinterizing because no we’re not done
Didn’t last, though. Cat’s mom came to visit over Christmas and with weather in the 70s (!) it’s hard to resist the call of Qubie. So we introduced Grandmaman to Qubie with a three night stay at Jordan Lake. We booked the site we’d stayed at last time so we could share the beautiful views.
Mother Nature had other plans, though.
Our beautiful site was underwater! After a bit of scrambling to find a site that wasn’t a) flooded, b) without electricity, and c) flat enough we’re having a nice stay. It’s raining today which will play havoc with pulling up stakes so I’ll almost certainly hold off on rewinterizing until Saturday when it’s supposed to be dry and nice.
In sum, we’ve put right around 3,500 miles on Qubie this year. I’ve lost count of our trips but I think it’s around 11 or 12. We’ve already got our first (?) trip of next year planned: spring break at Disney’s Fort Wilderness! Next year maybe I’ll actually keep count of trips.
Shallow Roots 