Camping a la Murphy's Law

We sure had a great time at Seaside Beach... once we got there on our last day. My, my... the RV rookies, Dad and Mom, sure climbed a steep learning curve throughout our camping trip, but they persevered, stubborn as they are, and also met some really nice "advanced" folks, who literally saved their butts (so we could get out and play finally!) Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that we drove to Fort Bragg near Mendocino - normally about a 3-hour drive, in four hours. Not bad. Mom drove/towed the trailer and did okay, maybe due to the fact that she used to drive horse trailers a lot in younger days. We found our spot at Mackerricher State Park - beautiful - and Mom backed right in. They leveled the camper just fine, but couldn't uncouple because the ball was frozen to the hitch (Dad forgot to grease the ball). So we set up camp a little and after dinner for both us and MomDad, we took a little walk down a nice boardwalk towards the sea and saw some cool fluffy ground squirrels I just wanted to chase so bad! Not to be, so back to our site for bed cause we were all very tired. At 3 a.m., we all woke up to a shrill beeping sound - the CO monitor was making a disturbingly loud noise. Dad told us all to get out and finish up our sleeping in the Jeep. He grabbed the car keys and pushed the panic button by mistake (headlights flashing brightly, horn honking loudly). And he couldn't get it to stop. After morning showers close by, Dad ran into a very generous camper with 30 years' RV experience. He fixed us all up, teaching my parents how to fire up their generator for power (the CO monitor had simply lost power; the whole 12-volt system had died). He helped us uncouple the jeep from the trailer and re-level it properly. He got the hot water heater to function and lots more stuff. Dad and Mom were armed for the rest of the trip (well... sort of) but extremely grateful. Anyway, we got to play, visit some friends for a dinner out, see some sea lions, run around on beaches and walk around a pretty lake. Here's a little movie of part of the "path" around Lake Cleone - a rickety boardwalk!

If you want to check out the longer movie of the Sea Lions feeding at the Fort Bragg wharf, you can catch it here. And below is a little slideshow of some of the things we did and places we went.

And a little hint about Part II! See Ya!