I am a little late on this posting as this was a summer for travel. Normally we stayed around home, enjoying the cool weather around our island, but this year we wanted to head out and try something very different….California in June, Washington/Idaho in July and Europe in August….a busy summer!
“Doing the dance”, according to the Urban Dictionary, means an optimal state of mind and being – similar to “in the zone”. In our case, doing the dance means coping in the confines of our Airstream 19′ Bambi trailer. One person cooks while the other is out of the way. One person dresses while the other person sits, don’t move. Which works fine for us as long as we can get outside or if it’s for a short period of time. Doing it with 2 adults and a 70 lb dog, who needs her space, and its pouring rain outside…..well there is the rub.
Adding a boondocking experience, or dry camping, can be challenging in itself. Will there be enough water? How long will my batteries hold out? Will my 50 inch TV and surround sound system work well with the inverter? (kidding) And what about the tanks? Those tanks that fill quickly and apparently it’s a no-no to accidentally open the valve.
We had not yet dry camped, opting for the luxury of 30 amps, the wonderfulness of continuous water hookup, and not caring about the fullness of the tanks. But boondocking is the next level of glamping – how to maintain a certain level of luxury while using only onboard systems and facilities. I had a generator for backup but can we get along without using it? I dug into the blogs, the camping forums, and all the material I could get to understand what to expect. From all accounts, I figured we could last 3-4 days on our own devices. Maybe if I put a brick in the shower, it will use less water? Okay, no.
This past July we had planned to visit my Brother and Sister on his 60th birthday, in Eastern Washington. So while we are that far, we decided to add 3-4 days and head to Priest Lake. Washington was warm (80’s) and clear and we lived outside the trailer more that in. But sharing a small full-sized bed got hot and I was relegated to sleeping on the fold-down dinette which displaced the dog. Glamping?…..hmmmm.
After a few days we headed for Priest Lake, in the far Northwest corner of the Idaho panhandle, about 15 miles from the Canadian border. It is an area we heard a lot about; lots of lakes, rivers, trees, bears. We know several families that go there every year to enjoy the big lake, trees and water sports. And since we have traveled and stayed in northern Idaho in the past, we thought this an excellent time to try the lake.
I visited RVparkreviews.com, my go-to site for planning, to get a feel for the many campsites in the area. Priest Lake is a 19 mile-long lake that has the Priest river to the south and Canada to the north. On the east side are a couple of state parks with full hookups. I tried to get a reservation using the Idaho State Parks site but I saw that they were all filled up during July and I probably needed a year advance reservation for one of these campgrounds. So I turned to the west side of the lake where there are several National campgrounds but they have no services. There were lots of opening so I booked a site for 4 days at Outlet Campground.
Outlet Campground is located at the southern end of the lake, near boating activities with water access (although minimal). Treed with huge sites and lots of privacy. We reserved a site to fit a 24′ trailer and car. The campground is built on a hillside with gentle curving roads, wide sites, good, clean restrooms, no showers and water faucets at the street. We had some difficulty backing into our site with the 19′ trailer since the road was narrow and ditches/trees on either side kept me from turning the truck safely to back in. I was close to moving to a bigger site but was able to fanangle my way in after 3, well cursed attempts. The paved pad was fairly level but still required blocks, including blocks under my back stabilizer jacks. My truck had to saddle up to the very front of the trailer, across the pad.
Although the happy, energetic, loving Cleo was glad to sniff and roam the site, she was NOT happy about being tethered to a tree….”what’s this?” she thought. But the sun was bright, the air a cool 78-83 degrees and kids were playing ball. Boy she wanted to join them.
We visited the East side of the lake and drove through the biggest of the 2 campgrounds, Indian Creek, – more so we could see what we missed. Can you say “county fair parking lot camping”? That is what it looked like. Tons of people, loud, trailers and tents on top of each other in a wide open grassy area. Lots of beach area, boat dock, volleyball, and bikes/kids/people everywhere. Probably a great location for a large group-camping experience….a place kids would enjoy. There was another loop where more privacy was available but the sites looked extremely small and heavily treed – more catering to tents than trailers. Not what we were looking for so we left happy we did make a reservation there.
Our batteries held well, the water tank had to be refilled after 2 days of use but the tanks still registered green, empty (huh?). We went for a drive to find Hill’s Resort – a favorite spot of some of our friends. It was a great resort, filled with condo-style places, great lakefront beaches, boat dock and restaurant. No wonder their kids love coming here. We took our selves to lunch as the sky darkened and rain threatened. Millie’s appeared across the road from our fuel stop and looked like a good local hub. Great burgers and an interesting photo on the wall….people in snowshoes playing softball. Evidently, Millie’s hosts a winter softball tournament each year, played in snowshoes. Crazy.
The skies unloaded on us on the way back to the campground….the amount of hail along the road looked like snow. Our towels we left outside were soaked and there was 3 inches of water in the dog bowl. We hunkered down for the rest of the day and night… passing the time listening to the thunder and doing the dance….me moving out of the way while the wife cooks, the dog relinquishing her spot under the table, and finally cloistered in the dinette reading books while sipping a fine wine.
The next day shone bright so we decided to head home, a day early. The water tank level was ½ full after the second filling of the tank and the batteries were fine. But those tanks still read empty…. where did all the water go…… how is that possible unless…..? Unless the sensors on both tanks didn’t work…..uugh. We headed to the dump station to lighten our load and then took the back roads through Idaho and back to civilization. A great trip but now things to have to be checked out under the warranty of our trailer…..it never ends.
