VIRGINIA BEACH AND TRAILER TROUBLE

On Wednesday, I moved to First Landing State Park on Virginia Beach, VA.  This is one of the first places Mr. W made reservations for this trip because we knew most places would be full since this is Memorial Day weekend.  On their website, you can reserve a tent site, a site that will accommodate a RV up to 20 ft., a site that will accommodate up to 30 ft., or a site that will accommodate up to 50 ft.  Mr. W reserved a 50 ft. site.  You cannot reserve specific sites in this state park.  However, they are changing that next year.

So, when I checked in, the ranger guy gave me a map and said to park in any of the blue labeled sites in G loop.  Mr. W starts off toward G loop and that was an adventure in itself.  You know how state parks try to leave everything in its natural form which is great for the aesthetics of the park, but it is not great for trying to maneuver a big rig.  The road is very twisty, the tree limbs hang down really low, the turns are really tight, and at one point, I had to get out and stand behind the trailer to make sure it did not rub the road.  The trailer is very high in the back if that tells you anything about the road.

I go all through what the map shows to be G loop and there are no blue sites available.  So, I call the front and the ranger guy says that G loop actually goes all the way down the shore and does not end where the map shows it ending.  Great.  Now, the journey begins again to go through all the twisty roads, tree limbs, and trailer dragging because all of the roads are one way.

I find a site finally (the last one available in G loop) and get settled. Mr. W is not very happy with the campsite or the park at this point.  I'm thinking that it is a typical beach campsite so I'm OK with it.  (I'm not a beach person; he is) Mr. W and I take a walk to the beach that evening and watch the sun set on the Chesapeake Bay.  He is thinking maybe it is not so bad after all.

 

 

OK, wake up Thursday morning and Mr. W has been out riding his bike and finds a site in another loop that backs up to the beach and has a great view of the Chesapeake Bay.  He has gone to the ranger guy and gotten the OK to move so the race is on!  Everything is put somewhere so it won't fall or be in the way, the slides are in, the trailer hooked up to the truck, and off we go.  I'm usually not a big fan of moving once we are set up.  But, this is Mr. W's element and if it rocks his world, then I'm ready to move.

Again, twisty roads, low hanging tree limbs, etc.  Going around a twist in the road, I hear this loud pop.  Mr. W hears it too.  What is that?  I have dual wheels (one in front of the other) on both sides of the trailer. They are suppose to be in line with each other.  Mr. W looks in the mirrors and they are no longer in line with each other.  He then says that he hopes we didn't break a spring.  Me too.

Fortunately, we get parked in the new "wonderful view" site.  Mr. W checks for the popping noise damage and sure enough, the shackle on the spring broke. Ugh. The trailer is under warranty so Mr. W gets on the phone with the manufacturer, who gets on the phone with the chassis manufacturer, and they are working on getting someone out to the park to fix the problem before next Wednesday when I am scheduled to leave.  We will see.  Here are the pictures I had to send the manufacturer of the problem.

 I will keep you posted.