scary week end

We both thought the week end would never get here. We had plans to camp with a group of our friends at White River Campground in Cicero Indiana. The campground is a county owned park and they have been doing a lot of improvements during the winter and it has always been one of our favorite local parks.
Rudee had the inside of the 5th wheel ready for traveling when I got home from work. We had loaded the motorcycle onto the semi Thursday night so that chore was already completed and with Rudee's help, I got hooked on and packed up all the "outside" stuff. We were ready to roll in about 30 minutes.
We had not moved the 5th wheel since coming home from South Dakota the first of August and we were both a little "rusty" doing our travel day routines. Those first few miles are usually the worst, wondering if anything is going to fall off, break off, or blow apart :=O.
I was finally getting relaxed and comfortable towing the rig again when I notice that part of the fender on the 5th wheel was flapping in the breeze. My first thought was that a tire had blown damaging the fender but from what I could see of the tires in the truck mirror they all looked fine. I knew we were about 2 miles from western Boone High School and they had a large (and probably empty) parking lot I could pull into and check things out. We almost made it to the school when we met a semi truck going the other direction and the wind turbulence when we passed each other tore the flapping piece off the 5th wheel which was then ran over by 3 or 4 cars following the semi.
We got parked in the school and found that the piece was just a plastic molding around the wheel that had loosened and blown off. Hopefully I can order a replacement from Keystone. No one showed up at the school accusing us of damaging their car with our "flying debris" so we headed back out onto the road.
We made it to the campground and were able to get everything set up and the bike unloaded before it got dark.
This week end is the parks annual Halloween Weekend. They have a lot of special events planned topped off with the children "trick or treating" all the campers. When you check in they give you a small orange flag to stick in the ground at the end of your site to designate you want the trick or treaters to stop for candy. The flags are not really necessary though because almost everyone brings their lawn chairs to the end of their sites so all the kids have to do is follow the main drag through the park.
Our daughter Amanda and son in law Ryan brought the grand kids and they had a great time. They each had a big bag full of candy! I'm sure glad they were not spending the night after eating all that sugar :-)!
Right after the trick or treaters we had some special guests drop by. Blog readers John and Carol stopped in to introduce themselves and we had a nice visit. They are retiring from their careers in a matter of weeks and will be free to travel. They have, like us, sold their house and were living in their full time rig while still working in their careers.
We really enjoyed our time with them and look forward to seeing them again. They are going to be work camping in Colorado next year. You can follow along with them on their blog http://travelwiththeherrs.blogspot.com/ .

Sunday came way too fast and it was time to start packing things up to head for home. Man I sure am looking forward to being able to stretch out a week end into 4 or 5 more days :-).
Rudee and I loaded up the bike and I backed the truck up to the 5th wheel to hook on. I always stop and get out a look to make sure I am lined up correctly. I have even joked that I am going to put the letters G.O.A.L.S. on my mirrors which stands for "get out and look stupid!". Well I thought I was lined up pretty good so hopped back into the truck to finish backing up the last couple of feet. Rudee was watching me but the problem was I wasn't watching her! I backed into the pin on the 5th wheel but it was not aligned (missed it by about 1/2") and the hitch pushed the 5th wheel back a couple of feet pushing the landing legs off the 4x4 blocks I had them sitting on causing the 5th wheel to drop! Hard! Yikes!!!
I got the truck shut down and decided to re-group. Nothing appeared damaged and I was able to raise the landing legs so the pin would line up with the hitch and with Rudee's help, was able to hitch up normally. The only casualty was my pride and I can live with that!

The rest of the trip was uneventful (thank goodness!) and we got set up back into our site here at the KOA. Our neighbor was getting her 5th wheel packed up and said she would be leaving after spending most of the summer here. She had been taking care of her father who had been ill and passed away a few weeks ago. She was anxious to get back home and try and get her life back to normal. We went about our business finishing our set up procedures when we heard a loud crash. I turned around to see our neighbors 5th wheel had came out of her hitch and had fallen onto the bed of her truck. Man oh man, this stuff must be like a bad rash and it's spreading! Rudee and I ran over and helped her raise the 5th wheel back off the truck. Unfortunately she had some pretty bad damage to her truck's bed rails and the the tail gate would not stay latched so I took it off and put it inside her 5th wheel. We were able to get her hitched back up so she could start her trip home.

We have another week of work ahead of us. Oh well that will put us one more week closer to retirement! Nothing real exciting on the horizon and we are already talking about where we plan on going for next years vacation. John and Carol invited us out to visit them at the Cripple Creek KOA ......... hmmmmm, sounds like a nice trip with lots of great scenery. May just have to pencil that into the calender :-). I'll keep you posted.