Moving into the Camper

I adore Black Mountain, the house I was staying in, and Angela, my landlord/housemate whom I've really enjoyed spending time with. But today I am moving into my camper in a campground in Old Fort, NC. Old Fort is just six miles East of Black Mountain, but it is six vertical miles.

From Black Mountain the highway descends. I have a small Toyota Tacoma with a V-4 that has trouble climbing paltry hills and with a 2000 lb camper attached I can barely reach 40 mph on those. So I am going in the right direction. The grade of the descension is so steep that the truck speed limit (all but pickups and vans) is 35mph and they have provisions for runaway trucks (a stretch of dirt that you can pull off into should your breaks fail).  Adam, my ex-husband, put it into my head that when descending such a mountain my camper could swing around if the weight differential was incorrect. I checked it, but still feared for my life and drove 40 mph. 

Of course everything went fine and I arrived in Old Fort safely. I didn't really check out this campground before reserving a spot; they advertised on their website that they were the closest campground to Catawba Falls (more later), with wifi, so I signed up. The campground is several miles down a one-way country road (meaning no loop runs or late-night snack runs), but this place is fantastic.

It's a family owned campground and everyone in the family lives here. There is even a nail salon run by the daughter. They put me in a slot that is right next to the shower/bathroom/laundry/trash and general store so no long treks to the shower on cold mornings.

Camper, set up

Since I have never owned a camper, am mechanically disinclined, and have no tolerance for anything remotely associated with what might be considered a "task", moving into this camper could have been a horrible experience. The person who checked me in was so kind as to back my camper into the spot for me, plug in the electric, plug in the water, provide hoses for the fresh and waste water until I was able to purchase them, and crawl under my sink to tighten the valves that were leaking.

Right behind my camper is the Catawba River

My camper is parked next to the Catawba River; there are trees everywhere, traffic nowhere; I'm sitting at a picnic table now enjoying this beautiful weather. I can't believe I haven't done this sooner. 

Those are horses on the playground!

One of these horses just got loose! This is real time folks.

Got em!