First real trip with the pod

So after picking up the R-Pod this summer from Ohio, and giving it a one night trial run at a local campground (that was much nicer than I expected btw...I'll be going back), I finally spent the weekend in the pod with the family.

We hauled it up to Shanendoah National Park for a 3 day weekend, and everything went great.  The new Explorer had no problems hauling it up the hills (2011 Explorer V6), and once at the grounds everything went more or less smoothly.  We had 4 sites reserved for our group, and the first site I picked out was so unlevel that  when I unhooked the TV from the pod the camper rolled forward about a foot.  This was WITH wheel chaulks and all 4 leveling jacks down.  It actually rolled the front two backwards..thankfully they seem undamaged.  I need to inspect them further though.  Anyway, after that fiasco I moved to a more level site and set up.

The R-Dome worked great, and kept everything under it dry during the rainstorm the night before we left.  Now I've got to unpack it so it can dry out though..bummer.  However, I did set it up by myself in about 15 minutes, no big deal.  The hot water felt fantastic, as we used the pod for showers (and baths for the little one), the furnace worked perfectly, and the pod got tons of looks.  I saw at least 3 people taking pictures of it, had one more ask me about it, and apparently while I was out on a hike with the kid and the dog my wife was unable to take a nap in it because groups of people were walking by checking it out (they kept waking her up).

The only "problem" we had was that the smoke detector went off after having the propane lantern on inside for 10-15 minutes.  Wouldn't have been bad except it woke the baby up, and that's never a good thing.  Not sure why it went off, heat maybe?  Who knows. 

Anyway, all told we were thrilled with the camper.  We learned a few things too...we are due to return in October for another 3 day weekend, and this time I'm packing our bags and other various items (non-food related of course) into bins we can store out under the dome.  We had to much stuff stacked on the floor and it made walking around inside a little cramped.  Aside from that though, couldn't be much happier with it.

When we cook inside, we open the window behind the stove a bit, and then turn the fantastic fan on "medium".. works like a charm. So far we have only set our detector off once, and that was with the toaster, warming some pop-tarts.. the toaster hadn't been used in about 3 years.. we figure that had as much to do with it as the pop-tarts...

LOL.  Which weekend are you going, and where in the park are you staying?

Ah, we are also mid-October, but definitely not mid week.  We are a Friday-Sunday deal ourselves..

Big Meadows is pretty nice.  E-loop is where most of the premier spots are, but the bathrooms are nicer on the other loops.  We'll be there, in D loop this time, we just stayed in E-loop this past weekend.

Sounds like I'll probably be missing you by a day or less in the same campground though.