Day 3 – Indy, our first driveway campsite!

It was another warm and sunny morning in Mogadore, OH as we packed up our campsite for the first time. John started with the tanks and yes, to everyone who knows John doesn’t really like to get his hands dirty, he successfully emptied the black water tank! We should all be very proud of him. 😉

We secured all items we could think of in the interior, lifted the jacks, and hitched up, the latter of which John actually felt was the easiest part at this point since we have had the most experience practicing this aspect of camping thus far. We made sure the propane was off, everything was locked up, did our walk around, and headed out around 11am, Indy-bound.

In the car, I made a check list of sorts of everything we need to remember to do before pulling out. Even though we did pretty darn well – from what we could tell, we only forgot to close the door between the bathroom and kitchen – it’s always safer to double check everything.

The drive was not the best today, still a lot of sway from tractor trailers and we’re not yet sure why or if this is normal. John did a good job keeping us under control, but he had to work pretty hard at it. With the Memorial Day holiday coming up, we hadn’t been able to find any service availability at RV dealerships near the last campground to have our hitch checked over, so we are hoping to have better luck in Indianapolis. Otherwise, it was pretty bumpy when the road wasn’t perfectly smooth, and again, we think this is pretty normal, but still want to have it checked out. A part of me hopes that this isn’t normal – those bumps were driving me a little crazy at times!!

We only made one stop for gas on today’s trip at a Flying J – thank you, 10% Good Sam discount! – and had another healthy meal of gas station corndogs. (We will be making an effort to be a little healthier from here on out, I promise! Though the corndogs were not terrible, I must admit…). We hit pretty dense rush hour traffic nearing the city, but John did great driving through it, and we arrived at my cousin’s house a little after 5pm, where they have graciously allowed us to set up in their long, gravel driveway.

The driveway was a relatively easy setup to get into except for some pretty steep dips for sewer lines on each side of the start of the driveway and across the street. John had a great start backing in the old-fashioned way, but steady traffic from people coming home from work prompted John to start over, circle the block, and then try the nifty new trailer back-up assist in our 2016 Ford F-150. We must say, it worked really well! We were able to get it up the driveway problem-free, the only minor hiccup was a tree branch that we had to keep from hitting with the rolled-up awning.

We then worked together to unhitch and get our camper level. This is getting much easier as we figure out what we are doing! We were set up in a half-hour to forty-five minutes if I had to guess. My cousins also graciously allowed us to hook up our electric, put some water in our tank, and use their shower, which is a perfect setup for us. Given that it is the launching week for summer and that we are in Indy for race week, we were certain that we wanted to steer clear of crowded campgrounds in the area, though we probably didn’t even have a choice.

It’s been great getting to see my cousin, who I haven’t seen in about ten years, and meet her beau, adorable new baby boy, and three dogs. We went out to a great dinner at Jackamo Upper Crust Pizza (or Jackamo’s as they call it out here), a local pizza/Italian place. The specialty pizza was delicious, and not to sound like a pizza snob or anything, but I am always pleasantly surprised to find good pizza outside of the Northeast!

Since there are some errands we should run as well as a lot of fun things we can do in the next few days, we are going to sleep on it and see what tomorrow holds!