A couple weeks ago, we dropped off the Mountaineer at Tacoma RV for some minor warranty work. With the trailer gone, I thought, what a great time to build a parking pad. We had parked the trailer along side the house during the summer, but as the rains hit, I didn't want it sinking in the soft ground. We parked it on the pavement, but this made for an inconvenient parking situation.
The weather was going to pretty good, so I decided last Friday was the day to get forms and gravel. Off to Home Depot and after about $90.00 for treated 4x4's, I was ready to begin. Some squaring and staki
ng and there it was, a 26' by 10' area ready for gravel. I called and they told me they would be out soon. I continued to prepare the sight and ask Lori to come take a look...why do I punish myself..."why dont you make it bigger" she asks? So instead of chasing her off with a shovel, I just set the forms out two more feet and get it ready just as the gravel arrives.Now, I am tired and ready for the truck to dump it and with a small amount of raking, I am done..ya right.. The truck arrives and as I discuss with the driver about how the ground might be soft and I mention the fact that I'm not sure where the drain field starts, he refuses to drive onto the lawn. I understand and watch as he drops five yards of crushed rock in one spot for me to rack out. My muscles tell me this is stupid and then I think...Erv, my riding buddy, has a tractor. After a quick call, he is eager to head to the house and assist (must not have noticed the now steady rain!) Boy was I glad to see him. 5 yards is more than I thought. After an hour or so, the area was level and we were ready to try it out.
I settled in for the evening to muscle spasms, back pain and joint lockups from all the exercise. Being bull headed, I refused advil and spent several hours during the night now too stoved up to get up and take some advil. Boy does the wife sleep sound. All the moans and groans only made her snore louder. I was able to crawl to the living room the next morning and hit the pain killers. We later headed to Tacoma to get the RV. We made a side trip to Loris folks to drop off firewood, take them to Costco and assist them spending some money on a new Plasma TV. Got it home and set them up and we were off. At Tacoma RV, the parts guy was in the middle of showing us how our new JT stablizer's worked and he stopped, looked and told us they had been installed wrong. He dashed off and returned with tools and within a half hour, we were off. I was getting nervous as I was very tired and it was getting dark. This would not be fun getting backed in as the driveway is dark and long. We made it home and I was right. After several tries, I was frustrated, worn out, but in the driveway. I left it on the pavement for the night and felt a fresh start to make the turn into the parking spot in the am.This morning after a long and mostly painless night, I fired up the truck and with no cars to worry about, I could try a couple different angles and find a good line for backing into the new spot. With a couple adjustments, I was in the spot and my calculations for length worked very well. Don't tell Lori I said this, but the extra two feet worked well making the turn. I was in, set the new JT's and soon I was sitting inside watching the Superbowl Pregame show. Now we have a great spot and with a little more work, I will have power close and a walkway to and from the trailer. Now we don't have to worry about the weather (wind...trees...you know) and we have the
driveway back. Oh and by the way, even with only the front stablizers down, it is very noticeably stable. So far, it seems money well spent.
