Mystery Monday: Skippy’s Maiden Voyage
June 13th, 2011 | 
Author: I’m back from the maiden voyage of Skippy the Tent Trailer! For our “shake down cruise,” a friend & I decided to stick pretty close to home by heading to Williams. We stayed at White Horse Lake Campground which is the largest campground in the Williams area.
Here are some of the things we learned:
- Pull-through campsites mean you don’t have to *gasp* back up the trailer!
- You’ll always forget something you need (bow saw, syrup for pancakes, Lily’s tick medicine.)
- Leave early (Thursdays are good) to get a pull-though campsite.
- Stop and snap pics of the sheep.
- White Horse Lake Campground doesn’t have a single pull-through campsite.
- There is a perfect speed that makes dirt roads less bumpy.
- You’ll always follow somebody who doesn’t know this and drives so slow your teeth rattle out of your head.
- No matter how fast or slow you drive, everything will be covered in dust!
- S’mores are the best when the chocolate is a little bit melted.
- The Forest Ranger will always come to your camp to invite you to their evening talk RIGHT as you are burning dinner.
- Get dirty.
- After twenty minutes of trying to back the tent trailer into the campsite RIGHT WHERE IT IS NOW is good enough.
- Oatmeal Stout beer and s’mores go together surprisingly well.
- Bring more trash bags and paper towels than you think you’ll need.
- Dogs are bed hogs.
- No matter how short you cut your fingernails, they WILL get dirty.
- When your friend tells you you’re over-packing, ignore him. He’ll appreciate all the “extra” things you bring.
- Always bring sweatpants to sleep in.
- Take plenty of pictures!
- Put extra sunscreen on your nose. You’ll regret it later if you don’t!
- When you just can’t get the tent trailer to come down, find another tent trailer owner and beg for help.
- Keep an extra beer on hand to offer to said tent-trailer helper.
- It takes Lily 24 hours to get into the groove of camping.
- Three days without a shower is my limit.
- When your dog jumps out of the kayak, be thankful you not only put her in her life vest, you attached it to the kayak!
- Meals taste better outside.
- Sleep in at least one morning.
- Have the first meal of the trip already cooked so all you have to do it heat it up.
- When you’re saying “Yes dear!” while gritting your teeth, it’s time to stop trying to back up the trailer and time to start heating dinner!
- Bring plenty of snack food.
- Buy enough wood to have a fire and then collect more to keep it going.
- No matter what you do, cooking corn over the campfire will get you filthy!
Posted in 
Tags: 
mmm I love corn over the grill. did you soak it first?
No, I didn’t. I peeled back the husk to remove the silk, put the husks back and plopped it on the grill. The outer leaves burn, but the corn doesn’t. It DOES make a mess though!
I’ve always been taught to soak the corn – all of it, so you don’t have bits of charred corn husk floating around ;-P
How ironic. While looking for campers i found one in Tucson that I want to buy but the CL post only identified the pop up as Coleman,1997. So most of the day (between naps) I have been trying to identify the model name and finally found on similar to do that. It was your Skippy! Being nosey I had to read the posting and found myself smiling throughout it all. Then I realized the white horse campground was on the I visited on a friends bachelor party fishing trip. Guess where I slept, in my truck, the reason I’m looking for my own skippy. Thank you for making me smile. If all goes well and I get my own Skippy, If you happen to see a Red Ranger, an older man and his old dog in the cab, pulling a Coleman, with Skippy II on the back, honk and wave as we will be off looking for a restful place the dog can swim in and I can watch him have fun. And yes Smores do taste better if you let the chocolate melt alittle…