Joseph Stewart State Park, Set 1: Lost Creek Lake Pano and...Our First Outing with our New RV was a SMASHING SUCCESS!! (+10 insets!)

(+10 insets!) Please view large, you'll love it!! (for photo info, please scroll down to "Today's Pictures")

Steve and I arrived home yesterday afternoon from our 4-night stay at Joseph Stewart State Park and it went PERFECTLY!!

Everything went as we'd hoped! We got everything packed, the trailer attached to the truck hitch, and away we went! The roads were clear, the weather was perfect and we encountered no problems whatsoever on the 45-minute drive to the park.

The exhaust brakes are AWESOME! There is a fairly long hill up and then down the other side on the way and we were delighted that our truck purred the whole time. Everyone knows that feeling safe is priceless and it was just wonderful to experience how smoothly and easily the truck slowed the trailer down. Also, the brakes are quiet! What a great system and a perfect decision to add them to the truck. By the time we got home, both of us felt completely confident that we would be able to take our new trailer wherever we wanted to go! Hooray!

Getting into our campsite was a dream--backing up and maneuvering into position is so much easier! And when it came time to level the trailer…all he has to do is press a button! Our Avalanche has its own automatic system so we don't have to do anything but watch! No more ramps! No more leveling apps that never work! No more stress! YESSSS!

Our stay was fabulous! Surrounded by lovely parkland on all sides, we enjoyed marvelous weather every day. The mornings started out cold and cloudy and became warm and sunny in the afternoons.

And my…what posh accommodations we have now! The Avalanche is a huge step up from our comparatively junky Grey Wolf. Granted, the Grey Wolf wasn't horrible but it was well-used and left us increasingly unhappy with its multitude of problems and shortfalls.

Highlights of our New Coach:

Living Room and Kitchen: The living room, with its 10' ceiling, is very inviting and has a cozy (electric) fireplace, a large sofa and extremely comfortable lounge chairs (our last coach had a tiny couch but no living room at all!) The dining area has actual chairs at the table instead of needing to slide into a dinette booth. The kitchen has an ISLAND, lots of counterspace and a deep, 2-part sink with a very nice multi-function faucet. There's a super stove and oven and a huge microwave! The refrigerator and freezer are twice as large as the unit in the Grey Wolf--nearly as large as the one in our home!

Windows: This coach is absolutely filled with windows! The Grey Wolf was like a cave with its few small windows. The Avalanche has windows everywhere, and most of them are very big! They're tinted so we can look out and nobody can see in until it gets dark, at which point we pull down the blinds! :) The height of our coach allows us to have wonderful views and we enjoy just looking outside with happy smiles on our faces!

Bathroom: The bathroom is small but includes a very spacious shower with sliding glass doors instead of a flimsy shower curtain. The mirror is well-lit! This might seem like a small thing but a badly lit mirror will drive you crazy! The Grey Wolf's bathroom mirror had such horrible illumination that our additional lighting couldn't correct the situation…it was so annoying!

Bedrooms: We both have proper bedrooms, each with doors!! (Steve snores so we sleep separately, thus getting a good night's sleep and Steve isn't pummeled all night! :D) For this trip, my bed was the couch which folds out into a bed, topped with a memory foam mattress. The situation isn't ideal because the bed fills the room entirely. Eventually we'll have a twin-size bed to replace the couch and it will be exactly right!

Our Visit:
We had a very relaxing stay and just enjoyed being there. We had bacon and eggs or steak omelets for breakfast and for dinner we ate steaks, roasted chicken, and even cooked hotdogs over our propane fire pit! And of course, we enjoyed our lovely espressos with cream!

Pumpkin had a fabulous time too. She really loves the coach and RV life in general because she gets so much attention and one day we took her on a very nice walk that had her full of song! Joseph Stewart State Park really is a marvelous place!

Steve and I would happily move there forever except for one thing: ZERO internet. Steve gets the tiniest blip of data so he can read the news but that's about it. However, we knew this from our first trip so we were prepared for being cut off while we were away.

I spent my time relaxing, wandering around taking pictures, processing my images, writing, treasure hunting with my metal detector and doing crosswords. Steve relaxed, added mud flaps to the truck, fiddled around with a few things in the coach, and played video games. Both of us played with Pumpkin too, which is always fun. In other words, our trip was pure bliss!

Today's Pictures:
During our walk with Pumpkin, we ended up looking out over Lost Creek Lake and of course, I just had to take a panorama! I hope that you look at it full-size as it's quite a sight! :D You can see that the water level is quite low right now but will fill up again with the upcoming storms.

My insets: I had a lovely time strolling around and just "being in the moment" with my camera. The set today includes bunches of wonderful things I found as I nosed around, including a picture of an oak tree I featured from our last trip (I've included an inset to show the original), a picture of our truck and trailer, mushrooms, leaves, a pretty little foot bridge in the forest, and an oak tree with the biggest burl I've ever seen!

Pam, I hope you are doing well…I wish you could have looked out on the water at Lost Creek Lake and toddled around with me on my strolls. It was such a treat to be there. Neither of us felt hurried or obligated to fill our days with a million things. It was wonderful. I hope that you're feeling well! SENDING HUGS!!!

Explored on 11/16/19; highest placement #1.