We packed up the outside of the trailer yesterday afternoon, the awning, mat and all that stuff, so that we could get out of dodge early this morning, but at 10.30 we were still in our space and it didn’t look like we were going to be going anywhere. We’d both gotten up early this morning and taken care of all that we had to until all that was left was to hook up the fifth wheel and unhook the electricity. Mike started to get hitched up, he backed onto the trailer once, twice, three times, ten times, and just could not get the truck and trailer hitched together. He tried to get the hitch to lock around the fifth wheel pin and it just wouldn’t. He tried everything, he backed the truck in with aggression, he rocked the trailer back and forth, he fiddled with the handle, but nothing worked. He kept at it for about 2 hours, I kept my mouth shut the whole time (I’m finally learning), and then he decided to go ask for help at the ranger station. A first ranger came and couldn’t help as he didn’t have a fifth wheel and didn’t know what the problem was, so he called for help. Two more guys showed up, a ranger and a wrangler, and after much fiddling and backing up the wrangler finally managed to get the hitch handle to lock and drop. Apparently the problem was that it had seized up a little and just needed a bit of lubrication.
We finally got on the road just before eleven and from then on the rest of the day was plain sailing. We drove to the 101 and had a lovely drive north for about 3 hours. It really is a beautiful part of the state here, it’s very lush and green, with lots of space and farmland. After leaving the 101 we took a county road past more fields growing all kinds of who knows what, before picking up highway 25. We followed this twisty turny road for about thirty miles before we came to the road that this park is on. A few more miles past lots of vineyards and we found San Benito Thousand Trails where we are going to spend the next couple of weeks.

We got checked in and drove in to the park to find a space; there are lots of 50 amp spaces here so we headed for that section first. This place is huge, there are over 500 spaces, and the spaces themselves are huge. The only problem is that the park doesn’t look like it’s been mowed since Mike was a little boy. It was difficult to find the spaces as they are all so overgrown with long grasses; we had to literally wade through the grass when we eventually picked a spot to get everything set up. The trailer came off the truck without any issues this afternoon, and we got everything else done fairly quickly which was good as by the time we got here it was almost time for dinner. I think it’s going to be a nice fortnight here as it’s quiet and peaceful, the only issue we have, as usual is no Internet; and we can’t even tether to my phone here as we have absolutely no cell service – good old AT&T!

Mike: I'm still going to fix this problem! @#%&$#@