Hitching Time

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Hitching Time
Campground Review

Dinosaur Valley RV Park – Starting Slow

It didn’t take long after we picked up our new camper to make our first reservation at a nearby campground. We picked up our new 2023 Kodiak Ultra-light 332BHSL bumper pull camper on Monday and by Wednesday we had our reservations made for the following week. We decided to start slow on our first camping trip and camp at a park that was close to home for several reasons. 

First of all, when you have never camped in your own RV, you may think that you know what you are going to need, but if you are anything like us, there will be stuff that you don’t have or that you forget to load. Camping nearby allows us to be able to run home if we forgot something that we absolutely had to have but far enough away that it felt like we were away from home. 

We are really bad at this! It never fails when we go on vacation we always forget something. This time is no different as it turns out. You can plan and make lists, and check and double-check things but it always seems that we forget one or two things. This time was no different. We forgot to load our folding table and camping chairs for our kids. 

Secondly, if you are not used to pulling a big trailer, taking a short trip for your first excursion will help you get the feel for it without having to drive a long distance. This trip was the second time in my life that I have pulled anything bigger and heavier than a 16-foot flatbed trailer. Let me tell you, there is a big difference between pulling a 16-foot flatbed and a 34-foot RV. 

The first time that I pulled it, I had some very weird stuff happen to my truck that you can read about in the post, Warning Lights Galore. This time though none of them came on so maybe it fixed itself.

Heading to the Campground

We had taken a sneak peek of the Dinosaur Valley RV Park a couple of weeks prior to this trip and our first impression of it was that it was pretty nice. It has a very nice atmosphere to it and even though it is still under construction, it is a pretty nice park. 

This trip we went with our camper ready to camp. I got off of work and went home to finish loading the camper and do some last minute things. We hooked up and off we went! Pulling it was fun and there are definitely some things that I am going to have to do to my truck to make pulling our camper a little easier. 

We got an equalizer hitch to help level the truck out some but I think we need a little bit more so we are going to get some airbags put on my truck before we go camping in the spring. More about those in a later post. 

We arrived at the park about 4 pm and checked in. The camp ground was pretty empty being that it was the week before Christmas. We picked a spot that was pretty close to the playground so Jess and I could sit outside our camper and our kids could play on the playground and we could still see them. 

Setting up the camper for the first time

We had partially setup our camper in our yard a few days prior to camping and slept in it for one night. We only had power hooked up so we didn’t have water or sewer hooked up to having running water. This time was a little more extensive. 

We found our spot and got parked. We failed to check and see if the trailer was level from left to right so we we a little off level but it wasn’t to bad. We got unhooked from the truck and got it leveled front to back then dropped the stabilizer jacks down. It took both of us to get the sewer hoses connected because they we brand new. Then hooked the water up with the water filter and were ready to move the slides out. 

What We Did On Our Camping Trip

While I was getting all the outside stuff done, Jess had made a fire since we were cooking hotdogs for supper. Once the fire was going, she went inside and got the inside of our camper ready then it was time for supper. The kids had a blast roasting hotdogs over an open fire and we finished the night off with some roasted marshmallows then it was off to bed for the kids.

Jess and I sat outside under the stars sitting around our camp fire for another hour or two just enjoying the quiet and the crackle of the fire. With the exception of a couple crackles that crackled a little to loudly and sent a few large embers out and onto Jess’s leg. We finished out the night laying on our new mattress, we had to ditch the one that came with the trailer and get up a better one after the night we spent in the camper at home, her playing on her IPad and me starting this blog post.

Honestly that new mattress was so comfortable, we may end up getting a king size one just like it for our house. We slept so good that night and for the first time in a long time, I actually slept until about 8 am. The kids woke Jess up about an hour before though. After we got up and around it was time to make some breakfast. Time to try out the flat top grill outside to cook the bacon on. I made the bacon outside and Jess made the eggs and toast inside, both turned out great.

After breakfast, the kids went to the playground and played while Jess and I straightened up and organized the under belly storage area. The kids met a new friend while playing and we talked with his mother for a little bit. After they left, we went on a small adventure down to the river that runs along side the campground. There is a nice shoreline and hiking area along side the river where we were able to throw and skip rocks and the kids found a bunch of small shells. 

Next we drove around the camp ground and checked out the bike track, the goat and donkey pastures and we able to pet them, we checked out a teepee and some indian statues and the park store. We bought some souvenirs and some fossil eggs for the kids. The fossil eggs we pretty neat, they were made out of some type of sandy material and shaped into a dinosaur egg. Inside there was a small toy dinosaur. By this time is was past lunch time so we tried to grill up some hamburgers, but the wind was blowing to hard and the flattop wouldn’t get warm enough. We decided to nix our lunch plans and gave the kids something small and easy to snack on and started packing up the camper. 

We had originally planned on staying two nights but between the time we made the reservations and the time that we actually went camping the weather forecast went from the 40’s for lows and 50’s for highs to being 43 for the high and 12 for the low on Thursday. The high is forecasted to be right after sunrise then dropping fast after over the next two to three hours. We really didn’t want to have to pack up everything , drive home and unload everything when it was in the 20’s so we decided to leave a day early.

Dinosaur Valley RV Park

Dinosaur Valley RV Park is a pretty new park. I think it is a little over a year old now. It is owed by one of the people that I used to work with. He built it after he retired as our fire chief. It has come a long way in just a short amount of time. He has a great location! 

The park is directly across the street from DinoWorld, and right next door to Dinosaur Valley 

State Park. If you or your kids are at all interested in dinosaurs, this is the perfect place to go! There is also Fossil Rim Wildlife Park that is only about four miles away. It is a drive thru wild life park. 

There are 80 pull through RV spots that have both 30 and 50 amp service, water and serwer hookups. The RV spots are $49 Sunday – Wednesday and $55 on Thursday – Saturday. If you decide to stay for a week, you will pay for six nights and the 7th one is free. There are also five cabins that sleep up to two adults and three kids. Each cabin is fully furnished and has a queen bed downstairs and two twin beds in the loft. One of the cabins also has a pull out couch. The cabins are $139 Sunday – Wednesday and $159 Thursday – Saturday. There is also a $35 cleaning fee per reservation. 

The park has a family pool and an adult only pool and hottub. There is a bycycle/RC car track, playground, dog park, and event center big enough to hold about 65 people. 

Below is their website and social media pages, go and give them a follow and check out what they got!

Final Thoughts

Overall, everybody had a great time. I’m sure that we will be going there again so we can experience it all and stay longer than just one night, even though we only live about 30 miles away. I highly recommend checking out this camp ground. I would definitely say to plan on staying at least three day though as there is so much to do both at the campground and in the surrounding area. 

Thank you very much for checking out our blog, we will have more posts like this as well as item reviews and tip and tricks. Please follow us here on the blog as well as on our Instagram to get a more behind the scenes and extras look at our adventures. 

Until it is Hitching Time again…

Happy Camping!

NOTE: This post was originally posted earlier this year(2023), when we first started our blog. I am posting all our old posts to get us caught up with the present and then I will starting posting new posts.

General

Troubles With Our Truck

Have you ever had that “What in the world is going on” moment? Well, we had one the day we picked up our new RV. The first time that I pressed on the brake and the new brake controller engaged my instrument cluster lit up like a Christmas tree! That’s when I thought we might have some truck trouble. 

Instrument Cluster - Warning Lights

My traction control light was on, my auto engine turn-off light was on, there was another light that I can’t remember that was on and my cruise control no longer worked. It was very weird for sure. After we got home and unhooked the camper, I shut off my truck and when I turned it back on all the lights were off and my cruise control worked again. So, I reached down and pressed down on my brake controller and nothing happened the first time, but when I depressed it harder again all the warning lights came on. That told me that it was something to do with the brake controller.

I wanted to get a Mopar one that would integrate into my truck and work the best but they were back-ordered for about six months!! So we had to settle for an aftermarket one and had the RV dealership install it for us. So maybe they gave us a faulty one or wired it in wrong or something. Whatever happened it wasn’t playing nice with my truck.

So I gave the dealership a call and asked them about what was going on. I spoke with the installation supervisor and told him what had happened. He advised me that with my model of truck and how new it is, the brake controller is just plug and play. He said there is a plug that is in the wiring harness behind my dash that the controller gets plugged into and that was all they did. The supervisor then told me that he had put the controller on a simulator system that they have and it checked out fine. They told me that I should take my truck to the truck dealership and have them take a look at it and that it would be something to do with my truck and not the controller.

On one hand, I could see where they were coming from. There isn’t much to a brake controller so there isn’t much to go wrong with them. 

On the other hand, how could one thing mess up so many other systems on a 2019 model truck that one little addition would cause if it was working correctly?

I will say though, my truck has a lot of ghosts in the system, so to speak. When we first bought the truck, the auto turn-off system wouldn’t work, and then all a sudden started working and I haven’t had an issue with it to this day. Sometimes when I try to raise my front windows from about 2” down they go auto down all the way instead of going up. 

Fine, I gave in and called my local ram dealership. I explained to them what was going on and they said something along the lines of, “OK, we will be happy to take a look and it see if we can find out what’s going on with it. You will need to bring your truck in and leave it with us, we are running about three weeks behind.”

REALLY!!??!!

How in the world can they expect someone to bring their vehicle in to be worked on and leave it with them for three weeks!! Yes, we have a second vehicle, but no I’m not going to leave my truck with you for three weeks and leave my wife without a vehicle with three kids. Aint going to happen!

Time to break out the volt meter and do some testing. With the warning lights and stuff on, I took my volt meter and tested the plug while my wife pressed the brake controller manual button and it showed to be sending voltage back to the trailer to engage its brakes. That told me that the brake controller worked with all the warning lights on. If that was the way we were going to have to use it then so be it.

A few days later we went on our first camping trip and we didnt have a single issue. We stopped several times so I know that the brake controller engaged but the warning lights never came on. My cruise controll worked the entire way, every time I tried it and the auto shut off worked as well. We have pulled our camper several times at the time of the writing and it hasnt happened again. 

The day I started writing this post, I did try to manually press the brake controller to see if it was still doing it. The first time I tried, nothing happened. I tried again pressing it harder this time and I did get the warning lights again. So while it is not totally fixed, it seems the computer in the truck has compensated for it or adjusted to it and doesnt show the warning lights anymore. 

I still should probably take my truck in one of these days and have it checked out but that it for later down the road since we are really only planning on going camping once or twice a week until we are able to do it full time.

Anybody have any ideas why this might be happening? Leave us a comment.

Please make sure that you bookmark our blog and give us a follow on Facebook and Instagram. On there we have more behind the scenes and every day life type things as well as post announcements.

Until its time to Hitch Up the Camper again,

Happy Camping

NOTE: This post was originally written and posted the first part of this year. I am posting old posts to get caught up with the present then I will start posting new posts.