Perry Lake State Park, KS...

Well, we got around this morning and went to visit a church close to our campground in Lawrence, KS-- Grace Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  It was a great service-- solid teaching and their building was really nice (not that the building should matter- but it was impressive).  This little snapshot doesn't do it justice.  A friend of ours went to school here in Kansas and met his wife here as well.  This was their home church when they were both in college.  This is a new building, but the same church family.  He has been driving down here over the past year to visit with friends and family here in the area.  We had a great time worshiping here together.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend to check out too.  

There were a few hunters camping out in the camp cabins too.  These guys had just shot two turkeys.  They gave a whole turkey tail to our family and the Maynor family.  The kids were so excited!

Here we are going for a walk with the Maynors on one of the hiking trails in the park.  It was such a beautiful day out.  --a little chilly, but not too bad.

Chief Jacob with one of his turkey feathers.  

I did this not once, but four times trying to take this shot of Shannon and Traci...  Sorry about that.  Don't you just hate when that happens?

Here is the new rig all set up with the awnings all out.  It took a little big to figure out how they all worked, but they went up without too much trouble.  They are a nice touch... they allow light in the windows, but not direct sunlight, so the camper stays cool.  We really like the camper a lot!... A LOT!

Here it is from the other side.  There are awnings on both sides and in the back.  The front windows have rock guards on them.  the plexiglass over the window is tinted and lifts up on that front window towards the truck.

Here is our dog... taking a nap after the 7 kids wore her out!  Elijah started each morning by putting on his rollerblades and running Rhoda around the 1/4 mile loop 4-6 times...Rhoda was worn out!-- or waiting for lunch to be served.

On the drive home we realized that Elijah could play on his iPad with his newly fashioned fingerless gloves... :)

What a happy camper!!

Rhoda... worn out from the weekend-- taking a nap as we unpacked the camper and the truck... right at home.  This summer is going to be great!

Here is another picture of the Walker and Maynor Families hiking- Traci is taking this picture.  We had a great weekend!

So, now after a full week... well.. about 8 days with the camper-- we still love it.  We came home tonight and cleaned things all out and got ready for another road trip.  We had a lot of fun making meals and getting things all around this weekend.  We had 30Amp electric service in the park and water at the site.  We were able to use the electric service for the heater and the propane to run the water heater from time to time.  We didn't have any issues with any of the other systems on the camper.  It took a little bit to figure out how all of the systems worked, but everything went well.  

I replaced the kitchen sink faucet.  When we bought the camper the spout had one of those pull out sprayers in it.  the head kept falling off of it, so it needed to be replaced.  I bought a new one through Amazon, but it didn't get there until Thursday.  I had planned to replace it while we were camping, but I didn't have the right sized fitting to make the new one work.  I fixed that tonight though.  It is good as new.  The faucets in the camper are nicer than the ones in the house we are renting now... :)  Did I say we like the camper... A LOT!

Towing-  We were... well, let me correct myself- I was excited about the idea of owning an Airstream camper for a long time.  They are really nice and are about the only campers out there that people are able to keep forever.  Towing is really nice pulling our camper.  Here is a video clip on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHAaX944xOU

The camper we bought came with a really expensive Hensley Anti-Sway hitch.  They are really expensive devices that are used to connect to your car and the camper.  The device has give in it to allow the trailer to sway some side by side during wind gusta and sudden moves while driving.  This give prevents the movement of the camper from unsafely throwing the camper all over the road.  I had read about the anti-sway systems, but I wasn't planning on spending the money to purchase one as nice as the Hensley.  we were fortunate that it came with the camper.  As a result of having the Hensley hitch, hooking up has been a bit of a challenge for me.  the Hensley has a 2" shaft that you back your vehicle onto for towing.  The challenge I have is that the Ford has a 2 1/2" receiver on it.  Also, the Ford 2 1/2" receiver has a unique shape to it, so regular aftermarket sleeves don't seem to fit in it too well.  The sleeve that came with it moves freely- without a collar in the receiver- making it tough to get the pin through the receiver, sleeve, and Hensley at the same time.  I need to do some more practicing to get it perfect.  It's a challenge.  Once you get it all hooked up, the Hensley is really nice on the road.  The trailer is about 7000 lbs on the road.  When I'm up to speed on the road, I don't really feel the weight at all.

Emptying the waste tanks-  Today was the first time we had to empty the waste tanks on the camper.  That wasn't too bad at all.  I read through the book and a little RV guide book- thinking that it was going to be some kind of rocket science to get the tanks empty and down into the tanks at the dumping station.  It wasn't nearly as difficult as I had imagined it would be.  Traci and the kids got out to be of assistance if I needed it- without touching anything of course.  I donned the rubber gloves and took care of things without too much trouble.  After I got things all put back away and washed my hands really good, I got back in the truck and thanked everyone for their help.  We started driving to the house and LeAnn said that she wasn't going to use the toilet in the camper anymore- because that was the most disgusting thing she had ever seen... Too funny- that's our girl... 

We got back to the house and unloaded stuff.  We went out for some dinner and made our way back home to finish reorganizing stuff.  We had a great weekend together.  Weekend #2- still absolutely no regrets... we should have done this years ago... 

Steve