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Guest Post to Lake Placid
As campers that were new to the Hardtop Trailer – previous. tenters – we set off on a camping trip from PEI, Canada, down through New England to Niagara Falls. We were excited at the luxury of sleeping on a bed ‘OFF THE FLOOR’, no more early morning exercises trying to get out of the inflatable bed that had partly deflated during the night! Well our camper was quite an old model, and didn’t have the wind up jacks, so my hubby improvised and welded on brackets for slide up and down jackposts to be held in place with bolts and nuts ….
Day one we were on the road and then out of the blue we caught a flat tire. No problem, we had a spare, and so with a little effort traded it over on to the Camper, and then hung the flat on the spare wheel hanger until we could replace it.
Day Two we were driving along the highway, singing along to the car radio when suddenly the peace was shattered and the choir silenced by an almighty noise. After pulling over, we realized one jack had vibrated the nut and bolt off, and was now dragging along the highway ( at least we could find our way home by following the ruts in the road). And of course we hadn’t taken any spare bolts.
Now as all good Girl Guides know, you can always find something in nature to help you out if needed in an emergency. So, after a little searching, we found a really strong twig off a tree, which fit perfectly in the hole where the bolt had gone, enabling it to hold up the jack.
The trip rolled on and soon we were on our way to crossing Lake Champlain in New York State, on our way towards Lake Placid – a famous and beautiful Olympic Village in the White Face Mountains of New York. We lined up for the ferry, and then while waiting decided to go inside to have a coffee at the terminal.
As we came out, we noticed a lot of onlookers gathered around having a good old laugh at something. We went over to see what was going on. Imagine our surprise when we saw that the subject of the amusement was the back of our lovely luxurious hard top camper – you know, the one that was carrying a spare wheel with the tire ripped to shreds on the back, and had a jack held up with a tree twig ….
In an effort to save our embarrassment we tried to be the last folks to enter our vehicles before the ferry crossing, but had a great trip regardless.
The Lake Placid Olympic region is situated in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State and actually hosted the 1932 Winter Olympics as well as the 1980 games, and while the town continues to market their Olympic past to tourists, there are plenty of other reasons to visit the area. Plenty of outdoor sports, restaurants, shopping, and locally crafted brews top the list. More on this later but in the meantime check out this site.
P.S. We did get a new tire as soon as we found a place that sold them. Highly recommended ….
Filed under: Camp Site Tips, Destinations, USA
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