There’s a New Figment in Town. Adventure begins with a Flat Tire and then a Breakdown. How We Spent our Summer Vacation.

I’ve been sitting on a little bit of news that I haven’t shared. Mostly because of a silly naming issue, and so to fess-up here, we purchased a new travel trailer on our way home from Hunting Island in May. We had a couple of minor repairs on Figment that required a trip to Camping World, and the store in Ridgeland, SC was on our way. We had talked about getting a travel trailer - something bigger for longer stays, and something that could serve as temporary living quarters if we were to sell our house before we had other living arrangements, So, we are the proud owners of a new 30 foot Flagstaff Super Lite 30RDT, and it is so lovely, new and roomy even without any slides.

There were a few changes to make to the new Figment (for now referred to as “Too” - as in “Figment TOO”….and, admittedly I’ve been calling him “Biggy” as in “Biggy Figgy”, and then sometimes “Mr. Fig” because “he” feels like a “Him” whereas “Figment” feels like a “Her.” So, the naming dilemma is an ongoing process. I guess we will see what sticks, So, after our initial meeting, “Too” stayed put at Camping World in Ridgeland to have the water heater swapped out for an instant electric water heater, have roof sealant applied and a couple other items that needed attention. This gave us a great excuse to plan yet another trip to Hunting Island, and I hopped right on that and luckily snagged a site on Campnab for a week. We set out from home to pick up “Too” in the morning, and before sundown were settled in site 92 at Hunting Island. Sweet!

And then it rained cats and dogs for two days, so there was little time for beach or any outdoor activity, really. But, it was the perfect opportunity to work on some camper organization and it just happened to coincide with Amazon Prime days - so you can imagine the tower of boxes that awaited our return home. During that first week camping in Too, we discovered a couple of items that needed some repair or adjustment. One of them being a drawer in the kitchen that was missing its’ attachment to the frame, and the other being the sliding door to the bedroom was not really sliding much at all and seemed to be missing the screws that attached the door frame to the body of the trailer. After a quick call to Alex, the service manager at the store in Ridgeland, we made plans to stop in on our way from Hunting Island to Charleston to have these things fixed as well as have the tire pressure monitoring system installed.

As our week at Hunting Island came to a close, I felt as I always do - that the time was too short and wished I could stay for at least one more week. But, we packed and hitched up Too and headed off towards Ridgeland, which was only about an hour’s drive from the campground. When we were less than five miles from Camping World, a warning popped up on the truck that the pressure in one of the truck tires was low. Hmm…..less than 5 miles to our destination and, at that moment, we were driving on a little backroad in a somewhat residential area, we decided to just keep heading to our destination and hoping that the tire would make it to the store. Yep. So much for that idea. We were less than a mile from the store when the driver’s side front tire went completely flat. Fortunately, we were less than a half of a mile from a really great little tire store called “Ken’s Tire” and I tell you what, I don’t think there is a better tire store out there anywhere. A technician was there right away to put on the spare and get us to the shop. As it turned out, the spare and the tire that went flat were both 16 years old - so we had both replaced with new tires and were on our way in less than 30 minutes.

As our week at Hunting Island came to a close, I felt as I always do - that the time was too short and wished I could stay for at least one more week. But, we packed and hitched up Too and headed off towards Ridgeland, which was only about an hour’s drive from the campground. When we were less than five miles from Camping World, a warning popped up on the truck that the pressure in one of the truck tires was low. Hmm…..less than 5 miles to our destination and, at that moment, we were driving on a little backroad in a somewhat residential area, we decided to just keep heading to our destination and hoping that the tire would make it to the store. Yep. So much for that idea. We were less than a mile from the store when the driver’s side front tire went completely flat. Fortunately, we were less than a half of a mile from a really great little tire store called “Ken’s Tire” and I tell you what, I don’t think there is a better tire store out there anywhere. A technician was there right away to put on the spare and get us to the shop. As it turned out, the spare and the tire that went flat were both 16 years old - so we had both replaced with new tires and were on our way in less than 30 minutes. Our late afternoon arrival at Camping World, turned out to be just fine. They got us worked in the schedule and fixed up and we were headed to Charleston just in time for traffic hour. Happily, we pulled into James Island County Park just before dark, where we were to spend the next three days.

Our late afternoon arrival at Camping World, turned out to be just fine. They got us worked in the schedule and fixed up and we were headed to Charleston just in time for traffic hour. Happily, we pulled into James Island County Park just before dark, where we were to spend the next three days. As the title of this post suggests, there’s so much more adventure to be shared about our first trip out in TOO, so stay tuned…..