A new home for Towhee the Trailer

I’ve mentioned a couple of times here in the blog that I moved again … last fall. I moved out of the small grey house that I was renting in south Tacoma and I purchased a home in Lacey, WA, at the very south end of Puget Sound. The home I purchased is in a 55+ community (you have to be 55 years of age or older to live here). The small town of Lacey is right next door to the town of Olympia, the Washington State capital.

It’s a very nice community here. The three towns together (Lacey, Olympia, and Tumwater) are large enough to have amenities and “culture” and two colleges, etc, but small enough to be exceptionally comfortable and easy to get around in. And the particular housing community where I purchased a house/home and where I now live is just about perfect. There’s lots of green space around the homes here. It’s quiet. My home is larger than I need but it cost a bit less money to buy than I was ready to spend, so I am happy on both counts. The house has an attached garage (the grey rental house did not have a garage). My new home has a huge kitchen, a wood-burning stove in the living room, laundry, cable TV, wifi for internet, ceiling radiant heat (the best of any kind of heating, so I’m told by the professionals), AND a heat pump for air conditioning in the summer. Landscape maintenance is provided, water and a few other utilities are already paid for, the neighbors are terrific, and … here’s the best deal of the whole deal …

… there is an on-site RV storage lot! Towhee the Trailer is now but a five-minute walk (or a 2-minute drive) from my house. The RV lot is fenced, gated, locked, and has electricity for each RV to plug into. How sweet is that?!

Here’s a photo of where Towhee the Trailer is now parked.

The big RED arrow points right at Towhee the Trailer.

In early December last year, I towed the trailer out of her $200/month Tacoma/Puyallup storage lot, and towed her down to this storage lot in my new housing community in Lacey, WA. The cost here is just $25/month! She fits here quite nicely yes?

Well, no. Take a good look at the very first photo above and look at the monster tree that is right behind my trailer … and I do mean right behind. The trunk of the tree is about 12 feet away, at most. So, of course, the branches of the tree spread out over/above my trailer.

When I stand next to my trailer and look up, this is what I see …

Ummm, that is not good. If one of those branches (not to mention any part of the trunk itself) breaks off and falls on Towhee the Trailer (her roof, her A/C unit, her solar panel, etc), I will not be happy.

I started talking about options with the home owner’s association and with the other RV owners, but the storage lot was full and, not surprisingly, no one wanted to move their rig into my spot. So I waited. And I waited. In the end, I didn’t have to wait very long. Just a couple of months ago, another spot opened up and I was offered the empty spot. I drove up to the storage lot to take a look at the new empty spot.

In the photo below, the new empty spot is immediately to the right of the white dotted line. It’s a tiny bit narrower than my first spot is/was, but there are NO trees anywhere near this new spot, and the new spot is slightly protected by the carport/awning that covers the trailer in the spot to the right. For about six months of the year, there’s a monster RV motorhome parked in the left spot, next to the new empty spot. Although the motorhome is longer and taller than my trailer, it’s just about the same width, so we would fit side by side quite nicely.

So I reserved this new spot with happiness! I called the manager right then and there, and the spot was mine. Hooray!

While I was up at the storage lot looking at the prospective new spot, in my excitement I hadn’t realized that I’d left the door of the big white truck open. The truck was parked right outside the storage lot fence, just a few feet away. Little Towhee (remember her?) … unbeknowst to me, Little Towhee had picked up on my excitement, jumped out of the truck, and hopped right over to the new spot for the trailer. I was busy thinking about getting the trailer ready to move, but I kept hearing “cheep, cheep, cheep!!” I finally paid attention and looked around. Look at the photo below. Do you see her?

Little Towhee had planted herself right in the middle of the new spot and was singing and dancing, and saying, “come on Ann, get that trailer over here, get it, get it, get it! This is our new spot!” What a great friend she is. 🙂

So, with Little Towhee’s help, I moved the trailer right then and there. Here (below) is the trailer in the new spot …

Of course, the move didn’t happen quite that magically. I had to untie the cover and remove the cover (it’s large and it’s heavy, took about 30 minutes with two ladders), then I had to go through my thorough checklist for the trailer and the truck for hitching up and towing, and finally I pulled the trailer out of her old spot (backing and filling because of the lack of much maneuvering room), and I then backed the trailer into the new spot (also with backing and filling because I surely didn’t want to hit that carport/awning next to me). Then I pulled the trailer forward and back a few more times, and placed blocks under the tires on one side, adding and removing blocks until the trailer was perfectly level. And THEN I had to reinstall the cover and tie it down and I’ll tell you, installing one of those covers alone is a job. The instructions say that one person can’t do it, but you know me, that’s just a challenge. Eventually, the cover was on exactly right and tied down securely.

I was tired. But I was definitely happy, as was Little Towhee the bird, and big Towhee the Trailer. Finally, I was in my new home just a few minutes away from this storage lot, and the trailer was in the perfect spot for her new home too.

Remember the very first photo up at the beginning of this blog post? Take a look up there at it again, and then take a look at the photo right below this paragraph. The big RED arrow tells the tale.

That monster tree no longer threatens my trailer and no longer bothers my sweet dreams at night.

I feel a whole lot more settled now, with the trailer safe and sound. If and when the State of Washington opens up campgrounds and camping again, then I’ll be even happier. The time will come, it will. All sorts of things have been put on hold right now. This really is just a delay that doesn’t hurt me. There are many people who are having many more problems than I am. I count my lucky stars.

But there’s one more thing that I count my lucky stars about. Above, I mentioned the lack of maneuverability inside the storage lot here. I could get in and out of that first spot without too much trouble, but it did take quite a bit of backing and filling, and getting out of my truck several times (shutting the engine off each time of course) in order to walk around the trailer to see where the back corners of my trailer were. It was a bit of a pain, frankly.

Well, look at the photo below … there’s a gate right in front of my new spot! I have practically a direct shot back into my new spot, and a direct line out of the storage lot too. How sweet is that! 🙂

All it took to get this new spot was a little patience, some cordial communication, and a willingness to accept whatever came my way. On the other hand, I have always wondered if Little Towhee might just have an “in” with the powers that be. She’s a mighty wonderful little bird.