If you live in the US, when you hear the word homecoming, your mind probably doesn't immediately think Spring. Instead, you are probably transported to a chilly Autumn night and memories of high school football, tuxes, dresses, a dance, and your parents taking more photos than is humanly allowed.
However, this past weekend I had another sort of homecoming. Actually, it was a twofold homecoming. As you might guess from the opening photo, I headed off to my parents house this weekend to pick up our trailer that we store there and bring it home to our house for @mrsbozz and I to get it ready for the season.
Many years ago my parents used to have their own trailer and when they did my dad had a spot right next to the garage for them to store it. As I said, it's been a while now since they had a trailer of their own, so as soon as we take our last trip in the Fall and I get the trailer winterized, we park it in that same spot next to their garage for the long Michigan winter.
It usually only takes a couple of minutes for me to get it hooked up and pulled into the driveway. I had meant to get a shot of it before I had it all hooked up, but I forgot. In fact, I had it all hooked up and ready to go before my parents even realized I was there to get it!
I decided to take a short walk and get some photos for this post. Above you can see where the trailer usually sits. My dad put down those boards many years ago to keep the tires out of direct contact with the ground while it is being stored. You can also see that I tore up the yard a bit pulling it out. My hope was that the ground would still be frozen enough for me to get it home without too much damage. In the past I used to wait a little longer and when those April showers come around, it can really make the lawn a hot mess!
This is the back yard where I spent much of my time as a young person. It wasn't until my teens that the houses were back behind them like they are now. Before that it was all woods and open fields. It was a pretty awesome place to grow up and explore. In fact, before all the houses were there, it was basically wild nature all the way back to one of the major rivers that eventually ends up in town. When I was a kid our neighbor saw a bobcat in our "back 40".
We always called it the "back 40" even though it was nowhere close to 40 acres. Maybe one or two at the most. It was still a pretty awesome place to grow up. Back in the corner to the right there is a huge white pine tree that I used to climb and hang out in. If you look really closely, you also might notice that the back area tends to hold a lot of water. We used to have a big garden back there when I was very young, but the constant flooding caused it to be a bit of a pain.
Over to the left is where the doghouse used to sit and our dog Sparky called that her own until she got a tumor and we had to have her put to sleep.
Straight ahead used to be the site of my sandbox and a playhouse that my dad built himself over top of it. My sister and I spent many hours between those two spots playing as kids.
At one point we were going to get a pool and put it here, but things never really worked out for it and we ended up not. It's probably for the best to be honest. I would hate to think of my parents still needing to do all the upkeep on a pool at their ages. I used to play catch across this span of yard with my dad as a kid.
Although bringing the trailer home for the Summer means we are that much closer to camping, one of the things I don't like about having the trailer home is how much space it takes up in my driveway. Looking back now, I should have had the driveway widened a bit more when I had them repair the damage at the end of it and even things out. Even if I would have just had the section closer to the house widened so I could still park my truck next to the trailer.
Instead, I have to park the truck in front of it by the road, but it's really not that big of a deal. First world problems am I right? Now that she is home, @mrsbozz will prepare to do a deep Spring cleaning of her. Meanwhile, I will check the gas lines with a bottle of warm soapy water to make sure there are no leaks. I will also de-winterize the trailer by filling it with water and running all of the antifreeze out of the lines. Finally, I will pull each of the tires off and inspect them for irregular wear.
While the tires are off I will also pull each of the four wheel bearings apart, clean all the old grease off them, inspect them for irregular pits or grooves, re-grease them, and put them back together. It's messy job that I have posted about before, but it's something I do every year to hopefully keep myself from sitting on the side of the road broken down instead of sitting around a campfire at my campsite!
Believe it or not, that was just a small fraction of my weekend. Wait until you see the rest!
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