Parking Silver Lining

Parking--the act of placing your vehicle and anything attached to it, within a designated area.
I vividly remember the learning to reverse ordeals of 2012. Purchasing a truck with a wheel base that is two feet longer has increased the difficulty.  I am finding it a steep learning curve in a shrinking timeline. This is further complicated by the fact that my trailer is currently residing in my garage and while I could hitch it up and take it out to practice, I cannot and may never be able to return it to the garage unless I develop superpowers that will allow me to part the truck and push the trailer manually up the driveway.  And the time frame to departure is shrinking time span--less than a month to go.

I need to master the skill of backing up the trailer now! Last month would have been better and last year I actually felt that I had mastered it. I do not regret having purchased the truck at all. Being able to store the awning, barbecue, outdoor mat, etc. in the back is nothing short of wonderful never mind convenient and I will master reversing or...

There has been no shortage of advice and assistance from others and it is all appreciated but my progress has been slow. I totally forgot everything that I learned last year except the wonderfully small U-turn radius of Silver Lining and any other T@B trailer. Unfortunately this is not an option in most RV parks, if any. It did work well for me in the local RV dealer's lot when I went to buy the new jack and it also saved me when I turned down a wrong street last week. But this wonderful attribute will not be beneficial when I am trying to park for the night and I am not going to become a Walmart camper just because this important skill eludes me.

My learning curve has been affected by a poor memory of last year's discoveries. I totally forgot to hold the steering wheel at the bottom and as a result had a very discouraging experience at Miracle Beach over the long weekend. Once I was reminded of this simple trick I actually managed to back into my friend's driveway without hitting any trees or their large and expensive trailer parked on the other side. That triumph was short lived...

I went to the Costco parking lot after hours--lots of space and very few obstacles. This will be easy I told myself and then proceeded to almost jackknife the trailer. After 45 minutes of total frustration, and repeated forward manoeuvres to correct the problem, I came home thoroughly exasperated with myself  and wondering if there might be a capable trailer reverser person who would like to travel across the country with me.

The almost but not quite jackknifing experience at Costco had me totally questioning which way to turn the steering wheel since both ways made it worse! I watched the how-to-back-up a trailer videos again and realized that my turning instincts had been correct but I still didn't know why the trailer failed to respond. It was time to ask:  "Is there a point at which the trailer stops responding?"
Kudos to Ken for patiently explains that yes there is a point at which you can't correct the angle without going forward. I have often thought that the Y chromosome carries some very selective and intuitive pieces of knowledge that the X chromosome lacks and now I'm positive that this is one of them. It made perfect sense when I thought it through and tested it out with paperclips on the desk, but it was not and has not yet becopme intuitive. I am tempted to buy a toy truck and trailer in order to discover other anomalies of backing up with a trailer. 

To increase my self-esteem and mark another item or two off of the ever-growing list I spent a day with my sewing machine. As a result Silver Lining now has window coverings and a screen door and some of the damage to my ego has been repaired.

The "magic magnet" screen door after alterations.

The window coverings aka Looky Lou spoilers.