Camping Trip 1

Cold Water, Open Flames, and Blocked Arteries

I love the way my husband writes and so I’ve asked him to share some of our camping adventures.  This is from my old camping bog.

The concept of blogging (is that a word?) sets me on edge as I feel it will eventually be the downfall of printed books in general.  I have a Ph.D. in English, and I have old fashioned ideas about the fact that I think the written word should be just that or, at least, printed.  Regardless, my wife asked me to work cooperatively with her on this electronic brainchild, and I plan to jump in with both feet, or a mouse and keyboard as the case may be.

So, on with motley…

As our blog indicates, we decided to play it safe by taking our new pop-up camper for a shakedown cruise to a local campground with which we were very familiar and which was within an easy driving range of our home.  Our goal was to gain the experience of a weekend of camping with the safety net of familiar surroundings. I am extremely glad we made that choice.

At the outset, everything was going according to plan.  The hook up of the camper to the truck went well, although it was touch and go for our marriage for a while as we tried to decide who would do the “backing up” and who would do the “directing.”  Eventually, our love for each other won out, and I let her drive as I am horrible at taking directions.  We hooked up, after a surprisingly small amount of trial and error, and drove to the campground with our excitement riding high.

The campground was no disappointment either.  We were assigned a great spot by the showers and playground, and the kids could play while we set up. Then, as we pulled into the spot, and the truck listed to one side, the first complication hit.  The ground was not level.

Now, you might think that such a thing would be obvious, and I had prepared for some unevenness, but this was truly mountainous in proportion to the very level yard we had at home.  Also, I sort of misunderstood the concept of the stabilizer feet on the camper, and we ended up using them as the means by which to level and support the camper… which brought us to

NEW CAMPER
LESSON #1 – Bring Leveling Boards!

Yep… I did not bring a single leveling board.  Despite the fact that I watched my father-in-law unload his leveling boards on repeated occasions, it never occurred to me to pack my own.  I literally thought that the stabilizing feet were for leveling the camper and supporting its weight.  Thank God that no permanent damage to the camper was done and that it supported itself throughout the weekend.  Now, we take a number of boards with us, and I constructed wooden shoes for the stabilizing feet.  They no longer take the weight of the camper as supports but function correctly as stabilizers.

End of Lesson

Continue reading here.

John blogs sporadically at The Crabby Wizard.