CAMPFIRE | IN THE DARK AND IN THE RAIN
IN THE DARKby John Pogas
AND IN THE RAIN my way to the Pennsylvania Turnpike and thought,“ if I go 70, I can make up for some lost time”. Not quite. Beside the fact that towing at high speed is dangerous, I couldn’ t even go that fast if I tried. That’ s because I didn’ t follow the dealer’ s advice to spend the extra $ 100 for an anti-sway device. The pop-up was sliding all over the highway. To make things even more interesting, it started raining. Hard.
So now I was driving 50 while everyone else was zooming by at 65 and 70. My wipers were the only thing going full speed. The kids and dog were doing an outstanding job of keeping the windows fogged up. It was at that point where the thoughts of a refund first started to enter my mind.
We have logged thousands of miles on our popup and shared countless camping trips filled with great memories and fun times. The first pop up camping trip, however, was the exception.
To call it an adventure is like saying a skunk has an“ odd” odor. I almost returned the pop-up for a refund, but the mistakes provided numerous“ learning opportunities”.
The first trip with our brand new Coleman Utah was to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We made arrangements to meet my brother in law, who was an avid tent camper. We thought it would be great for the cousins to get together, learn a bit about our nation’ s history, bond with my brother in law, and break in the new camper. We set the date and everyone was excited.
On the day of the trip, I decided to work a half day, getting home around 1:00. Since the kids got home from school around 3:30, I figured two hours would be plenty of time to pack up the camper, hitch up, and get on the road by 3:35. HA! I grossly underestimated how much time it would take to crank up, pack the camper, crank down, hitch up and wrangle the kids and dog into the truck. Lesson learned. Packing takes twice as long as you would expect.
Once everything was packed up and lashed down, we were on our way at 5:00 p. m. with rush hour in full gear. I made
When we finally reached our destination it was 8:00 p. m., three hours after the time I told my brother in law we would be there. I was relieved that we all arrived safe and sound with everything intact. Had we arrived at the original estimated time, we could have set up the camper in dry conditions with the benefit of the sun’ s illumination. Instead, I was in the dark and in the rain.
After I checked in and paid for the site, I was in for a whole NEW adventure: Backing up. I drove around the campground, trying to make out site numbers in the dark and in the rain. I finally saw my brother in law waving a flashlight. Jackpot! I found the site. I started to back into the site, but everything I did with the steering wheel had an opposite effect on the trailer. Even the slightest nudge sent the whole works into another direction. I went back and forth about 50 billion times and finally got the trailer parked. During all of this, something interesting happened. An audience of about 10 campers had gathered under
28 Autumn 2009 |