umbrellas. I wondered what they found so fascinating about all of this. They should have been in their campers, not watching some doofus newbie trying to set up camp in the dark and in the rain.
I unhitched the camper and rehearsed the process I needed to follow, like the guy told me.“ No problem”, I thought. Just as I was about to crank up the roof, I realized that I never bothered to level the camper. So I hitched it back up, leveled it, chocked it, and then unhitched again. Finally. Time to set up.
Hooking up the electrical cord was the priority. Unfortunately the cord didn’ t reach and I did not have an extension. Great. So, I hooked up the camper once again, and cursed the fact that I am in the dark and in the rain, sitting in a wet truck. I pulled the camper forward a few feet, re-leveled it, pulled out the electrical cord and plugged it in. Great! Time to crank up the roof, set up camp, and get everyone out of the dark and the rain. I started to crank away and realized I have a new problem. The door was on the wrong side( up against the electrical box) and we were in the wrong campsite!
While cranking down the roof, the crowd dispersed because the rain started coming down horizontally. I cursed our soaked and muddy dog who kept jumping up on me, hitched up the camper, drove all the way around the loop again, and went back and forth another 50 bazillion times. Next step was to level again, but where was the level? I looked around for a few minutes and realized it was still on the roof from when I set it up 30 minutes before. Fortunately, it did not fall off when I did my encore tour of the campground.
So, once again, I leveled it side to side, chocked the wheels, unhitched, raised the roof and lowered the stabilizers. Perfect. The cord reached and the camper was in the right site, facing the right way. I stood there in the dark and in the rain, looking toward the sky and thanking God that I was finally finished setting up the camper.
Then I realized I’ m not quite done. I still needed to hook up the water, fill the water heater, and light it. With matches. In the dark and in the rain. I explained to my kids that the words daddy is yelling should not be repeated. Ever. I thanked my brother in law for sharing his long stem lighter, while wondering if
| Autumn 2009
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