Dang RV

I love that line from the movie “Doc Hollywood”. It fits me. I’ve been in Idaho for several months at home but now I’m back to my trailer in Pasco and getting ready to travel again. Of course, just returning to my trailer this week has been an adventure.

There was no way to work around the rain storms in Idaho. I had to leave during one. Loading up my truck to leave left me completely soaked. I looked like a drowned rat by the time I finally hit the road. Undaunted though, I tossed the wet coat in the back and cranked up the heater.

It rained for over 100 miles out through Spokane, WA. Just outside Spokane, I heard a loud clunk on the passenger side of the truck. It was too rainy and dark to see what happened until the rain finally stopped. I had lost the mirror on the passenger side of the truck. The assembly was still there but the mirror glass had taken flight. Sigh.

A few hours later, the cat and I arrived in Pasco,WA. I opened the door of my much-missed trailer and my nostrils filled with the wonderful scent and my eyes beheld a wonderfully clean home. Mother always made us clean the house before we went away on a trip. I totally understand why now.

Due to more rain, it took a couple days before I could move the trailer to a spot with better wifi signal for my work. With winter coming on, there is much more spot choice now though the park is still pretty full of full-timers. First I ran to the nearest auto parts store to replace my high-flying mirror. It seemed like a good idea to actually be able to see what I was doing. Of course the new generic mirror is not at quite the correct angle to be parallel to the ground like the old mirror was but I can live with it.

Then I disconnected everything and jacked up the front of the trailer with the electric jack to hitch up. I do have to brag here that I got the truck positioned in 1.5 shots. I hit the button on the electric hitch jack to lower the trailer onto the hitch and… nothing. Dead. It had worked only minutes earlier but now was dead. Thinking the batteries had died again, I reconnected to electric and tried again. Nothing. AAARGH! Fine, I grabbed the bar to lower it manually. Because the bar fits into the top, it hits my tanks so you have to constantly reposition it. You can’t just do one smooth move. Rackas frackas. I decided to peek at the jack fuse inside the battery box. The fuse was fine but the dang fuse holder was melted and broken. Sheesh! OK, here I cheated and did what you aren’t supposed to do. I held the pieces together to operate the jack and get hitched up. A little smoke and it was done.

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3 friends and I share a memory that will last us all a lifetime and of course it occurred while we were out camping together. Last week we repeated and renewed it to a smaller degree at a friend’s house.

It is very difficult for women to go camping together. Children and husbands tend to keep us anchored to the home either by their will or ours. I have noticed that men don’t seem to have this problem at all though of course there are exceptions. We managed to get 4 women together with one van and one trailer for a weekend at Round Lake, ID a few years ago. Round Lake is a state park with excellent swimming on a small no-boaters lake and an easy hiking trail around the lake that goes through 4 different types of flora and fauna to make it quite interesting.

We ate, we floated together on rafts in the middle of the lake and talked, we raced, we hiked, we ate, and we played games. It was one of the best camping trips I have ever been on despite getting sick with a migraine during it.

One night, we were in the trailer playing Uno and Outburst. We played for hours and got pretty into it with lots of killer Uno tactics, ganging up on each other, etc. At one point, all the cards just suddenly started falling the right way for lots of competition and blitzing. We got a little loud… OK we were very loud! Suddenly, there was a banging on the door of the trailer. Outside, a park ranger identified himself and said, “Do you know we can hear you all the way down to the green bathroom?!” Quiet down!” That let loose a raft of schoolgirl giggles and jokes about the brown bathroom which I’m sure the unknown ranger did not appreciate. But how could he have known that he was barking at librarians! LOL. Yes, my friends are librarians, normally accustomed to shushing others. We did apologize, closed the trailer windows, and tried to behave the rest of the night. Those darn librarians will get you in trouble every time so be careful.

Since then, it has become a standard joke to tease each other with and be teased with by our friends and families. Moments like that cannot be replaced. They are priceless.

Oh, and if you were wondering, no rangers or police came knocking at the house this time.