We have had our share of crazy experiences including the time we put a giant hole in the front of our camper with a kayak...on our first trip out!
We've also forgotten to lock the hitch securely on the ball and the camper came unhitched on the road and slammed into the back of the truck.
Or there was the time that we stopped for breakfast tacos at the beginning of a 14-hour journey and used the opportunity to lower the jack on the camper in order to adjust our new weight distribution hitch. When it was time to go, we took off, tacos in hand, forgetting to raise the jack back up and subsequently dragging it about 6 feet until we officially destroyed part of the street and successfully rendered ourselves immobile. A very kind Texas gentleman came to our rescue after noticing us from his nearby business and ended up having to saw off the jack so we could get back on the road again. We decided to stop at a Tractor Supply store and buy a manual jack so our 10-day trip wouldn't end the first day it started. See the proof below:
Other times, we inadvertently dragged the side of the camper up against the iron gate in our driveway (twice!) breaking the tail lights and water connection off in the process.
We have also left the weight distribution "key" on the bumper of the truck and lost it somewhere on the road on another trip. That was sure a fun exercise in creativity to try and get the weight bars off the truck.
Another mishap developed after we were starving and the only thing in sight was a Burger King with the inside closed for renovations. Our toddlers were sound asleep in the back seat, and if you have kids, you understand why we didn't want to open and shut any doors waking them up mid slumber, so we tried to make it through the drive-thru. That didn't go well because there are these height restriction bars we had never noticed until this day that won't allow a large 10-foot high camper from going through. Not only that, but a line of cars made their way behind us and the dumpsters on the property kept us from being able to get out of the situation by pulling forward. We ended up getting out and asking all of the cars behind us to back up and get out of the way so we could vacate the premises! Thankfully there was no damage done.
For some reason, on one of our earlier trips to a Texas State Park, we didn't think to check our confirmation email for details on late arrivals prior to heading out. We learned the hard way that most of the parks lock their gates past a certain hour of night. This park was approximately 7ish hours away and since we left after work on a Friday, we didn't show up until close to 11 p.m., arriving to some very locked gates and very low cellular signal to check our email. Not knowing any other options, we parked in a church lot down the street, and opened the windows for airflow. A few minutes after we settled, a large aggressive-breed dog began incessantly barking directly outside our camper over and over long into the night, as if to *not-so-kindly* inform us that we are parked in his church parking lot.
To make matters worse, what started as a cool breeze ended up being a very chilly night without any heat. By morning we hadn't slept at all, and when we got to the park entrance in the morning, the ranger said, "why didn't you use the gate code we provided in your confirmation email?" OH MY GOSH, are you serious?! I can hardly remember what park that was or what we even did because we were so sleep deprived for the rest of the weekend. But we did snap a picture of what we now call THE church as we started home on Sunday.
Needless to say, we have been through some pretty interesting camping adventures. But hey, it makes for great stories, and looking back I'm confident we will be stronger for it. Never again will we try to go through a drive-thru with our camper, or ignore our reservation confirmation email, and we will always use our departure checklist (found here!) before leaving anywhere that we've stopped along our journey. But just in case, I always say a prayer and hold my breath a bit before we hit the road (no pun intended!).
No comments:
Post a Comment