Bonding in the Rain

Our first RV experience entailed renting an RV with the words “Rent Me” in big letters on each side. Due to being a rental unit we were not allowed to pull a vehicle behind so we were forced to rent scooters and pull with a trailer behind. It should have been a sign to us not to go when we went to pick the scooters up from a motorcycle shop. We rented these brand new scooters and as the man was loading them onto the trailer, the throttle got stuck and ran over the rail of the trailer and the man went flying thru the air and landed on the asphalt and the scooter was scuffed up with a broken mirror. Needless to say he said we would not be responsible and documented it and sent us on our way.

I must tell you that my husband and child did not want to take this trip, yet I was determined we were going to bond, slow life down a bit, and take 3 or our 7 dogs. As we were packing the camper, my husband comes out with a huge tv that he could not even fit thru the door. This was our first disagreement of the trip as I told him we needed to bond, read and relax. I said we did not need a tv so he reluctantly put it back in the house. The rental unit was the bare necessities with no carpet, washer and dryer, nor awning.

 We set out for our big trip on the Blueridge Parkway and on to Williamsburg and Jamestown. All thru the Blueridge Parkway we were flooded with rain and fog. So our first stop was late one night in a campground as we all sat inside the camper in a storm trying to play games. The dogs of course had to use the bathroom and each time we let them out, we would have to clean up mud on the linoleum floor with our towels. Of course I did not pack extra towels for clean up. We tried this in the rain for 2 days and finally went to the store and bought more towels cause we had no washer and being my husband’s first time to drive this, avoided all towns which had laudry mats to wash. The next day we ended up buying a tv because due to the rain we could only play so many games.

Because I was determined this would be a good trip, we needed some outside time. Well our next purchase was a tent because the camper had no awning. We could then sit outside and watch the rain as our 3 dogs sat on the couch from inside the camper looking out the window at us like we were crazy for sitting outside. At this point my husband and child were begging to go home. But no, we were going to ride the scooters we paid for. So the only 4 hours it did not rain, we rode the scooters to a winery near Monticello. My child screamed for her life the whole way back because it started to rain again and hurt her face. We were glad to get back to the camper with the dogs. I finally gave up my battle and agreed to go home a day early.

We have since decided to buy an rv with a washer, awning, tv and all the finer accessories. We are going to try this camping experience again with the 3 dogs!!!! Because we are going to bond, read, and relax! I cant help laugh at our experience and remember the good conversation we really had stuck in the rain. Needless to say we can hysterically laugh at the movie with Robin Williams “RV”.

Submitted by Rhonda Robinson of Lebanon, TN as a part of the RV Centennial Celebration “Share Your Favorite RV Memory” contest.

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