by Good Sam Club Member Barbara Allen
We bought our first RV in 1995, a used 21 foot Shadow Cruiser. I took it to a school parking lot to learn how to maneuver it. Although I had driven a school bus for some years, it is very different to maneuver a fifth wheel.
We were all set for our first trip. We were going to a state park with some family members. At that time they did not take reservations, it was a holiday weekend, so we had to park in overflow. We had nothing for dry camping, or as they call it now—boon docking. The others had owned RVs and been camping for years. They had us park in a U shape. They made it very easy for me, I could just swing around in a circle and park, and then they parked.
The second day we were there, my husband says, “Our black tank is full.” I guess we had been using way to much water. So we pulled the table away, a few inches from the side of the fifth wheel, hooked up and headed for the dump station. I pulled in; he got out and says “it’s the wrong side.” So I pulled out, turned around and came in the other way. Yes, you guessed it, wrong side, for real this time. I went around the block and turned around again. As I pulled into the spot again, I see some campers sitting at their site enjoying watching us rookies. They were having a good laugh on us. I was a little peeved at my husband but we had decided we would try to not get mad at each other.
After, we finished that disgusting job. I drove our S 10 pickup (which we already had sold, just waiting for our new truck to come in) back to our lot. I had to back in this time, and I might say I did a mighty fine job. I was about 6 inches from the table that we had moved away. I was quite proud of myself. My husband got the jacks down, unhooked what he had to unhook and yells out go ahead pull away. Crunch!! Yep, tail gate was still up. Again we looked at each other and said nothing. Ether one of us should have seen that the tail gate was still up. After a few months of camping we realized our black tank was not full in the first place.. We enjoyed the rest of our days that weekend and have had many laughs telling the story of our first time out.
Barbara and her husband Dave are Members of Meadowlark’s Ohio Good Sam Chapter 43.
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