On a spring afternoon two years ago my husband asked me “Wanna buy a camper?”
“Why?” I asked him.
“Well, the neighbors are selling theirs. They said they want $1500 but they’ll give it to us for $1000!” So we bought a camping trailer, a 1989 Prowler Lynx. It was only 15 feet long, but it had a bathroom! I immediately made reservations for a week at a state campground in Delaware- timed to coincide with a trip to the track for the fall NASCAR races.
Every weekend that entire summer we’d say “we’re gonna take the camper out- test everything, make sure everything works and make sure we know what we’re doing!” So of course when September came we found ourselves spending our first-ever night in the camper in a Wal-Mart parking lot in New Jersey. We spent more time, and some money, in a different Wal-Mart later that day when our fridge turned out to be dead!
When it started raining on the second day of our trip the winds picked up and didn’t stop for four days. For two of those days we braved gale-force winds, the camper rocking and shaking so much I was afraid we were going to go over on our side. My parents, who were staying in a nearby hotel, thought we were nuts for sticking it out, and were so worried about us that they came to visit us on the worst day of the storm.
My dad parked his huge F250 truck (with a crew cab and cap) in the site in front of us and completely blocked the wind – we barely rocked at all. They left thinking “This isn’t so bad. They’ll be okay.” I barely slept that night. And that bathroom I was so excited about? I was terrified of being in it when we went over, so I walked to the bathhouses in the rain and wind rather than risk it!
We never did tip over, but for four days we sat inside our tiny little camper wondering how the couple in the flattened tent three sites away could stand it. The day we left the husband came over and asked us how we were doing. “We were worried about you two,” he told me!
We nicknamed that camper the “Sorry about Your Vacation,” because it rained (heavily) every time we used it and I began to feel bad about ruining other people’s trips. It’s no longer ours, but in its place we have a brand new hybrid trailer with an even better bathroom and hopefully better weather karma. We’ll soon see- we’re leaving tomorrow for our longest road trip yet- Myrtle Beach, SC.
Despite all the trouble and stress of that first trip, we’ve never looked back. We’ll be RV’ers for life- and although I thought he was crazy then, “Wanna buy a camper?” is my second-favorite question my husband ever asked me.
Submitted by Ruth Belschwinder of Schenenctady, NY as a part of the RV Centennial Celebration “Share Your Favorite RV Memory” contest.
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