Not if you’re riding with me! What Firedude has an occasional boo boo? I thought a bit of humor was in store for my next blog. Here’s an excerpt from my first book…..
Now Firedude being the seasoned expert that I am of course I never make any mistakes. Well until now I just haven’t admitted to any. I figured maybe I had better come clean in hopes of saving you some money, time and the embarrassment! I know many of you thought the Firedude was/is an expert on RV’ing (yeah right), but well I have my moments. I’m trying my best to minimize and eliminate these nowadays.
Now Mr. Firedude has driven trucks most his life, fire trucks and I even drove big rigs on my days off so ya figure I’m a pretty experienced fella right? Of course I am, but sometimes I seemed to leave my experience in the previous campground! Yep heading up I-5 in northern Ca. on my way to the Pacific Northwest I see my fuel gauge telling me to start looking for fuel. I see an off ramp with several stations so I get off the highway. I carefully scan all four corners for my best choice and access with my big rig. I spot a Shell station and say hey I can get in there just fine and I did. As I topped off with fuel and got back in my truck I had a sudden feeling of despair come over me! Actually it was more like the Pink Panther struck again. I noticed I had NO room to pull forward from the pump as the curb was maybe 6’ in front of me and a planter full of bushes. My wife looked at me with that “oh great what ya gonna do now look”! I calmly looked at her and said how would you like to spend the night here honey? Well needless to say I had to “alert’ all the customers and everyone that I was going to have to back all the way out. I did and it was a chore and at least 100 people just had to watch me! Good thing for my trucking experience as I was able to pull it off fairly easily, and more importantly quickly. I was sure glad to get out of there and back on the freeway. The weird part was I kept noticing out of the corner of my eye that my wife was sure giving me some pretty weird looks, but of course I never asked why!
Mr. Firedude was doing his camp check and of course my sidekick Shorty was with me., she went on all my camp checks with me and just loved it! Well this was her last camp check. I kept the windows rolled up pretty high because Shorty for some reason (she’s a small little terrier mix) always thought she was 100 times bigger than all other dogs and I was afraid if she saw another dog in the campground and there were many, she’d jump out the window. Well I stop to talk to a camper regarding a campground policy and while talking to this guy I hear this “clunk”! I turn around to find Shorty standing with her front paws on my arm rest wagging her tail looking at me. Yep, she had stepped on the door lock button and had locked me out of my running truck in the far reaches of the campground! I look back at the guy I had just issued a warning to and he was doing his best to maintain without breaking into hysterical laugher. I do my best to control and harness the impending doom feeling that was sweeping upon me!
I then look at this guy and ask. Umm, would you mind keeping an eye on my truck for me while I run home and get the spare key? He couldn’t hold it anymore and he and several others broke out in laughter. Well I did an Olympic dash all the way back to my trailer, retrieved my spare key and dash back to find Shorty napping contently in her seat! One guy was laughing so hard and asks are YOU the camp host? I said no I was just filling in for the day! Yep, that was the end of Shorty’s camp checks and darn near mine! Campgrounds are like small towns and it’s amazing how fast information can spread!
Tony (aka Firedude)
