It was the summer of 1995 and we had just purchased a new Coleman Arcadia popup camper. Having only previously tent camped, this was living high in the lap of luxury. We chose a popup because on a trip with friends, they had their popup set up and were fixing dinner while I was still setting up our tent in the dark.
Our first trip was going to be to the Agua Chaquita canyon in the Sacramento Mtns. of New Mexico. We had everything (we thought) packed, I had the 10 gal water tank filled and we headed out for a wonderful 4th of July weekend in the mountains.
Having been to this place on several occasions there was no excuse for missing the turnoff. We ended up on a one lane logging road for 1.5 hours to get back to where we needed to turn into the canyon. We were thrilled to finally get a prime area right next to the creek that runs through this area.
After unhitching and leveling, it was then that we discovered that we had no pots and pans for cooking the food that we had packed. No problem I thought. We got to the little town of Cloudcroft 10 minutes after the store had closed. We ended up at Walmart 40 miles from where our new RV was parked. We finally got dinner cooked and eaten and I told my wife that she needed to come outside to see the stars. She wanted to wash the dishes and flipped on the water pump switch and transferred 6 of our 10 gallons of water into the water heater leaving us 4 gallons for the weekend. So much for using the shower I thought. 10 minutes later it was storming and hailing so loud that we had to yell at each other to be heard. It didn’t last long though but it soon got cold. It may have been the 4th of July, but at 8000 ft in the mountains it still gets cold. I thought, “I was sure smart to get the furnace installed”.
After two nights we were out of water, propane and the battery was dead. Did this discourage us from continuing our RV adventure? We have since had 2 travel trailers and are on our 3rd 5th wheel because we love it so. Besides, have you ever seen the stars from the mountains of New Mexico?
Submitted by Edward Van Cleave of Greenwood, IN as a part of the RV Centennial Celebration “Share Your Favorite RV Memory” contest.
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