Camping Adventures

Just Getting There was an Accomplishment

Halfway across the country with a 50-year-old camper

My wife and I love the outdoors and traveling. For years she wanted to restore an antique camper, and I wanted to go to Utah to see the national parks.

We both got what we wanted late last summer, just after I retired. We had bought a 1972 Scottie camper, and she did most of the work of restoring it. I'll have to admit it looks great, but I was concerned about pulling a camper halfway across the country.

We traded our truck for something a little stronger and newer, but it was still a “new” truck to me and I didn’t trust it yet.

We decided to also take our car as well as the truck. We thought we might go our separate ways for a day or two, and we wanted to have some flexibility.

Just getting to Utah was quite the adventure. We planned to stay away for three weeks and we were gone just over a month. Even then, I was in no hurry to get home.

On the second day, we got into a traffic accident on the Interstate in Amarillo, Texas. The truck and camper were the last vehicles in a five-car pileup. One vehicle stopped suddenly and the next four crashed into the pile. I was about three cars behind in our car and narrowly missed being the last one in the crash.

The truck didn't appear to have a scratch, but the camper got dinged a bit. The SUV the truck ran into had a huge dent. From that point, we had to contend with leaks and the battery for the camper didn’t work.

The day was not done with us. That evening, our car broke down during rush hour in Albuquerque. I was about five or six cars behind the truck, driving the car when it jerked violently. A warning light said, “service transmission now.” I felt the car lose power and got it off to the side of the road as fast as I could. The engine was running fine, but it was not going anywhere as the transmission had stopped working.

I called AAA at about 6 p.m., and they told me it would be at least a couple of hours. We had not planned on staying in Albuquerque. We were vaguely aware there was a big festival going on. I soon found out there was not a car available to rent within 50 miles of the city, and we soon learned there was not a campsite or hotel room available either.

My wife managed to get the truck and camper turned around, and came back to where I was. It was about 9:30 p.m. when the tow truck from AAA showed up. We got all we could out of the car and stuffed it into the camper. I told them to take it to the nearest Ford dealership and by 10 p.m. we were on our way again.

We tried finding a campsite but had no luck. The nearest one we could find was 100 miles away, and the owner was not sure she would still be awake when we got there.

We stopped at a gas station just north of Albuquerque, and I noticed some trucks parked in the back. I asked if we could park there for the night.

“I guess so,” the person behind the counter shrugged. “Just keep your doors locked. It gets a little sketchy.”

It didn’t look like the best area, but we were tired, it was late and we did not have a lot of options. We parked beside one of the trucks and spent the night there. We did not have electricity or water, but we were 50 feet from a public bathroom and that seemed good enough.

I did hear some noises outside the camper during the night, and the next morning there were a few beer cans that were not there the night before. Other than that, it worked out fine. We were ready to roll again just after daylight the next morning.

It had been quite the adventure already, and we still had 400 miles to go to get to Utah. We had reservations at a campground near Arches National Park. We got there a little before dark. I was not at all disappointed that we did not have any more “adventures” that day.

When setting up I discovered the jack on the camper had been damaged. By that time I was in travel mode and it didn’t even bother me.

During the trip, I posted stories every few days, as well as photos. Internet and phone signals were spotty at best, so I posted when I had a signal.

Here are those stories.

Thanks to Ellie Jacobson for this summer writing prompt.