October 18, 2018

When Vacation Plans Go Awry

We just limped home from a twelve day vacation.

It started great, going to a drag race event at a local race track with high school friends who brought their trailer here, but it went downhill fast. Our friends left late Sunday afternoon and we pulled out the next morning. A few hours into our trip, it began raining, and at times, the rain was so heavy we could barely see the tail lights in front of us. White knuckle driving!

Rain plagued us on every leg of our trip. We reached our first stop just after dusk, and were thankful that the rain had stopped before we got there. But as soon as I got out of the pickup to guide Hubby into the site, I found that there is something worse than setting up in the rain - swarms of mosquitoes! They were so bad that we didn't even try to level the trailer or unhook from the pickup. Hubby hooked up water and electric and got into the trailer fast. That's when we discovered our next problem. Driving through the rain, water had gotten under the slides and gotten the carpet wet. We thought it might have been because of the extra heavy rain, but it happened every day we drove with even with a light rain too, which was every leg of our trip. Water and trailers are a bad combination. So we had a new item to add to our set up checklist: dry the carpet.

The next three days were clear and we spent them doing some repairs on my mother's house. One of the things Hubby did was to replace her sump pump which had quit working in the last rain. She was thrilled and we were happy to be able to do some things for her too since we do so much for Hubby's mom who lives here. That's a story I will tell one day too, but since it will involve considerable griping, I'll save it until I can tell it without grinding my teeth.

We were hoping for clear skies when we drove the five hours to visit my oldest daughter, but it wasn't meant to be. It was clear when we got there though, and we had a really nice visit with her and the two boys she adopted. We were going to spend most of the day with her the next day, but radar showed a huge storm moving in, so we left when a light rain started. The edge of that storm kept up with us the entire drive to Roaring River State Park in Missouri.

We had borrowed some towels from my mother so we could keep the water from getting to the carpet, and it kept the carpet from getting sopping wet, but it still damp every trip. The towels though, were soaked. We arrived at the campground before our youngest daughter and son-in-law who were meeting us there. So we made a Walmart run, picked up dinner, and found a Laundromat to wash and dry our soaked laundry and ate dinner while we waited.

Skies were clear the next morning and we decided to try trout fishing. I know you are expecting a picture here. Any normal blogger would have a picture here. But my phone had no service and I didn't think to bring it for a picture. But I will tell you that the water was crystal clear and we could see the trout swimming between each section of the river. The river was more the size of a large creek, with rock dams every forty feet or so, which trapped the fish into pools. People were everywhere, calmly bringing in one fish after another. Now you would think it would be easy to catch a fish when you could see your fly land inches from the fish. And it was easy for those other people. But it wasn't easy for us. After hours of throwing every fly and worm in our box at just about every fish in the river, and donating a few hooks to the bottom of the river, Daughter and I gave up.

Finally, my son-in-law caught a mid-sized trout and as we congratulated him on getting one, he took it off the hook and threw it back. "What are you doing?!!!" we wanted to know. "It had something white on its head and I didn't want it," he says. He didn't even take a picture of it. Hubby, however, took a picture of his prize catch. Don't be jealous.


And it's not even a trout. Apparently we drove four hundred miles so he could catch the same fish, in miniature, that he can catch here.

The next day was cold and rainy so Hubby, Daughter and I played board games while Son-in-law played video games. We like board games and it is a nice way to visit too, so we didn't mind. Daughter and Son-in-law were disappointed though. It was their third camping trip in their new camper and every trip has been cold and rainy for them. They are discouraged and want to sell their camper. Mini Winnie anyone?

We broke camp the next day and hoped to drive home under clear skies. We got as far as Bentonville, Arkansas when the check engine light came on and the pickup powered down. We felt lucky that it ran long enough to get to the Chevy dealership and that they were able to start working on it right away. Unfortunately, they had to order a part and we had to camp in their parking lot overnight. They let us plug into a 20 amp outlet and it wasn't too bad except that cars came through the lot all night, driving around our trailer to check us out before going over to look at cars. That was a little unnerving. Dealerships here put a gate across the entrances at night so cars can't drive through but they encourage night visitors there.



Twenty four hours and $1100 later, we were on the road again, which made that Chevy dealership the most expensive campground ever! And then we drove home in a steady rain and got home around midnight. I have never been so happy to be home!

If you are an RVer, either new to it, or an experienced camper, you know that things break or quit working from time to time.  It happens on cars and pickups too, and we get them fixed and carry on.  So don't let my experience here discourage you from the experience.  We've had far more good trips than bad.  In fact, if this is the worst trip we'll ever have, we'll be happy.

20 comments:

  1. Glad you are home. I will fully agree - water and RVs don't mix. That was the final straw when we had out trailer - the roof was going and water really got in. I wish your vacation had been better. Just glad you are home - even if your bank account is $11OO lighter. At least they let you camp there - with some electricity!

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    1. Yes, we watch the roof and sidewalls carefully. Looks like we are going to have to find a way to examine the floor now too. And yes, it was very good that they let us use their electricity!

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  2. Oh dear ~ hope you are feeling 'life is good.' now that you are home ~

    Happy Day to you,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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    1. Good way to put it. As a matter of fact, I am feeling better about life now. Thanks!

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  3. Some of the best laid plans. I'm sorry you had all the rain and all the issues, especially that expensive truck repair. I'm glad you're home safe.

    Have a fabulous day and weekend. ♥

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    1. It could have been worse. At least they got us in quickly and we got to come home with both vehicles. As much as we all prayed for rain during the drought this summer, I am ready for it to end now.

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  4. Hi Marti, thanks for your recent visit. Enjoyed reading this post about your mis-adventures...but it still sounds like you had a good time with your family, even with all the mishaps and problems. I just became your newest follower, and hope I can get back to check up on your travels often! Have a great weekend, and TFS

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    1. Thank you! I thought Blogger had eliminated followers. I'll have to check that out. And you are right, we did enjoy our visits with family and that's the main reason we went on the trip.

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  5. Wow! What a trip! I think worrying about the water in the trailer sounds like the worst part. Playing board games with family sounds like the best part. My family loves to do that. WE are all anti video gamers - son-in-laws and all.

    We just returned from a weekend campout. We didn't take our trailer this trip and stayed in a tent. It was ok except for the part where you have to get out of your sleeping bag when it is cold.

    Thanks for sharing your story.

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    1. Oooh a tent! You are adventurous. I hate to admit being a wimp, but I am a wimp. I like having my bathroom within a few feet at night.

      I wish my whole family liked board games, but only one daughter loves games. And adults we meet don't seem to like them as much these days either.

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  6. What an adventure ! That was some expensive trip ! Purrs

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    1. Yes, it was. Looking back though, it could have been so much worse. At least we were near a city with a Chevy dealership when it started having problems.

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  7. Oh dear. That is not the ideal camping trip, is it? I remember tent camping with my hubby and kids one time, and it rained so hard we had to abandon ship and go to a hotel. When we returned the next day, there was a 'pool' in the center of our tent! Tell your daughter and son-in-law not to give up - the good times will outweigh the bad!

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    1. We went tent camping once, and had the same experience, except we had a troup of Brownie Girl Scouts with us and we all ran to our cars to finish the night. The next morning, all the tents were collapsed in the mud. In comparison, this trip wasn't bad at all. lol

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  8. Well gosh this post isn't going to persuade anyone to buy an RV is it? Yikes! What a bunch of problems all at once. As a former full-time RVer I know there are days like that -- but the good parts made it all worthwhile (for us anyway). Even though the two times (in over 10 years fulltime) when we did break down, it was in the middle of an intersection once and in the entrance to the RV park another time (so nobody could get in to the park). Good stories now, not so much fun back then...... all that rain would be discouraging for you and your daughter and sil though. We always tried to be out of Oregonn and the Pacific northwest before the rainy season started.

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    1. You've got a point. We've been RVing for 3 years and never had more than a pump that quit working. This isn't enough to make us sell out, but I don't think the kids were meant to be campers. My son-in-law was so picky about their brand new trailer that it just wasn't fun for either one of them.

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  9. Maybe not a stellar vacation, but it sounds like a memorable one. So sorry about all the rain and then breaking down. At least you were close enough to a dealership to get the car worked on. Hope the next trip is a lot more fun.

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    1. Definitely memorable and I am grateful that we got to a dealership on our own and didn't have to wait on the side of the road in the rain for a couple of two trucks.

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  10. Whew! What a wild trip. It wasn't enough to discourage me. I still want to get another camper and start camping again. I miss it.

    Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry

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    1. I hope it doesn't discourage anyone, that wasn't my intent. You've made me think maybe I should reword a few things. Stuff happens, but it's no fun when there is another problem after the first. People are used to cars having problems from time to time, and it happens with campers and boats too. Except, come to think of it, our boats used to have an engine problem with just about every trip to the lake. In comparison, this was small potatoes.

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