In the Beginning

When I first started telling people about my plans to sell my house, buy and Airstream and see the lower 48, people kept urging me to start a blog. I had every intention of doing so. I might have gotten around to doing it sooner, except that I got off to a rather inauspicious start.

Believe it or not, I got the house prepped and sold exactly when I planned and at a price that was about what I had planned on.  And, that was what I thought would be the hard part. After all, Dad and I were pretty much confirmed pack rats and not too bothered by disarray.

It took hours and hours of work to haul out all the stuff and find new homes for all of it. I sold some, gave a lot away and threw a lot out.

After all the help from friends, and various trades people and my own hard work, I got the old homestead presentable. The realtor even agreed that I should ask for more than she had first thought when she looked at it. She couldn’t believe what I had accomplished! In fact, the first person though the house on the first day it was listed made and offer that day. After the requisite pas de deux,  we settled on a price and arranged for the closing.

Oh, loading out the things I was taking with me directly from the house into Flo went smoothly enough. So did setting up camp in Markin Glen County Park in Kalamazoo. It was early in the season and it wasn’t hard to snag a pull-though spot.

There were a few hiccups in figuring out how to hook up and unhook hoses and wires and such. I think it took me almost two hours to get everything squared away and ready to go to the next campground, but I got it done.

The problem came when I had to back in to the site I had reserved at Yankee Springs State Park, just about a half hour away.

Ah, backing in! Ever my nemesis.

Well, I sat there and thought about it. I was hoping someone would come by and offer to help. However, it was pouring rain, and the few campers there were safely holed up in their rigs. I tried to remember all the advice I’d been given. I screwed up my courage and went for it.

It didn’t end well.

I ended up backing the left side of my truck bed into the left front of the trailer. I could tell that I was making a mistake, so I pulled up and gave it another go. This time I really made a mess of things, and I backed the right side of the truck bed into the right side of the trailer. One of the curved glass windows broke from the stress on the metal. I was still finding bits of glass for months afterwards.

By that time, all the noise I was making – crunching metal and breaking glass – got the attention of another camper. He came running out and told me to stop. He asked me if I wanted him to park it. I gratefully accepted his offer.

Then I had to assess the damage. Oh, MY! I really made a mess of things. The bed of the truck was squished. Both tail lights were ruined.

The front of the trailer was dented on both sides and one window was broken. Luckily, the pebble guard on the window didn’t break, so I wasn’t getting wet.

I couldn’t even bring myself to take a picture of what I did to the trailer.

The next day, I went into town to talk to the insurance company. My original purpose was to talk to them about my insurance needs going forward. It came out that I had a problem right now, and she set about getting a claims adjuster to come out to the camp ground to look at it.

It sure does pay to have good insurance. It was kind of complicated, because I was getting the truck fixed in Oshtemo, and the trailer fixed in Grand Rapids. Then, I had to have the bed liner sprayed in again. I think it took almost two months before it was all done.

I took the trailer up to Grand Rapids to my friends at Woodland Travel Center. They did the estimate and made a temporary cover for the window – which you couldn’t even see because of the dark pebble guard.

They got me fixed up good enough to roll and THEN I went to RV Bootcamp where I finally took a driving lesson.

I had intended to do other things, but life got in the way. I was finally on the road by the middle of June. I had intended to be on my way long before that.

And that was my beginning. I am happy to say that I got much more skilled at managing the rig. Not perfect, but I am still on the road.

And, I learned an important lesson from all this. There are always people who will help you, even if you don’t know who they are.