The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

When we started our adventure we knew that it would not all be wine and roses. It did not take long for the reality of being on the road pulling 16 thousand pounds down the highways at 60 plus miles per hour.

Our first day on the road was a short one. Thank God. We left Hot Springs, Arkansas after having new tires put on Andiamo, our 34' camp trailer. We headed west to Daisy State Park on Lake Greeson which is only 50 miles from home. We stopped overnight there for Ms Charlotte's going away party with Weyerhaeuser Lumber. They had fried catfish, homemade coleslaw and all the fixins. Just a great evening.

When we opened the camper after our first 50 miles, it looked like a bomb had exploded inside. There was stuff scattered everywhere. Lessons learned in the fine art of stowing all gear before heading out on the road. Thankfully nothing was broken and only our pride was bruised.

The second day on the road was quite eventful. That is a really nice way of saying a rough one. Andiamo is not a new camper. She is 11 years old and even though everything works, not everything works perfectly.

As we were cruising along just 30 miles south of Tulsa we heard a Whoooooshing noise that came from the camper. It occured as we were going under an overpass, so my problem solving brain instantly decided it was nothing more than us driving through puddled water. That didn't seem to satisfy Ms Charlotte. She looked back and saw what was left of our awning flapping against the side of the camper. I looked into the mirror and saw the remnants of the metal attachments bouncing around along the interstate. The sound I mentioned was the tearing of the fabric on the awning away from the supports. Not a good sound at all to hear at that moment.

We were Extremely fortunate that this mishap did not occur when we in heavy traffic in Tulsa or what was a problem could have become a disaster.

We were able to stop the rig in a perfect place to be able to assess the situation. We both remained surprisingly calm and decided the best thing to do was to rip the remaining canvas down from it's attachment to the camper. Then we pulled the remaining pieces of the metal awning together and used bungy cords to fasten it to the side of the unit.

We we got back in the truck we were both able to laugh at our plight and decided to put a large warning sign on the back of the camper that tells everyone to stay 500' back because we are RV Rookies!

The only real bright spot in the situation is that we now have a very nice ground cloth to put under our tables.

One of the life lessons for me here is to not take anything for granted. The old latches on the awning had loosed and opened from the road vibrations. I remember wondering a couple of weeks ago if these latches might need a little reinforcement, but did nothing about it. Hopefully I will not do that again. I vow to pay attention to that little voice in the back of my head.

Day three on the road produced no mechanical failures that we are aware of, and we cruised into Denver, Colorado last evening just in time to get our camp set up and enjoy a glass of wine as the sunset over the Rockies.

We plan on spending at least 10 days here to celebrate my birthday with my kids and grandkids. That should prove to be a great time. If they ask me what I want for my birthday, I will tell them a nice awning!

The Captain and Ms Charlotte