How to Turn a 2-Hour RV Trip into a 6-Hour Comedy Show
Buckle up for an amusing ride – what’s an RV trip without a bit of chaos?
When you're a full-time RVer who travels, you easily fall into a routine of procedures to follow before hitting the road. It's a challenge when you haven't moved in a few months. We were preparing to join a Christian gathering centered around the MEGA theme. Make evangelism great again. I know we're supposed to be here because Satan has thrown a truckload of difficulties at us.
I usually plan our trips. I'm the navigator, and I make the reservations. There's an excellent reason for that. I pay close attention to details. Since my husband is playing his guitar on the worship team for this event, he made all the arrangements. When I asked him where we were going, he said he had to consult his email because he couldn't remember the name of the campground.
He was also sketchy on our departure date. I'm an A-type choleric who needs to have a plan. I was busy writing and working on my website-building course and content to leave the plans to my husband. Finding out on Wednesday that we were leaving on Thursday put a bee in my bonnet. I only found out because I pushed Tommy to check on the details.
Enter strife and irritation! When my husband decided to pick up rocks before the stepping stone pavers arrive on Tuesday, my frustration hit high gear. We’re making improvements to our site, and I felt that this task could have waited. To me, it was unnecessary and added extra work. I would have preferred that he help me take down and pack up our Clam enclosure instead.
Tommy reminded me that we weren't supposed to check into the campground until 3:00, so we had all morning to pack up. On Thursday morning, in my prayer journal, I asked God to remove the spirit of strife. Depending on traffic and our GPS directions, travel days are stressful enough. I didn't need to start our trip with a bad attitude, but I couldn't shake it.
As I moved chairs and other items we wouldn't need for our weekend trip into our screened room, the journey across the loose rock became a pilgrimage of angry steps. I stomped hard and loud so Tommy could hear my irritation. He thought I was being a woman on a mission, and my anger went completely over his head. All the extra pounding of my flip-flops didn't faze him. It was my feet that paid.
We like to be set up in our campsite by 1:00, so not departing for our two-hour drive until then didn't help with my mood. I tried calling the campground about checking in earlier. There was no answer—more irritation. We'd packed up ahead of schedule because it was so hot and humid. Tommy was as tired of waiting as I was, so we ventured out, hoping that showing up early wouldn't be a problem.
Tommy entered the city destination into the RV's Garmin and had it on his phone. My navigating job was not necessary-until it was. The Garmin quit giving us directions for some reason, and the map on the motorhome's screen wasn't available because we kept traveling through areas without a satellite connection.
Thank God I heard Tommy's phone navigation system say to get off at exit 202 to the I-35 frontage road. He wasn't moving in that direction, and he didn't have his blinker on, so I hollered, Take the exit! He wasn’t expecting to be on I-35 for such a short time, and without the map on the dashboard, he didn't see the turnoff coming.
Trust me, you don’t want to miss an exit in Texas—those frontage roads stretch for miles! As our trip progressed, it became clear that missing that turn would have maxed out our patience credit cards. Once we left I-35, we were on a maze of Farm to Market roads, full of endless turns. It was not a pleasant drive.
I had to unbuckle repeatedly to venture to the back of the RV to see what had been thrown to the floor. Drawers and the pantry opened, and the TV set in the bedroom flew open. Vitamins on the back of the kitchen sink that hadn’t moved for hundreds of trips were rolling across the floor.
At last, we arrived at the campground. It was now very close to the 3:00 check-in time, as the trip had taken significantly longer than projected. The turn into the campground was a tight one. This is not a big-rig-friendly place. Since Tommy had all the information about our stay on his phone, I told him he should check us in.
When he told me where the receptionist had directed him to pull up to unhook, I thought he should drop the car right there. This was going to be tight. There was a row of small boulders in the turn that Tommy was getting very close to. They were on my side of the RV, and when I mentioned them, he told me that he saw them.
He discovered he had driven over some of them when we stopped to unhook the car. A gentleman in a truck pulled up as Tommy was unhooking and told us that the receptionist sent him to help us find a spot. The area she sent us to had 30-amp sites, and they were far from level. I heard Tommy discuss the necessity of 50-amps during at least two phone calls. The nice man and Tommy walked around, checking the power stations close to where we were parked, and I walked to some that were further away. There wasn't one 50-amp site.
The campground didn't look appealing, and now we didn't have the power to run two air conditioners. It was 96 degrees and humid. I was ready to turn around and go home. We hadn't eaten any lunch, and it was 2:30. I stayed in the RV and made sandwiches while Tommy returned to the office to figure out what we would do.
When he returned, he informed me that an electrician would convert our 30-amp service to 50-amp right where we were parked. That was a good thing. We were parked sideways in front of three sites. Backing into any of the sites would have made it impossible to get level. Tommy had turned on the generator before he went to the office to keep the rig cool. He ate his sandwich before moving the RV closer to the site hookups.
While waiting for the electrician, we set up the motorhome and switched to shore power to run one air conditioner. Increasing the amperage didn't go smoothly. Somewhere during the generator's on-off process, it became confused and stopped working altogether. After three frustrating hours of troubleshooting the issue and enduring a couple of hours without air conditioning, I was beyond frustrated.
Our friend who arranged the event stopped by and suggested we try to get a spot at the nearby state park. When he mentioned this was the third time they’d hosted the event here, and there were always issues, I was tempted to smack him. Tommy and I both wondered why they continued to book the same location despite the recurring problems. Our friend fails to understand the effort it takes to set up, tear down, and move a 45-foot motorhome. We're a lot older than him, and that’s more work than we’re willing to take on.
After a few hours of misery, the problem was handled. We had a 50-amp service, two air conditioners running at full capacity, and Starlink working flawlessly. We settled in for an evening of mindless television. I told Tommy that Satan had to be fuming about us being at this Christian gathering because he threw everything at us but the kitchen sink.
During the commotion, Tommy mentioned that the front bathroom toilet wouldn't flush. We use this one to take care of important business, if you know what I mean. When he said nothing more about it, I assumed it was no longer an issue, so I used it for my morning constitutional.
I was wrong—it was still broken. When Tommy got up, I grumbled that he should have mentioned the toilet, but he said he had. He should've been clearer, though, with firm instructions not to use it. The Venus and Mars battle raged on. Tommy wasn't pleased about being verbally accosted before having his coffee.
We settled into our recliners with our coffee and did our morning devotions, bringing us peace. Tommy decided to walk with me for a while and agreed to do a six-minute morning stretch video with me. The situation was improving. We took a pleasant stroll and saw many deer.
We walked to the river, which was dry as a bone as far as we could tell. It was wild to see signs warning about the lack of a lifeguard and an admonition not to dive into the water. I thought California's drought was severe, but Texas is also suffering.
Tommy returned to the RV while I continued walking to hit 10,000 steps. When I returned, he had the generator and toilet working again. I made breakfast, and Tommy settled in to watch golf. The stress we’d been carrying melted away. The three-day event was condensed into a single day, and while we don’t know why, we’re not speculating. God always has a purpose. We need to be in the right spot to fulfill it.
What a nightmare!