Another camping trip to reflect on around future campfires

[opnspaces]

Life sometimes gives us some strange twists. The place where I store my trailer lost their permit and I had to suddenly vacate. Since I was only a week away from a planned weekend trip I pulled the trailer home on Saturday with plans to spend the week securing new storage, then take the kids camping the following weekend.

Monday morning I get a message from my son that a Sheriff Deputy had left an unattended vehicle notice on the trailer giving me 72 hours to move it. Great I thought, that only gives me until Wednesday to get it moved, whereas I would normally bring it home on Wednesday to get the refrigerator cooling and the food loaded up.

So I had to unplug the shore power and move the trailer away from the house on Tuesday so I could bring it back home on Thursday (well within the 72 hour limit)to start loading. This change in routine threw me off rhythm and I never got to do some basic upgrades that I had been planning on doing the next time the trailer was home.

Friday was uneventful and we loaded up, drove out, and had a great weekend camping. It was a hot weekend though so I turned on the AC Friday night and left it on for the entire weekend. Come Sunday I repacked the trailer and kids and headed home.

About halfway home a guy drives by me and makes that dreaded motion of pointing back at the trailer. I immediately checked what I could see in my mirrors and nothing looked amiss. There road at this point was narrow with a guardrail on the right and a crash wall on the left so basically nowhere to pull over. I had to drive a mile before I could finally pull over. All the while I was running through my head all the possibilities of what the guy in the car was trying to tell me.

First check was tires, and they all looked good. I also checked the rear of the trailer and there was nothing wrong there either. So I hooked my fingernail under a window and it easily lifted up as if it had never been cranked closed. Now that I had a suspect I went in to crank the window closed and found a total of three including the emergency exit that were not secured. My guess is the guy saw the emergency window flapping and fortunately was kind enough to motion that there was a problem.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful and I parked the trailer at the curb and asked the kids to empty all the food out. While they were working I called and secured a storage space although at an additional $40 a month in rent.

Knowing that the rental office was closing in a few hours I did a rushed cleanup of the trailer. I also opened all the cabinets, the refrigerator, and microwave three different times to make sure there was no food left in the trailer and decided it was ready to go to storage. I stepped out of the trailer, closed the door and put the key in the cylinder. Then something in the back of my mind just gave me that feeling that I was forgetting something.

So I went back in the trailer, looked in all the cabinets, looked under the dinette seats (finding overlooked dirty laundry) looked in the bathtub and toilet. Everything seemed shipshape. Being hot from a morning of packing, driving and unpacking I sat down on the dinette cushion and just looked around the trailer one last time. I'm not sure what caused me to do it but I reached over and opened the oven and looked in.

There sitting in one of those cheap aluminum food trays was a pile of last nights leftovers including steak, lamb and potatoes. Knowing my camping schedule over the last few years, had I not found that tray of meat, it would have sat in the oven for months smelling up the trailer. :E

Finally the rest of the day went smoothly, I got the trailer nestled in it's new storage spot and finally got to just sit in my air conditioned house and reflect on an overall enjoyable weekend.

[wing_zealot]

AJBert wrote:
I never understood why someone would buy a house and then turn around and pay rent to store an RV, boat, etc. Why not buy a house with the property to store one's toys or move if you plan on buying toys???

I never understood why anyone would spend their time try to understand why someone else does things differently then they do.

[drsteve]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Good catch.......one should ALWAYS pay attention to that 'feeling'


Question is..........
How in the heck does one have left over steak, lamb and potatoes :H

By not having a dog 🙂

[JAC1982]

AJBert wrote:
I never understood why someone would buy a house and then turn around and pay rent to store an RV, boat, etc. Why not buy a house with the property to store one's toys or move if you plan on buying toys???

In our case, we bought our TT while living in our old house, but knowing we would be buying a new house in the near future that would allow us to park it at home.

Now, in said new house, when we moved in we were shipshape with the rules, we read them over with a fine tooth comb. But then, a few months after we moved in, the still-developer controlled HOA decided to add in a rule that all trailers must be behind a 6' privacy fence (never mind our toyhauler is over 13' tall).... of course after we had already paid to install a split rail fence around the entire perimeter of our 1 acre property. :M Still a battle we're fighting along with many of our neighbors.

[MetalGator]

AJBert wrote:
I never understood why someone would buy a house and then turn around and pay rent to store an RV, boat, etc. Why not buy a house with the property to store one's toys or move if you plan on buying toys???

I bought my home 21 years ago. I didn't start RVing until 6 years ago. My house is paid for and I have great neighbors. Why would I move to another house just so I can store my RV? My rent at my nice RV storage lot is WAY cheaper than buying another house. Glad you are able to store your RV at your home.

[fireman41]

ol Bombero-JC wrote:

fireman41 wrote:
I could not live in some of the Nazi neighborhoods that you people live in. I like the ability to park what I want when I want where I want at my house.

Sieg Heil, "Fireman41" -
Sure hope that's just your ID, and not your profession..:(

Readers should realize that most/all *Firefighters* have more positive terms for the neighborhoods they serve - and/or "that you people live in"..:R..:o

BTW - in many urban communities it's *NOT* a matter of rules and regs (CC&Rs) or HOAs - but simply that residential lots don't have the space to store an RV.
And many folks aren't fortunate -or wealthy- enough to have that "ability".:S

~

I'm sorry my PC switch was off. I'm sure that those neighborhoods are nice neighborhoods. The Nazi term might have been a bit strong. I also sure that they are not a totalitarian state. As long as you don't paint your house the wrong color don't let your grass get to long and make sure that you buy the right kind of vehicle to park in your drive way.


Now on to my I.D. I am a truck driver by trade. My I.D. comes from the fact that I am volunteer firefighter, and i love my community. I have spent endless hours training and Drilling with my fire department. I have spent many of my free weekend drilling with neighboring fire departments,to make sure that we all know who to work together.

I have been burned by the hot summers sun and frozen to the core by the cold winters wind to serve my community. When the flood waters came a few years ago I made sure my Neighbors were safe,even using my own pick up truck to get stranded motorist. Mean well my hose was filling up with water.

There are many times when it seems like I may have put my needs and my family second to my community and my fire department.

So don't you ever accuse me of not caring for my fellow man or my community because I spout off about some overbearing HOA.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

fireman41 wrote:
I could not live in some of the Nazi neighborhoods that you people live in. I like the ability to park what I want when I want where I want at my house.

Sieg Heil, "Fireman41" -
Sure hope that's just your ID, and not your profession..:(

Readers should realize that most/all *Firefighters* have more positive terms for the neighborhoods they serve - and/or "that you people live in"..:R..:o

BTW - in many urban communities it's *NOT* a matter of rules and regs (CC&Rs) or HOAs - but simply that residential lots don't have the space to store an RV.
And many folks aren't fortunate -or wealthy- enough to have that "ability".:S

~

[fireman41]

I could not live in some of the Nazi neighborhoods that you people live in. I like the ability to park what I want when I want where I want at my house.

[AJBert]

I never understood why someone would buy a house and then turn around and pay rent to store an RV, boat, etc. Why not buy a house with the property to store one's toys or move if you plan on buying toys???

[CavemanCharlie]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Good catch.......one should ALWAYS pay attention to that 'feeling'


:H

That 'feeling' has saved me more times the I can count.

It let me down a couple of times but, I still trust it because of all the times it saved me.

[opnspaces]

MetalGator wrote:
I guess one of the neighbors had nothing better to do than call the county.

Yeah sometimes it seems that people might have too much time on their hands.

[opnspaces]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Good catch.......one should ALWAYS pay attention to that 'feeling'


Question is..........
How in the heck does one have left over steak, lamb and potatoes :H

That is kind of funny. The food was leftovers from my friends in the next campsite and my family had just finished eating. So to clear counter space while i did dishes I slipped the pan into the oven. Unfortunately it got forgotten as soon as the campfire was lit.

Yes I would have loved to eat it as leftovers but not after sitting out un-refrigerated for a day and a half. 🙂

[MetalGator]

opnspaces wrote:
Monday morning I get a message from my son that a Sheriff Deputy had left an unattended vehicle notice on the trailer giving me 72 hours to move it.

I got a visit from the local code enforcement recently. We picked up a new motorhome and parked it our driveway on a Saturday afternoon. I have a storage facility I park in but all the stuff from our old travel trailer was stored in our garage at the house. We started putting stuff in the motorhome Saturday afternoon/evening and were going to finish on Sunday and move the motorhome to the storage lot. I woke up Sunday morning with a sore throat and got sicker as the day went on. I didn't get much stuff put in the motorhome and told the wife that we needed to get the motorhome out of the driveway by Tuesday because I thought we only had 3 days to park at the house unless the motorhome was beside or behind the house. The next 3 days I was really sick and didn't do anything with the motorhome. Sure enough, Wednesday morning I got a knock on the door from county code enforcement that I needed to move the motorhome by the following Monday or I would get a citation. I guess one of the neighbors had nothing better to do than call the county.

[DutchmenSport]

I am so glad I am able to park (and use) my camper at home. We moved out of a town we lived in over 16 years when zoning said I could no longer park my camper there any more. I sleep where my camper parks. We sold the house and moved. Been happier ever since. I never did really "enjoy" living there.

We sleep in the camper every night. I've always said, we have the house just so we have somewhere to park the camper.

I am a believer in following your best instincts. That was a good catch which could have resulted in a long battle removing unwanted smells.

I think we've all made our mistakes like that though. Last winter, when weather got too cold to reasonably heat the camper, I forgot to remove about a dozen soft drinks from the refrigerator. So, outside temperatures dropped to negative 10-15 degrees and no heat in the camper. Guess what happened?

When we were getting the camper ready again at the end of February for our annual March trip to South Carolina or Florida (depending), we opened the refrigerator and had a massive mess! 12 cans of soft drink exploded inside the refrigerator. It took the best part of an entire day cleaning it up.

I'm glad everything worked out OK for you. Too bad though, you can't keep your camper parked at home. I think, in order to stay with my camper, I'd even quit my job if I had to. I've moved once when the camper was forced out. And I'd do it again. We live in the country, where we can still have open fires, pee in our own yard, and the grand kids can run naked through the corn fields if they want to. (much like I grew up! ... yea... as a kid, I ran naked through the corn fields too!)

[Old-Biscuit]

Good catch.......one should ALWAYS pay attention to that 'feeling'


Question is..........
How in the heck does one have left over steak, lamb and potatoes :H