jmkay1
2004 Fleetwood/Coleman Utah
I closed my camper early in the season last year as finding available campgrounds was impossible. I have since temporarily moved to my parents house so I can help them deal with mom’s cancer. I got the call for my covid shot back home and decided why not kill two birds with one stone. So took my camper out of storage found a campground close to home. Figuring I can do much needed yard work at my house, get my covid shot and air the camper out and camp all in one weekend. Good intentions, but gosh darn how in the world did I forget how to back my camper in 8 months. Didn’t help there was a tree in the worst possible place and couldn’t swing the car like I wanted without hitting it. My spot was just big enough for my camper with hardly a drive way for the car so I’m blocking the road. Took me what felt like forever to get it reasonably in my spot. Only to discover my leveler is no longer in its storage spot. I ended up downloading an app on my phone which told me I was spot on. I open the camper up and discover my water bottle rolling telling me one tire is low. Oh well I was all set up, I just won’t use the fridge. Thankfully my camper only had minor mildew stains but wasn’t much worse for wear. Considering I haven’t seen the camper in 8 months. Saturday early morning I drove to my house to get all the yard work done just in time for my shot appointment. Then drove back to camp. Took a much needed nap, had a small fire, read a book and just chilled the rest of the evening. Then came time to hook the camper up Sunday morning , but had trouble getting lined up to the hitch more worried about where my car is to that dang tree then how close I was to the hitch and overshot. Times like that I really wish I have a spotter. Finally roll out to the storage yard and have to back in my tight spot with two TT close by. Struggled badly then for some crazy reason my car had a glitch and my horn kept on blaring while I’m trying to back up. Got me all flustered and my backing went all to heck after that. Thankfully i finally got it in and I didn’t hit any campers and after shutting the car down and restarting it my horn fixed itself. Geeze to think after 7 years towing in only 8 months of a break and I forgot how to back up in tricky spots. Something I can usually do in a couple tries. Oh well it’s parked for however long. I haven’t made any plans this year knowing my mom needs me. I do need to get back out to the camper again so I can give it a deep clean and redo my caulking, but I’m satisfied knowing I had no big issues. I have a couple small mods in mind, but can’t work on either at the moment. Felt good to get out camping again, gave my body a breather it needed although backing sure stressed me out more than I wanted.
When I get to that point, I get out of the vehicle, walk around the whole rig to re-group, get a visual of where I intend to go, take a deep breath, get back in and start over. That usually helps.
