Morning in a new locale....a VERY bad day

Dec. 22, 2013 – 9:00 a.m.

It’s going to be an interesting few months.

I am back in Georgia for the first time. My previous ventures have been along the coast via I-95. This time, I’m about 50 miles below the western North Carolina border at Unicol State Park, which is located near a small tourist trap town named Helen. I will be wintering here through the end of March when I plan to take a one-month Southeastern sojourn en route to Wall, SD where I will again spend the summer.

It is about 9 a.m. and I arrived last night in darkness after a terrifying trip over a mountain with incredibly tight turns. It was at night, raining and fog was dense. The curves were sudden and sharp and, filled with too much caffeine to begin with, trying to maneuver a trailer both up and down the mountain became a constant series of getting too close to the edge of the road and a rollover and suddenly finding myself in the middle of the road with oncoming traffic.

Normally one would find road signs warning of the curves. But it was dark and I found few. I finally realized my GPS was showing me where the curves were and I used it to help guide me down the mountain with great care. My top speed was perhaps 15 miles per hour.

When I arrived at the park, I went to the lodge to check in. The lodge is a very nice place which is also the local wedding and business meeting venue. I checked in and then went to the section of the park where I would be staying.

The two campground host sites are at the start of the camping area and, fortunately, one of the hosts was there and welcomed me. There are two problems with my site. First, it is a back-in type rather than a pull through. I am not very good at backing the trailer in. In fact, I’m horrible at it. Second, to make things worse, the location of the electric and water system is at the very front of the site. But all RVs and trailers have their electric and water lines at the rear. I suspect I am going to have to buy an extension cord – a very expensive proposition for a 30-amp line. I’ll wait for that and use a standard 15-amp line until after Christmas, as I won’t be in the area for a few days as I visit my friends for the holiday.

And since it was so dark, I simply pulled in instead of backing in and connected my electric. And so, as the rain continues, it remains dark this morning. I look at the road with a bit of trepidation as it is narrow and there are trees on the other side. I say to myself: “self, you got in here last night so you should be able to get back out.”

I’m going to wait until it gets lighter before attempting to do so.

I look out my window and see the mountain I came down. It is not as large as the Rockies, but it is certainly large enough. And I realize that either my damn fool luck continued or angels were guiding my path. In this case, I’ll lean towards the angels.

So the tasks for today are to back in and then set up the trailer. That’s more work than it sounds like because things tend to fall down when you are driving. A tight turn, for example, can mean your food pushes too hard against the cabinet door and it opens, spilling things. Fortunately, the jar of spaghetti sauce didn’t break open. I also have to unsecure and set up a number of items.

After that, I’ll head into town. Helen is a small town that re-invented itself as a Bavarian village. It hosts various festivals and during the autumn foliage season is packed with visitors from Atlanta.

Dec. 22, 2013 – 7:30 a.m.

Did I mention I suck at backing up?

The site is large and after a few tries, I was able to back the trailer back on the road, which is quite narrow. And so began my efforts to back it up. I really don’t know where to start. By that I mean on the road. And even after 3 years of trailer living, I don’t know how much to turn the steering wheel.

And so, low on gas anyhow, I tried backing in several different times. There were poles on each side of the site, road signs, etc and I managed to miss all of them. On about the fifth try, I finally got the trailer in the exact angle I wanted, and the back wheels of the trailer slipped off the road. The rains, nearly constant for the past 24 hours, turned the ground into mud and as one of my tires went off the road, it skidded and jackknifed. 

About the only thing preventing the trailer from going down the road and smashing into the trees is a small stump. This is a possible problem as it may be an issue in getting towed out.

I called my insurance company, which includes road service and they are sending a truck out from a town that is around an hour away. That was about an hour and a half ago. If this is not a state maintained road, the insurance company says, I’ll have to pay for the tow. And just the other day, I paid off the credit card. They’re also bringing some gas, which I have to pay for.

Anyhow, at the moment, I’m waiting and waiting and there is a zombie next to me. He isn’t really a zombie, I think, but he is tall, lean and gaunt with a fairly large goatee. He has dark shadows under his eyes. He looks like something out of a horror movie or, this being the south, (name of movie), He is in the maintenance department of the park and he has to wait for the truck to arrive.

Did I say my stint here was going to be “interesting?” Every fiber of my being wants to flee and head for the coast where it’s warmer and I know the people there.

Dec. 22, 2013 – 3:43 p.m.

Did I mention I suck at backing up? Well how about driving forward?

Yes, the tow truck did arrive and yes I was pulled out safely without damage to the truck or trailer and yes the insurance covered it. So I drove around the loop back to my site and I asked zombie man to help me back up. I couldn’t do it.

And so, giving up in frustration, I went around the loop again and pulled into the site. Clipping the water/electric line with the trailer.

Naturally, the trailer was damaged. In fact, so was the chain saw I had used to remove a stump that was in the way of the tow. The door to the storage area was completely destroyed and the post that holds up the awning was ripped off and so I had to spend more than an hour reporting the claim to GEICO. The lady who took my claim had to read off many things to make the claim legal. The result of this is I have to call a number for an RV specialist in Macon tomorrow. So I sit here in near darkness (the rain continues to pour and the sun is beginning to disappear) with no water or electric.

A trailer has three energy systems. The first is standard electric. The second is battery power, which will enable lights and a few other things, but not the AC outlets that include microwave, television and other appliances. The third system is propane gas, which powers the stove and, when electric is down when travelling, the refrigerator. So dinner is going to be something out of a can cooked in a pot that won’t be cleaned. The dog is fine with everything, just laid back and accepting what he can.

But the lack of power also means I can’t recharge the phone. Hopefully I the people will make repairs, but they have been working on this in the rain for hours now without even getting it shut off. And it continues to darken.

In the meantime, the maintenance people are working on fixing the leak. The water is filling up the hole where the damage is as fast as they can pump it and they can’t shut it off. I took my hose and added it to the drainage. Naturally, someone ran over the tip and so it is no longer useful. My other hose is in the storage area, behind the crushed door. I just realized that the tools to put the jacks down and release the safety chains on my hitch are also there. That means I will have to finish the destruction of the door, meaning that I can’t unhitch the truck from the trailer.

I have just made a decision. I’m turning the lights off, having a bag of peanuts for lunch – way overdue and not good for a diabetic. I am going to take a nap. Perhaps it will be over when I wake up.

Did I say my stint here was going to be “interesting?” This is just about the worst day I’ve had on the road. Will someone please explain to me why I decided to leave my comfortable apartment for this life?

Dec. 22, 2013 – 5:00 p.m.

After more than a few anxious moments trying to find an adaptor, I have power back on a limited basis. I have been able to jury-rig a line using standard 15 amp current, the kind in your home, to the neighbor’s power line. At least I won’t have to spend the fast-approaching evening in darkness. My laptop, telephone and ipod are recharging. It is not too cold and I can heat the trailer with gas instead of the portable electric unit I usually use.

The water is finally shut off, but the maintenance crew has now gone off duty. Repairs won’t be completed until the morning. It is inconvenient and really smelly in the bathroom as I had to take a dump.

I was able to break open what is left of the storage door and get the tool I need to unhitch. Hopefully, the morning will bring some calmness.

I am presently eating a cheese sandwich with some juice. Having not eaten all day, my blood sugars became low. And a side effect is intense anxiety. It’s sort of like a major caffeine overdose. I feel myself starting to calm down as the food starts to enter the bloodstream.

I hope to be on my way out of here before noon tomorrow as I will head north, minus the trailer, about 350 miles to visit friends in North Carolina for Christmas. It will be a good time for me as I enjoy being in a house instead of a trailer. I will not be alone and am looking forward to, of all things, a long, long, long tub bath. RVs do not have bathtubs and I haven’t soaked my body since last March when I was doing so every day at an indoor spa at the campground where I was staying.

With all that has happened today, I am doing a re-evaluation of my lifestyle. I have to ask myself if I should stay on the road or find a permanent address. Much will depend on what the adjuster decides. The last time I had minor damage, in the same area in fact, the vehicle was totaled. This was because the wood floor would rot if repaired. I have no idea of what will happen next. If it is totaled, I will have numerous options.

If not, I am pretty much stuck in this lifestyle. I continue to regret my decision to trade in my 2006 pick-up for a new model. The payments on the truck will run another four years and, at the moment, there is not much equity in it. So if I get rid of the trailer, do I also rid myself of the truck?

If I choose to stay in one locale, it would mean getting a far less expensive vehicle in order to pay rent. And it also means an end to the workamping I have done recently. I only took home an extra $7,000 doing this, but it enabled me to pay my travel expenses. When I was in “Geezerland,” the 55+ apartment complex in Port Jervis where I lived, my expenses exceeded my budget. I would have to find something part-time.

Anyhow, this is something I will need to consider only if the trailer is totaled. In the meantime, it is dark and the rain continues to pound on my roof, making it seem like the inside of a drum. It should lull me to sleep as I watch a movie on the laptop. How about that old favorite “Goodfellas?” I can watch someone else have a bad day.

December 23, 2013

4:30 p.m.

It took an entire day to get power. I was supposed to head north to spend Christmas with friends in the morning, but could not until I got power. I couldn't leave without it because it will drop way below freezing and I needed the electric heater to keep the trailer warm enough to not freeze pipes. 

Around 2 p.m., water was restored. And when the people working on it turned on the power, the entire box fried and they had to replace it. By the time I got power, the water appeared to be percolating out of the ground. They tell me they won't turn the power off. 

So after all day, I took off. I needed gas and paid about 20 cents more per gallon in the tourist trap town than another five miles away. After a 330-mile drive, through many country roads as well as the Interstate, I am with my friends -- in a real house -- with a real bathtub! I am wondering why in God's name I want to go back?

Merry Christmas everyone.