But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
After our restless night with the raccoons, we were happy to have an event to attend. Our church had an ice cream social with Betty Rae’s ice cream truck serving the cool treats. As we caught up with our friends, we told them about our persistent visitors the night before and commented that we needed to be back before dark to secure camp. Well, it was so good to see our friends that we were a little late getting back to the trailer. When we opened the door, we were met with this:
Sure enough, our furry friends had returned! They had pushed through the window screen and munched on our chocolate. We also found holes in our new bag of Multigrain Cheerios. Most mysteriously, Bill’s Crunch bar had disappeared but Cy’s 100 Grand bar was still there. Thankfully, the raccoons were gone and the only mess they left behind was the spilled M&M’s. Praise God for that. Had we discovered raccoons in the trailer, our camping experience might have been over for good!
Lesson Learned: When leaving camp, close the window! The raccoons agree with Bill. The best candy bar is a Crunch.
Thankfully, the screen was not damaged. Bill repaired it the next day.
When we called Mid-America RV to get an update on our trailer repairs, we learned that the dealership was waiting on parts. With the Covid-19 pandemic, RV parts were delayed considerably because the manufacturers were not running at full capacity. Since we needed a place to sleep at night, the dealer agreed to install a temporary strap to secure the kitchen. They added the strap. We picked up the trailer and we finally were off on our initial camping experience.
Just to clarify, we are not campers, nor have we ever been campers. The most camping experience we had was a week at Nationwide Youth Round-up in Colorado in 2006. Our friend and then-youth minister, Matt, needed adult chaperones for the church’s annual trip to NYR. We agreed to go. We spent a week in a tent on a mountainside, worshiping in rain and mud, showering with water drawn from the pond, and using port-a-potties. We survived, but that week solidified that we prefer the comfort of Comfort Suites over the naturalness of nature. For both of us to have peace about living for a season in a glorified tent could only come from the Lord, demonstrating His sense of humor.
For our first trip, we stayed close to ‘home’ at Watkins Mill State Park. The park is five miles from our former home and, more importantly, close by our storage units. We loaded the trailer and truck with everything we thought we might need: Pyrex dishes, cast iron skillets, pantry staples, cleaning supplies, bedding, and our clothes and toiletries. Our free standing tent became an extra room for sorting and storing overflow items. And we had a lot of overflow items! As we thinned and organized our belongings, our new living space started to come together. We made almost daily trips to Home Depot, Walmart, and our storage units. By the end of our week long stay, we were satisfied, more or less, with our new home.
To celebrate our first night in the trailer, we ordered dinner from our favorite Mexican restaurant, LaFuente. Our meal was delicious (as always) and it must have smelled delicious too as the empty take-out containers in our trailer’s garbage attracted a steady stream of nighttime visitors. Raccoons! When we arrived at Watkins Mill, the camp host warned us not to leave any food items or coolers outside of our vehicle or trailer. He didn’t warn us not to leave food scraps inside our trailer! During the night, we were awakened multiple times by the hungry creatures scratching on our window screen. The flashlight’s beam and our shouts frightened them away but the persistent animals were undeterred. They returned again and again and continued their unwanted visits until dawn. We kept them out of our trailer that first night, but the raccoons weren’t willing to go away empty-handed.
Lesson Learned: Everyone, including raccoons, loves LaFuente!
He was as persistent as chewed gum on the bottom of your shoe, just keeps sticking around!
As we packed the house, we sorted items into three piles: store, loan, and donate. For storage, we quickly surpassed the capacity of our Kearney unit so we rented another unit in Liberty. Cyretta’s parents offered extra storage in North Central Kansas so we took advantage of their generous offer. The loan pile went to our kids, along with a bit to Cyretta’s parents. The donate items went to Hillcrest Ministries thrift store.
Having so many places to take items required many trips. Thankfully, our Intech Flyer Explore makes a great box trailer. We packed it tight on multiple occasions, transporting our stuff from our home to its destination.
On one trip, we had a little more excitement than we anticipated. Our trailer is equipped with a slide-out kitchen. On the day we purchased the trailer, as we pulled into QuikTrip for fuel, the kitchen slid out on its own. We chalked it up to a rookie mistake of not locking the kitchen handle. From then on, every time we left the driveway, we made sure all of the trailer’s latches were locked. On this particular trip, as we traveled into Kearney, we went down a small hill and bumped over a culvert seam in the road. Then we heard a thwack. Sure enough, despite the handle being locked, our kitchen had deployed on its own again! This time, we thought it hit a street sign. Our Suburban was impeding traffic so Bill muscled the kitchen back into its slot and we continued our journey. We added a stop at the hardware store to purchase a C-clamp to hold the kitchen door shut. After emptying the trailer, on our way home, we passed by the area where we thought we hit a sign. A woman was working in her driveway and as we passed, she yelled, “Did you hit our mailbox???” When we realized what she said, we turned around and returned to the scene of our unfortunate kitchen catastrophe. Sure enough, the kitchen had struck their mailbox in our first, and only, round of mailbox baseball. We profusely apologized and offered money to cover the repair expense. Thankfully, the couple was understanding and accepted our offers.
When we returned home, we searched to see if this was a common incident with the trailer. Through the Intech owners’ Facebook page, we discovered that we were not alone in our kitchen mishap. We called Mid-America RV and made an appointment to leave the trailer for repairs.
Thankfully, the kitchen slid out when it did. Had it occurred a little further down the road, we would have hit a bridge guard rail which could have done much more damage. We were grateful that all we hit was a mailbox. God is good, even in the timing of unexpected and undesired bumps along the way!
Lesson Learned: Expect the unexpected. A locked door may open unexpectedly, on trailers and in life.
Our mailbox smasher. Also useful for cooking and refrigerating food!
