Tight Squeeze
Somewhere on the spectrum from true greenhorn to seasoned veteran there’s a point when you know just enough to be dangerous. I’d say that describes us pretty well as full time travelers. College educated, a little road rash and able to pull up fairly obscure fix-it tutorials on the interwebs.
Most of the time we’re thriving, occasionally we’re surviving, and through it all there’s a 20-year career in law enforcement that has left me so incredibly superstitious that I’ll never come right out and say, “Things are running great.”
Perhaps it’s with that mindset that I listened to the campground host welcome us to our current location. After some cursory greetings involving traffic and the weather he started in on his shpeel. A map, sheet of rules, a couple tips regarding local attractions … and then he lowered the boom: I’ll put you in site such and such. It’s a great site.
My mind instantly flashed to a “perfectly level, paved, and lovely” site in Colorado, maneuvering into which required a shoehorn and Vaseline. I imagine a Miata would have needed at least a three point turn to back into it, say nothing of our 36-foot camper and 22-foot pickup. The purchase of that long-bed version was a total pendulum swing from our previous ultra-short-bed version so I didn’t have to worry about the fifth-wheel hitting the cab on tight turns.
Thank goodness for that long bed in Colorado because, in the stress of backing in, one’s brain can lose sight of such limitations as turn radius. I went to at least 90 degrees in reverse and didn’t once pray for the safety of my equipment…in fact it didn’t even cross my mind. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
Anyway, fast forward to the current “it’s a great site” assignment. Giving more thought to it, instead of “it’s a great site” he might actually have said “It’s very tight.” At least that is most likely what he meant.
As I wove my way down and around to our assigned space I noticed that the vast majority of vehicles were parked along the road in front of each site in parallel fashion. This is not usual in our experience. Big dual-wheel trucks with tow mirrors lined both sides of the gravel road. Good grief!
I pulled past our site and positioned myself for some careful rearward travel. Another driver in a black truck approached from the opposite direction and the low speed game of chicken hit a stalemate. Leaning my head out the window, I asked if he wanted to get past. With a glint in his eye he declined. I surmised he was patiently awaiting a show worthy of a Minnesota boat ramp.
Donelle, a world-class spotter, got out and positioned herself at the corner of our site, ready to guide me in. About 60 feet to her west I hunched down and peered at my mirrors only to learn that the myriad of obstacles may be even closer than they appear. And then I commenced the backup procedure.
In hindsight, it was a pretty clean run. One initial reset to adjust the attack angle. And once parked, the camper appeared to be about five degrees off of perpendicular. A surreptitious scan of neighboring campsites revealed several spare inches between the back of our camper and our neighbor and the power pole and water spigot remained intact. Not a gold medal effort perhaps but not too shabby. I then noted that there were no fewer than three other old guys standing around holding cold cans and watching our entrance. The guy in the black truck slowly drove by, a little disappointed, and gave me a thumbs up.
I hopped out of the truck with an “I meant to do that” gait and breathed a silent thank you that I hadn’t inadvertently widened or lengthened our camp site. With the truck unhooked, I too positioned it in parallel fashion perpendicular to the camper on the front of the site folding in the tow mirrors in an effort to suck in anything that might get hit.
Each site we go to has its pros and cons. This is one of those “reach out and touch your neighbors” sites with a short walk to a beautiful Pacific Ocean beach. There are so many lessons to be learned on the road: it takes a team to be successful, don’t do anything quick, people will love to stand around and watch you struggle. My superstitious self embraces the “don’t pat your own back until it’s parked.”
With one more tight squeeze and parking experience to add to the road rash we’re another step removed from rookie status and working toward seasoned veteran.