Several years ago our niece came to stay for a week and right about the time she arrived my husband found out his job would be taking him away for a few days.  Our niece and I would be all alone in the big city and the only thing standing between her and I and a ton of shopping was…..well….NOTHING!  We completely enjoy each other’s company and she is always game for anything.  This would end up being very beneficial as what transpired would require at least one good sport provided two weren’t available.  The 4th of July was not far off and Don, my husband, decided we should buy a pop-up camper.  The only problem I could see with this is the fact that he wasn’t home to go camper shopping.  He hates shopping so he was very happy about this part of the plan.  He decided Aimee and I should go and scope out the possibilities and relay the results to him via text.  He thought we would drive all over town to see what was available but I saved myself a ton of time by shopping online first.  I located a very nice, slightly used camper.  I sent him a text and he asked if I liked it.  I told him it looked very nice so he asked us to go and check it out.  I called the camper store and it just so happened they had it set up and ready to view.  Now the wind was blowing approximately 40 mph that day so I was certain the camper would be set up inside the showroom.  I mean, who would be stupid enough to set up a pop-up camper in wind like that, right? Apparently the camper store I called and when we arrived, the house on wheels was waiting patiently for us in the parking lot with no visible signs of being airborne in the foreseeable future.  Aimee and I found an eager salesman and he led us out to the pop-up wonder.  We made him show us how to close it but not before we snapped some pictures.  We gave him our name and headed home.  Don returned home that evening and wasn’t at all excited about what we told him.  We had to drag him into the office to look at our pictures and even then he just didn’t seem interested.  Oh well, I thought, it wasn’t my idea anyway.

The next morning, Don had to leave for yet another job out of town but around 10 am I received a text.  It looked like a picture of a document.  I asked him what it was.  He made me guess.  I told him it looked like a bill of sale and his response was “BINGO!”  That “unexcited” facade was simply that!  He was actually excited about what he saw from our pictures and he bought the camper!  He told me we would be able to pick it up the next day and that once we picked it up that we should have the propane tank checked on it and then pick up some camper necessities.  At first I was excited as I saw it as a day filled with lots of shopping but then I realized I was picking up a camper with a pickup and I had never picked up a camper with a pickup before in my life!  Holy crap!  Immediately my brain said, “Aimee, we need to do a test run!”  I had only been living here about a month and a half so not everything was as familiar to me as it was to Don.  Aimee, being the good sport that she is, was more than okay with my plan so we hopped in the pickup and headed out of the driveway in search of  “house on wheels” supplies and also to locate the gas station Don suggested we use to have the propane tank checked.  His directions were really pretty good but we didn’t know that until later.  For some reason I had it in my head that it was the place we had washed the car that past weekend which was no where near the directions he gave us so rather than try to figure out what he was actually talking about we drove and drove and drove and as we traveled down 9th street Aimee said, “Well, this road looks familiar.  I think we’ve passed this hospital 350 times!” Eventually we gave up and headed home to compare Don’s instructions to Google’s instructions and remarkably, they were exactly the same!  Go figure.  Turns out, the gas station was no where near 9th street!

When “pick up the camper” day arrived we knew where the gas station was, we knew where we were going to park the camper, we had paper plates, napkins, towels, pillows, bedding, a waste basket (A small oval shaped one with cute little garbage bags.  You’ll hear more about this later. ) and we knew how to pop it up.  It was going to be an easy breezy kind of day.

Hitching the camper to the pickup went pretty well.  Thankfully the salesman knew a thing or two about how to do this.  I was glad.  I certainly didn’t need a disconnected pop-up camper rolling backwards down the highway.  I can’t even begin to think how I would word that text to Don.  With the fear of that happening behind us,  I slipped the pickup into drive and we rolled out of the parking lot.  This really wasn’t going to be all that bad.  I could hardly tell there was anything behind us but rather than get all full of myself, my adult responsible side took over and we drove to the gas station and filled the propane tank and then headed home.  What I didn’t know is we would run across a huge pile of dirt sitting in the back alley that had mysteriously appeared there while we were gone and it was not part of my plan!  I sent Don a text and for some reason all capital letters can really grab someone’s attention and just like magic, my phone was ringing.  He was very calm and said, “I asked my buddy from work to come over and back the camper in.  All I ask is that you look as pathetic as possible when he gets there.” THIS, I COULD DO!  Our backer upper arrived and rolled effortlessly over the dirt pile and in a flash the camper was right where it needed to be and he was off.  Don thought we should open it.  I didn’t.  He’s persuasive.   He said it would only take 10 minutes.  I caved.  Aimee and I unlatched the latches and I walked to the front of the camper and hit the magic “pop up” button and just like magic, it started to open.   The key word here would be “started.”  As it turns out, the battery didn’t have enough Oomph so after 10 minutes there it sat……half open.  Well, isn’t this stupid.  We can’t close it.  We can’t open it and we surely can’t put all the cool stuff in it.  NOW WHAT?

Don called again.  He said if we hooked up the battery charger it would pop right up.  Okay.  He was very convincing.  “Where’s the battery charger?” I asked.  “Are you kidding me, it’s clear across town in the storage unit!”  I drug my unwilling feet and my choice words off to the storage unit to retrieve the charger and once it was hooked up, the camper popped up and we were able to move in!  Aimee and I had a wonderful time after the 2 hour and 10 minute set up and we decided it would stay set up until Don was able to unset it up when he returned home.

I’m not sure why, but it seemed to go down a whole lot faster than it went up but if memory serves me correctly, Aimee and I never did see it go up when we went to take a look at it at the camper store.  Final thought:  If you would have been in the market for a pop-up camper, and you would have been here somewhere between “looking pathetic” and “retrieving the battery charger,” you would have gotten one helluva deal!