July 4th of 2014 was fast approaching.  The camper was loaded with towels, plates, silverware, napkins, games, bug spray, toilet paper and enough bedding to protect us if the temps decided to drop into the single digits.  It was safe to say we were ready to embark on our maiden voyage with the pop-up wonder.  Rather than dive right into camper living at an actual campground we decided our first trip would land us right at the end of the sidewalk at my mom’s house.

As we strolled in the driveway, the burgers were grilling and I believe my brother made a “Griswald” reference when he caught sight of us.  Don immediately began the set up process and before we knew it, we had our accommodations for the night ready and waiting.   There was only one tiny detail that needed to be addressed at that point.  The temperature was approximately 150 degrees inside our home on wheels.  Don is a “problem solver” kind of guy and he was able to round up an extension cord that would reach from the house to the camper and before long the air conditioner was running and things were cooling down and everything was working out really well.  That is until a circuit breaker inside the house had different plans.  Don did a short investigation and found out that the only way we would be able to keep the air conditioner running in the camper would be to talk mom out of having the TV, radio, 8 assorted lamps, 3 ceiling lights, 2 fans and her air conditioner all running at the same time.  He attempted a negotiation with mom and the agitated circuit breaker which resulted in turning off 4 lamps, 2 ceiling lights, the radio while the TV was on and the TV when the radio was on and 1 fan.  This appeared to be the perfect solution to our air conditioning saga or so we hoped.  When it’s humid and 90 something degrees outside the occupants of a pop up camper begin to feel like the kernels inside a jiffy pop pan so air conditioning is a must if you don’t want anyone to explode.

Things were going great.  We took turns visiting and playing games in the cool comfort of our camper off and on all afternoon.  It was such a wonderful day with family and friends.  We didn’t realize that when day turned into night we would be faced with yet another dilemma.  It appeared that the darkness had something to do with the air conditioner stopping again.  Now what could have caused that to happen?  A light bulb came on. Literally.  Mom had turned the yard light on by the back door.  I didn’t know the air stopped out in the camper as I was in the house visiting with mom and my sister but Don is very observant and just knew this was what the problem was so he went in the entry and shut it off and then slid into the house and flipped the tripped circuit breaker.  The air ran for a little while and then stopped again.  Don noticed the yard light was back on so he went back to the house but this time he loosened the bulb and found a way back to the electrical box without us noticing and then went back outside.  He knew he had to outsmart the switch flipper.  It worked and the air came back on.  Mom noticed the light was off again and she had a bulb laying on the table and said, “Bev, I think that yard light bulb burned out.  Would you put that new bulb in?”  I had no idea Don had just loosened it so I went out to put the new bulb in and found out rather quickly that the only problem was that the bulb was loose so I tightened it.  Don saw me doing this and after I went inside he went back and loosened it yet again.  My sister got sent out with the new bulb I had returned to the kitchen table to see if she could get the yard light to work and realized a quick turn on the existing bulb was all it needed to work so she too took the new bulb back in the house explaining to mom that the old bulb was working just fine.  About then I left the house and strolled back down the sidewalk to see what Don was doing and he said, “Would you please stop tightening that light bulb?  I keep loosening it so we can have air conditioning but you and your sister keep screwing it back in!”

It’s safe to say we survived our very first camping adventure.  I was actually able to sleep all night on a mattress thinner than a grilled cheese sandwich and life, as we knew it, was very, very good!