Our First Trip with Scotty

[Mary Lesh]

We bought our first camper less than a month ago (2 weeks to be exact) and we are really excited. We had been looking for a “Scotty” for more than a year. Although our Scotty is more than 40 years old he is in pretty good shape. Not really good enough to take on a trip, but certainly weekend worthy. We chose a state park not too far from home, Cloudland Canyon. There were many more parks close by but we had visited all of them and this was a special trip.

Worn out, tired and not really ready for a camping trip, Scotty trudged on behind us. We were so excited and so unprepared. Not that anything really went wrong. Scotty was good to us—even in the rain. No leaks that we are aware.

Scotty needs so much work and looks his age, but he was a true camper. We loaded everything up in Scotty. We arrived to discover that isn’t such a good idea. We didn’t put things where they belonged, nor did we tie things down for the bumpy ride. No, we pretty much threw things in thinking we would take care of things once we arrived. It took us about 5 ½ hours to make the 2 ½ hour trip. We stopped at 3 Wal-Marts, a Marvins, Freds, and Wendy’s. We kept remembering things we had forgotten. No problem—we are planning to have a standard check list for future ventures. By the way we still managed to forget some things. Oh well.

We arrived much later than planned only to discover we had a ton of rearranging to do just so we could get into the camper. We spent about an hour or so trying to get things more organized so we could at least find things and make the bed. We wanted to do some hiking before dinner and relaxation.

Our first night, though uneventful, was not as restful as we had hoped. This was not because of Scotty. We do not have an air-conditioner for Scotty, but we had a small fan. Not bad, but a little hot at first. Luckily we were high in the mountains and it cooled off quickly. Of course I didn’t think to bring sheets because we had sleeping bags. John got up several times during the night, which woke me. We ended up sleeping in until 8:51. OMG! In camper land, that is sinful.

Today we cleaned things up and organized things better. I think I am going to like Scotty once we clean him up and learn to organize things better. Tomorrow we head home and Scotty will most likely go back into the garage until he is ready for a “real” trip. I can’t wait.

[Don Huntley]

You took a watch?  8-)

Very nice photo! Looks like our Rim Country in AZ.