|

First Camping Trip = Epic FAIL!!

To say our first camping trip was picturesque would be an understatement. In a few words you could say our first camping trip was an epic FAIL!!!

It was going to be our first camping trip together and the first time Jamie had ever taken the Coleman Bayside Pop up to a campground.  

The awning on the bayside was in bad shape so we took it off and planned on using the awning from my aunt’s pop up. In true fashion we didn’t have time to put it on the bayside before we left on Friday night. It wouldn’t fit in the back of the truck so we decided to put it inside the camper. Jamie starts the process of putting the camper up. We didn’t have to put it all the way up, just enough to get the awning in. After a few minutes of cranking her up we heard a “Pop”! At just about the same time we both asked “What was that?”  Jamie’s response was “I don’t know, we will figure it out” and he kept cranking. Until he realized that it wasn’t going up anymore and I noticed that the front right side was a lot lower than the right of the top.

About the same time that we are loading up the truck and trying to putting the awning in the camper the assisted living facility calls to say that my grandmother was acting different and asked it someone could come up and talk to her.

Well that “PoP” was the lift cable snapping because we didn’t undo all of the latches that held the top down. Insert many cuss words!!! It became very clear that this wasn’t going to be an easy fix when you looked at the top of the camper and the left side is higher than the right side. Jamie’s response: “Order pizza, go see your grandmother, and we’ll come up with plan B!”

So I ordered pizza, went to check on my grandmother. Jamie took everything we packed in the camper out, put it in the truck along with the tent.  We ended up leaving the next morning. 🙂

I first trip definitely wasn’t picturesque but we learned a lot. For starters we never again tried to put the camper up without double checking all of the latches. Jamie learned how to fix and how the pulley cables on the camper worked (it wasn’t exactly how he thought). I learned that Jamie and I made a pretty good team and to be flexible while camping is a necessity.

If you learn anything from our failure it should be to NEVER, I mean NEVER try to raise a pop up without double checking all of the latches!! And just remember to give yourself some “grace”, not everything has to be perfect, sometimes plan B is better than plan A.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *