Lost Maples: My First Pop-up Camper Adventure

Since I have no idea who is reading this, if anybody, I guess I need to start at the very beginning. For a very long time now, I have wanted to buy a pop-up camper. I had my eye on a really small one that could be pulled by any car. I moaned about it day and night for a couple of years, but could never get Rachel's blessing to buy it. I knew she was right, after all, our oldest was just about to start college at UT in Austin. We needed some time to get our feet wet with paying for that.

Suddenly, in May of this year (2011), Rachel lost her mind. I know this because three things happened. First was her telling me to just go ahead and buy the camper. I am no idiot. I know how fast a mind can change. I ran to the computer, went to the Ancira RV web page, and looked for my Quicksilver 6.0 in their inventory to check the current price. To my dismay, they no longer had one showing online. The next day, I called out there to see what was up. The salesman told me that they had sold the last one and would not be getting anymore. I couldn't believe it. The only other dealer in Texas was over 200 miles away. When I asked the salesman at Ancira why they no longer carried them, he told me some things about customers with post-sale problems not getting much support from the company that makes the Quicksilver 6.0. That finished it for me. I went downstairs and told Rachel my pop-up adventure was over.

That's when the second example of her losing her mind happened. I told her that there were no other suitable campers (suitable meaning “affordable” and “air conditioned”) which could be pulled with my Chevy Malibu. Her immediate response was, “Then get the one you want and buy something that can pull it. Jared will be driving soon, and you can give him the Malibu.” I am no idiot. I know how fast a mind can change. I got on my favorite car dealer's website (Cavender Chevrolet in Boerne, TX –right next door to Ancira RV) and found the truck I wanted. Then I went out the very next day with my friend Deb and looked at campers for awhile, before going next door and buying my truck. When I was sure my truck purchase was okay, I went back the next day and bought my camper.

I had to wait for the hitch to be put on the truck to tow the camper. I finally went out to Ancira RV on a Friday and got trained on how to set up the camper. Then they towed me to their little camp site so I could try it out overnight. My buddy, Jack, came and stayed with me. We drank his home brew and talked for hours. It was a great night. Then, next morning, we towed the camper to his place. He let me leave it there until I had time to get my garage cleaned out. Unfortunately, it took more room in the garage than I expected, and is now parked in our driveway. Eventually, it will probably go to a storage facility.

Oh yeah, I owed you one more thing to prove Rachel has lost her mind. One day, right before school got out, she showed me a picture of a dog at the Humane Society and told me to go get it for her the next day. This is the woman who has said forever “NO MORE DOGS!” Well, I love dogs and would have a lot more, if I could get away with it. And, since I am no idiot and know how fast a mind can change, I took the next afternoon off and went and adopted little Vinny.

So, okay now. Do you feel like you know what is going on so far? I sure hope so, because I want to tell you about my first camping trip in my pop-up camper (which is now known to Number2Son and his buddy Storm as “Casa Jim”). I am going on with the story anyway, even if I lost you back there.

I waited for what seemed forever to finally get to take a trip in the camper. I invited Jared and his buddy Storm to go with me to Lost Maples Natural Area for two nights. I sent Storm a text telling him what to bring with him, I took both boys to the store to buy food for the trip, and I made sure that I had the last couple of things I needed for the trip. Then Jared and I picked Storm up and headed off to camp.

On the way to Bandera, I casually asked Storm if he had brought his pillow. He told me he forgot. Then Jared chimed in and grumbled that he had forgotten his. That reminded me that I had also forgotten mine. We weren't even twenty miles from home, and the trip was already going sour. Call me a sissy or whatever you want, but I need a pillow. If I don't use one, I have a sore neck for the next few days. I told the boys we could try to find one in Bandera, although I could not remember seeing a Wal Mart or anything else there before. It is a pretty small town.

We stopped at the Super S grocery store because it had a Subway sandwich shop in it. The boys guarded the truck while I went in and got our lunch. I asked the lady about a Wal Mart and she said I would have to go to Kerrville for that. I told her that we had forgotten pillows, and another customer told me to go to the dollar store right down the street. I parked the truck on a side road and hiked down to there, and sure enough, they had some really cheap pillows and pillow cases. They are now the official “Casa Jim” pillows, and will stay in the camper.

We went on to Lost Maples with only a short stop on the way to eat the subs at a picnic area. We were assigned to camping space number thirteen. I rolled my eyes at the number, but decided I wasn't going to be that superstitious. I had my doubts about it when we got there, and I could not back the camper into the space. I tried over and over, but it just would not go where I wanted it to. I finally got out of the truck, unhitched it, and had the boys help me push it in place. It was easy enough to do, and wasn't the end of the world. Still I worried about my future trips by myself. I would need to be able to back that thing in.

Right after we finished setting up the camper, I watched a guy pull in about two spaces down from us. He was pulling a huge trailer with three or four slide-outs behind a great big pickup truck. He drove past his slot, threw it in reverse, and backed that monster in place in about three seconds. Buy did I feel stupid. I made up my mind right then and there to get some help from someone and practice backing up the camper before my next trip.

Well, Storm had promised his folks he would call as soon as we arrived safely at the campsite. Unfortunately, none of us had any cell phone service. The lady at the park headquarters told us we could drive for three miles to the right, if we had AT&T. We needed more ice anyway, so we loaded up and went looking for a signal. Storm made his call, we bought some ice, we ate some popsicles, and drove back to camp.

By this time, I was pretty worn out from the trip and from setting up in the blazing hot sun. We decided to rest in the cool air conditioned camper until 5:00PM, before taking a hike. We figured it would be cooler coming back. So we all settled into our sleeping areas and had a good nap.

At five, we loaded up the geocaching backpack with all our hiking supplies, including 4 cold bottles of water in a cooler, and headed off to hike the East Trail. The trail is 4.6 miles long, and I estimated that we could probably do it at an average of 2 mph. I fully expected us to be back at the camper by 8:00 PM. Boy was I wrong. We added some distance to the hike by going after a geocache that caused us to follow the West Trail for about a third of a mile each way. It was worth the extra distance, because Storm had never been geocaching before, and this was his first find. As soon as we found it, we headed back to rejoin the East Trail. We were making good time until we reached the pond.

Jared and I had hiked the East Trail from the other direction with Jack Funkhouser several years ago. I remember hating coming down the steep hill to get to the pond. I said that, if I ever went back to Lost Maples, I would go the other way. The hill is so steep that it gave Jared and me vertigo on the way down. Add that the path is covered with loose gravel that makes it really hard to get a foothold. Your feet are constantly slipping out from under you. This goes on for more than a mile. This time, however, it wasn't vertigo or slipping rocks that got the best of this old man. It was the climb itself.

I was miserable hiking to the top of that damned hill. I stopped about every hundred steps to sit and rest for a few minutes until my heart rate came back to human levels. I remember being about 2/3 of the way up (after more than an hour of climbing) and thinking I had really bitten off more than I could chew. The only thing that kept me going up was my fear of going down. Jared had problems with the climb also, more due to agoraphobia then over exertion. Storm never seemed the least bit winded. He didn't even break a sweat. Part of my problem was that the only thing I had eaten all day was a six inch vegie sub with no cheese at Subway. The boys had both eaten footlong meatball subs and breakfast before the trip.

By the time we made it to the top, about two and a half hours later, I was ready to just roll over and die. My legs were shaky, my trapezius muscles were cramping, I felt nauseous, and I had a cramp in a chest muscle next to my heart. Let's not even talk about how sore my feet and ankles were. I sat on a bench and looked around the area to see if a helicopter could land there. We finally had phone service way up there, and it might be time to call for help. Instead, I decided I was just tired from the climb, and, for the part of the hike that was up on top of the hills, where the trails were relatively flat, I actually started to feel better. I got that runner's high feeling for a little bit until somehow or another, we missed our turn off, and added another 2/3 of a mile to the hike, because the trail we followed dead ended at a scenic overhang. I didn't even look at it. I was too depressed. It was about 8:05 PM and I was already getting nervous about going down the other side of the hill.

Just before starting our decent, we found another geocache. It was more exciting for Storm, because it was a traditional cache in an ammo container. We signed the log, put it back, and followed the trail to where it started going down. Unlike the way up, this trail was straight down. You pretty much have to go from rock to rock with a few steep slippery gravel patches between them. It wasn't as scary as the other way, because, if you were careful, you could step on large rocks that did not let you slip. Just the same, the decent took over 45 minutes. By the time we got down to flat land, it was getting dark, and I was having trouble seeing where to put my feet. Did I mention that I had sunglasses on? Did I mention that I did not carry my other glasses? OOPS! Maybe I am an idiot afterall.

Once we got to the bottom of the hill at about 9:00PM, we still had about 1.5 miles to go to reach the camper. It was all flat trails and easy going, but I was totally spent. I also felt like I was getting dehydrated, even though I had drank a bottle of water as we left on the hike and two during. I was getting a little anxious and grumpy. I sent the boys on ahead and told them that, when they reached the camper, they needed to hike back to me with warm bottles of water in each of their hands. Storm told me he could drive the truck back and get me when I reached the parking lot at the trail head, which was about half a mile from the camper. I told him I just didn't feel comfortable letting him do that, and that I could make it back. It would just take me a while.

After the boys left me, I felt a second wind for a short time. It was dark, but there was a nearly full moon (this was the night before the total eclipse), and it was considerably cooler. In fact, I was so wet from sweat that I actually felt a chill. I walked on enjoying the animal sounds and rustling of the trees in the breeze, even though I was not feeling well at all. Every once in awhile, Storm would holler something from off in the distance, but I couldn't understand him, and did not have the energy to holler back.

I looked at my GPS and saw that I had eight tenths of a mile to go. I knew part of that was the walk from the parking lot to the camper. I started to regret that I didn't tell Storm to come back with my truck. I knew it was not a good idea. He hasn't even had driver's ed. He tells me his parents have taught him to drive a bit, but I had know way of knowing his skill level. I was glad my moment of weakness came after he had left me. Who knows what might have happened, if I had let him drive. It was then that I actually prayed for the strength to make it back to the camper. I was beginning to think I was more than tired. I would walk about a minute and sit down on the first rock I saw, gasping for air. I knew I was in better shape than that. Afterall, I had been running two miles a day up until a month before when I messed my knee up doing Zumba. Shortly after I prayed over it all, I remembered that I had my iPod touch with me. I turned it on and played the song Further on Down the Road by Mark Lowery. It used to pump me up at the end of longer runs.

I trudged along on auto pilot focusing on Mark's voice. Before long, I realized that I was walking on pavement. The boys started shouting at me that they had found a water fountain at the parking lot. It was a long hundred yards from me, but I trudged on. They helped me fill my empty bottle and led me to a picnic table. I put my head down and wanted to cry. I simply did not have anything else to give.

After awhile, I told them to go on ahead. I got up and slowly walked back to the camp sites. I had about 200 more yards to go, but stopped at an unused site and sat for awhile at the picnic table to rest. I felt relieved that, if I were going to drop dead from all this, at least I was near people who could help with the situation. I was so angry at myself for even thinking I could climb that stupid hill. I was angry for not stopping more frequently and resting. I was angry for not just coming right back down once I had exhausted my energy. On that note, I was angry for not eating more food before taking the hike.

When I finally got to the camper slightly after 10:30 PM, I just flopped onto my bed and lay there for a few minutes. The boys were great. They got me whatever I asked for and were very caring. I felt a little nauseous and did not eat with them. They went ahead and used their self heating camping meals. Me? I just continued to lay there waiting for my coronary to come or my energy to return. I really didn't care which at that point.

I guess I drifted off to sleep for a few minutes. I was rudely awakened by the sound of an alarm going off. It was the carbon monoxide detector. The boys were frightened and wanted to evacuate, but I knew there was nothing in the camper that could produce carbon monoxide. It stopped going off after a few minutes. Just the same, we opened the door, and I asked Storm to dig out the manuals for the camper and give them to me. I tried to find the right one, but couldn't focus on them. I felt even more dizzy when I tried to read, so I decided to go outside for more fresh air. As I was going out, Jared shouted out that he knew what had happened. Their self heating meals had a statement on them that said something along the lines of, “Heating these dinners does not cause carbon monoxide, but may cause carbon monoxide alarms to go off.” The next day, when I heated my meal, I did it outside.

I hiked down to the restroom shortly after the alarm incident. I felt better after that. While I was there, I splashed hot water on my face and cleaned up a bit. I was still a little wobbly on the way back, but I was nowhere near as concerned. Then the cramps started in my thighs. When I got to the camper, I scrounged through our food box and ate some things that were high in potassium. The cramps came and went throughout that night, but I still slept well. In fact, we all did.

The next day, we got up, and I felt fine. I heated water and made the boys freeze dried scrambled eggs with bacon. Then I made myself some coffee and joined them at the picnic table for breakfast. While we ate, we all agreed that hiking was not on our list of activities for the day. Instead, we would get in the truck and go see Camp Verde, where the calvary kept camels at one time in history. Unfortunately, I did not have my TomTom in the truck, and our geocaching GPS device was not set up for road travel in the area. Jared remembered that we had Onstar, so I pushed the button. It wouldn't connect, so we went to the Vander Pool Store and asked for directions. A few miles later, I tried Onstar again. We connected, but she couldn't give us turn by turn directions for the area. Instead, she had me press a button so she could read them orally and record them for us. We never bothered to listen to the recording, because the directions were pretty straight forward.

We got to Camp Verde, and there were a lot of cars there. When we went in, you could smell the most delicious food cooking. Since the last time I was there, about 8-10 years ago, they had totally changed the place. It was no longer a quaint old fashioned general store. It is now a fru fru place that sells all that stuff ladies like to look at when they go to Fredericksburg like candles and crafty things. Even the candy counter was gone. Instead, they had some candy items for sale in a back room.

We took some photos, bought some candies, and got out of there. I thought it would be fun to take Storm to see the miniature copy of Stonehenge someone had built near Kerrville in Hunt, Texas. We stopped for lunch at KFC, and, while there, learned that the Stonehenge had been moved closer to Kerrville. We found it and walked around it taking pictures for awhile, before heading back to camp.

On the way back, we stopped and found two more geocaches outside of Lost Maples. Then we got some ice and went back to the camper. We ate our dinner and the boys played a zombie game on the iPod touches using bluetooth. After that, we all played several hours of Trivial Pursuit before going to bed.

The next morning, we got up and moved everything out of the camper to get ready for take down. I wanted some time with the AC off, so that the places where the humidity drips on the sides would have time to dry in the sun. That didn't take too long in the Texas heat.

The boys were helping me get everything taken down and ready to go when a neighboring camper came over and asked us how our stay had been. I told him this was our first trip in the camper, and that we had a good time. (We really did have a good time, even with the near-deadly hike.) I told him that our only problem was that I didn't know how to back up the camper, and needed to go home and practice before my next trip. He gave me some tips that he thought might help me. He did this hand gesture with an invisible steering wheel, showing me that I only wanted to make tiny adjustments in direction. I figured I would give it a try when we got home.

We had an uneventful drive back to San Antonio. I followed the guy's tips for backing the camper and parked that thing perfectly on the first try! I still want to go and practice, just to make sure I really learned something. I told the boys that, next week, when we take our second trip over to Guadalupe River State Park, I need to try all the hitching, backing up, and unhitching by myself to make sure I could do it. Afterall, I am going on trip number 3 the very next week. That time I am only taking Nicky, my dog. Jared has driver's ed, and won't be able to go with me for a few weeks, but I can't wait to get on the road and spend more time in “Casa Jim”. See you at the Parks!!!