My mother in law, Lillian is here. She arrived from Yakima yesterday and will leave with her common law husband, Tom. He’s a cowboy in the classic sense. The camper we bought is now home as of Friday night. Unfortunately we had to deal with issues that were never resolved.
But, that is another issue for another time. My wife and I spent the day getting the camper readied. Then we went shopping when she got the call from her mother that they overshot the exit they needed to take. They were at a Fred Meyers store in the Spokane Valley and were hopelessly lost. Lillian ran the navigator unit to get the directions to our house. She hadn’t any idea how to get here from there.
My wife told me what the situation was and I thought for about three seconds and told her, “Tell them to go north.” North being the northbound street that was a block from the department store.
“Just say on that path until they get to Wellsley, and wait for us or Terry(stepson).” It is always a good idea to have an alternative route in one’s mind when your in-laws get lost because I’m sure Tom would have just back tracked to Spokane proper, and perhaps compounded the problem.
We just arrived to our house when I heard the dogs barking after Stephanie let them outside to relieve themselves. I was in the garage with the intention of putting the groceries in our spare refrigerator, when I saw Terry getting out of an F-350 and Tom riding high on his steel steed wearing his cowboy hat and his gray, bushy mustache hiding a toothy grin as he pulled up in front of my Ram 2500, its camper sitting proudly upon the truck for all to see.
“They’re here,” I called out to Stephanie.
“They are? How?” She asked more to herself than to me as I walked toward the big truck and wondered why he didn’t bring something that was more fuel efficient.
Lillian got out first as Stephanie and Tom did a ballet of vehicle moves to make everyone happy. Lillian and I hugged each other. Once Tom was parked horizontally to my truck and Stephanie’s Buick was parked next to my truck, I shook Tom’s hand we then set about to getting the camper readied for them to have a comfortable night’s sleep.
We got the heater going and the bedding in placed, but still couldn’t get that silly slide out to work. Hopefully that will be resolved Monday. As it was, it is fortunate that both Tom and Lillian are not robust individuals. Tom was tall and wiry; Lillian is a petite 85 year old woman, who one could assume was frail, though she would challenge you on that point. They squeezed between the inverted camper without issue.
It is the largest camper one can have. The manufacturer recommended using a one ton duelly for such a unit. Which was why we had to buffet the truck up to support such an RV. It has added struts, springs and supports that will hold the truck. When driving home I felt like a hippo tipping her toe in a shallow lake.
It’s the next morning and they’re in the TV room watching Net-Flix. I heard no complaints from them. She usually don’t and Tom has been known to sleep on bare ground with just a saddle blanket over his body and his saddle for a pillow. I think they’re happy with the accommodations.
Jerry Schellhammer 