I came across this essay from an old WinHelp file and thought it was reasonably well-written. This was back when we had a pop-up camper so I'm going to guess it was around 2001 when the events below happened.
When my wife Karen called me at work Tuesday to tell me that she had been rear-ended at a stoplight and that the hitch on our van had been bent because of the accident, the first words out of my mouth were, "Damnit! That means we won't be able to get the camper home tonight!" She replied with something to the effect of, "I'm really not worried about that right now. I'm okay and the kids are okay." Only after I hung up with Karen did I realize the value of priorities in life and how easily one can get caught up in the little things that don't mean a lot in the big picture of life.
This pop up camper of ours, for example, has lately become a tightening noose around my neck and only was getting tighter as the week continued. Last Friday night, I went over to pick up our camper with my son Alexander. We had left it there while the good folks at North Liberty Tire replaced the two leaking tires. It had rained that day and I had my brand new tennis shoes on. All I could concern myself with was not stepping in the mud as I tenderly hooked my camper to the van's hitch. As soon as the chains were hooked, I jumped to the concrete and took off my shoes, clapping them together to get the mud off of them. Then I took Kleenex and put them on the passenger side of our van and placed my muddy shoes on that so the carpet wouldn't get muddy.
I shifted to Drive and pulled forward. I heard this awful ear-splitting scrape of metal and jammed the van back into Park. I hopped out of the van and saw the damage. In my haste to get the camper home, I had forgotten to crank up the front support of the camper. The long cylinder support pipe was now bent and as I tried to crank up the pipe, obscenities began rolling off my tongue. The pipe would not retreat into its sheath.
Marck at North Liberty Tire said, "No problem." He took a large sledgehammer and began whacking the pipe towards the van to straighten it out. After one such whack, we noticed a crack in the pipe. Even if the pipe had straightened, it wouldn't have supported the weight of the camper.
"No problem," Marck repeated. "There's a tractor supply store in Cedar Rapids. They'll have a replacement. Grab one and we'll put it on for you. No big deal." I returned home to explain to Karen what had happened and made the plan to go to the store Saturday morning to get a replacement part.
I loaded the kids up Saturday morning and off we went to Cedar Rapids. The man at the store took me right to the part I needed. Feeling relieved, I bought the kids some candy orange slices to celebrate how easy this issue had been resolved. I cranked the radio and the local station was playing Heart's "Barracuda" a song I've always liked. And even better, the replacement part was $17.99, cheaper than the $50 ballpark figure that had automagically popped into my head.
Monday night, on the way home with the part, I stopped at North Liberty Tire. I took the new part out and positioned it at the hole I needed to insert it into. The new part's diameter was too large. "No problem," Trevor told me. "Get the right size part and bring it back."
Tuesday, during my lunch hour, I went to the store and exchanged my bad part for a good part. I triumphantly returned to North Liberty Tire after work and found I hadn't solved my problem. This second part was too big in diameter as well. This time, though, Trevor gave me some good advice when he said, "Maybe you'll have to go to a store that specializes in camper supplies."
Ever have a blonde moment?
Wednesday morning, I returned to the store with the 2nd bad part I had purchased and got my money back. At work, I called Jeff's RV in Marion. I described my problem and he said, "I should have the part you need." I drove out during my lunch hour and sure enough, Jeff had the part I needed. $34.45 was my final bill.
Wednesday night, I returned to North Liberty Tire to drop off the part for Trevor. He happened to not be there, but would call when it was done. Not more than a 1/2 hour later, the phone rang. Karen answered it. The camper was done.
Only now, the car being in an accident came into play. The hitch on the van was damaged so there was no way to hook the van to the camper. Luckily, my neighbor Dave was home. He drove me over to pick it up. To make things even better, he backed up the camper into its resting place until Spring 2001.
This whole ordeal has taught me that material possessions are not worth fretting about. As it turned out, I was worried about a material thing when I should have been worried about my wife and kids, who were at the van when it was rear-ended.
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