Letters in response to RV Traveler issue 67
Dear readers,
Many of you wrote to me after my short essay last issue about my childhood fear of alligators under my bed, and my occasional present day fear as an RVer of strange sounds outside my RV at night in a remote campground.
Many of you advised that I simply pack a gun. "Chuck, quit being a weenie and get yourself a nice used 12 gauge pump shotgun and load it with bird shot," one reader wrote. Others advised to load it with real bullets. For the record, I do not carry and gun and don't plan to.
Other readers wrote that I should simply spend a little time with the Bible, where I would find reassurance that all was well.
But most of the responses offered a reassurance that it was okay to be a fearful at certain times. And many readers confessed their own "fears."
Here are a few of the dozens of letters I received.
Dear Chuck,
What a brave soul you are to put into print your fears about alligators and now robbers. I think we all at some time we have fears about something or another. My daughter was afraid of some thing at night . She would not go under the covers when she was small. I think her three brothers told her there was something lurking under there. I have a fear of dogs. I learned that people who get motion sick (which I do) fear that dogs will jump up on them and knock them.
Bobbee
Dear Chuck,
Several years ago in Everglades National Park we saw several alligators walking in the campground. You might want to avoid that campground.
W. McLaughlin
Dear Chuck,
While driving my newly purchased RV home from Washington State, where it had been purchased, I had an unforgettable experience. I had bought a used New Horizon RV built on a Toyota chassis. Small but economical.
I was making the journey home to Santa Barbara, California solo, and it was the second night of the trip. The previous night had been spent uneventfully in a Wal-Mart parking lot. On this second evening, I drove until I couldn't stand it any longer and was falling asleep. No Wal-Mart around this time. Nor anything else for that matter. I decided it was time to experiment with the "just find a place by the side of the road and pull over" theory of camping. I was in a desolate area of northern Nevada on a desperately quiet highway. Shouldn't be a problem.
Hmmm. Where to park for the night . . . The camper was just reaching the top of a pass. As it crested the hill there was a wide area to pull over. Someone had. In fact, two truckers and a Fed-Ex van were parked and apparently getting some zzzz's. Why not sleep here? If it's good enough for them . . . you know. I eased the motorhome off the highway and joined the back end of the sleeping convoy just behind the Fed-Ex truck, and went to bed in the upper bunk of the RV.
I was just a tad nervous. The place I had chosen was not a campground with docile, fun loving neighbors about. Nor was it a well-lit Wal-Mart parking lot. It was a pullout on a dark highway with some strangers I had never laid eyes on sleeping (supposedly) a few yards away. Now I am a male, 6'1", 200 pounds, and don't often feel intimidated in unfamiliar surroundings, but as I fell asleep there was this slight tingle of fear gnawing at the back of my mind. Kind of like a caution light going on. Seemed reasonable to have that feeling though. After all, stuff does happen sometimes. I double-checked that all was okay, put the feeling aside, and dropped off to sleep.
Sometime in the middle of the night I was awoken by a noise. As my mind struggled to consciousness, it identified the sound of an 18-wheeler flying by at high speed. The RV was shaking from the wind it created.
The truck passed. It was then that I knew something was seriously wrong. Wait! The truck was long gone but the camper was still shaking. "Oh God! My RV is moving! It wasn't a truck that woke me up after all. My RV has popped out of gear somehow and is rolling down the mountain!"
I flew out of the bunk, landing squarely in the middle of the narrow isle of the camper. I said a prayer of thanks for the opening between the camper and the cab of the truck. Scrambling forward into the drivers seat, job #1 was to get my foot on the brake. I slammed the pedal down hard. Nothing changed. I was still hearing the sound of movement and the RV was still shaking and bumping. What was wrong? Why aren't the brakes working? "Oh, wait" I thought, "they're power brakes and there is no vacuum in the system because the engine is not running."
It was pitch dark outside. As I scrambled for the keys to turn on the ignition, to build up the vacuum, to get the brakes to work, to stop the RV. . . I noticed that all I could see outside was the white line of the highway a few yards to the left. The lines were moving forward. This was confirmation that I was moving backwards.
It did not occur to me at the time how strange it was that the RV could have been rolling back for a while now, not being steered in any particular direction, yet I was still parallel with the Highway. In any case, I found the keys where I had consciously placed them before retiring — on the driver's side floor. The place where I put them in case there was an emergency and a quick exit was required. I tried to jam them in the ignition. Of course, I dropped them. Ahhh. I had to get the camper started! There couldn't be more than a few seconds before my new RV was bound to crash into to, well . . . something.
Another thing that hadn't occurred to me is how silly the idea of needing to turn the ignition on to get the brakes to work was. Sure, power brakes are darned inefficient when the engine if off, but hey, they do still work. I'm a big guy, I had about a pound of adrenaline running through me, I should have been able to bring the vehicle to a stop. But, my course of action seemed reasonable at the moment, so I continued to grapple with the keys.
Yet another thing that hadn't occurred to me was to turn on the headlights. Too preoccupied with getting the brakes to work. The keys finally turned in the ignition and the engine came to life. I had been pressing on the brake pedal the entire time, and really went to work on it now. No change!? I was still bumping around in the cab and the lines on the highway were still flying by.
My mind shifted into a paranoiac rage. The Toy hadn't merely slipped out of gear. That's impossible. Plus, the parking brake had been set. Someone has sabotaged the vehicle! Someone got into my RV while I was asleep, released the brake, put the tranny into neutral and cut the brake lines. Ahh.
By now, the entire event was maybe a minute old. I finally had the presence of mind to turn on the headlights. As they came on I was looking through the windshield, and there in front of me was the Fed-Ex van sitting right where it had been when I retired. I was still at the top of the pass. I was still on the side of the road. The camper had not moved one inch. I opened the door and examined the lines on the highway. They were pleasantly static. The camper wasn't shaking any more. So . . . it had just been a truck that woke me up.
I had just had a waking dream. Make that a nightmare. Turning on the headlights had snapped me out of it. When I stopped shaking, I crawled back to bed. Phew.
James
Dear Chuck,
I live in my RV full time. I don't think I will ever get over having a cat jump from the tree onto my units roof in my RV Park.
W Adams
Dear Chuck,
I feel better. As a woman traveling alone, I’ve experienced many of the same fears you wrote about in your editorial. That’s one of the reasons I rarely stay anyplace other than an established campground, preferably with security. I’ve tried staying at Wal-Mart even, but ended up sleeping poorly because I’ve seen those 60 Minutes exposés about incidents occurring in Wal-Mart parking lots! At least now I know that my unreasonable fears are shared by a grownup man!
Carol D.
Dear Chuck,
My husband and I are just getting into RV camping. We have always been tent campers and love to go to remote camp sites for the peace and quiet. I have often wondered what might be lurking outside my tent. One evening we were camping a community camp site in the Angeles Crest California area. We had finished our dinner and were enjoying our campfire and the quiet.
I know I shouldn't, but I can't resist feeding the small wild animals. We heard a strange noise in the dark close to our camp and I had to go investigate. It was a mother raccoon and three babies (about two to three months old). When they saw me, they took off so I decided to put out a pan of water in case they came back as water is scarce in that area. About 20 minutes later I felt something patting at my foot. After my heart started beating again I looked down and there was one of the babies. We still had some grapes left on the table so I dropped one down by my feet. The baby grabbed it and ran off. A few minutes later I saw the mother and all three babies approaching the water pan so I threw some grapes that way. Of course they drank the water and ate the grapes. As the evening went on the babies climbed up on our table and shared some fruit and crackers with us and then left to be with their mother.
My husband and I went to bed. Later that night I was awakened by a patting on my head from the outside of our tent. Again after my heart started beating again I placed my hand where I had felt the pat on my head. Then I heard the sound of the raccoons and they were pressing back on my hand. We have seen all kinds of critters on various camping trips but this was the first time any one of them wanted to come inside with us.
We have reached the age and health restrictions that won't allow up to do tent camping any more so we are in the process of deciding what kind of a trailer and truck to buy.
Nancy M.
Dear Chuck,
You may be a grown man but, I still get a little scared of an ax murder in a lonely campground in the middle of the night.
I'd like to relay a horror story, and I would like to know how many more dumb, dumb and dumber people are out there. We recently decided to put an electric outlet on the outside of a shed so we could plug the RV into its own outlet. If we plugged into the house current we could not run the air conditioner. Well my husband is a good carpenter and a fair handy man so he called an electrician to hook up the electric telling him he wanted a separate outlet with a 30 amp box???? Well it turned out the electrician put in a 220 wire and put a 30 amp breaker in the box. You guessed it: we plugged the camper in and blew out the converter and the microwave. Not sure about the fridge, and the air conditioner is fine. How many other dumb, dumbs are out there like us?
Keep up the stories. I love them!
Colleen
Hey Chuck,
I know what you mean. I have always thought I was safe under the covers. My fear was the tornadoes and storms that went through the Midwest states. Seems like we had lots of them in the middle of Iowa when I was a kid.
I always drew the sheet up and hoped a storm would pass by fast. Of course we had caves and storm shelters, and went down there often too. I guess that was just as scary as being upstairs in bed at night. You couldn't see what was out there.
Dear Chuck,
I thought I was the only one who lays awake all night listening for the boogie man. The worst is when you are boondocking, away from the security of other campers. My best solution is to run my Fantastic Fan on high above my bed so I can't hear what's going on outside. Of course that might be a good way to wake up dead! Maybe thats why our RV doors are configured that way; a bad guy would have a hell of a time balancing on an RV step and try to kick IN a door that swings OUT!
Unsigned
Dear Chuck,
I fear not when that strange car or truck pulls into the campground at 3 a.m. I traded in my teddy bear for a 12-guage shotgun with 00 buck shot! I have the capacity (6 shots) to put the fear in the evil doers!! Sleep tight neighbor, I will keep watch.
B. Rabe
Dear Chuck,
As a female, having traveled alone from coast to coast in one RV or another over the years I feel VERY safe with a dog along. As long as the dog is not barking or growling, I am pleacefully sleeping without a care in the world (for our safety or otherwise). Sure, it's a hassle traveling with a pet sometimes, but she's my best friend AND my early emergency alarm. She earns her keep!
Deborah R.
So you don't like stranage noises outside your RV at night. Here's a good one: We were camping in Yosemite with friends in our motorhomes. During the night there was an earthquake which shook everything and made a lot of noise. I knew what it was immediately, but my friends next door did not. They thought it was a bear after their portable barbecue. John immediately started banging on his wall in the bedroom, yelling "shoo bear." Was he ever surprised in the morning when I told him what had happened.
Walt Anderson
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