Trouble didn’t raise its ugly head until we were well into Oklahoma. It wasn’t significant at first but we were heading straight for it. In Bakersfield, it’s common and seems to herald in a coming storm.
If you guessed WIND you would be correct. Like I said I’m no stranger to the subject. I’ve been through a 4.9 hurricane back in ‘65 but I guess this system wasn’t on mine or the weather app’s radar.
We had pulled into a gas station and as usual, I headed for the trailer. (The perks to having your own traveling private bathroom!) I got the door open.
Okay, here we go down another rabbit trail. If you don’t know me, I’m 4’9” and the trailer is of course upon wheels. The lock is at someone’s eye level, but not mine. I have to stretch to get it unlocked. The next hurdle is pulling down these mega stairs. The system is patent pending so they aren’t the regular hidden stairs that you pull out from under the trailer. No, it’s like pulling down a drawbridge. In fact, when we were staying at Van’s sister’s house we had to loop a rope around the bottom and draw it up at night so people wouldn’t trip on them when they walked down the sidewalk.
The manufacturer didn’t shirk on materials, either. They could easily hold an 800 lb. hippo. There are 3 stairs of heavy-duty metal. One word of caution, I would check the level of the trailer before I opened the door to make sure the stairs weren’t going to fall forward. It should have a sign saying “Open with Caution” or “Open at your own risk”. LOL
So back to the story. I unlocked the door, peeked in, and saw all was well. I opened the door all the way, pulled down the drawbridge I mean stairs, and began the ascent. I got to the middle step when out of nowhere this gust of wind blasts at me and the door comes slamming toward my body with a vengeance. I stuck my forearm out to catch it before it could take my foot off.
I held on as it pushed against my throbbing arm. It felt as if someone was forcing the door closed. I pushed back with all my might and tried to force it open so that I could at least jump into the trailer. I’m no wimp, but I couldn’t open that door or move into the trailer. I was stuck in limbo until the gust let up. Yes, the bruise came later.
I was a bit trepidatious in leaving, but it seemed I was in the calm between the gusts. I quickly exited and let my husband worry about locking up.
We got back on the road, but soon the gusts were back in full force, it was like driving a buckin’ bronco. They attacked from the side and Van worked hard to keep from swerving all over the road. I was so happy when we finally made it to our campground.
But just because we were parked in our spot, didn’t mean the wind let us be, no we were rockin’ and a-rollin’ trying to get the slider out and getting set up. Van told me he needed to put the stabilizers down because he was getting seasick. I’m not joking and it was not going to be a fast fix since if you remember he forgot the drill motor that would do the job in a jiffy. It was a manual hand crank on all four corners.
The stabilizers helped some but throughout the night It buffeted us from side to side, kind of like rockin’ a baby to sleep. And that’s just what it did.
Now if you think we were in the home stretch or smooth sailing well read the next episode of a Trip of a Life Time.
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