Made It to Sam's

On the road to California

On Sunday, we decided we'd better get a move on before the work week started.  So we hooked up the new truck to the new 5th wheel and then we headed out the dealership gates for California, Mike in the truck and pulling the trailer, me following in the Subaru with the dog.  It was Mike's first time pulling anything bigger than our 13-foot Trillium trailer so we were both a bit (understatement) anxious.  So, first we swung by the enormous parking lot of the nearby Big Lots where Mike did some practice turning and backing.  Before long he felt fairly confident and we hit the road. 

By the time we got started on our way to Desert Hot Springs, it was already afternoon.  We didn't pull into Sam's Family Spa until after dark.

Sun goes down while we drive

The spots were pretty close together and there were no pull-throughs available.  So there we were, needing to back into a narrow, unfamiliar spot after dark, when we were both already bleary-eyed and tired from driving.  We quickly realized that I couldn't spot him in all the places necessary at once. 

Of course, there was a big outdoors party happening a few spots down with more than a dozen people having a great time.  Quickly a group gathered in the road to watch our newbie antics.  I felt a flush of irritation at the gawkers.  But then several of them walked over and offered their help; they were a group of professional truckers and wanted to offer their help.  I chastised myself for my prejudgements, and my irritation immediately turned to relief and gratitude.  Two of the women helped us for about half an hour as Mike maneuvered the truck through a long series of movements that eventually came to an end with the trailer backed successfully into its spot, nicely tucked between the concrete pad of the picnic table on one side and the utilities post on the other.  All without managing to hit the large palm tree at the front end of site or smash the 5th wheel end into the cab of our pickup truck.  I'm not a hugger, but I sure hugged the woman who gave us step by step directions.  She was kind and understanding and managed to give us assistance while empathetically conveying that it was perfectly natural for a new 5th wheel driver to have to learn how to back up a thirty-plus-foot trailer in the dark between obstacles. 

She not only helped us get into our spot, she and her friends disrupted my expectation of what truckers look like.  They also further extended my understanding of the people who rv:  I see that now it includes truck drivers who travel for pleasure in the cabs of their trucks.  And I had no idea how commodious these cabs could be! 

Here's a short video clip, courtesy of stayingman on Youtube, that shows the inside of one of these kinds of rigs:

We checked in to Sam's Family Spa for one night to see if we wanted to stay.  It seemed reasonable to us so the next morning we went back to the office and signed on for a month.  Of course, it turned out that long-term renters have to park in a different part of the park so we had to go through the whole process of backing into one of the narrow spots once again.  This time we did it by ourselves and it went smoothly and quickly so yee-haw for us!  

More on Sam's in my next post.