RV Adventures

“Don’t rush!” That’s an ominous title for a blog post. We need to remind ourselves of that a little more often. Rushing can lead to a big OOPS!!!!

We arrived at Monahans Sandhills State Park in west Texas with full waste tanks. We were literally full of sh*t and those tanks NEEDED to be dumped. No problem, the state park had a dump station. However it is laid out to be convenient for those leaving the park, not those arriving, i.e. The Blue Flame. Jim got us maneuvered into the dump station and we did what needed to be done. As soon as we pulled in a big fifth wheel trailer pulled in behind us to also dump. The dump station was very small and the fifth wheel trailer would have to pull all the way in to dump. This meant Jim could not just pull ahead, Jim would have to get completely out of the dump station. So trying to be good neighbors, and observing proper campground etiquette and not loitering in the dump station is the reason why we rushed…to get out of his way.

Exiting the dump station to get to our campsite meant we had to make a sharp right turn. A TIGHT SHARP right turn. And there is a reason this state park has the name “sandhills” in it, you are basically in the middle of sand dunes. The man-made, narrow, paved roads are the only reason you can get this far into the dunes. If Jim had not felt pressure to get out quickly he would have been tried the turn at a slower speed and taken the time to maneuver back and forth.

Can you tell what is going to happen next? Our RV has a really long wheel base. REALLY long. Jim tried to make that sharp right turn out of the dump station to get out of the other trailer’s way. He could see the driver’s front tire would go off the paved surface, but we’ve driven on sand before (beaches, etc) so it should be OK. Not having walked on the sand yet he didn’t realize how loose it was. And because he was going a little bit faster than normal before he could react we ended up with both front tires AND the driver’s side rear tire all buried in the sand. OOPS!

Yes, we were now partially blocking the road. I had visions of a large tow truck (and accompanying bill) in our future.

The nice gentleman in the 5th wheel stepped out (let’s call him Mr. 5th Wheel) and I shrugged at him and invited him to watch the show, i.e. us trying to get unstuck. He said his young son loved watching big vehicles (Thanks Dude), but then he also offered to unhitch his 5th wheel trailer and try to pull us out with his big pickup truck. Thank you!

It was time to undo this predicament we found ourselves in. This is not our first time getting stuck (this is). Jim dropped the jacks which got the rear tires off the ground. We were putting boards down under the tires when the park ranger showed up in his pickup. “Y’all want me to get the front end loader and pull you out?” YES!!!! This was even better than Mr. 5th Wheel’s pickup truck.

The rest all happened so quickly. Mr. 5th Wheel got his family out of his truck to watch (very nice people by the way) and he assisted with the hookup. In the meantime, I hustled to the campground office to get us a different campsite because we quickly realized our back-in site was not going to work, we would just end up in the sand again. We needed a pull through site.

By the time I got back outside with a new campsite assignment, the front end loader had arrived and we were being pulled out. We have never, ever gotten stuck and unstuck so quickly! That tells me this is a common occurrence at this state park.

We thanked the park ranger and Mr. 5th Wheel, picked up all our boards and got into our pull thru site. That was enough excitement for one day. To be honest, we didn’t budge from the campground over the next two days.

Hindsight, I should have been outside with a walkie talkie guiding Jim and the RV out of the dump station. He could have wiggled his way around the sharp turn. We’ll try to remember that next time. And you know there will be a next time…there always is. So the moral of the story, don’t rush.