At 4:00 we close on the house and take off to load the remaining items we own into the RV and head out for Alum Creek north of Columbus to get used to the RV lifestyle and spend some time with my son, his wife, my 5 month old grandson, and my other son before heading up to Acadia National Park in Maine.

Then the misadventures begin, one right after another! Somehow, we get locked into the RV. Yes, you heard correctly. As Jeff and I remain calm, we both try unsuccessfully to open the door from the inside so that we can exit. We laugh and try again and again. Eventually we stop laughing and Jeff jimmies himself out of the passenger’s side window. He tries to open the door from the outside. He tries to open the door with the key. Nothing works! I am trapped inside with two dogs and Jeff is trapped outside! The RV dealership’s service department, of course, is closed for the day by now. What are we to do? We frantically search for our Roadside Assistance Emergency phone number and talk to a dispatcher who attempts to find us a locksmith ASAP which translates into within the next hour. We have no home except for the RV and we are stuck on the storage lot in Miamitown. While we wait and hope for help, Jeff successfully hitches the tow and car. This was his main concern, not getting locked out from both inside and outside the RV!

Meanwhile my son from Columbus texts me asking if we are on the road yet. I text him our situation and he calls me. We laugh and make jokes about the useful situations for having a supply of Depends Diapers on hand.

Roadside Assistance updates us that there is a problem locating a locksmith but an RV tech has been contacted who will try and walk us through troubleshooting our problem with the door. We wait. My BFF has already offered us a place to stay overnight. Then a miracle happens! Jeff attempts to open the door from the outside with the key once again, and it works!!!!!!! Jeff and I practice opening and closing the door several times with success and we pull away towards Alum Creek as I try to contact Roadside Assistance. Eventually the RV tech calls and we discuss some mumbo jumbo about oiled latches which Jeff and I translate as crappy door locks.

We end up driving in the dark which Jeff NEVER EVER wanted to do and then it starts raining, of course! I text high fives to my son and his wife and receive a call from my third son in California and relate to him our hilarious and harrowing experience. All is well. Hold that thought!

Shortly after we leave Cincinnati I learn that my husband does not have directions to Alum Creek campground, does not quite remember our campsite number, and cannot pull up the confirmation number on his phone’s email. I google map directions to Alum Creek State Park and we arrive in the middle of nowhere at 11:00 PM. I re-google and we find the campground but it is too dark to see the campsite numbers clearly AND the numbers we can see don’t seem to be in a logical order. So, we pull into an empty site, unhitch the car and tow dolly and move the RV once again around to the dump station to fill up the fresh water tank in the dark, may I add. As Jeff starts filling the tank we hear water gushing out from somewhere. Jeff discovers that the tank needs to be plugged but he has to lay underneath the flowing water to do this. Jeff gets soaked as he fills the water tank. Then, when he starts the water pump NOTHING HAPPENS! We have no water! It is 12:30 AM and we are exhausted, frazzled, and barely talking to each other! We return to our empty site and Jeff pees in the brush and I pee in a cup. The nearby bath-house takes care of our other needs.