The Longest and Worst Night Ever
I’ve recently come home from a 3 week camping trip. That’s right three weeks straight. It was awesome fun and great to get further away from civilization. I still popped in now and then on Twitter and Facebook since my workstation is very portable.
There were four days where I had zero signal though–we camped out on a national wildlife refuge with thousands of acres of wilderness. This place is where the vacation was to begin.
On Tues night hubby and I was going to take the camper and get in line to get our favorite spot. It’s not a small camper; it’s big and very heavy. It’s like the claims race in the movie Far and Away Early Wednesday morning. We usually spend the night in the camper and wait for the gates to open. My in-laws and other camp mates come into camp the following morning.
So we head out Tues night shortly after dinner. We ate before we left. We don’t maybe less than half way there when we hear what sounds like a shotgun blast.
Oh crap.
We just had a blowout, but that isn’t the good part. Yes, we had the spare tire–that isn’t the problem. We had two flat tires. One spare–two flat tires. We have to get on the horn to get some help. However help is about 30-45 minutes away, so are all the tire stores that are also closed :(. That’s kind of what sucks when you live out here. Even self reliance has been tested here.
Houston we have a problem.
Time painfully passes as hubby and I sit on the side of highway 16. The people whose house we were stranded next to checks on us. A police officer even stops by to check on us. My brothers and law scramble to find a solution. We finally was able to put a normal truck tire for one of the flat tires. We’re saved!
Um, not yet.
The tire needs air or we risk another blowout.
Facepalm.
My poor brothers in law have to find a store with some air. Meanwhile the same friendly officer checks on us and directs my brothers in law to the nearest convenience store which is about ten minutes away.
Hubby, I, and the dog get to wait some more. We had been stuck about 3 hours now.
The finally come back and we are finally able to get moving again. We arrive at Piedmont Nation Wildlife Refuge about 2 am. For me, hubby, the dog, and my two brothers in law it was the longest and worst night ever.
The rest of the vacation was great.
About the Author
AK Taylor
AK Taylor is an award winning YA author who has been writing novels since age 16. Beekeeper, outdoor sportsman, avid adventurer, and animal lover. Taylor lives in the backwoods of Middle GA where she continues to write stories.
Awww haha!! I have a similar story. I had a camper van that I bought on eBay. We took it out for the first time, heading for the seaside. Less than ten miles out my youngest daughter started screaming, “It’s on fire!!!!!!” haha!! I looked in the mirror and saw a lot of smoke. I pulled over and started throwing our suitcases out the door in case it went up in flames LOL And hit my misses in the head with one. She wasn’t impressed. It turned out, the breaks were ceased on. We got it sorted and carried on.
When we got to the site, it was raining hard. I set the tent up next to the van and we headed out to the club that night. We came home late and put the kids in the van and got into our tent. It was a 10 force gale outside and we got hardly any sleep. We woke up in a puddle on our bed the next morning LOL My misses said, never again! I want to go home! We cut the weekend short and headed back home. Once we was in the middle of nowhere, the van broke down again LOL
She never let me live it down and won’t let me buy another camper van 😀
My goodness! 😀 To add insult to injury it was your first trip! There are so many movies about first time camping excursions by city folks! We have had our camper quite a while and we did a pretrip to keep the above scenario from happening. No dice. At least we both made it home safely! 😉
A couple of years ago, I had a similar experience on the way back from a hiking trip to the Lake District. The minibus broke down in a blizzard and we ended up getting stranded overnight! We had to be towed out, but because we were in the middle of nowhere, it took forever for help to get to us, and it was freezing. That definitely wins the prize for longest and worst night ever from me! Lesson learnt: don’t go hiking or camping in December when there’s bad weather forecast!
Glad the rest of your trip went well! 🙂
Hello Emma!
Oh that would suck in my book too! I’m certainly glad you made it out all right! Blizzards are serious business definitely in remote areas. You certainly were blessed!