I’m writing earlier than usual this week because the Great Hunter and I are going camping in LaCrosse, Wisconsin for their Oktoberfest. Our son(well, really my, but I’m willing to share him with the Great Hunter) invited us to go with him and his wife and dogs a couple months ago. At the time we had planned to take our camper, but then the hydraulics shot craps.  I didn’t know there were companies like VRBO and AirBnB for campers, but there are so I decided to see if I could rent one.

I found an enclosed camper we could rent and even have it towed to the park and set up for us. It was a little pricey after the company added all their required fees; cleaning, towing, insurance, and other fees, but I felt being able to take my Kia Sportage instead of the Great Hunter’s twenty-year-old Silverado, would make up for some of the costs. The Great Hunter offered to pay for it so I booked it. WooHoo.

Two weeks ago when we got the notification that the final payment had been processed, the Great Hunter came to me and said “Do you know you booked the camper for the wrong weekend?!?” What? Of course I didn’t and knowing he sometimes doesn’t take the time to truly read something, I wasn’t too concerned. But sure enough, I checked and I did rent it for the wrong weekend. OMG. I don’t know how that happened. I guess I was thinking it was that weekend, even though I knew it wasn’t because I had to move my book club meeting to accommodate being out of town.

Going back to the website, I realized I could change the reservation. I requested the correct weekend only to find out this camper wasn’t available for the weekend we needed.

Our camper has been sitting in our driveway for the last couple of months and the Great Hunter has worked tirelessly to prove that it could be fixed. He finally gave up after the top fell and promised to sell it. A co-worker offered to buy it in an “as is” condition for a couple hundred dollars and he agreed. The co-worker asked if she could pick it up the upcoming weekend, but he told her he still needed to clean it out. My (ok, our) son came over that Saturday afternoon while his wife was working, got under the camper and he and the Great Hunter were able to get the hydraulic cables fixed. And, what do you know? The top raises. Our trip was on again.

After I lost the first reservation, I contacted the camper’s owner (but only through the company’s website to ensure the owner doesn’t cut them out of the profits) and he told me he had a pop-up camper available if I wanted it. This was basically the same time the miracle of the camper came about and I was in a quandary as to what to do. If we took our camper (which we’d never towed any further than about 100 miles) and towed it with the Great Hunter’s 20+-year-old truck, we’d save money, have all our own things and we’d have more room for the dogs and things we needed to pack. But the camper’s old and so is the truck, so I told the Great Hunter the decision was up to him. Originally he said we’d take the camper but he got up one morning and said “No, I don’t think we should. Rent the other camper.” So I did.

Now we’re set for our Oktoberfest weekend, even though I realized later that our bare-bones rented camper doesn’t have a bathroom. Luckily I got that covered too, a portable toilet complete with a cell phone holder!