After picking our way across Northern Oregon/Southern Washington in route to meet up with our friends, we finally found ourselves on the Oregon Coast – just one day out from our scheduled meetup. The plan was to stay one night at a Harvest Host in Tillamook, OR and then head over to Champoeg State Park for a few days. The drive (for the most part) was an easy one. Our route had us hugging the Columbia River for quite a while and then into the mountains. It’s been years since we’ve been back to the Pacific Northwest for any amount of time and just seeing the trees and smelling the air brought back visceral memories. The entire area holds a very special place in our hearts. Brian and I met in Seattle and spent years there. That’s where we were living when we got married and it’s where both of our kids were born. We were full of smiles. It felt good to be back.
The day took an interesting turn though after was had been driving on OR-6 for a while. We decided to switch drivers because the roads were just a little tight for my comfort level while hauling the trailer. We hopped off on an exit that looked like it had a fairly easy on/off access. We were mistaken. We instantly got into a tight little subdivision where we had a couple of close calls before I just gave up, stopped in the middle of the road and made Brian take over driving. Brian is a much better driver while we’re towing (and I’m not saying that facetiously). I’ll do the highway towing for hours on end and I’m fine navigating through major metropolitan areas, but I refuse to back the rig up or try to do the fancy tight turns – I just don’t have the confidence for that yet. Brian, on the other hand, has some sort of sixth sense about this whole towing thing. The first day we picked up the rig, not only did he get us in and out of several parking lots on the way home, when we got to my parent’s house, he was able to take us through their little subdivision like it was nothing and then back this 38-foot trailer into their driveway on the first try. It was seriously impressive.
What happened after Brian took over was just one of fluke accidents. He was repositioning the rig to aim back toward the highway and went through a grocery parking lot. He left plenty of clearance (like he always does) but missed one solitary car parked way out in the back. When we turned, we clipped the car with the tail end of the RV. No one was hurt. We were probably going less than 5 mph. Brian dealt with the entire situation with grace and calm. (I may have hyperventilated) Turns out, the car was an older one that belonged to a 16 year old employee of the grocery store. Poor kid had no idea what to do, so Brian walked him through everything – calling insurance, documenting it all. The kid ended up calling his mom, who lived fairly close. Once she talked to my husband, and saw the steps he was taking, she was completely at ease with everything and that process went fairly smoothly.
We, on the other hand, now had a gaping hole in the back of our home-on-wheels. While I focused on keeping myself and the kids calm, Brian went to work. There wasn’t anything we could do about the damage on a Sunday night in the middle of nowhere in Oregon, so our only option was to patch it up and continue on our journey. It’s not like just sitting there and feeling sorry for ourselves was going to do anything. The good news was that the damage wasn’t even noticeable from the interior. The back panel and ladder weren’t in the best shape and there were obvious issues when you opened the outdoor kitchen, but there didn’t seem to be any damage to the frame and there certainly wasn’t any damage to the axle. The rig was still totally usable once we got it patched.
This is where it pays to have a detail-oriented engineer as a husband. Brian set up shop in the parking lot. After examining everything, he filled the hole with spray foam. He then did the most intricate duct tape seam over the outside that I’ve ever seen. The main goal (especially being in the Pacific Northwest) was to keep everything water-tight. The last thing we needed in all of this was to add water damage on top of everything else. The whole process took a while. The kids were so amazingly patient through all of it. Honestly, I’m finding that it’s really helpful to have them around when I’m feeling like I might lose my cool. Parenthood doesn’t really allow for freak-outs because you have to keep it together for them.
With everything patched up, we went on for the last leg of the journey to get to our Harvest Host stop. It was the perfect place to help end a day like the one we had just experienced, so much so that it deserves its own post.
Perspective:
- No one was hurt
- Thanks to the work we had done on our original camper, we knew how and had the tools available to temporarily fix the damage
- The rig was still water-tight
- There was no impact to the interior of the rig so the kids’ bunkhouse could still be used as usual (Thank Goodness)
Now, we just get the perk of learning how to work through a damaged rv while living in it full time…
