On the Road Again

Faith and I are on the road again, heading north. Our ultimate destination will be a gathering of Girl Campers in Tennessee. But with Alabama being such a long state, we’ve come halfway and are stopped at Oak Mountain State Park. Oh, I am enjoying delightful cooler temperatures!

As I was backing the camper into place, and in a rather zigzag manner that I sometimes do, a kind man came over to help me. He voiced surprised that I was doing this by myself, and that I didn’t have a back up camera.

“I thought when you started backing up by yourself, that you had a back up camera.” His eyes darted at the camper, as if still looking for a camera. “Since you were doing this by yourself,” he repeated.

“I’ve done this by myself many times, but I thank you kindly for your help,” I told him.

I always think it is generous and gallant when men come over to offer their assistance. Not that they are usually very much help, and I really do better just to inch my way by myself. Sometimes I can back that camper in place smooth as peas rolling off a table, and sometimes I look like a crazy person going back-and-forth. I no longer let any of that bother me. The ending is the same, eventually I get the camper in place where I want it. Still, I recognize that it is kindness that prompts the man’s offer. And likely a little curiosity.

“Do you do this all by yourself. . . hook it up and everything?” he asked.

I refrained from pointing out that obviously I was indeed alone, that the dog in the back seat could not help. I simply said that yes I did, and it wasn’t that hard, and I explained that after so many times of backing up my camper, I figure I don’t need the camera, but it would just be one more piece of equipment to bother with.

The men I have encountered while out camping seem to have the idea that it’s an oddity for a woman to back up a camper. Since none of the men in my family or around me act like it’s any big deal for a woman to drive or back up a camper, I have never considered it so. Then again, I can remember my little mother, living on her own, coming through the kitchen with a great big pipe wrench that she was preparing to use on the pipes underneath her sink. I suppose she was one of my examples. We do what we have to do to get where we want to go. Our lives are formed from our choices.

Well, time to get Faith her supper and me another cup of tea.

What I would really like is someone to bring me a cup of tea. Now that would be something odd, and marvelous.

I’ll post pictures from Tennessee next week.

Grace and peace,

CurtissAnn