Linda and Bob Bishop have been really close friends with us for some 17 years. We have churched together, shared holidays, I coached their boys in football, and we even lived together for a while when they were building a house. They now live in South Carolina. And we visit each other as often as we can. The last couple of times we went to South Carolina, it’s been in our RV—something Bob, a former tent camper like me, had been considering. Now Linda is another story. Although she can be a rugged individualist, she prefers comfort. So if she was going to go camping, it would be more of a “glamping” trip. Well, thoughts often become action. You won’t believe what happened to these “first timers.”
It all started with a call from their four-year-old granddaughter, “Papa and Gemma, I want you to come to Disney World with me.” As Bob puts it, “If you are a grandparent, you full well know there is only one correct response to an invitation like that.” The Bishop’s son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters (4 and 1) are full-time RVers because of their work. Bob and Linda seized the chance to rent an RV to meet them in Orlando. And despite advice to the contrary, Bob went big, as he says, “a 38-foot Class A behemoth with a king sized bed, bath-and-a-half, dozens of slide outs, and a full length basketball court!” And so the trip begins. Bob went on: “A right turn out of the RV storage center, a quick lane change to set up a bat-turn across a busy four lane highway, and full throttle to get out of the way of oncoming traffic.
“The 38-footer rocked back-and-forth out of the thrilling hairpin turn for the better part of 20 seconds, before finally settling down. All to the dismay of my wife, Linda, who by this time was speaking in an elevated voice, “Bob, we’re going to turn over!” Then there was a near miss of an 18-wheeler on the side of the road. As Bob retells: “Linda screamed, “We’re going to hit that truck!” In fact, she kept screaming it. Like, way more than once. I glanced over and deadpanned, “You are not helping.” We roared past the idling Freightliner, no problem…plenty of room to spare…piece of cake…I would say we had every bit of two inches between our mirrors.” But the wind for a first-timer was really scary. “What was making all of this maneuvering so difficult was a strong crosswind of 25-35 MPH coming at us broadside.
“It only took about ten minutes for Linda to reach her conclusion: we are not buying an RV! As for me, it was too soon to conclude anything.” Bob said he was too busy trying to figure out how to change lanes or what he’s to do with that toll booth coming up, and how long to release one hand from the steering wheel to reach for a drink of water with Linda saying, “Keep both hands on the wheel! I’ll feed you a drink of water!” Over the next few hours I became more comfortable with the wind and the handling of the RV. Linda finally settled in, became a little more trusting, and a lot more grateful we were still alive. Well, I say settled in…Linda would say, she was recovering from a nervous breakdown. After a long four-hour drive, we arrived safely at the RV campground near Disney.”
Bob concluded, “Curiously, as an aside, when we returned the RV to its owner, Linda stepped out of the rig, dropped to her knees, and kissed the ground. I wonder why she did that?? But, as for me…I was already thinking ahead to that 40-foot Class A diesel pusher…!” The Good Book says that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character, hope. I’m sure that after that character-building experience, there is a lot of hope—one way or another!
