Monday, July 16, 2012

I'm Your Captain

Pup and I bought a camper.


A 1988 Born Free President. I have no idea what it is or what it was, but I do know we have a bit of a learning curve with this lovely girl.

We bought her from a great guy, Bubba. I call him that only because his real name is Darryl and he is a bit of a Bubba. The nicest Bubba ever, but a Bubba. He was selling her because he had broken up with his girlfriend and I could see the hurt in his eyes still. He had kind eyes. And he was handsome for a Bubba.

Pup thought me a little crazy, but I could tell Bubba's heart was a bit shattered.

Not so broken though that he didn't take our check for his camper and buy himself a lovely Corvette. Good for you Bubba! Get on that horse and ride!

We bought her just a couple of weeks ago and there she sat in our driveway waiting for us to love her. I was out of town quite a bit and let's just say that Pup wasn't entirely chomping on any bit to get to know her. She scared him I think! She is a bit intimidating with all of her valves, petcocks (wth??), buttons, indicator lights, tanks, chemicals, gas intakes, blah bibbity blah blah.

So she sat.

We needed to use her to go to an anniversary party about 100 miles away and since we were leaving Saturday morning, naturally, we began looking her over on Friday night.

I'm inside cleaning (Bubba actually left her pretty clean. I didn't find anything to make me gasp anyway.) and Pup is outside checking things out.

"Come see this." he says.

Oh oh.

Water is pouring out of the water tank he is trying to fill.

Cut to confused looks on our faces.

We fumble around for a few minutes trying to find reasons for the leak. I say, "Let's call Bubba."

I can tell Pup is not wild about this idea, but he calls.

Bubba is very nice and Pup takes the phone outside and follows instructions from Bubba to turn this and crank that and look at the other.

Saturday morning we go out to the camper to discover the water tank is totally empty.

Oh dear and poopy shitty.

"Let's call Bubba again," I say.

Pup has a "hell no" face on, but does mention that we will be practically driving by Bubba's house on our way out of town.

So I call Bubba.

"Hi Bubba! This is Deborah - you remember? Your new best friend?" Nervous laughter from me. Bubba says, "Of course!"

"Bubba, Pup and I are heading out of town this morning and we were wondering if we could stop at your house for a minute so you could take a look at this leak we can't seem to stop. Are you busy right now?"

This nice man says, "Sure! Come on over."

Pup says, "He is calling us dorks right now you know."

I say, "I don't care as long as he is willing to help. Frankly, I'd be calling us a few choice names myself."

We look at each other and bust out laughing, because truth be told? We are dorks. Who waits until they are leaving to check shit out?

Bubba was amazed at that as well. In fact he turned to me with his kind eyes and said, "I'm shocked you guys didn't go over all of this stuff." I just shrugged and said, "That would have made sense though! And didn't you really want to show us your hot Corvette anyway?"

Bubba had to laugh and yes, I oooohed and aaaaahed at his hot car.

I'm a little in love with Bubba right now and am writing the end of his story in my head. The story where he meets a lovely Bubbett and they drive off into the sunset in his hot Corvette.

Meanwhile, Pup and I drove off in our leak-free camper laughing and once again I am so happy to have met someone so nice, honest, and helpful in my life.

I am brainstorming names for our lovely little camper. Anyone have any ideas? I'm calling her The Guest House right now, but Pup isn't in love with that one.

15 comments:

Joyce Gray said...

We call ours Babushka, don't ask me why, we call the motorcycle we carry on back Tadpole, haven't come up with a name for the jeep we tow. You are going to have wonderful adventures. Start following a couple of RV bloggers and you will wind up with loads of people to help you out with questions. Welcome to the world of Roughing it Smoothly!

Anonymous said...

OMG... laughed through this entire post.

Born Free? Love it. I'm jealous because I would love to own something like this and take a trip here and there during our retirement, but you can bet that Hubby will vote me down on that idea.

Have to think about a name for your camper.. hmmmm

Ms. A said...

I'd like to have one of those... and a Bubba to help when things go awry!

T said...

GREAT blog post! Too funny! This one goes in my Greatest Hits of Deborah file.

You will have a ball with that, girl. Yes, you must (and I'm confident YOU will) come up with just the right name.

BTW what is a petcock?

Sally said...

LOL!!!

I sure needed this today. Best of luck with HER!! :)

Karen thisoldhouse2.com said...

I LOVE IT!!!!!... you lucky girl!!!

So. Cal. Gal said...

My MN cuz has one for trips and sh...uh, I mean stuff. They love it! And why don't you call it Born Free?

deb-oh-rah said...

The name of the lioness in the Born Free movie was Elsa. Or if you go by President, then you could name it Hilary, in the hope. ;-)(Okay, don't everyone pile on. LOL)

TexWisGirl said...

too cute. hope bubba finds happiness. :)

congrats on your POTW!

Out on the prairie said...

I am not a techie on this stuff myself.Glad Bubba was cool to help.I have been looking at a few ,the AC would be nice in this dreadful heat over the fans I use in my tent.

silvergirl said...

OMG husband wants to do something like this and travel around the country for 6 months
i think he is crazy, but maybe not????
brett

Not So Simply Single said...

The Wicked White Wonder

Camper a go-go

Pup and the traveling puptents (Almost spit out my coffee)

Must think of more....

Anonymous said...

I love visiting your blog! You make laugh out loud! I'm sooo jealous right now cause I want a camper! I want a vintage bubble looking on though. Sigh.... I fear it will never happen. Have a wonderful weekend! Traci

T said...

Some that popped with me:


rollin refuge
rest stop
* harbour
* sabbatical
summer hummer
owl’s nest
outcast

Deborah said...

Joyce Ann - I'm excited to become part of the RVing community. It's going to be so much fun!

Diane - hubby won't go for that idea? Even for a minute?

Ms A - everyone needs a kind Bubba in their life.

tPretty - I'm still not certain what a petcock is. I have a few ideas fumbling around in my head, but they should stay there. Ha!

Sally - thank you!

Karen - I am lucky!

SCG - we should caravan out to see you. I'll gather up all your Minnesota cousins!

TexWisGirl - I hope he does too!

OutontheP - a fan in your tent? That sounds fancy!

Brett - I think I could love doing something like that!

Lisa - you know, Pup Tent is one of my favorites right now. I think Pup is leaning towards that one for real.

Traci - I love those campers! They are so adorable.

tPretty - I did think 'Stabbin Cabin' might be a good one. On second thought, maybe not. Heh.