Traveling with Lance

Lance 1685 

The Zion/Death Valley vacation brought such delight we really must plan the next trip. The Lance 1685 was worth the price. It is well designed and solid. Yet as with all things earthly, fix-ups from trip to trip are necessary. It’s the little things, like the curtain tieback that break in half, flaming stoves (because the O-ring melts), and last but not least, a key that breaks off in its lock. Should we pay a fortune to haul the trailer to the dealer and have everything fixed at once, including having new locks put in? Of course not!

There’s a Bible passage that states: As arrows in the hands of a warrior, so are the sons of one’s youth; oh the happiness of the man who has his quiver filled with these arrows. He shall have no cause for shame . . . .

Truly all kids, not just sons, come in handy. We have smart daughters, too. I recall the time my horse trailer lost its tire, and I stood in the broiling sun along an empty highway calling the AAA. Before I was finished grumbling to the service folks about the hour and a half they said it would take for them to get to me, my heavily pregnant daughter rolled up her sleeves. She handed me the horse lead line, pulled out the spare, jacked up the trailer, took off the bad tire and replaced it. Even the horse I was holding looked dumbfounded.  

This time, child No. 5 came to our rescue. She could have been a crook, what with going online to find out how to pick a lock and remove half a key. But the spare key was inside the camper and she didn’t want to strip the deadbolt by filing it. A bright idea popped in my head. I said, “Maybe you can get in from underneath.” The cargo space on the Lance is accessible from inside the trailer (in case of rain). The lock on the access panel uses a separate key (one that works, believe it or not, in every camper in the United States—so, all you RV owners, re-key your locks!) Though I could have asked the neighbor for his camper key, I still had my cargo key on the ring with the broken one. I opened the hatch, and in under a minute, my girl crawled into the tight cargo hold, pushed up the bed, squeezed inside, and came out the front door grinning, the spare key dangling from her hand.

Inside the Lance

And so our next few trips will definitely include the girls. The boys can stay at home and do things like hang up new light fixtures, install new toilets, put in the flooring, move heavy furniture around, etc,etc,etc.  As for the stove and curtain tieback; we got the parts for under $5 and fixed them ourselves.

?Next trip: RTMC (tomorrows installment)