It was a misdirected camping trip. We left Scottsdale, Arizona thinking we would take a Spring trip east through New Mexico and into Texas. We had traded a beast of a twenty year old diesel pusher motor home for a more compact 28 footer on a truck chassis. Pulling our ATV on a trailer behind we were up for adventure.
Then we hit El Paso. Fuck! We didn't speak the language. Then looking at the map there was a hell of a lot of shit we just didn't care about in West Texas. Even more discouraging was that there weren't a lot of marked places to park a motor home that weren't expensive.
A spur of the moment decision made us decide to turn North to cooler climes. We headed back North to Las Cruces and picked up Interstate 25. Everything felt right.
Truth or Consequences caught our eye and fit our time line of no more than eight hours per day of travel. We had a half price discount card and scored a place for the night for twenty bucks. We usually park in the desert of public lands, but under the circumstances twenty bucks seemed okay. We slept well.
Here's the low down. The story isn't as much about the camping trip as the destination. We stay off Interstates as often as we can. Travel and enjoy America. Main highways and small towns are our forte. We got through New Mexico, Colorado, and into Wyoming. South Dakota means you have to see Rushmore. Also, when it's not biker time, need to see Deadwood. Trust me. We found a campground that had some spots behind a gas station. Most of the campgrounds were closed waiting for the winter snow to thaw. It snowed 6 inches that night. We set two days waiting for the thaw and began thinking we might be a bit early.
Moving over into Idaho the roads stayed clear, however, a lot of places we would have gone were still closed in late April.
Then I see this Bureau of Land Management map that shows this little campground on a river for $8 per night. There was a camper in the manager's spot and then us along with maybe 30 empty spaces. We parked at the river and set up. The place was remote and beautiful. Laura wanted to fuck. Laura is my wife. I'm Bob. Nobody calls me Robert.
We loved the spot so much I put $25 in the lock box for 3 nights. Then I found out the campground wasn't officially open until May 1st. We learned that the next day when we met the campground managers, a older man and his wife. To this day their names escape me.
They had a pretty sweet deal. They had been coming there to run the campground for 7 years. All the camp spots are camp only, no water, no sewer, no electric. The manager's spot had all that, plus telephone, internet, and satellite TV. Plus, they got paid by the hour for a few hours each week for things like bundling the trash, and when it grew, mowing the grass. Sweet deal indeed!
The wives hit it off. Me and the husband ... not so much. He would so have grass to mow and trash to collect soon enough. I was stuck dead center in nowhere. Cell phone wouldn't work, so no news from the internet or outside world. Not even a radio station. Nearest shopping, nearest groceries, nearest anything? Who the fuck knows? We drove a long time getting there.
The second night the lady came to our door crying with her husband close behind.
"Our daughter's been in a car wreck. Her husband probably isn't going to make it. The neighbor had been baby sitting when the police came. There is no one to watch the grand kids."
"What are you going to do?" Laura started to cry herself.
"You ever heard work camping?" The old guy asked over his wife's shoulder.
I admitted to having no idea what he was talking about.
"Work camping! It's where you get free camping in addition to a small pay check for your work. Your wife told us that it sounded interesting to her."
"Uh, I don't know? Uh, Laura? Really?"
"Well it does sound intriguing."
"Job starts May 1st, ends October 1st. You'll get about $800 for each month. It's a nice long vacation and the people are great."
"What's the down side?"
"Groceries are 60 miles away, but it's a nice drive. We just stocked the freezer in the shed and there's a whole rack of canned goods. We can move our fridge stuff right into yours."
The old guy had a big grin on his face as he looked back and forth to Laura and me.
"Uh ... God, I just don't know."
"So, you say you might be interested?"
I gulped at looked at Laura again.
"I can call Arnie. He can sign you up over the phone. He'll be here next week for the paperwork. What do you say, partner?
My wife was shaking her head yes. I agreed.
I heard noise at about four in the morning. The old guy was backing his truck up to his camper. The hoses and cords were all rolled up and put away. His wife started our way with a big basket of cold stuff.
"Here you go!" She handed the basket to Laura. "The stuff from the cupboard I set on the patio."
She turned and walked to the truck. She got in. The old guy gunned the engine and "Vroom!" they were out of there!
Laura and I stood there and looked at each other ... then laughed. We were actually doing this.
We checked the now empty camper spot. Sure enough the cupboard goods were on the concrete. The key dangled from the lock on the shed. The freezer was jammed and the shelf was full of canned goods. A regular plug into the wall phone had a note attached:
"Plug into your wall jack."
We put our RV into place and hooked everything up. Regular power was nice so we wouldn't rely on batteries. We had a couple of hundred TV channels, a phone that worked, internet, and no limit to showers and toilet flushes.
"Do you know what I want to do now?"
She had what I call the "Laura Look" about her. I knew what she wanted.
"No, what's that?" I teased.
"Fuck me!"
"Jesus, Babe. It's like 6 A.M."
"So what? Fuck me!"
She took her clothes off outside. With no one around she was flaunting her nakedness.
