The salesperson at the dealership showed us several lovely trailers but, of course, we fell in love with one that wasn’t quite what we expected. It was 35 1/2 feet long, had an extra couch, a tv and several other amenities. It was bigger than what we needed but because it had been sitting on their lot for two years and they just wanted to get rid of it, the price was right. We could handle a slightly bigger one, right?

We got it home and backed it into the driveway … after several attempts. Our bedroom window overlooks the driveway and every time I looked outside, I saw a ginormous trailer sitting there. I’m not going to lie; it completely freaked me out. This thing was so much bigger than what I wanted. It scared me to death. It didn’t look near as big sitting on the lot next to all the other trailers, but in our driveway it was enormous. All I could think of was how in the world were we going to be able to drive around with this behemoth? How were we going to back it up into tight camping spaces? What on earth had we got ourselves into?

I swallowed hard and decided to just do what needed to be done. I cleaned everything from top to bottom and stocked it with all the necessary provisions. I planned our menu and prepared all the food. Ladd researched and bought all the paraphernalia that goes with owning an rv like leveling blocks, stinky slinkies (the hoses to empty the water tanks into the dump stations) hoses for fresh water, extension cords, adapters, tools, etc. The list was long. We did everything we knew to do to prepare for our first adventure.

We hoped our two kids still at home would join us for the maiden voyage but one had other plans and the other was too scared to go with us the first time. She wanted us to work out all the kinks first (and learn how to drive it) before she risked life and limb with us.

The day finally arrived and we were ready. We set out with much fear and nervousness on my part and only slight nerves on my husband’s part. We somehow managed to get out of the driveway and into the street without running over anything. Then we made it to the highway. So far, so good. After about 15 minutes of driving down the road with no problems I began to breath again and enjoy the scenery. It’s hard to be scared when there are so many beautiful things to behold.

We arrived at our destination of Seward, AK, pulled into the campground and drove to our assigned spot, a huge pull-through space that alleviated the need for backing up. Nice. The campground was across the street from the Resurrection River and surrounded by mountains. A pair of eagles had a nest with babies in a tree about 50 feet from our site. Needless to say, it was incredibly beautiful and the weather was sunny and warm. My husband and I had two  fabulous days hiking Exit Glacier, exploring Seward and relaxing while we watched the flames dance in our campfire. Yep, maybe rv life was for us after all.

Everything was going flawlessly…until we got ready to leave. We started to hook the truck back up to the trailer and had great difficulty getting the hitch to work correctly. As we were struggling with it, a man camping next to us came to help. He struggled with it for a while and finally he and Ladd were able to get it to work.

Then we tried to raise the tongue jack up so we could drive home but it wouldn’t cooperate. It had power and could go down but it would not go up past a certain point. The guy camping on the other side of us noticed all the activity and he came over to help. So much for social distancing, but we were glad for all the help. The three men worked and worked but the jack was broken. Thankfully, it wasn’t anything stupid we had done, it was just messed up. But, we still couldn’t drive away because the jack was too close to the ground. Finally, the guys took the jack completely off. They had to sever the wires and dismantle the whole thing, which also meant we would have to keep the truck and trailer attached until we got a new tongue jack. Hmmm. That presented a big problem because Ladd wasn’t too crazy about driving the trailer to work. For now though, we could at least get back home.

As I watched all this unfold the old fears came rushing back. Maybe we had made a huge mistake. Maybe we shouldn’t have bought a trailer. Maybe we couldn’t handle this and should just stick to tent camping.

We drove back to Anchorage and straight to the dealership to have them fix the jack. The Lord was gracious and totally answered our prayers for favor because the mechanic replaced the tongue jack with a brand new one in about 15 minutes on the spot with no questions asked. He knew the other one was messed up and that it wasn’t our fault. We made it back home with no issues.

All in all, we had a great time despite our fears and struggles and we made it back in one piece. Maybe, just maybe, we could handle being rv owners.

The whole incident got me to thinking, what if I had let fear stop me from even trying? I would have missed out on a great adventure, a chance to meet new people, and time spent making new memories with my husband. What if I had let the problems that did pop up stop me from going again? (We have since been on two more trips and they were fabulous.)

Too often in my life I have let fear stop me from taking a risk or stepping out in faith or trying something new. I don’t want to be like that anymore. How about you? Do you let fear stop you from pursuing your dreams or taking chances or following God’s call? Let’s take those chances and just do it anyway, scared or not. The scenery is liable to be completely beautiful and cause those fears to vanish.