Almost Trailside: A True Story Read Online Free PDF Page B

help. I was relieved. This guy was a pro. He told Tommy just how to turn the steering wheel to get the angle on the little travel trailer to back it right in to the space. That was the first of many parking attempts to come.
    It was late now. The pleasant smell of campfires and food cooking on camp stoves filled the forest air. This small group of campers had a system. Everyone broughttheir prepared foods, salads, and desserts to one central picnic table. This fresh cooked forest buffet feast took place every night. We brought a large supply of food with us, so we easily were able to provide our share. The grandparents introduced us to a dozen of their friends who shared in the meals. It was wonderful.
    Early the next morning, Tommy’s grandparents appeared with their fishing poles in hand. The large Georgetown Lake was across the way within a short walking distance from the Lodgepole Campground. We took Buffy on her leash. She loved all of the different smells in the forest and along the grassy lakes edge.
    The fishing was fantastic. Everyone caught something. Some we released back into the lake and others we took back to the campsite to cook.
    We were in awe of the huge sparkling blue lake and scenic surrounding beautiful majestic mountains, as pretty as a picture postcard. I just didn’t care for the biting flies that landed on your hands while fishing…ouch!
    We spent an entire marvelous week in the lodge pole forest camping, hiking, fishing, sleeping in our little travel trailer, and enjoying meals mostly cooked outside over a campfire flame. It was heaven.
    I personally found this first camping experience to be inspiring. Living in the forest, fishing every day in the most picturesque scenery imaginable was uplifting and satisfying in a way I had not imagined possible.
    At the end of the week, we hated to leave, but knew we had to keep going in order to meet our travel schedule. It was the perfect first family camping experience in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
    With happy memories and so much to talk about, we waved good-bye for now to Tommy’s grandparents and friends, and headed south to our next destination, Yellowstone National Park at the south east corner of Montana and Wyoming.
    Along the way, the station wagon started sputtering and began to lose power. Tommy didn’t have much choice but to pull over on a narrow section of the highway. We had plenty of gas, so that wasn’t the problem. Tommy got his tool box. The boys and I stayed inside. Tommy placed his red metal tool box on the huge bumper of the station wagon then lifted the heavy hood and propped it open.
    For twenty minutes Tommy used a variety of tools on different areas of the engine. Then he slid behind the wheel and turned the key in the ignition. The station wagon started right up, sounded strong, and ran smooth. He wasn’t exactly certain what the problem was, but he seemed to have fixed it, at least for the time being.
    Tommy quickly closed the hood while the engine was still running, got back behind the wheel, and slowly reentered the stream of traffic. Within seconds we heard a clinking noise. When I looked out the side view mirror I could see Tommy’s red metal tool box lying open in the middle of the highway behind us. All of his tools and shiny sockets were bouncing all over the highway. Tommy forgot to take his tool box off the front bumper of the station wagon…and the rest is history.
    Before long we entered the little town near Yellowstone National Park’s entrance and found the only campsite in the area, on a blacktop surface like a parking lot in the middle of town. No grass, no picnic table, no trees, and no hook-ups, just a black slab.
    Neighboring travel trailers, tent trailers, and motor homes were only a few feet away on either side. It was a noisy busy place with a convenience store at one end that must have been the only place to shop in town.
    We leveled our little travel trailer, lifted it off of the