We moved into Gerdi on December 18th, 2017. First place we stayed was called Savannah Oaks, just off I-95 and highway 204. Really quiet place
with almost no tourists during the winter months.
Second move was to Rivers End, here on Tybee Island. We were supposed to move on New Year’s Day of 2018, the day a winter storm was supposed
to be coming in. No fuss, it wasn’t supposed to be until later that night and we would be on Tybee just after lunch. However, Rona decided that her
water pump needed to be replaced and exploded on I-95 and 16. Back to the dealership she went.
We called our insurance company and told them we needed our camper moved within the next day or so. Being New Year’s Day, we had to wait until
the next day. After an hour of exchanging policy numbers, DNA sequence, cholesterol levels, we were on a list to be towed.
The tow truck driver showed up to our camp site around 9pm on January 2. Thankfully, the storm was taking its sweet time getting to us. We hitched
up to a big rig and off we were to Tybee Island, FINALLY! Overall trip took us about an hour and a half. Along the way, as if timed perfectly, the winter
storm started to give us ice crystals coating the highways. Finally, arriving at Rivers End Campground, truck driver pulled us in and unhitched us. We
said our au revoirs and off he went.
There’s a list of priorities on the outside you must do before you can open your slides, which is about 20 minutes. We didn’t think to measure the
distance between our power source and how far the slides come out. We parked too close and couldn’t open our bedroom slide. We immediately
called the tow truck and he was already past Thunderbolt and said we would have to do another claim or pay $200. That ended with au revoir and
drive safe tonight.
We slept in the living room, a wonderful pile of pillows, blankets, and happy dogs. Woke up to a beautiful thin sheet of ice on the ground. Opie had
never seen ice that we knew of, and immediately walked on his front two feet for ten steps and decided it was safe. Frank had been around ice and
was loving every minute of slipping and sliding around. It was a carefree and silly moment that reminded us that we made it! We were on Tybee
time, the slide situation would get figured out. Just not at that exact moment.
I went as far as thinking we could push Gerdi forward the few feet (Robyn’s probably still laughing). We decided to accept defeat and get breakfast
while the roads weren’t too horrible. We were about to get in the car when I saw a man walking out of a camper with a hitch like ours. I made the
assumption he’d have the truck hitch we needed to move our camper 2 ft. forward. Not so gracefully, I began to flag down the man, asking him if he
would help us. We explained the situation, he said “No problem, it’ll take 2 seconds!”
And that kids, is how we met our new camping besties, Mark and Lisa, from Pennsylvania. We made reservations for December 1st, 2018 - March
1st, 2019, right next to another awesome couple we met!
TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | AUG 2018 39