How many of you have been on a vacation you really looked forward to and yet the outcome was full of unforeseen problems? Here’s our story.

The year was 1987, we had just purchased a used pop-up camper. After packing it with all our belongings, we were finally ready for an exciting maiden voyage out West.  Our plan was first to make our way to see my former roommate from college and her family in Denver and then to Kingman, Arizona where my husband Larry’s family resided.  I had started my career as a high school teacher in 1985 and Larry had a good year in construction.  There was finally money for a camper instead of pitching our tent often in wet conditions. Our children, Deborah, Julie, and Aaron, worked hard in school and looked forward to this family vacation. What could possibly go wrong?

While singing the top hits with  the radio, we were just 30 miles from Denver when we saw a storm ahead. Unlike the Midwest, a storm on the horizon was easy for all of us to see. We had a contest guessing how long it would take for us to enter the storm. “I say it will take 15 minutes,” said Deb. “No, said Julie, “20 minutes”. Aaron just looked ahead in wonderment as we got closer and closer. I was keeping track of the time for the contest.   Ray Charles was singing “Hit the Road Jack” while we counted the minutes. All of a sudden, a gusting wind unfolded sending us directly into the eye of the storm.   “Oh No!” said Larry as he looked out the rearview mirror to see the top of our camper sliced off like a can of Campbell soup and flying onto the road. Fortunately, there was no one behind us. Larry had his head on the steering wheel crying out, “Oh God Why?”

The storm had also blown our personal belongings onto the highway. As we gathered them up, two hippy guys stopped to give us a hand. “Don’t worry, be happy. These things happen all the time,” they chimed.  “We are here to do our good deed for the day.” You can take it to the Camper Repair Shop in town and they will fix it for you.” The rain tapered off and overhead we could see a magnificent double rainbow.  Maybe there was hope. The helpful hippies gave us a hand putting the wind-ripped camper top back on and we made our way to downtown, Denver. Deb reminded us that the song during the storm was, “Hit the Road, Jack.”

Even though our used camper looked good from the outside, we had missed seeing the rotting wood under the metal which was unable to take the impact of the storm. Knowing that there was no way to fix our camper, we dealt with the loss of $675 (a lot of money for us) and took the top to the scrapyard for disposal.

In the Schuerr book of travel, one never turns back but continues ON! Our children were able to experience first hand how to deal with unforeseen problems. It was time for creative thinking. We put our clothes in black garbage bags and we raised the poles and covered them with visqueen.  We had recently seen the movie Family Vacation as they traveled to Wally World.  What more could possibly go wrong?

We made our way to my friend’s beautiful neighborhood pulling our decapitated popup camper into their driveway.  We were greeted warmly by Carol, Skip, and their two boys even though we were the eyesore of the neighborhood. Our closet folded down and I had to raise it in order to get our belongings.  Later, while at the campground we staged pictures of me swatting flies while eating at our table. We were a family that loved to laugh and used humor and ingenuity to deal with our situation.

We were heading to Arizona next where we planned to see the Grand Canyon.  We had heard that the sun would always shine in Arizona.  But instead we had rain on the way to the Grand Canyon and when we arrived, we felt like the Griswold family in National Lampoon’s Vacation  trying to make it to  Wally World, and finding it closed. We got out of our van and peeked over the canyon—but it was engulfed in heavy thick clouds, we couldn’t see anything. “Now what,” I said. “This might be the best time to see our former neighbors that moved to Sedona,” said Larry. It should clear up in a day or two. We returned in time to see a beautiful sunset that painted the canyon in shades of pink, purple and gold.

Now fast forward to recent times when my daughter, Julie, and her husband, Geoff, were on their way to Texas. The engine light went on.   With a moment of contemplation, Geoff said, “What would the Schuerrs do?” “Go on, of course, said Julie. “What could possibly go wrong?”