Non-campers sometimes think I concoct the mishaps in my books out of thin air. Not true! We have witnessed, experienced, or have on excellent authority all of the crazy mistakes and accidents that percolate through the mysteries.

Pictured is one of our trailer tires two years ago coming home from Lake Geode State Park. We pulled out from home once without unplugging. Fortunately when we stopped to have another of our group join the caravan, we saw the cord flying out behind us. We have taken the wrong spot and had to pack everything up and move. One of our first trips, we found a site and set up only to find that all of our fresh water had drained into the gray water tank because the bathtub faucet was still open. We know folks--not to be named here--who have had their camper start to roll down a hill before they got the trailer brakes in or lost an air conditioner going through a car wash.

We had a small tangle with a tree on one trip going through a dump station. Friends had their refrigerator come open on the trip home because it wasn't latched and the contents, including a dozen eggs, deposited on the floor. Someone reported a unit pulling into a dump station with the slide still out.