It was 9:30 pm, on a dark and rainy night, when a new water fountain appeared in the RV Resort west of Mission in the Rio Grande Valley. Greg, the campground work camper responsible for guiding people to their site and getting them hooked up, was tired but dry inside the cover of his golf cart. It had been a long evening.

Help Backing in

After guiding the late arrivals to their campsite, Greg asked, “Do you need any help backing in?”

Motorhome Mal, the weary, blurry-eyed driver of the 5th Wheel, recognized Greg's reluctance to step out into the rain. “No, it's OK; my wife Anne is good at backing me into difficult places.”

Anne’s eyes rolled to the back of her head at the thought of going out in the rain. But she knew Mal trusted her backup instructions over these campground golfcart jockeys.

Avoid the Waterpipe

Greg handed over his card and said, "If you need anything, just call.”

He waved and pointed his golf cart towards his warm, dry trailer.

The road was narrow, and the site was set at 90 degrees to the road. Mal positioned the 5th Wheel on the road and reversed to his right into the turn. When reversing to the right, the front of the trailer must first move left.

The Turn Should be Tighter

Anne waved her flashlight to indicate that the turn should be tighter. But Mal did not recognize the nighttime signal in the rain.

Mal Felt the Bump. Did he Hit Anne?

People have been killed reversing rigs. Mal felt the bump and slammed on the brakes. He could not see Anne in his mirror; she was gone. Had he hit her?

Mal jumped out of the truck without a coat and ran to the back. There she was his wonderful wife trying to stop the water coming out of a broken pipe.

It was the water pipe he had hit, not Anne.

Like Two Twenty-year-olds Dancing in a Trevi Fountain in Rome

Motorhome Mal rushed up to Anne and held her in his arms. She was safe. They were both wet and tired. They hugged each other in the rain and the new water fountain.

“Do you remember the fun we had?” said Anne, “When we were twenty-year-olds and danced together in the Trevi Fountain in Rome.”

Now, the panic was over; they were both laughing again.

“We must get dry and call Greg out; there must be a water isolation valve,” Motorhome Mal suggested. “This is not going to get fixed until the morning.”

Greg took the call as if this sort of thing always happens. He responded quickly.

Mal and Anne were dry, changed, and drinking hot chocolate when Greg returned, having turned the water off for the whole street and the New Water Fountain in this RV Park.