New Sequim residents and former Alaskans Larry and Vicki Brandt Schneibel took up the RVers’ life for 10 weeks with their large Airedale (Max) and their cat because his company needed their Anchorage house for visiting employees.

With little time to vacate their home for its new temporary residents, the couple bought their RV in two days’ time, moved it into a campground, learned how to operate it by trial and error — mostly error — suffering frozen water pipes and their cat on the lam, among other travails.

“That first Monday morning of stepping out of our motor home into the April snow, into my car and driving to work from the campground, I told myself only in Alaska. It was so bizarre it was even funny then!

Just as we accomplished a certain level of routine, getting “the hang” of some of the systems, and trying not to lose all the socks in the Laundromat, we had yet another challenge. Oh, did I mention our 107-pound Airedale and the cat? OK, so we maybe had a few extra wrinkles to iron out like not stepping into the dog’s water dish as I prepared dinner each night.

One night about 2 a.m. the dog, Max, asked to go outside and I wanted to demonstrate consideration to my husband so, I put on slippers and robe, the leash on the dog and out we went. Mission accomplished, we returned and stumbled back into the motor home. Just as I turn to close the door I saw a black streak dart out the door. Oh, no! That was the cat. I disconnect the dog and go outside to rescue the cat.

Picture trying find a black cat in the dark in a campground. Well, after I invest a few frustrating minutes of trying to coax Gus (the cat) back into the motor home unsuccessfully, I decided to ask for Larry’s help. I thought between the two of us we could chase Gus in the direction of the other person, capture Gus and we could all go back to bed.

Just waking Larry is a challenge. However, he came out, somewhat less cheerful than I’d seen him in a few days, and joined in the rescue mission. With the cat in the lead we paraded from motor home to motor home. After about 20 minutes of shouting at the cat in a whisper and feeling sure some other camper would likely open fire or conduct a citizen’s arrest on us, we were about to give up. By now Larry is shouting (in his whisper) some very uncomplimentary phrases to Gus. There was still snow on the ground — mushy snow mixed with mud.

Finally Gus let Larry close enough to reach out and “touch” him. Not having an accurate count of how many campers we woke up, we went back to bed. That night’s adventure drawn to a close with everyone accounted for.

Then there was the time in late spring on a warm day when we pulled the awning out — for the first time. We were enjoying our new accomplishment and knowledge of our new motor home. That night we had a wind and rain storm. I woke up to loud flapping noises and the motor home quivering. I tried to wake Larry and send him out to close the awning. Remember what I said about waking Larry? He finally woke up an understood what needed to be done. So, during this dark night out he goes to disengage the awning. I snuggle back down under the covers and think this will be over shortly.

Just as I’m dozing off I hear Larry at the door asking if I would please come help. What could I possibly help with? I don’t understand anything about the awning. Not allowing that to stop me I thought perhaps my role would be “holding” something — I do that rather well. I don my slippers, robe, and venture out into the storm to “hold” something. But, what I found was Larry who didn’t remember how to close the awning — especially in the dark.

After a few minutes of Larry mumbling (only uplifting and encouraging comments) he accidentally found the magic lever allowing the awning to retract — in a nanosecond. Barely hanging on I might add so the retraction doesn’t knock the motor home on its side. OK! Awning put away. Now, let’s dry off and go back to bed.

Fortunately for us, all the campers parking near us were transient who (we hope) weren’t around us long enough to form the true picture of how little we knew about our motor home.

Our 10 weeks of living in our motor home ended well. We still laugh about our adventures in that 10-week “steep” learning curve. It’s all fun!”

Everyone has a story and now they have a place to tell it. Verbatim is a first-person column that introduces you to your neighbors as they relate in their own words some of the difficult, humorous, moving or just plain fun moments in their lives. If you have a story for Verbatim, contact editor Michael Dashiell at editor@sequimgazette.com.