Where’s Nico?

So in previous posts, I alluded to the fact that I had no idea how to back up a trailer. When Kristen and I bought the trailer back in December, we drove it home and, on a dark, stormy night, I utterly failed to get it backed up onto our driveway. Luckily, my neighbor Tom saw our struggles, and after a good deal of laughter, he came down to back up the truck for me before I finished tearing up the other half of my front yard.

In my defense, it’s a pretty narrow strip between houses here, but Tom absolutely nailed it. Here’s a photo of his parking job, leaving just enough space on one side to extend the slide out and on the other side to open the front door and bring out the stairs:

Anyway, the next day, Tom offered to train me on how to back up a trailer. This past weekend, I took him up on that offer.

Before I get to this weekend, I feel like I should give you some background on Tom. First and foremost, despite the fact that he’s a diehard Nebraska Cornhusker fan, Tom is awesome. If you ever find yourself in a desperate situation where more than anything, you need a dad joke to resolve things, call on Tom. Let me give you an example:

[Me carrying in grocery bag from Trader Joes, dog barking in the background]

My neighbor Tom: That’s my dog barking

Me: She must love you

My neighbor Tom: No, she wants to know what’s in the grocery bag

Me: Gin

My Neighbor Tom: Woof

—

Anyway, Tom was maybe even more excited about the trailer backup lesson than we were. He asked for that weekend that we only refer to him as Professor Crash, or ‘Crash’ for short. He even sent us this picture:

Clearly, his credentials were impeccable. This past Saturday, we closed up the trailer and drove down to a medical center parking lot fairly close to our house. I should say, we chose the parking lot because it was large and empty, but on a side note, it wasn’t the worst idea that we did this near a medical center, just in case.

For those who have never backed up a trailer before, I will say it is one of the most counterintuitive things you will have a chance to do. Literally every instinct you have is the exact opposite of what you should be doing, so just make a point of completely rejecting every thought you hear screaming in your head.

It took an hour or two, but Tom had us where we were not completely incompetent when it came to backing up the trailer. It went well enough that when we got home, we were even able to back up the trailer into our very narrow driveway without hitting the houses on either side.

As we got out of the car, Tom hustled over to his house to present us with our diploma:

I’m not exactly sure what font it was that was used on this certificate – I don’t think it’s Helvetica, but it’s hard to say. Anyway, we’re framing it, and we’re having a graduation party for the Travel Trailer School of Backasswardness class of 2024 this Friday night with Tom, er, “Crash” and his wife, Debbie.

Ken, 2/27/24