Most of you know that I have a travel trailer, the Colby T. I enjoy camping in it. It is my favorite thing to do. I have spent close to 250 nights in it over the last four years. That leads me to believe that I qualify as an "avid trailer camper".

Part of the life of a travel trailer owner is towing. Without towing, I'm not really traveling. In my case, there is no getting around the fact that I have to hitch up and hit the road, if I want to go camp somewhere other than the Packrats storage lot where I store my camper.

Sometimes, the traveling part of a trip can make me a little nervous. I worry about the "what ifs". What if I get a blowout? What if my truck breaks down? What if I'm in an accident? To give me some peace of mind, I have several insurances in place. For a tire problem, I have tire service available from both Good Sam and State Farm. For a break down, I rely on Good Sam. For an accident, I have full coverage on both my truck and camper through State Farm.

I have been following my fellow campers on the Open Roads RV Forum for about five years. I have decided that there are some people who just like to complain about things. For example, one time there was a post from a man who had to wait for an hour for Good Sam to get someone to come and change his tire. A whole hour! The post was full of hate and venom against Good Sam. Today, there is a man who actually invoked the "F" word (although he tried to ease his guilt with some asterisks) to rant about Good Sam not getting service to him until 4 hours after his call. He is so mad that he is going to cancel his Good Sam Roadside service and is asking other forum members what company to use.

Okay... Maybe I'm the one with the problem here. The way I see it, there are a lot of factors that may be involved that would cause me to have to wait for service. Here are a few I am thinking of:

1) There is a set number of tow trucks. If they are all busy working with other customers. I will have to wait. Good Sam can not just wave the magic wand and make another tow truck materialize out of thin air. The way I see it, an hour is a reasonable wait time for a tire change.

2) Depending on the time and place, traffic may add to the time the tow truck needs to get to me. Yes, there might be a service across the street from me, but they might not have a truck available. My tow truck may need to travel a bit.

3) Depending on what I have told the Good Sam representative, they may need to find a particular type of tow truck service. If I need something specialized, the number of available tow trucks would logically go down.

4) Depending on the size of my camper, Good Sam has to send a different kind of tow truck. My little trailer may need to be moved on a flatbed, depending on what the problem is.

5) In my case, Good Sam might have to take my trailer to a safe place for me to camp and my truck to a repair shop. That has to take some time to coordinate.

I would not like to sit in the hot sun inches from an onslaught of rush hour traffic for four hours. However, I hope that when my time comes that I will remember that I am only one of thousands of people on the road. The world will not stop all activity and come rushing to my aid. I will have to wait my turn. Even the pizza places stopped guaranteeing "30 minutes or it's free".

The way I see it, a dose of humility and patience would do many of us some good.