Camping on Wheels

Mariah and Charlotte are besties. They have waited a long time to get to travel with The Writer and her husband and stay in their camping trailer, and they were going to be able to go together! They were so excited!

The two girls packed their clothes in one little suitcase. All they needed was their pajamas and a change of clothes, but they decided to take their bathing suits, just in case. (They would be close to the ocean.) The dolls were allowed to take the outdoor chairs, too, but everything they took had to fit into one little cabinet called a locker.

The trailer was already hooked up to the truck. This kind of trailer is called a fifth wheel. Part of the trailer fits up over the bed of the truck. (That's the open space where someone can carry things that wouldn't fit into a car.) The part of the trailer that fits over the bed of the truck isn't very tall because the truck has to fit under it, so that's where the bed is for people to sleep in. Mariah thinks it's interesting that there's a bed over a bed. Mariah likes thinking about words.

The girls wondered why the trailer was called a fifth wheel, because the truck had four wheels and the trailer had four. Four plus four is eight, not five. They looked at it from the window of the workroom and tried to think of why it would be called that.

The Writer explained that the name "fifth wheel" came from the special hitch that is built into the bed of the truck. It used to be in the shape of a wheel. The company that first started making the hitch called it the "Martin's Fifth Wheel." Then people started calling any trailer a fifth wheel if it used that kind of hitch, and the name stuck, even though the new hitches they use are no longer shaped like a wheel.

There is a big section on the side of this fifth wheel that opens up like a drawer. This section is called a slide-out. It makes a lot more space inside. You just have to check to make sure before you open it up, that there isn't a tree or something else in the way that it might hit.

There would not be any trees in the way where they would be camping this time, though. They would be staying in a place where people parked their trailers and hooked them up to water, sewer and electricity. It would be like staying in a very small house.

The dolls looked around inside the trailer. There was a place to fix food in the back by the door. There was a stove with an oven and burners. It had a lid that covered the burners when they were not being used, so it could be used as a work space. There was a sink for washing dishes. There was a refrigerator right next to the door. The Writer called this part of the trailer "the galley," which is what you call a kitchen on a boat.

There was a table with cushioned benches for people to sit to eat.

Everything on the table and counters would have to be put away before they left. When the trailer is moving, things can slide off onto the floor.

The dolls put their clothes away in the little room with the bed that was over the bed of the truck. There was some time before their human family members had everything they needed to take loaded into the trailer and were ready to go, so the girls decided to fix each other's hair. They wanted to wear their hair in the same style. Charlotte and Mariah are very different from each other, so it's fun sometimes to have a way they can be alike (besides being dolls with elbow and knee joints and eyes that stay open when you lie down.).

During the trip, the two dolls rode in the bed over a bed. Real human people are not allowed to ride in a trailer, because they need to wear seat belts when they ride. They can be hurt if they stop suddenly or if there is an accident. Charlotte and Mariah are sturdy dolls, not real children. If an arm or leg comes off, it can be put back. They knew they would be safe in the trailer.

They were moving backwards, because they were sitting with their backs against the front of the trailer. It was a long trip, but they are besties, so they had a lot to talk about, and they are dolls, so they have lots of patience. They don't need to ask each other, "Are we there yet?"

When the trailer finally arrived at their destination, The Writer's  husband connected the water and sewer lines and the power cord, so they would be able to wash, take showers, flush the toilet and use the lights and other things that take electricity. The Writer was ready to open the slide-out. There is a special switch for that next to the door.

The girls wanted to help with the slide out, but the switch was too high up. Each of the dolls stood on tippy-toes and tried to reach the switch, but it was too high up. There was nothing to climb on to get up to it.

The Writer would have to push the switch, but she told them they could help by getting the travel locks out of the top of the slide-out. Those are poles used to keep the slide-out in place while the trailer is moving. Normally, she has to stand on the table to do remove them. Mariah and Charlotte used the folding table stored between the slide-out and the wall to climb up to the top of the slide-out and pulled out the two travel locks. They would have to put them back again when the family left to go home. That was a good job for two dolls who can climb.

When the slide-out was out, the two dolls put the poles away in the closet that was called a hanging locker. They had to help each other with the poles, because they were as long as the slide-out is deep.

Then they helped put the rugs down on the floor, now that there was space for them. The rugs will collect dirt and sand when the people come in from being outdoors. The rugs can be taken outside and shaken every once in a while. Then the dirt and sand will come out. They can be washed in the washing machine at the end of the trip. There is a broom in the fifth wheel for sweeping the floor if anything gets through the rugs.

Charlotte and Mariah climbed up on the back of the couch to see what was outside. There was another trailer next door.

"It's a fifth wheel, too," Mariah said, "and it has a slide-out, but it's a huge trailer. It's much bigger than this one."

Charlotte agreed that the trailer next door was very big. Then she noticed what she could see in the other direction. "I can see the water!" she exclaimed. 

"Let's go out and see it." Mariah suggested. "There are other trailers in the way. There must be a lot more to see if we go down there."

Charlotte wanted to see the water better, too, so the two dolls got their chairs and took a backpack and a bottle of water. They carried their stuff down the steps of the trailer, which wasn't easy, and walked until they were as close to the water as they thought safe. They didn't pay any attention to the human people who stared at them. (You would think they had never seen dolls carrying chairs before!)

The dolls could see birds flying around or sitting on the things floating on the water, like the docks, where boats can tie up. They could see creatures moving in the water; things with legs and things with fins. They thought the things with legs must be crabs and the things with fins they knew were fish.

Mariah and Charlotte set their chairs up on the grass where they could watch what was going on.

"Look at that sign," Charlotte told her friend. "It says you can borrow life preservers for children if you need them."

"It says that kids don't float," Mariah said. "We don't float, either, so we're like real kids in that way."

"You're right," Charlotte agreed. "We would fill up with water. It might be hard for someone to find us down at the bottom of...what is this? Did they say it's a river?"

"They said that some people just call it a river," Mariah replied, "but it's really an estuary (ES-chew-air-ee). Mandy told me that's what you call where a river enters the sea, and the fresh water from the river mixes with the salt water from the ocean every time the tide comes in."

Charlotte knew that the ocean's water moved up higher during the day and then moved back out again, and that's called the tide, but she wondered why it does that. "We should get Mandy to explain tides to us," she said. "Let's ask her when we get back."

Mariah thought that was a good idea.

The dolls watched the birds sitting on the docks. The birds watched the dolls sitting on the shore and wondered what they were, but they soon lost interest, because the dolls didn't look like fish or crabs, and these birds like to eat seafood.

The girls knew that these birds were seagulls.

"Look at that bird over there," Mariah told Charlotte. "I think that's an egret (EE-gret).

Charlotte looked where Mariah was pointing. There was a large bird with a long neck, standing in some tall grass. The bird's neck was shaped like the letter S until the bird noticed they were watching. Then it raised its head to watch them back and the S straightened out.

The dolls sat there all afternoon, watching human people come and go. Some of the people stared at the dolls, but no one bothered them. A small dog barked at them, but Charlotte and Mariah are used to dogs, so they weren't worried.

Later on in the afternoon, three seals came and climbed up on a log out in the water. (We put an arrow in the picture, so you can see where the seals are, because they were very far away.) 

The seals lay there on the logs for a long time. Maybe they were napping. Then they slid off into the water and swam away.

The Writer was tired when they came back from wherever the human family members had gone, so Mariah and Charlotte offered to fix pizza for supper. As it turned out, The Writer had to cut the vegetables anyway, because the little knife the dolls can use was missing.

"That looks yummy!" Mariah exclaimed, when all the vegetables were cut up.

The girls did everything else needed to fix the pizza. They started with a frozen pizza crust, which they put on some heavy foil, because there was no pan. (The pizza pans they use at home are too big to fit into the fifth wheel's small oven.)

The girls added some pasta sauce and cheese. Then they topped it with the vegetables. they were careful to make sure they had all the different kinds of vegetables evenly spaced on the pizza, so each piece would have some of everything.

When they were done, they thought it looked very good. They were satisfied with their work. It was ready for the oven.

The Writer and her husband thought it looked good, too. They wanted the girls to pose with the pizza, so they could take a photo.

The human people said the pizza was very tasty, and the dolls took their word for it, since they could only pretend to eat it.

After dinner, the dolls agreed to do the dishes. "You know," Mariah told Charlotte, "I just realized that when you only pretend to eat, you can just put the dishes away without washing, but if you eat for real, it really messes them up."

"It will be fun to wash them, though," Charlotte replied. "Why don't I wash, since I'm on this side, and you can dry them and put them on the table."

"OK," Mariah agreed. Why don't you get the towel off the hook for me, and I'll move this board off the other side of the sink, so we can rinse here."

Charlotte washed each plate and cup in the sudsy water and put it into the clean water to rinse it. 

Mariah took things out of the rinse water and used the dish towel to dry them off. As they worked, the two dolls discussed what they had seen during their first day near the water.

That night, they lay in bed, continuing to talk about what they had seen and heard during the day. They talked about what the other dolls might be doing at home. Some of the things they talked about made them giggle.

Finally, after this had gone on for some time, The Writer told them it was time to be quiet and go to sleep, so they put on their sleep masks.

As you know, these dolls can't close their eyes, so they can only sleep when they wear their sleep masks. Did you know that they go to sleep quickly when they wear them? Well they do, and sometimes they dream about what they might do on the rest of their camping trip in the fifth wheel.

Cast--
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend

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Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook and Emil: Stories from the Doll's Storybook are available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from Barnes & Noble,  BookBaby and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don't get free shipping elsewhere, buy from Book Baby. Half of the price goes to St. Jude.

Image on Mariah's yellow T-shirt used with permission, from Free To Be Kids, where human-size shirts with this image are available.

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