After a few weeks of driving the truck back and forth to work to get used to its size and feel it was time to pick up the Airstream. We were quite nervous about towing the Airstream home and getting it into our driveway. We arrived for our 2-hour orientation and the dealer walked us through how everything on the Airstream worked. We tried to absorb the two hours of non-stop information. We were completely overwhelmed. As newbie RV’ers, the 2-hour orientation left our heads spinning. Then the dealer hooked our 20-foot Ford F250 up to our 30-foot Airstream and wished us bon voyage. At that point we were pretty sure we could not replicate the hook up, we had no idea how to unhook (thank goodness for YouTube), and we were thinking that they should have driving school before allowing us to learn on the fly how to drive a 50-foot rig in real traffic (we had a 2 ½ hour drive to get home). Somehow, we managed to get off the lot and on to the busy interstate without hitting anything.
Then about ten miles from home, a nightmare scenario struck. The truck’s dashboard beeped ominously and “TRAILER DISCONNECTED” flashed across the screen. Our hearts dropped into our stomachs. In horror we both turned our heads expecting to see our new Airstream either sitting in the middle of a five car pile-up far behind us or, even worse, flying past us on its own volition, but (huge sigh of relief!) the trailer was in fact still connected. The “Trailer Disconnected” warning suddenly disappeared as suddenly as it had come. Disaster averted. (After we received this notification on one other occasion, a trip back to the dealer determined that the plug just needed to be cleaned to make a better connection).
After surviving the drive home, we still had to back the monster into the driveway. We had a 20 feet truck plus thirty feet of Airstream and had never backed up a trailer before in our lives. This was not going to be pretty… or quick. To add to the excitement, the end of our driveway was well landscaped with sturdy trees on either side…not to mention the mailbox.
The driveway back-in was tense and exhausting for all involved. We did NOT effortlessly back in on our first try, or the second, or even the third. An hour and a half later (much to the entertainment of our neighbors) we finally managed to maneuver the Flying Cloud safely down to the end of our driveway. That was enough trauma for a while and for the next month we were sufficiently happy just to host cocktail parties and give tours of our future tiny home in its temporary parking space!