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Bringing the Airstream Home

3/3/2016

4 Comments

 
Our time hiking with Eric and Tina was amazing, but far too short. Weather reports were indicating a huge storm with heavy winds and snow headed right for our path back  Utah. That meant cutting our hike short and hitting the road as soon as we could. ​With about an hour of towing experience under our belt, it was time to head home. We left Picacho Peak State Park at 11 AM.

Around noon we were back in Phoenix. What a beautiful city, but there was a bunch of lingering smog in the valley. It was a beautiful drive up towards vegas, with the saguaro cacti everywhere. We love the southwest.

The next few hours were uneventful. FrED the Van towed the Airstream like a champ. As we came within an hour of Vegas, the winds starting picking up BAD. We pulled over to re-assess our options. We considered staying outside of Vegas for the night, but we were worried that we wouldn't be able to make it back to Utah through the storm.

Driving through a storm is one thing, but driving a 7000lb trailer through a storm is an entirely different story, especially when you're braking downhill.

We dumped our tanks, and tried to winterize the Airstream, but nobody in Nevada sold antifreeze for RVs or boats, since it never gets below freezing there. We waited for the wind to calm down, then we pressed on.

Passing the Hoover Dam was uneventful, but on a short stretch of road between the Dam and St. George was some road construction. There were concrete barriers on both sides of the one-lane highway, with zero shoulder or wiggle-room on either side. Add the fact that it was a windy road, and it was the most nervous driving experience Steve had ever had.

It was now 11:30 PM and we had been driving 12 hours. Driving 12 hours is exhausting. Add a big expensive trailer behind you, and it doubles the exhaustion. And we were only in St. George. On a good day with good weather, it would take us 4 hours to get home. It took us another 10 hours. We limped along at 30 mph all the way through the storm, to get home safely. What an exhausting day. We were sad to leave sunny Arizona and happy Eric and Tina behind, but we knew we were one step closer to our goal: full-time freedom.
​ 
4 Comments
Dan Schechter
3/3/2016 11:15:37 am

Woo-hoo! What a ride! Well done. I bet that you never again will have such a tough towing job. For the black water line, you might want to pick up a sewer hose support, in addition to that elbow -- it will provide a smooth fall line for the sewage. Also, grab some disposable rubber gloves. And keep the hand sanitizer handy, too.

Congratulations on that sleek new trailer! Do you have a name for it yet? May I suggest Wilma (to go with Fred)? Or maybe Ethel? (You may be too young to remember Fred and Ethel Mertz on the Lucy Show.)

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Steve link
3/4/2016 10:30:31 pm

no name yet. Funny you should mention Ethel, we totally remember I Love Lucy.. Teressa mentioned Ginger too. Nothing is quite clicking yet, but I'm digging Ethel.

Steve

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Dale
3/3/2016 12:27:07 pm

Wow, a white knuckle trip fer sure. You had a great vehicle to pull you thru though.

You got me thinking about fuel consumption and the V10 I was thinking about. I guess I got plenty of time to think about it.

And I really hope you find your dream job. Maybe you could find some gold...or some other mineral to mine. I used to watch this show about people in Colorado who mined some kind of crystals. I thought that would be fun. I like hard work...digging etc. I used to use a metal detector around old homes and places people used to live. Found some pretty cool stuff. One time we found an old out house, and there we dug up a few old coins. I guess when people used to take a poo, the change would fall out of their pockets into the loo.

Anyway, maybe not your thing. But I have a ton of ideas, but I'm pretty low tech and so most of my ideas are also low pay...lol. Good luck, I know you guys will figure it out.

Dale

Reply
Steve link
3/4/2016 10:25:52 pm

The v10s are great little motors, they're just not super fuel efficient. Don't sweat it though. You'll pay over double for a 7.3L diesel, and I'd stay away from the 6.0 diesel. The v10s are great aside from the mileage.

Thanks for the encouraging words. We're confident something will work out. We've got a lot of feelers out right now. Thanks!

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    Steve and Tess love to explore nature, whether it be backpacking, packrafting, mountain biking, hiking, or just wandering.  The more we explore, the more we realize just how little we've seen.

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