Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Pick-Up Day
Today, we stopped talking ourselves out of doing something we’ve wanted to do for years. We ditched the notions that it was too expensive and too complicated to manage. We swallowed whole the worry that we were too old to start a new, very different lifestyle. We decided to stop ‘sleeping on the earth’ as a friend of mine described it and traded in our tent for an Airstream Bambi.
Today was pick-up day.
We slow-walked all the way to the dealership. First, lounging over coffee. Then, needing, of course, to take the dogs to the dog park for a good run. And then, driving exactly the speed limit across town, our curious mixture of excitement and dread filling the truck with doubt. If either one of us had sneezed, we’d have turned around and run back to our little life with our pop-up tent and Coleman stove.
Oh, we loved that life but it’s hard sleeping on the earth, hard dealing with weather, and, not exactly hard, but extremely weird to be sleeping outside without a door that locks. Our age made doing so both adventuresome and wearying. The whole time we’d be appreciating our hardiness, we’d be admiring the folks pulling Airstreams. My dad always wanted an Airstream I remembered last night but my mother never wanted to go anywhere. And so, they stayed home for the rest of their time.
The man who sold us our new little travel trailer greeted us at the door of the dealership. George is an 83-year- old retired banker, a widower who, he told us right away, shared his Christmas ham with his 10-year-old Scottish Terrier. He told us that he’d owned seven trailers in his life but didn’t own one now because his wife insisted that he sell, lest he die first and leave her with the trouble.
George took us out to the big garage where our Bambi was getting its final going-over. “Your Bambi has never been on a street. It came here on a semi-truck.” Even a new car has miles on it, but not this little trailer. Our salesman showed us every nozzle and hose and window and lock. He explained the heat and the water and the air conditioning. He told us to buy a bottle of Mr. Clean for the toilet, use a few drops and let it slosh around while we traveled. He explained draining the ominous black water tank at least five times. He went up on a stepladder to curl the awning into place so it could be locked. George wasn’t worried about his age, I thought, why should I?
Then we signed dozens of forms and reviewed all sorts of warranties and then had a lesson on how to hitch and unhitch the trailer from our truck. Our maiden voyage was to its storage facility about five miles from the dealership, a smoother than expected trip, culminating in a rather lengthy effort to back into the parking spot we were assigned. We set her up there, my husband down on the ground in the icy wet to find the slots for the four stabilizers (notice the use of lingo here?) that would, as the storage guy said, ‘level out our trailer.” We left with a perfectly leveled out trailer sitting in the sun waiting for us to come back and go someplace lovely.
It was an amazing day. Exciting. Maybe even gleeful.
18 Comments on “Pick-Up Day”
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
Thank you for sharing, this encourages me to do the things that I really want to do.. In my neck of the woods they say…. if you think long, you think wrong,
You reminded me of that when you talked about the sneeze….
So funny, enjoy yourself, be safe….
We talk and talk and talk about this. You have the advantage of already owning a truck; if we got a trailer it would have to be able to be pulled by our little Rav4. On the other hand, I don’t feel the need for toilet and sink, just a bed and a fridge and a table would do me fine. Maybe some day…
Anyway, enjoy your new travel companion and the adventures it will take you on!
There are some really small camping trailers. We looked at some of them. I think most folks talk about it a long time before taking the plunge. We sure did.
We went directly from camping to hotels after considering and abandoning the trailer/camper idea. I still wonder if we should have gone your route, especially with covid. As for Airstreams, please look for the sculpture with the Airstream in the air at Edward Tufte’s Hogpen Hill Farms.
I will do that. I can’t stand hotels, especially with Covid, and we travel everywhere with two dogs which makes it even more challenging. The Bambi seems like a great solution but then there’s the backing up….
Enjoy your Airstream! My great uncle and aunt had one. It was a shiny, rounded tube of magic to me when I was a child. I loved being invited inside and I was amazed at how they had a whole house in that small space. They spent part of their winters in Mexico and the Southwest and part of their summers in Canada.
You got this! The more you do it the easier it will get.
We love traveling with our toilet, kitchen and bed behind us so we can stop anywhere to take care of our aging needs. But we also talk about how much longer we can do it because it does take some work to hook up. I am doing most of the backing in now because Jim gets really anxious and seems to not be able to process what he needs to do. We have decided we have another year ahead of us and will probably do a trip to North Carolina where a daughter is moving to and to Maine for the trip we had to cancel last fall. My wish for you is that you experience as much joy as we do when on the road with our trailer.
Congratulations!!
Can’t wait to see photos of the Old Man napping in his Bambi bed and you having coffee in your Airstream kitchen. Happy Trails in 2022.
Love it Jan! Congratulations.
what a wonderful decision! i can’t wait to read about your new adventures! p.s. i loved, loved your story and thanks for forwarding it to me –
Oh, you’re so welcome. Thank you for reading it!
Oh, magnificent!! What a wonderful Christmas present to yourself – new adventures in the New Year.
I am jealous.
It is a wonderful Christmas present. You are so right!
Love the photo of you embracing your new home away from home.
Honestly, that hug was totally genuine. It was like the best thing EVER.
I did not doubt that for a minute. Are you going to show us the inside? I lived on a main route for the Airstream Wally Byamers. We saw streams of them all summer long.