[A/S] New Owner

[Douglas Kirkpatrick <kirkpat@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, Everybody,

Well, the big day finally arrived. My wife, Terrie, and I drove down from
Medford, Oregon,  to Los Banos, California, this weekend and picked up our new
(first) 31' Airstream. We have been researching the situation for over a year
now on this listserv and all of your comments and opinions were very helpful.
Special kudo's to Dick Martin, another Oregonian, who did his own research just
before us and saved us oodles of money and time by locating Toscano RV and
Henry Flores who gave us a great deal on a new A/S.

Thursday we drove our 3/4 ton, '99 Suburban down through a mess of snow and
slush into California. Friday night we "moved in" to our new baby parked on the
lot. Within minutes we met a very nice couple from Alameda, CA, who had driven
down for service. We admired our Airstreams and almost identical Suburbans.
Saturday we did the full run-through with a very-knowledgable technician,
hooked up our special hitch (apologies to the Henley crowd but our used "Burb"
came pre-equipped with a Eaz-Lift which seemed to work fine) and started down
the road.

We visited my daughter and fiance in Cupertino on the way home. I was concerned
about tight maneuvering and limited parking there and asked my daughter if
there was a Wal-Mart in the neighborhood where we could park for 2 hours while
they took us out to lunch. She said "No, but there's a Home Depot" so we met
there. Of course, the parking lot was jammed. I did manage to find 5 empty
spots at the edge where I could sort-of park in a semi-circle pattern! I was a
bit uneasy about that but when my daughter and fiance arrrived we found another
area back by the loading dock where I could really "stretch it out" and park in
a straight line.

After a pleasant lunch we looked for a Pep-Boys automotive center because I was
getting very uneasy about the tiny mirrors on the Burb. I was hoping they could
do a quick install of professional towing mirrors but no such luck ("We don't
carry those anymore.") So, I bought a couple of little add-on mirrors that
fasten with rubber straps. One strap broke so I bought a rubber bunji cord and
used that. Those funky little mirrors actually worked more-or-less but I do
plan to have quality towing mirrors installed here at home, possibly by an RV
supply store.

We drove through crowded Bay Area traffic up to Sacramento and spent a nice
evening with my sister and husband. We were eager to try out our traveling
bungalow again so we slept in the Airstream parked on the street. It was cold
so we turned on the gas furnace only to have the smoke-detector go off -- again
and again. There was no real smoke but I think the fumes from the "first burn"
of the furnace triggered the detector. After re-setting the detector several
times and letting the furnace run for a while, the two devices still didn't
like each other so we just turned off the furnace and snuggled under the
covers. It was a cold and rainy night but sort-of pleasurable like when you're
a small kid and hiding in your cubby-hole hide-out under the stairs!

Northern California and southern Oregon were hit by TWO winter storms this
weekend and we had more than a few qualms about driving the combined outfit
home over bad conditions. (We had just finished driving from Sacramento over
Donner Pass in chains to Reno -- and back, so we were a little gun-shy.) We set
out fairly early from Sacramento up I-5 towards Oregon watching huge winter
snow-clouds billow up all around us. The pavement was dry until we reached
Redding when the sky opened up and we were deluged with rain and sleet. We had
discussed leaving the TT in Redding or Yreka if the storm made it imprudent to
go all the way home but didn't know where or with whom we would leave it and I
did have to return to work tomorrow, come hell or highwater. We pushed on past
Redding past Shasta Lake and the sleet turned to snow. Just as my knuckles on
the steering wheel turned extreme white, Terrie, bless her heart, said "Aren't
those clouds ahead of us turning lighter and less threatening?" Saying our
prayers, we drove on and the snow slackened and then petered out. The CalTrans
people, bless THEIR hearts, had done a great job on the pavement and there was
little or no remnants of the previous night's snow/storm left on the road.
Around Weed (yes there is such a town in California and no, that's not how it
got it's name!) blue sky broke out and it was a peace of cake all the way to
Medford.

We arrived home, unpacked and I hosed off our new Airstream (no name yet) to
get rid of the road-dirt and chemicals. It looks great!

Now, questions:

1) Carlos, the Toscano RV technician, adjusted our Tekonsha brake controller
before we left and it seemed to work OK, but I'm not sure I'd know it it worked
well or not at all. How really do you know?

2) Best brand/installer of towing mirrors?

3) With out Eaz-Lift hitch, I didn't encounter much side-to-side movement or
turbulence when semi's passed by but what did bother me was the up+down,
back+forth yo-yoing that occurred when we drove over slightly uneven slabs of
concrete on the highway. Can this movement be prevented or is it unavoidable?

4)Pro's and con's of using cruise-control when towing?

Thanks to all of you. We're happy to be part of the group now.

Doug and Terrie Kirkpatrick
Medford, OR