It began with a skunk.
The tragic tale of our first ever camping trip with the Airstream at an official campground began a few days before we left, and it began with a skunk. My partner and I had gathered the dogs and were headed out to the Airstream to go to bed when I realized I had forgotten the keys inside my parent’s house. While I ran inside to grab them, my partner stayed outside with the dogs, and almost immediately thought he smelled something burning. Worried that we had somehow managed to catch the trailer on fire (that should be an indicator of our luck thus far) he crouched down and peered under the Airstream with his flashlight…just in time to see our dog Penny get sprayed in the face by a little skunk.
We were devastated. Neither of us had ever dealt with a skunked dog before, and it. Was. Horrible. Thankfully the interior of the Airstream was not affected by the odor, but there was no way we were going back out there until Penny was at least semi-back to normal. She was sequestered to our guest area and bathed several times a day for a few days.
Anyone following my Instagram account will have seen my post about the “awning mishap” that I had. Well, it was that same weekend. Long story short, I accidentally left our awning out during a downpour and when the rainwater collected in the canvas, it bowed one of the awning arms. When I attempted to fix said awning, I detached the arm from the wrong end and was injured in the process. It took several days to get it fixed, (during which I was still continuously bathing Penny) and we actually had to delay our camping trip, but FINALLY we were packed up and ready to go…
…and then I tore up my parent’s front lawn trying to hitch the truck up to the trailer. * sigh *
But we did it! And off we went.
It felt so good. Like all of our hard work had paid off. We encountered a single-lane bridge on the way to the campground, and that was slightly terrifying, but we survived that too.
And then, just as we pulled up to the camp store to check in, we heard a loud CLUNK and a grinding noise. Unbelievable. We determined that one of the tires on the Airstream was dragging a bit - something was wrong with the electric brakes. We turned them off and limped to our campsite, had dinner, and went to bed. We called the dealership first thing in the morning, and we were told not to cut our trip short, but that our next stop should be back to the service department.
We still managed to have a good time camping, and were able to get the trailer back to the dealership with minimal drama, thanks entirely to the fact that we had selected the F-250 has our tow vehicle rather than a 150. The truck brakes were more than capable of handling the Airstream without the help of the trailer brakes, which was especially fortuitous since the campground we were at is located at the top of a mountain. We dropped off the trailer and headed back to my parent’s house with the pups, feeling elated at having completed our first camping trip yet also completely defeated. We had to keep reminding ourselves that it wasn’t a failure, that the whole point of the maiden voyage was to work out any problems before we actually head out on the road. And I’d say malfunctioning brakes are a pretty big problem, and I’m glad it didn’t happen too far from home.
What a rollercoaster it has been. And we’ve barely been 20 minutes from home base! I suppose the most important things to take away from this experience are to have plenty of skunk deodorizer and lavender baby shampoo on hand, ALWAYS put the awning up, and make sure your tow vehicle is a good match for your trailer. You never know what might happen!