Introducing Serenity (also)

What: A new (to us) Airstream!

When: January 4th 2018

After several long trips in the 19′ Bambi, we realized with two people, two dogs, varied weather, and trips over a week, the trailer was just too small. We had to take down and make up the Dinette Bed every day, when one of our Boston’s was restricted from jumping, due to surgery (not once, but twice during the year), we had to keep her in a crate, which took up 50% of the floorspace. After a couple Airstream Rallies, we realized a 25′ Airstream was the perfect size for our new adventures. We knew we couldn’t afford a new unit, and spent time every week checking the used market. We were pretty well educated on prices for various years and trim levels. We went ahead and ordered a new tow vehicle, knowing we’d eventually find the right trailer, but you had to jump on them, because clean 25′ used Airstreams are a hot commodity, and they sell fast.

One Friday morning, Sydnee said “I think I found the new trailer”. It had the configuration we wanted, Forward Bedroom, Twin Beds (room for a dog crate in-between). Had the newer trim, wood floors, Solar installed, upgraded awnings, tires/wheels. The price was right were it should be for this kind of unit. We called the dealer (A-Z Motors, in Winters, CA). They’d just got the unit in and cleaned, and had some calls on it already. Winters is a 4 hour drive, and we had things going on all weekend. We wouldn’t make it out until Tuesday. Gave him our info, and said we’d call back Monday to see if it was still available.

But then we realized, we didn’t have anything going on today. A storm was coming in, not a day we’d normally pick to go drive 8 hours on country roads, but realized if it was clean, it’d likely to be gone by Monday. We called back, and told them we were on our way. Good thing. By the time we got there, there was another couple looking at the 25′ he had, and another coming later. Since we’d called first, we had right of first refusal. The Airstream was pretty clean, needed a little scrub-down, but nothing gross. Everything worked, and it felt so much roomier than the additional 6′ would imply. We still didn’t have our tow vehicle we’d ordered in September (another long but not very interesting story. Short version, don’t order a Ford truck the week after the current model year’s orders close). We bought it, and Vince said we could keep it there for the month or so it would take to get the truck.

We liked the name Serenity so much, we decided to keep the name with the new Airstream. Her formal name is Serenity (also), but Serenity for short. Ha! 😃

We ended up trading in the old trailer (see the Paso and Pismo trip), and as part of that transaction, Vince agreed to deliver the new trailer to us, freeing up space for him, and getting us the trailer a month before we could get it otherwise.

I’ve been practicing backing and moving around the new trailer at home, prior to her shakedown trip in Mid March. We’ll be doing a lot of travel with her in March and April and May. Hopefully, I’ll be more timely about posting travel updates. Not that anyone but me reads this, but I like to keep them to remind myself what happened when.

Jan 05 2018