Pontoons, Airstreams and Backing Up

I love Airstream Trailers. One day after looking at a few Airstreams online, Mickey and I decided to go look at some in person.  I saw giddiness in his face.  He said,  "I'd love one for deer hunting and fishing!  That would be awesome!"  I gave him the look and said, "I'm thinking of a nice bed without dirt clods scattered on the floor, leeches and worms in the mini fridge and remnants of fish guts on the counter tops.  Not sa much a fish gut and hunting thing."  His vision and my vision of Airstream uses were completely opposite.  We decided to go look anyway.   

We drove to a local Airstream dealer.  When we got there the salesman asked us what we were looking for in a trailer.  We told him we didn't know but that we just wanted to look at some.  First thing he took us to see was a very small trailer.  It was called a Basecamp.  I wondered if you could really fit two people in it.  Even though it was tiny it had some really nice things in it.   It had a bed, shower, toilet and little table and bench.  After a quick glance we thought we would want something a bit bigger.   

The salesman led us to a bigger one that was 19 feet long.  This trailer was much larger than the Basecamp but still not very large according to Mickey.  We climbed aboard.  Mickey sat down, shook his head and said, "Nope."  We sat in a 22 foot, 23 foot, 25 foot and a 27 foot trailer.  All of these got a little bigger and a little nicer.  Each time Mickey stepped into the next trailer, he'd look around and shake his large noggin and say "Nope."  The sales guy was a good sport.  He offered to give us a few brochures so we followed him into the show room.  

As we walked into the showroom, Mickey stopped dead in his tracks.  He was speechless so he just pointed to a giant shinning silver Airstream lit by spot lights.  The gleaming missile seemed to softly whisper "Come hither" to him.  He sauntered over to the 33 foot Airstream Classic and went up the stairs into the belly of the beast.  He sat in the lounge chair as he pushed the recline button and announced to all who would listen, "This is the one."

I sat next to him in the adjoining lounge chair, reclined it and said............"Are you nuts?"

Mickey driving the pontoon.
He just can't back it up.

Let me just interject here and say that a few years ago Mickey and I had a similar experience when we went to look at some pontoon boats.  A few hours later we came home as proud owners of a 30 foot pontoon. When we got home he started to back the pontoon down our long, narrow driveway and took out the neighbors mailbox.  After attempting to back the boat up for an over an hour, a small crowd gathered.  I think our neighbor started to worry that Mickey might take out our house or his so he backed it up for him.  We hauled that boat around to a few places, having people help back it up each time and sold it by the end of summer.  

Back to the ginormous Airstream.  I asked mickey if he was nuts then this was the conversation we had as we reclined:

Me: So you do remember our pontoon boat.

Mickey:  Yes.

Me:  This thing is 3 feet longer.  

Mickey: But I have trailer assist in the truck.

Me: That didn't seem to help before when you were backing.

Mickey: That pontoon was wider and rocked more.

Me:  So you think this massive trailer is smaller than the pontoon?

Mickey: It seems smaller.  I can pull this, piece of cake.

Me:  Yes, I know you can PULL it but can you actually back it up.

Mickey:  Check out the huge TV!

Me : We have one at home already.

Mickey: Look at this nice bedroom. (We both walk into the bedroom area).  It's so private! 

Mickey closed the accordion door between us and the sales guy. It felt awkward so I hollered out to the sales guy standing on the other side of the door......... 

Me: We'll be out in a second.  (Not sure why I felt the need to do that) 

Me again: By the way, how long is this bad boy when it's pulled behind a super crew truck?

Sales guy: (He pulls out his phone and types in a few things). I'd say she'll run about 52 feet.

Me:  Crickets (I look like a deer in the headlights)

Mickey:  Shari, I'm not going to just pull THIS!  I'm going to put the fishing boat behind this trailer so we can take the boat too!  

Me:  (.....19+33+21=73 feet). You realize that you'll be pulling and backing 73 feet?  So when you do that, do you have to turn the steering wheel the opposite way that you want the trailer to go then........what?  How are you going do that?

Mickey:  You just go forward.

Me: Roger.

Mickey:  (To the sales guy). So can you do that?  Can you pull a trailer and a boat behind that?

Sales guy: (He shrugs) I'm not sure.  I'm really a mechanic.

Me: Why don't we take our brochures home, we'll talk about this and get back to you.

Mickey and I drove off with our brochures and chatted all the way home.  By the time we got home an hour later we had decided the following:

!. He could back up the trailer with practice.

2. I would pull the boat behind our other car

3.  The trailer was a bit spendy but if we sold our house we could buy the trailer and a nice piece of land to put it on.

4. We could pour a pad of cement on the piece of land to park the trailer on.

5. We could run hookups to the cement pad for the trailer so we have all the conveniences of home.

6. Since we would no longer have a house, we could live in the Airstream full-time. 

7. We would need to build a very large garage/barn next to the cement pad to store the trailer, truck, 2nd car and boat  

8. The barn would also have to have a loft with a bathroom, sleeping area and family room because.......

9. I would take the Airstream every January, February and March to Phoenix so I could get out of the cold and Mickey could visit me on the weekends.  

10. When Mickey wasn't visiting me in Phoenix he could live in the garage/barn.

11. Eventually we would want a house so we would build a house by the garage/barn and cement pad.

It was decided.  We were going to try something new.  We were doing this RV thing.   

Before making the leap we decided to get really educated and watch some YouTube vids about the basics of RV living. The first video told us that it's nice to be handy when you live in an RV because of maintenance and little fix it jobs that can occur while living in an RV.  Mickey said that he's not a handyman so we would have to hire someone to do that stuff unless I wanted to do it.  

Next we watched a video about living in an RV park.  Apparently when you have 52 feet of trailer and truck you have to stay in something called a pull through RV park so you don't have to back up.  These spots are limited thus the cement pad of our own.

The next video was about tips for living in an RV.  Then we watched a video about the things people wished they knew before they started living in their RV and lastly we watched a video was about the Cons of RV living.

We shut off the TV.  Stared at each other and this was the conversation:

Mickey:  I think I've seen enough RV Youtube videos for now.

Shari:  Yep.

Mickey:  We might want to rethink this.  

Me: Yes we should.

Mickey: Do we really want to live in an RV?

Shari: Nope

Mickey:  I'm not a handyman you know

Shari:  I'm aware

Mickey:  I can't take that RV hunting.  

Shari:  I wasn't planning on that anyway.

Mickey:  I don't think I want to live in a garage/barn when I'm not living in the trailer

Shari: Why not?

Mickey: Even though I'm a good backer this might not be our thing.

Shari: Ya sure?

It occurred to me that what we would be doing was similar to living in a van down by the river?

I think we'll stick with the fishing boat and a regular house for now.

Mickey feeding Ty cherries on the pontoon.  Good times!