4 Days. 1200 Miles. 1 Trailer.

There’s really not much to say. We went to Michigan, picked up our trailer and brought it back to Virginia. That’s about it, if you don’t count getting lost on a dirt road, night construction on the PA Turnpike, our tollbooth anxiety, and overnighting at a strip mall.

I guess I can elaborate a little. We had no problems getting to the dealership, checking out the trailer and eating our first meal (chicken and dumplings soup and cornbread) in the galley.

We didn’t eat a lot or stay up too late because we were anxious about towing. I kept asking everyone, “Will it fit through tolls okay?” By Monday morning we had a short list of fixes for the dealer (Weekley’s), and their technician Randy promptly took care of them all. They towed the trailer a little over an hour to Hensley’s workshop in Romeo, MI. We were getting closer to our first towing experience.

Mark and Dennis at Hensley installed the hitch while we went out and forced down some lunch (still nervous). We got back and they went over everything, giving us a chance to hitch up, adjust the brake controller, drive half a mile and adjust the hitch and then unhitch. These guys were excellent, very supportive and patient. When Danine and I attempted to unhitch ourselves, we found the tongue jack wouldn’t work. Dennis discovered it was a blown fuse and Mark went to the auto parts store and bought us five spares! We quickly went through three more, but figured out the problem. We rolled out of there, on our own, at 2:30 p.m. feeling ready for anything.

Lucky (?) for us, “anything” happened. We missed the turn onto the highway and had to go through downtown Romeo. After a couple of lefts we went under said highway and the road turned to dirt. Now I know that Airstreams handle well on dirt roads. But knowing this and taking your brand new trailer on one are two completely different things! Hoping the road wouldn’t come to an end without a big flat area to turn around, we kept going. (At this point we had never once backed up the trailer.) We came across a gravel road with a familiar name and knew (hoped) it would take us back to where we started. It did, and we were on our way to…

Rush hour traffic in Detroit. Yes. I quickly learned how wide the Airstream is and how it handles in stop-and-go traffic and on busy expressways. We survived unharmed, filled up with gas for the first time, and drove through a big construction project in Toledo. I may have closed my eyes at this point. I can’t remember. But Danine gave me good guidance for my right side and we got through it. What could be scarier than all of this? The dreaded tollbooth.

We eased up to the wide toll plaza on I-80 in Ohio and went as far right as we could (with the trucks). I slowly pulled into the lane, carefully watching my left while Danine told me how I was doing on the right. Amazingly, the thing fits. I still had to get out to grab the ticket — it’s high, so truckers can reach it. We began the long haul across Ohio which proved to be a good training ground for pulling the trailer: pretty good road, flat, with light to moderate traffic.

Danine took over the driving at the halfway point. She built some confidence on I-80, but then had to go through two toll plazas (she did much better than me) and drive through the confounding and perpetual construction zones on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Up and down long grades. At night. After one more toll booth and one more narrow construction zone, we pulled onto the main street near my parents’ house in Natrona Heights, PA and stopped in the middle of the parking lot of the nearby strip mall at 11:30 p.m. My mom had gotten permission from the management to do this, but we still expected a cop to knock on the door.

It was a quiet night and Elise and my parents came over in the morning. Elise was excited to check out the trailer (which involves a lot of jumping on things). We had a nice breakfast and got ready for the final leg home. We had to be careful snaking the trailer out of the lot now that it was full of cars. But I did a great job, according to Danine. On a lovely sunny day, the turnpike didn’t seem so bad, so we took it all the way to I-70 (Breezewood). I drove so I could get even with Danine on tollbooths (3 and 3). There is one long tunnel on the way, but it’s no worse than the construction areas. Once again Danine drove the last (harder) half and got us through our own chaotic I-495 and into the parking lot of St. Philip’s Catholic Church. Whew!