We did it!!

[Mackhopp]

Drove 500 miles to Delaware (from Ottawa) and picked up the newest addition to our family, a lovely brand spanking new 25' CCD.

Spent the night at the dealer - turned out great! The group at Parkview RV in Smyrna were terrific - we had a great experience with them.

The Airstream towed perfectly, no problems. Hubby kept realizing his speed was creeping up on the interstates - he'd forget every now and then that he was pulling an Airstream!

We're driveway camping right now, and are going to make our maiden voyage this upcoming weekend to a provincial park down the road. Close to home is good for the 1st trip out I'd imagine.

I'm just tickled to finally be part of the crowd - hope to see some other owners at a campsite or on the road sometime soon.

Cheers!

Michelle

[CanoeStream]

Congrats y'all! The house isn't hardly there when you have such a beauty in the driveway. Nice! We'd love to hear (and see) more about your provincial parks when you start to rack up some miles.

I needed to have Parkview RV bail me out on some service when I brought my Argosy home three years ago. Very accommodating folks!

[maxandgeorgia]

Wonderful, Michelle! All of us here on the forum remember quite well that first time we each pulled into our driveways with our own Airstream/Argosy, played around with them, checked them out all over again-inside and out, and then driveway camped "just because it's here!" This brings our best wishes for great camping adventures in the years ahead. ~G

[classic67]

Congrats! It nice to see so many of us joining th Airstream life this year. The folks here seem to be a wonderful group, and I can say made this newbie (me) feel quite welcomed!

[redeagle313]

Congratulations on your new CCD! We hope you like yours as much as we like ours.

[TIMEMACHINE]

Welcome to the family.

[cameront120]

Congrats!

[pod people]

Congratulations!

I've been looking at the 25' - its a nice size up from my 16'

I know you'll love it

[Ken & Janice]

Michelle, I can relate to your driveway camping! Ken just brought home our 1970 Tradewind on Thursday and it is set up in our backyard parking lot. In our other non AS life we operate a marina. As this is a long weekend, most of our boaters have been by to take their boats out so we've had lots of opportunities to show off our new acquisition. We can't wait to take it on the road at the end of August, till then we are dividing our time between the house (boring), the boat (cool) and the AS (way cool).

Ken & Janice

[nilesrob]

Congratulations on your new purchase!

Speaking of driveway camping, last year we did some work on our house. At the same time, I had my general contractor do two things: 1) install new 50, 30 and 20 amp circuits outside the house (close to the driveway) from a new circuit panel in the garage, and 2) extend the home clean-out valve (secondary access to sewerage - I think every house has to have one) close to our driveway.

Having these capabilities (electricity and sewerage) really makes prep work easy - both preparing for and returning from trips.

Enjoy your new AS - in driveway and beyond!

[Julison]

Congratulations Michelle,

What park did you visit.
Our maiden voyage in our 69 Caravel was to the Bonnechere Provincial park....it was a blast and th ekids loved it...they had last year's tent camping trip for comparison..kids love tiny homes.

Hope to see you in at the Rally in Almonte in Sept (or Oct???).

Julison

[william Haym]

Welcome to the forum. I know you will your new airstream trailer!!!!

[riverstreet2]

Camping out in the driveway - we're with you there! We just got our International and love it.

[rebel beck]

It took me about 3 months to get out of looking out the window ever 5 min. to be sure it was still there or maybe just to look at it. What's real cool is to pull out the awning and set it up like you are camping, remember to add the flamingo's and have a few friends over for refreshments or whatever. Makes a real neat get together.

[Mackhopp]

We took it out for a weekend trip - went as well as expected. Things to iron out with the Airstream (black tank indicator not working, some electrical issues...), as well as some things we need to learn (we did some pretty stupid things but we were able to laugh it off - live and learn was our mantra this weekend!), and all in all it was great.

Back in the driveway though have had a passive-aggressive comment from a neighbour - something to the effect of "somebody asked if you guys were going to keep it in the driveway all the time and I said nah - there's no way they'd do that". We heard the message loud and clear. But it is our house. However we are in a nice quiet family-oriented neighbourhood and we don't want to stick out like a sore thumb. So it'll stay in the driveway for a bit until we get it loaded up properly with everything we'll need for trips. Then it'll go to my in-law's driveway away from the city until winter storage.

It's kept nice and tight, sort of how you'd keep it if boondocking in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Just a vent open and a window cracked for ventilation. However - we may open 'er up and have a Trailer Park Boys themed party soon. Invite the neighbours so no one can complain... Ply 'em with cocktails I say - that's the ticket!

Cheers!

Michelle

[campadk]

Wahoo! Nice Michelle! Glad everything worked out well for you!

How was the importing experience?

We'll be garage camping as well in another 5 or 6 weeks when we get our Bambi. We haven't resolved our tow vehicle issue yet however. I imagine we'll have the AS parked in the shared driveway about 50% of the time. I might look at summer storage here in Orleans if we feel we are 'hogging' air space from the neighbours

What are you pulling that puppy with? Looks like a Liberty in your photo!

Where abouts are you in Ottawa? Mind if Kate and I come over for a look see, maybe we can learn a few things from fresh newbies? We are pretty new coming from the teardrdop, except I have pulled our boat and tear around a lot and I must be a backup pro by now!

We just returned from 9 fantastic days at Fish Creek Pond SP in upstate NY in our teardrop. No rain so we weren't missing having the Bambi yet... put I already have about 40 days tenatively scheduled on the calendar for next year to break in the Airstream LOL.

[Mackhopp]

Hi Dave!

The importing experience was great (so far anyhow). The ride across the border was hassle-free - a surprisingly quick little stop-over at the Thousand Islands crossing.

And you're correct on the Jeep Liberty in the photo - that's the front end of my Jeep peeking out. But - that's not what we tow the Airstream with (still trying to come up with a name grrr - I hate calling it "The Trailer"). We've also got a Ford F-150 4x4 SuperCab with an 8' box. Does the trick nicely. Have huge-looking weight distribution bars, sway bars - the whole nine yards.

Speaking of sway bars - we're so new to this that I think I'm going to have a very very bright sign to put up in the truck when we're towing - saying "SWAY BAR" as a reminder not to back up with it on. Being newbies we've almost forgotten a few times, which would not have been a happy time

And you're more than welcome to come and have a looksee! I'll PM you with the details.

Cheers!

Michelle

[cameront120]

I think you should keep it in the driveway just to spite the passive-agressive neighbour. But then I'm funy that way.

[jzelle]

Congratulations Michelle ! I hope you enjoy your Airstream as much as we are enjoying ours.
Smyrna is only 85 miles from our all-time favourite campground- Assateague State park where we go every year mid september.

[Mackhopp]

Hmm... Assateague State Park looks very nice! Never been to that neck of the woods, and am interested in researching a bit more about it.

We're rarin' to head to Fort DeSoto county park in Florida next big trip, but will definitely consider Maryland as an alternate destination. We were pleasantly surprised with how nice Delaware was, and heard tons of good stuff about Maryland and the "beaches"...


Cheers!
Michelle