L&K Take America

Petaluma is in Sonoma County, and pretty conveniently located for visits to Napa and Sonoma. But first, we needed to visit the ever exciting Airstream parts store in Fairfield, CA. It was about an hour from our campsite past Napa and Sonoma and 9am is too early to start drinking wine (at least on most days) and we could hit Napa and Sonoma on the way back. The parts were on hold, so we made our way there first thing in the morning. When we go there, the service manager was a little overwhelmed by all of my questions and a little in shock over my trip in general. He kept asking questions such as “wait, where did you buy your Airstream?” and “wait, where do you live?” and when I would answer with “New Hampshire” and “Boston” he would just shake his head. He finally admitted to being impressed. However, I think the number of questions I had about the various ailments and abnormalities of my rolling home probably didn’t make him confident that it was skill over luck that had brought me as far as I had come. I’m sure that I didn’t help that when I asked, “So…I should be able to install these on my own, right?” He just gave me a side glare and shook his head. Not comforting.

On a side note, this Airstream place was AMAZING! It was pretty much an airplane hanger FULL of new Airstreams. I didn’t allow myself to go in, for obvious reasons.

So I purchased the parts Mike had put on hold for me and a few others for some small things I had broken including something to fix the drawer under the oven and a new igniter for the stove. Airstream parts are expensive…gulp….

Then off we went to seek out some vineyards in Napa. First, we went downtown Napa to grab lunch at the General Store and a map of the vineyards. I love Napa. Pretty sure I could live there.

Jackie isn’t a big drinker and I was driving, so we shared tastings at the first two vineyards we went to, Beringer and Provenance. Beringer is a big, corporate type vineyard. Provenance was a smaller, newer vineyard. We then stopped at Elizabeth Spencer before finishing up with pictures at Robert Mondavi. The grounds and Beringer and Mondavi were beautiful. Elizabeth Spencer and Provenance were much more quaint and reserved, but equally enjoyable. I think it opened Jackie’s eyes to vineyards and tastings outside of the Connecticut Wine Trail, for the better.

I wanted to get back to the campsite during daylight in order to attempt to install at least the fresh water inlet. So we stopped and grabbed In-and-Out burgers because it was the first one I had seen and was told it was a must. Not sure what all of the fuss is about, but maybe it was an off day. I would say it’s on par with Five Guys, but not bad.

The installation of the city water inlet didn’t go so well. Womp Womp…Wish I could blame it on the wine but it was pure ignorance. So I unscrewed the old fixture and started to unattach it from the water hose that goes into the trailer and it began to violently squirt water everywhere. Holy hell!!!! What is going on?!?!? Why is there water in there?! Then the water pump kicked on. I was completely perplexed. What the?!?!? After I googled it a bit, I discovered it was likely that there was likely just pressure in the system but I got the insulation all wet! EEEEKK! All I could imagine was black mold growing in there because I didn’t understand the basics of plumbing. It was late on the East Coast at this point and couldn’t call my dad to ask. Uggh! So I just unpacked the new fixture only to notice that it didn’t have the rubber gasket that the old one had and I couldn’t unattach the old one. Crap!! I googled it a bit to discover that it’s pretty critical to protect the body of the Airstream from the external elements. Of course it’s critical. I don’t live in the world where missing parts are nice-to-haves. I weighed my options and decided that having the water was more important at the moment and would figure it out in the morning. I finished the installment and sent Dad a text to figure out how damning the wet insulation would be and what to do about the rubber gasket. The water worked perfectly and was welcome relief from the jack-hammering water pump. I’m sure the installation was quite entertaining to watch, but I was left a little deflated.

The next morning, Dad had responded and said that the insulation would dry if it wasn’t too much water and not to worry about it, but the rubber gasket was important. So I called the Airstream parts place I had purchased the parts from and the response was “ohhh…yeah…I should have given that to you yesterday. We have one if you want to come in and get it.” Great…Grand….WONDERFUL! Would have been nice to know this YESTERDAY! (too many Adam Sandler movie quotes for you?) Luckily, the Airstream place was kind of sort of on the way to my cousin’s house in Tracy, CA, where we were headed that day. So we made a detour. Of course, because this is the kind of luck I have, about a half mile out from the Airstream place, there was a train track and as we approached, the arms of the crossing closed and the lights began flashing. After about 10 minutes, cars began just crossing the tracks around the arms because there wasn’t a train in site. Then 18 wheelers began doing it. ARE YOU PEOPLE CRAZY?!?! after about 5 more minutes, I pulled into the business that was next to us on the road and decided to walk the remainder of the way to the dealer because I wasn’t willing to cross the tracks around the arms with the trailer. Sprinting seemed like a better plan. There was no train in sight. I made it to the dealer, they were now just referring to me as simply “Boston,” they gave me the rubber gasket for free and off I went. Sprinting across the train tracks in the other direction. Still no train in sight, but sprinting seemed like the right thing to do out of an abundance of caution.

Off we went with our sticky foam gasket pieces towards Stop #16: Tracy, CA for some family time. Woohoo! Bring on cousins, aunt, uncle and babies! Oh and full sized showers, beds, laundry, and modern plumbing.

Lesson of the Day: Understand a closed plumbing system BEFORE you start unscrewing things.

Oh and make sure you ask “Do I need any other parts for this?” before leaving the Airstream parts place.  It could just save you the extra trip.