4/30/20
The day we went to pick up our new baby was beautiful, sunny and cool, a nice breezy spring day. We had delayed for a day, luckily, because our original date had been rainy and cold. Sure, we’d endure that for a new-to-us Airstream, but far better to do it in the sun.
We drove the nearly 3 hours to South Carolina, trying to go through the list of everything we had to do to get it back. Mainly issues concerning the lights and hitch, but we had handled those. We thought.
We stopped at John’s RV as planned to pick up the light kit and mirrors. I had debated getting the light extension kit too (to make it a longer cable from hitch to rear bumper ) but thought we’d be all right. The owner lived about 15 minutes from the RV dealership, luckily, and I thought we could go back if we needed. In hindsight, this is all foreshadowing.
We get to the owner’s house, right on time, and we all quickly get working, masks hanging off our necks by now. So much for quarantine - I hoped we were lucky and then forgot about it. We got the truck in position, hitched it up, threw all the loose parts into the trailer and started stringing out the light cables. I was figuring out how to attach the light fixtures to the bumper. Sure enough, there’s no handy way to do it other than tape it on. Duct tape holds the world together, right?
Running the cables back to the light fixtures from the hitch, our first hurdle - the cable is indeed too short. We need the extension kit after all, but now the truck is hitched up. Duh. We debate how to get a trailer with no lights across mid day traffic to the RV place. The owner offers to follow us there behind the trailer. I make a quick call to John’s RV so they have the cable ready. We want to leave as soon as we can to get back by dark.
Once we get to the RV place, things progress quickly - the extensions just snap in to the fittings, we tape the longer cable along the trailer and re attach the cable plug. And then things stand still. The lights don’t work. Something is wrong. We have no idea what, and the owner is anxious to get home. It’s a Friday late afternoon by now, and the RV place is going to close in an hour.
I go in and persuade the friendly parts guy to get a service tech to check it out. The now-previous owner goes home after a risky but supportive handshake to both of us. Then we wait. One RV guy after another (sales guy, another parts guy, the parts department manager) comes out to check out the trailer and offer opinions on this and that. The friendly parts guy has actually renovated an Argosy before so when he comes out again, I subtly pump him for information. He doesn’t need pumping. Everyone admires her. And we wait.
Finally, a tech guy comes out with a tester and checks all the connections. Nothing in the light kit works. In fact, there’s no current to the just installed hitch plug either. Lynn and I look at each other. UHaul.
We unhitch and the tech drives the truck back to the service bay, leaving the trailer and Lynn and I out in the parking lot. And we wait. We take pictures of the trailer, field more RV guys with opinions, sit and watch the clouds while the sun sinks into the horizon. It’s peaceful and I’m reminded that all things slow down when you are in an RV.
John’s RV was closing. The friendly parts guy drove up beside us to wish us luck, saying “Now the nightmare begins.” Great. The parts manager, who had done the most to advocate for us to the service department (who were all anxious to go home too) came out to give us an update. Nothing had been hooked up to the brake controller or the light wiring. Nothing worked because it hadn’t been finished. In fact, they thought it had all been done ass backwards.
Well, it was his first, for god’s sake! The guy at UHaul actually said this proudly at the 10 second fix. Another shared look. F*cking UHaul. They will hear from us!
So, a few minutes later, the truck comes out, and I go in to pay for work I should not have had to get if UHaul had done their job. We get hitched up and ready to go. It’s rush hour in Columbia, SC, (busy, even during quarantine) so we take the surface roads while we test out the hitch and lights. She is pulling and turning well, the lights and turn signals work fine now and the mirrors are hitched out far enough to see past the trailer. We head home in the dusk and into the night. It was a long drive, but since we took mostly secondary roads, a relaxed and confident drive.
I just want to brag that Lynn backed the trailer into the narrow driveway around 10pm, after the day we just had, on the first try. It pays to know a professional!
And nope, it wouldn’t fit under the steel carport, the next thing to fix. A fitting end to the day.
