When it comes to security, the Airstream is as good as any trailer I have seen. There is a dead bolt built into the door and there is no picking the lock once you’ve lock the door. To lock the door, you just slide the door handle to the lock position and shut it behind you on your way out. That’s assuming you don’t forget the keys inside. As we start spending more time on the road, I am concerned that one day it is gonna happen. I am gonna step out of the trailer and out of habit, slide that lock across the door and shut it behind me with the keys inside. Imagine being locked out of your house with your 2 year old inside who doesn’t know how to let herself out. Except your house might be in the middle of the desert, deep in a national park or along the long stretches of empty beaches on the Oregon coast.

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We took Yoda to the vet a few days ago to prepare her for traveling with us around the country. We had a long list of Yoda To-Do’s that needed crossing off, which included yearly blood work, vaccine boosters, microchips, and health certificates.

We actually traveled with Yoda when we took our old T@b to Arizona last January but did not have any documentation with us when we got stopped at the California-Arizona border. It would have been really bad news for Yoda if not for the fact that when asked if we had any pets in the car, Dan answered ‘no’. But he didn’t intentionally lie. You see our first road trip started of like this but ended up like this. We were beyond exhausted and somehow forgot we had a cat in the car with us. Sorry Yoda.

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Getting online while you are on the road is always a challenge. There has been a lot of discussion about this in blogs and forums and everyone has their own favorite methods. But in general, based on today’s wireless technology, there are basically three ways to do it:

1. Satellite Internet Service Provider (Direcway, HughesNet)
2. Wireless Broadband from Cell Phone Providers (Verizon, Sprint)
3. Public WiFi Access Points

Although there may be newer and arguably better options in the works such as WiMax, these 3 are what’s widely available today. I will spend some time talking about them in a few separate posts as I am currently doing research on what is best for our upcoming trips. In this post, I will focus my attention on the third and potentially the most interesting option: getting connected via public WiFi.

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Ava is still to small to sleep on her own on one of the beds in the Airstream. Since she still sleeps in a crib at home, I have a feeling that she would roll right off of it. So, having her sleep on one of the beds in the rear half (living/dining room) is out of the question for now. And having her sleep next to us on the main bed, like she did in the T@b, is NOT a long-term option. Believe me. This kid likes to kick and punch and pinch in her sleep. Seriously.

During our test trip to Lake Isabella, we decided to set up Ava’s portable crib in the kitchen walkway of the Airstream. It worked out for the most part but was a little inconvenient. 1) She’s getting way to big for it 2) it takes up a lot of room, 3) it is raised up off of the floor and thus close to things she shouldn’t be touching, and 4) a pain in the ass to set up and break down everyday.

So, we are off to plan B. Dan was kind enough to order this AeroBed for Kids via Amazon earlier today. The sleeping part measures 50″ x 25″ and is surrounded by a 4″ safety cushion that will hopefully prevent Ava from rolling onto the floor. It should fit nicely in the walkway area and hopefully spare us from some of the cons I was complaining about a little while ago.

But the true test will all be up to Ava during our next planned trip, which happens to at the end of the month to southern Arizona. I sure hopes her prairie doggy gives the bed a thumbs up. And if he doesn’t? Well, then I will have to kick and punch and pinch right back. (j/k.)

the end,
marlene

I did some research before buying the Airstream about what kind of hitch to use to drag it around the country. Since I have only ever towed trailers that I can push around with my hands, the 7000 lb beast is a big change. With an 800 lb tongue weight, it is also 300 lbs more than what my class 3 hitch is rated for. Bad news right? Well, that’s where the weight distribution systems come in. By using a weight distributing system, my class 3 hitch can increase its capacity to accommodate up to 1000 lbs of tongue weight and 10,000 lbs of trailer weight. Magic!

Equalizer

Reese

Hensley Arrow

These hitches essentially use leverage created by solid metal bars that extend from the rear of the hitch to even the weight across all 4 wheels of the vehicle. There are people who will go on and on about how these work but I like to think of it as a wheel barrel. The handles of the wheel barrel are the metal bars and it takes the weight off of the back and moves it to the front. If you want to find out more, do some searches on the wide wide world of web. There are people who will tell you a lot more about it than I am willing to bore you to tears with.

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