It Look's Like We Made It!

We're back home. Some photos of the trip are here. The trailer is parked at Joseph's (I will now refer to him as St. Joseph of Generosity, or St. J-of-G for short). I'm feeling a bit drained from the adventure, but overall it went good and we had a great time. The trailer tows nicely. Here's the full rundown:

The Drive Down
We left around 7pm and made it to our Glendale motel around midnite. The evening drive went fast with no traffic. The Vagabond Inn is pet friendly and was only minutes from our first morning stop, so it was a good choice. I think I slept good, but only for a few hours as we got up at 7am again.

Friday
We stopped by Jame's house to pick up the registration paperwork and remainer of the material he had on the trailer. No title, but I think I'll be ok to register the trailer with the stuff he gave me. Lucy seemed to be enjoying the road trip.

Metro RV was a bit of a pain. I guess it's not really their fault that they don't know vintage trailers all that well, but I felt like I had to be on top of everything for them. They seemed really chaotic and disorganized.

• New Hitch
The hitch they installed didn't seem right, as the trailer pulled the back of the truck down way too much. It looked like it would bottom out at the slighted road bump. A different hitch with a higher profile seems to work much better. We will need to figure out a good plan for packing our gear for Burning Man, to distribute the weight better. We can't take a real heavy load.

• Wiring Harness and Converter
They had to add a converter box to take the truck's two tail lights (red brake + yellow turn) and wire those to the trailer's one red tail light.

• Propane
Leak fixed. We need to replace the tank, it's old and not up to legal requirements.

• Safety Cables
These will work fine for right now, but long term I should get 2 brackets welded to the front of the trailer hitch and install heavy duty chains. The cables wrap around the back of the trailer hitch for now.

Paso Robles + Wine Country RV Resort
The drive out of LA to the 101 was a total joke. 2 hrs for 50 miles. We got to Paso Robles late, so we decided to stay another day and go wine tasting and enjoy a bit of our trip.

A few brief observations about the RV resort:
1) We were the only old travel trailer. We had the smallest truck.
2) Only a brand new T@B trailer was smaller than us.
3) Most other rigs were huge-gigantic-enormous (and by "rig" I mean fully loaded, satellite tv, multi-popouts, rockstart style, shiny and new)
4) Most other rigs also towed a full size SUV, usually new.
5) We were pretty amazed at the amount of money people dedicate to this hobby lifestyle.
6) Several even had a utility-toy storage trailer in the rear of their rig, like our neighbor who stored his new harley inside.

The Drive Home
I didn't realize how close Paso Robles is to the South Bay Area. It was a great drive. We left just before 9am, stopped in Gilroy for some garlic, and made it to Joseph's house at 12:15. The worst part of the drive was the rough road of 101 in Santa Clara to MV.

Trailer Storage
The trailer is now parked behind Joseph's house. It didn't fit under the carport unfortunately. This will work just fine though until we leave for our next trip at the end of Aug. But I need to find a new home for when we return. Dave backed the trailer down the long driveway, avoiding the tree trunk on one side and the house on the other, and maneuvured the trailer around to the right along side the carport. All in one try. Amazing. That man has mad skilz. Big thanks go to him for all the driving and positive supprt along the way. I couldn't have any way even begun to try this kind of thing without him. muy xxoo.