We are off on our adventure with the new Airstream.  We are tired of the cold temperatures so we were weighing the options.  One was to visit a relative in Klamath Falls but that is higher altitude and forecast for cold and maybe wet.  Go down I5 and get in California ASAP?  Pretty much the same forecast.

We decided to head over to the coast and use the ocean as a great equalizer.  Rarely does the central coast of Oregon get to the freezing level.  We took state route 18 from Newberg to the coast.

We camped at Beverly Beach State Park and paid $22 for a full hookup spot.  A good deal in any book.  We ate in Newport that night and did a WalMart run.  The second night was much better since the climate was much temparate.  It didn't get near freezing in the night and our 'old' heater cooked us!  The new heater did not impress so it will be returned.

About 30 minutes after we woke up the next day it started raining.  That was great for the temperature but not so great for breaking down camp.  Luckily I have one of these:

(or a minor variation of it)

We got on the road with a destination of Eureka, CA (Roxie has family there).  It is about 320 miles but they are slow miles all on US 101 and through many towns.

We got here about 5:30 and are spending two nights.

Unfortunately on the way we had a few more issues with the trailer. 

The sliding mirrors on the wardrobe came loose and broke one of the latches.  These are the same doors that I had to repair the first night because a roller came off but the technicians were supposed to check my work.

The major issue was a corner of the counter top (Corian) broke off.  We didn't have any idea as to why but figured it out later.  It appears that Airstream failed to secure the cabinet under the counter but DID secure the counter.  This allowed the counter top to stay put but the cabinet worked out and the corner of it broke the counter top.

Now we get to take the trailer to our 'local' Airstream dealer to get it fixed (which is only 2-3 hours away!).

We are going to take a down day since we have been going for the last 5 days or so.

We made it to the Portland area (actually around Oregon City) in 2 days.  A bit of driving for us but we were on a mission!  Our mission was to get our new Airstream.

We arrived on Sunday evening and checked into the hotel.  It is really hard to pack for a trip in a trailer when you don't have a trailer with you.  The next stop was to drive by the dealership, that was now closed, and look for the trailer.  We saw it and it looked like an Airstream.

We got to the Airstream Adventures Northwest on Monday (MLK holiday) and started the process.  The first thing was to do the walkthrough.  We are pretty experienced in travel trailers with a speciality in Airstreams and we might have known most of it but I told myself to let the service person explain everything to us.  Not to cut him short by saying we know that, etc.  By doing this I was able to learn a few things myself (something about an old dog and new tricks).

During this time we were getting a new hitch installed.  We will give the old one to Aaron with the trailer.  The old hitch had undersized equalizer bars.  We got an Equal-i-zer 1000 setup.  It seems a bit easier to hookup than our old one but there are a lot of cotter pins and clips that could be misplaced.  We will have to watch that.

After all that we got to do paperwork.  Oh joy!  Surprisingly it only took about 15 minutes since we worked most of it out before we even arrived.

The next step, driving it away (for the first time).

We only drove about 10 miles to a Pheasant Ridge RV park.  I wanted to stay close to handle any issues that might come up overnight.  More about that later.  The drive was uneventful other than I could tell the extra weight behind me.  Our old trailer's GVWR was around 6300lb but this one is 10000lb.  My truck is rated to tow 12500lb so it will handle it.  Perhaps I just got used to the overkill and what I feel now is what others normally feel when towing.

It is REALLY cold in this area so we only hooked up the power (50amp) to the trailer.  We filled the water tank but there were warnings of freeze so we did not hookup the water hose or sewer.  Here is Roxie filling the water (for the first time) at the site last night:

Don't be fooled by the nice sunshine.  It was COLD!  See, Roxie has her little head wrap on.

We went out to get dinner and some groceries and were met my what I call 'Frog'.  It was a freezing fog.  We had seen the trees on the way up all coated in frost and this is what was going on here.  It almost looked like fine snow coming out of the sky.  A weather person called it 'Snog' for snowy fog?  This is what was on the trailer when we got back:

Wow!  What a way to start!  The heater handled the cold very well, as the propane ones normally do.  However this unit has two Air Conditioners and the both have heat pumps in them but I could not get the heat pumps to go.  Our measly electric heater did not cut it either, time for a new one.  Sleep (for the first time) was OK.  The heater was cycling on and off so we were cycling between hot and cold but we DO NOT plan to stay in this type of cold anywhere we are going

In the AM we got up and had breakfast (for the first time).  It was nice to have a dinette ready to go.

Right now we are at the dealership to have some items address and to learn how to use the thermostat correctly.  We think the next stop is the coast where we hope it will be warmer!