BitterSweet PickUp

Today's the day! We weren't due at the dealership until 0730 but we got up at 5:30 am. Nerves!

The dealership's service dept fellow , Mark, spent over one hour showing us MANY things. We NEVER would have been able to remember most of it. I took our little FlipVideo camera & really used it. Mark was so good. Every time I'd stop recording to save time on the 1 hr video's built-in memory, he would say..."Nope, not yet...you'll want to have this for later viewing. " He was a fast talker but welcomed questions....dank gawd. I don't know WHAT we would have done if we'd gotten a non-personable or worse a poorly informed guy. Mark is the "sweet" part.

We picked up the trailer an hour south of us in Irvine, Ca ; practiced backing up for 3 hrs in a huge lot then drove to our house in Hollywood where we knew we were not going to even try to get it into the driveway today but hoping to at least to find a spot on our street where we could park it overnight.

Because we live within walking distance to the Hollywood bowl I think everyone was parked on our street for the night’s performance. There was no parking of any kind to be had!

The Bitter part is because we haven't towed a trailer since our trip toAlaska in 2007. That means we have totally forgotten how to maneuver backing up......meaning after practicing those three hours with orange cones to replicate our uphill driveway on a busy street in Hollywood we needed to then drive up to Castaic , Ca where my stepson, Stuart, has room for it. It was a VERY long day. . 1 hour south to Irvine, 3hrs parking practice, one hour north to Hollywood, 1 hour more north to Stu's & finally one more hour back home to Hollywood. Got home about 9:30 pm after a quick bite.

Rush hour in all directions...fun eh? Well, surprisingly, the traffic wasn't all that bad BUT when we were almost @ Stu's we heard the low-gas-beep signal & needed to get some gas with trailer in tow which put us to Stuart's house after dark.

Fortunately, Stu has over an acre of lighted, cemented parking for his own rigs (film industry 18 wheeler-type trailers) So we had almost no problem having a straight-back-up area to park our new "kid" between Stu's 40' RV & a boat. It was disappointing to not be able to get it into our own backyard so that we could pack it up for our anticipated first new-rig trip in September.

We currently have plans on waiting until Monday when there is street cleaning on our street from 11-2pm when there are no cars parked on one side. Hopefully, that will afford the maneuvering space we need to make-it-work! We've noticed that on other mid-week days the street is fairly clear of parked cars too...when people are at work, I guess. We'll play it by ear.