Messing Around Our Mothership Appointment

We successfully navigated our 5th (or was it our 6th?) service appointment at the Airstream service center, right beside the Airstream factory in Ohio. Five might not seem like a lot, but the last three have been within a year, and we’ve had to scurry to Ohio each time to make sure we got to the appointments they fit us in for. As in: emergency trips.

The first one this year was to repair the leaking grey tank after we’d cracked it on the Alaska trip. Then we had to hightail it back when we discovered a rain leak inside the trailer and had to have the back of the floor replaced.

This recent trip was for the grey tank again, which we were pissed about, seeing as how they fixed it a year ago. But, we got the same technician this time, and he said we had a new crack close to the old one, but not the old one, so we must’ve recently hit something in just the right way. Again. We are good at that. He fixed it in less than a a day and didn’t charge us an arm and a leg, so we’re relieved.

A grey tank leak is a pain in the ass because, even though it’s not leaking waste water from the toilet, it’s still full of soap and kitchen oils. It’s bad for the soil, plus, it smells. You don’t want to let on in campgrounds that you’re leaking, so we’ve had to do this careful dance of catching the grey water a little each day until it reaches the crack in the tank, then opening the valve to dump it. Every day.

That’s in a campsite with sewer; without sewer, we’ve simply tried like heck not to release any water into that tank. So, for cooking and washing, we place a bucket in the kitchen sink, then dump that water into the black tank, which means the black tank fills much quicker. It’s a messy situation, with the sink bucket being perennially filled with gross water. But no more!

This is all to say we’re relieved to be done with that service appointment. As usual, we scheduled where we were staying right before and right after for proximity, not for adventure, so I don’t have much to report.

Lake Hudson Recreation Area, MI

The few days before the appointment happened to be Labor Day weekend, and the only site we could find was in a recreation area campground in southern Michigan, a little too far away for visits with Finn.

Man was that campground packed with locals who probably come there several times a year to party. They all seemed to know each other, engaging in their favorite campground activities: playing loud cornhole while wearing American flag bathing suits and driving their trucks around the campground loop with multiple dogs hanging out the windows.

Oddly, there was one Airstream there, and, even more oddly, they flew a flag that said, “We’re the drunkest assholes this side of the campground.” We did not say hi.

It always seems a little sad to be in a partying campground during holidays because the fact that we’re out here on our own is in stark contrast. Some holidays we’re out boondocking and enjoy our private celebrations, and some we’re among other fulltimers and share food and stories. With weekenders though, we really do feel like sore thumbs. To compensate this Labor Day, we did eat lots of watermelon and listened to music a extra loudly in the tent while playing cards, and I bought a rhubarb/strawberry pie. That’s as close as we could approximate a neighborhood picnic. Not bad!

We did get the kayaks out on the lake, which felt good for both of us. There were four pairs of swans spread out on the water, and I never got a photo of any of them! I did get shots of the lily pads all over the place.

Check out this fancy kayak launcher. You drag (or carefully place, if you’re Tracy) your boat on it, then straddle the boat and get inside, then push yourself into the water, like you’re going down a slide. Tracy wasn’t around for advice when I was ready to come ashore, so I just paddled as hard as I could up to it and jettisoned onto it. Surprisingly fun! I kinda wanted to launch and embark again, but I’d have to do it backwards, and surely I’d find a way to fall out and get caught underneath the thing. Now I know how to do these and am going to look for them.

The Terraport at Jackson Center, OH

When you arrive in Jackson Center, Ohio, the day before your appointment, you park in their little parking lot/campground so they can tow your trailer out to the service bay first thing the next morning. This time we were worried about that though because the annual Alumapalooza was going on. It’s a rally focused on corporate stuff, with customized tours of the factories and talks given by Airstream leadership. Not our bag, and possibly interfering with us parking if everything was in the lot where we should be.

Not a problem though. Alumapaloosa peeps all parked in a field behind one of the factories, and other than a crowded lane when we picked up the trailer, all went smoothly.

Ottawa Metro Park, OH

Because we didn’t know how long it would take the technician to fix the gray tank (what if he had to replace it—would that mean taking out the shower on top of it?), we didn’t have reservations for that whole week. So, after we got the call it was ready after only a day, we went straight to the county campground where we met Doug and Melanie years ago. I swear, now we know every skeezy laundromat, every hair stylist who doesn’t listen to what you want, every luncheon spot in central Ohio. Unrelated to Doug and Melanie!

Ely Lake Campground, MI

Finally, the service center leg is done, and we’re camped off a lake near Lake Michigan again, this time closer to Grand Rapids, closer to Finn in East Lansing for next week. It’s a gorgeous spot; we have the woods and the lake to ourselves until the weekend. More on that later, seeing as how I barely have enough cell signal to post this. Now that post should be about camping!

(Apologies for few photos and even more typos than usual. I wrote this from the road.)