Getting Daphne

In Sept 2013, we (hubby, myself, oldest son and only daughter) were on our way to TN from NC to purchase a 28 ft  Airstream International, when the seller phoned to inform us that he had another buyer who offered 1,500.00 more than we did. I told him I was happy that he found some one to buy his rig. Thankfully we had only gotten 50 miles into a 400 mile trip when we had to turn back. On our way home I asked hubby to call and see if another Airstream we were very interested in (but it was over 800 miles away) was still available, it was, so we immediately put down a deposit. Now instead of a 400 mile round trip we were going to take an over 800 mile one way trip to Gulfport MS. When we got back home almost an hour later, we got a call from the TN seller saying his Airstream was still available because the other buyer backed out, are you kidding me? Hubby was tempted, I was furious and so glad we put down the deposit because we were not buying anything from that guy, not after the run around. He knew that we were coming, we had the money, the insurance and had made arrangements with a bank in his area to have the transaction settled there. He jerked us around on purpose.

The trip to Mississippi was obviously going to take more prep time, in addition to travel time. We had to wait until the following week to make it. We had to cancel the check we had made out for the previous seller and get a new one, in addition to making insurance changes. We were now purchasing from a dealership instead of from a private seller, this Airstream was the same year (2005) and model (International) but it was a '25 foot, and the other was a '28, we offered the same amount and it was accepted. Hubby was disappointed because he wanted the longer trailer, I was not, I loved the layout and the extra storage space, I also loved that this was a CCD model, the other wasn't. 

I would not recommend a 1750 mile round trip in three days to anyone, but that is all the time we had to do it in. This time we (hubby, daughter and myself) made the trip, our oldest son conveniently disappeared for the weekend. Our daughter would not have missed it for the world, she took the weekend off from work to take this trip, to say she suffers from wanderlust is an understatement.

We left on a Thursday after work and drove as far a Augusta GA, we stopped at a Days Inn for the night, I am not going to say anything other than it will never happen again and that I was trying to save some money because we already spending so much and years ago (maybe 15) when we last stayed at a Days Inn out on the NC coast it was nice. We got up and out early Friday morning had breakfast at a Cracker Barrel (I like to eat at Cracker Barrel if I am going to eat while out on the road (I know what to expect). We then made a beeline for MS. We made it to Gulfport about 10:30 pm and checked in at another Days Inn (I know I said it would never happen again but I had already made reservations and I thought this one could not be like the other, I was wrong). I will say that the staff at the Augusta GA Days Inn was vey pleasant, ok enough said, I never have to revisit that again, whew!

We got up early Saturday morning (I'm talking pre-sunrise, it was time to go!). We hit another, well you can probably guess where we had breakfast, and then we went to Foley RV Center, where Louis introduced us to: 

Daphne 

I wanted to name her something else but when my daughter saw her she said that it was the Daft Punk mobile and nicknamed her Daphne. Daft Punk is a French electronic music duo, their music is ok, people find it popular.

Louis gave us the complete tour, showed us the ins and out, of course we wouldn't remember anything he said, but we had been researching Airstreams for almost two years before making this purchase so we weren't worried. Originally, we were going to purchase a vintage Airstream and restore it. We actually almost got a vintage for $2000, but after buying a couple of books on restoring Airstreams and watching a whole lot of YouTube videos, hubby said no! He said he wanted to purchase a new one, I said no! Well, 2005 was new enough for him, so technically he won. To tell you the truth I'm still amazed that we have her, but I'm glad that we did it, even though had it been entirely up to me, it would not have happened. It would have been vintage or nothing and still parked in the driveway waiting to be worked on or sold.

We finished up at Foley and were back on the road by 10:30 am, of course I had to make some Airstream supply purchases in their store; waste-disposal stuff, wheel chocks and other boring stuff, but also a hat (for me) and a t-shirt (for me) and some other items that may or may not have been for me. You might be wondering where our daughter disappeared to, well she might love a road trip but she can't hang, she believes in naps even if she might have to take one in the morning.

Our trip back home was harrowing. Too bad the store at Foley didn't  have sway bars, those things are important. We did not have time to stick around and have one installed (or so we thought), hubby drove from Gulf Port to Helen GA without one, including missing our exit while going through Atlanta (another place I never have to visit again in my life) during Braves traffic. When we arrived in Helen (3 hours late) at the Top of Georgia Airstream Park hubby was not in good shape, the stress of driving Daphne for the first time swaying every time a truck passed by (there are a lot of trucks on the road) took a toll on him. Well Don, the camp host, not only waited up for us but greeted us like he was truly glad to see us and we were truly glad to be there, he even gave hubby a hug, it probably obvious that he needed one.

Don got us settled in, and we all passed out. Hubby was able to get up Sunday morning and go to the morning service that Don was leading. My daughter and I didn't budge, we were worn out. When hubby got back our daughter got up and dressed while I worked on breakfast. She is an actress (an actual one, I'm not just calling her names) and very social, she has to meet everybody she can and she did at the Park, which was not hard to do at Top of Georgia. I met more people in one day there than I did in almost twenty years of tent camping, everyone was genuinely friendly and social and they came from all over the US and one from overseas. Don came and spent some more time with us, he is a really special guy. He shared information about Top of Georgia and about WBCCI of course we joined, who wouldn't want to be a part of an organization that has such an awesome ambassador.

By 2 pm it was time to get back on the road and get home, we dreaded it, we just wanted to stay and chill but we couldn't. I hated not being able to help Hubby drive, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't relieved that I didn't have to. I tried to pep talk Hubby all the way home, I kept giving him our ETA, he was probably too stressed driving to be aggravated by my peppiness. We made it just before 10 pm, we just had to get it down the driveway (256 ft) and turned around (driveway width 15 ft, then lots of grass sometimes soggy), leveled and unhitched), and one half hours later we accomplished this. Thank God it had not been raining in a while and we could turn around in the front yard without incident, we tried the same procedure a few months later and well it did not go well, the ruts are still there but that's another story.