How Our New Baby Got His Name

Several weeks ago the spouse and I went to the RV show in Portland.  We just went to look, but several hours later we left as owners of a 26 foot Airstream Flying Cloud trailer.  We returned to Portland the following week with our truck to haul it home.

The trailer currently resides in the spouse's workshop.  We visit it,  and sometimes sit inside and chat while we admire all the gleaming surfaces.  Slowly we are transferring equipment from the old 5th wheel to the new trailer, and hopefully getting rid of all the miscellaneous junk that seems to accumulate when we travel.  Later this month we will take it on its maiden voyage.  I have several grant writing assignments that I have to complete before we can cut the tethers and hit the open road.

Originally we had planned to go to the Utah National Parks and the Grand Canyon.  Now the spouse says he doesn't want to tow the trailer over the mountains this late in the season, so we will be driving south along the Oregon coast.  

The Airstream draws a lot of attention.  Hauling it home from Portland people waved at us as they passed and at rest areas fellow travelers stopped to chat with the spouse as he meticulously checked all around the trailer at every stop.  Once we got it home it didn't spend much time in the open air.  The spouse had cleaned out space in his workshop and safely tucked it in under cover.

We hadn't been home long when the neighbor leaned over the fence and said, "Did I see a new trailer?"

The spouse proudly declared, "Yes, we bought an Airstream.  Want to see it?"

The neighbor didn't waste time hopping over the fence.  He was dazzled by the shiny aluminum, clean lines, and well-designed interior.

"Wow," he said, standing in the kitchen looking down the hall to the bedroom, "If I were a mouse living in a thermos, this is exactly what it would look like."

...and that's how our trailer got his name.  We call him Stanley, like the thermos!