For the first time, I’ve had our Airstream at an RV dealer for repairs and maintenance — in the past I’ve done it myself.  However, with cold temperatures, the prospect of repacking wheel bearings lost any appeal it might have had and I also knew that I needed to get the unit inspected.  So I dropped it off at a local outfit, Mekkleson RV in East Montpelier, VT who service a handful of Airstreams out of the many hundreds of RV’s they handle each year.

To make a long story short, they did a fine job.  They found problems in the electrical system which they fixed through better grounding and work on the plugin — and more importantly, found that one set of brakes was not working.  An electrical line had parted, probably in the awful trip up our driveway last March, so they got those working and a fresh new inspection sticker in place.  We are ready to go.

A full moon sets over the snowy/frosty Airstream as the winter sun rises behind us.

We’ve got a month to go before departure and we are starting to gather gear and think through our trip options.  I’m thinking of hauling both or one of the kayaks this time since we are so often near water.  Given the need for a dog-sitter, it’s unlikely that both of us would paddle together so I think we’ll end up taking Mary’s boat, which I can cram into and take both sets of paddles.

It’s not too early for me to start worrying a bit about the first couple of days of travel — getting below the snow zone.  I just sent Mary a picture of our final day last year during our return, and I can hear the groans from the other room.  We need less excitement this trip.