On May 5th, I set off for an adventure I’d been dreaming of for decades. It began April 29th with a flight from DC to John Wayne Airport in Anaheim, CA- the mission? A “meet and greet” with our 2019 Airstream Flying Cloud at Airstream OC.
The lead up to this journey was a long and arduous one (not to mention expensive) but once it finally became a reality, was worth every bit of stress, nervous apprehension and dollar spent in pursuit of it.
After landing in Anaheim and spending a quaint evening in the Clementine suites, we were greeted by our little aluminum armadillo for the first time, red carpet treatment and all, at Airstream of Orange County, who, by the way, have an ACTUAL FLYING CLOUD at the entrance of their lot.
A thorough orientation at the dealer completed, we spent the evening at Downtown Disney, drinking, collecting “Park Pennies” (SO MANY PRESSED PENNIES ON THIS TRIP!) and watching the fireworks before retiring to our room at the posh Indigo hotel (whose facilities, while warm and welcoming to all, are geared more towards those traveling solo, sans kids, than many of the other nearby lodgings, in case you were searching for a quieter morning than many of the other Disney-adjacent chains). The highlight of our evening (beyond all of the retro-centric Disneyana everywhere you looked) was our tiki-bar excursion to Trader Sam’s, where we scored this killer Shrunken Head mug and even caught the bar-side wrath of the gods a few times in the form of “tsunamis” (generated by the bartenders, via spritz bottles :p) and “volcanoes” erupting in 3d paintings on the surrounding walls!
The next morning, we drove to Panorama City to pick up our cross-country tow vehicle (an F250 Diesel) from Enterprise Truck Rental. We decided, in lieu of heading straight to Vegas (which was our next side venture before taking ownership of the Airstream for our primary journey), we would bring the truck back to Airstream OC so their service department could assist us in setting up the hitch/ weight distro for the vehicle.
It was my first time driving a diesel truck that large and I’d soon find out (IN THE MOST NERVE WRACKING WAY POSSIBLE), size DOES matter when it comes to Vegas parking structures…
Stay tuned to hear about our Vegas Vacation, Wild West adventures with real life cowboys and more, in my next installment!