This past week was a bit crazy.
Grab a cuppa…this is going to be a doozy!! 
Oh, and Happy New Year by the way!
We came home from our Christmas trip and noticed the slow leak in our Airstream tire had turned into a flat.
All along we have been working with Airstream Of Austin on a deal to trade in our 30’ International for a 27’ Globetrotter. There are many reasons we decided to do this, but that story is for another time.
This is a story of many more lessons learned about the Airstream. Like how to change the tire, how not to change the tire (because if you do it wrong, you’ll actually break the rig), how to deal with insurance companies, and the one bright spot in all of this mess: the wonderful people at Airstream of Austin.
Because of the trade, time was of the essence. We were driving to Austin on Friday to do the deal, and we discovered the flat after my infusion appointment on Thursday, the day before.
Our garage looks like we are having a garage sale but in reality we were emptying out our Airstream to trade it in. This happened on Wednesday.
I don’t think our Chrome Home was too happy about our decision to turn her in. She gave us several reasons to reconsider the deal. 
The flat tire should have been an easy fix. But it turned into a major ordeal.
We called Coachnet, our roadside assistance program through the DFW Airstream dealership, and they sent out a technician to change the tire. It took him nearly three hours to arrive, and by that time it was dark and rainy. Fortunately our trailer was parked in the storage lot, with plenty of space to work around it.
The culprit!
The first thing he did was try to jack up the camper, as expected when changing a tire. He managed to take off the flat. After seeing the screw in our tire, we were grateful we had made the decision to change the tire rather than just air it up. Or we might have suffered further damage. We were surprised it made the trip home from Oklahoma! 
Next part gets juicy. This is when the “fun” really started.
The tech was about to put on the spare, but he could not jack up the trailer high enough to put it on. Back down, add blocks to raise the jack. After several attempts, he pressed the floor jack one more time, and that’s when I heard Tim say “oh no oh no OH NO,” in a very loud voice. When the technician added blocks underneath of the jack, he did not properly place it in the correct spot on the rig, where it has to go to raise it up. There’s a very specific square metal piece that has to be used or, well, this happens. When he lifted the jack, the square piece broke off and the jack tore through the bottom of the rig. We now have a nice breezeway on the bottom of the belly. 
Fortunately, it did not go all the way through the floor, but the gaping hole said it would require a major fix. In case you’re wondering, since the floor jack didn’t work we used our level under one tire to put the flat tire up in the air. Tim found this on YouTube and it worked! We had to release some air from the spare to fit it on, but he did finally get it on.
At this point we didn’t even know if we could trade it in. 
Coach-Net took our claim information. We sent pictures. They were very accommodating.
They called the service provider who blamed Airstream. Bottom line, they probably won’t pay. It would likely become an insurance claim.
The next morning we drove to Austin as planned to start the trade, with the Airstream riding on the spare. After much discussion they were not panicking. In fact, they were super helpful. They agreed to cover the cost of our deductible if our insurance had to pay. That was a blessing! In hindsight, the dealership is probably going to make money off of our insurance claim, so it might have made the deal even sweeter for them.
So, we started a claim with our insurance company. Or at least we tried to! More drama 
. Their system was down and it took them all day just to give us a claim number. Airstream had to have the claim number before we could sign the paperwork for the trade.
At one point, the insurance agent said she couldn’t find a “cause” for the claim, meaning she didn’t know if they would pay. 🙇♀️
Cra—-zy!!
Rachel was our salesperson. She’s a go-getter! I think we gave her a migraine. Actually, she had one before we arrived, but she stuck it out.
While we were waiting for the insurance company, Josh did our walkthrough. The smart plug that came with our new rig had a fault. (Seriously! You can’t make this stuff up.) They didn’t have one in parts, so he “borrowed” one from another new rig. Well, that’s now our electric chord. He showed us all the features in our new model, and he was very thorough. It was a little easier this time around, as we understood what types of questions we needed to ask. We got a new hitch as well, that seems a bit easier to install.
At the end of the day, and it was a very long day, the insurance company agreed to pay, and the staff at Airstream of Austin made it all work. At this writing, we are driving home pulling our new 27 foot Globetrotter. And it tows beautifully. Tim almost forgets it’s back there.
Another Day, and another lesson learned…Be sure to double check your old Airstream for all your outside tools and gadgets before leaving it at the dealer. Everything was so chaotic while we were there, and moving so fast during the trade, we left some things behind. On the last day of the year, we took yet another trip back to Austin (3 hours one way) to clean out all the outside storage compartments. We didn’t even know what we had left behind until we got there, but it would have cost a few pennies to replace. Our tools, tire chock, leveling blocks, spare keys, and more. Things that would not only cost money to replace, but would also take time and become a hassle while doing so.
Fortunately, everything was still there. I double-triple checked every single locker. Inside and out. I no longer had that “I feel like we’re forgetting something” feeling on the drive home. You know the one.
They told Tim they already had a deal working on our old rig when we got there. 😳
After we got all of our goodies and made the trek back home, we hosted our family for New Year’s Eve. Good-bye (and good riddance) 2022! Here’s to another year in the books! I am thankful for every day of life, as we never know how many breaths we have left.
À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!