TO THE BIG APPLE IN A BIG LEMON

[Paul Hecht]

Every birthday I closed my eyes, made the same wish and blew out the candles. Each year my Christmas letter to Santa included the same request. Sadly, my dreams as a young kid thirsty to take part in the Trailer Life never came true. While my siblings wanted to vacation on the north shore of Oahau, I wanted to hop in an Excella and head for the Grand Tetons. My mother wanted to spend the summer on a sandy beach, I wanted to perch next to a campfire in Ludington, Michigan. Thankfully my Grandparents, who owned a cabin two hours north of Grand Rapids, Michigan, invited me to spend summers with them. To my delight, they also invited their closest friends and relatives to spend holiday weekends camping on their land. It was those formative years, I believe, that made me a lover of everything outdoors and everything trailer.
After purchasing my first trailer in college (which I renovated and sold at a tiny profit) my career took me to the cement jungle of Los Angeles and I thought, "where on earth am I going to camp in this urban jungle?" That didn't stop me from fullfilling my dream of owning an Airstream...I purchased four. I had big dreams and high hopes for the units...open up an Airstream resort, restore the trailers to their natural grandure and use one (or all) as guest houses at my mid-century modern home in Palm Springs. While working as a celebrity personal assistant early in my career I let my boss use one on the set of her movie. Eventually, to my horror, the Airstreams retired to a storage facility in Burbank alongside the 5 Freeway. Life happened. I got busy. The Airstreams were ignored. I chose to sell them to someone who promised to take care of them, told me he'd never rip them apart and, in the end, it was a better life than the storage facility in the shadows of an Ikea in the smog-filled San Fernando valley.
Last year my partner and I decided to move our lives East, uprooting our comfortable abode in Pasadena, California to restore an early 1900's fieldstone farmhouse in the Hudson Valley of New York, just an hour north of Manhattan. The real challenge was how we would transport our two rescue dogs for the 2,900 mile journey. Flying them was out of the question as they suffered enough trauma in their lives before coming into ours. Neither one a fan of cars, we chose to rent a Motorhome. Finding a company to rent a one-way RV was a bigger challenge than we'd ever imagined. Finally, El Monte RV granted our wish...at a hefty price...the cost of my first Safari! But, we wanted the puppies (and us) to take the journey in comfort so we were willing to pay the $5,000.00 fee to rent the vehicle for ten days. Of everything we've done in our lives...we both work in Entertainment, we've both moved many times and have had stress-filled careers for the better part of our lives...this was no comparison. On move day while movers packed and shoved every item of ours into a semi, our cars were picked up by a transport company and we said our final goodbyes to the west coast, we popped down to El Monte RV to pick up our 26 foot Class C Motorhome. The antics that ensued in our 3 hour check-in process were like nothing I've ever seen. Did we really need to watch an hour long video on how to turn the motorhome on? The staff, barely equipped to serve hamburgers at the local fry joint, attempted to show us how to empty the septic system in the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang unit we'd just signed up to be our closest friend for the next five days...this THING was really going to get us across deserts, over mountains, through the woods and to New York? How? 120 miles east of Los Angeles it didn't. Thankfully we were rolling just south of Barstow, California when the red engine light went on, our speed drastically dropped from 55 to 35, and smoke poured out of the engine. As cars and semis flew by, we immediately called the 800 roadside assistance number where we were met with a greeting, "Roadside assistance is closed until tomorrow at 7." It was 8:00 PM, we were exhausted and stuck. While I won't go into the drama that followed, it took 20 hours for a replacement motorhome to arrive which stunk of urine and gasoline. I've stayed in at Motel 6 in college that was cleaner than this dump! But, we were stuck...work was demanding we arrive in Manhattan in three days, our vehicles already on semi's speeding east and all of our belongings locked on a moving truck somewhere outside Amarillo, El Monte offered two choices..we could wait for the replacement or they'd refund our money minus the one day rental. I couldn't believe it. To say I was furious is an understatement of grand proportions. Eventually we were back on the road and the trip ended up as nice as we could have expected. We don't have children but the thought of our rescue dogs..one lost on busy Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles for years, forced to eat out of trash cans and cheat death everyday, the other raised on a farm in Anza, California badly beaten every day...they enjoyed every minute of our journey. Driving into the cold night of Flagstaff, Arizona, barking at Cows for the first time in Amarillo, running in the rain in Missouri and smelling the fresh air in Pennsylvania...all the things that make trailer travel so wonderful because it forces you to slow down, pay attention and enjoy every minute. And, these lucky pups sat perched on the converted dining room table with the perfect view of America from the window of fast moving motorhome. While the trip was exhausting it has inspired me to find another Airstream and pick up where my dreams left off. Where will we go next? Who knows, but I'm sure it will be a great adventure!

[Christina]

Good for you to keep your dream alive...we love our Airstream and can't wait to get ack into it again. the freedom of travel , the tranquility of locations and the ease of travel with pets (we have two cats old enough to vote at 19 and two small dogs) is nothing short of heaven. Let us know what you get!

[David]

Hey Paul, really like your story of your travels and especially that you have rescued some special pets. I can relate to your story since I have 2 rescue Great Pyrenees dogs named Opal and Nina. There is no greater joy than to give your pets a quality life. Opal and Nina love to travel in the Airstream and love the outdoors of course in the open grounds.