Well I'll tell you about our trip from Colorado Springs to Pennsylvania a few years back. Then you'll have something to laugh at.

We had a load of furniture so we needed a really big van. 'Cos our pick-up was having problems pulling the Airstream we needed one with a hitch so that we could tow the Airstream.

Turns out that Ryder was the only company that had trucks with hitches and also the only one that would allow us to tow the Airstream.

So we get all loaded up and got to hitch up the Airstream. HA! The Airstream uses a 2 and 5/16 ball but the truck only had a 2 inch one and it welded on.
BR> So the boilermaker in me takes over and I go along to a local welding shop and scrounge a piece of eighth mild steel plate. I cut myself a nice flower shape and wrap the petals around the 2 inch ball. A good gob of grease and a hefty blow with a hammer gets this jury rig together. I snug the chains down securely and off we go.

So here we are with a 29 foot Ryder Truck and a 29 foot Airstream. We are taking up as much road as most 18 wheelers. All goes well 'till we get to St. Louis. It's late at night and we're on this umpteen lane highway which is absolutely packed with traffic, all going well over the speed limit. That of course is when I feel the load bouncing about.

I hastily pull over onto the meagre shoulder and find out that the Airstream has bounced out of it's hitch and is just hanging on the chains.

The kids were following in the pick up and they pull in behind us. Rachael comes running forward and she drops the flashlight into the road. She is going to reach for it, when Tree grabs hold of her and pulls her back. At that instant the flashlight gets run over and is completely smashed.

Having rescued Rachael we start to feel less upset about the hitch. An inspection of the hitch reveals thatthe hold down catch has broken. We get our fancy new floor jack out of the Airstream (We'd just bought it the day before to change the wheels on the Airstream. We get it jacked up and back in position, but as the catch is broken we need to find some way of keeping it there. So I get some rope and lash it securely down.

I go back into the Airstream to get Tree and there she is calmly making sandwiches for everyone.

We proceed somewhat more sedately for the rest of the journey. When we arrive at the campsite in Pennsylvania (We were still looking for a house) I get the whole rig stuck in the mud and we have to call a tow truck to get us out. Upon taking the Airstream off we discover that my cute little steel flower has fallen apart (Guess I should have annealed it).

We've still got it somewhere - we kept it as a memento.