This is our tow vehicle, my Jeep Liberty 6 cylinder, 3.7 with 4 wheel drive. It's been a great little truck and we are never without people to talk to everywhere we get out of it with the Airstream (25 foot Safari SS which weighs 3 tons withOUT all our stuff in it) The secret is in the towing package designed for our specific truck/trailer combination by our hero and the man who made it possible for us to have an Airstream and begin our dream of travelling North America and to eventually live in it and travel full time, Andy Thompson of CanAm RV. He deserves an entire post unto himself but with the addition of a Hensley Hitch, a reinforced attachment to the jeep, a transmission cooling fan, McKesh mirrors, and a few pointers on driving, it has performed beautifully and it fits 2 of us and 3 labradors comfortably.
We drove up Highway 1from San Luis Obispo to Carmel and Monteray.
The visuals are just amazing, as you can see below, but at one of the vista points we stopped at, we encountered a german tourist feeding these squirrel thingies.
They look and act a lot like Guinea Pigs if you ask me but also look like a modified squirrel. Not sure what they are called but they sure were cute, and TAME!
It's just non-stop with the beauty all the way up Highway 1. Three quarters of the way up, coming upon yet another stunning vista, I remarked fasceciously,
"OH what?!?!? more trees, bluffs, rocks and sea surf? that's it?"
Truly, magnificent. Awe inspiring. Freezing cold water!
The driving was a bit hairy, although much better because we took a friend's advice and drove it south to north. If we did it again, and I'm sure we will, we would set out earlier so as not to drive into the sun as well.
There are plenty of turnouts so we didn't hold up traffic too much. We were very considerate of course but I gotta say, I don't feel too badly slowing people down on roads that are that tricky to drive, let aLONE that beautiful!
Stop and smell the sea, people.
After a respectful silence, I asked, "So how relaxing is it Staff Sergeant McKeown since you left your high stress high risk behaviour job?
<<<<<<<-----------Check out the path laid before us?
Big danger=Big FUN!
Loving the blog and especially this post. We tow our 2011 28' International with a 3.6 litre V6 Toyota Sienna Minivan, also set up for us by Andy at Can-Am. We took our Airstream to Florida last year, from Southern Ontario, and came back by way of New Orleans, Knoxville and had a bit of time in the Smokey Mountains. Our "little truck" didn't give us any problems at all, apart from a flat in Tennessee, pulling happily and comfortably all the way there and all the way back. We'd like to do the trip out to California but work won't let us just now; that will have to wait until after retirement. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHi Steve, thanks for the kind words and it's so great to hear from a fellow AndyThompsonite! After the Eisenhower Pass, I BELIEVE!!!! Andy mentioned the Toyota Sienna to us and while we were there picking up our Bike Rack, there were 2 in his shop for modifications/hitch installation. Guessing you had to add a transmission cooler?
ReplyDeleteI'm not crazy about the look of the Sienna (no offense :-) but Hubby wants to know what kind of gas mileage you get towing and not towing and the year of the Sienna. I MIGHT be able to be swayed.