WARNING: Long Post. TL;DR at the bottom
Hello Fellow Streamers!
My wife and I are the proud new owners of a 2016 28A Flying Cloud named Ferdinand. We bought it from Colonial and couldn't be happier with the service and staff there. I grew up not far from the dealership and passed by it many times in my life, yet never did I think I would one day own an Airstream!
I am 33, my wife is 30 and we have two daughters who are turning 3 and 1 both at the end of this month. The inspiration to get our trailer really came about a few years ago. We were living in Vermont at the time and had started considering traveling to get away during the long winter. We were researching trailers and were looking at the Casita and were very interested in making some long trips and possibly even full timing. We weren't in any rush and didn't wind up buying one, and when my wife got pregnant with #2 in February of 2015 all of our plans changed. In July we left Vermont and moved back to NJ to be near family. It was hard to move as we really loved Vermont (long winters aside) but we felt it was the best option.
After living in NJ only a short time we started itching to get out again. We started looking to buy a house in the Hudson Valley NY early this year but didn't find anything that really spoke to us. And then one day, seemingly out of nowhere, I became filled with purpose and ambition. We were going to travel and live on the road. Now was the time to do it and I HAD to do it. I told my wife and she was immediately on board.
My wife had already known about Airstreams from her previous research on trailers and suggested we look at them. The Casita is definitely too small for our family of four and there are too many SOBs to count. Airstream stood out to us immediately. We visited Colonial initially to check a few trailers out and after the first visit we knew which floor plan we wanted (28 ft with rear twins). We came back a week later with the family and spent a little time hanging out. It didn't take very long for us to know that we could do it. A few weeks later we started the process to buy our Airstream. I had a much harder time choosing my TV.
I am very fortunate to have my own software consulting business where I can work from home or anywhere. There is nothing stopping us from getting on the road aside from time and preparation. I am tired of boring daily routines, living in suburbia, and being unchallenged. Living on the road full time is one of the first things that has truly excited me in a long time, that is why i MUST do it. Thankfully my wife shares this vision and our kids are young and ready to explore anything.
Our goal is to be on the road in June 2017. This is when our lease on our rental house will be up and it gives us enough time (so we think) to prepare. One of the biggest tasks as I am sure many people know is just getting rid of all the crap you own. Aside from that there are many things to learn and prepare for with the trailer itself. Much of it I will learn as I go as that works for me but there are a many things to be prepared for in advance. My wife is already doing an awesome job of figuring out what we will need in the trailer to live and organizing it all. I am focusing on the technical and mechanical stuff, connectivity, power, maintenance, TV, etc.
We are total newbies and still have a ton to learn but we are excited for it. "The fun is in the challenge" I tell my wife. When crap hits the fan she likes to remind me of this saying
. We only have 2 small trips under our belt but they were huge successes. We are planning another trip for next month down to the Asheville area for roughly 2 weeks. It will be cold but we did live in Vermont
. After this trip we will wait patiently for the end of winter...
In March we will be going down to Naples, FL to meet up with lewster. He will be setting us up with a sweet solar system enabling us to be energy independent. I am a very technical guy but my mechanical skills are sorely lacking. I do not have the knowledge, tools, or skills to do a solar and lithium upgrade myself. As much as I'd like to learn about all that, I don't have the time, and given past experience, I would likely wind up causing more harm than good. I'm happy leaving the big jobs to the pros, I'll do my best with the little stuff.
So that's the story so far but of course this is just the beginning. I am excited, nervous, scared, terrified, determined...pretty much all the feelings. I am grateful that there are many who have come before me and traveled this path and that there are so many great resources and communities like this one. Any questions I've had so far I've been able to find an existing topic on this site, so thank you everyone for your contributions and hopefully I can contribute something meaningful and helpful one day.
I look forward to meeting many of you out on the open road!
Cheers,
Jason
TL;DR: Young family of 4, new owners, total newbies, going full time next year, fulfilling dreams, solar install March, appreciates airforums and other communities, terrified and excited, thanks for your support
Attached is a picture of Ferdinand and the TV (2016 RAM 2500 Diesel) from pickup day when I was practicing parking in a lot. My wife tried to name the truck Lillian but I am not having that. My toddler named the truck "the car".
We are working on the group name and hope to have an active social media portfolio in the future.
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