Thanks for the memories, Grandad

[idahosafari]

What can be said about camping? To me it boils down to two things--improving relationships with others, and being able to look back at a road trip with fond memories.

If the trip doesn't result in one or both of those happening, you might as well stay home!

My most vivid memory of a childhood trip with an SOB RV was of my dad and I, standing on top of a stepladder at 2:00 am during a torential downpour with a roll of duct tape in a Loveland, Colorado campground. Both of us were making a feeble attempt to stop streams of water from entering around the windows of the new RV. The wind was blowing rain horizontally at our faces as we struggled to hold onto a temperamental Eveready flashlight and not get blown off the stepladder in the process. Kind of like a scene from the movie "A Perfect Storm". By the time our trip was over, everyone in my family had a new-found appreciation for our house.

My most vivid memory of a childhood trip with an Airstream trailer was of me and my Grandad playing cards during a torential downpour in eastern Oregon, but this was different than my storm experience with dad in the SOB RV. The wind blew, the rain came down in sheets, but the only thing on Grandad's mind was the card game that he was playing with me. While Grandmother cooked the trout we caught earlier that day, the Duo-therm heater kept us toasty as the rain pelted the coach and the wind buffeted it. But not a drop of water penetrated the shiny aluminum skin into our cocoon. An hour later after the storm had passed, Grandad and I were once again trolling across the lake, as he continued teaching me his ideas on the best way to catch fish. By the time the trip was over, I was begging Grandad to sell his house so we could live in the A/S full time.

That's why I like Airstreams.

- Charlie

[jcanavera]

My grandfather took me out camping at a local river. We slept in the back of his '63 Dodge Dart station wagon. Running water was from a long exposed water line that ran down to the river low lands. Yep I never forgot how cold it was, washing my face in that ice cold water and using the outhouse. I cut chicken guts and we went out in the pitch black using the light from his carbide lamp that he wore on his old miners hat to bait trot line hooks.

Yep I never forgot that campout. I swore to god that I would never camp like that again. I do have a lot to thank him for and I'm sure my purchase of my Airstream was partially due to that trip.

I sure wish he was around. I can just hear what he would say if he saw me dragging around this big silver trailer.

Jack

[Tarheel]

We were camping on Memorial Day weekend in Crownsville, MD. A friend's 27' SOB pulled by a class B motorhome. We hand cranked the unit off the ball, which had never seen grease, and leveled it with jacks. Two exhausted men had it all set up in about an hour and 6 beers later.
Grandma and Grandpa came in in a 30' Airstream pulled by an International Travelall. He got out of the truck with the help of a cane. Ma got out too and they looked over the site and had a little discussion. I wanted to see how these old folks were going to get all that tin on the lot and set-up. Well she backed him onto the site, leveled it with blocks, electric jack unhooked, chocks for the wheels, push button stabilizers. All in all in 30 minutes or less they had parked unhooked and completly set up and had not broken a sweat. That made up my mind right then and there.

[Rog0525]

I graduated from tent camping to trailer camping shortly after a band of renegade racoons invaded the tent where my wife, our 3 kids and I were sleeping. I'll never forget the horiffic human screams during the battle, but the wife and kids slept through most of it.
My father-in-law watched the whole fiasco from the safety of his Airstream trailer on the neighboring campsite and laughed his arse off.
My first trailer was a 20' SOB which weighed slightly less than a Sherman tank. After burning out the tranny in a '67 Impala, I moved up to a 23' Avion and Chevy PU. That was fine for quite a while but those rich folks with their shiny Airstreams made me green with envy.
Long story short, I discovered that you do not have to be rich to own an Airstream, just smart. So I managed to find a smart relative and here I am today with a nice shiny racoon-proof travel trailer.
I don't have many memories of my granddad other than those of him in his red longjohns with the open trapdoor. It's not a pretty memory.

Rog