Find a Purpose for Airstream... otherwise No Way

[Ray Eklund]

We had a purpose for our First Purchase of an Airstream. A shiny new 2006 23 foot Safari. A fully functional 80 watts of Solar and the worst excuse for tires on Earth: Marathon 14 inch Load Range C tires, often FLAT on the traction portion on the ground.

We spent many weeks Off the Grid using a small Tent with two Blue Heelers... and never considered a Travel Trailer. We upgraded to a much larger tent. Ahhhh. Comfortable, we thought.

Today, we travel with an adult Blue Heeler and two growing pups in a 27FBQ International, which has not gone International, other than Las Vegas.

We went to a Trailer Show in Denver, Colorado in 2006 and wandered around. I stood out as I like to display my hairy body and muscles. Sales People like prospects, that may look like they need some... sales help.

We went from Arctic Fox to Airstream. Back and forth. We figured the Airstream had better Resale Value. Either trailer would have been fine. Wore out my sandals in the process...

That Summer of 2006, we spent some prospecting for Rocks, Minerals and Fossils... some fly fishing, but at $100+ for Out of State licenses, we opted to quarry Fossil Fish outside Kemmerer, Wyoming at a friend's quarry.

Sold them in Denver, Colorado... Human Beans never had seen dead fish flat on a rock before. Good for us.

We soon discovered that these slabs, even after trimming, were heavy and preparation took most of the cold months to make them presentable. We no longer have any fossil fish hanging on a wall, some fish were nearly 3 feet long.

Sure had great tans. The yellow shales reflected sunlight and between the rock powder sticking to the skin and working in the quarry with short pants.. if any, was a microwave tanning. Time to move on to something taking less effort. Like... Off the Grid Boondocking with a Travel Trailer.

We had a purpose... spend time in the Winter to find interesting places to find Trilobites, Fossil Bone, Agates, Pan for Gold that the early prospectors missed as fine gold dust was for amateurs... like US.

Now owning the third 27FBQ 2019 Airstream... we know what we are doing, why we are doing it and it sure has made us experienced as to what can go wrong with an Airstream. Each Airstream had its quirks as to what comes loose, or falls off. We learned. Carry tools and screws and... small items that we needed at one time... but no longer. They come with us as 'others' may need some hardware in places no Human Bean dares to travel.

Today we earned our understanding of towing and traveling. We need to be camped where we begin our geological treasure hunts. Some successful and some not. Mark it on a map and move on to the next, prospect.

What was your first need of a Travel Trailer? Comfort? Not wanting to find some Neanderthals body hair on the pillow and sheets at a Motel?

I shed, a lot. As do our current three Blue Heelers. One adult and two pups that grow up quickly...Heelers, that is. We love our Blue Heeler company. Open the trailer door in the morning... and out they go. We follow, later.

What is YOUR Story? This is only my beginning, but even weather has its beginning and blows out and goes onto other places.

[field & stream]

Short answer: we were after comfortable and easy. Old-fashioned campers looking for a degree of insulation from Nature’s rough edges without becoming isolated from her wonders.

Many years ago started out with a sleeping bag on the ground. First step towards comfort was a Thermarest pad which, even on the occasions when it did hold air, didn’t really solve the ground problems. After quickly learning that tents provided very little comfort we made the jump into a VW bus. A series of them worked for us for 40 years.

Ten years ago, acknowledging that we were approaching middle age, we bought our first Airstream, a 2008 23 footer. It passed the comfort test, but didn’t do so well on easy (size felt bulky, hitch hassling, etc.) and isolated us more from nature than we wanted. So, we added a first generation Basecamp for what we thought would be occasional use. The next year we went out 60 nights …… and chose the primitive little Basecamp for 59 of them! Sold the 23’.

Making our final move towards comfortable and easy, we now have a 16’ International with the double panoramic windows. Goldilocks is happy.

[Genebuilder]

Originally Posted by field & stream

Short answer: we were after comfortable and easy. Old-fashioned campers looking for a degree of insulation from Nature’s rough edges without becoming isolated from her wonders.

Many years ago started out with a sleeping bag on the ground. First step towards comfort was a Thermarest pad which, even on the occasions when it did hold air, didn’t really solve the ground problems. After quickly learning that tents provided very little comfort we made the jump into a VW bus. A series of them worked for us for 40 years.

Ten years ago, acknowledging that we were approaching middle age, we bought our first Airstream, a 2008 23 footer. It passed the comfort test, but didn’t do so well on easy (size felt bulky, hitch hassling, etc.) and isolated us more from nature than we wanted. So, we added a first generation Basecamp for what we thought would be occasional use. The next year we went out 60 nights …… and chose the primitive little Basecamp for 59 of them! Sold the 23’.

Making our final move towards comfortable and easy, we now have a 16’ International with the double panoramic windows. Goldilocks is happy.

Great story! Where are your favorite places to go?

[John Ware]

My story? Tent camped as a youngster with the family and always had a fly rod. Continued with that with my wife and later got a VW bus which was converted into a makeshift camper. Other interests replaced all that and now I have an AS to replace motel rooms on my annual jaunt to Vegas to see my only sister. It also doubles as an escape from the hurricanes that frequent our area and has been used twice now in that capacity and even was a refuge from two freezes that knocked out the power for over a week each time. I've already done extensive travelling over the USA and a little abroad and the cows and chickens keep me too busy to just pick up and disappear into the scenery. I still have the urge and the flyrod ,so who knows, maybe another round or two? Oh, and Ray, I've even been to Kemmerer for a mule deer hunt. I was with my brother and I couldn't talk him into fossil hunting. Never made another trip with him.

[field & stream]

Originally Posted by Genebuilder

Great story! Where are your favorite places to go?

Thanks, but I don’t think our story is very different than others who came to Airstreams from an old fashioned camping beginning. I hope more people post their stories — I find them interesting.

My camping has been in the West, primarily the Pacific coast and the northern Rockies. Favorites include:

Pacific region, from south to north: CA: Sequoia NP, Kirk Creek, Pfeifer Big Sur, Pinnacles, Mendocino coast state parks, Prairie Creek Redwoods. OR: Cape Blanco, Jesse Honeyman, Fort Stevens. WA: Cape Disappointment, Olympic NP.

Rocky Mountain region: of course, Rocky Mountain NP, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier. Also love the Dakotas (Custer SP and Theodore Roosevelt NP) and numerous Forest Service and state parks in CO, WY, and MT.

[dnas]

Simply put, I come from a non camping family and married into one that camped their whole lives. My father was 30 years army, so there was no way we were getting near a tent, or even outside for that matter. We were hotel/museum/historical tours people. When I married I was introduced to camping, tents, air mattresses, dripping, wet, cold, the whole 9 yards. That said we had incredible experiences seeing the USA on the cheap. (think Volkswagen Beetle stuffed to the gills with a tent/tarp, etc). Fast forward to retirement. We are blessed to live in two states, Maine and Florida. We have a Wheaten Terrier. First we tried snowbirding in motels, where our Wheatie was on "alert" the whole time, barked at everyone in the halls, and no one got any sleep. So we knew she would do the same in a tent, so we had to think RV. Friends of ours brought us to a dealer and we checked out all of the "SOB'S", and decided they were too flimsy, and too dark inside, and too "tricked out" for our tastes. I always thought Airstreams looked classic, so one of the dealers got a used one in, and we looked at it. I went online and did the tour of this particular model, and then went back to the dealer and have them give us a tour, and I asked questions with my extensive notes. So we took a leap and bought it. They had to hold it for us so we could go purchase at TV (Toyota Tundra). So, off we went with out new purchase. We both think on the way out of the dealer we hit something, turns out we think we lost our bumper on the curb, but we kept on driving. LOL. First of many experiences. But we are nimble, quick, and have tools and know how to use them. The next big project was to replace all of the stupid blinds with black out shades. I know this might sound blasphemous, but we only use the refrigerator and stove, not the heater/water system/tv/air-conditioning. It's kinda like camping but not. The husband has installed a portable solar system, that we take with us to keep our battery in tact, and the rest, as they say, is easy peasy. If we camp at a legit campsite, we use their facilities, if we boondock, we stick with our wilderness camping routine, that we used to do "back in the day". Our Airstream is banged up in a few places from adventuresome backing up in the dark, but other than that, we three are snug as bugs in our aluminum tube, zigzagging across America, from Florida to Maine, and the reverse. This year we are headed to Maine via Yellowstone.

[Ray Eklund]

Great stories. All have a similar beginning to the present.

Many travel trailer owners are naturally attracted to the out doors, who camped in Tents. Some, like myself, slept on concrete table tops at rest areas in Western Kansas and drove a 1956 VW. An all terrain vehicle. Looking for fossil shark teeth in the Cretaceous Chalk Beds near Wakeeney, Kansas and Trego County. And some Reptile teeth that could open a package with the sharp edges.

I was 16 years old and curious.

We all have a story. The majority of Travel Trailer owners, did not start by camping under the stars or a pup tent. My wife's family were Travel Trailer campers at the beginning.

My wife's family near Buffalo, New York with FIVE in th family, an aluminum boat with outboard motor, strapped onto the station wagon, towing a Nomad or Mallard trailer in the late 1950's, early 1960's. They were all crammed into and the 'young uns hammocked' within the trailer to sleep, after sunset.

No Weight Distribution or Sway Control with the Chevrolet Station Wagon. Yikes... today you would be considered risking your life.

My family did not need to camp in a tent or a travel trailer. My Dad worked for the Forest Service and was provided a Log Cabin, wood burning stove, kerosene lantern (that stunk worse than a skunk) and no electricity in NW Montana. Never thought much about the living conditions, except closer to the highway these cabins had... electric light bulbs and toasters.

Camping came natural to me. Actually an upgrade from a non mobile Cabin.

But... I liked to LOOK for STUFF. That led to collecting... STUFF. Today I still enjoy camping and the HUNT for whatever looks interesting.

Fishing in the back woods of Montana is not like the Snake River of Idaho or the Rivers of Wyoming... it was sneaking up on the fish and getting your line caught in branches of bushes or snagged on logs... with the large trout ignoring your fly or worm.

Ahhhh were those days of remote camping. We rarely go to a RV Park, unless in a City, like Tucson for the Rock Show. But today it is remote camping in wonderful locations of... OUR Choice.

Global Warming? Today's high is expected to be 56 degrees and "normal" average for today... 73 degrees. So... be prepared. The Ice Age may be back. Where are we? If I told you... everyone would want to come.

[overlander64]

Not necessarily a purpose, but a means to an end for me. I wanted a travel trailer that would be most likely to last as long as I wanted to continue traveling. My first exposure to camping in a travel trailer was in the late Spring of 1964 when friends of my family visited our farm with their then brand new, 1964 Airstream Overlander Land Yacht International. At five years old, I was fascinate by the seemingly large, shiny trailer, and they invited me to spend a couple of nights with them -- and they allowed me to sleep in one of the hammock bunks. Much to my parents future dismay, I was hooked.

For the next several years all I could talk about was how much more fun our monthly trips between our home in the city and the family farm would be if we had a trailer like our friends. My parents decided to explore the possibilities in the Winter of 1968. They ordered a C20 Cheverolet Pickup with Camper Special Hardware and a SunWay cabover camper to do with the truck. That would be our travel vehicle for a number of years. Its major drawback became evident almost immediately as we often traveled with friends and that meant a part of the group would always be traveling separately in the camper.

I finally purchased my first new travel trailer in 1980, a light weight special, 18-foot Nomad single axle. It confirmed may love of travel via a travel trailer. I always had my 1965 Dodge Coronet 500 Convertible tow vehicle as a fun touring car once the trailer was set up in a campground. Sadly, the Nomad wasn't very well built and began self-destructing/disintegrating, and I sold it before it was five years old. I only learned about two years after I sold the Nomad that I could have easily purchased a late model Argosy for about the same price as I had paid for the Nomad, but by the time I sold the Nomad, I was discouraged and decided to go back to camping in a large cabin tent.

The cabin tent was really getting old by the time I was in my mid-30s, and I decided it was time to go back to a travel trailer. This time the travel trailer had to be one with a reputation for lasting decades not four to six years. I was going through my photo album and ran across a photo of me when I was eight years old standing in front of our friend's Airstream when it dawned on me that Airstream or Avion were the only two trailer brands that offered what I wanted. My search began with new Airstreams, and while the new entry level Airstreams were within my budget, they had discontinued the only models that appealed to me -- the trailers with the large, comfortable rear bathrooms. Since Avion travel trailer had been out of production for five years at the time my search began, I realized that my only option was pre-owned as the floorplan was not negotiable.

I spent the better part of six months in 1995 searching for my ideal Airstream or Avion. After looking at dozens of Airstreams and a few Avions, I realized that I wanted a pre-1985 24 to 28 foot rear bath with center twins. I almost compromised on a 1978 25-foot Caravanner as I was intrigued by its floorplan, but I really wanted a bed that could remain made-up at all times. Finally, I responded to a "Penny-Saver" want ad for a 1964 Airstream 26-foot travel trailer for sale. The ad said little, but included a photo, and while the trailer was about ten years older than what I thought that I wanted, I traveled the 150 miles to take a look. I couldn't believe how nice the trailer appeared when I pulled into the owner's drive. He invited me to take my time looking over the trailer and getting acquainted with it. He had turned on the utilities prior to my arrival. The Armstrong Bay Breeze air conditioner had the interior comfortably cool, the small dormitory refrigerator had ice in its ice cube trays and the soft drinks in the door were very cold. Water at the taps was appropriately hot and cold. Every interior light functioned as anticipated. The only thing that I found inoperable was the fan in the range hood vent. The interior was like walking into a 1964 time capsule. I left a deposit on the trailer that evening and returned a week later to tow it home. I learned some months later that this was the same trailer that had belonged to my family's friends and that they had sold it in 1980 when they retired from traveling with my purchase having been from the second owner.

My family's friends on one of their visits to the family farm. I am eight years old (leading the pony).



My family's first RV:



My first travel trailer:



My 1964 Overlander Land Yacht International shortly after P and S Trailer Service in Helena, Ohio Polished and Plasticoated the exterior:

[field & stream]

overlander64: what a great story, and well told too. Thanks……

[77domer]

I was raised in Arizona, Phoenix area. Went camping with a church group and slept in a sleeping bag in northern Arizona and Havasupai Canyon. Slept in the back of a station wagon when camping with my parents. Continued camping in tents or just on the ground till 10 years ago. I had just remarried and now lived in Prescott. Took the family tent camping at Yellowstone. Second night out the air mattress looked low, pumped it up again, only to wake up with back pain on a deflated mattress. Went back to the Expedition with my sleeping bag and pillow to the back seat. All was fine till 5am when my son opened the door that my head had been leaning on. In my half awake state I yelled "son of a ------!". Scared to death, my son slammed the door shut, giving me a headache! Stayed in cabins after that.
Several weeks later I raised the possibility with my bride of buying an airstream to camp with. I was soundly rejected. Undaunted, I slyly suggested we visit Airstream of Scottsdale when we were in the neighborhood getting the car serviced a month later. She acquiesced and we toured several models. After about 20 minutes my beautiful bride said "What size do you think we need?" We left with a 25 ft international and a new F150. 3 years later we decided that getting out of the bed was too difficult and that we would enjoy having a real couch to sit on and read. That lead to the silver suppository - 30 ft classic and a ram 2500. We had great trips in that set up but three years later realized that the trade off of couch and bed meant campsites we wanted to visit were too small.
Then came the big brain fart. We went to an rv show in Phoenix in 2021 and ended up trading Classic/Ram 2500 for a used Tommy Bahama Atlas! We thought this would be the ideal setup; smaller, no need for hitch work, bigger bed and still had a couch. My pea sized brain did not think of the fact that where I wanted to fly fish was not where we would camp! Lower to the ground meant less access to remote areas.
We paid the price of that education and sold the Atlas without too much of a loss two weeks ago. Drove to Texas the next day with our new Tundra Imax and picked up a 2021 23fb globetrotter. When I arrived home with the trailer, after having seen it in person, my brilliant, beautiful bride said "sometimes less is more !" What we liked camping/fishing was being outdoors not sitting inside the trailer.
We head out on our shakedown cruise this next weekend: older, smarter for the experience, and excited. Sometimes the older you get, you really do get smarter and simpler!

[ColoradoGlen]

Loved the story's, here's mine.

I have been camping since I was a kid. Started out by ripping out the seam of burlap gunny sacks and making a tent down in the draw with my brothers. Dad didn't like that at all. In scouts we camped with Army surplus tents where each person carried half of it, summer and winter. Skip ahead to being married and having two pup tents, one for wife and I and the other for the kids, always sleeping on the ground. Sometimes all of us ended up in the one tent, warmth, monsters, all good. Wall tent, VW bus, Chevy van were real upgrades, foam mattress and dry.

Kids grew up and left, so did wife so started over with sleeping in the bed of the Dodge truck.

New wife and a bit of age brought a popup tent camper which we pulled from Sothern Arizona to Oregon, Rocky Mountains to the west coast. Still have it parked out back to take to the real boonies. Broken both sets of springs, one on each side, in the Indian ruin country on two separate trips, fixed enough to get to civilization to fix.

I worked for a construction company who procured and remodeled five Bambie's for Ralph Lauren, all different themes, Adirondack, Aquatic, Western and I don't remember the other two. He sold them at auction and donated the proceeds to charity. In the process of finding the Bambie's we came across a 1968 20 foot, single axel GlobeTrotter which we gutted and used for a construction site office. When I retired, I purchased the GlobeTrotter.

I have spent the last 10 years refurbishing it from top to bottom. Finished it last fall and took it out once before winter set in. Looking forward to finally spending time in the boonies in comfort.

[zapper]

Our camping background is somewhat similar to others details are different. I came from a military family. Dad was stationed in England. I don't remember seeing a trailer (caravan) in Europe, let alone tent camping. Both parents hated the outdoors. I joined a boys club and the "Dad" would take 15 teenage boys on a fishing/camping trip for two weeks in the High Sierras every summer. I liked the outdoors. Later I picked up back packing with small groups or solo into the San Bernardino Nat. Forest.

In my mid 20's I read "Sailing Alone Around the World" by Cpt Joshua Slocum and then "Saga of a Wayward Sailor" by Tristan Jones and I was hooked. Bought 13' sailing dinghy (Pirateer) learned to sail, then bought an O'Day 222 took it to Washington met my wife (who hates camping) and we sailed the San Juan Islands. We have now caught the travel/exploring bug.

Our purpose for our first AS was to provide me with out-of-state housing with a new employer.. Our home is in California and the new employer was located in Phoenix AZ. DW at the time was a RN at a local hospital. I worked as an environmental engineering consultant. In 2005-2006 this profession was/still is unstable at best and we decided that to rent an apartment w/ an annual lease would cost more than a monthly AS payment and RV park space rent. Plus if things didn't work out in Arizona we could sell the AS and recover some of our out-of-pocket losses.

The 2006 AS Safari was a definite upgrade from our 22' Prowler that I had used in Eureka, CA for the same purpose as the 25" AS which was an apartment on wheels.

When we bought the 30' AS Flying Cloud in 2017 its purpose changed somewhat. The DW had retired and I had started a consulting business and still had to travel to AZ, WA, TX and now I could bring her with me and have most of the comforts of home with us. So the AS became our hotel rather than an apartment. Earlier during my business travels in US I came to hate all hotels in all states regardless of star rating. They all had the same stale smell and bad food and irritating staff.

So....for us the purpose of having an AS today is about enjoying the journey/adventure along with some of the comforts of home in style.

[mpsgolf]

Our travel goals have been pretty simple:

See as many of the National and State parks / landmarks / monuments in our amazing country as possible. Up close and personal (not just drive bys). Stay AT the site, in comfort.

Our Airstream Sali has been the enabler for our goal. It lets us be at home no matter where we are. Retirement, which allows us much longer trips, hasn’t hurt either.

[Greg1960]

Wonderful stories all. I’ve tent camped across the US from Maine to California & Washington state twice. Once on a motorcycle & once in a little Z3 convertible. Avoided interstates and eventually commercial campgrounds like the plague. Wound up in some very cool places along the way, especially where the hot springs go. These were solo trips with little creature comforts.

The Airstream trailer has seen some interesting places as well, including the bay of Fundy & Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. Note: there is a winery every quarte mile in that part of Ontario, so be prepared. It sees its
most heavy use in Florida each March & April, then wanders back north to the frozen tundra and functions as overflow housing when guests arrive, and the occasional adventure until early November or when the mercury drops too far below freezing, when it’s time to make its way south to its winter home.