My apologies for the neglect

My apologies for the neglect to this site. I have every intention to get this site caught up. Perhaps instead of catching up I should just pick up from where we are. Might be easier. It's a matter of finding time to sit down and get this done, I have other sites to maintain as well. But I will get to more posting sooner. Check back, it will get better. Thanks.

By the way

This is a stock picture of the new 2009 Airstream Panamerica. Wow, Airstream has made a toy hauler. So Christopher's Mom, you can take your motorcycles with you.

My husband and I particularly like the Airstream Skydeck. The first few pictures is of the corporate model; the last is more of what made us go oooooooo.













I'm getting closer to getting the other rallies and trips we've taken...so yes more to come.

Our First Rally - October 2006

My husband and I joined the Wally Byam group but found a site Airforums.com that had Forum Rallies. A forum rally is an Airstream Rally that is not sanctioned by the WBCCI. It's just a group of Airstream Owners that get together and camp. My husband found a rally in our state that we could attend. So off to the NorCal Lake San Antonio Rally.

Entering the camping area we were met with this.



And then we saw this....



A sea of Airstreams. We were excited but a little nervous not knowing what to expect and not knowing anyone here. Suddenly, we were greeted by the "7 foot Cowboy" known as "kevbo". Charming man, outgoing and very friendly. He was our official greeter and helped us find a space.

I suppose it depends on the time of the year, but if you're like me, you may not appreciate the natives as much as others. There are a few tarantulas in the area. But, we also saw these...



...yep wild turkeys (click on the picture for an enlarged view). There is a lake there but I never saw it. We stayed around the camping area visiting with our newly found airstream friends. Dinner was a big potluck. Great food and great people. Someone brought a big screen and we all gathered around to watch the Desi Arnez and Lucille Ball's "The Long, Long Trailer".









All in all we had a wonderful time. Too short though. Despite my high fear of spiders and almost knocking myself out on an awning running away from the spider, we enjoyed the rally. It also began the forums camping fever for us. We have 3 types of camping, forums, official rallies and our own. All wonderful but brings different aspects to enjoy on our camping excursions.

More to come

I have a lot to post but I'm trying to arrange them in order. Once I get caught up, it'll be easier to keep up. While trying to put them in order, I've realized how much we camp.

Part 4, the final Airstream

We now own a Ford 250 and we're off to trade our 19ft for a 25ft FB. We literally pulled up alongside one Airstream and tossed our belongings from one to the other. Then we were off again. The picture shown above is of our first camping excursion with the new and final Airstream. 2 years later, we are still in the 25ft FB and very happy. Love the holding tanks, no more swarming bees, love the bathroom, plenty of room, big bed, separate shower, nice size kitchen and dining area. As my husband says, it comfortably fits "6 for cocktails, 4 for dinner and 2 to sleep" and of course the dog has his own place now under the dinette.

So to recap:
1 truck tent wedding gift, free
1 tent, approx. $100
1 pop-up, approx. $10k
1 Ford 150, approx. more than 10k
1 19ft Airstream, more than 30k
1 Ford 250, more 30k
1 25ft Airstream, more than 40k
total spent, a lot all because of a wedding gift. Thanks, again Gene.....

Memories of it all, Priceless, again, Thanks Gene!

The stories here on out will be of our adventures in our 25ft Front Bedroom Special Edition Safari Airstream.

Part 3, Airstream #1

My husband has always wanted an Airstream and since we were looking for something with holding tanks and nothing to really set up I was sold. However, this would require a bigger truck, the Ranger would not be able to tow this safely. With an Airstream I would get a real bathroom, heat, and comfort. The bed was smaller than we had hoped for, no king size bed here, but we were ok with that...or so we thought.

Our firt Airstream was a 2006, 19ft Safari Bambi Special Edition. Aluminum interior, dinette, stove, refrigerator that was bigger than a bread box, indoor shower and a real toilet. Not a lot of counter space for cooking but we don't cook much. I think we camped in it 3 or 4 times before we realized we had made a huge mistake. It really was too small for us. Granted it's just my husband and I but we camp with an 85 pound Yellow Labrador dog. My husband is 6'2" so this made the bathroom area for him rather small. Now, we've seen other couples over the years in a similar bathroom and they were happy, but for us, it was way too small. Now the bed, which we both found was just too darn small, I think it resembled a full size bed. Once again, my husband is 6'2", I'm 5'4" but we don't spoon so sleeping got interesting. Eventually, my husband took the bed and I took the dinette thinking it was smaller than the two. This didn't work either, I'm not a morning person but my husband is, and the dinette is right in front of the door. Change in sleeping locations again, this time I took the bed and he took the dinette. This worked fine except, part of being married is being able to sleep with your spouse. This was not going to work. Back to the drawing board, my husband looked around and called the dealership where we bought our Airstream and inquired if they had a 25ft front bedroom, which seemed to have the best layout for us and a bigger bed. No more corner beds for us. They did and would accept the trade as they had a buyer already lined up. Hmmm but getting the 25 ft meant now we needed a bigger truck, sigh. Now, we must buy a bigger truck in time for the bigger trailer.

Damn Gene, you started all of this with that truck tent. The total cost of this "Wedding Gift" is what? Not free, lol. Honestly, Gene's a great guy, but we do give him crap for starting us on this path.

Part 2, The Popup Tent

Now the pop-up tent, lasted longer than the tent and cost considerably more. But they were happy, no more third person narration, we were happy. It served us well. Had many happy times with it. We have some friends that camp with us from time to time and they had a dolphin truck camper, but soon bought a travel trailer. It was a nice trailer. But we were still very happy with our pop-up. It goes off road, we put a port-a-potty in it for me, it had a heater, tons of windows and a king size bed. All was good....so we thought. We tend to do a lot of desert camping as we love the outdoors with wide open spaces. We were on our way with our friends and they decided it was time to stop and eat. Once again the wind was blowing pretty good. We stopped, got out and sighed, now if you're not familiar with a pop-up, the only way to use it, is to open it up completely. You must put up the support beams, slide out the bed, flip the sink up etc., just to go inside. Once again, the wind was blowing pretty good. We watched our friends get out of their truck, walk back to thier trailer and get in. I guess we had a pitiful look on our face because they opened their trailer up for us and invited us in for lunch. Their potty room was roomy, more than ours and we thought hmmm. We arrived at our destination and set up camp. Now the other thing about the pop-ups is that there are no holding tanks, which means the gray water just pours out onto the ground. Gray water is basically sink and shower water. The next day, we saw a few bees buzzing around our pop-up, my husband is allergic to bee stings so this was not good. No worries, it was only a few so we attached the hose to the sink to have the water pour further away from our pop-up. The next morning, apparently the "few" bees we saw brought friends and relatives and they were swarming the dog's water bowl and crawling up the hose towards the sink. Ok now we have a problem. Our friends offered to help clear them after a long discussion about how bees won't bother you if you move slowly and not threaten them. This may be true but there were too many for comfort and it only takes one sting to cause problems for my husband. We got the bees cleared and we packed up quickly. Hmmm after all the camping trips we've had, this was a first for us.

The next trip, it started to rain. We still needed to fill up our water tank but you gotta do what you gotta do. I get out of the truck, and my husband asks me, is the drain closed. I looked at the sink drain and said yea. What I misunderstood was, he meant the drain to the water holding tank. So while we both stood out in the pouring rain and got soaked, filling up the holding tank, or so we thought, it was pouring out onto the ground and we couldn't tell because the ground was already wet. So now we get to our camping spot and we have to set up. Do we wait for the rain to stop and will it. I figured it wouldn't so back out into the rain to set up camp. Now we are both drenched but now we have a warm place to go. The next morning it's time for coffee, but wait, something is wrong with the pump, because there's no water coming out. We figured it out after a short discussion about what I was asked yesterday. It was a cold day so we turned on the heater, but that won't work now either, hmmm, great no more propane. We're done, we just want to go home. Perhaps we should get a travel trailer like our friends.