Our adventure begins at the Washington RV Expo
We began our RV adventure at the 2019 Washington RV Expo in January and things quickly escalated from there!
As usual, Caitlin and I go from "vague notion" to "done" very quickly once we decide to move ahead on something. There are many examples of this in our past when we look back on our 23 years together (so far!) and our RV choice is no exception.
The idea germinated in 2018 when we planned to take a trip in August to Nova Scotia and decided it would be great to do that in an RV. We had done two previous trips in rental RVs with mixed success but we really liked the concept of having more control over our environment and our meals and also being closer to nature.
The concept we arrived for our RV lifestyle change we are calling our "6 Year Plan" to maximize our trips to National and State Parks before our youngest son heads off to college.
We have always had an idea that we would love to see as many National Parks as possible but we were always stymied by the logistics of trying to move two boys and three dogs anywhere outside our immediate area. The proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" was a $2600 boarding bill we got for our dogs to have a nice stay while we were on vacation somewhere and I knew we needed a change.
When we entered the RV show, we almost immediately gravitated to the Airstream booth and spent over 3 hours there! I have never seen one before except in the iconic NASA photos but Caitlin had always known about Airstreams because her father had talked about the desire but was never able to act on it. We looked briefly around the show but the Airstreams just captivated us from the start and it was really only a choice of which model after that.
We bought the family friendly Flying Cloud 30RBT (30 foot Rear Bed Twin) model which looks like this:
We loved the high quality of the construction and the wrap-around windows and the fact that they are not trying to replicate your full-sized home in nature as much as they are bringing you to the nature. In an Airstream, it feels like you are part of nature not separate from it and we loved that aspect.
One unanticipated huge benefit we learned from the jump was the awesome relationships that the Airstream Club can add to our RV experience. From the very first moment we entered the Airstream booth at the Expo, we were welcomed by two members of our local club who not only gave us great advice but also have become good friends as we have been on several rallies together and together share the love of our Airstreams. Many others in the club reached out to us shortly after we joined and we have enjoyed the many events together immensely.
Please don't miss out on the fantastic social aspects and if you own an Airstream, join the club today!
There were many twists and turns along the way that included much help from the Airstream Factory Rep and from Airstream of Tampa where we bought our unit but the bottom line here is that we purchased Annie within a month of this show and have never looked back since!
The concept we arrived for our RV lifestyle change we are calling our "6 Year Plan" to maximize our trips to National and State Parks before our youngest son heads off to college.
We have always had an idea that we would love to see as many National Parks as possible but we were always stymied by the logistics of trying to move two boys and three dogs anywhere outside our immediate area. The proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" was a $2600 boarding bill we got for our dogs to have a nice stay while we were on vacation somewhere and I knew we needed a change.
When we entered the RV show, we almost immediately gravitated to the Airstream booth and spent over 3 hours there! I have never seen one before except in the iconic NASA photos but Caitlin had always known about Airstreams because her father had talked about the desire but was never able to act on it. We looked briefly around the show but the Airstreams just captivated us from the start and it was really only a choice of which model after that.
We bought the family friendly Flying Cloud 30RBT (30 foot Rear Bed Twin) model which looks like this:
We loved the high quality of the construction and the wrap-around windows and the fact that they are not trying to replicate your full-sized home in nature as much as they are bringing you to the nature. In an Airstream, it feels like you are part of nature not separate from it and we loved that aspect.
One unanticipated huge benefit we learned from the jump was the awesome relationships that the Airstream Club can add to our RV experience. From the very first moment we entered the Airstream booth at the Expo, we were welcomed by two members of our local club who not only gave us great advice but also have become good friends as we have been on several rallies together and together share the love of our Airstreams. Many others in the club reached out to us shortly after we joined and we have enjoyed the many events together immensely.
Please don't miss out on the fantastic social aspects and if you own an Airstream, join the club today!
There were many twists and turns along the way that included much help from the Airstream Factory Rep and from Airstream of Tampa where we bought our unit but the bottom line here is that we purchased Annie within a month of this show and have never looked back since!
Maybe your adventure will begin at this year's Expo?
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