Matt's New Mexico (Formerly Airstream) Adventure
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UPDATE:
I have nothing to report…
I'm not anticipating doing much travel prep this week so it will be quiet. Next week however, we were planning on taking a non-Airstream, tent/cabin camping trip to a few parks in VA. We were going to do a few nights in a cabin at a State Park and few nights in a tent in Shenandoah National Park. We even had a couple nights booked at a swanky tiny house resort...
Well, we aren't doing any of those things now so we'll likely head out to my father in law's for the week and get to know our Airstream a little better.
Be sure the check in for lots of pictures and stories about me breaking shit and yelling at my kids! You won't want to miss it.
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Have you ever watched the YouTube channels that document living on the road full time? They’re kind of interesting.
There’s one channel that’s kind of weird where a couple live out of the back of a van for a year. She documents her bathing with baby wipes…and you can see her increasing in diameter week after week.
We’re the Russos on YT is kind of interesting too.
I’d love to have an earthroamer right now. I’d park it in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming until all this blows over. You’re right, it’s basically the Punishers rv. They have some interesting storage options...the “ski” compartment looks remarkably like rifle storage, the window on the roof you can pop out of for “photography” looks like something out of Resident Evil...the wine rack looks like machete/gun storage.
Considering each unit is bespoke, I don’t see why you can’t ask for custom firearm storage, but when their clientele includes Jason Momoa and John Mayer...might be a little spendy.
There’s a Tiffin we really liked but it’s literally the size of a bus. I’d prefer something smaller where we could just load the pups and go.
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Yeah, I hear John Mayer rolls pretty hard so I'm not surprised to hear he's an owner. My wife has done the lion's share of the research and has immersed herself in the full time RV communities online. I don't think she's checked out any of the YT families as I'm pretty sure she wanted some resources for tips and tricks and to also make some connections so our kids can have some friends once we get started. I'll ask her about it though in case there's some content there that we can take advantage of. Thanks!
When we landed on the Airstream our major considerations were quality to cut down on failures and maintenance, flexibility at locations (some parks can be a picky as to what kinds of vehicles they allow in) and obviously price. We know the Airstreams weren't cheap but we also knew they'd hold their value and would be worth the expense. Like I mentioned before we got ours used but it's only 3 years old and we got it for a great price thanks to a motivated seller.
Another consideration was not having to take it everywhere. We want to leave it at camp and be able to drive around but we didn't want to tow a separate vehicle so that cut out things like the Earthroamer or traditional self powered motor homes. I couldn't be happier with what we got. I'm really excited to try to fit 10 IH button downs, 7 IH pants, 2 IH jackets, one IH sweatshirt and all my shoes and boots into about 10 SF of storage space. Don't even talk to me about t-shirts and socks. I may be separated from my wife before we even pull up stakes.
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We covered a lot of ground yesterday. I needed a fitting for the trailer hitch hook up and the masked folks at Auto Zone were nice enough to meet me in the parking lot to sell me one for $20.
We got the 50 Amp "shore power" hooked up to my father in law's excessively equipped "wood shop" so we spent most of the day testing out the various electrical components of the truck.
The 3 flat screen LED Samsung televisions work great. (#roughingit) We hooked up the Amazon Fire Stick to the HDMI splitter so all 3 can run Netflix (Tiger King), Disney Plus (Mandalorian), Amazon Prime (The Boys), Hulu (The Magicians), and CBS All Access (Picard).
We figured out the difference between things that will work when hooked up to shore power and things that will work when we are using only the batteries when we're out in the middle of nowhere, or what RV people call "Boondocking."
I figured out what each of the 5 included keys is for, instead of a sixth one that remains a mystery. I'm excited to figure that out. We also figured out how the automatic roof vents work. They're pretty cool, they will turn off and close automatically as soon as it starts to rain. It's the little things with me.
We also found that the deadbolt is broken and since it takes an Airstream employee a full working day to construct a single door it's not likely we'll be getting that fixed anytime soon. Fortunately the deadbolt is a secondary lock and campgrounds tend to be pretty safe so I'm not sweating that one too much. Also, the Airstream forums had loads of complaints about the deadbolts failing which also makes me feel a little better.
We spent the night Friday in the trailer and it was really comfortable. Until I woke up the next morning with a splitting headache, the source of which I was unable to identify until about 6 hours later when my wife discovered some surface mold on the floor of one of the bedroom's storage compartments. Well, headaches are the main symptom of my mold allergy so we discussed our options. Hooking it up for our first trip to a dealer for service didn't seem too attractive so we consulted my father in law who just happened to have a negative air machine in his "den." If it weren't totally trashed from the kids being here for just one day and from his general Howard Hughes quarantine lifestyle I'd include a photo for you. But on a good day imagine people meeting here to listen to the detective illuminate the house guests as to who murdered the eccentric millionaire. We blasted the trailer with O2 all night so we'll see today how it feels. Hopefully there's no hidden framing damage under that floor? It seemed pretty solid, probably someone just threw a wet towel or shoes in there and closed the door. Fingers crossed.
Today we may try to install the composting toilet we bought. This will hopefully prevent us from having to deal with the dreaded black water tank that holds the regular toilet waste and needs to be emptied at the end of each trip before disembarking. Instead all we need to do is remove the container filled with magical unicorn dust and sprinkle it lovingly in the woods behind our site. At least that's how they advertise it. I'll try to get some photos to post before day's end. Of the install process, not of me using the toilet. Unless there's a thread hidden around here for that sort of thing.
