IT HAS BEEN AWHILE, we are still Airstreaming, just a different ride. To say we have been going through a few changes is an under statement. Since we last talked our lives have completely been turned upside down. Pat and I have both retired, down-sized, sold our house, at a nice profit I might add, bought a villa in an Airstream Park, bought a new tow vehicle, bought a new car for Pat, have bought another Airstream that was 20 years newer than our vintage 1973 and six months later sold it and now are the proud owners of a 2002 Safari Airstream and before I give you all the details, did I mention WE ARE DEBT FREE, Thus through all we have gone through WE HAVE DONE SOMETHING RIGHT. SO, let talk about it.
PAT just looked over my shoulder and said, "I don't feel right about telling people we are debt free" and my response was these people don't know us. I guess some might, but I don't know what difference it makes, so I'm leaving the statement in. After all it's my blog and I can say what I want. REMEMBER, it is He Said, She Said, so she can tell her own thing. So where was I. oh yeah, I was catching you up.
PAT is the only one in this family that has worked in the last couple years, since I retired two years ago and she retired in the last few months. Pat worked as office manager for a gated community called NTAC or North Texas Airstream Community. This a is a private park for owners of Airstream Travel Trailers with about a 100 villas and 15 brick homes. Most of the villas are two story and there is enough space to park your Airstream with extra space for a couple of vehicles and usually room for a patio setting. Since Pat worked there and we already owned an Airstream it seemed like the ideal place to live. We had plans to travel and this is the perfect environment to allow us to do so and have property secure and nearly ZERO upkeep around the villa. We waited and the right opportunity came along and here we are. This is a great place to live, with all kinds of activities to do, like bean bag baseball, joker, bridge, other card games and pool. I guess by now your saying, damn this sounds like a retirement home and as I think about it, it kinda does. No it isn't but we are kind of the young people around here with some of the residents in their 80's and 90's and one dear lady 102. I know your thinking that you sure hope these people aren't out on the roads pulling trailers down the highway. SORRY, I DIDN'T MEAN TO GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO WORRY ABOUT. Really, this is a great place to live and mainly gives people a base camp so they can travel and have a place to lay their heads between the traveling.
During the period we were moving to NTAC, one of our new neighbors had her Airstream for sale and made us a great offer and we bought it. It was a short move only about 50 yards from where we lived, like right across the road.This Airstream was a1989 and the top of the line for that particular year. We were used to twin beds in the middle of the trailer and this one had a full bed in the back, a great setup. RIGHT, The bed sat in the corner with one side open and if you needed to get up in the middle of the night you had to crawl over someone to get out. It doesn't make for a good nights sleep. The only person that didn't mind was MAGGIE, our 100 pound lab that filled the aisle beside the bed. She would crawl in to sleep and had to back out to leave. You do get the picture don't you? All the interior of this trailer was beautiful hardwood and much nicer than our old one. We dolled the place up, put a couple of flat screens in it and had actually figured out how everything worked. If you remember in the past, not to sure how certain things worked, like gas and hot water, thus we were really just using the trailer for a roof over our head as we camped. Pat would use the shower with cold water and me I always used whatever facilities available where ever we camped. I really am ashamed to admit that, but it's true. Even the bathrooms, well I to this day,still don't like to take dumps in it. You do realize someone has to clean those lines out and I would prefer it not be ME.
I am going to end this post telling you about how we sold this Airstream less than year after we bought it and talk at a later date about the new one and all the cool things and stupid stuff I did along the way. WELL, there is a website called Airstream Forum that you seek information about repairs, or information about anything Airstream or use for listing of Airstream for sale or to buy. All you do is take a few pictures, give a description of your Airstream and post it. BOOM, we sold it in two days, sight unseen and the buyer sent a driver to pick it up and transport it to Atlanta. It was such a simple process until we arranged payment. Atlanta had just been hit with a huge ice storm and everything was closed down, schools and banking institutes. The buyer asked how we wanted payment, so I said cashiers check. He said great and we agreed that when the check came, I would release and sign title. This is where the comedy of errors started. He said they released the funds and he was sending check and we just wanted to make sure. We couldn't get through to his bank because we were told it was closed because of weather. this went back and forth for three days and finally got it cleaned up the day before the transporter came for it. IN THE SAME AIRSTREAM FORUM, we found a 2002 Airstream like we wanted. Turns out this Airstream, notice I like to say Airstream, was located right here in the park and we already knew the people and they gave us a great deal. in conclusion, I will say it has great hot water and we are back to twin beds and all is well with the world. HOWEVER, since a recent trip we have been talking about motor coaches. I'll tell you later. My normal style is to really talk about my screw ups and believe me I have had plenty with these last two Airstream, but I'll tell you later. So until then REMEMBER, HE SAID, see what SHE SAID.
