Married Couple Outlasts Airstreams

Here's a nice story from Mesquite, Texas. Francis and J.C. McDearman just celebrated their 74th year of marriage. Perhaps even more impressive, their union has outlasted three Airstream travel trailers!

Congrats to the McDearmans. These are the type of people who started the American tradition of Airstreaming and RV-ing. They paved the way for the rest of us.



Apparently the McDearmans were married at about the same time that Wally Byam started building Airstreams. Over the course of their lives, they have toured the country via travel trailer, wearing out three silver bullets.

Their story makes me wonder whether Airstreaming is good for marriage. My answer would be a qualified "yes," assuming of course that the marriage in question actually survives the first couple of trips aboard the RV.

It's fair to say that this form of travel tests a marriage. As I've written before, you had better really like the person with whom you're sharing 200 square-feet of living space!

Doing It Yourself

Airstream RV Blog - Doing It Yourself from Sean on Vimeo.

The old saying goes, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." Nothing illustrates this principle better than the sad saga of our Airstream ceiling fan.

When the fan malfunctioned, we first entrusted our Airstream to a local RV service center. It wasn't an official Airstream dealership because the nearest such business is located far away from our hometown. This was a local place that specializes in RV storage and repairs. But still, we're talking about a simple ceiling fan here. What could go wrong? Right?

After keeping the unit some three weeks, we got our baby back. Not only was the fan still in a state of disrepair, but the RV service guys damaged our roof! Apparently an employee walked on the aluminum portion of our Airstream's roof end cap, which is a major no-no. Aluminum stretches, and once bent it does not return to its exact previous shape. This was kind of like taking your car to a place for an oil change, and having them destroy your engine.

The RV guys offered to repair the damage, but quite frankly we didn't trust them anymore. Sure, they might be able to fix the roof. But what else would they wreck in the process?

Thankfully, Kristy's father Harry has the knowledge and skill to repair just about everything ever created by human hands. As you'll see in the video, Harry has almost restored our Airstream to its original condition.

The roof looks about as good as possible. The only way to repair this sort of damage 100% is to literally remove the aluminum roof panels (risking future leaks, etc.) and replace them with new panels -- an expensive and time-consuming process. I think we can live with it now, as the indentation is scarcely noticeable. If you didn't know about it, you'd never notice it.

As for the ceiling fan? We've made progress, but the fan still refuses to spin. Harry isolated the problem to a faulty switch. Note that the RV service guys never reached any such conclusion. In fact, they appeared to just replace one part, slap the pieces back together, and then surrender. Stay tuned, because unlike the "professionals," we're not giving up.

Special thanks to Harry for all of his help with our Airstream...and everything else he's managed to fix!

The Joy of Dump Stations

Airstream RV Blog - The Dump Station Experience from Sean on Vimeo.

The Internet Gods are doing something pretty strange with this one. If you watch the above video here on the site, it appears in a highly abbreviated format -- as in only 25 seconds long! I have NO idea WHY this is happening, but after trying every fix I'm going to just accept it and move on. Sometimes it's best to punt. Please click the link above to see the ACTUAL video.

Word of the Day: Caravan

This article intrigued me for several reasons.

The Airstream pictured looks almost exactly like the one Kristy and I call home away from home. It must be a 25-foot Classic model. Yet it must also be the European version of our Airstream.

European Airstreams differ slightly from their American counterparts. There are a host of small distinctions; for example, the running lights on this Classic are arranged differently than on ours. But more significantly, European trailers are a few inches (or should I say centimeters, since the English don't actually use "the English system" of measurement?) more narrow so as to better traverse European roads.

Apparently in the UK an Airstream is not called a "travel trailer" at all. Rather, it is called a "caravan." And I suppose one tows it with a "lorry"?

Anyway, it is interesting to see an American icon like the Airstream catching on with our friends across the pond.