Three years ago, we were taking one of our long road trips and started discussing the possibility of getting a camper. We were tired of sleeping in rooms & beds that weren't ours. We were also tired of having to eat out so much while traveling as well as being limited on our choices of where to stay. Our destinations must be dog friendly since we always take Emma & Rowan with us. They also must be vegan friendly, which can be quite the challenge in several areas of the country.
After considering everything from a smaller motorhome to VW vans and teardrop trailers, we settled on getting an Airstream. They were love at first sight for us and while looking at all the options out there, we kept coming back to them.
We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in May and thought it would be the perfect time to purchase an Airstream. We were financially ready, knew exactly what we wanted and the symbol for 10 years is aluminum (which Airstreams just happen to be made of!)!
After placing our order with the nearest dealer (there's only one Airstream dealer in Wisconsin and we were very lucky to have it be just a little over an hour drive from us!), we waited a few months for it to be shipped from the factory (they're handmade in Ohio). Finally, it arrived last Thursday and we headed out to pick it up on Saturday morning!
We spent almost three hours at the dealer going through everything, but finally got done. Then we hitched it up and were on our way!
The drive home went really well. Mike grew up on a farm, so he's used to towing things around.
We couldn't stop looking in the rearview and side mirrors. There was an Airstream following us!
For quite a while, we were pretty set on getting a 25 footer. However, we kept coming back to the smallest size, a 16 foot Bambi. It has everything we need for our trips and is very easy to tow around (they also retain their value very well). We were quite lucky to get one, too, because they're in very high demand! The factory just hired 100 new people, which is pretty awesome, and we were told that if we placed an order for one now we wouldn't get it until at least January. The dealership is getting another 16 footer in on Monday and there are already ten people interested in it (before we even drove it off the lot at the dealership someone asked if they could look inside it).
A lot of people name their Airstreams & RV's and we are no exception. We named her Ayla quite a while ago, before we even placed an order for her. Some of you may be familiar with the Earth Children book series that Jean Auel Wrote (Clan of the Cave Bear is the first in the series). We have both read the entire series (with the exception of the very last book, which Mike hasn't read yet) and thought Ayla suited an Airstream quite well. Ayla is the main character in the books. She's a vagabond for most of her time in the books, is very unique, beautiful and quite tough. In other words, Ayla and Airstreams have much in common! We thought it was a very fitting name for our little Bambi.
Now we can travel anywhere in the country with the pups while sleeping in our own bed, showering in our own shower and eating our own food! Besides all that, we'll be able to be in nature much more than most other lodgings. We're beyond excited!
Now that we've shown you the outside, let's step inside. We even left the door open for you!
Everything you'll see in this post is how they come standard from the factory, with the exception of the "Home Sweet Home" screen guard that's on the door. That's something we ordered and put on.
When you first come in, the dinette is to your right. It folds down into a nice sofa/bed area, which is where the pups will be tucked in each night. The panoramic window is at this end of the trailer, giving us a nice view of our surroundings.
Right next to the dinette is the galley, which sports a microwave, two burner stove, fridge and sink. Larger Airstreams come with an oven, but we doubt we'd use one if we had it.
Right across from the galley is the wet bath. We won't be showing pictures of that since it's just a toilet/shower combo. Nothing exciting. There is, however, a pretty cool feature of the shower that we love. On the outside of the trailer is a little door that allows you to bring the shower head outside. It'll come in handy for dirty pups and feet!
Above the dinette is more storage and one of the compartments has the stereo system in it. It's the size of a car stereo and includes radio, a cd player and auxiliary jack. We'll be making good use of the jack for the music on our iPhones!
At the other end is a small closet (to the right, next to the galley) and the bed. The mattress is nicer than we thought it would be, but we'll still be adding a natural latex mattress topper (from Cozy Pure) to it. Not shown is the TV, which can swivel from the sleeping area into the dinette area. We were surprised at how many channels the antenna picks up! It has a built in dvd player, so we'll be able to watch movies at night if we're in the mood for one.
There's quite a bit of storage above and below the bed, which surprised us again at how much we can actually fit in it. The storage underneath the bed fits 8 totes (which the trailer came with) and can also be accessed from outside through another door. To the left by the bathroom they put a nice little board with some magnets as well as three hooks. The larger thing you see on the ceiling is the air conditioning and the furnace is on the floor by the storage under the bed.
Many adventures await us in our Airstream!
We hope you enjoyed the tour!
