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About Us
rev Jul 11, 2010, added house life paragraphs
rev Feb 16, 2010
Debbie and I are very fortunate to have found each other ten years ago. We grew up twenty-five miles apart, attended the same university and both stayed in Chapel Hill, NC after graduation. But our paths had not crossed. Twenty years later we both were working for Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, NC and were working on Y2K projects. Our friends were convinced we deserved each other, they acted on it, and we owe them for getting us together.
Our previous lifetime was working 50+ hours/week in great jobs in Charlotte, NC. Two or three times a year we would take a week and hike a section of the Appalachian Trail. Easter Week 2005 we were hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail in NC and said to each other, "If we had a camper we could extend our range. A mobile base would allow us, once we retire, to avoid motel fees and we could work any number of new trails from an entirely new section of the country." If we had known then what we know now would we have run, screaming, from the idea?
We studied the travel trailer market, shopped the internet, and visited many RV dealers. Quickly we realized most of the trailers made and sold in our country are poorly made with cheap materials. A very few manufacturers make an attractive, durable, and high quality travel trailer. We settled upon Airstreams, the silver bullets still made in America since over 75 years ago. We found the perfect Airstream trailer at our local dealer in Colfax, NC. Long story short, July 2005 our Airstream arrived. We traveled NC, VA, and SC some weekends. We joined the Airstream owners association, Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBCCI).
We had no idea one (much less two of us) could live in the camper and travel whenever wherever we wanted. We are backpackers who ended up with a fantastic mobile base-camp. Work was challenging, demanding, and rewarding. Work and family responsibilities dictated travel mostly on weekends from mid-2005 until mid-2007. We both had good jobs we wanted to keep and had great co-workers and bosses. Yet we were both ready for a big change. And did we ever get change!
We spent almost no retired time living in our house. We quit our jobs, sold the contents, sold the house, and moved into the Airstream trailer between August 3, 2007 and February 1, 2008. Sometimes we remark to each other we don't know what it might be like to live full-time, retired, in a sticks and bricks house. We'll find out someday.
Full-timing is a lot different from our city-living experience. We don't maintain almost 3,000 square feet and lawn and bushes and garden and trees. No roof gutter issues here, the rain pours off the trailer's narrow roof immediately and cascades down the trailer's sides. And water can't back up into the basement, depending upon a sump pump to return it outside.
Some things are simpler, some are more varied, about full-timing life on the road. We usually cannot choose from over a dozen restaurants within walking distance of our urban house. But we often can choose from any number of nearby trails into the woods or hills or along the streams or rivers. Our scenery changes as often as we will it. The view from our windows changes almost weekly between March and November, our biggest traveling months.
Funny, we've scarcely backpacked again once we bought the Airstream. We've been having too much fun RVing. Finally, five years after we started Airstreaming, we backpacked the Cascades in Washington State in Sep 2009. Our Cascades trip was great, and boy was it sweet returning to the Airstream for a cold beer and a hot shower. Hopefully we'll enjoy some more backpacking in the near future.
Let us know what you think about our adventure and our presentation. And tell us if we left something out you'd like to hear about.
Please feel free to write us at as4822@gmail.com
(c) dreamstreamr.com 2007-2010
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