The true story of why we joined WBCCI or Wally Byam Caravan Club International, The Airstream Owners Club

We thought, when we purchased our first Airstream trailer in 2004, we were buying a really nice and very enduring travel trailer. We got a lot more than we bargained for – we became members of a wonderful family of Airstream owners across the United States and Canada. We joined the Wally Byam Caravan Club International, an organization of over 4,000 Airstream owners of trailers and motorhomes. The club is named after the founder of Airstreams.

Soon after we purchased our Airstream we received a few calls and a visit to our house from local folks who invited us to their next “rally”.  These folks seemed so nice we gamely figured we would check it out.  We have told the following story very often because we think it is so representative of what WBCCI represents.

We left work and dashed home the Friday of the rally.  We’d packed clothes, food, and dry goods in the travel trailer but still had to hitch the trailer to the truck and check all the tires, the lights, the safety chains and other things an experienced traveler can do rather quickly.  We were awhile getting this done so we finally left town a little before seven o’clock.  We high-fived each other because we had beat the rush hour – everyone should be well along down the interstate by this late on Friday.  We’re on our way now!

We did not know where the rally campground was and weren’t familiar with the area.  We used an on-line mapping tool to plot our course to the campground.  Never before had either of us camped in or towed a travel trailer, other than bringing it home from the local Airstream dealer (Out of Doors Mart in Colfax, NC, www.outofdoorsmart.com) a month earlier.  We had car-camped twice several years earlier before we started backpacking instead.  So, we had little or no preparation for this adventure.

Our truck and trailer hitch setup was sub-optimal and, among other things, led to the truck’s already dim headlights aiming slightly above the road surface.  As darkness fell so did our ability to clearly see the road.  Since we were traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway and it has few intersections and less traffic after nine o’clock p.m., we thought we were okay this time without great road lights.  We couldn’t see the road signs very well but thought we may have passed our intended turn.  Well sometimes you just get lucky – here’s another sign with the same road name for our turn.  We turn off the parkway onto this gravel drive and are relieved we are finally almost to the campground. 

We don’t know much about travel trailers but are glad we don’t have one of those really long thirty-four foot ones.  We bought a relatively short one – our twenty-two foot trailer is all we would want to be pulling around these sharp little turns on this increasingly narrow gravel drive.  Hey, how in the world would a thirty-four foot trailer make these turns?  Just then we find the end of the drive is not to the campground but someone’s house.  Dogs are howling, it is a dark moonless night, and these two first-timers are just outside the private gate of a farm a mile from nowhere.  But Jim is always prepared!  He has four-wheel drive and has driven in worse spots.  (but not with a brand-new travel trailer right behind him)  One seventy-two point turn later we are heading back down the gravel drive.  We’re thankful we neither one had to get out of the truck and discuss the neighborhood safety with undoubtedly huge dogs nor did Jim need to back the trailer the ½ mile back to the Parkway. 

Our hosts had expected us to arrive sometime after nine o’clock.  We realized as we first headed up the parkway almost an hour ago we were going to be awhile getting to the campground so we called the only number we had.  We told the campground office we were running late and please don’t lock the gate, we would arrive as quickly as we could. 

Now it is after ten o’clock and we are on our final approach to the campground.  We do find the correct driveway, see the campground, and find the gate open.  No sooner do we pull through the campground gate then we see two people jumping out of a large Chevy Suburban parked in front of the campground office.  They hurry over to our truck and introduce themselves.  Ray and Peggy Moser, the President and First Lady of The Carolinas Unit of NC of WBCCI, had stationed themselves at the gate and waited for us to (tardily) arrive.