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The Story of Our Airstream
Tosha Tingey • May 09, 2019
The story of how we found and purchased our vintage Airstream
We had been going RV shopping for a couple of months and had an idea of what we wanted. When Jon first pitched the idea of traveling full-time, our first plan was an Airstream. One google search later and a look at the cost and we put that plan aside. We just couldn’t quite find exactly what we wanted within our budget.
We drove out to Utah for Jonathan’s sister’s wedding up in the beautiful mountains. As we drove up for the rehearsal we passed by an Airstream sitting majestically in a field. “I would love to buy that Airstream.” Jon said off-handedly.
The next day we enjoyed the wedding celebration with the beautiful Utah mountains in the background. I was nursing Addie in the bridal room and asked Jon to run to the car to grab a blanket for her. Time passed, and Jon still hadn’t returned. About 20min later he comes back with the blanket in hand and a big grin on his face. He tells me he has exciting news.
On his way to the car, he bumped into an older gentleman named Darryl. Darryl was the owner of the venue and a lot of the property around it. It turns out he also owned the Airstream in the field! What are the odds of that? Well, he dropped that little piece of information and then asked Jon what our plans in life were. “Well, funny you mention it…” haha he then told him our plans to live full-time in a *cough* airstream *cough* trailer and travel the country. Without even a second thought he invited us to come to look at it the next day.
We originally were going to drive home the next day but decided it could wait. All we knew about the trailer was that it was an Airstream. We didn’t know the length, the condition, the year, or really any other important details. That night we researched all there was about Airstreams and renovating. The next day we went back and checked it out. It was my first time inside an Airstream. It had been sitting in this field for some time and was a bit neglected.
View all of the before pictures HERE
His first asking price was $12,000. He had put some money into it to replace the carpet with flooring and replaced the tires and axels and he didn’t want to lose out on any money. We told him we could only do $8,000. He met us in the middle at $10,000, and we left to sleep on it. After a lot of talking, we decided that we needed to stay at $8,000. We called him up and told him that we couldn’t do it but appreciated his time in letting us come to look at it. I sat outside on the steps wondering if we made the right decision when Jon came out, still on the phone, and said that he was willing to do $8,000! We told him we would like to look at it one more time (we had done a bit more research on what to look for) before we made the deal.
We headed up the canyon in our Honda Pilot hoping to make it back with an Airstream in tow. Aren’t we so adorable thinking we could tow it in our Pilot? Haha!
We spent about an hour and a half going over everything again and again and asking a lot more questions. Even as we headed to the bank to get the money, we kept asking each other if we were crazy to buy a vintage Airstream and renovate it. The answer is still yes to this day.
But we made the deal and got the keys and (after an hour of trying to get it hitched up) we were on our way!
As you could’ve guessed, our Pilot did not do so well towing a 27’ Airstream. Halfway down the canyon, we had to pull over and call a friend with a truck. I hesitate to share the picture I took of us on the side of the road because it looks SO bad! But hey, maybe someone is creating a collection of “How Not to Tow” pictures and can add ours to the mix.
We got her back to my parent’s house where we were staying. Our next pickle was how to get her to Colorado. After weighing all the options, the cheapest one was to pay to have Jon’s dad come out and tow it back in his big suburban. It was a LONG trip back and so stressful but also super exciting watching our Airstream travel down the interstate. It felt so good to pull up in our place in Colorado with no damage or any other crazy thing that my imagination came up with.
On the way back home to Colorado, we listened to the song Cleopatra by the Lumineers. With our trailer in tow in front of us, we knew that was her name. If anyone has seen the music video for Cleopatra too, it just adds to the reasons why. Plus, if you haven’t noticed, we love the Lumineers. 😉
When you're on a cruise it can be difficult to experience the island or country you are in when you only have a few hours. The other challenge we had was finding an excursion that our entire family could join. And by entire family I mean my parents, my sister's family with four kids, and our family! So when we found Chukka Caribbean's excursion that included Zip-lining, River Tubing, ATV ride, lunch, and a bird aviary - it was the plan for a perfect day!
If you’ve ever gone to Rocky Mountain National Park, you most likely came through Estes Park. It’s pretty well known but from now on when we go to the National Park we will be going to Granby. Granby is on the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park. We found an AMAZING campground to stay at that has so many amenities and the area all around is packed with fun things to do!
I always want to be real with anyone reading this blog about full-time travel, tiny living, Airstream life… all of the above. So I want to share some of our hardest moments that had us either wanting to quit or had us seriously questioning, “what are we even doing?” So here we go…
Glacier National Park is one of those National Parks that you hear about and just KNOW that it is going to be amazing. And it was. Right upon entering the park it felt more like home and less like a tourist attraction. The park itself is huge but upon arrival, it feels like you’re entering a little town with an ice cream shop and café, boat rentals, and a small visitor center. After going to the visitor center we headed to get our kayak inspected. The inspections are free and pretty basic. You will have to rinse it off if it’s wet or dirty but that’s about it. If you aren't bringing your own gear you can rent for a good price right across the street from the lake. Life jackets are required to be worn by children and adults must have them in the boat with them or worn. After that, we went right to the dock next to the Village Inn and set sail! The pictures can show just how gorgeous this place was better than I could ever describe.
Pike’s Place Market place is the longest-running farmer’s market in America! The hype and the buzz of the atmosphere is palpable. You have flowers lining one side and the most unique crafts, food, art, jewelry, anything you can think of on the other! On the lower level, you’ll find shops dedicated to vintage prints, toy cars, magic shops, and more unique products! And of course, the famous fish throwing vendor will not leave you disappointed. I usually get anxiety in large crowds and people trying to sell me stuff. But the vibe here was so family-friendly. The crowds felt less annoying and more like I just found the after party of Seattle. Just a short stairway away is the somehow popular and extremely gross, gum wall. This alleyway is just covered in gum on the walls and it looks really cool, just don’t think about it too much.
As with just about anything in life, you can only prepare so much until you are actually living it. We have been living in a 150 sq ft Airstream for the past 3 months and here are 3 things we love and 3 things we don’t.
1. Self-Cleaning Vacuum We have a little hidden cubby where we keep our Deebot (googly eyes not included). This almost didn’t happen and I am SO glad it did. I learned within one day how dirty our floors get. It’s awesome to run the little robot vacuum while we are gone or asleep or packing up and have it do all the work.
Pacific City RV Resort had so many amenities and the biggest, most private campsites we've ever had! It's across the street from the beach and lives in the beautiful small coastal town of Pacific City, Oregon.
The Thousand Trails campground, Russian River was just a half way stop near Santa Rosa, CA and we were pleasantly surprised with what this RV campground had to offer!
The Yosemite Lakes campground was actually the one that got us interested in a Thousand Trails to begin with. This campground is chuck full of amenities in the campground itself, and it’s 10 min away from the Yosemite National Park entrance. And I’m apologizing in advance, we were enjoying it so much that we forgot to take pictures until we left! So I only have a few but hopefully it’s better than nothing.