We finally came to interior renovations, although the first update was an accidental one. After all the effort put into the Airstream, the interior still appeared almost exactly the same as the day we bought it—unfortunate faux wood paneling, yellowing curtains, and upholstery only a senior citizen could love.

The original curtains were dusty and slightly moldy to complement their once-white hue. We thought it would be fine to just throw them in the washing machine. We didn’t have the foresight to test drive just one in the wash before throwing them all in. I still wonder what came over me that day. I am usually extremely cautious when laundering different fibers/fabrics because of poor results experienced through my other hobbies, knitting and sewing.

The curtains had a vinyl-like UV protective coating on the back. This coating melted and fused to itself in the wash. They came out as a large ball of polyester. We tried to gently pull the ball apart, but the curtains were a lost cause.

We special ordered replacement curtains from a vendor we found in the WBCCI Region 1 newsletter. Delivered in a month, the workmanship was incredible. You can see the amount of pleating involved in the picture above. The new curtains completely brightened the space, and our privacy was restored.

The Airstream has been the subject of a flurry of news briefs the past few days. Frank Bates, an RV sales lot owner, planted 7 Airstreams in the ground outside of his business in a tribute to Cadillac Ranch. His neighbors are complaining about the eyesore and rubberneckers. He says it’s art. Links to coverage are below:

RVs Half Buried

One Man’s Art Is Another’s Trailer Trash

‘Art’ Evokes Nostalgia — or Queasiness

Even though I’m partial to the Airstream, I have to agree with those who question whether his installation is art. His motivations appear to be sales instead of artistic expression. Roadside America (an online guide to offbeat tourist attractions) has a longer article with further insights.

I recently ventured to Zimman’s in Lynn, MA with my friend Joy. She was there to buy silk to fashion into hot pink balloon curtains for her bedroom. Zimman’s is an upholstery and fabric store established in 1909. During my visit, I felt like I had traveled to a bygone era. I have never witnessed such knowledgeable sales associates. Joy needed advice because the curtains she imagined were complicated. The salespeople spent close to an hour explaining the challenges of her intended project.

While she was huddled with them, I wandered through the fabrics, hoping to find something to reupholster the front pullout couch (official Airstream term: gaucho). Whatever we pick will be on full display as one of the primary design elements in the interior. We aren’t quite at a place where we can make the purchase because we’ve yet to determine a color palette. Vote for your favorites in the comments, and we’ll take it all into consideration as we debate the color scheme.

In September 2007, we camped in the Merrimack Valley in New Hampshire. The trailer required merely 19 months of renovation work to make this trip.

We traveled from its resting spot in Rhode Island to a campground in New Hampshire. Since we were driving early in the morning, we decided to go directly through Boston’s Big Dig using Interstate 93. We made it through unscathed. 

We stayed at the Wakeda Campground . Aluminuts and I usually avoid RV campgrounds, but we were short on planning time and had to make arrangements quickly. The campground was nearly empty as we arrived on the last weekend of the season. We didn’t have any close neighbors, and it felt private enough. If the campground were fully booked, though, other campers would be right on top of you.

We prepared salmon with corn maque choux for dinner our first night. One can eat like a king with the convenience of a kitchen in the wild.

The following weekend, we took the Airstream to Salem, MA, for our friends’ wedding. We camped in the driveway of the bride and groom.

During the week in between, we stored the Airstream in a guy’s backyard in southern NH, located through Craigslist. We didn’t have a place to park it in Boston, and we didn’t want to tow in back to Rhode Island and have to make the same trip the next weekend. I was impressed by Aluminuts’ ingenuity in finding a RV parking spot online. 

See a full account of our voyage with pictures in the First Camping Trip slideshow on our Flickr page.

I’ve always been especially proud that StoryCorps outfitted an Airstream as its roving recording studio. Anyone can drag a friend or family member into the StoryCorps booth and record an interview with them. WBUR in Boston broadcasts vignettes from the recordings during the morning news, and they are so often wonderful to hear. I dream of the day the StoryCorps booth finds my Momma Mae and me in the same city so that I can record an account of her time spent as a teenager touring New England with an traveling variety show.

Today, the Orlando Sentinel has an article to welcome the StoryCorps Airstream to the Orlando Public Library.

We installed a bamboo floor over the old faux wood linoleum tiles that existed before. The bamboo was a snap together system from Ikea, which ran only around $100 for the whole job (about 55 square feet). With the new floor, we have taken our first step out of the 70s. It feels good!

The biggest task I have planned for this spring is to replumb the entire trailer with Pex plastic tubing. The plumbing has never worked 100%, and there is a leak in one of the drainpipes. To fix this I will need to remove part, or perhaps the entire, belly plate to reach the pipes. Once I remove the belly I might as well sand and paint the frame to halt the considerable rust. My goal is to have this work done by April so I can have the trailer ready to bring to whatever campsite we choose in May and camp most weekends in the summer.

Repairs for later in ‘08:

• Replace refrigerator
• Replace air conditioner
• New lighting (probably some track lighting from Ikea)
• New, quieter vents
• New inverter, to help charge the battery

The Airstream leaked like a sieve. Sealing the exterior is not that simple. The water finds its way into the outer shell and travels within the cavity of the walls. There is no correlation between where the leak in the skin is and the resulting interior leak. Therefore we had to seal the entire skin, every window, and the door. This task took almost two months.

Because the skin is made of aluminum, you can’t use regular caulk. We had to use a special product, Vulkem sealent by Tremco, which we had to order since it couldn’t be located at local hardware stores. We used this to seal large gaps around windows and doors. We applied Parbond using an actual medical syringe into the tight fitting seams of the skin’s aluminum panels. Lastly, we had to buy a special gasket from Vintage Trailer Supply.

Since the trailer stood untouched for 9 years, the continuous leaks caused a section of the subfloor to completely rot out. Once we completely sealed the skin we were able to cut out the section of rotted subfloor and replace it with new plywood.

The sense of accomplishment after all of this was a little muted. One couldn’t tell on the surface that we had done any work!

CampyLady failed to tell me before buying a 5000 lb trailer that she was morally opposed to driving a truck capable of towing it. This has been a constant debate between us. I am certainly aware of the environmental issues involved, but disagree with CampyLady on this one point. While I concur that driving a gas-guzzling SUV around town as your primary car is a little ridiculous and not environmentally conscious, I feel that it is acceptable if you have a legitimate need. I don’t expect farmers to drive little Volkswagens. The day we bought an Airstream we had a legitimate need to own a truck.

We both take public transportation and ride bikes whenever we need to go places during the week; I feel this more than offsets our owning a larger truck. I also think that if CampyLady feels so guilty about one day driving a truck she could further offset her environmental footprint by taking 10-minute showers as opposed to the 45-minute marathons she presently enjoys.

One of the things I have struggled with as an Airstream owner is the fact it doesn’t exactly meld with my environmentalist leanings. I’ve prided myself on commuting by public transportation, maintaining a vegetarian diet, driving small cars, camping without leaving a trace, and generally living a modest footprint in life.

When I was considering the Airstream purchase, I read that Wally Byam had manufactured the trailers to be lightweight so that a regular car could tow them. “Great!” I thought, “I won’t be one of those honkies you see on the road with an RV the size of a house pulled by 2-ton truck.”

After we made the deposit, I remembered that a sedan or station wagon in the 50s and 60s had a whole lot more towing power than one manufactured in recent years. I came to understand it’s a matter of safety to pull the Airstream with a truck capable of the job after reading the Airstream forums. Safety consciousness pulls the same weight as environmental consciousness in my head. I didn’t want to put myself, Aluminuts, and others on the road in danger by insisting on an inadequate tow vehicle. After much debate, we’ve determined the Toyota Tundra will be the front-runner when the time comes.

For now, I feel like I can put my environmental concerns to bed. Our plan for next summer is to park the Airstream in New Hampshire and visit it on the weekends shuttled by the Accord. I hold out hope that when or if we gather the funds to take the Big Trip a alternative energy, affordable, tow-worthy truck will be on the market. And yes, I know that’s more a matter of fantasy than hope. On the other hand, perhaps 6+ years of public transportation will earn me enough carbon credits to take the trip without insomnia-inducing guilt.

Above, our nephew peers out the window. Please think of his future, Aluminuts!