Chapter 2: We were on our way home from tent camping, malodorous and weary from lack of proper sleep. I’m wearing my old favorite DKNY baseball cap. (My answer to trailer trash quiz #1). The moment we had cellular service, I pulled out my iPad and starting Googling travel trailers. Brian will attest, when I am determined to buy something, there is no stopping me. AMEX loves me. I like to “window shop” the internet by first Googling the images. I look through all the pictures first, rather than wasting time looking through websites finding what I don’t want. My first image search brings up an assortment of these silver-bullet-looking-things. I am intrigued. I click on one of them for a closer look and there it is… an Airstream.

They say that life changing moments are only apparent in retrospect. I didn’t realize it at the time, but typing in that one word, Airstream, on that post-traumatic tent camping day was going to change my life (and Brian’s life too, whether he wanted it to change or not). The word Airstream produced 2,380,000 results in Google. Wow! I had to know what this madness was all about, and I had just been given over two million places to look. So I dove in head first. My life had just changed from Woman Seeking Trailer to Woman Seeking Airstream.

At first glance, I was disturbed that this Airstream trailer group seemed a bit like a cult. Seeing pictures of “caravans” and “rallies”– hundreds of Airstreams gathering together was a bit creepy. Then I find out that there are “Airstream Only” RV parks throughout the country. I wasn’t sure how I felt about exclusionary camping. Aren’t all nature loving campers awesome people? Was it okay to be rejected because you own a Coleman Camper? Some parks even require you to have a WBCCI membership. What’s a WBCCI membership? I had so much more to learn.

I continued to scan the internet and found recent posts like this: “Airstream Owners Club plans its fall adventure…“ Seriously? I’m not a “club” kind of person, at all. I can’t remember being in a “club” since my mother made me join 4H. I don’t play Bridge in a club. I don’t read books in tandem with others. I don’t jog on a fleet of treadmills. I don’t even belong to Sam’s Club. Brian’s love for tennis drew him toward joining a country club, but I scoffed at the idea until he gave up. Join a trailer club? You’ve got to be kidding me. This was pure madness. But my inquiring mind kept me going- wondering why some people would?

Hours of reading later, and at the risk of sounding like an Airstream history lesson here, I will just briefly note what I had learned so far. Flashback to the 1950’s: Wally Byam, who was the inventor of the Airstream (and was also the WB in the WBCCI above), was leading a “club” of Airstream owners all around the world. The Caravans had literally been traveling together through Canada, Mexico, Central America, Europe and even Africa. These little “Made in America” trailers were going global– boldly going where no other trailers had gone before. I was impressed. My attitude toward this “club” and their trailers was beginning to change. Sometimes you just have to embrace the madness.

The one nuance that I was starting to pick up about the Airstream, was that it falls into the same category as baseball, hot dogs and apple pie. Chevrolet move over– or hitch up an Airstream. Like apple pie, the silver-bullet icon screams American culture to a lot of people. The mini living spaces on wheels encouraged people to venture out of their homes and discover new places; form new friendships (i.e. join a club), and make their travel dreams come true. While I was still very opposed to ever joining a club, I did feel myself being pulled along a journey to becoming one of those people who idolizes these little silver things. Cult or not, I am Woman Seeking Airstream.

Trailer Trash Quiz #2.

Why would YOU join a club?

a. I don’t have time to read what happened in chapters 4, 5 and 6, so my book club buddies will be sure to tell me next week.

b. Instead of getting one bottle of fabric softener that will do 16 loads, I get one bottle of fabric softener that will do 220. (I don’t have to worry about fabric softener for the next 3 years!)

c. Clubs can pick and choose their members. Even my credit union doesn’t have to pick you.

d. I can exercise with, socialize with, dine with, dance with, wear the same clothes as, drive the same cars as and comprehensively compete in life with others who are named Jones.

e. Other. (Enter your answer in the box below)

See my answer on the next post. Until then……