Big news! Jeremy has started listening to a podcast about RV life. It's an older couple who started in tents and worked their way up to a Class A Motorhome. In one of their pod casts, they talked about the dangers of a single axle - standard on the 19' Airstream - and so Jeremy and I have decided to go with a larger trailer in order to have the double axle. We've settled (I think) on a 25' International. We've changed our minds so much! But I think this is it. We've found our home.
I love how sure I am when I say, "We've found our home." For pictures of the "home" in question, go here.
Over the next 24 hours our conversations sounded like this:
Me: "Here we go again! This happened last time we started
RV dreaming. We got into bigger and bigger trailers!"
Jeremy: "It's still smaller than most people will live out of."
Me: "True. But we've gone from 16 to 25 feet!"
Jeremy: "It's hard not to doubt the Airstream idea when you see the same
size white box for sale at a fraction - a fraction - of the price. And they're
more what we wanted in the first place!"
And here is my journal entry from today, 9/23/10:
We'll we've changed our minds again.
To cut a long story short, we've changed our allegiance to Chalet, a company out of Oregon. They take their time building their RVs, only producing a small quantity per year. You have to sign up to buy one, they are in such high demand and short supply. The reviews are incredible.
What it boiled down to was listing what we want and realizing we can't meet those needs in an Airstream.
Wish List
16-20 feet (however nutty that makes us, it's what we want).
Dual axle (evidently this is a huge safety precaution).
More nest egg left over after the purchase of the truck, trailer, and accessories.
Simplicity.
Decent holding tanks for dry camping and boondocking.
A queen sized bed.
An oven and a microwave.
A dry shower.
A dinette instead of a couch.
No slide-outs.
The Airstream meets a lot of these wishes, but the Chalet meets all of them. If the 19' Airstream came with a dual axle, we might not have changed our minds. And I'm glad it doesn't come with a dual axle, because this new development forced us to really think about what it is we want. If you're going to spend a lot of money on something you plan to live in, and which depreciates, hadn't you better love every square inch of it?
We will be updating our Life Board to reflect our newest dream trailer, the Chalet Takena 1860. Check it out here.
Instead of spending at least $50,000 on the Airstream dream, we are now looking to spend $20,000 on the new, Chalet dream. And there are other benefits to this new plan.
Benefits
Smaller truck needed for towing.
Lower fuel costs.
Eco-friendly.
Easier to camp anywhere.
Easier and safer to tow.
More money leftover in the nest-egg (which is currently an imaginary nest-egg).
No, it isn't as stylish. No, we won't be able to join elite Airstream only clubs and camp in elite Airstream only parks or go on elite Airstream only caravan trips. But we can live without these things.
We will always admire Airstreams. But the Chalet feels more like us.
Stay tuned, though...Who knows what tomorrow may bring!
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