… and it has Airstream written all over it.

So, I have a little story to tell. It’s about ‘our’ Airstream. You know the one. The one with the cheeks that I want to squeeze? Yeah, that one. Here it goes…

After visiting a couple dealerships, we narrowed down the specs of the Airstream we were hoping to buy but none of the dealerships carried our choice. So we were back to window shopping via the internet. And low and behold, we found it on craigslist. A ‘new’ 2007 Airstream International Ocean Breeze 25FB and it was sitting on a dealership lot down in the San Diego area.

The good news was that is priced ridiculously low. The bad news was that it is a bank repo. Ughhhhh. A repo? Come on! But it didn’t end up being as bad as it sounded. The bank repo’ed the trailer from a going out of business dealership and not from a family who had their road trip dreams squashed and then decided to booby trap the toilet with firecrackers (ouch!) and write profanities all over the aluminum exoskeleton (might sound cool to you now but Ava will eventually learn to read, people!).

(more…)

Isn’t she just so so cute?

I want to squeeze her cheeks.  I want to hug her until she wiggles out of my arms. I want to put a cherry on top and eat her up with a spoon. But, I guess I have to settle on incessantly staring at her picture until we finally meet in person. And then I’m going to squeeze her cheeks… wherever they are.

the end,
marlene

(If you haven’t read Part 1 of our shopping adventure, click here.)

So, as you recall, we were in the market for a used Airstream International Signature Series 25FB. I guess you can say we were pretty specific on what we wanted. We preferred to buy a used one from someone who was looking to part ways with theirs but strangely enough there weren’t too many on the market. So we headed to one of our local dealerships in Southern California to check out their inventory. And low and behold, they had a 2007 with our specs. The modern interior was clean, slick, and accented with orange.

Could this be the one? We can’t buy the first one we looked at, right? Would that be responsible of us? I would normally answer these questions with a ‘Yes, we bought it on the spot anyways!’… but not this time. We told the kind salesman that we could not buy the very first one we looked at… even after he knocked off $12k on the spot without us even asking.

(more…)

A man and woman walk into an Airstream dealership.

The man kicks the tires, makes sure he can comfortably sit on the commode, and carefully inspects the cost breakdown spec sheet.

The woman opens all the cabinets to try to figure out how all of her their stuff will fit, notes the color palette, and tries to imagine if a pack ‘n play could be squeezed next to the dinette.

The salesman gives us his forewarned ‘two-minute spiel’.

He tells the man that an Airstream is for a ‘lifetime’. He tells the woman how pretty these cabinets look at night.

Oh man. Are we really that predictable?

***

Dan and I did a lot of window shopping online. Dan didn’t really care which model we got as long as we got a good price. Sure, I wanted a good price too (who doesn’t?) but I wanted it to feel like home. My home. Especially since it will be more than just a weekender. So, I put my foot down and said that I prefer the International line and that’s it. (Dan loves it when I am flexible with my choices.) And on top of my preference for the International line, I definitely did NOT want the cheesy Ocean Breeze model. No way Jose. Over my dead body. It’s my or the highway. You hear me, Dan?

***

We had no idea what size we would feel comfortable in or what floor plan would work for us… until we saw them in person. We decided that the 25 foot model would work best for us since it had a permanent dinette and a couch. The dinette would work perfectly as a traveling office area and the couch would give Ava ample stretching room. Perfect. I really didn’t want to set-up and break-down the eating area every night as we did with the T@b.

The 25 foot model had two floor plan options. The FB (Front Bedroom) floor plan had the shower and toilet/sink areas separated, a gaucho couch and a more spacious bedroom.

The SS (Six Sleeper) floor plan had a more traditional couch and bathroom but had a cramped bedroom and a flimsy shower door that I could guarantee Ava busting through within a week.

So after a few minutes of touring actual Airstreams, we agreed that we needed to focus on looking for an International Signature Series 25FB (non-Ocean Breeze) which was not one of the newest model years.

I never said I wasn’t picky.

***

To be continued…
marlene