Airstream Life:

On and Off the Road Part One

(Nelly’s sun-kissed interior)

Streamers, as we are sometimes called, like most RV-ers love a good road trip, but not all folks can (nor do they wish to), spend weeks at a time chasing adventure. We do. In my last missive, we were hunkered down in North Carolina’s Outer Banks getting ready to make our way back to Rhode Island after three weeks of travel.

We’ve been home for a week now and are dreaming of spending the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas in St. Augustine, Florida, but hold up. Before we can actively pursue the many details of that trip, Nelly must undergo a rigorous decommission of sorts, including winterization. Even though we will be heading south again on November 28, we must still protect her from freezing temperatures in the interim. That exercise means blowing out all the residual water from the toilet, sinks, showers, and low points and running antifreeze through all the lines.

While I leave those mechanical details to Todd, I am entrusted with emptying out the contents of Nelly’s interior and that means removing all foodstuffs. Mice can and will wreck havoc with an unattended travel trailer, so I remove the leftover food we usually have on board: pasta, pancake mix, crackers, rice, and bread. (I even remove canned goods for good measure.) From there, I empty the contents of the refrigerator and defrost the freezer. Flatware, dishes, pots and pans, which get cursory cleanings on the road, get a thorough hot water sanitizing spin through the dishwasher at home. Lastly, I remove all our clothes from the overhead compartments and closets and give everything a good wash. (While camped outside of Nashville we encountered an infestation of invasive stinkbugs! Several of the little buggers found a way to hitch a ride into North Carolina with us.)

(We had to deal with an infestation of these invasive stinkbugs at our campground outside of Nashville, TN)

Every surface then gets wiped down. (Multi-Surface Pledge is the manufacturer’s recommended cleaner.) I scrub down the shower stall and vacuum out the crumbs in the overhead compartments and vacuum and wash the floors, including the two anti-fatigue rugs/mats in the hallway.

Now that Nelly looks like a shiny coin, it’s time to contemplate our early winter trip south. So what’s the process? It’s not like booking a couple flights and a hotel room.

More will be revealed. Stay tuned.