We are a couple of people very fortunate to have found each other. We grew up twenty-five miles apart, attended the same university and both stayed in Chapel Hill, NC after graduation. But our paths had not crossed. Twenty years later we both were working for Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, NC and were working on Y2K projects. Our friends were convinced we deserved each other, acted on it, and we owe them for getting us together.

Our previous lifetime was working 50+ hours/week in great jobs. We occasionally would take a week and hike a section of the Appalachian Trail. Easter Week 2004 we were hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail in NC and said to each other, "If we had a camper we could extend our range. A mobile base would allow us, once we retire, to avoid motel fees and we could work any number of new trails from an entirely new section of the country."

We studied the travel trailer market and shopped the internet and visited sales lots of RV dealers. Quickly we realized a lot, if not most, of the trailers made and sold in our country are poorly made with poor materials. A very few manufacturers make an attractive, durable, and high quality travel trailer. We settled upon Airstreams, the silver bullets still made in America since over 75 years ago. We found the perfect Airstream trailer at our local dealer in Colfax, NC. Long story short, July 2004 our Airstream arrived. We traveled NC, VA, and SC some weekends. We joined the Airstream owners association, Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBCCI).

We had neither heard nor imagined one could live in the camper and travel whenever wherever one wanted. We are backpackers who ended up with a fantastic mobile base-camp. Work was challenging, demanding, and rewarding. Work and family responsibilities dictated travel mostly on weekends from mid-2004 until mid-2007. We both had good jobs we enjoyed and great co-workers and bosses. And we were both ready for a big change. And did we ever get it!

Funny, we hardly backpacked again once we bought the Airstream. We were having too much fun RVing. Finally, five years after we started Airstreaming, we backpacked the Cascades in Washington State. Our Cascades trip was great, and boy was it sweet returning to the Airstream for a cold beer and a hot shower. Hopefully we'll enjoy some more backpacking in the near future.

Let us know what you think about our adventure and our presentation. And tell us if we left something out you'd like to hear about.

Please feel free to write us at as4822@gmail.com



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