We bought this Airstream with lofty thoughts of freeing our selves from house, yard work, jobs and heading out on the road.  Okay, I will admit.  We did this once with a 34′ sailboat that sat at the dock and only served as a great place to sip wine.  Our thoughts of vast voyages did not happen due to the fact that the boat tipped when it sailed…..uhhh, yeah, and?   Then we made another (well thought out) purchase of a brand new 24′ power boat with a cabin for 4 people.  Only one person could be in there at a time and the boat didn’t handle rough water (read…boat wakes) without doing an about-face at full speed.  Admitting again here, yeah we should of done more thinking or training with that boat.  But hey, I know, we could go bigger….maybe a 32′ with twin engines?   Yeah, no.  We sold the boats after acknowledging that we were not meant to be big-boat cruisers.  I guess there needs to be total trust in the captain before the mate agrees to go along.

So this past fall, with strong urges to get away to far-off destinations, we settled on maybe a trailer, or a motorhome, or something like that.  To see extraordinary sites across America, we needed to get out on the road.  Motels won’t do and I have grown to hate airlines.  So, after a long debate with ourselves, we settled on towing 4500 pounds of aluminum and rivets around 2-lane roads, with low-hanging branches, to find a place to park.  An Airstream is classic, its retro, its Americana, and its hurtling down the freeway at 55 mph, looming large in my rear-view mirror, only 5 feet behind!

It sat in our yard for 4 months during the long winter, gleaming at us on bright days and dripping during the rain. Mold and pollen was creating green channels around the edges.  Even though we tried to use it in the driveway, sitting at the dinette drinking tea and planning our first trip, we weren’t sure if this was another misconceived purchase that requires a special dance just to move around each other in the tight space.  But it promises sunshine and vistas and the open road.  So now is the time to try it out. Officially, our maiden voyage is here.  Time to hitch it up and head to the ferry and places beyond.

We lashed Maxwell (our Airstream) up to our 2007 Nissan Frontier (6 cyl 4X4) using an Equalizer weight distribution hitch.  The lights worked…good, that can be checked off.  We loaded up the food, clothes, chairs, firewood, awning lights (of course, got to play the part), and camp stoves. We cooled the refrigerator down for a day prior and locked the door for the journey.  We were off to Cape Disappointment State Park.  A great name to start our journey, nothing put up from there!  Our first obstacle was to load onto the ferry.  Now, I have been riding these ferries for over 35 years and I can tell you, a strong heart and steel nerves are needed to load a 40 foot-long caravan onto the boat.  The deckhands just point at a lane and expect you to go straight and not hit anything.  Then they try to squeeze a UPS truck 6 inched from your door….did you remember to pull in your mirrors?  We lucked out, nothing hit, nothing scratched and slowly we disembarked on the mainland.  Our next feet was to find gas and enough space to navigate around the pumps without having to back onto traffic.  Thinking Costco gas on a Saturday would take more guts that this guy had, I looked for a regular gas station with wide access.  I have seen those maniacs maneuvering between waiting cars at Costco.  Not this time, thanks.

We merged onto the freeway with no issues and the trailer towed smoothly.  We played with the idea of going through a Starbucks drive-thru just to get the looks….but they put a low roof over the window that stopped us.  We drove a little over 2 hours to “The Cape” with only one, quick stop along a bay.  You know, I didn’t realize how great it is to bring along our own rest stop and it is loaded with sandwich makings!.  Once through Ilwaco, the park is only 3 miles away.  We arrived expecting to see our kids already there.  They had planned to meet us there with their trailer, drinks in hand, comfortable in their chairs all to watch the spectacle of Dad backing his Airstream into a camp site.  The plan (I learned) was to film it.  But we beat them there and backed easily into the site…only 7 tries with various forms of hand gestures indicating which way to turn and how far to back in.  We will work on this…..
This state park is on the north side of the mouth of the Columbia River on the Washington Side.  This park is huge with multiple campsite loops.  Only one loop was open at this time of year but we did not feel crowded.  There were lots of trees and the spaces offered a lot of privacy.  Our kids finally got there explaining that they spent over an hour at Walmart (how the hell do you do that?).  They reserved the space next door which allowed us to flow from one site to the other.  There are two lighthouses to trek to and the beach is a short walk away.

See our Campground Reviews page to read about Cape Disappointment.

This called for a glass of wine, a camp chair in the sun and a deep sigh of both relief and satisfaction that the trip started on a great note!