Our trailer service is done. The bottom line was $1500, with ceramic brake pads all around, one replaced rotor, axle alignment, a new bumper, straightening and repainting of the rear scrapers, and a few small parts.

Today at the Airstream factory Brett and I will be running around trying to meet with various people on the staff, and conducting a few interviews for future articles in Airstream Life. One interview was done yesterday afternoon, with John Huttle. He’s the head of Airstreams “B-van” division, which includes the new Interstate 3500 touring coach being produced in a separate building across the street from the main assembly building. We took a tour of the assembly process (not part of the public tour, sorry) and were quite impressed by the complete redesign of this new little motorhome.

I need to do several follow-up interviews today and over the next few weeks to get together a good story about this completely re-designed product. That article should appear in the Winter 2008 issue of Airstream Life.

Since the bulk of the day will be filled with business tasks, I am going to take the opportunity to share with you a few good links which have been passed on to me by blog readers recently.

Andy writes: “For one brief, er, it would have been a shining moment if it was the daytime, an almost Airstream is the trailer that appears in the trailer (couldn’t resist that one) for the Disney movie ‘Bolt.’ The shape of the trailer (travel-trailer, that is) is definitely Airstream, but the side details look a bit different, like there’s a recessed waistband or something. The travel trailer appears about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way into the movie trailer.”

Al wrote in a comment yesterday that there was a recall on valve stems going on. I haven’t yet verified if our stems are in the recall, but here’s the link for more information about that.

Brad writes in from Oregon to tip me off to a good article about the rising ukulele phenomenon. (Registration may be required to view this article.) When the New York Times covers it, you know you’ve made the big time, right? Hey, even Warren Buffet plays the uke. He thought it would get him girls. (Hey Warren, it didn’t work for me either.)

Some fellow full-timers, Jim and Debbie, have been keeping a blog of their travels for some time. Since the travels of Bobby & Danine (“A Year About”) have come to an end, their blog will be replaced on the Airstream Community page of this website with Jim & Debbie’s “Dreamstreamr Odyssey.” But I still advise anyone planning to take an extended tour in their travel trailer to read the archives of A Year About. It’s fun to read about their adventure and very informative as well.

Deb and Jim have been particularly helpful in advising us on methods and concerns related to obtaining good nationwide health insurance for full-timers. Deb has written up a short article on that subject, which contains useful information for anyone trying to figure out individual health insurance while traveling.

That ought to keep you busy while I’m running around Jackson Center all day. More later. Let me know if there’s a photo you want me to try to take while I’m here.