FAQs
We’ve put only a few basic questions in the FAQ, because the intent is that the Tour be self-explanatory. Along the road, we’ll produce essays, photos, blog entries, and answers to your questions. All you need to do is read and enjoy ““ and come visit us sometime!
- Q: What’s this all about?
Q: Who are you?
Q: What’s your tow vehicle, trailer, hitch, etc?
Q: Where will you go?
Q: You must have a lot of money to be able to just chuck it all and travel like this, right?
Q: How do you work on the road?
Q: What’s the point?
Q: How long will you be on the road?
Q: What’s this all about?
We’re touring America in a 30-foot Airstream trailer, because we love travel and we love to share the experience with others. We’ve been doing this full-time since October 2005. (We stopped full-time travel almost exactly three years later, in October 2008.)
Q: Who are you?
A: People who love to travel. People who believe that life is short and adventure comes only to those who seek it.
Professionally, Rich is publisher and editor of Airstream Life magazine. Eleanor is a trained chef who loves to share culinary ideas. She home schools our daughter Emma. Emma has been traveling in Airstreams since she was three, (full-time since she was five), and has been to most of the US states and four Canadian provinces so far.
Q: What’s your tow vehicle, trailer, hitch, etc?
A: Our tow vehicle is a 2005 Nissan Armada. The trailer is a 2005 Airstream Safari 30 “bunkhouse”with Kodiak disc brakes, a Hensley hitch, solar panels, and other tweaks for full-time living. A lot of people ask if we are happy with the Nissan. The short answer is “yes”. But this tour is not so much about the equipment. It’s about the experience!
Q: Where will you go?
A: We don’t know for sure. That’s part of the fun! Follow the blog and you’ll find out when we do. If you want to see where we’ve been, read through the Archives. We have over 800 blog entries online with lots of useful information for people considering this sort of lifestyle.
Q: You must have a lot of money to be able to just chuck it all and travel like this, right?
A: Nope. Full-time traveling by RV is cheaper than staying home, if you do it right. And, we still work! I publish Airstream Life magazine, edit it, and run all the business operations from the road.
Q: How do you work on the road?
A: We use cellular Internet, mobile phones, mail forwarding, online bill pay, eFax, and a lot of other tricks to stay in touch and keep the business going. You can read about them on our blog. Do a search on any term you are interested in.
Q: How do you get your mail?
We use a mail forwarding service. Every week or so we ask them to ship our mail in a single package to the next place we expect to be. Most often we’ll have the mail shipped to General Delivery in the next town, but sometimes it goes to friends or campgrounds.
Q: Do you have a house or home base?
For the first two years, we didn’t have a house. Now we have a house in Arizona, which we use as a winter base, but in the first year of ownership we slept in it less than ten times. We prefer to travel in the Airstream most of the time. Even now, with only part-time travel, we still spend more than half the year away from the house.
Q: What’s the point?
A: We love to travel. We love to spend time together as a family. And we have decided that freedom is worth more to us than owning “stuff”. So we’ve chosen to take our lives on the road. And because we love sharing the experience with others, we’ve developed this website for you.
Q: How long will you be on the road?
A: Initially we planned a seven month trip, but we enjoyed it so much we decided to keep going for a while more. The full-time phase of the trip lasted for three years.
Looking for more? Read the blog archives or the posts tagged FAQs.
