Glamping

My husband and I have a T@B, a small teardrop camper and last week we took it to a state park for a few days. The morning after we arrived, we got up and saw that someone had checked into the campsite across from us. My eyes got huge when I saw our new “neighbor”. It was a 33 foot Airstream and it was huge. Three axles, no less. Out of curiosity, I looked online and saw such a vehicle would retail for over $222,000. A few sites in the other direction was a couple with a Casita, another small camper. I figured they were probably kindred spirits and went over to meet them. Neither of us had seen anyone come or go from the Airstream except a lone man. Seemed like a pretty big overstatement for one person, unless maybe it was his full-time home. He had a large pickup and the gas expense plus the environmental impact would have been a monstrous combination. Together the Casita people and I gossiped about  the behemoth across from us and felt very superior about our small “footprint”. Later in the morning I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer and I went over to meet the mystery man. I was surprised to find that he was a in his 30’s. And when I got close, I saw the metal exterior wasn’t shiny and new. It had been painted to look like silver. The owner was gracious and friendly and eager to show off his trailer. Turns out he had bought it, totally gutted and in bad shape, for $6,500. He is an immigrant who has been in this country since he was six. He lives in Vancouver, WA and was staying at the campground because had been hired to do the tile work at a fish hatchery nearby. He’s renovating the trailer to use for vacations for his extended family. He invited me to look inside, where he had installed bunk beds on one end and a California King on the other. The kitchen had a full-on refrigerator installed. But overall there was nothing about it that said “glamping”. It was definitely a work- in-progress but he was so proud of it. It was a good lesson about having a preconceived idea about somebody.

Photo of the actual Airstream in the post is courtesy of me, Mary Kunkel.