Home Sweet Home

It's hard to believe, but we're back in our little island Airstream after five months of adventures that included an epic west-coast road trip, the holidays in Colorado, and six weeks in New Zealand. We arrived home about a week ago after a meandering mini road trip from Colorado to Idaho to Washington (with a brief stop in Dillon, Montana at the Patagonia Outlet store...). We made a mental effort to try our best not to be dismayed at the potential state of our Airstream before we got there, just in case the place was covered in hibernating creatures or a tree had crushed it. Ok, that's a little dramatic. Fortunately neither of those two things had occurred, there was just some serious mold and mildew to clean out. Ahhhh Washington, you are wet and wild and things just grow too darn well! Out came the respirators, the bleach (yuck), and the scrubbing began. The worst part was that our countertops, which are unsealed on the under side, seemed to have absorbed moisture and warped, now resembling a boat hull! The sink even busted out of its fitting due to the shift. Oddly enough after a week of cleaning, airing out, and heating the Airstream again, the countertops have actually gone flat again! As the Airstream was pretty much devoid of our stuff, we also took the opportunity to do some polyurethane-ing of our drawers before we moved back in, to prevent future mold-takeovers.

So, we are nearly back to our version of "normal" on our pacific northwest island. The vegetable seeds I started last week indoors are already showing their sprouts! Spring came early to the island, rounding out what everyone here claims to have been a mild winter. Of course, the winter our friends finally decide to stay on the island and the weather is half-way decent is the winter we decide to go vagabonding! But that is neither here nor there as J and I have zero regrets about the last five months. New Zealand was a really special adventure for us, and we had so many unforgettable moments there. We met some wonderfully generous and kind people during our trip and saw so much of the diverse landscape that is NZ.

J is already back at work and I'm on the job hunt, soaking up the spring sunshine and organizing Airstream life in the meantime. Even though it's still spring, here's a toast to summer #3 in Blue Moon the Airstream!

Into the Future!

A little update from the road - don't worry, we are still alive :-) we wrapped up an epic 30-day road trip some time ago in our trusty van. We saw so many beautiful west coast scenes like this one from a stretch of Hwy 101 in Oregon - so magical. We also made it to the desert and the Grand Canyon before landing in Colorado!

Life in the van was simple- not too unlike our life back home in the Airstream. We lost track of days pretty quickly, and there was even an entire night where we didn't know exactly which state we were sleeping in. Ahh, the luxuries that only life on the road can bring :-). But eventually we started craving a real bed and indoor heat, especially as we crept toward our childhood hometown and our families. 

We spent the holidays with our loved ones, and Agnes enjoyed stretching out in a real house after life in the van. And now...we are headed into the future!! Seriously, they are already a day ahead of us in New Zealand, so we are taking that time-warping flight to see what's going on in the 'morrow land, kiwi-style. We'll give you a full report from the future. Until then, Happy new year!

A Tiny House Goes Home

There was much to celebrate last weekend on Bainbridge Island, where our friends are forging their own tiny house adventure! It doesn't seem like so long ago that Meghan and Christian bought a flat-bed trailer and started framing out a tiny cabin on wheels in hopes that they would someday move in and live small. They are nearly done putting the finishing touches on their home and the time came to hitch it up to a big truck and haul it down the road to it's new home. I joined several of their friends to offer moral support and take pictures :). Having suffered through my own anxiety about hauling the Airstream for the first time, I knew a little about what they were going through! But, their house weighs about three times as much as our Airstream, and is quite a bit taller -- so I'd say they had a much bigger challenge on their hands! 

First, we drove the route and measured for low-hanging branches that might hit the tiny house. There was a bit of branch trimming to be done. We also measured the power lines! Fortunately we didn't have to cut any of those...

Then everyone got distracted for an hour or so by the massive amounts of apples just dripping from the trees and the fact that this cider press was just sitting there, so everyone started picking fruit and pressed a gazillion gallons of cider!

Time to get serious! The house was hitched up and they were on the road. I am always amazed and what big trucks can do. A serious hill up a gravel road was the first part of the drive this rig had to tackle, and aside from the stress on the driver (Christian), it went up no problem! Freddy (in green above), set up a Go Pro camera on the truck and made a fun video of the move if you want to see more!

Flowers, apples, and champagne. All you need to move a tiny house!
(Plus one big-a** truck!)

And friends, of course!

And because this is an Airstream blog,  here's the tiny shiny coffee trailer I found comfort in at the Bainbridge Harvest Fair the next day :)