6 Years of Full Time Airstreaming – I must have learned something

Richard Charpentier Airstream Blogs, Arizona, Arizona Photographer, Photography, Prescott, RLC Design 2 Comments

I’m sure many readers know the full story, but new readers may not.  So we’ll do a quick re-cap before I start into a series of articles on my experiences as a full time Airstreamer.

After the start of a severe unknown illness in 2005 that never cleared I found myself in early 06′ facing a divorce and the prospect of a long drawn out auto immune disorder.  I was popped on steroids (entocort), and given a list of food allergies that sounded like no fun at all.  With multiple life tragedies on going I packed up my things and hooked up my 25 foot Airstream Safari and headed out to see what greener pastures might be available.  Hey, when life gives you lemons…….hook up your Airstream.

From that terrible beginning I embarked on a trip that would leave me as a full time Airstreamer from March of 2006 to February of 2012.  While a good bit of my time in the Airstream was spent in the town of Prescott Arizona, I was a full timer.  The Airstream was initially my “life boat,” and over time it just became home.  Gotta tell you, it wasn’t a bad home at all.

So Many Lessons

Over the course of my time in the Airstream I learned a lot about what does and does not work in a small space.  Honestly there are too many lessons to share in one post, so I’m going to break things up over a series of posts to share with folks.  Maybe a little of what I learned will be helpful to folks looking to full time in any type of RV.

A lot of what full timers deal with is the lack of space.  And we’ll talk all about that over the next few weeks.  I’ll also address solutions where I can, technology that helps, organizational materials that make a small space livable, and the toughest lesson of all…..pare it down.  If something didn’t have multiple purposes in my Airstream it was out.

AirstreamLayoutIn the case of my rig I had a finite amount of space to live, work, and play in.  The image above is the floor plan of the 04′ Safari.  My Airstream is a 2004 25 foot Airstream Safari Six Sleeper (long name eh).  8 feet wide, 25 feet long.  For those that can’t do math well that’s 200 square feet of space.  With couches, cabinets, stoves, etc, you’re actually working with less than 200 square feet of space.  So how can you comfortably live full time for 6 years in that amount of space?

Actually, it wasn’t that hard.  But don’t get me wrong, I often longed for more space.  That’s one thing you learn to work with.

I found a way to revive the blog

And yes, this new little blogging project will breathe some life back into this site.  It’s been quiet here lately as I’ve been busy with work.  And frankly I don’t want to write about this job, I work for someone else you know.  So in order to get the blog going again I’ve got to write about other things.  I’m thinking this should be a fun series.

 

Comments 2

  1. Good to see you back, and thanks for including the floor plan. When boggers write about their RV, I often go on line trying to find their floor plan, but most don’t include a model, and besides, there are so many variations, you never really know.

    I’m curious to know what printers you kept.

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