It took me ten days at the International Airstream Rally (then a long travel day) until finally, as I was walking Banjo this morning here along the reservoir at our next campsite, did I figure out what that rally was all about.
It’s true I was dazzled by the Airstreams, especially the old ones remade by interesting folks. Their pride in showing off their work was what I was thinking about this morning though, especially one guy I met who had never even been in an Airstream when he remade his, so the inside design was truly his own.
At the Grapes and Grains tasting event, I loved drinking people’s favorite sour beers they’d brought from around the country (Upland Brewery from Indiana for the win), but it was being recognized by the guy manning the sours booth the next day that totally impressed me. We chatted about sours and gose and all beer underdogs then ran off to our separate events. Woohoo!
And yeah, Tracy and I won both rounds of trivia on what the agenda said was the hardest trivia night of the event (go us!). But the reason we showed up was because we were hoping our neighbors—whom we didn’t know—would be there, since every small interaction we’d had with them indicated they were super friendly, and they did mention they play. So, double score that they were there that night, that we partnered with them, and man that we certainly did jive as a team. Triple score in that other friends from the rally texted me last night after their travel day saying they were parked next to our fellow trivia champs. The Airstream world can be a small world.
On other days, Tracy gained some technical knowledge and picked up small parts we’ve needed for a long time. I came away from several seminars with one piece of advice that really struck me right. I’m always reluctant to workout (as in exercise) at a campsite when people are around watching. This speaker mentioned that, no matter what I think other people are thinking when they see me work out, what they’re actually thinking is, “I should be doing that.” I laughed, but I bet he’s right.
But, man, nothing beats the social interaction from the rally. Here we’ve been traveling for almost five years, priding ourselves in finding the most remote spots in the U.S. and Canada where we don’t see a soul for as long as our tanks hold out. Nature has been king in our world. Turns out people can be king, too. All the casual greetings, the reunions with folks we met on the road, the shared work of volunteering, the shared happy hours, those are now on my radar.
Icing on my cake was meeting other fulltimers who don’t belong to local Airstream clubs, who don’t have close friends on the road, who really want to share this experience socially, even just through chatting online as we all move across the country on our different routes. I’m hoping these new friends will fill in the cracks in my fulltiming experience, the social cracks I didn’t realize were growing, until I met them.
So, all this time, other Airstreamers have been going on and on about community, and finally it dawned on me that, hey, community is what rallies are all about.
How fabulous! And yes, I mean the people as well as the sour beers. I’m guessing from this rave review you’ll be annual attendees from now on…
We went to this one because it was on our route, but the next one isn’t, so I doubt it. But smaller rallies, for sure!
Oh man, I’d be all about the sours. It’s the only kind of beer I like!
Yet another thing we have in common! I really recommend that Indiana beer – they have several good ones, even a bourbon-barrel aged one.