Betty

Meet Betty

I think it only took us 2 visits to the Airstream dealer to make our final decision.  Since neither of us had ever towed a vehicle of any type before, we knew smaller was better for us.  However, we did intend to LIVE IN this thing for 12 months, so we couldn’t go super tiny.  We settled on a 2017 25-foot front bed Airstream International Serenity model.  Key to our decision was getting something that could be towed by something other than a truck, but more about Sally later.


Some people have asked why an Airstream versus a drivable RV?  Well, one, we are cool and two, Airstreams hold their value extremely well.  We were committed for 12 months, but what would we do after that?  Would we sell the Airstream and go back to our normal lives?  We don’t have anywhere to park it at our house. We also learned that you can write off the interest on your loan as a second home, so buying new with a warranty suddenly sounded like a pretty good option.

There are very few options on an Airstream.  Your basic decision is the trim level.  The Serenity is supposed to be Zen-like.  We have dark wood looking floors and brown leather-ish seating.  Even though it will get dirty, I would rather not see the dirt, so I was happy.  The next step up would be a 27 foot which only gives you a few more inches of closet space and re-orients the bed in-line vs. perpendicular to the trailer.  This allows both to walk around the bed to their side and each to have a night stand.

We elected for me to just crawl over instead and I think it was a good compromise.  By the way, the bed is extremely comfortable.  This is so amazing because you can literally lift it up to access storage underneath.  But what is the difference/benefit of a front versus a back bed?  Usually at a camp ground where you back into your site, your privacy is at the back of the trailer.  Jeff and I chose to have our living space with the private view and our sleeping space adjacent to the parking lot.  This configuration seemed so obvious to us, but just as many people think the opposite and want their bed on the private side.  Do you think they are having more fun?

We are still getting accustomed to Betty.  Each of us has a small hanging closet and an overhead storage area for “office” type things.  I have a special cubby for shoes and of course I have brought way too many pair with me!  The kitchen is ample for our needs.  I have cooked on the stove top with success.  We have a microwave that doubles as a convection oven.  I may or may not use the oven?  Jeff bought a grill which seems to work great and we both enjoy grilled meat with a salad for dinner, so that might be the menu for the year.  We don’t have enough storage for wine and Jeff received a year’s worth of Scotch and Whiskey gifts at our Good-Bye party, so we will gradually replace whiskey with food in our cupboard.

There is a lot of ‘technical’ information to share about Betty, which I will let Jeff do on another post.  We named her Betty because we were looking for sort of a retro name to go with a retro and cool trailer like an Airstream.  We have been watching “Riverdale” on TV since that is the name of my high school.  Veronica was another choice as was Buffy.  I didn’t want the Vampire Slayer and Betty seemed to go better with Sally, so she is Betty.