We have an 1991 Airstream 350 Classic Motorhome. On the blog you've seen many pictures of it, but not that many of the interior. The reason for that is we when we are in it, we are really in it! The seven of us and all our
Today I'm letting our readers a little peek into our home on wheels.
(Since we had visitors the day these photos were taken, and we had cleaned up.)
You can find an older post with photos here, and here I answer some questions about life in a motorhome.
We have a bedroom in the rear of the motorhome, and right before the bedroom we have a bathroom on the right, and a shower on the left. Before the bathroom area we have a closet for the kids' cubes where they keep their clothes, and a little pantry for dry goods and tableware. In the kitchen we have a decent size fridge and freezer, an old microwave (we are planning to upgrade it), a gas stove, sink and more storage space. For cooking we mostly use our crockpot on the road, and make a lot of sandwiches.
Our table seats four, and at night we make it into a bed for our girls. The sofa goes down, and two boys sleep on it, and one (they take turns) sleeps on the floor. We are constantly thinking how we could sleep the kids better, yet are hesitant to change our vintage interior. This is the way it rolled off the Jackson Center factory in 1991!
In this earlier post I mentioned unexpected troubles and blessings. What happened was we finally left Airstream (last) Friday afternoon, and started to make our way toward Indianapolis, Indiana. We just about made it to the Indiana border when our alternator quit. That was unexpected. We had just spent a week at Airstream, and were so happy about all that had been fixed (no work on the engine or alternator), and now, just a couple of hours later we were broken down. Boo.
We thank God we were right at an exit when this happened, and there was a truck stop. We pulled over, a mechanic confirmed it was our alternator, and told us we could spend the night there. He even gave us a card for free showers! In the morning we had breakfast, showers, did laundry, and found a place to take our Mothership to be fixed.
We were able to drive short distance without the alternator, and even though the first repair shop couldn't help us, we made it to Tom Raper RVs Service Center in Richmond, Indiana. They don't know I'm writing about them, but I have to say - if you have anything that needs to be done to your motorhome or trailer, or you are shopping for a new one, this is the place to come to.
Tom Raper's RVs peeps are so amazingly nice and friendly. We arrived on a Saturday, and knew they couldn't work on our rig until Tuesday, but we have been so well taken care of. There are RV hookups for while you are here, and snazzy looking new (and used) motorhomes to tour. These friendly Indiana folks really go the extra mile - in our case, we were invited to church, and a new friend even let us use their car.. Make sure when you come, you are here on a Sunday, and go visit Hillcrest Baptist Church!
Sunday afternoon after church we met friends from our adoption travel group. We first visited a Model T Museum (stay tuned for a separate blog post), and then had dinner at Clara's Pizza King. What a cool restaurant! There was a double decker bus inside the building, and the building itself was really interesting, too.
There was seating inside the bus, too! We really enjoyed our dinner and conversations with friends.
When we adopted Little Miss we brought Missy with us to China. Missy and C became fast friends on that trip, and we met again a year later at our one year reunion. I think they were able to pick up their friendship just fine after a seven year break:)
Both Little Miss and K are fairly reserved, but as the night went on, they definitely hit it off, also. After dinner we had coffee and cookies in the Mothership, and watched a short China video Mr T had edited about our trip to China.
Here's all the kiddos! Thanks SO much, C family for driving over to visit us - we had such a wonderful time! Definitely one of our blessings while here in Indiana:)
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Viime sunnuntaina meille tuli vieraita asuntoautoon, joten luonnollisesti siivosimme liikkuvan kotimme. Mikä tarkoitti sitä, että pystyin ottamaan kuvia asuntoauton sisältäkin:) Ystävien kanssa kävimme museossa, pizzalla, ja he tulivat meille vielä illaksi. Tutustuimme toisiimme Kiinan matkallamme, he adoptoivat nuorimmaisensa samaan aikaan saman toimiston kautta. Missy tuli mukanamme Kiinaan, ja ystävystyi vuotta nuoremman C:n kanssa. Meillä oli niin ihanaa yhdessä (niin Kiinassa, vuosi myöhemmin vuositapaamisessa, kuin nyt sunnuntainakin)!
Odottamattomat ongelmat ja siunaukset tulivat asuntoauton mekaanisten (sähköisten?) ongelmien myötä. Olimme juuri lähteneet Airstream-tehtaalta, ajaneet vajaa kaksi tuntia Indianaan päin, kun juuri ennen rajan ylitystä vaihtovirtageneraattori sanoi kaputs, ja meidän piti äkkiä päästä moottoritieltä pois. Siunaus oli, että olimme juuri exitin kohdalla, jossa oli rekkapysäkki. Mekaanikko vahvisti, että vaihtovirtageneraattori ei todellakaan toimi, mutta voimme olla yön heidän parkkipaikallaan, ja käyttää heidän suihkuhuoneitaan aamulla. Sen teimme, kiitimme Taivaan Isää, että olimme turvallisella paikalla, ja aamulla saimme siellä hyvän aamupalan (emme pystyneet käyttämään sähköjä asuntoauton sisällä), ja jopa koneellisen pyykkiä pestyä.
Pystyimme ajamaan pienen matkan, ja vaikka eka korjauspaikka ei pystynyt meitä auttamaan, pääsimme isoon asuntoautokauppaan, jossa oli myös huolto. Tarvittavat osat tilattiin, saimme leirintäpaikan (sähköineen!) huollon takaa, kutsun kirkkoon, ja jopa auton käyttöömme (että pääsimme kirkkoon sunnuntaina!). Niin ystävällisiä, ihania ihmisiä.
Nyt kun tätä kirjoitan, on tiistai-iltapäivä, ja vielä emme pääse jatkamaan matkaa. Toivottavasti huomenna. Kiitos Taivaan Isälle Hänen monista siunauksistaan!
