Sandy Beaches, Grand Hotels, and Pole Dancing

Man Towing 1947 Airstream with Bicycle

dictionary.reference.com/browse/collude

verb (used without object), col·lud·ed, col·lud·ing.

1. to act together through a secret understanding, especially with evil or harmful intent.

Here’s the not-so-secret secret:  understanding what it means to possess one of these iconic trailers starts the day you hook one up and bring it home.  Think shiny, pretty.  Think round, happy thoughts.   The shape sets us apart; Airstreamers are secretly pleased with themselves for thinking outside of the box.  We (think we) have an elevated understanding of style, durability, and value without being snobby about it.  Was that snobby?  We feel responsible for the life of our trailer–knowing where she’s been before, if buying used (as most of us do) or if she’s been restored.  Those leaving a dealership keep meticulous records to pass down one day–if that day ever comes.

Facts from Airstream, Inc.  

Airstreams are made in the U.S.A.

Airstream is a state of mind … the company’s silver-bullet travel trailers have been streaming down the nation’s ribbons of highways for more than 75 years and have become as common and well-loved in the culture of America as blue jeans and tees.

Founder Wally Byam began the enterprise in the 1920s by selling plans for building trailers, which led to the design and launch of “The Clipper” in the early 1930s. The company makes travel trailers primarily, but also produces its Interstate touring coach with full amenities. Airstream has produced about 140,000 travel trailers and motor homes since it began, and roughly two-thirds of them are still making trails. Airstream is a subsidiary of Thor Industries.

Alumapalooza 2012, at the factory grounds
in Jackson Center, OH

Through the use of a website called Air Forums, we exchange maintenance tips, road trip stories, organize rallies, dream, fly flags, and explore.  

 We connect, cook, cribbage play, convey, critter watch, cajole, create, and sometimes a rally morphs into EPIC proportions.    Such was the result when 25 Airstream trailers rolled in from GA, OH, IL, MO, OK, MI, IN and Canada to Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground at the tip of Michigan’s Mitten near Mackinac Island and its Grand Hotel.   Many do not realize that Michigan is a state of two peninsulas, the upper and lower, which are surrounded by Great Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior.   That being a fact, we hauled up a tournament salmon fishing boat for personal tours of Mackinac Island and blasted under the Mighty Mac a.k.a. the Mackinac Bridge, one of the longest suspension bridges in the United States.

Captain Adam pilots us under the bridge.
Photo Credit:  Ed Rottinger

Our Caravan
Pole Dancer, Tin Loaf, Hen House

This rally had everything including eye-candy photography and fudge.  Lots of fudge.  The shops on the Island cook up a nasal assault as they pipe the smell of fudge being

Photo Credit
Steven Mentz

made into the streets.  Horse power is the only power on Mackinac Island.  Visitors are clip-clopped back in time as hooves meet the street.  Couple this destination with some folks very experienced in photography, and EPIC starts to evolve.  For starters, the August moon was full and one of our Airstreaming couples set up a large, professional  telescope on the sandy beach one evening.  The “Troll Pot Luck Dinner” was filled with raffle prizes, wine, and a buffet that rivaled the Grand Hotel’s buffet lunch.    Some of us landed king salmon,  toured a lighthouse or two, or slathered ourselves in suntan lotion on the dunes beaches.  We trolls, living under the bridge, showed those Yoopers a thing or two when we kayaked Drumond Island, drove the Historic Tunnel of Trees Route 119, and hit the Casino in St. Ignace.

The Grand Hotel’s
Buffet Lunch Table Setting

The photography in the YouTube video alone is worth the time to watch it.  It began with a pre-rally on our farm near Flint, MI and features the Grand Hotel and Mackinac Island horses and homes.  It ends with a “We make ‘em, You take ‘em” pancake breakfast on the last day.  Enjoy!