Airstream

Thursday, Sept 1

On our way down I75 from Michigan we passed an exit sign that said "Airstream Plant Tour".  Neither one of us had looked up the factory tours in this direction but it turns out we weren't a unreasonable distance to go visit this.  We had a leisurely morning, as the tour is only once a day, at 2:00 PM.  We took the car through a car wash and got our mail from the Post Office.  Nothing important in the mail.  Soon we were headed back north on the freeway. 

We are still used to LA traffic so we left plenty of time to get there, way too much time.  I had called to check on the tour and was told it was still going to happen today and had asked if there was a restaurant in town.  The lady directed me to one by the freeway.  So when we got there we still had a lot of time to kill.  We drove around the little town (village, spot in the road) and finally made our way back to the restaurant.  Well, it was really a tavern.  Look at the fance places Bill takes me to lunch -

You don't see all the trucks and motorcycles in this picture.  The food was good and we were able to kill a lot of time.  I ordered a chicken sandwich and he had a fried chicken breast, both with fries.  His took awhile since they had just put the chicken in so that helped with the time thing. 

It was after 1:00 when we finally headed towards Airstream.  It is in Jackson Center, OH. The tour does not allow photography in the factory area but you can take pictures in selected places.  This motorcycle was built by Jesse James for his then-wife, Sandra Bullock. Pretty neat looking.

They have a little campground that you can stay at if they are working on your rig and even if you are just visiting the factory in your Airstream. 

The factory is not very automated, with a lot of the work being done by hand.  It is interesting and the tour lasts about 2 hours.  Other than the warm weather, the factory is not air conditioned, we had a good time.  I have always liked the looks of Airstreams but couldn't live with a travel trailer instead of a motorhome.  BTW - did you know that Thor owns Airstream? 

Once we left the factory we headed back to Wright-Patterson.  There is really only one main road around here, I75.  A few miles down the road it came to a dead stop!  We sat there for about 45 minutes before moving.  Turns out something caught fire a couple of miles up the road.  All that was left when we reached that point was a black mark on the road and some foam.  There were no further problems and we made it back to the base before the back gate closed.  If you come in after 6:00 PM you have to drive to the front gate and then drive all the way around the flight line to get to the FAMCAMP.  The back gate is just a couple of blocks away.  Oh, I did make a stop at the veggie stand at the end of the off ramp.

We really weren't hungry for dinner so I made quesidilla's.  That was filling enough.  We did enjoy some canteloupe along with it. 

Here are the pictures I did get to take.  One thing, we have been looking for this little part for our shower forever.  We have checked on line, at the various Monaco dealers and even at the surplus store.  Never could find it.  Well, there they were, sitting in the parts section of Airstream. So we bought that as our souvenier.