We bought our 2002 Airstream motorhome from the original owner who was selling it in W. Virginia. We found it on Craigslist. We were replacing a 2003 Monaco Monarch gas motorhome because I had always admired Airstream 
products and I really wanted a diesel pusher coach. This one was a little unusual in that it is green in color (we like different) and besides, it fit our budget!
Our maiden voyage was from our (then) home in Ohio to visit Kathy’s cousin Judy in Encinitas, CA. Once we completed that trip successfully and the coach was still in one piece and Kathy and I were still talking to each other, we made the decision to go RV’ing full time. I retired from my real estate business and we left Ohio permanently for our “home on the road” on September 6, 2016.
Since that time we’ve traveled just under 20,000 miles and gone from Ohio to San Diego, to Ohio, to Vermont, to Ohio, to Arizona, to Ohio, to western Michigan (and the UP) and back to Ohio (via Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana) and most recently down to Texas for the winter.
In all that time and miles, we’ve discussed numerous times what we like about our new home and what we would change or make sure we would get in our “next” rig.
We’ve been to RV dealers and we’ve been to a few RV shows in the past few years and we’ve climbed in and out of countless motorhomes. We know what we like and what we don’t like.
We’ve come to the conclusion that we LIKE WHAT WE HAVE, save a few exceptions.
The new RV’s have a lot more bells and whistles but, like so many manufactured products today, “they just don’t make ’em like they used to” and the RV industry is not immune to this phenomenon.
I’m not going to get into what we don’t like about some of the new rigs because I don’t want to offend anybody. Our rig, although 15 years old, is just getting “broke in” with about 69,000 miles on it’s Caterpiller 3126 diesel engine. It purrs like a kitten (tiger) and rides like a dream and looks like new (when it’s washed!) And it’s paid for.
But, since we made the decision to keep the “big green machine” as Kathy calls it, we decided to invest some money into making it less dated inside and also to beef up the engine and suspension/steering systems. We wanted to make it closer to perfect.
I’ll be detailing the suspension and steering upgrades in a future post, but for now I’ll show you what we did on the inside. The video below details all that we did including; flooring, wall paint, window shade boxes, wall sconces, lavatory towel racks, light fixtures, and so on.
We’re happy with our remodel work and happy with our home on wheels. She’s only 15 years old, so we hope to have her around as long as we are on the road … and who knows how long that will be?
In the meantime, we plan to continue to enjoy our travels and workamping experience and we hope you find your travels safe and wonder-filled.
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