Welcome to Part IV of our VI part series on life in Alaska with ColIin & Kendall Strachan. In Part I, we met Collin & Kendall. In Part II learned what it takes to move into a 33 foot Airstream, and start traveling with no specific destination in mind. In Part III, we experienced a world like no other and in Part IV, we discover what lead to the investment in "Streamy" in the first place.
This is what I (Kendal) told Collin in 2018 when he casually mentioned that we could look into buying an RV. A little backstory - I worked as an RN for years and transitioned into travel nursing in 2018. As a travel nurse, I would have 13 week assignments in a particular place and then relocate to a new assignment. This made housing rather difficult and expensive! We were paying over $3000/month for our California apartment because of the short term lease. When we began considering other options, Collin brought up travel trailers.
The only experience I had with a trailer was a very old, smelly box RV that I stayed in once. I had never heard of Airstream and I didn’t know that RVs could actually be really nice and comfortable. Collin convinced me to go to an RV show where they set up many RVs for you to walk into and experience. This particular show had an emphasis on Airstreams and gave me my first introduction to the space I would come to call home. When I first stepped into one, I was blown away by the craftsmanship, the many amenities and how cozy they were! It was love at first sight! We were torn for a while on what size to get - the options ranged from 16 to 33 feet. Since we currently lived in a 1500 square foot apartment, I was convinced we needed the largest trailer available, so we opted for the 33 ft Classic. In hindsight, we would have gone a bit smaller. We love the space but the length makes it challenging to get in and out of camping spots at times. However, our Airstream quickly became home and as we racked up the miles, she began to feel like a family member, so we named her "Streamy."
Streamy is decked out. She has a full size fridge, which is amazing! Since we live off grid and sometimes hundreds of miles from town, this allows us to stock up on groceries for a month at a time. We have a lot of storage space, a huge closet and a full size bathroom. Our bathroom takes up quite a bit of space (and we feel at times that we could gain a lot more space if we had a smaller size bathroom) but I can’t complain about a nice size shower! We removed the existing toilet and installed an OGO Composting Toilet so that we can never need to use dump stations. This has significantly reduced our water consumption and it allows us to stay off-grid for longer, as well as be more environmentally friendly.
Over the years, we have made a lot of adjustments to Streamy to make her more conducive for our lifestyle. We ended up doing a pretty big remodel in 2020 to bring more personality to the interior as well as make it more conducive to our lifestyle. We added lithium batteries + solar so that we aren’t relying on the generator or RV parks for our power. We recently installed a Tiny Wood Stove Dwarf 5k to sustain us during the cold winters in Alaska. This summer, Collin took on the intense project of mirror polishing the exterior to give Streamy her shine (which we are obsessed with!). She has slowly morphed into the perfect trailer for our lifestyle. Although 33 ft sometimes feels big to us, we are glad that we chose this trailer and know that Streamy will be a part of our family for years to come!
If you’re interested in advice, take your time when considering an Airstream. While the new options are AWESOME, these trailers have been produced every year since the 1930’s and many of them are renovated and really financially accessible. Do your research, potentially even rent one on outdoorsy, and find the perfect space for you. We guarantee that you’ll be in love.
Follow @kendal.strachan on Instagram to keep up with their journey as the take on the true wilderness of North America.
READ PART 1: Airstreaming Across Alaska | Meet Collin & Kendal Strachan
READ PART 2: Airstreaming Across Alaska | Off-Grid Alaska
READ PART 3: Airstreaming Across Alaska | Other Wordly Beauty
