Life Before Airstream

Before purchasing my Airstream, I lived in a 2-bedroom apartment in a downtown Austin apartment with a roommate. Rent was steep, over $1300 a month just for my portion of the rent plus utilities. I didn’t really want to sink money to a house in Austin, because I knew I wanted an adventure, but also knew I wanted to stop paying exorbitant amounts on rent.

After looking into various travel options, I arrived upon touring the country in an Airstream. It was affordable, offered wonderful opportunities to live an outdoorsy lifestyle, and enabled me to still have the comforts of home. Plus Airstreams are having a moment right now thanks to hipster food trucks that have made them popular with millennials. So, I started my quest to find the perfect Airstream.

Shopping for an Airstream

I started researching Airstream models online and discovered that Airstream makes both towables and motorized vehicles. While the motorized fleet is nice, the idea of basically living in a bus for the next 12 months sounded cramped. I also liked the idea of having my own bathroom and kitchen facilities on board. I drive an old Toyota Land Cruiser, which has towing capacity for a small RV, so I started looking into the towable options, which had everything I was looking for. I knew that aside from my brother or an occasional friend meeting up with me, I’d be on the road alone, so I didn’t need a huge trailer.

After doing my initial research online, I found an RV dealer in Fort Worth that specializes in Airstreams and drove up to check out a brand new Airstream Sport 16 they had just gotten in. The Vogt RV Airstream lot was filled with a large variety of Airstream towables, with everything from the Bambi Sport 16 to the massive Airstream Land Yacht. Tempting and pretentious as owning a “yacht” sounded, I stuck to my original plan to shop the more economical Sport 16.

The Layout

When you walk into the Sport 16, there’s a generous-sized dinette to the right that measures about 7.5′ by 3.5′. I needed ample table space since the trailer would also serve as my office space for the next 12 months, and I like to spread out with dual monitors. There’s a small range, microwave, and mini fridge in the pint sized galley, plenty big enough for 1. The bed is surprisingly spacious, measuring 4′ by 6.5′ with an LED TV mounted on the far wall. Rounding out the space is a cramped but workable bathroom with working toilet and even a shower.

After working on the price a bit, the friendly sales guy closed the deal and that day I towed my brand new Airstream back to Austin to start packing.