Taking a bath in a trailer, oh by gum by gee…

Oh, come on. Who other than the snobbiest of snobs hasn’t at least experienced a nano-second or two during which they wish that they could just take off in an RV, or with a trailer buckled to the back of the car? When they invent one that gets more than 3 miles a gallon to drive or lug – solar-powered, wind-turbined, battery-driven, nuclear- fueled -  I’m there. (Okay, maybe not nuclear-fueled.)

As someone who likes small spaces, I could no doubt live most contentedly in a trailer. But that trailer would most definitely be an Airstream.

OMG, I just love the look of an Airstream.

And, as the economy continues to make its fits and starts recovery, I was more than happy to learn that the RV industry is doing its part to move things along. There is, of course, always a catch.

As in many industries, it's the luxury end of the RV world that is driving the recovery, industry executives and analysts say.

Oh, great, it wasn’t enough for the elites to swan around in super-yachts, their own jets, and personal submarines. Now they have to come down market and start discovering RV’s.

But beyond the rarefied realm of six- and seven-figure bus-like motor coaches, the high-design strategy has also begun to infiltrate the market for more moderately priced tow-along trailers. (Source: WSJ Online.)

Excellent news, as this means that my beloved Airstreams will now come with interiors that are every bit as fabelhaft as their shiny, cocktail-shaker-y exteriors.

At the ultra-high end, super-yacht designer Mauro Micheli – whose work is in the hands and under the sea-legs of both George Clooney and Sean Connery, is bringing his high concept to the Airstream. Forget I ever said never pull a trailer that’s nicer than your home.  This kitchen rocks, and my trailer’s going to have one.

Since it’s not clear that the Mauro Micheli land yachts are going to actually go into production, I may have to 0pt for the Christopher Deam interior, which is more of an outside-in look and feel, and comes with accents in yellow-green (Arctic Dijon) or purple (Obsidian Violet).

As if the Airstream needed any wonderful-ness added to it, Airstreams are made in the US of A. And while I’m never going to beat a direct path to Jackson Center, Ohio – where Airstreams are manufactured, and which appears to be in the middle of nowhere – if I ever am in the neighborhood (perhaps with my Christopher Deam Airstream in tow), I would most definitely stop by for the factory tour.

Hmmm. That mention of “factory tour” sets me off on a bit of a side trip.

Why, exactly, are factory tours so popular?

Is it because so few of us actually work with our hands that we want to see how physical things are actually made? Which kind of has an animal-in-the-zooish aspect to it.

I’m assuming that they’re only available for cool, iconic brands like Harley Davidson and Airstream, Ben and Jerry’s and Sam Adams.

I mean, who would want to go on the factory tour of a factory where chickens get processed? Or sweat shops where garments get stitched?

And when I worked in the H.H. Brown Shoe Factory in the late 1960’s, weren’t no one walking through to gawk at us workers on the line.

As for white collar work, certainly, there’s no such thing as an insurance company tour - “Here’s where the claims processors look through the forms that arrived in today’s mail.” Or a call center tour – “That’s where they listen to you swearing at the voice recognition system.” And we do get to do our own tours of retail establishments any old time we want.

But back to the Airstream, is there anything on the road that is cooler looking than an Airstream trailer? And now that they’re all duded up on the insides, what is not to like?

Anyway, my secret is now revealed. Since the first time I set eyes on an Airstream, I have longed for one. And my longing was only made more acute by the cartoon in which Farmer Alfalfa warbled the immortal tune:

Taking a bath in a trailer, oh by gum, by gee.
I sure enjoy it ‘cause the water’s free.

I suspect that Farmer Alfalfa was wrong about the water. Sure, you could use rain water, but you do need to pay for hookups, and waste removal, and – of course – the gas to lug it around. Still, how much fun would it be to buzz around the country, seeing the sights, knowing you were going to put your heady down in a high-end Airstream trailer?