Interstate Eats and Adventures

Every New Year’s Eve we do a year in review where we take a moment to reflect on the past year. It always leaves me feeling strong and appreciative of all that life throws our way, the blessings and the challenges.

We began our camper van adventures in July 2024 so it’s a great time to take a moment and appreciate the past year in review. Ownership has offered us a home base for skiing and biking. It has been a gathering spot for beach memories with our family and a source of inspiration as we plan for the future.

Alongside all this fun, we have had challenges with owning the 2024 Airstream Interstate 19x. Barely a few months into ownership our dealer called and said, you have a Volta system recall and it’s better you bring it in sooner rather than later. The Volta system is the electrical system that is the difference between owning a camper van and owning a Sprinter cargo van. It allows me to make cappuccino in the morning, use the air conditioning, and microwave. Even though the van was working just fine, we dropped it off as instructed. We had no idea that we would be without the van for 10 weeks as we had to deal with two dealerships to solve the electrical problem.

When we finally got it back mostly fully operational, we celebrated by winter camping at Cannon Mountain RV Park. The van was winterized, so we bought a cassette toilet which actually fit in the bathroom and this did the trick for me. We had a glorious day of skiing on the icy, fast snow New England is known for and returned to the van tired and satisfied. We made grilled cheese and tomato soup and when it came time to go to sleep we realized the benches in the back of the van were not replaced in alignment after the electrical work that was done so we could not insert the metal bars to make the bed.

We are still having issues with this brand new unit like charging on shore power, the water tank sensors are sporadically working so we are always guessing on how full the tanks really are, and parts of the faux wood paneling are coming off all over the van, the biggest piece being on the sliding door. These types of things take months to fix between the dealership and Airstream communicating with each other.

We have learned to be resourceful when items are not working as they should and patient when it comes to fixing things under the warranty.

At the same time, we have enjoyed this van so much so that I have an entire blog devoted to the good times! We can look back on a ski trip to Mont Tremblant, a drive up to Quebec City, and a drive down to Charleston, SC. We had our own ski lodge for up hill skiing and a place to launch off from for a hike in the spring, and a bike ride in the summer.

Our family is glad that we are in the great outdoors. To quote my son, “this is the coolest thing you ever bought”. We still think so too!