![]() “Can I help?” A tan gentleman in board shorts, flip flops and a T-shirt stepped out of the lodge. Then there are those people who want you to succeed. Some campers looked on in amusement and disdain, smirking from the shadows of their awnings and hoping I would fail. Most of the resort dates back to the 1860s when Rollin Simeon Belknap, originally a Vermonter, discovered the salt springs and laid claim to them with the intention of building a health resort.įor my health, all I wanted was a good drink after a half-dozen attempts to reverse into the trailer slot. The springs were developed into a large pool adjacent to the lodge. The lodge is a classic log and timber construction. I felt like Homer returning from his Odyssey as I pulled the aluminum trailer into Belknap Hot Springs. Sarah and Kristina, however, have the ability to gab, seemingly without breathing, on hill climbs while covering topics ranging from current events and old gossip to upcoming adventures and, of course, the odds of my unscathed arrival. This was a pre-summer Wednesday, before the pass opened to vehicles. They had just finished taking road bikes out on the McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway, a 76-mile out-and-back from Belknap Springs to Sisters that is one of fifteen scenic bikeways in Oregon. Was the hitch properly hitched? Does the width fit the width of the traffic lane? Is this really happening? Just a few more miles to Belknap Springs, where Sarah and her Swedish friend, Kristina, would be expecting me. As I drove out of the parking lot at the Airstream dealership and made my way to the McKenzie River, I was beset with trepidation and determination to not repeat my errors. Before my family was four hours into the trip, we had broken the recline mechanism on the driver’s seat, snapped the latch to the refrigerator and left the awning to be shorn in a coastal wind. I borrowed my friend’s new van camper for an easy jaunt to the coast. The silver cloud parked by the McKenzie River I took this advice to heart, remembering the last time I did anything like this. Stay close to home in case anything goes awry on the first Airstream foray. ![]() “The best way to get to know your Airstream is to use it,” wrote the author of the Newbies Guide to Airstreaming. “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever on the road,” Kerouac wrote as he launched into the heart of a post-Whitman America. By the 1930s, Byam had moved into production with the trailer that would soon become a symbol of American adventure and the envy of anyone with good taste and yearning for travel.Īfter signing a partnership with Airstream Adventures Northwest in May, we would have the honor of sharing Byam’s dream and Kerouac’s journey. He soon began to devise a better warming hut for cold nights at the base of the Blue Mountains. Young Byam, in the early twentieth century, tended sheep in Eastern Oregon near Baker City. It’s tempting to channel the bravado of Airstream’s founder, Wally Byam, when whistling down the open road-good-looking, a war veteran and Stanford graduate. It sleeps four easily-five if you push it-has a full shower, a separate WC, a full kitchen and a dining area. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Flying Cloud Airstream is 25 linear feet of beauty dressed in a silver pencil skirt. Was it camping at the coast or trekking in the Steens? Maybe just a ham sandwich. The minivan was packed to the windows and smelling of the prior trip. Until this summer, my family’s typical road trip took on the redolence of a zoo. I hooked up an Airstream and resolved to dedicate most weekends over the next twelve months to finding new experiences in the wilds of the Northwest. Whatever the destination, in the final mile of any road trip, you rarely take the trip you thought you were going to take. We’ve pined to reach new highs with Ken Kesey and his magic bus, Furthr. In literature, we dust off our sense of rugged individualism and get On the Road with Jack Kerouac. Expectations range from epic tales of pioneer wagon trains to station wagons and Chevy Chase.
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