American Festivals Project

Well folks, we are officially on the road! I apologize for the delay in blogging, but it’s been such a hectic past few weeks that there has been no free time to look over the recent photos and sit down to some internet. In the past two weeks we returned from a trip to North Carolina, we finished the trailer renovations, converted the truck to WVO, celebrated with a send-off party, drove overnight to Alabama and back again the next day! Now we’re staying with my aunt Amy and uncle Lisle in Lexington, Mass. on the way to the MudBowl championships in North Conway, New Hampshire. What a whirl-wind of a few days!!!!

I’d like to recap and call out some people who were an incredible help in getting on the road.

Two weeks ago Matt and I traveled down to his hometown in Albemarle, North Carolina. There, Matt’s father, Rick Burris, donated a set of tires to the Airstream and hours of work by his shop crew. Their help and knowledge was invaluable.

how many people does it take to fix an Airtream?

Rick Burris in the Burris Tire office. His father, pictured on the wall, started the business. Thanks for all your help Rick!

Here is Kevin, auto-electrician-extraordinaire. He wired up the Airstream and trailer hitch in a matter of hours. Thanks for your help and for buying a print Kevin. You know we will be calling when we break down!

The official shop crew that helped so much. From left: Steven, Kevin, Boo, Alan, and Eric. Thanks guys!

I’d also like to thank Matt’s sister and brother-in-law for taking their only day off and helping us to clean and fix the Airstream. You all are so generous! Here, Julie braves the ammonia fumes and give the trailer a scrub-down.

Dan the man working on the Airstream seals. Danny took his only day off to help us on the trailer, then spent an hour after work the next day to do some welding on the bumper.

Here’s the whole Burris crew in the shop. Matt is being sent off with a good support team behind him! Thanks Rick, Sue, Julie, and Steven.

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On Thursday afternoon we received the WVO conversion kit from Golden Fuel Systems. What should have been a 2-day installation turned into a maddening 4-day challenge to get the system installed because we were not sent adequate directions. Nonetheless, we had a genius behind us all the way, Mr. Wheeler Gum himself:

If it were not for Wheeler, and a few others, we never would have figured out the installation. Wheeler worked endlessly for almost three days to help us leave in time.

Our other savior was Mr. Dan Raudenbush (left). He swept in at the point of despair and laid out a diagram for the wiring. Thanks Dan!

Mr. Tom Hughes devoting his whole weekend to help us. Thanks Tom!

I can’t remember who took this picture of me covered in veggie oil.

The crew doing some problem solving.

Another big thank you goes out to Emily Gum and Hope Sowell. Emily shared her husband with us for three days and did some beautiful upholstery work for our couch. If you may remember from before, Hope re-plumbed the Airstream and put in more hours than what we traded for. Thanks for your knowledge and work and sharing your tools!

Lastly, I have to thank the two people who really assisted in helping during the last few months of preparation. Jeff Erkelens and Joey Conover gave me a free house to live in for a few months and let me park the Airstream on the street for its two-month slumber in Charlottesville. They let me store my personal items, use a bathroom, and borrow tools. Thanks Jeff and Joey for your generosity, flexibility, and support!