Airstream Heaven

"....We interrupt this broadcast from Norfolk to bring you the following...."

It was a sort of "I wonder what'll happen if I press this button?" moment.

Back in January, I posted a comment here and on the Airforums website asking if any other Airstream owners fancied a little get-together. I knew that there were better ways of getting in touch with more of the European Airstream owners, but I secretly wanted to find out how many UK owners use the US site and whether it was an efficient way of us UK owners keeping in touch. There was a small, but incredibly enthusiastic response.

The weekend was wonderful (if a little cold and damp at times). The Friday (when most of the group arrived) was a lovely day, but Saturday turned nasty, though that didn't stop us "enjoying" (and I use that word loosely - perhaps "enduring" might be a better choice) a barbeque in a hail storm and a biting North Westerly. We even managed to get the separate veggie barbie going with a little help from healthy slug of whisky and a blow-torch. Still, we gave it our best and stoically soldiered on regardless and it was a most excellent party, despite having to scrape ice off the table!


A total of nine outfits turned out for the weekend, ranging from new European models to a 50 year old vintage one. Here are a few pics of the weekenders (in no particular order)...

Five (of the ten) on site



Chris and his 684



Wide-bodied 684 and Bill. (It's the trailer that's wide-bodied, not Bill)



John & Carole with their 25' Classic



Ian and Ariane with their '78 Tradewind and some rather neat lego-brick levelling blocks



Gaynor, Carl, Connor, Jordie and Rory with their very excellent '59 Tradewind



I managed to miss getting a photo of Simon, Emma, their new baby Tilly and their 534, so here's one from the Airstream meet last year at the Game Fair. (They were still waiting for Tilly at that point)



Andrew (who spent most of the weekend working), his 532 and new Nissan Navara, about which he is very excited.



I was absolutely delighted to see a couple of Airstream motorhomes in the flesh. I've secretly hankered after one for ages, though I've never been up-close-and-personal before. They're HUGE!

Here's Chuck and Mary with their 310



Nick, Helen, Lily, Ella and Toby with their 250



A random Overlander that just happened to be sitting on a seasonal pitch on the site when we got there. Never saw who it belonged to, but it was great to be with it.




And, of course, Us and Ours.



We had a handful of day visitors too. Julia, Dave and Ella came up without their '66 Overlander since it was still in Winter storage, and Marc Harris of Silver Twinkie popped by to say hello. It was great to see them (even though they left their Airstreams at home!). The site staff (particularly Graham) were really helpful, and took everything in their stride.

So, would we do it again? Oh, yes. We've learned a lot from this little gathering, and we can definitely make the next one bigger and better. We found that "Airforums" is a great place for information and such, but I don't think it works well as a communication tool for UK owners. If there are any Airstream owners out there who live in the UK and would like to meet some others (I sound like a dating agency!), please get in touch via the About Us links at the top right of the page. It occurs to me that this might be the first ever time that ten Airstreams have been in the same field in the UK. I'd be delighted to be told differently.

Now then, where was I? Ah yes, Norfolk...