The T-Shirt Made Me Do It

Readers/stalkers may remember that the only thing I bought from our visit to the Airstream factory was an Argosy T-shirt.

Now, how can I own a T-shirt, but not represent and own an Argosy? Problem solved:

Meet our new trailer. (Well, after I pick it up and pay for it.) It's a 1977 Argosy Minuet 6.0 Metre. Argosys are essentially painted Airstreams; they were sold in the 70s as Airstream's "mid-priced" line. Nevermind they were still pretty pricey, and they actually had some features that Airstream did without.

This sweet little 20' trailer weighs under 2500 lbs; it was built as Airstream's solution to smaller tow vehicles during Fuel Crisis II. It has some awesome 70s decor too:

We love the orange countertops.

Seeing this groovy brown and orange striped awning sealed the deal. (Ironic how the colors of the blog and the T-shirt match the awning.)

A bit of me is sad that we don't have a trailer with nice polished real wood inside, or a polished silver outside. But the sweet front wrap-around windows make up for a lot, and I would rather pay to have the trailer (re)painted than to spend hundreds of hours polishing. (Especially if Top Chef or Good Eats is on Tivo.)

So, once I take delivery of the trailer, we'll be selling off the T@B. I'm a bit sad about this: the T@B was a great little trailer, and there are a lot of wonderful memories. But memories are in the head, not in the metal.

This purchase isn't without misgivings. (I'm something less than an optimist by nature.) In the first post I made to this blog, I bragged about the T@B like this:

Hence, My First Trailer. Training wheels for the RV set. That sounds somewhat disparaging, I know, but there is virtue in simplicity. Nothing much to fix. No poop tanks to empty. No weight-distribution hitches. No need to buy a big block Suburban to haul this around.

Well, let's see:
- "Nothing much to fix" - Well, the unique aluminium floor in the Minuet can't rot, a problem that plagues old Airstreams, so that's OK. But there is still plenty to update.
- "No poop tanks to empty" - Got one of those, and a tank for sink water too.
- "No weight-distribution hitches" - Getting one of those for the Odyssey
- "No need to buy a big block Suburban to haul this around." - Score! We're still one for four! The Odyssey will tow this just fine.

But we're excited. Juliet is picking fabric and floor colors. I'm reading Airforums for hours, finding out about fixes. (And I'm craving a SMEV cooktop/oven combo.)