Where did the name Wanda come from.

It started many years ago at the Sacramento Boat and RV show. When we got there my wife said she never could see having an RV. “It is just a money pit!” were her exact words. We walked through many with our friends who were in the market for one. We happened to see a couple of Airstreams. After walking through them my wife said to me, “If we ever decided to buy a trailer, I’d only get an Airstream.” It was a passing thought. 

A couple of years later, in the midst of Covid, with two kids under 5, another on the way, and probably losing our sanity at this point, we got the crazy idea of doing a huge road trip through the US while on maternity leave. We looked high and low for a used airstream. I drove down to southern California to buy one, but upon seeing it, it wasn’t meant to be. Finally, four days before our third son was born, I found one in Salem, Oregon. It was a Friday night, and my son was scheduled to arrive on Monday. We called and talked to the owners, my wife looked at me and said, “just go, go get it.” 

I drove eight hours, napped a little bit at a rest stop, then spent hours looking over and inspecting our soon to be escape from the daily grind and adventure we all needed. She was beautiful, glistening in the sun, perfect in every way. After months of being homebound, we were all restless and ready to adventure! I hooked her up to my truck and drove the eight hours home with a huge smile on my face. 

The next morning, my very pregnant wife and two sons ran out to see our beautiful new addition to our family. We all oohed and awed at how perfect she was. The boys jumped on the couch, jumped on the bed, moved every switch they could find, and even tested out the toilet. As my wife was stepping out of the trailer, her belly being so big at this point, she stepped in a spot that was not in the typical walkway, and her face turned from smile to concern. 

“Is it supposed to be soft?” she said. 

Five minutes later, I was pulling out the cabinets and ripping up the floor. Soft spots in the floor means dry rot, not a good thing. With our newborn curled up on my chest sleeping, I was researching how to fix the floor so we could get to travelling sooner than later. 

As my wife recovered and our family adjusted, I put the trailer back together. I put in the last rivet, and we hitched Wanda up for our first adventure – to the coast so we could get out of the smokey air from all the fires. We spent the summer following the smoke map to keep our sons’ new lungs from the smokey air. And so began our adventures Wandering in Wanda.

Wanda is the name of our airstream, that we have traveled, lived, and grown in.