RV LIFE Podcast
The RV LIFE Podcast, created by one of the premier companies in the RV industry, is for the RV Community with a mission to Educate, Entertain and Explore the RV Lifestyle. The Podcast will explore all things RV Life: living, working, exploring, learning. With hosts Dan & Patti Hunt, full time RVers, content creators, educators and explorers.
RV LIFE Podcast
Transformative Power of RVing: Airstream's Impact on RV Culture
Curious about how a life-changing decision during the pandemic led to an unexpected adventure on the open road? Join Patti Hunt on the latest episode of the RV Life Podcast, where she shares the highs and lows of transitioning to full-time RV living. Discover the heartwarming and occasionally hilarious stories from her travels, the invaluable lessons learned, and hear why Yellowstone National Park is a must-see on her travel bucket list. It's an episode brimming with inspiration and a call to embrace life's unpredictable turns.
We're also joined by the brilliant Eric Bricker, an acclaimed documentary director-producer, who gives us an exclusive look into his latest project, "Illuminations." Eric sheds light on the fascinating history of Airstream RVs and the legacy of its inventor, Wally Byam. From his initial dreams of being an actor to his current success in filmmaking, Eric’s journey is filled with passion and perseverance. Tune in to hear about the profound cultural and nostalgic significance of Airstreams and how they have become a symbol of exploration and community.
In addition, we explore the remarkable shift to RV minimalism and the freedom found in letting go of excess possessions. Patti’s firsthand experience of downsizing and living simply is both refreshing and liberating. Learn about the vibrant Airstream community and the indomitable spirit of Wally Byam, whose adventures inspire RV enthusiasts to this day. Whether you're a seasoned RVer or just curious about the lifestyle, this episode offers a wealth of insights into embracing change, fostering community, and finding joy on the road.
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The truth about what RVing is really about. I'm Patti Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. Airstream inventor Wally Byam showed RVing as a way of life. Today's guest produced and directed a documentary showing not only the history of Airstream, but mostly about the passion behind RVing. For those of you who don't know, I started my own RV adventure three and a half years ago.
Speaker 1:I went full time and to back up and give you a little bit of that story, like a lot of people, it was during the pandemic and we were literally sitting in our house in Las Vegas with everything shut down when Dan called me up to his office and said, hey, let's sell everything, buy an RV and go RVing full time. And I laughed at that because I truly thought he was kidding. When I realized he wasn't kidding, there was conversation, questions for sure, keeping in mind that this idea sounded incredibly crazy to me because I had only been in an RV for a total of seven nights in my entire life. And not only that, but camping, this idea of camping like in a tent. I had done that for two weekends and after doing that I said I prefer the high-end hotel with hot tub is what I preferred after camping for those two weekends. But after a long conversation and again being locked down, I just said what the heck? I saw an opportunity to be able to get on the road and at that time we were producing video for our YouTube channel and I decided I could get on the road and show people places, things to do, especially since people were stuck in the house, and I could do what I love, which is my passion, and that is to inspire people to live life fully. And that's what we did when we started.
Speaker 1:A year and a half into the RV Life, we met Patrick Buchanan from RV Life. For those of you who know him, he's an incredible man and we met him and we connected with him and shortly after that, the RV Life podcast was created and that was a year and a half ago and the podcast was created to educate, entertain and explore, with the mission to inspire people to live life fully. Now Wally Byam, who invented Airstreams and we are going to talk about Airstream today, made this quote and I loved it. I love this quote from him and it's explore the world while you have the opportunity, don't wait. And that's a messaging we say on the podcast all the time Time for this week. What you need to know, and it is brought to you by Open Road Resorts. They have five incredible locations Two are in Montana, one is in Idaho, one in Texas and their newest location is in Nebraska.
Speaker 1:But at this time of the year it is now fall A lot of people are, you know, thinking about the next time they go out. People are putting their RVs in storage. Right now, maybe kids are going back to school. For those people who are not full-time, this is the time of year where we start transitioning.
Speaker 1:For me, I like, with each season, to think back on the previous seasons. What are the things I'm grateful for, what are the things I was able to accomplish? What are the things I've done? What are the things I may need to do different. And that also includes me looking back on my RV adventures. And this summer wasn't all I had planned. I had planned on going to Yellowstone National Park and staying at Open Road Resorts Red Rock Park, which is close. So what am I going to do? I'm going to plan for next year. My goal is to go to Yellowstone National Park, staying in the beautiful Open Road Resorts locations.
Speaker 1:You can find out all about Open Road Resorts by going to openroadresortscom. Tell them you heard about it from the RV Life podcast. So the fact for today, over a century in 1910, the first motorized camper was built 1910, that's pretty incredible. Almost a century ago, in 1929, the first Airstream was built. Today we're going to hear more about Airstreams. My guest today, eric Bricker, is a director-producer, and he made his directorial debut with the documentary feature Visual Acoustics the Modernism of Julius Shulman, narrated by Justin Hoffman. Films garnered a number of awards in its festival run, including audience awards for best documentary, as well as many other festivals that they attended and won awards. They attended and won awards. Illuminations is Eric's second feature film, narrated by Kate Pearson, of the B-52s. Can't wait to talk more about this. Welcome, eric, to the RV Life Podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you, patty, great to be here.
Speaker 1:It is great to finally have you. I know we've been connected for several months almost a year now and it's just great to have you. I watched this documentary, illumination, and was just wowed by it. We're going to get into all that, but before we do, I want my listeners to get to know more about you. Who is Eric? Tell us about you.
Speaker 2:Who is Eric? Who is Eric? Tell us about you. Who is Eric? That seems like it's a story that continues on.
Speaker 2:I'm in quite a different place than I was when I started the film, but let's see to dial it all the way back. I am originally from St Louis, missouri, born and raised in St Louis, went to school four years at Indiana University in Bloomington, which is a fantastic town. It's the jewel. It's a jewel of a town in Southern Indiana. And then, since the age of 10, I was always California, dreaming. I wanted to be in the movies.
Speaker 2:And after I graduated from Indiana, I moved out to Los Angeles and started pursuing my film career, thought I wanted to be an actor and after about three years, realized that wasn't the place. I'd heard a good quote and the quote is the only power that an actor has is in between the words action and cut. And so it's not so much power, it's really wanting to shape a film. And I see film as a dialogue and I whip between the filmmakers and an audience and I realized, hey, you know what I want to make my own movies. I realized, hey, you know what I want to make my own movies. So I transitioned out of waiting tables and pursuing acting and went into the family business of art consultation with the idea that I'll start an art consultation firm and I'll make my own movies.
Speaker 2:And through that I met Julia Shulman, who is the world's most renowned architectural photographer. And I met Julius in the spring of 1999. And at the end we had become friends. And at the end of 2001, I proposed to him, I said hey, julius, what do you think about me doing a documentary on you and the archive and the photographs and the architects and modernism? And his answer to me, which is classic, julius, he just said well, I don't see why not. And so that's when I really embarked on my filmmaking career and, as you mentioned in the intro, visual acoustics, the modernism of Julius Shulman was my first film.
Speaker 1:Right and, as I said in the beginning, it's won many awards. People could go check it out on your website. Where can they go check that out? Let's give them that.
Speaker 2:So the our URL is Julius Shulman and that's S H U L M A N film, so Julius Shulman and that's s-h-u-l-m-a-n film, so julius shulman filmcom, and that's where people who are interested can learn more about the project. Um, it is. This film has came out. It premiered at the los angeles film festival in 2008, so it's been out for a while. The easiest way that people can find it is it is on Amazon and it's also on Apple TV. They can just put in Julius Shulman and it should come up, or my name.
Speaker 1:Okay and that's great. I'd like to lead people to that. But, honestly, what I'm really excited about is your newer film, which is Illuminations. What so? Illuminations is a lot of the story. Just to give my listeners the overview of Wally Byam, who was the founder of Airstreams, you in this film show and tell an amazing story. It just the movie grabbed me. The documentary really grabbed me. So what was the reason? What led you down that road, for that film?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah. So, as you mentioned, my second feature film is Illumination and there is an interesting story behind that. My producing partner, lisa Hughes, who was one of our executive producers on the Julius Shulman film, was meeting with, I believe it's a cousin of hers and this is down in Florida and she was talking to her cousin and her cousin's son is Peter Orthwine and her cousin's son is Peter Orthwine. Peter Orthwine is the O-R in Thor, the parent company of Airstream, and so, as Lisa was talking to Peter's mother, they got onto hey, an Airstream documentary would be the perfect follow-up to Visual Acoustics, the Modernism of Julius Shulman, and it had to do with the idea of I mean, really, the point of departure for Illumination was the Airstream as a design object, and it was that simple. She know it. She got ahold of Peter and talked to him about it. She called me and it was an instant yes, and that was in.
Speaker 2:That was May of 2013. And we just were on our way. We followed that up. That was May of 2013. We just were on our way, we followed that up. That was May of 2013. We talked, we got on the phone with Dickie Regal, former president of Airstream president and CEO, I believe. And then we also talked with the current president, bob Wheeler, of Airstream, and then our next stop was the Airstream factory in July of 2013.
Speaker 1:And that's an interesting story, a great story, because I have to let my audience know that you are not an RVer. You had no familiarity with the RV world, right?
Speaker 2:Correct? Yes, me so for myself, like so many other people's, with what I'm about to tell you. I see this. This is like across every generation. My son is Generation Z and I think Gen Z grows up with the ideas like, somehow, like Airstreams are nostalgic, you know, related to their childhood. But I had not grown up with an Airstream. I knew what they were. Um, I think for me the thing that really registered with Airstream was way back. I think this was the nineties or early two thousands. Um, I want to say it was the nineties. Sean Penn had moved into an Airstream in Malibu and I remember that that was probably my strongest identification with Airstream, besides seeing these silver bullet-shaped vehicles going across the highway when we did a lot of road tripping. So, yeah, I was not an RVer and was fascinated. I mean again, the film started as the point of departure was, as a design object, but what we instantly found out was about was the community of Airstream and then the larger sense, the larger idea of RV.
Speaker 1:And that's what. So, to back up, you know I wasn't an RVer before I started my RV life three and a half years ago. But I know that feeling of driving down the road and seeing this silver bullet type thing and you can't help but notice, you can't help but wonder. I know, for me it was wow and I wonder what it looks like on the inside. And then when I did start RVing, I had the opportunity to go into some of them, to see some of them on the YouTube creators' channels and they well, I'll be honest, it's not something I would live in. I love more of the luxury of the RV. You know the different features and luxury of it.
Speaker 1:The Airstream is something that you can't help but notice as it's driving down the road. So there is a design that is totally talked about in the documentary. The documentary it's expressed to see the way that Wally Byam created and, you know, continued to improve and change things, and it was a great piece of the documentary. It's a great piece of history. But bigger and probably more important to me from the movie was the RV movement. It was a way of life. It was truly an inspirational the movie talked about, you know, people at the time. I mean at that time that people were going out in these RVs. These men were in dress slacks and a dress shirt, but sometimes they had to pull that RV out of the dirt. It was truly an experience that I can't really necessarily put into words and that's what I've really resonated with the documentary.
Speaker 1:While Airstream did not, you know, without part of the documentary, they did grant you access to their film and photographic archives. So there was a lot of real footage from Wally Byam's travels and how Airstream got created, and that was really cool to see. But let's talk more about the inspiration, the movement, one of the things Wally Byam said, and I'm going to do a lot of quotes from him. He was an amazing person which I did not realize until after I watched the film. He said while there's no place like home, you can take it with you, and I thought that was a great quote. You really added the inspiration and you really captured what the RV community and this movement was really about. Tell us what your thoughts were on that.
Speaker 2:So, first off, I just want to back up and I'll link up to everything that what you had asked about. So, when we start, one of the things, when Lisa called me, the very first thing after I said yes, as I said, the number one issue I think we have to look at is that this will, because Airstream is a brand Well, because Airstream is a brand, this will, for most people, at least in the film world, folks are going to look at this as branded content, and so and we didn't want that we wanted to make the film that we wanted to make, and so we set that up with Airstream. We said, look, you know, here's, this is what we want to do. We want to do a film on Airstream. Right, can you grant us access to your archives? Can you grant us access to your contacts? And they said yes, and we very much. We kept a firewall in terms of finances, and so that's how we set up the film. I think there's for there's not a lot of people, but there's people here and there that instantly just assume that this is branded content and that airstream and put it out. So just to clarify that point.
Speaker 2:Um, in also in something that you said a little bit earlier and you've said it more than once um, once we started to dive in, you know, after going to the factory. While at the factory, we were inspired by the airstreams themselves. We were also inspired by the people that work there. We saw a lot of pride and handmade, like people really putting their heart and soul into something that they were making right there in the, you know, in ohio, in jackson center, ohio, um. So we saw kind of we felt a sense of community at the factory. And then bob wheeler and then molly hansen, who is vp of marketing, started. Really. Molly spent a lot of time with us and started directing us to key folks out in the Airstream community.
Speaker 2:So once we started to get out into the community, that's when, right away, what came up was what you had said earlier living life to its fullest. That's something that I it happened pretty early on. It happened in the fall of 2013, when I started to travel and started shooting, just even part-time, on the weekends, in a way, kind of like disconnecting from everyday life and all of its complexities and kind of paring it down to just the necessities. Or for full-timers, you know a lot of them are like this is it.
Speaker 2:Whatever everything we own, it has to fit into this vehicle, and in that, like stripping away all the extraneous and just getting down to necessities, what I found is that it kind of clears the palette of life for things to unfold in an easier way, and so that for me kind of is the first part of living life to its fullest, and then the second part is embracing the obstacles that come up. Things are going to go wrong. In the film, rich Lure from Airstream Life speaks to this really well. He's like you know things are going to happen, things. You know you're going to get somewhere and it's not what you thought it would be, or you're going to break down or all these other things. But what I learned too and in my short career of rving with our, the teardrop trailer that I had was embracing when things go wrong and embracing that as well. That's like the yin and the yang of life, and I believe that we need both of those things to live life to its fullest.
Speaker 1:There's a lot here, and this is where you and I connected, truly made a connection, Because, while the history of Airstream is interesting and things I didn't know and the documentary pulls that history out and shows the progression of the Airstream, the message that I would say is underlying, but I believe is more important talking about full-time Dan and I were full-time that idea of quote-unquote downsizing Downsizing is an easy word for saying I got rid of anything and everything that we didn't absolutely need. You want to talk about minimalism. That's it at its best. Now, to be totally transparent, I was somebody that loved my stuff. I had lots of stuff. When I went to move into an RV, we were living in a 32, 35,000, 100 square foot house with a walk-in closet that probably had more square footage than most than the RV I moved into. I moved into more shoes than I dare to admit to anyone. So to look and be able to get rid of things, pare down. I'll be honest, it was overwhelming at first and then, when I embraced it, the most freeing thing I've probably ever done. It was just an incredible experience and, again, you cannot imagine unless you actually go through it. So, to your point, I absolutely agree. So whether you could feel that, whether you're getting in and doing the RV life full time or you're doing it part time because that part time depending on how big your the vehicle is that you're going in, you need to decide on certain things that you're going to take with you. So I absolutely get that idea and I do believe that's living life fully.
Speaker 1:And you talked about things going wrong and embracing it, and I live that belief system. I live the idea that you know. So a good example we were in Las Vegas. Now we moved from Pennsylvania, where it rains often, to Las Vegas, where I think they get some 280, 290 days a year of sunshine, no rain. So that's a minimal amount of days of rain. I'm not going to do math here, but that's not a lot of rain. And I would go out in Las Vegas and it'd be raining and you'd hear somebody say, oh, it's raining today, as if it's a bad thing, and I would think to myself it's raining so you could appreciate when the sun comes out. So I'm with you on that looking at challenges and being able to embrace it. And you know things are going to get go wrong. And if you're in an RV, whether it's part time, full time, whatever that is, you better be able to embrace that things go wrong. So I want to continue on this, but I do want to get.
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Speaker 1:But let's get back to where we were going and so much of what we're talking about. So, watching the documentary, Wally Byam had a pretty tough life. So as a kid, like a lot of kids, his parents divorced. Now in that time, in the early 19,. I don't remember dates, as you said, I'm not a historian but it was a time where I would imagine there weren't a lot of people that got divorced. But his parents got divorced, His mother remarried and when he was in high school, both his stepfather and his mother passed away. And I'm bringing this up because, again, you want to talk about challenges and the documentary really brought it to light in how Wally did not just crawl into a hole and say that's it, I'm done. I mean, he had just graduated high school and he has no parents. That's what we're talking about, right, that whole idea of challenges.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think Wally Byam, for me embodies, is an embodiment of the idea of perseverance, is an embodiment of the idea of perseverance, having a mission and staying true to that and what weathering the storm, whatever the storm may be, in staying true to the mission. And from an early age he he had always worked from a very young age we talk about that in the film and, as you had mentioned, his stepfather and mother died, um, right towards like the end of his high school years, um, and he was estranged from his father, from his real father. Uh, he ended up going to stanford, graduated from stanford and followed his dream, um for a film, film wanting to be in the movie industry, and moved down to the Southern California area and ended up starting some media, publications and trade magazines. And then, as we talk about in the film too, he had camped and spent time in the outdoors from early on from an early age and had built himself a platform travel trailer and that was kind of those were the seeds or some other pieces of that story that launched Airstream.
Speaker 2:But every step of the way, I believe, he was challenged Like, how am I going to build a platform trailer? Or, wow, I started a company, how am I going to make this product better, or how am I going to scale a company? Or we get into the caravans and taking people from Cape Town, south Africa, to Cairo, egypt. How am I going to lead a group of travelers this distance? And I think with Wally Byam, there was just a sense of I mean, I know that there was a lot of stress. We talk about it in the film, but also there's this sense of perseverance and this is the destination that I'm headed towards, whether it's to create the perfect travel trailer or we're going to arrive in Cairo, egypt. Nothing is going to stop us, and he was a person that was able to do that. And looking at that, like in filmmaking, in storytelling, we have the hero's journey, and and the hero's journey is you can't have a hero and their journey without obstacles and conflict.
Speaker 1:And that is again something we talk about on the podcast and I believe in and that's what I connected with. The story is beautifully told. The history of Airstream is beautifully told. You did an amazing job. I love seeing the old footage and really learning about it. But that's what really touched me. Wally said in the movie there was a quote he believed in the impossible and he said a a way of life, a world filled with possibilities, and that really resonated a lot with me. Um, so you even had actor patrick dempsey, who's from gray's anatomy for those people don't know in the in the documentary. How much about is that?
Speaker 2:yeah, we knew he was an air. We knew he was an air streamer he had. So there's dave winnick, who is one of um, a vintage restorationist. He's in the film quite a bit too, and we knew that patrick dempsey had a dave winnick airstream trailer. And this has been my experience, um, whether it was on Visual Acoustics or this film, when we approach people, and whether it's somebody just out camping or somebody like Patrick Dempsey, when it's a yes, it's just very clear and it's very easy. And we reached out to his office and asked if he would appear in the film and it was an instant yes, and it was really easy to schedule. And we ended up going up to his home in Malibu and interviewing him in his backyard with his trailer.
Speaker 1:That's very cool and that was his trailer. Then you showed in the in the documentary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there he's. There's a part where Dave Winnick is talking about his own style, his aesthetic, that he wants it to be classic. And as Dave Winnick is talking, we're cutting. We're looking at one particular trailer and that is Patrick Dempsey's trailer.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's what I thought. Okay, let me just take another brief break. Let's get my sponsor in here Open Roads Fuel Card. So for those people who are traveling anywhere for any length, open Roads Fuel Card is for those of us that have diesel fuel. Ours was a 2002 Monaco Diplomat is what we drove. Diesel pusher needs lots of fuel, but the Open Roads Fuel Card was great at helping us to save on fuel every time we would go to the gas station. You have a great app that you can go on and find a gas station. You can go on and find a gas station. Truck stops across the country. So, openroadsfuelcard. You go to MyOpenRoadsFuelCardcom. The card is absolutely free to sign up and then you just use it and you see what your discount is going to be. Ok, let's get back to this.
Speaker 1:This a lot of what they talked about in the film as well was about the reason people went RVing. So, again in the film, you see women in their skirts and they were dressed. They had their heels on. The men were wearing suits. It was, as we said before, really a way of life, and some of the quotes in there, some of the things I pulled out of the documentary Creating your Own Adventure. There is a clip from Vincent Price which was let's get into this. He was interviewed in the film for the caravanning around the world. So let's talk first about you kind of mentioned it the trip to Cairo. Let's talk a little bit about that idea of caravanning around the world and then we'll come back to the or continue along the line of the whole purpose. People wanted to get in an RV and travel.
Speaker 2:Okay, so caravans. Rich Lure, again from Airstream Life, says it perfectly. I don't know if this is in the film, but I remember him saying you know, this is think of contemporary brands like North Face, for instance, or Patagonia, and you see a Patagonia coat out in the mountains. You're seeing the goods out be used in the purpose that they were made for. That was one of the ideas behind, which is brilliant, a brilliant marketing idea, like let's get the vehicles out and show how rugged and sturdy and this is what they were made for. They're made for hardcore adventure. They can go off road, they can go through, and there's some of the footage shows it going, getting pulled through rivers. I mean it's pretty extreme and it's and it's. It serves a number of different purposes. It's a great marketing tool. But also, again, at the heart of it, like what?
Speaker 2:The whole reason behind Wally Byam, or at least the genesis of the Airstream Travel Trailer, was? His desire to continually experience the outdoors and adventure. Experience the outdoors and adventure. And so I can't I don't have the exact year. It was in the fifties, I want to say like mid fifties, um, where one of Wally Byam's customers said hey, you know, this is great, but I don't really know how to use it. And while I said why don't you come along with me and my friends, let's go travel together? And so Wally had put together the first Airstream caravan where he took a group of there were quite a few, I think it was like 53 people, either 53 people or 53 trailers and they went down to Mexico and that was the birth of. That was the idea, again, like everything that I had said, like we can go and create community, we can have experiences together and we can document this and use this for marketing materials.
Speaker 1:Yeah, throughout that trip to Mexico it was really about. I loved how they talked about it was about community again. So the airstreams were low profile and they were going through mud. They were going through places that I wouldn't take my four-wheel drive Jeep through and things would break. And in the film you talked about, the clips were talking about how these men would get together and pull a trailer out. These were businessmen mostly business people that had no idea what hard work like physical labor looked. And there they are in these archived films that showed them figuring out how to get these trailers out of the mud, how to embrace the difficulty, how to get through it and why did they do that?
Speaker 1:A big part and, if you could talk on this quote, the best way to see the world is to drive and you need to get off the road and you need to get off the road better. Take your living accommodations. So this was like what was behind this whole thing. These were businessmen that had money. They could have flown anywhere, but that's the difference between flying somewhere, staying in a hotel and RVing, and probably why. Today there are 60 million families I just saw this quoted 60 million families that are active RVers, so that could be full-time, part-time sometime, anytime. 60 million families, that's a pretty crazy number and it's about getting out there and embracing it. So talk a little bit. I know after the film you decided to get a teardrop RV and you did some RVing. Once you share your experience with that, what you thought of that, that experience?
Speaker 2:Sure, well, what I saw within the Airstream community and the larger RVing community nation, let's say it's 60 million families. That's incredible. I didn't know that out, how these objects bring people together, and I wanted that for my son. I wanted to have experiences with my son and I wanted to be able to get to know other people too, and so where I was in terms of what I could afford and storage and all those things was I got a little teardrop trailer and did exactly what I just said Took my son out, we went on camping trips and it really, you know, sleeping in that teardrop with my son, like, and then waking up in the morning and making coffee and breakfast at that in the back, there little kitchen, like. I loved it and that's what it was about for me. I wanted to have those experiences and that's also what I saw.
Speaker 2:Again with Airstream. It's instantly when we started the film. There was the design object, there was the object the Airstream and there was the community, and that community was built to a large part by Helen Byam Schwamborn, who was in the film, and her son, dale Peewee Schwamborn is in the film. I think he's the person that appears the most, and rightfully so he is really, I think, the guardian of the Wally Byam legacy. He was cousins with Wally. He knew Wally from a very young age. He was on the Cape Town to Cairo caravan, he was also on the I a way with people and she is really the person that helped build up the Airstream community and through the Wally Byam Caravan Club, which became the WBCCI, which has now gone through a name change, through a name change and, oh my gosh, it is I believe it's the Airstream Club I have to look it up, but it was Helen Byam Schwamborn but really the key figure behind and nurturing this community.
Speaker 1:And that's a lot of you know fast forwarding to today and what I saw for the last three and a half years. Community I talk about it a lot. I don't think people can really absorb or understand the gravity of what I talk about. When I say community, it is different than any community, the RV industry, the people within the industry it is different than anything I've ever seen in any of the industries that I've ever been in and I've been in a number of them that idea of getting in an RV. So when I started my RV adventure I didn't know what to expect. We'll go out. You know, dan's big thing was, oh, we could go out and see all the national parks, visit all of them. And I thought, okay, that sounds okay, but it didn't necessarily resonate with me. And we would go out and, like a lot of people, we were in a hurry to go, do everything and while we were in one place we were thinking about the next place we were going, or should I plan, should I book that next campground? So I wasn't present in the place I was and quickly luckily quickly into our RV adventure. I was like this isn't going to work. I can't continue to go at this pace because I felt like I was coming into these areas as a tourist and I know in the film it said traveler but not a tourist. And I know in the film it said travel but not tourist, traveler but not a tourist. And that really struck because when I started out I was a tourist. I was going into these places looking for the places that were the tourist places and you know, it was this fast pace and it didn't fit and I realized like we need to slow down, we need to be present, we need to be where we are right now and the big thing for us that came out of that was enjoying the journey, because, especially with the RV and it was brought out in this film it's about the journey, what those people in the story went through, as far as working together and helping each other out of a ditch Axles broke and all kinds of things broke on these trailers and some of them didn't even make it to the destination. But the community coming together and knowing that they came together, that's what I believe the attraction to RVing is.
Speaker 1:After three and a half years, anybody who knew my personality before I got into an RV would probably say and I've actually had my kid at one point say well, I'm not sure that the whole RV thing was for you, because they had a belief of what it was like.
Speaker 1:But here I was in the RV and it was one of the most amazing experiences, because of that feel, because of that freedom, because of all of these things that you brought out in the documentary To be able to go in a place and sort of live there for a week or two or three. That's not the same as going in for your seven days, staying in a hotel and being a tourist, and that is a feeling I can't even describe. But I'm so incredibly grateful for it. And, as a lot of people know, I've been in a house now for a while. I've had a transition into a house, but I can't wait to get back out there on the road and, whether that's part-time or full-time, I want to continue to see the country from an RV because it's a whole different way of living, like you said, with your son.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do just want to clarify. So the Wally Byam Caravan Club International that's the WBCCI. That's what Helen Byam Schwamborn was part of helped develop. It is now has been. They went through a name change I can't remember how many years ago, maybe like three or four years ago and it's now the Airstream Club International. They can be found at airstreamcluborg. They can be found at airstreamcluborg.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love what you're saying about RVing and for me, my partner, allison and her two kids and my son, airstream, loaned us an Airstream and a tow vehicle and we had it for two weeks and it was great.
Speaker 2:Some of the things I remember the most are playing games around the the table there and just playing games with the kids having the time to do it, and I remember in the sedona area, the kids we just let them free, they stayed back at the airstream and allison and I went to the local laundromat to do laundry and I just remember driving.
Speaker 2:We just enjoyed the time together and I found, like many newbies that are out there. Quite often people probably think we're going to hit here and we're going to stay here for five days or even three days and then we're going to the next spot, and it's just too much. It's a lot of prep, breakdown and setup and also it doesn't for me give enough time to allow things to just kind of unfold at a reasonable pace and rate so that you have the time to like notice the different qualities of maybe the air or look at the trees or just, you know, have those conversations with folks at the laundromat. So I found that in a way it's almost like slower is really the way to more, to like a deeper, richer experience.
Speaker 1:I absolutely agree with that and it's about people finding their pace and what works for them. I'm all about be in the moment, be present, enjoy, and, I agree, staying for that two weeks, sometimes three weeks, in an area and really embracing it. Really embracing it Just I saw things. I've done a lot of travel previous to RV living and I just embraced it and was part of where I was more than I had ever been, and that was just a an incredible experience. I want to do some of it. I may never go back to full-time RVing, but to get in a van and go somewhere. And again, this whole idea of community, just for my listeners to be clear yes, Airstream has an incredible community. They do events, they do all kinds of group and activities and all kinds of things, and I'll put that website you mentioned in the show notes. And there are all kinds of clubs and you know the Monaco group. I had a Monaco diplomat. Monaco isn't even in business anymore and they have clubs. They have a club. They're all kinds. So anybody listening who doesn't have an Airstream you could still get the same sense of RVing, obviously, and there are clubs and groups and places, communities to join and be part of.
Speaker 1:Without a doubt, we are going to start wrapping up. I just want to, but I'm not letting you go. We are not finished. I want to, and it's funny when we get in these conversations, you know. Just so my listeners know this is not pre-planned. I didn't have questions I sent to you and I get so into them. The time just flies by and I love that and I want to hear from my listeners because I hope they're getting out of this. What I'm, you know, I'm hoping. So. I really would love for my listeners to reach out to me at RV Life Podcasts on Instagram, facebook comments, questions, thoughts. Is there somewhere they can reach out to you? Eric, I didn't ask you before we got on, but is there somewhere people have questions or thoughts for you they could reach out to you?
Speaker 2:could reach out to you. Yeah, I think the best way they can go to illumination movie, and illumination is spelled a L U M I N a T I O N movie, m O V I Ecom, so illumination moviecom, and then through there. Um, there's a contact area and it has our email on it. A contact area and it has our email on it. And I do want to say so.
Speaker 2:We've talked a lot about Airstream and this isn't the RV Life podcast I want folks to know out there. Airstream is a really small, very small segment of the RV world and for us, because of again talking about Lisa's connection to Peter Orthwein, that's what sparked the project. And Airstream is an incredible company with an incredible history and product. But when we dove into it, we really wanted to hit the larger story and that is RVing in general and the spirit of it of wanderlust and living life to its fullest. So I just want the listeners to know that Airstream is the vehicle to take us to those larger themes to take us to those larger themes, Absolutely, and I'm glad you said that because, yes, Airstream is just a vehicle.
Speaker 1:Mine was a Monaco Diplomat, eventually a Newmar Death Star. So, whatever the vehicle, that is what I hope the listeners got out of the podcast so far. There was another quote and I love pulling the quotes because there were so many great pieces of information and quotes in this movie Undoubtedly still the age-old desire to pack up and discover what lies beyond the next range of hills, and I love that. And again, whether it's in an Airstream or any RV or you just take a car out and go exploring, I think you can get the same ideas, the same benefits from being in some place, you know, in a place. So I lived in outside Philadelphia for just about all of my life and when I went three years on the road and then I came back to the area that I'd been born and raised in, I was able to go explore and see things that I didn't notice living here the whole time.
Speaker 1:There's a park that's not far from where I had lived. It's actually called Ridley State Park. I didn't notice the beauty. I had been there many times prior to going RVing. And then I get in an RV and there's beauty that you just didn't see, and I think that's what I loved about being in an RV and traveling, not being a tourist in an area, really being able to be there and be present, and you know we've talked about that. But I think that's probably one of the most important things that I got out of RVing and you certainly showed it in this in Illuminations movie.
Speaker 2:In this film, Thank you, I'm glad, I'm glad you think so and yeah, again, I think you and I have talked about I think we kind of meet in these this area of inspiration and ethos, and I want the listeners to know too. The film was constructed in a way almost like a primer to Airstream and to RVing, and there's a little bit of there's history in there, there's renovation in there, there's a little bit of everything and I feel like, for anybody that's interested in RVing not just Airstream this is a really good 69 minute trimmer like Airstream, I mean, in a way almost like RVing 101. But I think for the most part, what I wanted to impart to the viewers was the spirit and the sense of it, and so that was really kind of like the high notes that we were trying to hit viewers was the spirit and the sense of it, and so that was really kind of like the high notes that we were trying to hit through the film.
Speaker 1:And I absolutely, 100% you hit them. I absolutely was moved by this documentary. It totally and this is how we connected and I felt it when I watched this documentary and we had a conversation afterwards. That was probably an hour-long conversation and if we had been sitting by the fire we would have probably talked all night. It was that. That's where we connected and it was very touching with the history behind it. I want people to know and I didn't ask you before Again, we still have some things that we're going to cover here what's next for you? Do you have a next step, a plan yet, or are you just kind of?
Speaker 2:What's next for Illumination is we. We are ending up. So our we have an incredible distributor who has put their heart and soul into the Julius Shulman film the modernism of Julius Shulman. They put that out in 2009. It traveled from New York and went all the way around the country and played in theaters, and that was artthouse Films. That's the distributor, and so the film has been out on. I mean, that little film just keeps on going and Arthouse is now going to put out Illumination. So, fingers crossed, it should be out on the streaming platforms Amazon Prime, apple TV in December of this year. That is the plan. There are a lot of complexities in distribution, but that is the plan. So we're really excited because it will get out to a larger audience. So that's what's next for Illumination. That's what's next for illumination.
Speaker 2:For myself, I'm kind of going back to obstacles. This one was a beast. My it. There were a lot of things that kind of went wrong, or you know, we're challenging and getting the film finished and right now I am kind of I am. I'm, in a way, I'm retooling my life. I have moved out of my town home that I've been in since 2011. I'm nomadic. I am actually. I have been house sitting around the Austin area. I sold as much as I could and I've got the rest of it in storage, storage. And right now, for me, this is a time where I'm very um, I'm taking my time and being really deliberate about what it is that I want to put in, bring into my life, whether it's material possessions and how I spend my energy. So I'm not sure what's next, and there's an excitement in that, because I feel like I just kind of like let go of the wheel and almost kind of letting like seeing where things take me.
Speaker 1:I love that. I sort of was forced into that type of situation myself and just to for people who are new in March, april, dan became ill. We had to come off the road. I am living in a house and life changed and I'm like you, while it was difficult and it's up and down, embracing what's next and sounds like a conversation that you and I will continue to have, but I love that and thank you for sharing that. So now it's now time for the question of the week, and this is going to be for you. So hang in there. And it is brought to you by Open Roads.
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Speaker 1:I highly recommend it. Information's in the show notes. Check it out at Innovative Toll at Open Roads my Open Roads. You go to my Open Roads and there's a drop down menu and you can find everything you need to know about this toll pass. I highly recommend it for anybody who travels. So the question of the week now is for you what is something you would recommend that you've done on your bucket list? Or you're thinking about doing Something you recommend to my listeners? I know I'm putting you on the spot. I don't know.
Speaker 2:That's okay, I've got, I have a good one. Actually, this is, I think, for any RVer. Have opened a. The factory tour is amazing, and equally is they have opened an Airstream heritage museum that they put many, many years into designing, planning and curating, and they put a lot of funding into it too, and I think it is well worth. Like that alone, just the museum itself is well worth a visit to Jackson center Ohio.
Speaker 1:I will have to put that on my list. Well, again, an Airstream is not. Well, I shouldn't say never, say never. If, if Airstream wants to loan me an Airstream and a driver because I don't want to be towing, I'd be happy to take it out for a couple of weeks and have the Airstream experience. I'm all about that. Okay, I'll have to reach out to them, but yeah, that sounds like a plus report.
Speaker 1:I think so, yes, yes, okay. Well, it is now time for the campground of the week and it is brought to you by RV Life, and this featured campground is Thousand Trails, palm Springs, in Palm Desert, california, which is a beautiful area. It has 401 sites. They offer full hookups, full in-sites, a dog park. You don't have the RV, they have cabins, they have cottage rentals. The campground has unique activities and, because of its amazing location, it is not far from golf courses, there's lakes, there's canyons, national monuments and so much more in this area. I have been to this campground. I will say that there are areas of the campground it's tight for your RV I'm going to be honest, but this campground has such an amazing feel to it the people, just the beauty of it, the surrounding area. I really enjoyed this area, sincerely enjoyed this area, and this campground would definitely go back.
Speaker 1:Thousand Trails, palm Springs has a solid 7.1 rating on RV Life Campgrounds, with 162 reviews. What is nice is, if you go to campgroundsrvlifecom and you go to Thousand Trails, palm Springs, you could hit the book now, button right from there and book your stay. You could also see photos, tips, the full amenities of this property, as well as other campgrounds. So RV Life Campgrounds is part of RV Life Pro and it is the most complete source of RV parks, campgrounds, resorts, as well as city, state and national parks and so much more. Anything you want to know about campgrounds, go to RV Life, go to campgroundsrvlifecom and you can find it all. Well, eric, I have to thank you so much for taking the time, for being on the podcast, for sharing openly and honestly, for creating this documentary Illuminations. People can go to illuminationsmoviecom. I'll put the correct spelling in the show notes, but thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's my pleasure, patty. I really appreciate the opportunity to be on the show. I appreciate what you and Dan have created, and all my best to Dan.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Well, you've been listening to the RV Life Podcast. I'm Patty Hines, wishing you a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.