By
Gypsy Rhapsody
(A 1977 Airstream that loves fame.!!!)
Who doesn't like being rich and famous...
Did I say "rich"? Well, rich didn't happen, but
we did get a little famous...in Questa.
The editor of the local newspaper in Questa, NM,
Lou McCall,
approached Vannie for an article
about our journey...how we started this
lifestyle...how we got to Questa...and more.
Vannie contacted our good friend, Douglas Cunningham,
about a picture he had taken of them standing in front of moi.
He emailed the high resolution picture...Lou loved it, and
she loved the article...
Sooo...here's what's going to make us rich and famous.
photo by Douglas Carr Cunningham
QUESTA AND
BEYOND
By Vanette
Harris
My husband, David, and I are Airstreamers,
Louisianans, Texans, Adventurers and Questanites. When we approached retirement in 2011, we
both decided to downsize and not have the burden of a home and yard to maintain.
We decided to become fulltime
RVers. This had not been a long thought-out
plan. It just happened. We put our house in Lafayette, LA on the
market. We had lived there 42 years, so
we had a bunch of stuff, but once we made up our minds, it was easy to get rid
of most of it. We wanted a simpler, less
complicated lifestyle. We wanted the
freedom to be able to travel and to experience and live affordably in other
parts of the country, for months at a time.
We located
and purchased a vintage 1977 31 foot Airstream.
The trailer had been used as a camp and had a few “issues”, to say the
least. The plumbing was redone, interior
seating reupholstered, new countertops, flooring, new convection oven and
refrigerator installed, and along with a few other cosmetics, and in September
2011, it would serve as our home. We had
only owned a pop-up camper years ago, so we had much to learn. We joined the Wally Byam Caravan Club
International, the Acadiana Unit, in Lafayette.
We were taken under the wings of this fun-loving Cajun group and brought
up to speed on all aspects of full-time RV living. We named our trailer Gypsy Rhapsody. We had both played this piece on the piano in
high school, and the name just seemed to fit.
We loved New
Mexico. We had been coming out west
since the late ‘90’s. During that time
we had purchased a timeshare at the Caribel Condos in Red River. After about a
year of retirement, we decided that a part-time job would be nice to cover
extra travel expenses. I called the
manager of the Caribel, Angelique Gonzales (from Questa, of course), to see if
she knew of a place in Red River that might need a couple of senior citizens to
work a few hours a week. She immediately
said that she could use us at the Caribel…so our summer time jobs were born. We work from Memorial Day to the end of
September. The cool mountain air is a dream-come-true for a couple of South Louisianans.
Questa has
become our home away from home. David and I park Gypsy Rhapsody at a beautiful shady spot by the river and landlady is awesome. It’s just perfect. The Caribel is only 10 miles up the mountain,
and the scenery couldn’t be more beautiful.
We share a passion for hiking and touring art galleries. If we are
around in the winter, snowshoeing is a must.
We have completed the Vistas de Questa trail three times so far this
summer. Not bad for a couple of 73 year olds. We have fallen love with the
people of Questa. Everyone has accepted
us and made us part of their beloved community.
Questa has become a way of life for us…as in the Questa Library, visitor
center, grocery store, Dollar Store, Ace, Jay’s Thrift Store, Rael’s Coffee
Shop, Frank’s, Bobcat, Post Office, St. Anthony’s, Wild Rivers, Eagle Rock
Lake, the Chevron Station, Ocho with Barrie, Yoga Sala, the Wild Rivers and
Questa Art Tours, Questa Del Rio Colorado News, and, last but not least, the
Ancianos Senior Center. We love driving
up the hill to eat several times a week.
Mallie and her workers are wonderful and always so welcoming. This is our 7th summer to live and
work in northern NM. What a blessing!!!
Being on the
road so much, we needed a base-camp. We
are members of the North Texas Airstream Community located in Hillsboro, Texas,
about 50 miles south of Dallas. It is a
50 acre “gated community” that is open all year with spacious lots with hookups,
custom built villas and houses. They
have a full time Office Manager and a mail forwarding service. NTAC is within an hour or so from our
daughter and her family in Austin, TX and about 6 hours from our son and his
family in Lafayette.
A couple of
years ago, David and I decided we needed a smaller trailer to add to our
family. A friend in Louisiana saw a 1979
22 foot “Minuet” Argosy made by Airstream on Craig’s List. We checked it out and discovered it was
located in Austin about a block from our daughter’s house. It was in great
shape, so “Minuet in G” came home with us.
Airstreamers
are a group of RVers who share a community spirit because of their mutual love
of the big silver bullets. Airstream
company founder Wally Bram began leading groups of owners on travels way back
in the 50’s. Photos taken of the
trailers in front of many famous tourist sites were common. This promoted a mystique which surrounded
Airstreams and persists to this day.
To record
and share our journeys, I write a blog, “the journey of gypsy rhapsody and
minuet in G” which, is written in the voice of “Gypsy” or “MinnieG”…depending
whom we are traveling with at the moment.
Check it out. You can just google
“the journey of gypsy rhapsody”. Be sure
to go back to the beginning. It’s been
quite a journey, for sure.
We have no
regrets about following our dream…and are dreaming about more adventures ahead.
Questa and
Beyond.!!!
