By Jennifer Dice, BRN 30301
Deciding to Travel
In 2010, my husband, Dan, and I decided we would be intentional about our travel and devised a plan whereby we would travel in-country every odd-numbered year and abroad every even-numbered year.
In 2012, we were gifted a sweet English Bulldog puppy named Jess and found you cannot just leave this breed with a random, minimally qualified dog sitter. Because of this, I found myself in an endless cycle of interviewing and testing out new sitters on an annual basis. Somewhere along the way, I started to ask myself how we could travel more often with Jess and reduce the need for a competent, high-quality sitter to only the years we traveled abroad.
As Navy veterans, we had significant experience traveling cross country when we took orders to our next command. We knew the United States was beautiful and had so much to offer in the way of experiences, so in 2018, I started researching travel trailers.
Picking Out Our Airstream
After much research, I happened upon Airstream and instantly fell in love with the aesthetics of the trailer, their longevity on the road, their build quality pointing to a stable investment and the adventurous spirit and story of Wally Byam.
We originally went to look at the Nest and quickly realized it would not comfortably fit the bulldog and her two humans. Instead, we left that day with a Bambi 19CB and a Blue Ox tagging behind our Ford Explorer. We named her Estrela, Portuguese for star, combining the language of a country we love and a Wally Byam quote. Estrela was perfect for a year of weekend adventuring and getting to know the Club. With the addition of another dog, Jade, and realizing we really enjoyed this lifestyle, we sold Estrela and purchased Neptune, a 27’ Globetrotter and nod to our seagoing past.
Neptune has been a game changer, allowing us to meet many great people through numerous rallies, a caravan, and full timing over the past three years. When not on the road, we have a landing pad at North Texas Airstream Community (NTAC) which affords us a safe place to regroup, address maintenance, and get to know many more wonderful Airstreamers.
Club Involvement
I still work full time and Dan is retired. In 2022-2023, I served as the President, and now Past President, for North Texas Airstream Club (NTxAC). I volunteered and was selected to support the original Leadership Recruitment Committee headed by Mona Heath after the change to the delegate process. This year, I supported the IBT emergency resolution to establish an Interim International Treasurer and conducted the process which recruited Alan Rabb. Lastly, I am currently serving as co-chair of a special committee with Brad Briggs, to review and address gaps in the Constitution and By-Laws brought about by the change from a delegate system to our current election process.
Assembling a Team
As chair for the Leadership Recruitment and Oversight Committee (LRO), I am seeking volunteers for a small team who are interested in playing a critical role in refining how members show interest in being in leadership positions at the International level and how our members get to know and elect the candidates, they believe will do the best job for the Club. If you have experience as a hiring manager or a corporate recruiter, have successfully led people to achieve corporate initiatives, excel in communication, are innovative, and enjoy spotlighting and promoting the strengths of others, please email me at LeadershipRecruitment@airstreamclub.org — I would love to speak to about serving on the committee.
