Airstream Tour - Jackson Center Ohio

Factory Tour

THE ONE AND ONLY SILVER PALACE 

Don Ambos, our tour guide, worked at Airstream for 35 years. Since he retired 14 years ago, he has been coming back daily to give factory tours.  They have been making trailers at the Jackson Center Ohio plant since 1952.  Airstream started manufacturing trailers in the 1930's. Over the years they have followed their founder's vision of design, innovation and quality to maintain their position as the industry leader. Wally Byam once said "let's not make any changes-let's make only improvements." And that's exactly what they have been doing for over 70 years. 

Reception Area

Reception Area

Parts Store

Reception Desk

Airstream Cycle

Airstream Cycle

Our Tour Guide

Service Area

Leak test Tunnel

New Model - Entire Rear Opens

Finishing the Interior

Production Line

Looking at a unit in the final finish stage

Looking at a unit in the final finish stage

Outside of Assembly Area

Awaiting Delivery

All units being built are all ready sold to a dealer.  You can place your order with a dealer and come to the plant to watch your unit being built.

Our Trip Continues

Confederation Bridge Leaving Prince Edward Island

The Confederation Bridge joins the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, making travel throughout the Maritimes easy and convenient. The curved 8 mile long bridge is the longest in the world crossing ice-covered water, and a decade after its construction, it endures as one of Canada’s top engineering achievements of the 20th century.

Newburg New York

West Point Military Academy 

Renowned as one of the world's preeminent leader development institutions, West Point's mission is to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country. The student body, or Corps of Cadets, numbers 4,400 and each year approximately 1,000 cadets join the Long Gray Line as they graduate and are commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army.

West Point Cemetery

Our Tour Guide

The Original Chapel

Orange County Choppers

Orange County Choppers (OCC) is a custom and production motorcycle manufacturer based in Orange County, New York, that was founded by Paul Teutul, Sr., and Paul Teutul, Jr., in 1999. The company was featured on American Chopper, and later on Discovery Channel's sister channel.   A new international headquarters designed to combine their production and retail facilities was constructed in the Town of Newburgh.  OCC's production facility was initially located in the hamlet of Rock Tavern, it then later moved to nearby Montgomery before moving into its new headquarters in Newburgh. OCC started as a sideline to the family's steel manufacturing enterprise, Orange County Iron Works, which was founded in the 1970s. In the late 1990s, Teutul Sr. began manufacturing custom motorcycles as an extension of his steel business, and in 1999 he founded Orange County Choppers. The company's first bike, "True Blue", was debuted at the 1999 Daytona Biketoberfest.

Penn Wood Airstream Park

Penn Wood Airstream Park is located near Clarion, PA.  The sixty-acre park is nestled in a wooded glen.  Considerable effort has been devoted to integrating the park with the surrounding forest.  Penn Wood Airstream Park is owned and operated by the Penn Wood Campground Association as a non-profit corporation.  It was formed to develop and maintain a park for Airstream owners and their guests.  The park is headquarters of the Pennsylvania Unit of WBCCI.

Not a trick photo - The actual address of Penn Wood Park

Penn Wood Entrance

Prince Edward Island - The Last Stop

Northumberland Ferries

Northumberland Ferries offers a way for you and your car to travel between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The Confederation and the Holiday Island Ferries ply the waters between Caribou and Wood Islands in just 75 minutes and offers the opportunity to relax and enjoy the trip to PEI. The business was founded in 1941.

Due to heavy traffic on the ferry, they could only take part of the caravan.  The first group spent the night on the ferry dock to catch the first ferry while the second group traveled on the next ferry. 

Green Gables Farm

When the novel Anne of Green Gables was first published in 1908, a lot of people wanted to visit its setting. As the book became popular around the world, it’s likely that many readers had no idea where Prince Edward Island was. Green Gables, located in Cavendish in the Prince Edward Island National Park, is a popular tourist destination. Each year thousands of visitors from around the world visit the site which inspired the setting for L.M. Montgomery to create her tale of a red-haired orphan, Anne of Green Gables. In addition to the Green Gables House, several museums and sites invite visitors to learn more about Anne.  Visitors to the site are welcome to stroll the Haunted Woods and Balsam Hollow trails as described in the book.

 

Anne of Green Gables Musical – Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

We were able to attend Anne of Green Gables musical.  It returns again to the stage at this summer’s Charlottetown Festival. Anne of Green Gables -The Musical is the original musical adapted from the novel  "Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

No pictures here, not allowed.

College of Piping

Celtic culture comes alive at The College of Piping & Celtic Performing Arts of Canada! Based in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, and affiliated with The College of Piping in Glasgow, The College has developed a world-class reputation as an international school of excellence in Highland bagpiping, Scottish-style drumming, Highland dancing and Island step dancing. With a mandate to preserve and promote the Celtic heritage of Canada’s most Celtic province, Prince Edward Island.

Prince Edward Island Lighthouses

The Prince Edward Island Lighthouse Society was Formed in 1996.  The purpose of the Prince Edward Island Lighthouse Society is to aid in the preservation of lighthouses of the area and to work with the Canadian Coast Guard and other agencies, both government and non-profit groups, to achieve the safekeeping of the buildings, artifacts and records of Prince Edward Island Lighthouses.

History of PEI – Cornwall / Charlottetown

The Island is known as the "Birthplace of Confederation" because the capital city, Charlottetown, is where the idea of Canada was born. Early Mi'kmaq settlement dates back thousands of years before the historic Charlottetown Conference. Early European settlers arrived mainly from Scotland, England and Ireland.  Prince Edward Island was discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and was probably visited frequently by French and Basque fishermen in the 17th century.  The first interior roads connected Charlottetown to Malpeque and St. Peters. Then subsidiary roads were developed to connect the new settlements with these principal roadways. By 1850, the Island's basic road network was complete.  Until the 1950's there was only one ferry crossing from PEI to the mainland and only a few crossings were made each day.  Roads were poor and for several years after 1907, it was even illegal to drive a car on Island roads.

 Here is some candid shots from around the Island.

PEI Potato Patch

St.Dunstan's Basilica

St. Dunstan's Basilica is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Charlottetown in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is named for St. Dunstan the great Anglo Saxon saint from Glastonbury. The current stone structure was rebuilt in 1916 after a fire.

Final Banquet

Our end of caravan entertainment featured dance and entertainment by the Lobster Mash piano and dance group followed by old standby tunes such as Don’t step on my Lobster Roll (to the tune of blue suede shoes, I saw her Chowder there (to the tune of I saw her standing there), You are my Lobster (to the tune of you are my sunshine), I came from Nova Scotia (with the crab on my knee), I been eating on a Lobster (I been working on the railroad) and She’ll be coming around the Fog Bank (or round the Mountain).  We also had the top ten reasons when it is time to move to another campground.  Most of these you had to have been there to appreciate.  The food and the final banquet group ended our caravan in style.  A good time was had by all.

The Lobster Mash Song and Dance group

Our Caravan Leaders

Our Entertainment MC

The Song and Dance Group Piano Player and Song Writer

Pictures of our caravan group

The hardest part of any caravan is saying goodby to people that have become good friends over the course of the caravan.  Actually you don’t say goodby, its see you next WBCCI function.  If you haven’t participated in a WBCCI caravan, you should give it a try.