About
We're Dan and Heather, based in Indianapolis. Between us we've spent our careers in and around the flight deck, and the Airstream is what we do with the time in between.
Dan is an active airline captain, flying 747 cargo widebodies internationally on an irregular rotation schedule. Decades in a cockpit build habits that don't turn off on the ground: a checklist before you move, a plan before you commit to it, a debrief after it's over. That's the mindset he brings to towing a 20-some-foot trailer down the interstate: precision first, adventure second.
Heather spent her career as an airline dispatcher (the person building the flight plan, watching the weather, and deciding whether a flight goes) before moving into the classroom as a college professor. She plans a road trip the same way she once planned a flight: route first, weather second, contingencies built in from the start.
Pax and Charlie: Ground Security Coordinators, official title. They keep watch for squirrels, deer, and whatever else wanders too close to the Airstream at night. Unofficially, the whole security program runs on treats, and neither one has ever turned down a bribe.
It's not just a name. It's the actual handoff. Dan's still active in the air; Heather already made her transition from the flight-planning desk to a classroom. The Airstream is the next chapter for both of them, built around the days Dan isn't flying rather than instead of the days he is. We're not full-timers, and we're not trying to be. We're proof you don't have to quit your job to actually go somewhere.
Pink flamingos and travel trailers have been linked since the 1950s, when Don Featherstone's plastic lawn flamingo became a fixture outside trailers and vacation homes across America. Impossible to take too seriously, easy to spot from the road: it felt like the right mascot for a site about towing an Airstream around for fun.
We use them to rate the gear we test and the guides and outfits we use on the road:
Real trip planning, gear tested the way pilots test equipment (numbers, not just enthusiasm), and honest stories from the road, organized the way we actually think about travel: a Flight Plan before we go, a Preflight check before we roll, and a Debrief once we're back. Start with the Preflight checklist we use ourselves, and if you have a question, get in touch.
