Silver Trekker Adventures
Doug & Marla · Des Moines, Iowa · 2023 Airstream Basecamp 20X
We are Doug and Marla—empty-nesters from Des Moines, Iowa who traded weekend lake trips for a longer look at America. Our rig is a compact Airstream Basecamp 20X we call Silver Trekker: small enough for tight campgrounds, tough enough for mountain passes, and polished enough that strangers always ask if it is new.
This journal is our believable, slightly embellished travel log: East Coast lighthouses, Florida keys, Appalachian ridges, Gulf beaches, and Montana sky. Every story below is written to feel like the notes we would send home—plus the ones we would only tell around a campfire.
Start on the home page for the latest road notes, then dive into a destination for the full story. More games, children’s tales, and trip tools are on their way.
How we travel
- Home base: Des Moines, Iowa — we launch from the fairgrounds storage lot every spring.
- Rig: Basecamp 20X, aluminum propane tanks, solar on the wish list.
- Style: Two-week loops, shoulder seasons, bookend big parks with small-town days.
- Rule #1: Back in slow. Wave at every Airstream. Share the good campsite intel.
Destinations (full stories)
- Acadia National Park, Maine — East Coast
- Bar Harbor & the Maine Coast — East Coast
- Cape Cod National Seashore — East Coast
- Shenandoah National Park, Virginia — East Coast
- Outer Banks, North Carolina — East Coast
- Savannah, Georgia — Southeast
- Everglades National Park, Florida — Florida
- Key West, Florida — Florida
- Blue Ridge Parkway — Appalachia
- Asheville, North Carolina — Appalachia
- Great Smoky Mountains — Appalachia
- Nashville, Tennessee — Southeast
- Natchez Trace Parkway — Southeast
- Gulf Shores, Alabama — Gulf Coast
- New Orleans, Louisiana — Gulf Coast
- Badlands National Park, South Dakota — Great Plains
- Yellowstone National Park — Montana & Wyoming
- Glacier National Park, Montana — Montana
- Going-to-the-Sun Road — Montana
- Bozeman, Montana — Montana