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Glory Days & maturity when they purchased their first Airstream in 1994 that they weren't getting just a camping trailer. They were buying into a lifestyle. STOW, Ohio (MCT) — Dona and Lloyd Garner knew After all, Airstream fans always have one foot reaching for the open road. The Garners' children don't even bother to ask anymore if their retired parents have travel plans. "They just ask, 'Where ya going now?'" said Dona Gar- ner of Shiloh, Ohio. lifestyles Airstream is an RV and a community This past week, the answer to that question was Silver Springs Campground in Stow, where 14 units with the Akron and Mahoning Valley Airstream clubs parked for five days of "fun, fellowship and adventure," the Garners said in unison, reciting the mantra of devotees. The curved vehicles famous for their aluminum exteriors — which have been compared to rockets, bullets and silver Twinkies — were marketed as a way for families to see America while taking along their own accommodation. As Airstream celebrates 80 years, that hasn't changed, but today's Airstream owners are also all about nostalgia and owning a piece of American history. A Friday morning downpour chased the Garners into their Bambi, a 1961 16-foot trailer they had opted to bring instead of their 35-foot Airstream motor home. The tiny RV somehow makes the trip more fun, even if most of the inte- rior disappears when the bed is pulled out, Lloyd Garner said. Wednesday, the campers had chalked up a tour of the GM Lordstown auto plant, a lecture on the history of the Western Reserve and a guided walking tour of Hudson. They had a Friday evening date with a Cuyahoga Valley National Park ranger, and planned to take in a Civil War re-enactment today at Hale Farm & Village. Many clubs plan one camp-out a month, but members often join multiple groups and stay busy all spring, summer and fall. "You can see there aren't many days when we're not Airstreaming," Dona said as she pulled up her smart-phone calendar, where only 12 days in August didn't have a telltale check mark. The tiny Bambi was parked among Airstreams that ranged from 50-year-old models to a brand-new 2012 issue. Like the Garners, the Losassos prefer the vintage variety. Tom Losasso knocked off a pool of rain that had collect- ed on the awning to his 1967 Caravel before retreating inside the 18-footer, where he and wife Suzee talked about their passion for the Airstream culture. The couple has owned seven of them since purchasing But their isolation was temporary. Since arriving SACRAMENTO (MCT)—In a cri- sis, the highway seems to stretch out for- ever. Saturday, August 18, 2012 – Daily News 1C MCT photo Lloyd, left, and Dona Garner of Shiloh, Ohio, members of the Akron unit of the Wally Byam Caravan Club International, take a walk near their 1961 Airstream Bambi trailer while camping at Silver Springs Campground in Stow, Ohio. their first in 1997. Losasso, a retired United Airlines pilot, laughed when he recalled how he was living in Hawaii when he bought his first Airstream, stored it back home in Ohio and joined the Akron club. "We were members for three years before anyone saw us," Losasso said. He was introduced to Airstream by friends who belonged to a club. "I love the fellowship you get. As a group, they are just the nicest people you can imagine," Losasso said. Still, the Losassos said they know they are the exception. Most Airstream owners don't belong to a club, and Tom Losasso lamented how Akron's unit has declined from more than 200 members to just 26, mostly retirees. "Young people don't like joining groups today," he said. "You hear about it from everyone from the Kiwanis to churches." The expense in a modern economy may be one obstacle. While fixer-uppers can be found for a few thousand dollars, Losasso said he's seen restored vintage trailers go for upward Robyn Miller's loved ones live in Pinole, Calif., almost 70 miles from Sacramento, an 80-minute drive on a good day. Her grandmother, Catherine Volzke, is 90 and holds the aging house- hold together: She cares for her husband, retired jockey Merlin Volzke, 86, who suffers from stroke-related dementia, as well as their daughter — Robyn's mother — Eileen Miller, who is 68 and has early onset Alzheimer's disease. "The worry never leaves your mind," said Robyn Miller, 38, a McGeorge School of Law student who lives in Sacramento. "I go to bed every night thinking, 'I hope my phone doesn't ring tonight.' "When something goes wrong, you can't be there quick enough." If living a few counties away from aging relatives is enough to cause anxi- ety, imagine living several thousand miles across the country. How do people take care of their parents and other elder- ly relatives from far away? with the concerns of adult children des- perate to find help for aging parents else- where. of $100,000. New ones, still made by hand in Airstream's only plant in Jackson Center, Ohio, sell for tens of thousands of dollars. The Garners don't see the point of having one of the campers and not being part of the community. "The two go together," Dona said. The Garners have taken their RVs as far west as Oregon and Montana, and as far east as Vermont and New York. They've joined small rallies, like this week's gathering in Stow. They've slipped into cross-country caravans. They once attended an international camp-out that attracted 2,400 units. With the sun glinting off all that chrome, "it might has well have been a million of them. It looked like they went on forever," Dona Garner recalled. While they always look forward to what awaits at their destination, the Garners also relish the journey. Wherever they go, heads turn. "People stop us at filling stations all the time to ask if they can look inside," Dona Garner said. "It's an American icon." Long-distance caregiving of aging relatives is high-anxiety She also understands the problem on a personal level. Her mother is 82 and lives alone on the East Coast, and Edgerly manages her care from the Bay Area, patching together resources in her moth- er's community. She pays her mother's bills online, she said, and hired a nurse to monitor her mother's medications. "Even putting things into place, you know that from a distance there's only so much you can do," she said. "But the same can be true when you live close by." ___ homework, and your parents may still dig their heels in and refuse.' You have to take a step back and give it a while. It's a little dance." ___ Many times, it takes a crisis before long-distance caregivers can intervene. For several years, Gene Cone, now 89, considered moving from the South Land Park home where she had lived for four decades. A retired state employee, Cone was having balance problems and feeling disoriented. "I couldn't walk from my door to the sidewalk," she said. make a plan. Are there other people liv- ing near the parents — another sibling, perhaps, or a longtime friend — who can be involved? What kind of resources can the family invest in finding help? Is the family open to hiring a geriatric care manager, a paid professional who lives near the parents and can monitor them on the family's behalf? Edgerly urges family members to The answers, as more than 5 million long-distance caregivers have already learned, can be hard to find — but they're increasingly crucial in a rapidly aging nation: The silver tsunami of baby boomers, in the thick of caring for elder- ly relatives today, will themselves be the recipients of care in coming decades. Like Miller, 15 percent of the coun- try's 34 million caregivers live an hour or more away from aging relatives who need their help, according to National Institute on Aging data. The average dis- tance for respondents in a 2004 MetLife caregiving study was 450 miles, and almost a quarter of those surveyed said they were their loved ones' only care- givers. They spend money to take care of their relatives: an average of $400 a month, although not surprisingly, the caregivers living the farthest spend the most — almost $9,000 a year, AARP sta- tistics show. And they spend time, too. Half of long-distance caregivers visit several times a month to help with shopping, medical appointments and paying bills. More than 40 percent told MetLife that they had to take time off work because of their caregiving responsibilities. Caring for fragile loved ones from a distance can be a frustrating, exhausting endeavor, even for people who are pro- fessionals in the field. As chief program officer for the Alzheimer's Association of Northern California, Elizabeth Edgerly often deals Oftentimes, when dementia is the issue, the situation seems more urgent. If people suspect dementia is encroaching on aging parents' lives, a good first step is arranging a medical evaluation. "The children need to know what So she gathered brochures from local senior communities and found a real estate agent to handle the sale of her house — but she hesitated, not wanting to give up her independence. Then Cone became so ill early in 2011 that she required hospitalization, and her daughter in Alabama ended up scram- bling from afar to make health care deci- sions for her and locate appropriate hous- ing. daughter, Judy Johnson, 68, an editor who lives near Anniston. "It was a rough time. "She could not go home," said her they're up against," said Anne Spaller, clinical consultant for Del Oro Caregiver Resource Center, which provides assis- tance to caregivers of the frail elderly in 13 Northern California counties. "Once we get a good baseline assess- ment, we can arrange for help and care, be it moving them to assisted living or finding help in the home." The process can be emotionally diffi- cult and financially burdensome. Old family dynamics can arise, for example, with one sibling typically shouldering most of the burden from afar and resent- ing the fact that the others don't help. Relatives also quickly discover that care is not covered by Medicare. And it's expensive — up to $150 an hour in Sacramento for geriatric care managers, $25 an hour for home care and about $3,000 a month for assisted living, according to Carol Kinsell, founder of Senior Care Solutions, a Fair Oaks elder care consultant. Even more frustrating is the possibili- ty that aging parents won't agree to the help that their relatives have painstaking- ly arranged on their behalf. They don't have to. "People have the right to make a bad decision," said Kinsell. "And sometimes, things need to get really bad before they'll agree to get help. "I tell families, 'You can do all your "I did my part all from Alabama, sell- ing her house and getting her living situ- ation straightened out and finding a new doctor for her. There was a tremendous amount to be done. I worked at it eight hours a day." Now Cone, who has long-term care insurance, lives at Eskaton Fountain- wood Lodge in Orangevale, where she takes Spanish classes and goes to exer- cise every morning. Without financial resources, options grow more limited. "We've seen people quit their jobs and move across the country to care for their loved ones," said Edgerly. "What are you going to do? They sell their house here and move back in with Mom and Dad." Robyn Miller has decided on another solution to shorten the distance: She's moving her mother and grandparents to Sacramento this fall. For the past several years, she has vis- ited two or three times a month, taking on more responsibility for their finances and accompanying her mother to the doctor. But now she's pregnant with her first child and entering her final year of law school. With her family in Sacramento, she said, she can take better care of them. "I know it will be better for every- body," said Miller. "It's a relief to think they'll just be a few miles away."