Archive for March, 2006
March 9, 2006 at 5:54 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Well, here’s a sign of the week for you ..
We are in Lafayette, at Airstream of Indiana, right smack up front by the cool new Base Camp they’ve got. (I’m going to take a peek in it tomorrow morning.) We’ll be here through Sunday morning, attending the First Anniversary event in the hopes of meeting some of you blog readers in person!
This is a nice dealership. They’ve got a couple of Airstreams in a glass showroom, a pile of silver trailers in the front lot, a new A-39 motorhome, a Base Camp, and a bunch of B-vans too. I really like the cool motor scooters they have in the showroom, too. If I could figure out how to bring them along with us I’d definitely want one!
Poor Emma woke up early this morning with a fever and nausea — the usual kid thing. She is recuperating now. If you come by on Friday, she might be in the trailer taking it easy, but I’d bet she’ll be running around feeling fine. Even if she is still under the weather, Eleanor and I will be around to answer questions as much as possible.
March 8, 2006 at 6:23 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
It is a good thing we don’t travel like this normally, because I would have a mutiny on my hands months ago. We have covered hundreds of miles each day, in the stereotypical “family road trip” style, visiting roadside eateries and gas stations and convenience stores … and not much else.
People ask us how we can tolerate being “on the road” all the time. They think we do nothing but drive every day. What a life that would be! I often find myself explaining the difference between traveling and driving, and all the while I’m thinking, “You poor person. You’ve never really traveled at all.”
Fortunately, our driving episode is coming to an end soon. We are only about 90 minutes from Lafayette IN. Emma has tolerated the long car rides fairly well but I think we’ll all be glad to get out tomorrow and set up at Airstream of Indiana for a couple of nights.
We haven’t done this sort of stop since last November. It’s fun, like a rally or a party. We get to talk aluminum with fellow Airstreamers (and Airstream wannabees) all day long, show pictures of our travels, check out the new units on the lot, and kick back for a couple of days.
In the meantime, I am thrilled with our new battery bank and the Tri-Metric readout that David Tidmore installed. We have twice as much reserve power as before, and the Tri-Metric tells us exactly how much we are using, how much we need to charge up, and the exact status of our batteries. It’s going to be even cooler when we get the solar panels on top.
March 7, 2006 at 4:48 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We are doing fairly well on our race northeast to Indiana. The Hensley hitch certainly got a good trial. I didn’t realize as we were heading north on I-35 that we had a strong tailwind, until we opened the Nissan doors and practically had them yanked out of our hands! It was the kind of wind that makes the truck and trailer rock while parked. We picked up an extra 2 MPG just from the push it gave us!
The tailwind turned into a crosswind when we picked up I-44 heading east. We got buffeted and shoved constantly. Normally I’d have to slow down quite a bit to keep the rig on track, but I found with the Hensley that we could maintain a decent speed. That was impressive. So far, so good.
At one point the wind was so fierce that it blew one of the bikes out of position in the roof rack. We had to stop and re-assemble part of the rack to make it tighter. Opening the door of the Airstream was a challenge too — it took two hands and a firm grip to keep it from flying back and slamming into the trailer’s side.
But even with the wind, we managed to get as far as Springfield MO, where we are once again Wal-Marting it. If I’d had time to do some research in advance we might have had courtesy parking, but we’ve been flying without much of a plan lately.
Springfield is a town well known to us, because last year it was the site of the International Rally. It’s strange how it feels familiar. This was the first place we went after we sold our house and became full-timers last June. It’s best known for Lambert’s restaurant (home of the “throwed rolls”) and things like Fantastic Cave and the gigantic Bass Pro Shop. Not a bad place, but we won’t be spending any time on this visit. Tomorrow is another day to head east, and since we are expecting some rain along the way, I think we’ll make fewer miles.
March 7, 2006 at 8:08 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Monday was hectic. We didn’t complete the list of repairs and upgrades that we wanted to, but plenty was accomplished. It was just too much work for one day. David and Denver managed to finalize the installation of our four new Optima batteries, run the cabling and install modules for our future solar system, replace the bathroom faucet (Eleanor helped on that one), and explain to me how all the new technology works.
Eleanor helps David with the bathroom faucet installation
We also had visitors. Scott and Michelle Birdwell dropped by. They are the owners of a very cool customized 34 foot Airstream with a “cowboy” interior. They are just now starting to take weekends in it with their kids, and loving it. (They have six kids and #7 is coming!) I shot photos of their trailer’s interior a week ago. It will be appearing in the magazine.
A few of the Birdwell boys with their father
Joe and Vivian Hornor came over to consult on some custom cabinetry we are designing to hold our miscellaneous stuff that doesn’t currently have a permanent home. The new cabinets will hold the laser printer, office supplies, two small file drawers, books, magazines, Zip-Dee chairs, and other stuff. It will replace the two big soft chairs that came with the Safari 30 and actually yield more open space. We expect to install the new furniture in May when we come back through this area.
Blog reader and new friend (from the Cleburne rally last weekend) Paul Mayeux dropped by and we looked at photos of his ongoing Airstream Cruiser restoration. Since Paul is doing the same sort of job (total overhaul) on the same model of Airstream as our “Vintage Lightning” project, I was very interested in his progress. His daughters are the ones that adopted Emma at the Cleburne rally.
I forgot to mention earlier that another blog reader found us on Saturday. Dorothy and Michael dropped by to check out the Airstreams and we ended up chatting. After a couple of minutes, Dorothy asked if I had an Airstream. I said, “Sure, that’s mine right there in the service bay.” She did a double-take, and then exclaimed, “You’re the Airstream people! I’ve been following you on the Internet!”
Apparently Dorothy had wanted to meet us in Cleburne but couldn’t make it. So it was a bonus for her (and us) to meet her by chance at the dealership. She and her husband are planning to buy an Airstream and do some work camping up in Alaska — sounds like a great idea to me!
With all of the activity on Monday, we didn’t get to a few items on our “to do” list but we are certainly much better off than when we arrived. We’ll deal with the other minor items later. By Monday night at 6 pm, everyone was beat, the trailer was a disaster area (all of our stuff tossed in the bedroom to make space for the work, sawdust everywhere), and we needed to hit the road toward our scheduled stop in Indiana.
We packed up quickly, cleaned up a bit, and then David took me for a few spins around the block to test the Hensley hitch and adjust the brake controller. By 7:30 we were loading the bikes and heading out for about 80 miles just to get a jump on our travels.
So here we are, Wal-Marting it for the first time in quite a while. As soon as Emma wakes up we will hit the road again. We’ve got 900 miles to cover by Thursday evening, which is a lot for us.
The long-range weather forecast for Friday and Saturday in Lafayette Indiana looks amazingly good! Right now the prediction is for about 60 degrees Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We are hoping a lot of blog readers will come say hi at Airstream of Indiana, where we will be through Sunday morning. This is the only northern stop we have planned, until July. We’ll see you there!
March 6, 2006 at 11:02 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
With the trailer not ready to go and the dealership closed on Sunday, we had a day free to go wander. Unfortunately we had not had a chance to do any planning, and Weathersford is a small town without a lot to do in it. On David’s advice we tried the Fort Worth water gardens but they were closed for renovations. Ugh.
So we went downtown to the Sundance Square area. Sundance Square has some very interesting architecture that is worth seeing. But in addition, they’ve dressed up a few buildings with trompe l’oeil paintings, to make them match the elaborate designs of the buildings around them.
Everything but the windows in the building on the left is painted on
We spotted two great examples. I believe there are more also, but we didn’t explore the area thoroughly. Spotting trompe l’oeil was interesting for Eleanor and I, but not so much for Emma. She had trouble distinguishing real from fake.
Which side is real and which is not?
Well, a few errands needed to be done anyway. So we had lunch out, washed the truck, and then headed off to the mall to pick up a few things. I bought a new DeWalt 18v cordless drill because my 9.6v Makita is not strong enough to operate certain parts of the Hensley hitch that must be tensioned when we hitch up.
We also finally broke down and bought one of those rear seat portable DVD players so Emma can watch a movie in the car during the long days of driving ahead. It is our hope that we can get from 5-6 hours per day to 8 hours once in a while when we absolutely must make time. It is MY hope that such occasions are rare, because I don’t think touring the country should be about driving all the time. It hasn’t been so far. Slower is better.
We also sampled the Weathersford flea market, which was about what you’d expect, plus lots of sheet-metal artwork depicting various symbols of Texas. Not a fascinating day there, either. I started to feel like this flea market was merely a trompe l’oeil version of others I have seen in other states. It was all rather two-dimensional somehow.
Not every day can be a wild adventure, and Sunday certainly proved it. But we are ready for Monday and our trip to Indiana. That’s good enough!
March 5, 2006 at 8:55 am · Filed under Tips & Ideas
Saturday was a work day for us. We got towed by the forklift into the service bay on Saturday morning. General Manager David Tidmore and Service Tech “Denver” (I don’t know his last name yet), got busy working on things in and out of the trailer, while Eleanor and I took care of few minor things as well.
At first, Eleanor and I took turns keeping Emma occupied, but as the day warmed up Emma adopted a few people who happened by. First it was Gunny and his black labrador puppy, later it was the Service Manager and his wife from the car dealership next door, and later still it was anyone who walked into the dealership to look at the Airstreams.
I removed and replaced the caulk around the kitchen countertop and stove, which had loosened up. We also removed the opening portion of the bathroom window, applied frosted window film to it, and raised the bathroom blinds. This allows us to more easily operate the window knob without having to reach through the blinds, while still retaining privacy. If you have a later-model Safari you’ll know what I mean.
I finally got a chance to repair the damage we picked up in California to the rear skid plates (under the rear storage compartment). That was a matter of grinding off the old paint and rust that had formed since the plates were bent, and re-painting them.
We are also replacing and extending our battery bank, from two Interstate group 24 “wet” batteries to four Optima blue-top AGM (absorbed glass matt) batteries. Two will go in the existing battery box, and two will go into the front storage compartment. Since they don’t vent hydrogen and can’t spill, they are safe to have inside the trailer. This is preparatory to installing a full solar system, which we will do later. In the meantime, we’ll have double the battery capacity we had before — very useful when boondocking.
David also has a theory about our water heater that doesn’t stay on reliably. We’ve had that serviced in Jackson Center, and again at an Airstream dealer in Iowa. But both times the problem has recurred. David, being an electrical engineer by training, has zeroed in on the problem and I think he might have it nailed. Amazingly, the problem may come down to a dirty contact!
And there’s more … we added a Fantastic Vent to the rear bedroom (Emma’s area). This trailer has three roof vents, but only one had a powered fan. Now two of the three vents are powered, which will be a huge improvement in air circulation when the hot weather comes in.
Finally, we are making a big upgrade to a Hensley Arrow hitch. While we have been happy with the Reese hitch to date, David and the Hensley people have convinced us to try the Arrow. Having a relatively short wheelbase SUV towing a long trailer, they believe the new hitch will improve our handling and overall safety. I am really looking forward to trying it out next week. We’ll have some long days driving to Indiana.
On Monday, we still have a few more things to do. We want to replace the two-handle faucet in the bath with a single-handle one. We’ve already found one at the local Lowe’s. The toilet seal is leaking, so that will get replaced. We’ll finish adjusting the new hitch and Eleanor & I will get a “Hensley 101” course from David.
We are also going to modify our flat-panel LCD screen to run on 12v so we can watch movies when boondocking. That’s an easy job since the TV already runs natively on 12v. Right now it goes to a power converter which plugs into the 110v power. By removing the converter box and connecting it to 12v, we can run the TV off the new Optima battery bank.
Our long term goal is to get everything except the laser printer, vacuum cleaner, and coffee pot running on the 12v system. This will save us a pile of money because we won’t need to buy an inverter. I’m going to search for 12v adapters for the laptops and cell phones.
One problem we still haven’t solved in the bicycle rack. We’re going to struggle on with our wobbly roof system and keep researching options. It has lasted 13,000 miles so far — I guess it can go a bit further.
Today we are off to Ft Worth to see some interesting water gardens and the downtown district. We’ve been told it’s worth the trip. I’ll take pictures for you.
March 4, 2006 at 6:48 am · Filed under Uncategorized
I missed a day of blogging only because I’ve been hunkered down working on the Spring magazine. Well, in addition, we are doing mundane things right now. We are actually parked in the back lot of Roger Williams Airstream in Weatherford, TX, awaiting service on a few things. Our friend Gunny is here as well, so it’s like a mini-rally. Gunny just bought a new Safari 25 Special Edition with the cool front & rear wrap windows, leather couch, and all the other options. He’s having a few other tweaks done to it before he takes it home, including disc brakes.
So while there’s not much going on, I wanted to let you know of something interesting. Airstream Life magazine will be launching a major Airstream restoration project in the next month. We will be taking the 1952 Airstream Cruiser that we found in North Carolina last month from “as found” condition, and turning it into a beautiful custom trailer. It will be professionally refurbished, modernized, polished and outfitted to a world-class condition. The project will be documented in Airstream Life magazine and on a weblog.
We’d like to run this project a bit like “This Old House” where we have a client involved in the project from the very beginning. The client would be able to direct many of the customizations, and then be able to buy the completed trailer at the end of the project.
If you or someone you know wants to own this cool trailer, now’s your chance. The ideal client would be willing to participate in the project by providing their input from time to time (via email or phone is fine), and be financially qualified. It’s a unique opportunity for the right person.
We expect that the final cost to the client will be approximately $60-80k depending on the level of options they select. This is well below what an equivalent custom trailer would cost, because we will obtain sponsor donations and/or wholesale parts for the project from supportive companies, ranging from Airstream to Zip-Dee.
The 1952 Cruiser is a very special Airstream. Our is the only Airstream Cruiser known to exist with two axles. All other Cruisers were single-axle trailers. We believe this modification was made by the Airstream factory in California.
Photos of similar Cruisers (but with single axles) are available online by clicking here.
The length is 25 feet, a popular size, and this trailer can be configured in a number of ways. At this time we are leaning toward an arrangement with front and rear bedrooms that quickly convert into private living spaces, but that is subject to the client’s wishes.
Time is short, so if you are interested or want to refer someone, get in touch with me ASAP using our Contact form (link in left column).
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