Archive for Uncategorized
July 6, 2007 at 6:08 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
My foray into tent camping was briefer than I expected. Thunderstorms in the northeast made a second night of tenting impractical, and so I was left with three options: (1) Find a motel; (2) Drop in on a friend’s house; (3) Drive straight through, 750 miles.
The Honda Fit was performing beautifully, it was a nice day, and so I decided to just keep on drivin’ … With the engine breaking in, the fuel economy kept rising. Toward the end, I got one tank averaging 48 MPG (all highway, no A/C), and the next averaging 42 MPG (all highway at 65 MPH, using some A/C). Woo-hoo! I think we’ve found balance for the 9 MPG we get while towing.
After my decision to plow straight through, I got calls and emails from friends along the way. Don and Amanda, who courtesy parked us last fall in Connecticut, offered their couch, and I also got a call from Brad (who we camped with in the Florida Keys last winter) offering space in his Airstream in southern Virginia.
Both offers came too late, alas. By 8:30 last night I was crossing the Lake Champlain Canal and entering Vermont, and at 9:30 I was home — which means, I was once again with my family and our trusty Airstream parked in the driveway. It’s true, home is where you park it. And Eleanor, Emma and I been apart too long. I doubt I’ll let another two weeks separate us in the future.
The dominant feature of the day is thunderstorms. Every two hours another one blows through, bringing pea-sized hail (not large enough to dent the aluminum) and a deluge of rain. Our Airstream is very clean on the outside, since the thunderstorms keep giving it baths. It’s a real contrast to the months we spent in the southwest where water restrictions kept us from washing the trailer. Here, we can’t seem to get dry. With the humidity and rain and the happy birds chirping above in the trees, it feels like we are living in the rain forest.
The deluges come on so suddenly we don’t have a chance to run to the trailer and shut down the Fantastic Vent, but fortunately our center vent has the “rain sensor” feature and it shuts itself down at the slightest hint of rain. This feature has saved us a couple of times today. It may be that we have to rely solely on our two vents that have the rain sensor, during the summer thunderstorm season, and keep the manual vent closed.
July 3, 2007 at 9:21 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
This year’s rally fell awkwardly on the calendar. By the club’s constitution, the International Rally must encompass both Canada Day (July 1) and Wally Byam’s birthday (July 4), and this year July 4 is a Wednesday. This has caused the last three days of the rally to be rather quiet.
Although there are scheduled events through Wednesday, many people chose to leave on Sunday or Monday. Working people tend to focus on extended weekends. Some people have another week free, but they decided to spend it traveling home slowly. And for some, the main excitement was over by Sunday and they just went home.
Tomorrow’s flea market is the last major event that people will stay to attend. This is a giant swap meet where you can find that elusive vintage part, an aluminum casting, some cheap paperbacks, crafts, and junk of all kinds.
Of course, you can also find Airstream Life magazine there. We take a double table and sell hats, shirts, magazine subscriptions, and those prized back issues. Brett & I will manage the table for a few hectic hours and then, once the crowds have abated, I’ll be hopping into the little Honda Fit for the 1,200 mile drive home.
The roadtrip plan is to try something different. I have a small tent and a sleeping bag. If I can find convenient spots along the way, I’ll get to tent camp for the first time since 2003. It should be a fun change and a good chance to regain my perspective on camping. So for a few days, this blog will switch (once again) to something a little bit different…
July 1, 2007 at 11:45 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Although the rally officially ends on Thursday, there are always early departures. Quite a few of our friends took off for other spots all over the southeast today, leaving gaps like missing teeth in the trailer rows. Before many more departed, we took another look at the vintage area this morning.
I’d like to get going too, but I need to stay here a few more days for the flea market on Wednesday. There’s not much going on at the moment. The rally schedule is always light on Sunday and thunderstorms have finally moved in for real, effectively raining out any outdoor activities. Suddenly we’ve gone from having too much to do, to having hardly anything to do except the laundry.
We did meet up with Jim Breitinger, who began full-timing in his Airstream two months ago and is roaming the country selling meteorites. That’s what he said, but when we visited his booth inside one of the fairground buildings today, we found he also sells amber, jewelry, many types of polished stones, and books. I couldn’t resist a piece of amber with a nice big bug in it, for Emma, and I may go back for a piece of jewelry for Eleanor too.
It suddenly feels strange to be here. Our major meetings are all done, and our friends are hitting the road at an alarming rate. Colin & Suzanne decided to head for the Outer Banks, so they packed up and disappeared today. Adam & Susan needed to get back to work, and are catching a flight out. Wendimere and Bill hit the road early this morning. All our friends at Airstream left a couple of days ago. Our friends in the New England Unit, caravanning together, are going to Ashville NC tomorrow.
There are plenty of people left, but it does feel lonely tonight as the lightning flashes outside the window. I thought we’d be busy on Monday but there are fewer options than anticipated. The Bluebird factory, a tour we had been looking forward to, is not open due to reorganization. The Microcar Museum, another interesting spot, is closed for the summer. Lane Packing, a nearby peach orchard, is not packing at the moment. All of the downtown stores in Perry are closed on Mondays.
I’m looking at the official rally schedule, but it’s no help. Golf, Line Dancing, Unit Leadership Workshop, Vintage Club Board Meeting, Party Bridge, Genealogy Club Meeting, Jewelry Making, CB Seminar, a prostate seminar, Computer Class (“Publisher”), Teen Queen practice, Craft Workshop, Knitting … water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.
When this happens, it’s time to look a little more closely at the little things. There’s a very local drive-through chicken & seafood place down the street that looks interesting. We can check Macon again for its little attractions. Maybe it’s time to drive down to the National Prisoner of War Museum.
Perhaps someone will drop in Monday or Tuesday and surprise us? Maybe a spontaneous road trip will be proposed? Otherwise, it might be a long day in front of the laptop, listening to the rain drip on the aluminum roof. Seems like a shame to spend an entire rally day just working.
June 30, 2007 at 11:37 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Everybody loves to see the vintage trailers, especially the polished ones. So every year at the International Rally one of the most popular events is the Vintage Open House, where all the “vintage folks” open their trailers to anyone who cares to come in and look around.
This is always a superb opportunity for photography, but I have to admit that the wilting heat (97 degrees) and humidity and gnats definitely put a damper on my efforts. I spent a lot of time hiding inside the air conditioned trailers.
But one thing that made it worth coming out into the heat was Vince and Lonnie’s jambalaya, which they had started cooking early in the morning and were serving to all visitors. You never go hungry when you’re camping with them.
This evening thunderstorms circled the fairgrounds and lit up the sky for hours without giving us any rain. It made for dramatic lighting over the field of silver trailers, and a nice show. The breezes that came with them kept the gnats down, too.
Wandering around the vintage area late this evening, I found a group of people watching “RV” on an outside screen, and the group below yakking it up about the events of the day. Everyone seemed to be in a great mood … happy to be here, happy to have a cool evening, happy about the way things turned out today.
June 29, 2007 at 7:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
It is hard to see how people are managing to thrive in this climate without air conditioning, but some are, including our very durable friends the Fabers. This is much tougher than southern Arizona at 105 degrees.
Last night several of us guys were talking until nearly 11:30 under the awning at Colin’s, swatting at gnats and constantly sipping at cold drinks. Sitting there in the light of a single bulb, watching small beads of sweat coming down the faces of my friends, I suddenly had a moment where I imagined we were all British officers in colonial Africa, passing an evening at the Club by telling outrageous stories on the patio, and wondering secretly when we would all be back home. That’s when I knew it was time to get to bed.
A perennial part of every International Rally is a display of new Airstream trailers. The closest dealer(s) bring a bunch of their inventory over for anyone to drop by and check out. It’s free, no pressure, and a great way to compare floorplans and interiors.
This year about two dozen trailers and motorhomes are on display, but unfortunately they are parked outside in the relentless heat and humidity. With that in mind, we decided to make our visit early in the day. Even in the relative cool of the morning, we didn’t exactly have to fight a crowd. I suspect there will be quite a few more people dropping in over the weekend, however.
The President and the Chairman of Airstream were both there, completely available to anyone who wanted to talk, so it was a superb opportunity for anyone interested in the product to get a personal tour. We snagged them for a while to talk about what we were seeing.
As I reported from the dealer meeting a few weeks ago, the trend in trailers is smaller and lighter. The popular floorplans are the 25FB (front bedroom/rear door), the similar 27FB, and the 19-foot Bambi. A few intermediate sizes are also looking good in the 2008 line. We checked them all out before the heat became too much, and then retreated into one of the air conditioned buildings.
Later we had a meeting I have been looking forward to all week. We’re going to introduce a new advertising section of the magazine solely for Airstream Parks. We brought together as many of the Airstream Park representatives as we could, explained the super discount offer, and got a great positive response. It looks like this section will be a Go (as in, “The Fit Is Go!”) If you represent an Airstream Park and didn’t know about this, get in touch with us ASAP so you can participate.
Vincent ladles up the spaghetti sauce
In yesterday’s blog I mentioned that we’d been invited by the Dixie Campers to join them for dinner, but I mistakenly said Saturday night instead of Friday night. Fortunately my head was re-attached this morning and I got the date straightened out in time to join them. After all, the most important element of an International Rally is socializing.
Susan, Adam, Leo, Suzanne, Colin, and Rich
Alas, the gnats came after us in wave after wave, and for some reason they were less intimidated by the bug spray today than they were last night. The little winged annoyances were landing in our spaghetti sauce (sampling?), in our ears, our eyes, and industriously forming small clouds around us. They seem to love the heat, and it was very hot and very humid. Adam, Susan, Brett and I lasted only about an hour before surrendering and retreating back to the cool bug-free interior of the motorhome for the rest of the evening. It’s a shame because we didn’t get to spend much time with Vince, Lonnie, and the rest of the Dixie Campers tonight. We will have come up with a battle plan so that we can survive the Vintage Open House (11 to 3) on Saturday.
June 28, 2007 at 11:54 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
During today’s speeches from the Airstream head honchos, a company called “Tom’s Shoes” was introduced. Tom’s is a recently created company that makes a simple, “earth-friendly” shoes. For each pair of shoes sold, the company donates another pair to a child in need — and there are surprising number of people in the world without shoes.
Tom’s first “shoe drop” donated 10,000 shoes in Argentina, and Blake says they will donate 50,000 shoes this year. Airstream donated the use of a trailer to allow the Tom’s staff to roam the US and sell shoes, and so today Blake Mycoskie and some other folks from Tom’s were here at the rally to promote a limited edition “Airstream” shoe ($48.00).
The rest of today’s rally events are a mystery to me. I missed everything. Brett and I spent the entire day in meetings, and we’ll do the same tomorrow. Just as the rally is gearing up, our playtime is over. But in the evening we were able to break away to visit the folks in the vintage section — where the real fun is. We found our friend Shari Davis (1st vice president of the Vintage Club), Leo Garvey, Colin Hyde, Pete Daniels, and a few other folks, plus I got to meet Dave Morrison for the first time. He’s a new freelancer for the magazine, so it was great to put a face to the name after a few months of working together.
We even managed to score an invitation to dinner with the Dixie Campers for Saturday night. One meal of their cooking will make up for a day of meetings, I’m sure. Even with a full schedule of work we’ll manage to get some good times out of the next few days.
June 27, 2007 at 9:24 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The days are getting fuller …
We started off today with the Vintage Parade. It’s a tradition at the International Rally for the vintage club trailers to all arrive together. They go through a lot of trouble to make this happen, including staging all the trailers the night before at an off-site location. The parade only takes a few minutes but it’s a proud moment for all the owners and great to watch.
Being a vintage Airstream owner myself, I knew a lot of people in the parade. Above are our friends from Arizona, Ken and Petey, arriving in their 1955 GMC truck and 1964 Airstream Bambi II.
Today was our last chance for a roadtrip to Atlanta, so we hopped in the Fit and headed north. Brett and I met with Wendy and Bill at a pizza place off I-85 called the Pie Bar. The pizza’s very good, but the real attraction for me was the unique architecture of the building. It’s a round building with glazed blue brick and terrazzo floors, which was formerly the Trust Company of Georgia.
We also took in the World of Coca-Cola, which is now located in a much larger building (since May 2007) and also costs a lot more. It’s $15 now … but hey, they have a Epcot-center type ride in there. And they still give you all the soda you can drink, which in my case isn’t anywhere near $15 worth.
Last night we went out to try to capture some views of the trailers under the moonlight and sodium lamps. It was an interesting photographic exercise that would be easier without insects in the air. I’m still looking for that perfect night shot. We’ll try again soon, but we’ll have to be careful. Walking around with cameras trying to shoot trailers at night, we could easily be confused with window peepers …
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