Archive for Uncategorized
March 5, 2007 at 9:39 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
E&E are back in the Airstream, and that means the fun begins anew!
We all tried to sleep in this morning, since their flight was a little late, and we ended up getting home around 12:45 a.m. But with the ladies on Eastern Time, “early” was earlier than I would have chosen. Oh well, at least my bed was warmer than it has been in weeks.
The “bad” OPD valve on our propane tank that I mentioned yesterday turned out not to be bad at all. Too bad I had to drive across town 30 minutes to find out. I was given bad information in Texas by another propane man, apparently. Now the tank is full and mounted back on the trailer, so we’re ready to head out into some very quiet places in the desert for a little vacation, starting Wednesday.
Today we had a warm-up, hiking in Saguaro National Park (east side) with Bert & Janie. (Eleanor, still afflicted with a cold, stayed home.) For the past 36 hours we’ve been whipped by very dry winds, with the relative humidity dropping into the single digits, but finally they calmed and the sky became the sort of stunning blue that the desert is known for. We grabbed the cameras and headed out.
Our two short hikes weren’t long, since we started around 4 pm and paused frequently to check things along the way (cactus, birds, washes, views). Hiking like this, you often discover things about your friends. Conversation seems to flow easily when hiking. Today, for example, I discovered that Bert was carting around a sample of alligator poop in his camera bag, a souvenir of Shark Valley in the Everglades. Apparently he’s something of an amateur scatologist. The sample will be used for some sort of naturalist “Show & Tell” later. I wish I could be there to see the faces of Bert’s audience.
March 4, 2007 at 9:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I have been thinking about whether Eleanor and Emma will make it back tonight. I woke up at 6:15 a.m., before the sun rose, and since I was up I decided to head right to the computer and get some work done. The next thing I knew, it was 12:30 and I was starving, thirsty, and still wearing my pajamas. Sometimes that happens when I get absorbed in work.
But at least I got a lot done on the Summer magazine, and being busy, I hadn’t been fretting all morning about the flight tonight. For the past day my concern has been whether Eleanor and Emma were sufficiently recovered from their colds to fly. Emma seemed OK but it’s hard to tell with her. Eleanor is definitely still sick but could equalize her ears with a Valsalva Maneuver this morning, so I knew she’d be OK on the airplane. Even still, I’ve been apprehensive, probably because we’ve had such rotten luck flying lately.
By 2:30 I was done working and finally emerged from the trailer, dressed and ready to tackle a few other tasks. One of our propane tanks needs a new OPD valve, and so we’ve been unable refill it. The other tank ran out of gas in the middle of the night, which meant no hot water until I got it filled again. That was the first outside errand. I’ll get the bad tank valve replaced on Monday.
I got a few other things done too, and then Bert & Janie arrived. It’s great to see them again, and we’ve already made some interesting plans for the next week. We went out for some groceries and spent the evening catching up on things, especially their recent trip to New Orleans to survey the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
As I write this, Eleanor and Emma’s plane is running late. I’ll be heading to the airport at 11 p.m. to pick them up. The wind has been howling all day here, and the trailer is rocking in the gusts. It seems a fierce night to be going out anywhere, but it will be well worth the effort to finally get them back home.
March 3, 2007 at 10:05 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I’m counting down the days until Eleanor and Emma are back, and now there’s only one day left … I hope. Eleanor is still not completely clear of her cold. If she’s not ready to fly Sunday, we’ll have to reschedule their flights AGAIN. Needless to say, none of us are happy about this. We’ll be thinking long and hard the next time we schedule air travel in the winter cold & flu season.
This morning I met up with a fellow Airstreamer (and blog reader) at his encampment just a few miles from our site. Bill and his wife are parked in a slick 2005 International CCD 28 amongst the mesquite trees and creosote bushes near the Tanque Verde wash. We killed a couple of hours talking about Tucson and the area, and then I had to head out to go look at more houses.
Since I’m on my own, I am free to roam around and go do “guy stuff”. On the way back to the campground I spotted the Pima County Fairgrounds and decided to go check it out. The fairgrounds have hundreds of hookup sites and apparently large rallies are held there. But more interesting was the nearby racetrack. I wouldn’t have spotted it except for the sound of roaring engines.
With a little investigating it became apparent the races were free & open to the public, so I put the long lens on the Nikon and climbed up into the stands. There were virtually no spectators other than the participants themselves.
Just about every sort of thing you can imagine was racing there: drag cars, motorcycles, stock cars, jalopies, trucks, and some wheeled things that defied categorization. Many were (apparently) street legal cars that people just took out for a quick sprint. I saw some pretty mismatched races too, such as the VW Beetle versus the Chevy Camaro. Everyone was just out to have some fun on a typical clear winter day in southern Arizona.
This Airstream was not racing. In fact, it wasn’t even open for business. I’ve been seeing so many converted Airstreams selling food & coffee lately that I’ve stopped taking pictures of most of them. I used to think there were only a few in the country, but really there are dozens if not hundreds. I’ve spotted three in Tucson alone so far.
Having time to myself has been fun but I am looking forward to being reunited and getting on with our adventures. Cross your fingers for us!
March 2, 2007 at 9:03 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
It does not look like this in Tucson.
That’s Lake Champlain, with the ice breaking up. In the middle foreground you can see a row of Adirondack chairs and a set of stair down to the beach. On the horizon is New York state. This is the view Eleanor and Emma had today, as they nursed their colds.
Out of mercy to them I am not posting a photo of what it looked like in Tucson today, but you can probably guess. Endless sunshine, dry air, cactus and hillside. I suppose it might get boring but just when it does a little bit of weather comes through.
I think any place would get monotonous to us, after the ever-changing scenery of travel, so if I have to pick a sort of monotony I will happily pick the sunny kind.
I am getting to know my way around this town better every day. Hunting for houses will do that to you. I am forced to cruise from neighborhood to neighborhood as I follow the GPS’s directions. Already I find myself spotting handy shortcuts. Today’s list of house “drive-bys” was seven addresses long.
As if this blog weren’t enough, I accepted an offer from Gather.com to be a twice-monthly contributor on the subject of “travel with family.” I’ll be digging through my archives from the past 17 months of this blog to find some of the most relevant posts, and revising them specifically for the Gather audience. You can find those posts at http://travel.gather.com around the 10th and 24th of each month.
March 1, 2007 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I’m back in the Airstream! Yahoooooooooooo!
Seeing all my friends in Florida was great, but it’s just as great to be home again. The Airstream was just like I left it (perhaps a tiny bit dustier) and moving back in was like putting on a pair of comfortable old shoes.
But it’s particularly good because we’ve changed our plans again and will be hitting the road next week! On the road again at last …. ahhhhh …..
This happened as a result of a bunch of coincidences: Eleanor decided she wanted to see Anza-Borrego Desert State Park again, our friend Rich C announced he’d be coming back to Anza Borrego next week (he’s there now, but plans to leave and then come back), and our friend Bill Doyle (and his partner Larry) said they are going to be in Anza-Borrego next week too! Plus, our monthly site here in Tucson expires on the 7th.
I can’t resist that sort of karma. So instead of extending our reservation here, we’re going to head out to Anza Borrego, which is about two hours east of San Diego, spend a few days, and then come back to Tucson to resume house-hunting. We’ll probably detour to Puerto Penasco on the way back too, so we’ll finally get the Mexican jaunt we’ve been planning for.
Perhaps if you live in southern California you can join us too? It’s one of our favorite spots in the entire USA, and the more the merrier! We will be camping in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park from March 7-10. We’ll be in the Palm Canyon campground on the first two nights, and then head out to the desert just outside town and boondock for the weekend there with all the other desert rats.
February 28, 2007 at 8:58 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
It seems the only constant of our travels is that nothing stays static. Especially plans.
With all of us dispersed to the corners of the United States (Rich in Florida, E&E in Vermont, trailer in Arizona), and reuniting a week later than planned, the rest of our schedule has been pushed back as well. I was already concerned about having time to complete the Summer magazine and get ready for Mexico by March 10, and now time is even shorter.
Moreover, we haven’t invested as much time in house hunting as we would have liked, so taking off to Mexico for two weeks seems like a poor choice now. On the other hand, I really want to go to Mexico, and mid-March is likely to be the best time for me to take off from work … so it has been hard to decide what to do.
But the decision is made: instead of two weeks in Mexico, we will go for perhaps 3-6 days, and only as far as Puerto Penasco instead of deeper into Sonora. This will at least give us a taste of the procedures involved in crossing the border with an RV and it will have the advantage of keeping our Mexican insurance costs lower. We’ll make notes for a longer trip later this spring or next fall.
This will also lower the pressure so that we can make time for a trip to southern California in March or April. Certain friends in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas are expecting us, and I don’t want to disappoint them.
Also, Bert & Janie have been in touch. They’re in New Orleans and heading our way. We expect to see them in a few days out in Tucson. I plan to take Bert out for a long bike ride or hike … but he doesn’t know that yet.
Tonight I am packing up to head back to Arizona. I’ll reopen the Airstream and get some work done while I wait for Eleanor and Emma to return on Sunday. It has been too long since the Airstream roamed the roads, so I’m looking forward to getting it out again the minute I’ve met my deadline for the Summer issue — assuming that our plans don’t change again!
February 27, 2007 at 7:57 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Tonight Brett and I drove about 50 miles over to Haines City, where Wendimere and Bill live. You might recall that we parked the Airstream here last November. Wendimere has just published her first book and the first review copy arrived on Friday, so we came over to celebrate it and have a really nice organic dinner.
Wendimere and Bill with the first copy of her book
Wendimere’s book is entitled “The Health Chic Guide: Hip, Fun, and Delicious Living” and although it’s not directly related to Airstreaming we’re going to carry it in the Airstream Life store. I was really impressed with the quality of her work and the diversity of topics Wendimere managed to cover in it. Since she self-published it, people won’t be able to find it at very many places and I think it’s a really relevant topic to a lot of people who are concerned about living a more healthy life. Check it out here.
So now I can announce the rest of our plan for the bookstore. Over the past few months I’ve mentioned books that I found particularly good for travelers, like the Mexico camping book by Mike & Terri Church. I’ve decided to try to carry as many of those books as possible in our web store so you can find them if you want, and hopefully some of you will support this blog by buying the books from us instead of from some other online retailer.
As part of this, I’d welcome your nominations for great travel books. I’m interested in unusual books that make good reading or exceptionally good information. For example, a few months back Andy recommended “Sailing Around The World” by Capt Joshua Slocum. Mike recommended “A Cook’s Tour” by Anthony Bourdain, Wendimere gave me a copy of “Blue Highways” by William Least-Heat Moon, and Bobby lent me “Over The Edge of The World,” by Laurence Bergreen.
I liked them all and in the past few months I have recommended them to you. Eventually we’ll get some of these in the store too, and hopefully a few newer books. So let me know if you’ve got a favorite tale or travel resource book that we might want to include in the store and recommend to other blog readers!
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