Archive for Uncategorized
January 11, 2007 at 6:28 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
A day of contrasts today. We started at the Squire Creek Country Club, a relatively new golf course and residential housing development, where we were scheduled to present after lunch to a room of about 30 members. Lunch was first-rate, the decor was elegant, the ladies were all very nicely dressed, and after the creme brulee dessert I felt distinctly like I would be a disappointment to the audience. It was a hard act to follow.
Yet either they were all being very polite, or I did well enough. Eleanor and I had picked 59 slides from our collection of 5,722 (today’s count), and I stood up there and did my best to explain why someone would voluntarily sell their home and go out on the road in a trailer full-time. Emma chipped in her thoughts on the subject from time to time as well, much to the amusement of the audience, and we got lots of great questions.
After the talk we were approached by several members of the audience who owned RVs (two owned Airstreams!) who told us about their own adventures, and how much they loved traveling. The co-owner of the country club, a very nice lady, even went so far as to say we would be welcome to come back and park overnight! (I don’t think that offer applies to all travelers, however.) And for classy touch, everyone who attended the speech got a cute little silver Airstream charm.
The rest of our day was not so upscale, but it was darned interesting. We met the affable Scott Terry, who runs the local Chamber of Commerce, and he took us to the quiet nearby town of Gibsland. Gibsland is not a tourist town, but this visit was by request. Gibsland is famous for only one thing, the deaths of Bonnie and Clyde in an ambush by local lawmen in 1934.
“Some day they’ll go down together,
And they’ll bury them side by side,
To few it’ll be grief,
To the law relief,
But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.”
That prophetic poem was written by Bonnie Parker, a young girl who could foresee how her life of crime at Clyde Barrow’s side would eventually turn out.
But they weren’t buried side by side. Their bullet-riddled bodies were captured on 16mm movies, displayed to schoolchildren, photographed in the embalming room, and eventually interred miles apart in the Dallas area. Such was the notoriety of this couple that some of their personal possessions were stolen even as they were still warm, lockets of Bonnie’s hair were clipped off, and 10,000 people came to their funerals.
L.J. “Boots” Hinton
The Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum is the thing you would come to Gibsland for. Run by L.J. “Boots” Hinton, it is housed in the former “Ma Canfield’s Cafe” where Bonnie and Clyde stopped for sandwiches just a few miles before driving into the police ambush that ended their bloody careers. The museum is encyclopedic: photos, movie memorabilia (from the 1967 film with Warren Beatty), guns, documents, 16mm film footage, books, and the car used in the movie.
Emma tries out the 1934 Ford, courtesy of “Boots” Hinton.
“Boots” will tell you everything you want to know — and he has made a life’s study of Bonnie and Clyde. His father was one of the two Sheriff’s deputies who shot Bonnie and Clyde. Reading the guest register, the most common comment by visitors was “Sorry I didn’t have more time!” I’d recommend at least an hour and preferably a couple of hours to really read and understand everything.
Another big day is planned for tomorrow. Would you believe a visit with the Governor? Stand by … Ruston hasn’t run out of surprises yet!
January 8, 2007 at 9:16 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Leaving Topsail was tough to do, and not just for us. Airstreams slowly cruised the alleyways of the campground but seemed to keep getting “stuck” as they stopped again and again to say goodbye to new friends. One couple said they’d “been leaving” for over an hour but still hadn’t managed to get out the exit road.
It was the same for us. Joe, Carol, Bill, and Wendimere came over and between coffee & lemon cake, conversation, and general procrastinating, we managed to turn our planned 10:30 departure into a 12:30 departure. It didn’t help that the cold front had come through and cleared the skies at long last, leaving us with a dry and sunny 65 degrees. I could have stayed longer.
Finally we hitched up and hauled out on Rt 98 to the Ft Walton Beach post office. Our remaining mail finally arrived, and it includes a thick package of tourist info on the Ruston area, courtesy of the Mayor’s office. I’ll have to remember to take into account the mail delays that occur around holidays. The Post Office says Priority takes 3-5 days. Our experience has tended toward five days, especially when going cross-country.
Then we decided to pile on the miles, since it was a clear day and I wanted to have some extra time to stop on Tuesday. No “blue highways” today: it was I-10, I-12, I-55, and here we are in lower Mississippi. Normally I don’t comment on the roads, but I have to say that I-55 wins my vote as the most boring Interstate in the US — and yes, I’ve driven I-80 through Nebraska. In Louisiana it’s also a teeth-rattling experience, although not nearly as bad as I-95 in CT and NY. Our scale for measuring the quality of a road is to count the number of things crashed on the floor in the trailer after towing. I-55 rates a three, whereas I-95 was about a nine.
We’re parked behind yet another Cracker Barrel for the night. I swear we could be at any Cracker Barrel in the country and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. These places are stamped from one mold, inside and out. Emma even knows where the giant checkboard is set up in the store, and of course she led me right to it so she could challenge me at checkers. She’s getting too good at it (translation: she beat me like a rug.)
Tomorrow the plan is to drive to the Vicksburg National Military Park and spend a few hours studying history while day-camped in a parking lot, then finish the drive up to Ruston.
January 6, 2007 at 11:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Emma has officially learned to ride a bike, at the Can Opener Rally here in Miramar Beach, FL!
Bill and Wendimere arrived today, and Bill immediately got to his task of teaching Emma to bicycle. In July he removed Emma’s training wheels in Aurora, CO. In November, he and Emma practiced in a parking lot in Haines City, FL. And today, the final breakthrough occurred. After a patient hour or so, Emma suddenly became proficient and comfortable at turning her bike, and began cycling madly through the streets of Topsail Hill State Park.
Bill and Emma working on riding skills
The problem was, we couldn’t get her to quit. We took turns riding with her on our folding Birdy bicycles as she circled the block again and again, yelling, “Woo-hoo! I LOVE bicycling! Bicycling ROCKS!” She rode everywhere, shrieking with excitement and attracting plenty of attention from our fellow campers. I was hoping she’d learn to like bicycling, but I never expected anything like this. She has begged us to take her for a long ride tomorrow, so we will ride the one mile (no vehicles) road to the beach, if the weather isn’t bad. Thank you, Bill!
It was “open house” all day, so besides practicing cycling with Emma, we were busy all day with visitors and occasionally getting to see someone else’s trailer. There are three Safari 30 bunkhouses here (including ours) and so I’m interested in swapping notes with the other owners. We’ve already discovered a few bugs common to all of them. Since there are so few of us who own this model, sharing ideas and solutions is really helpful.
In the afternoon, our friend Joe and I did a little talking about our March (?) trip to Mexico. I wish I’d had a chance to view a few trailers, but we were so busy I never got breakfast or lunch. By the time dinner rolled around, I was starving …
Wendimere chills by our trailer in the early evening
… which turned out to be good thing since dinner was a massive potluck event. There was a huge buffet line of everything that people had brought, which included at least fifteen entrees and a dozen or more desserts. One table was dedicated only to Cajun entrees. We had about 80 people attend and there was enough left over that everyone got to take a little home if they wanted to.
The evening’s entertainment was “Raiders of the Lost Ark” projected on a huge white sheet of plastic in an empty campsite. (We “edited” the movie for Emma by covering her eyes or distracting her during the scary parts. At one point I looked over to see her crawling across the pavement toward a dark lump on the ground. She was capturing a frog.) It was a spectacular evening, warm, windless, and bug-free, except for a brief light misting toward the end of the movie. This has been a good time.
January 5, 2007 at 11:38 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
A very slow-moving line of thunderstorms bore down on us all night, bringing a constant distant booming and intermittent rain. This morning the line grew closer, and the sky grew darker until by 9 a.m. we were forced to put the lights on in the trailer. There was nothing to do but wait it out. We watched the weather radar on the Internet and left the TV on in case a tornado was reported.
If a tornado had appeared, our plan would be to run for the nearest safe structure. You can’t tow your way out of danger, and driving along Rt 98 isn’t really practical way to escape an unpredictable tornado either. Once in a while we get caught in a big storm and so I review the escape plan with everyone — in this case, run to the bathrooms nearby, which are made of brick. Fortunately, this storm line brought us nothing but a few hours of rain.
When it subsided, I checked the mail again in Ft Walton Beach. Nothing there. We’ll have to go back again tomorrow.
By the time we hitched up and towed 11 miles to Topsail Hill State Preserve, the sky was miraculously clearing and the rest of the day was spectacular. Not a cloud to be seen all afternoon, and dozens of Airstreams filling the campground.
Our group met up at an empty site (#164) to grill and hang out. I managed to get most of the crowd posed for a quick photo, but since it was a five-second exposure in the dark they’re not all looking their best …
A few friends we knew before are here: Carol, with whom we have enjoyed several adventures (most recently our trip from Salem OR to Idaho in July — see the archives), Herb & Sidra, and Joe (known as 2air on the forums). The rest are new to us, but we’re making new friends fast.
January 4, 2007 at 9:06 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Today was our last day in Henderson Beach State Park. Tomorrow we’ll pack up and move 11 miles down the road to Topsail Hill State Reservation to join the rally-ites who are already gathering. We dropped in on Topsail today just to check out the action and saw a wide range of Airstreams: a 16 ft Quiksilver Bambi, a Classic motorhome, a Land Yacht motorhome, a 34 ft Classic trailer, three polished vintage trailers, and others.
Since I spent the day working and nothing exciting happened, I’ll just mention a few miscellaneous things.
The mail system I talked about yesterday didn’t work perfectly. I didn’t account for post-holiday mail delays, and it turned out that at least two packages have not yet arrived, although they should have. We’ll take a last look tomorrow morning before we relocate. Worst case, we’ll have to drive 20 miles from Topsail Hill to Ft Walton Beach to check over the weekend.
Weather-wise, it has been bizarre. I knew this part of Florida was changeable in the winter, but still the variation from day to day has been surprising. A few days ago it was beach weather. The next two days it was cold enough for hats and winter jackets. Eleanor put the extra apple cider out by our doorstep to keep it cool, but today it warmed up to the point that the cider started to ferment, and a dense fog developed, like the northern California coast. I can hear foghorns off the coast every once in a while.
Redwoods would like this, but the locals sure don’t. And there’s no telling what is coming this weekend, since the forecasts change every few hours. But it doesn’t look great for the rally. Still, everyone is planning to have fun no matter what.
We’re listening to The VAP tonight. I made the mistake of calling in to ask the “Panel Pros” (and my good friends) Tim, Rob and Colin what they thought I should do with the 1953 Flying Cloud. So The VAP episode #35 is half about the adventure Rob Baker had trying to retrieve the Flying Cloud, and of course they took the opportunity to rib me a little too.
Back in Charleston SC and in other places we have spotted the “hula man” signs. Go back to the original blog entry for a photo of what I’m talking about. Here’s an explanation of those. Thanks to Hunter Hampton for tipping me off.
January 3, 2007 at 6:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Today was mail day, which means we drove to the Ft Walton Beach post office to pick up General Delivery of whatever our home post office, friends, and family sent along last week. Every week or two I pick a post office that will be along our projected route, and spread the word. Next week it will be:
Rich Luhr
General Delivery
Ruston, LA 71270-9998
I also let people know the window of availability. In this case, we’ll pick up mail on the 10th or 11th, so First Class letters need to be in the mail by Friday this week to be safe.
In today’s mail was something I’d been waiting for. You may recall that in Tampa I had to use the last of my “buttonhead” rivets to repair the dump valve bracket. So I had written to our friends Don and Amanda and Donal to ask if they would mail me a small envelope of half a dozen rivets. I knew Don had recently bought a large box of them and would have spares.
The rivets arrived today, elaborately wrapped as a Christmas present. Now, if you’ve ever been to Cracker Barrel you’ll recognize what they did. It’s that insanely infuriating puzzle/game that they put on the tables at every Cracker Barrel, but using rivets as the game pieces. Of course, we love that game and we play it competitively when we stop at Cracker Barrels. So now we have both a handmade version of the game which will remind us of our friends, and a handy rivet storage block.
January 2, 2007 at 10:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Well, back to work. A full day of business, interrupted only by a move from site 3 to site 18.
That’s because we booked our visit here in two separate sessions on ReserveAmerica, and so we ended up with different sites. This actually worked out well since this is a water/electric campground (not full hookup). We took the opportunity to dump the tanks before settling back in to our new spot.
Our technique is simple: on a day when we expect to have the opportunity to dump the tanks, we all take showers right before. This ensures there’s plenty of gray water to flush the hose, and also puts us ready for several more days of limited gray capacity in case we need to dry camp again. We did this on Saturday while parked at the day use area here, waiting for our site to open up. Once in Illinois at a very quiet campground in the winter (Kickapoo State Park), I remember Eleanor showering while we were parked at the dump station. There was nobody around, so we figured “Why not?”
Now we’re in the new space with empty holding tanks, and easily ready to stay here through our departure on Friday. We know exactly what we can do & for how long, and so there’s no doubt about our ability to dry camp here through Friday.
If you experiment and learn how far you can go with your gray and black tanks, you’ll have much more comfort using your trailer in all sorts of situations. I feel bad for people who only stay in full-hookup campgrounds because they aren’t confident of their rig’s limits. You miss out on so many great places! It’s worth the effort to learn your capacities and how to maximize your resources (water, holding tanks, and electric).
Full moon tonight and yesterday
This evening Bill called to say that he and Wendimere would be up for the rally on Saturday, which is great. That makes something like 38 Airstreams coming, and nearly 80 people. Also the weather is looking better every day. At this point we are expecting 70-72 degrees on Friday & Saturday, when most people will be here.
Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico
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