Archive for Uncategorized
November 20, 2006 at 9:18 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Another characteristic of Florida is the presence of enormous flea markets everywhere. Just down the road a mile from our campground there’s one. It’s so huge that merely browsing it took about five hours on Sunday.
Being in a limited space we don’t buy much. Mostly we focus on consumables, which flea markets are great for. In our case, consumables means food, paperback books, and cheap Chinese LED flashlights.
I particularly love buying fresh Florida produce. The oranges, grapefruit, and tangerines that are available change every month. In December the honeybell tangerines will arrive, and those are my favorite. Honeybells have a short season and are hard to find outside Florida, so I always get a bag or two. They make spectacular deep-orange juice. Yesterday we settled for some Plant City Strawberries.
One of Emma’s obsessions is rocks, but since they aren’t compatible with trailer travel (see “The Long Long Trailer” starring Lucille Ball) our rule is that her entire collection has to fit into a small fishing tackle box and no rock can be larger than 1″ in diameter. She found a piece of “snowflake obsidian” this time.
This lovely lady ran one of the three pet shops
Last night Brett came over for dinner and Eleanor made an elaborate dinner of pepper-encrusted pork loin and garlic-roasted cauliflower and green beans. They discussed the Thanksgiving logistics. It seems she’s gearing up for a major Thanksgiving dinner. The trailer is overflowing with food, as is the car. We are expecting eight for dinner but preparations are being made for about 15-20, as far as I can tell …
November 19, 2006 at 9:33 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Before leaving Barry’s place yesterday, we did a simple upgrade that I’ve been planning for a while, to increase our storage.
Two-thirds of the space under the dinette seat is available as storage. But the rest of the space is sealed off. That’s where some flexible ducting and the subwoofer are stored. The subwoofer made rude burps and grumbles at inappropriate times (between songs on the CD player, between menus on the DVD player) and I never liked it, so we’ve had it turned off for the past year. Yesterday, it got evicted.
New storage under the lighter-colored top
After chucking the subwoofer, we had a fair amount of space. So Brett trimmed the top panel and cut two finger holes in it, and I re-attached it with some piano hinge. Voila! an extra storage compartment for little-used items.
Plenty of space next to the furnace ducting
Our tow over to Bay Bayou was uneventful and now we are set up for the Thanksgiving week. Rich C is just down the row, and Bert & Janie are expected to arrive on Tuesday. I’ve also sent an invitation to our Internet friends Brad & Mary …
Brad and Mary atop Cadillac Mtn in Acadia National Park
…who are presently coming down the Natchez Trace and heading this way, but I think they are planning Thanksgiving somewhere near Mobile.
Bay Bayou is mostly filled with seasonal visitors, so we get to see some really elaborate setups at the adjacent sites. For example, our neighbors are here in a fifth-wheel complete with masonry patio and walkway, a gazebo, a little water feature, a golf cart, a three-wheeled motorcycle, full-size barbecue grill, plantings, etc. It’s a completely different style from ours.
Parked at Bay Bayou
This morning we woke up feeling completely different. The trailer seemed different too. After some pondering Eleanor and I realized it was the air. The past week we were parked in the shade and it was a little damp at times.
At Bay Bayou we picked a sunny spot, and last night we ran the heat pump, which took the excess moisture out of everything in the trailer. When we woke up, it looked and felt like a desert morning with glorious sunshine streaming in the windows, vivid blue skies visible through the Vista View window, and dry air. Everything in the trailer felt crisp and clean. I’m looking forward to getting out to the desert again later this winter.
November 18, 2006 at 10:03 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Wendimere and Bill invited us back to Haines City (about 50 miles east of Tampa) to one of their impromptu dinners, an “Organic Community Dinner” — in other words, a potluck with a bunch of friends. That turned out to be enormous fun with some great people.
One fun aspect of it was that hardly anyone knew who we were, and we didn’t know who they were. In the course of the evening, Wendimere invited us all to tell stories: “Steve, tell a motorcycle story!” and suddenly we’d find out that the guy sitting across the table had just traveled 6,000 miles on his bike, giving us a common interest to talk about (travel).
“Tell us a China story!” and then it would be revealed that his wife had lunch on the Great Wall of China only a few weeks ago. “Rich, tell us an Airstream story!” and so I would launch into one of my little tales from the road that you’ve read about here on the blog.
Above, the women celebrate their crushing defeat of the male team in a movie-trivia game.
Today we move to Bay Bayou, but we’re in no hurry so we’ll probably spend half the day here at Barry’s. It’s another gorgeous sunny day in Tampa and we have nothing in particular to do except enjoy it, so why rush? Our good ship sits ready for our departure whenever we feel like it, which is one of the big benefits to traveling this way.
November 17, 2006 at 9:05 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Yesterday morning I dared to tackle the relentless Tampa traffic to meet Rich C at the Mac Store by the International Mall. Tampa has some of the worst traffic in the country. An eight-mile drive can easily take 30 minutes on I-275. The traffic is like a vicious tide, with detours and “exit only” lanes that act like rip currents to carry you far from your intended path.
The city should have a warning flag system like the ones I’ve seen at every Florida beach: green for those rare moments when you can drive right through; yellow for the normal gelatinous ooze of traffic; red for vicious rip currents; blue for “dangerous creatures” such as stinging jellyfish or construction detours.
But yesterday I was lucky: it took just 25 minutes to go ten miles, and the Mac Store got none of my money, which is a first since I’ve started visiting those places. (They should come with warning labels too, like casinos: “CAN’T STOP BUYING GADGETS? CALL 1-800-. …”)
Our parking spot at Chez Barry. Click for larger.
This evening we are going to Haines City for an “organic community dinner” with Wendimere and Bill and about ten of their friends. Eleanor had to prepare an organic dish to share, so yesterday we all went to the grocery store at the end of the working day. While Eleanor shopped for menu items, Emma and I went to the Public Library in the same strip mall to read a couple of books.
That’s another Florida characteristic: everything is conveniently located in the strip mall. You can visit one strip mall and find a grocery store, hardware store, library, a fine restaurant, and a place that removes excess body hair, all right next to each other. The only thing I have never seen in a Florida strip mall is a cemetary, and it’s probably just a matter of time.
Our week at Barry’s is winding up. Today we will be starting to put away things that have spread out during our visit, and on Saturday we’ll be moving to Bay Bayou, about 10 miles north of here through heavy traffic. With luck, the drive will only take an hour.
November 16, 2006 at 9:01 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Emma loves to go bowling … and the last time went was the last time we were in Tampa, back in March. So we were overdue. We grilled dinner here (Cajun shrimp this time, blue-cheese burgers, and salad) with Barry and then met Brett at the University Lanes.
Emma demonstrates her “drop” technique for bowling
Dad demonstrates his body English. Photo by Emma
A couple of readers have said to me that the 12v dimmer we are planning to install won’t save us any electrical energy. For example, Jim wrote:
Some light dimmers don’t reduce consumption, only output at the light bulbs. Switch consumes the other energy. I don’t know about 12vdc. We are in process of switching out some of the 43 10 watt bulbs to 5 watt. Then judiciously selecting which ones to use will extend our battery capacity.
I’ll verify if this is correct in our case, after we get the switch installed. The Trimetric amp-hour meter will tell us exactly what’s going on. Even if we don’t save power, we will like the added flexibility in lighting options.
Last night, a cold front came through with heavy rain all night. I am always nervous when it rains, because I’ve owned so many vintage trailers that have leaked. But as usual, the Safari had no problems. Still, the huge crashes of lightning all around and frequent downpours woke up us several times. It was a night of fireworks, sultry with humidity.
We used neither heat nor air conditioning last night, as the temperatures have hung around 72-74, but today “winter” is expected to arrive, plunging temperatures into the upper 60s for a week. I can live with that.
November 14, 2006 at 8:05 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Our little counter upgrade seems to have struck a nerve with our blog readers. Yesterday morning I received half a dozen emails asking questions about it.
One person asked if I have a photo of the area before the counter went in. I went through my archives and couldn’t find a single decent shot of it! Sorry …
Blog reader Dirk asked:
Will this be your corner office now? By the way, after a year on the road what parts and pieces have you found worked best with your Mac for internet connectivity? Many reading the blog may be interested in the specifics for when they run away from home!
No, the space is a little tight still for working. I’ll continue to use the dinette and the master bedroom for work. I can spread out a bit more in those places. The new counter is really just temporary space, and a mechanism to mount under-counter storage, which is coming soon.
I’ve talked about Internet a few times in the blog and you can read my thoughts on it from last year here. This year there are more options for people to get online, especially more wifi hotspots, and cheaper cellular data cards. A lot of people are going with Verizon or Sprint cellular data cards, which work well and are often free with a 2-year contract. Unlimited access is between $59.99 and $79.99 per month.
I still use a few things to give myself an edge, including:
1) Linksys WRE54G wireless range extender (for use in campgrounds). This amplifies and re-broadcasts wireless signals so they easily penetrate the Airstream’s aluminum skin.
2) Verizon data cable to connect my Mac to my Verizon phone, as a backup method of getting online. (Rarely used.)
3) An Ethernet cable for occasions when I spot an open Ethernet tap at someone’s home or office.
4) The free “Airport Radar” widget (available only for Macs running Tiger 10.4.1 or above)
These days the only places we have trouble getting online now are the remote spots of the west — and the numerous campgrounds that offer “free wifi” but don’t deliver. As I’ve said before, it’s more about knowing where to look than anything. Public libraries, strip malls, cafes, motels, etc. are all easy spots to get online.
“TMI” Department:
You might also be wondering about how we manage to dump the Airstream’s holding tanks while we are courtesy parking for extended periods. Usually we’re gone in a few days so we just find a place along the road (a rest area or campground). But since we are comfortable here at Barry’s and don’t feel like moving, we had to come up with something else.
(Warning: if you weren’t wondering about this subject, you may want to skip to the next blog entry, because this gets mildly graphic, although I’ll spare you the worst details.)
Barry has a septic system into which he pumps the contents of his holding tank using a macerator. A macerator is sort of a blender/pump, but it sure doesn’t make daquiris. It attaches to the holding tank and chops up the effluent from the tank and pumps it through a garden hose. With this, he’s able to pump his tanks 50 feet to the sewer inlet. It’s a lot neater than using a blue tank.
Being a clever sort of fellow, Barry saved money by buying a marine macerator pump and making a custom attachment to connect it to his 1973 Airstream’s Thetford dump valve. The problem is, newer Airstreams use Valterra dump valves, and the two are not compatible. An adapter was available through Camping World, but apparently no longer. So off we went to Home Depot to manufacture something that would do the job.
Inspired by Rube Goldberg, our custom connector uses a piece from a Shop-Vac, some silicone waterproofing tape, a hose clamp and a section of 1.5″ clear plastic tubing. The clear tubing puts you up close and personal with whatever you ate in the previous week, but it has the distinct benefit of letting you know when the job is done, and when the tank has been well flushed with fresh water. Let me assure you, we tested the gizmo on some gray water (to confirm it wouldn’t suddenly and catastrophically fail) before pulling the black tank handle.
It worked, but the experience reminded me of the things I don’t like about macerators. At least we have a solution for the duration of our stay here at Chez Barry. This effort was way above what we normally need to do when courtesy parking, so don’t get the idea that this is a normal part of traveling … I doubt we’ll ever have to go to such lengths again.
November 12, 2006 at 8:08 am · Filed under Uncategorized
November and March are super months to be in Florida. The weather is great and the beaches are uncrowded. So we decided to skip the crowds at “Ribfest” and go for a daytrip down to Bradenton, or more specifically, Anna Maria Island, which is about an hour drive from our parking spot in Tampa. There’s a nice stretch of beach on the south end of the island called Coquina Beach. The water is shallow and warm (70s this time of year), and you can walk for miles along the powdery soft, pure white sand.
While we were at the beach, we heard from Bobby and Danine. They were driving back from Michigan to their home in Virginia. You might remember we courtesy parked with them a few weeks ago. Well, they are now the proud owners of a new Airstream Safari 30 bunk, like ours. Congratulations! Bobby, Danine, and Elise are now one step closer to their great full-timing adventure next year. We are very much looking forward to seeing them on the road.
No photos today, sorry. It was a vacation day. (But here’s our Google Earth location that day.) We just chilled out all afternoon, walking, splashing in the water, and having a picnic lunch. We stayed until sunset. Hardly anyone was there all day, which continues to amaze me. We could have brought the Airstream after all — the parking lots were mostly empty. Florida in November is a great deal for beach lovers.
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