Archive for Uncategorized
November 11, 2006 at 9:39 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Last April we stopped in on our friends Renee and Fred in Charleston SC for a couple of days, and they introduced us to a local specialty, “Shrimp and Grits”. Ever since then, Eleanor has been wanting to try making it, and I’ve been wanting to eat it again.
Since the local Sweet Bay grocery has great giant prawns, and Barry and Susan were coming over for dinner, last night became the night. It was a bit of work, but the results were terrific. (Barry and I grilled the prawns outside.) Eleanor actually combined several recipes she found online into a custom recipe of her own. We all had seconds, and even though she made a huge pot, there were no leftovers.
Earlier on Friday we headed into Tampa to do an errand and go see Rich C, who is parked up at Bay Bayou. We’ll be relocating up there (about 30 minutes northwest through Tampa traffic) to be closer to Brett’s, on the 18th. That will make it easier to coordinate projects and Thanksgiving preparations.
Catching up with Rich C
Speaking of Thanksgiving, we are planning an all-Airstream event. It turns out that everyone who will be attending our dinner is currently living in an Airstream — except Brett, who is supplying the apartment. That includes us, Barry, and hopefully Bert & Janie, if they can get down here soon enough. Last I heard they were exploring American history at Harper’s Ferry.
November 10, 2006 at 11:17 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We wrapped up the day by running out to the local grocery for some shrimp (actually giant prawns) to grill on Barry’s barbecue grill. The sun is setting early now, even here in Florida, so we ended up grilling in the dark at 7 pm, but at least the evenings are still pleasantly warm for things like this.
Shrimp, sausage, and scallions on a skewer
This weekend there’s a “Ribfest” going on in St Petersburg that might be fun. We may go tomorrow. Otherwise, it looks like a weekend of beach-hopping. It has been an intense week of work on the Spring magazine and on various business issues, so I’m ready to check out for a while. We’ll pack our snorkel gear and beach toys, and see where we end up.
An Airstream is a great resource to take to the beach, but the 30-footer is too much to haul around crowded barrier islands. When we had our 17-foot Caravel, we routinely hauled it to beach parking lots and used it as a cabana. This time we’ll leave the Airstream parked at Barry’s and just load up the Armada with our stuff.
We’ve got a few projects planned for next week. I’ve ordered a 12v dimmer switch from American Technology Components and we’ll wire it into the main ceiling light circuit. This should give us more lighting flexibility and better ability to control our power use when boondocking. ATC is the supplier to Airstream, so the dimmer is an exact match to the original equipment.
We’re also considering a range of other upgrades. We won’t do all these things, but on the list for consideration are: install a larger LCD TV for movies; install a deeper kitchen sink; re-caulk the kitchen countertop and stove; install a Thin-Lite fluorescent for boondocking; install a catalytic heater; remove the subwoofer under the dinette seat and convert that space to storage; increase the height of the kitchen backsplash; replace the bedroom carpet with a different floor covering. Brett will be helping if we do any of these projects.
November 8, 2006 at 8:52 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We arrived in Tampa in the midst of an enormous rainstorm, to find our courtesy parking spot at Barry’s flooded several inches deep. The rain was so heavy that merely cracking a window on the Nissan resulted in a complete soaking of the interior door.
But we were blocking the street, so Eleanor bravely put on her rain jacket and sloshed out through ankle-deep water to try to back us in somewhere on Barry’s property. This was one of the tougher backing jobs we’ve had, since visibility was poor and I had to dodge two large trees and a dumpster with the trailer.
Barry’s house is an older bungalow that he’s completely rehabbing, so for now he lives in …. you got it … his Airstream! He has a 1972 Overlander which he rehabbed a couple of years ago. We finally managed to get our Airstream tucked in next to his, and in about 10 minutes the rain ended and the small rainponds disappeared into the sandy soil of Tampa. I managed to avoid scraping trees, Eleanor changed into dry clothing, and we got on with the business of settling in.
We may be here a while. Tampa is a convenient base of operations. We have several friends here, including Barry, Brett, and Rich C (located only about 30 minutes north of here at present), I have work to do, we’re close to fun places like Ft Desoto and Sarasota, and the camping is free. We’re anticipating being here for Thanksgiving, although we may move out for a while to explore before then.
November 7, 2006 at 9:43 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Haines City does not have an exciting downtown today, but Wendimere and Bill are betting it will have a renaissance. The “historic downtown” features a half dozen hair salons, a few professional offices, a handful of dejected-looking real estate offices, and many empty storefronts. As a result, nobody goes there and parking is usually plentiful.
But they may be getting in on the ground floor. This town is right off a major highway (Route 27), and adjacent to major real estate development along Rt 27 and in nearby Davenport. It could be the next Mt Dora. Someone else thinks so, because most of the downtown real estate has been bought up and is being renovated right now.
Our trailer parked in front of their trailer
We discussed the future of Haines City and many other things over dinner last night at Manny’s Chop House (not to be confused with the similarly named restaurant in Longwood). Manny’s is a great spot for dinner, but the locals know about it and so the wait can be long. They don’t take reservations. Still, it’s worth it.
We also talked about our plans to do some traveling as a group next year. We’re thinking about a possible caravan down to the Yucatan Peninsula, and other ideas. Last summer’s group trip with Susan & Adam, Carol, and Rich C from Oregon to Wyoming was a lot of fun. Also, in our travels we’ve run into a lot of people who want loosely-structured caravans with few rules and obligations, and many of them have looked to us to organize something. So far I’ve resisted that temptation, because we like traveling without obligations ourselves (and leading a trip would limit our freedom), but perhaps in 2007 we’ll take the plunge and lead a small trip.
Last night we broke out some classic games that Wendimere and Bill own, and spent the evening with Scrabble and Clue. Emma needs help with Scrabble, but I see how it helps her learn the spelling of new words, so maybe we’ll get this game for ourselves, too. In any case, it was great fun.
Group pose in the Herb Shoppe
Maintenance item: In the past few weeks we’ve noted the bottom of the shower door leaking onto the bathroom floor. (We have the roll-up “Shub” door commonly found in late-model Safaris.) This water leak will cause floor rot if not fixed, so on Sunday I removed all the ugly old caulk along the bottom and cleaned the surface thoroughly. There was some trapped water under the door jamb, so I let it dry out overnight.
Yesterday I laid down blue masking tape and put in a fresh bead of GE Silicone II caulk, which is the only product I will use for this job. I’ve had poor results from the DAP stuff. This morning — 24 hours later — it should be fully cured. I’ll test the new caulk before we hitch up and head to Tampa.
November 6, 2006 at 9:42 am · Filed under Uncategorized
This rally was a great find. I finally got a chance to meet some people in the vintage trailer world who I’ve kept missing for years, namely Eric Drugge and his crew. Emma also scored, meeting some of the many children attending the event.
Eric Drugge, Trailerworks
We also got to see a great range of spectacular and rare trailers. I think my favorite was this incredible 1956 Airfloat “Flagship”, which was more or less a park model trailer made for the elite Hollywood crowd. Eric and his wife Jennifer are currently using it as their personal trailer. It is anodized gold on the exterior (with a painted gold tongue) and the interior is simply amazing.
I’ve posted many more pictures of the cool trailers I saw, and their owners, on our Flickr photo album. Some of their stories are amazing too. One fellow, 81 years old, is full-timing in the 1947 Westcraft Coronado that he bought new originally. Another is towing a beautiful red Vagabond with a slick customized black Dodge Magnum, and another is towing a modern teardrop with a convertible VW New Beetle. All the pictures are on the Flickr album.
We towed a mere 25 miles or so yesterday, ending up in downtown Haines City, FL at the shop of our friends Wendimere and Bill. Eventually they’ll move into the shop (upstairs), but for now it is a conveniently located spot with a big driveway where our Airstream and theirs are parked. Being downtown, it was pretty noisy last night (boom cars driving by, a train practically in the backyard, a Mexican nightclub one block away), but we’ll survive for a couple of nights. We know this area well, since we used to winter only a few miles from here.
Since we haven’t seen Bill and Wendimere since we were in Colorado, we had some catching up to do … which we did until 10 pm over tea, toast, figs, goat cheese, crackers, toasted soy nuts, and other things. Bill and Wendimere are into healthy eating and I like to try their stuff when we see them.
Today Emma is going to get more bicycle riding practice with Bill. He started teaching her last summer in Colorado, and he’s anxious to get on with it. That works for Eleanor and I!
As I write this, the train is rumbling by again along the tracks that separate us from the giant orange processing facility. You can see our location on Google Earth by downloading this link.
November 5, 2006 at 7:54 am · Filed under Uncategorized
One of those wonderful and strange coincidences occurred today, throwing all our plans into disorder. As we were leaving Ft Wilderness with trailer in tow, we noticed a large number of Airstreams parked together in another loop of the campground. This couldn’t be a coincidence, yet how could there be a rally here that we hadn’t heard of?
As we pulled our Airstream slowly through the loop, I immediately spotted Norm, a fellow I’d met a year ago at a rally in St Petersburg. Seeing him confirmed it: there was a rally going on! Trailerworks, a restoration company in Beaufort SC, was sponsoring its 2nd Annual Vintage Rally, and as it turned out we knew several people who were attending, including Forrest and Jeri Bone of the Tin Can Tourists.
I had heard of this rally months ago but discounted it because we didn’t originally plan to be in Florida this early. Then I just plain forgot. But it has worked out well, because the Eric Drugge of Trailerworks generously gave us one of their spare campsites. So we settled in for another day.
Why not? The weather is perfect again (mid-70s, sunny, and dry), we have no pressing obligations, and our schedule can easily slip back a day. This has to go on record as our shortest day of towing yet: less than a mile.
I got a chance to meet with the Trailerworks staff and see some of the restorations they’ve done. There are some spectacular vintage trailers here, which I’ll document in photos soon. Among others, a Vagabond, a Boles-Aero, a Shasta, three Avions, many Airstreams, and an Airfloat.
But today was a day to chill, so instead of wandering around taking photos and interviewing owners as I usually do, I spent the afternoon in the Airstream reading my second book from Bobby: “Over The Edge of The World,” by Laurence Bergreen. This is a spectacular history of Magellan’s voyage around the world. It’s a riveting tale of challenge, disaster, and death aboard an armada of wooden ships attempting to find a route from Spain to the fabled Spice Islands. This one has many grisly forms of drama: political intrigue, religious conflict, mutiny, sex, and even torture, set against a background peppered with 16th century kings, aboriginal societies, and the unexplored open sea. It doesn’t have much to do with travel by Airstream (fortunately!) but it sure is a heck of a travel story.
Speaking of reading, Brett gave us about a dozen “Little Golden Books” that he picked up at a garage sale. Emma read one of them to us today, “The Little Red Hen,” which really psyched us. Her reading is coming right along and she is picking up new words quickly now. Eleanor has been doing flash cards with her in the car and we take every opportunity possible to get her to learn new words: signs, labels, menus, emails, and many other things.
A reader of this blog asked for more info about Ft Wilderness. If it weren’t located at Disney World, it would still be a top-notch campground in its own right. The sites are generally shady, set in circular loops, and separated by 20-30 feet with scattered pine trees. All sites are full-hookup, with dead-level paved pads surrounded by gravel and sand. The area is carefully maintained — they even send through a street sweeper. Sites are swept and raked between visitors.
A typical Ft Wilderness site with an atypical trailer
There are lots of little thoughtful touches. The bathrooms are exceptional (and of course, air conditioned). The trash cans are half buried into the ground to lower their visual impact. Asphalt is kept to a minimum. Recycling boxes are everywhere, which we appreciate since many campgrounds don’t recycle. Internet is available via cable modem on the “preferred” loops but you have to pay to activate it. We didn’t bother since we use cellular Internet from the trailer. There is also Internet service available in the reception area.
The campground is enormous, with hundreds of sites, but it never feels that way since the trees preevent you from seeing much beyond your own loop. There are multiple swimming pools, nightly sign-alongs & movies, and pretty much every other facility you can imagine. Transportation to any part of Disney is free by bus and ferryboat, and people are encouraged to rent golf carts to get around the campground (or ride their bikes) rather than drive, which keeps the campground relatively free of traffic and noise.
Rangers subtly patrol the campground, enforcing rules about parking on the narrow loop roads (one car blocking part of the street is enough to prevent most RV’s from getting by) and helping out where needed. Only charcoal fires are allowed (not wood), which is perhaps not as romantic, but something we really appreciate. Most other campgrounds get horribly smoky at night due to the numerous wood fires, and we usually have to keep the windows closed after 5 pm — or end up smelling like wood smoke in the morning. Here we can leave them open all night and enjoy the balmy late-fall Florida air.
Staying in Ft Wilderness gets you all the same privileges as guests at other Disney resorts: free parking, free transportation, extra “Magic hours” in the parks, charging privileges using your keycard, etc. There’s no “second class” stigma about it at all. Overall, I can recommend it. But if you want to save a few bucks and aren’t concerned about being on Disney property, you can try Tropical Palms in Kissimmee. We stayed there last April, although I didn’t talk about it on the blog at that time. While it was no match for Ft Wilderness, and quite a bit more crowded, it was fine and less expensive.
November 4, 2006 at 10:06 am · Filed under Uncategorized
The Disney park experience is different for everyone. For us, it was a nice day of riding and munching, with short lines and exotic foods.
After a few morning thrill rides, we wandered through the World Showcase sampling the treats available from each country, which run from $1.25 to $6.50 each (mostly $3). The little portions they serve at each food kiosk seem very small for the price, and I suppose they are, but after just a few we were all feeling full and thus the total expenditure was not bad. According to the express checkout invoice that appeared on our doorstep this morning, we spent about $78 for the day, to thoroughly stuff the three of us for lunch and dinner. By Disney standards, that’s a cheap day.
Today’s photos are by Brett.
Emma participates in a ceremony at the American pavilion
We didn’t get back until 10 pm, completely exhausted except for Brett (who never stops), and so this morning things will go more slowly. Brett and Lori are heading to Universal for the day, and we are going to Haines City where we will courtesy-park at the home of our friends Wendimere (The Health Chic) and Bill, who we last saw in Aurora CO and Yellowstone.
Yesterday was a splurge day financially, but not a problem for our budget given the savings afforded us by traveling in the Airstream. It really is cheaper than staying home. Thanks to the generosity of our friends who offer courtesy parking, and a little effort to seek out campground bargains, we are well below the budget we lived on last year. I’m hoping to keep it that way for the remainder of the winter.
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