Archive for Uncategorized
October 20, 2006 at 3:13 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Once in a while we meet up with people through the blog or in person, and they give us neat things to take along on our trip. I have been remiss in acknowledging them lately, so I’ll catch up today.
Back in August, I met fellow Airstreamer Robert Stephan (of California) and commented on his cool Airstream belt. I’d never seen one before. Turns out he makes them himself — they aren’t available in stores. A few weeks later, I found in my mail a custom-made Airstream Life belt! Thanks, Robert! What a cool thing to do.
A few weeks ago I heard from blog reader Justin Belmont. He works for a company called Gnu Foods that has come out with a line of fiber bars. Justin sent us a package of these bars, and we all sampled them while driving down from New Jersey to Maryland last week. (It was the most interesting part of the entire trip!)
I’m sure Justin would like me to mention that Gnu Foods’ Flavor and Fiber Bars have about half your daily requirement of fiber, etc. But what the heck — they just taste good. I liked the cinnamon raisin, and Eleanor and Emma liked the chocolate. We’ll probably pick up some more next time we drive by Whole Foods, because they are a very good car snack.
Yesterday, when we met Bobby & Danine, the deal was that we were going to have lunch and they would pick our brains about traveling full-time, Airstreams, etc. We didn’t expect them to repay us in any way for this, because we just like helping other people get started on their travel dreams. But they brought a few small gifts that were very well suited to Airstream life: homemade sugar popcorn, kid’s stories on CD, and homemade sugared pecans. More great car munchies!
What impressed me was that even though they weren’t yet Airstream owners, they immediately appreciated what we can and can’t use. See, being in a small space we can’t store much. So portable, lightweight consumables (especially homemade treats!) are really nice gifts for that Airstreamer in your life. I haven’t met the Airstream owner yet who didn’t like to eat.
Today we are all working or schooling, but in a couple of hours we’ll all regroup for some evening fun. Last night we had dinner at Bobby & Danine’s house and it was great. The girls gave us a fashion show right before dinner, which was an amusing bonus. Tonight I have no idea what’s on the agenda but there’s no doubt we’ll have a wonderful time. Perhaps we’ll do some planning for this weekend’s activities.
October 18, 2006 at 9:59 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Jane says for me to tell all of you that this was the best stop ever. It certainly has been good to see our old friends/co-workers. I was very closely aligned with our friends here, through business, for about nine years. We traveled everywhere together: Orlando, Las Vegas, Tel Aviv, Italy, London, etc… and so even though they aren’t Airstreamers (yet!) we have a common bond in many other ways.
We all went out for dinner this evening at a local Italian place. Seafood pizza? Mmmmm… only in Maryland.
Herschel gave Emma a short ride on his shoulders after dinner. He took me for a 2.5 mile walk, roundtrip, today. Can you believe this is a guy who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for cancer? His powerfully optimistic outlook is absolutely amazing.
We have had a system failure today: our water heater won’t go on. It worked the day before yesterday. So we’ll need to make a stop at an RV dealer, or an Airstream dealer if we want it covered under warranty.
October 18, 2006 at 9:27 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Our trip down through Pennsylvania yesterday was just no fun. Two construction zones where we had to park on highway for half an hour, two accidents which blocked the road, and lots of traffic slowdowns. The 200 mile drive took about six hours … but at least the roads were fairly decent.
We are now parked in a nice suburban neighborhood at the home of a friend who I used to work with in the days before I became an itinerant magazine publisher living in a trailer. We are going to meet up with some other friends from the business today, and go out for pizza tonight.
I forgot to mention our newest trailer accoutrement: a custom-made laundry bag courtesy of our friend J. Rick Cipot. Rick is one of those amazingly handy guys who can handle anything from a sewing machine to an F-14. I spotted his laundry bag at the rally two weeks ago and asked him for one — and he whipped one up for us last Sunday, complete with zipper. It’s amazing that we’ve gone the last year full-timing without one.
I also forgot to mention that on Monday we had an interesting challenge trying to get out of our courtesy parking spot in Connecticut. The way the driveway and turnaround were constructed, we had a comfortably large radius for backing into our space. But pulling out was another story. The radius in that direction was much smaller, and we couldn’t get out.
The alternative was to pull out in the other direction and back out all the way down the driveway. But the driveway was full of S-turns, tricky even to navigate going forward, and the slightest error would have resulted in us hitting a tree. So we yanked the trailer back and forth, gradually maneuvering it toward the garage and increasing our effective radius a small amount.
At one point it seemed hopeless. The driveway was bordered closely by trees and low stone walls, which I managed to scrape a few times with the Armada’s lower air dam. As a last-ditch effort, prepared to unhitch the truck, move it to another angle and re-hitch, then repeat the procedure a few times. This would have worked but it would have taken a long time.
Then we finally got a break and managed to juuuuuust barely scrape by the turn. The front wheels of the Armada were dragging against the stone wall and the entry step of the Airstream clipped a stone wall on the opposite side, but we made it. It had taken nearly an hour.
I’m always cautious about courtesy parking for exactly this reason. We’ve had to maneuver our 31-foot tube very carefully to get it in and out of tight spots before, but this was definitely the most challenging spot — even harder than in Santa Cruz! When we pulled into this spot in Connecticut, I was so enthused at the ease of parking that I neglected to consider what we’d have to do to get out going in the opposite direction. Lesson learned!
October 17, 2006 at 9:37 am · Filed under Uncategorized
As I had dreaded, the drive down I-95, I-287, and I-80 was pretty awful. Northeast road conditions can be challenging for anyone with the constant heavy traffic, and when you add to that a series of S-curves and teeth-jarring bumps, it turns into a trailer-punishing rock-n-roll adventure.
Bert & Janie had the same experience on their route down I-84 to I-87 and 287: pictures flying off the walls, upset storage bins, heart-stopping moments when the trailer bounced crazily over a frost heave … not fun. We all had to spend some time cleaning up later, but fortunately nothing broke and despite the sensations all of our tires remained attached and inflated.
Last night we courtesy parked with Bert & Janie at Janie’s daughter’s house here in Great Meadows. There are three great kids here, who adopted Emma for the evening while the adults spontaneously began an unintentional “Bert Gildart Roast”. Between us, Janie, Janie’s daughter Katie and Katie’s husband Keith, there were plenty of common experiences to share about travels with Bert.
Apparently everyone who goes hiking, kayaking, bicycle riding, etc., with Bert ends up with a story to tell. There was the time that Bert took us on an “easy” hike through Glacier National Park last summer (and it ended up being 12 miles up and down at 7000 feet elevation); the time Bert took Janie kayaking in the Bay of Fundy and they ended up getting caught in the mud flats at low tide; the time Bert put a 20-lb rock in his sister-in-law’s backpack during a hike; the time he and Janie were watching icebergs “calving” and the polar bears showed up, etc. We were laughing hysterically when all the stories kept coming.
Our trailer parked with the Gildarts’ trailer
It has turned gray and rainy here and we are facing a long day driving down to Maryland. The good news is that our route will take us through Pennsylvania, so we will have somewhat more pleasant driving. Most PA highways are not exactly parkways, but they are much nicer than I-95.
Our approximate parking spot last night. (You need Google Earth to view this.)
October 16, 2006 at 8:46 am · Filed under Uncategorized
I’ve said it before … the best thing about traveling like this is the great friendships we develop along the way. Don and Amanda have been superb hosts during our visit, and instant friends since the moment we met them at the rally in Townshend VT. Coming here to spend the weekend has felt like visiting old friends we’ve known for years.
Yesterday Don shuttled me all over the area looking for a few hardware items on our list, like an extra 3/4″ socket for the torque wrench, and a few things he needed to round out his toolkit. Being male, we both hated spending three hours driving around for shopping, but on the other hand, being male, we liked driving around with the top down on Don’s BMW in the crisp fall weather.
I spent the day repaying the favor by helping Don re-adjust and lube his Reese hitch for better handling, and showing him how to winterize Vintage Thunder. Meanwhile, Emma and Donal were rolling down the grassy hill in what appeared to be a race, and getting covered with leaves in the process. Between chasing each other, carting around the extraordinarily patient cats, playing games, and imagining things, they had as full a day as six-year-olds can have.
It was classic Fall from start to finish: Eleanor cooked a pot roast for dinner with vegetables, rice, homemade gravy and Caesar salad, and our other new friends Rick, Sandi, and Sara (also met at the rally last weekend) came over for dinner. I am sorry I didn’t capture any pictures but I was definitely on vacation. Amanda and Rick did snap a few, however, and eventually I’ll get copies of those and post them here.
This afternoon we’ll be continuing our southward trek, to meet Bert & Janie in New Jersey.
October 15, 2006 at 9:10 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Since we stayed with Mike and Bonnie a few days, we tried to do a few things to repay our hosts. Thursday night I helped Mike get his DVD recorder working, and also taught him how to burn CDs on his elderly PC (but it’s not obsolete, according to Mike, since it still does everything he wants it to do!) Emma pitched in with a little morning raking and then we headed down I-95 through Rhode Island and Connecticut.
One “gotcha” with repeated courtesy parking is finding a dump station. In the northeast this can be tricky, especially this time of year when state parks are closing. Our nearest state park was Massasoit, but it was closed to camping. We couldn’t find another spot so we arrived at Don & Amanda’s with holding tanks half full. Fortunately, we have access to their septic system, which solves the problem.
We are parked right by our former trailer, Vintage Thunder. The trailer still looks fabulous. The paint is really holding up beautifully. Not a nick on it that I could see. The more I see that blue-green color, the more it grows on me, especially in bright sunlight.
Once again we’ve got a nice level spot in the driveway with fall foliage raining down all around us. Easton is a rural town outside of Bridgeport, in southern Connecticut — not much to do, but quiet and pretty. Emma and Donal immediately latched onto each other, and we hung out with Don and Amanda, and everyone was happy. In the evening Eleanor and Emma went for take-out Indian food and we spread it all over their enormous dining room table and had a feast.
Click for larger
October 14, 2006 at 9:17 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Friday was a completely wasted day, in the sense that it was beautiful outside and I spent then entire day locked in front of my computer dealing with a million and one little problems. I ended up at 6 pm with a stiff neck, eyes that would no longer focus, and a poor outlook on life. I’ve got to remember to get up once in a while and take a break …
Courtesy parked in Bridgewater MA
Eleanor and Emma spent the day visiting a friend and the local IKEA store. Among other things, Eleanor scored some stackable ceramic coffee mugs for $0.50 each (clearance price). She is tired of the oh-so-cool stainless or aluminum travel mugs that don’t stack in the kitchen cabinet. They may be great looking, but they take up too much space. We’ll see if the ceramic ones hold up.
Inspired by an essay I read on the Scambuster website, I’ve decided to play our scammer a bit longer. The next message from Ayres will be his claim that $1800 was sent via Western Union. Of course we won’t really send a penny. That should cause our scammer some further consternation and delay as he/she tries to collect the money.
Then Ayres will probably die in one of the horrible manners suggested by our readers on yesterday’s blog entry (see comments), and legal action against Velecia Farmer/Alvaro Mendoza/Dr. Lilian Williams/Larry Inc will be threatened. Ayres may even have an uncle (“Avion”) who is a private detective, to seek out the wrongdoers and hopefully put some fear into them.
Today we are going to pack up and tow about 130 miles down to Connecticut to stay with Don and Amanda, who we just met last weekend. They are the new owners of Vintage Thunder. We’ll spend the weekend with them and Emma will get to play with Donal (Jr.), who is five years old.
Bert Gildart called yesterday. He and Janie have finally emerged from Canada, and will be in Massachusetts this weekend. We are trying to cross paths in the next few days, so we can yak about our travels and they can give us a pile of Canadian generic Zyrtec that they bought for us. We may meet them in New Jersey on Monday, if all goes well.
By the way, Bert has been doing some wonderful writing and photography in Canada, and it’s on his blog. If you haven’t read it, I can really recommend it. He is doing a superb job telling stories of the Maritimes.
Colin Hyde called yesterday too, from a rally in New Hope, PA. He says it’s much warmer down there, which makes me VERY happy. I like fall but a few more days in the 70s would feel good too.
My final office task yesterday was to do some trip planning. We’ve now got an itinerary worked out all the way down to South Carolina. After that we’ve got about a week to just wing it until we arrive in Orlando. It’s a great itinerary. So I guess Friday wasn’t a total waste after all — at least I have nailed down some cool stuff to look forward to.
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