Archive for Uncategorized
July 2, 2006 at 8:30 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Last night I never did get around to updating the blog — I was just too tired. Our day started innocently enough, as I noted in the morning. A dull agenda meant we’d be making our own fun, but we do that every day, so what’s the difference?
Then we started wandering around and pretty soon everyone was busy doing something. We took Adam and Susan to the new trailer display, introduced people to other people, and checked out some of the vintage trailers we never got time to see on Saturday. Around this time, Gunny showed up to grab Rich C for some tech support on his new Mac, and Dan dropped in for the day to scout for used trailers to buy. Behind every corner there seemed to be someone lurking, waiting to pounce for a “quick” chat, so our progress around the fairgrounds was fairly slow, but that was part of the fun.
A restored 1958 Pacer is being raffled off by the Florida Mystic Springs Unit. It’s a cute 16-footer with no bathroom. Herb Spies and other members of Mystic Springs worked on it. I bought three tickets …
Around 2 I finally met up with Wendimere Reilly and her husband Bill. Wendimere is “The Health Chic,” who you will see in the Summer 2006 issue of Airstream Life. They are traveling the US in their cool decorated Airstream International CCD 19, talking about healthy stuff and visiting health food festivals, etc. She had some advice and contacts for Rich C to use, since he has a rare auto-immune disorder that he’s learning to manage. We agreed we’ll try to meet again out toward Wyoming or Montana. Meanwhile Eleanor took Adam and Susan out for groceries, so now they are stocked for our trip onward this week.
I also caught up with Forrest McClure (draws “The Panes” cartoon for the magazine), Jim Haddaway (last year’s president of WBCCI — we had dinner with him in NTAC in May), Mike Scherkenbach and several other people from the San Diego contingent, and numerous other people who dropped by to asked questions or buttonholed me to buy a back issue. It’s a full-time job just keeping up with all the people we’ve met over the past year. I finally dragged back to the Airstream for a 20-minute power nap at 4 p.m.
Around 6:30 we had a barbecue hosted by Adam and Susan Maffei at their unique Airstream Class C, with Robert, Steve, Colin, Brett, Rich C, Eleanor, Emma, Dan, and I attending. I started things off with a “caravan meeting” to explain how some of are going to travel together to Glacier National Park starting Wednesday. It was easy: There aren’t any rules. I gave everyone Bert Gildart’s address in Montana and said “be there around July 7 or 8, and we’ll figure out the rest on a day-to-day basis.”
We heard that Colin’s latest major project, the 1965 Caravel owned by David Hale, scored highest possible marks in the Vintage Concours d’Elegance. Official results are coming out today. That’s a big validation of Colin’s shop, and he deserves congratulations for the achievement. That kind of high-quality work is part of the reason why Colin will be doing our Vintage Lightning restoration for Matthew McConaughey.
We were all noticing the vicious pollen in the air lately. Several of us had itchy burning eyes by 6 pm, but the barbecue ended up going to 10:30 anyway. This was a fascinating and intelligent group of people, and I took the opportunity to facilitate some brainstorming on “Airstream issues”, which was really productive. After we broke up, Steve and Colin headed back to Portland to catch an early morning flight home.
So, despite the agenda’s general dullness, it was a great day to just explore the grounds and we never felt like we needed to leave to stay busy. Today may be the same, since Brett and I have meetings set up for half the day, we need to pre-register for next year’s International Rally in Perry, GA, and everyone has someone they want to find and talk to. Eleanor is going to do laundry this morning, in preparation for our departure on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning. If we have time this afternoon we’ll head over to Silver Falls with the mountain bikes, but I suspect we may be busy enough all day.
July 1, 2006 at 9:15 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Last night was a total blast. We visited the Vintage happy hour again for a few minutes, and I teased the crowd by giving Ed Emerick, the new VAC president, an advance copy of the Summer 06 Airstream Life, which came by FedEx yesterday. They had a ukelele band practicing for an upcoming rally on the flatbed of a antique truck.
Afterwards we gathered with everyone who didn’t have any food in their coach (or were staying in a hotel) and headed to a recommended restaurant in town. In the picture you can see (L to R), Adam, Susan, Emma, Eleanor, Steve, Robert, Colin, and Brett. I’m standing on a chair to take the photo …
Dinner was a blast, with lots of raucous conversation, and around 9 we headed back to our trailer to talk more. Rich C showed up, too. We ended up gabbing to about 11 p.m. before we finally wrapped it up and got Emma to bed. It was a great night with some great friends … and I’ll be sorry to see Colin and Steve fly out tomorrow.
Today the schedule is barren of things we are interested in (knitting, party bridge, amateur radio, prostate CA “the miracle beam”, scrapbooking, teen queen talent judging, computer class, a few luncheons — these are actual items on the program today, and they wonder why “young people” aren’t interested in the club). So we are probably going to organize a day out somewhere.
June 30, 2006 at 5:04 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
It’s only 4:30 as I write this (Pacific Time) and I’m already feeling the weight of the day. What a day it has been. The politics are behind us, thank goodness. Here’s a rundown of the other events of the day:
Brett and I hit the local hardware store to get the remaining bits to mount my new flagpole holder. When Colin Hyde and Steve Hingtgen arrived mid-morning, Colin helped us drill and mount it to the power hitch. Now I’ve got my two flags flying: one USA, one “illegal” Airstream Life flag.
Steve, Brett, Colin and I hung back in the trailer for a few hours, waiting for cell phone updates from the delegates meeting. At noon, we transferred to the Vintage Open House, which was spectacular — one of the best I’ve attended.
We saw some really good examples of rare Airstreams, including a 16-foot 1953 Trailwind (not Tradewind!), a 1977 Caravanner (huge living space, no bedroom!), a 1958 Pacer, several beautifully restored Flying Clouds, etc.
The vintage open house was a slightly marred by a poor decision by the management to pump out the trailer tanks at the same time. The odor of black tank wafted over the trailers from time to time … but we were still happy to be there and see the cool rigs. The local press showed up to conduct interviews and Colin reports that he was photographed with his latest project, a 1965 Caravel, wearing his Airstream Life t-shirt.
We departed from that at 2 pm to the ice cream social at the new Airstream display area. There we found Carol moving into her new 27FB Classic, which is a beautiful trailer. Eleanor and Emma caught up with us there too. Emma had been playing with friends all morning. I guess free ice cream will do that.
Adam and Susan called at 3:00 to say they were heading in, so Brett and I pedalled over to meet them in the bullpen. They ran into another parking SNAFU: the parkers, thinking things were quiet, had quit for the day. We found our friend Robert Trent there waiting as well. Fortunately, someone showed up and found a few recruits, and everyone was eventually parked.
Now we are 1/2 an hour late for the Vintage happy hour, and I just got a call from Wendimere, the “Health Chic”. I’ll tell you about her later — if she ever gets parked. We’re heading out for the happy hour to meet everyone, and then a group of us are going out for dinner. It never stops here…
June 30, 2006 at 12:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The vote came up … and the proposed name “Wally Byam Airstream Club International” has been rejected. It got 56% of the vote, but it needed a 2/3 majority. At this point, we are still WBCCI and the issue is now dead. The meeting is continuing and they are discussing other issues now.
We’re heading off to the Vintage Open House now, which goes to 3 pm. Rich C just called about it and says it’s very busy over there.
June 30, 2006 at 12:13 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Another update from the floor: an amendment was introduced to change the name under consideration from Airstream Owners Association International (AOAI) to Wally Byam Airstream Club International (WBACI). This vote needed a 2/3 majority to pass, which was 84 votes. The amendment passed with 85 votes!
This is NOT the new name of the club. It is the name that is being voted on right now. We’ll know soon if it has been accepted or rejected. More soon …
June 30, 2006 at 11:39 am · Filed under Uncategorized
I just got a call from the delegate meeting: 4,557 votes in favor of accepting owners of the new “Base Camp” trailer into the WBCCI. 1,835 votes against, and 242 abstentions.
Congrats to all new and future owners of the Base Camp! Welcome!
June 30, 2006 at 6:55 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Well, I heard the “Save Wally” crowd had a big party last night. I’m not sure what happened there, but I’m going to get reports later today for sure. I called Colin this morning at his hotel and he was still sleeping, despite supposedly being on Eastern Time. Correlation? I’ll find out.
I hope not all of them oversleep. The delegates meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time, which is 30 minutes from this post. The smart people I’ve spoken to expect two things: (1) endless and tedious debate, with considerable input from the well-organized “Save Wally” people. (2) no name change will pass, since it would require a 2/3 approval from the delegates. It is unlikely there is enough consensus on any particular name for that.
Still, I have people in the audience who will call me by cell phone as events warrant. So you can expect information here today, regardless of the outcome of the meeting. Check back again later today …
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