Archive for Uncategorized
June 25, 2006 at 10:51 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We are getting ready for the rally now. Today was scorchingly hot for Oregon — 100 degrees and sunny — and that slowed things down a bit, but we needed to get ready for the long rally and that’s what we worked on today.
Most of it was routine stuff: laundry, cleaning the trailer, washing the exterior, and taking care of last-minute business stuff… We also sanitized the fresh water system, which I mention because it seems to be a big mystery for many people. Unlike many RV’ers, we do sometimes drink the water from our fresh water system. (It depends on how good the local water tastes.) So it’s important to occasionally sanitize the system.
This is easy: we just add some bleach to the fresh tank, let sit, and flush. (I posted more detailed directions here last October.)
At the International rallies we are supplied with water and electricity. The fresh water is daisy-chained from one trailer to another, so technically your water is only as good as the next guy’s water hose. For this reason, many people avoid drinking the water at big rallies. We haven’t had a problem in the past, but this year we’ll mostly drink stuff we’ve prepped ourselves. Eleanor made some terrific raspberry lemonade that I think I’ll be consuming gallons of tomorrow ..
Parking at an International Rally is another mystery for people. The procedure seems complicated, but it’s really easy once you know how it works: Follow “WBCCI” signs to the rally site, stop at an area marked “BULLPEN” and wait for a parker to come get you. The parker will have you follow them to a particular spot. They park from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m most days with lunch breaks. If nobody’s there, just wait. If you arrive after hours, you’ll be there overnight.
Our plan was to arrive as early as possible in the morning but given that it’s 10:45 p.m. now and Emma’s still up, I doubt she’ll be ready early. We’ll still try to get there as early as we can to avoid the worst of the 100-degree temperatures that are forecast again. Tomorrow will be a busy day.
Tonight I went over to Gunny’s again to try some more dusky shots of his trailer, but couldn’t really get anything spectacular. Here’s one of the out-takes.
June 24, 2006 at 8:01 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We arrived in Salem yesterday afternoon and immediately were greeted by Rich C and Gunny, both of whom seemed more than ready for some new faces in the RV Resort. That pretty much took care of the afternoon and evening, because there was a lot to catch up on.
This place is loaded with features. Continental breakfast in the morning, movies every evening, ice cream social from 6 to 8 pm on weekends, daily newspaper on the doorstep, game room, hot tub & pool, etc. All free for us, for the price of $33 per night with Good Sam discount. We’re going to try to take full advantage of everything … but today I spent the entire day in the trailer processing subscription renewals and other paperwork.
It was absolutely gorgeous yesterday and this morning, but the heat is building now. We’re expecting 98 degrees on Sunday and 100 on Monday. Remember two weeks ago, when we couldn’t break out of the 60s? That’s a distant memory. This is more like Death Valley, with humidity. Fortunately, the temps are expected to slide down all week. That’s the way Oregon is. Huge swings are commonplace — at night our temps are supposed to plummet 50 degrees. I suspect we’ll be happy we elected to get the 30-amp power option, once we are at the official rally site on Monday.
Had to borrow Rich C’s tripod for this shot: f4.5, 4 seconds at ISO 800 (exp bias +1.7)
Gunny is parked down the row from us. Tonight he demonstrated his trailer lighting system for us at dusk. It’s pretty fun to watch, especially since it’s under a very cool new Safari 25FB Special Edition. He’s a rebel at 60+ …
A couple of administrative notes: I was finally able to upload some Crater Lake pictures to the Flickr site, after several days of trying. Apparently Flickr doesn’t the intermittency of my cellular connection. Usually I go to a coffeehouse to do big uploads like this, but haven’t had the chance lately. I’ll get more photos up from Lava Lands and Salem next week.
Also, I’ve added an open house to our Schedule page, on Wednesday June 28 at 2 pm. If you’ll be at the International Rally, drop by for a cold popsicle and some chat under our awning. Once I know where we are parked in the maze of trailers at the rally, I’ll post our location. Or, check the locator board for #9990.
June 23, 2006 at 8:56 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Today is a significant date, to us. June 23 is the day we sold our house in Vermont and began living in our 1977 Argosy 24 full-time! We bought the current Airstream in October, and began documenting our travels at that time.
So we’ve been full-timers for a year now. (Feel free to send anniversary cards with checks, or valuable pieces of jewelry to PO Box 74, Ferrisburg VT 05456.) 😉
So, a status report: In case it wasn’t obvious, everyone continues to do well. We still have no firm date for discontinuing our travels. What began as a “six or seven month” trip has evolved into a lifestyle that we all really enjoy. Homeschooling has gone very well. We have weathered several minor crises and figured out how to make everything work for everyone, emotionally, physically, financially, and logistically — most of the time.
In short, life “on the road” agrees with us. The major change we expect will be a slowing-down of our travels next winter. Part of our mission has been to explore new places we’d like to live, or at least spend more time. Having crossed the country three times so far, we now have a short list of places we’d like to re-visit and spend weeks or months next winter. But we’ll still continue to go back to Vermont regularly, and maintain it as our home base.
Terry posted a comment on our “Bend, OR” blog entry a couple of days ago, asking about the rumor regarding Project Vintage Lightning. The word is out on the Internet that Matthew McConaughey will be our client on this project. He already owns one Airstream, an International CCD 28, but he has purchased our 1952 Airstream Cruiser and the rebuilding and customizing process will be documented in Airstream Life magazine over the next several issues. We are all looking forward to it, as Matthew is a great guy and looks to be a lot of fun to work with.
George Sutton giving Eleanor a tour of the new service building
Last night we camped in the dealer lot at George M Sutton RV in Eugene. George gave us a tour of his new service center, opening across the street. The new service center isn’t ready yet but it’s definitely a huge upgrade, with lots of indoor service area, courtesy parking, staging areas, a retail store, etc. Then we met up with our friend Dan Patch for dinner. He’ll be catching up with us at the International Rally on Monday.
It’s been too long since I posted a Sign of the Week, so here’s one for you. Spotted on the ferry near Little Talbot Island State Park, in Jacksonville FL.
June 22, 2006 at 9:20 am · Filed under Uncategorized
As we approach the big rally, we are seeing more and more Airstreamers, and as a result our days become odd hybrids of tourism, work, and parties. Today was an example.
After a few hours of work on the computer (while Emma was sleeping), our first stop was the Lava Lands Visitor Center at the Newberry Crater National Volcanic Monument. This site is adjacent to the Deschutes National Forest, where we visited a waterfall the day before, and hence it is under the $5/day access fee program that I ranted about yesterday — even for the Visitor Center. It’s not a “National Park” in the sense of being under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service like Crater Lake, but we collected a stamp for our National Parks Passport book anyway.
Lava Lands, looking west. Click for larger.
At Lava Lands you can hike a short paved trail up and around a 6,000 year-old lava flow that covers hundreds of acres along the Deschutes River. The views of the nearby mountains (Mt Bachelor, North Sister, Broken Top, Middle Sister, and South Sister) are very good. Those mountains top out around 9,000-10,000 feet.
We are big fans of caves, so we wanted to check out the Lava River Cave, which is a nearby “lava tube” about 3,000 feet long. This is one of the longest in the world. They are formed by lava flows that cool at the top and leave a river of lava flowing underground. As the lava level drops, an empty tube is left behind.
Eleanor and Emma following a few people out of Lava River Cave.
If you go, be aware of a few things: the hike is tricky due to a very uneven floor, the interior temperature is about 40 degrees, and there is no lighting at all. You can rent a lantern at the entrance, which I highly recommend. We used headlamps and they turned out to be inadequate to really see most of the features of the cave, even though we’ve successfully used the same headlamps in smaller caves back east. The hike all the way to the end of the cave and back takes about an hour or more. We were pretty cold and tired by the time we got out!
But in the busy world of Airstream society there is no rest. We had just enough time to get some groceries before heading 20 miles east to Sisters, where a large group of Vintage Airstream Club members were gathered for a “rendezvous.” (They called it a rendezvous instead of a rally because, they said, “We only want two rules: (1) Have fun; (2) Cold beer.”) We were introduced and spent the rest of the afternoon talking to very enthusiastic people about Airstream stuff, over sandwiches and soup.
In the evening we hooked up with two new friends, Roger and Marion, who have a brand-new Safari Special Edition 28 and are out on a 3-4 month trip in it. We hit a local restaurant in the quaint downtown of Sisters for ice cream sundaes and shakes all around.
This is how it goes during rally time. The trick is to pace onesself, otherwise you end up need a vacation after the rally is over. At our first few major rallies we ran around trying to see everyone and do everything, and ended completely exhausted after a week. There are a lot of people to meet and plenty to do if you use your imagination (and don’t rely on the official program).
June 19, 2006 at 1:55 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Just a quick note: we’re heading back to the cell phone zone, this time in Bend. I’ll be updating the blog tonight (Pacific Time) with a big entry about Crater Lake.
For, let it suffice to say: Crater Lake National Park is indescribably beautiful! We could not stop taking pictures. I have about 200 to download to my laptop and sort through. Put this one on your “must-see” list — with a few caveats that I’ll describe in the next blog entry.
From a roadside stop along the Cascade Lakes Highway, 30 miles south of Bend…
June 17, 2006 at 10:00 am · Filed under Uncategorized
As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, we are heading to Crater Lake National Park this morning. It looks like we will spend a night or two just outside the park at Diamond Lake and then head up to Bend for a few days. There’s a lot to do in Bend that we are looking forward to.
The really cool part about our travels the past couple of weeks has been the momentum we can feel building toward the International Rally gathering. The rally events are not what we go for — we go to see friends who will be attending. And as I’ve mentioned before, some of those friends are going to join us for a caravan from Salem OR to Montana.
Carol B just emailed this morning: she’s leaving from her home in Michigan this morning. Rich C called this morning from the road 10 miles south of Salem OR. Brett is flying out on the 29th to stay with us a few days. Adam and Susan are still at work in Boston but they’ll be coming out around July 1. And Rich C has two friends who are flying into Seattle and renting a car so they can follow along (they’ll sleep in Rich’s trailer).
All of us (except Brett) are going to depart the International Rally together on July 4 or 5 to begin the caravan to Glacier National Park. When we get there, we’ll meet Bert & Janie Gildart, too. We are really looking forward to that. Airstreaming is much more fun when we can share the experience with good friends.
June 16, 2006 at 6:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
OK, the Summer magazine is almost off to the printer and after a few hours of work this morning I was able to slip away between layout reviews. I had heard of a local creamery that specializes in blue cheese, down in Central Point, and we all love blue cheese, so …
The creamery store is small and there’s no tour, which was disappointing, but the blues are very interesting. If you don’t like blue cheese there’s some cheddar and muenster, but nothing worth driving out of your way for. Blue is what this place is about. We tried them all and settled on the Oregonzola and a little of the Pesto Curds. We liked the Smokey Blue too but decided one blue was enough for now. They also have Oregon Blue, which is somewhat like a Stilton, and very sharp.
Thus primed for culinary adventure, we headed over to Harry & David’s headquarters to take the tour ($5 per adult, applicable to purchases over $35 after the tour.) They shuttle you from the Harry & David Country Store a couple of miles down to the facility. The tour is pretty good, especially since they hand out boxes of cookies and chocolate. It includes some of the bakery facilities (baclava, cookies, cakes, popcorn, etc), chocolate facility, call center, and their demonstration rose garden.
The cookie line. Click for larger
The way they identify different classes of workers is by the colored hair nets. The lady pictured below is a supervisor. Supervisors have to be able to speak Spanish.
Of course, the tour ends back at the store and then it’s mandatory to buy a whole bunch of stuff … isn’t it? Eleanor had no trouble filling her basket with enough goodies to surpass the $35 minimum (to apply the $5 discount).
Tomorrow we’ll pack up and head to Crater Lake. I am pretty sure we can’t get online from where we’ll be, but I’ll update as soon as possible afterward.
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