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December 12, 2005 at 6:24 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Well, I braved the snow and drove up about 70 miles to Plattsburgh, NY to see Colin Hyde and the rest of the gang his shop. We got another couple of inches today, and it looked like Plattsburgh got 4-5 inches, because all of the Airstreams were covered in white.
Things are really hustling up there. In addition to my ’68 Caravel and my 63 Serro Scotty, which are currently in the parking lot awaiting their turn, I saw Rob Baker’s Sovereign of the Road (and man, is that in tough shape. Rob’s got a big project there); also Steve Hingtgen of Vintage Trailer Supply has an early 50’s something-or-other that basically needs everything; a 65 Caravel undergoing a very interesting interior modification complete with front leather couch; a unique 50s custom made for Henry Ford that has no windows on the sides (it was used for storing clothing!) owned by our friends the Geschwinders; two 60s trailers owned by our friend Gail Buck; a 34-foot Classic Limited with front body damage; and at least half a dozen others.
Colin was kind enough to give me a tour of several of the trailer projects, and we talked about next year’s magazine restoration project also. We have something very fun cooking! I hope to be able to announce it by February.
Tonight is our last night in Vermont. We took our hosts Guy and Katie out for dinner at a local place, The Black Sheep Bistro (fabulous dinner!) and now we are tying up loose ends of business online so we’ll be ready for tomorrow. It has been a great visit to Vermont. Eleanor saw all her friends, Emma saw her friends and grandparents and played in the snow, and I caught up with a few people too. I’m actually glad we came. Now I’m glad to go back “home” to our Airstream for the rest of the trip. We’ll land late Tuesday night, but I hope to start blogging again on Wednesday.
December 11, 2005 at 12:36 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
OK, hopefully this will be the only time this winter we encounter serious snow! But if you must have snow, then you must go sledding. It’s an all-American sport that is great exercise, fun for the family, and free.
… except for the fancy Hammerhead Sleds that my brother Steve, and Guy, took down Mt Philo today. Those are $289 (available through EMS, Snow Leopard, REI, Neiman-Marcus, FAO Schwartz, and other stores, and factory-direct through the Hammerhead website).
[Please forgive the shameless promotion — my brother runs the company.]
We had a blast! The road down Mt Philo was covered with a nice packed base of 1-2″, and we were bombing down it. There were lots of families out for sledding, too, who we had to avoid carefully. Good thing the Hammerhead steers.
No injuries, either among us or the bystanders!
Emma and Eleanor stayed back with Katie to make cookies — another nice thing to do on a snowy Sunday. And now it’s nearly 4 pm, the sun is setting, and my thoughts are turning to the sunshine of Santa Cruz. …
December 11, 2005 at 5:44 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We have had our Christmas in Vermont, and it was very nice. You have to use your imagination because I left my camera holstered most of the time: Christmas dinner Friday night, with ham, spinach casserole, sweet & white potatoes, pumpkin & key lime pies, wine and eggnog. Can you see Emma bouncing around excitedly?
Saturday morning: egg breakfast, gifts with the family, peeking in stockings, afternoon movies (Wizard of Oz, Shrek2), noshing on the leftover ham, cheese quiche, sweet pickles, artichokes … the adults trying on their new fleeces, Emma playing with her new magnetic toys, and the dog wrestling with her chew toys. All very good & peaceful, with a few inches of fresh snow on the ground outside. Yes, we had a white Christmas.
And now we are staying with our friends Guy & Katie for the next two nights, as our Vermont break winds down and we prepare to head back to California on Tuesday. But there are a few more things to do, first.
Tomorrow I will head over to Plattsburgh NY to visit Colin Hyde. He has numerous interesting projects underway, including my own 1968 Caravel, and I plan to go take photos of a few of them for this blog.
We also have to do some serious thinking about what to do with the the gifts we’ve received this Christmas. As full-timers, we have only two places to put things: (1) in our trailer, which is already stuffed; (2) in our storage unit here in Vermont, for retrieval next summer.
I have received a very nice new fleece, for example, and so I will leave the older one that I wore to Vermont, in our storage unit, and take the new one with me on Tour. I’ll also leave a few other warm things behind, in the hope that we won’t need them for the next few months!
The same process has to happen with Emma’s stuff, but a bit harder to deal with. We don’t want to disappoint Emma by forcing her to leave new presents in storage, but she already has THREE bins of toys stored on the bunk above her bed. So when we return, she’ll also have to select a few of the older things she doesn’t play with much, and pack them for shipment to friends with younger children, or donation. It’s a good lesson about sharing, I hope.
This is how it works in a travel trailer: you keep only some of what your normally collect. It forces you to think about what you really need. Most people discover that is much less than they already have.
December 9, 2005 at 9:37 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We had dinner last night with a bunch of friends from Vermont. All of them are curious about our adventure, so we spent much of the evening answering questions about how it is all going.
And of course, our friends are very supportive of our trip, so they brought us a few supplies: a package of Trailer Trash Snack Mix and a Trailer Trash Talkin’ Beer Opener. Then they said, “By the way, we’re all really jealous!”
December 8, 2005 at 2:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I posted two photo albums of pictures on Flickr today: Capitola CA and Pinnacles National Monument. While we are freezing in Vermont, you can browse a little California warmth.
Still about 80 free Troubs CDs available to snag! See yesterday’s post for details.
December 7, 2005 at 6:34 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Two little things for you today: (1) I’ve posted photos to the previous entry from Pinnacles National Park. See below.
(2) Since I’m feeling in a Christmas mood, here’s a deal you can’t refuse: I’m going to send you a FREE 5-song sampler CD from the Trailer Park Troubadours’ current album “Trailercana”. I’ve been listening to it today, and it’s great! Funny and musically great. I love the songs: KOA Refugee, I Married Up, etc.
So here’s the deal: be one of the first 100 people to post a comment on this blog entry with your name, city, and state, and any comments you might have. For example, “Rich Luhr, Charlotte, VT — hope you get back to California soon!” (For privacy, don’t put your full address in the comment.)
Then use our Contact Us form to send me your complete name and address in the “comments” box. I’ll mail you a FREE 5-song sampler CD. Happy holidays!
Why am I doing this? Well, I had a bunch of the CDs made up to give to people we meet along the road, and I figure those of you who can’t meet us along the way should have a chance to get one, too!
Otherwise, there’s not much to talk about. It’s 20 degrees here and windy. I miss my Airstream. But I can tell myself that next week we’ll be returning to “our vacation home in Santa Cruz California”. Sounds nice.
December 6, 2005 at 7:27 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Add this to the list of reasons why I love my Airstream.
We spent all weekend wondering if Emma’s cold was going to clear up enough for her to fly. Monday, we hopped on the plane and all seemed well until the descent in to JFK (New York). Then she started complaining about pain in her ears and crying. I’ve had these problems in many years of business flying, and so we brought out all the remedies but really there’s not much you can do when the Eustachian tubes are clogged by a cold. When we had landed we decided we wouldn’t put her through that again.
So we got a one-way rental car. It’s a five hour drive from JFK to our part of Vermont. $120 for the car, plus gas. Then we retrieved our bag from the airline, which took an hour of standing by the baggage carousel. We finally arrived in Vermont at 3 a.m. Fortunately we were on Pacific Time so it wasn’t quite so late for us.
No cabin pressurization needed. Another reason why I prefer traveling by Airstream.
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