Archive for Places to go
August 9, 2007 at 10:17 am · Filed under Places to go
We bought our Airstreams so we could explore. It turned out that ownership also offered a lot of other benefits we hadn’t expected, such as making a lot of new friends, saving money, and an entirely new lifestyle — but the desire to explore is still a main motivation.
In the first few months of owning our little 1968 Airstream Caravel (which we still have), I was intrigued by the idea of parking it in exotic places. I came to realize that the Caravel gave us the ability to spend nights where we otherwise couldn’t stay, and I began to seek out those spots.
One night in New Hampshire, we stopped at little city-owned marina on a river and made dinner in the parking area next to the water. There was a light fog and the lot was silent. A few boats were tied up and glowing under the streetlights, and there was a perfect spot for our little combination to park.
It was early in our experience and so we were all a little nervous about staying somewhere that wasn’t clearly a campground, although there were no signs that overnight parking would be disallowed. Boaters had left their boats and trailers parked overnight, and I felt we probably could stay too, if we were stealthy, but we chickened out and moved on. We didn’t know enough to judge the hints, or how to check with locals. Today I would have casually walked up to the police cruiser going by and struck up a friendly conversation.
Another time we were tipped off to a lovely parking area at a beach in Connecticut where we could stay if we could prove we were fully self-contained and promised not to leave anything behind. There were no hookups or facilities or any type. All night long we heard the sea breeze and the waves, and smelled the cool salty air coming in our windows. Since then I’ve been constantly on the lookout for other isolated seaside spots like that, whether in backyards, state parks, bridges, or parking lots. There are plenty of seaside commercial campgrounds, and some of them are nice, but it’s a big win when we can find a quiet spot more or less to ourselves.
A sampling of seaside campgrounds we’ve visited:
St Augustine FL (first stay | second stay)
Ft Myers FL
Bahia Honda FL
Beaufort SC
Destin FL
Ft Morgan AL
Crescent City CA
Carpinteria CA
Huntington Beach CA
Virginia Beach VA
Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico
The fever for exotic locales goes beyond beaches. It’s equally satisfying to take the Airstream to a very remote location, or near terrific hiking, or in a private spot of beauty. I like camping at marinas, near boats and listening to the hooting of a distant lighthouse. I like an occasional night where the wind rocks the trailer and reminds us we’re on a mesa in the desert. I like being far from everything once in a while, and near natural beauty.
Most of these locations require some small compromise in lifestyle. They don’t usually have hookups, or even dump stations. I don’t care, in fact I appreciate that because it keeps a lot of people away. The Airstream doesn’t need hookups. The point is to experience things we won’t otherwise feel or see, and that means getting out of the campground once in a while. The real challenge is in finding these places, because they are rare and becoming rarer.
There are still a lot of spots we have never tried, but which were common overnight stops in the 1950s. We’ve never spent the night in a random farmer’s field, behind a church, in the heart of a city, or at a ferry dock. But we have spent the night parked behind a gas station, at a marina, at a casino, on a fishing pier, in the open desert, at a beach, high up in the mountains, and below a dam.
With our last few months of full-time travel ahead, I want to try even harder to find interesting and unusual spots to camp. I am starting to feel like every night spent in a generic campground — campsite, laundry room, dump station — is a lost opportunity to experience something really special. We’ll be looking for interesting opportunities to stay at the less-visited spots, to courtesy park, to boondock, to stay in places we’d never be able to visit without our trailer. If you have any suggestions along our western route to Montana, let us know.
July 2, 2007 at 10:27 pm · Filed under Places to go
Yes, it turns out there is more to do in the area. About 25 miles up the highway from Perry is the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon. You might be surprised at the number of legendary musical artists who come from Georgia: everyone from Little Richard to R.E.M. And they’re all celebrated there, along with memorabilia, instruments, movies, and their music.
Tuning up
This museum is small but really worth a visit. If you stop to listen to the music, you can spend a couple of hours. Even a quick visit would be about 45 minutes, just browsing past things like James Brown’s stage costumes, and getting a quick earful of sweet gospel music.
Back at the rally, the weather cleared up for a few hours, and everywhere people popped out of the air conditioned buildings and Airstreams to take advantage. Unfortunately, so did the ants. The rainstorms of last night washed away all the anti-ant stuff we’d put around the motorhome, and they immediately began marching in and demanding snacks. A re-application of the ant poison took care of that.
Over in the Vintage area, Vince and Lonnie were serving leftovers of their gator etouffee, so like a pair of ravenous college students, Brett and I grabbed a bowlful each. Delicious as always. Nearby, we ran into Jim Breitinger (the guy who sells meteorites). We joined him for a tour of Bill Stallworth’s beautiful 1958 Airstream Overlander. Bill’s trailer was recently rebuilt after a terrible rollover accident.
Bill and Jim
Our rounds of visiting were cut short by the return of the thunderstorms. They got beyond the normal descriptions of downpour or gulley-washer. We got caught inside a store by the evening storms, listening to crashing thunder and waiting out one of the most remarkable rainfalls I’ve seen in a long time.
It was two hours before we were able to leave the store without drowning. Fortunately the Argosy motorhome we are in does not leak, despite being 29 years old. Tonight I will listen to the rain until late and stay snug and dry in my bed.
With the worst of the heat dissipated by the thunderstorms, the major weather factor remaining is humidity. At times it is nearly 100% and fog begins to form. At 80 or 85 degrees Fahrenheit, this is still uncomfortable, and so air conditioning is a requirement if you don’t want to get moldy. I am pining for the dry heat of the southwest, or the cool humidity of Vermont. And everyone I have talked to is looking forward to the next International Rally, which will be held in a sane location: Bozeman, Montana, up in the dry air at 5000 feet elevation.
June 25, 2007 at 10:26 pm · Filed under Places to go
It looks like over a hundred Airstreams arrived today. The “silvery tapeworm” of Airstreams began to snake down the access road to the Fairgrounds as the parkers worked to get them settled. The vendors opened up their stores, and registration officially began as well. This rally is getting under way.
The long row of registration
We spent most of the day running into people and catching up. Imagine Brett and I riding around the fairgrounds on our bicycles and getting stopped every few hundred feet by a cry of “Hey guys!” Each stop meant ten minutes of conversation (“Where are Eleanor and Emma?” “How’s the magazine?” “Where are you parked?” “Have you seen my new trailer?” etc.) but it was all fun.
Every day there is a chance of thunderstorms. In the afternoon today we had a threatening sky and high winds, but no rain. Still, the steady wind was enough to deflect Brett’s flagpoles far enough that they touched the front of the motorhome, which was his trigger to take in the awnings and flags. A fast moving thunderstorm would easily destroy awnings all over the fairgrounds. Today it just lowered the temperature to about 80 and made the evening air rather pleasant.
In the interest of discovering the “real” central Georgia, we did some research online. Local food is always a priority for me, so I searched for something authentic and well-respected. I found Fincher’s Barbecue in Macon, about 30 minutes north of here. FIncher’s has been in the same old neighborhood in Macon for about seventy years.
Ordering take-out at Fincher’s
It looks like a delapidated drive-in restaurant (which it is), and the neighborhood isn’t great, but the food is legendary. While waiting for our order to come up, we talked to a fellow who said his mother used to come here, and he had such great childhood memories that whenever he was in the Macon area he stopped in for dinner. That’s exactly the kind of story that I read on the Internet that brought us here.
Tonight Fincher’s was serving only take-out, so we loaded up with two pounds of barbecue, some cole slaw, and Brunswick stew (a local variation on barbecue). All of this came back with us to the motorhome and we served it up with bread for late dinner with Colin Hyde. Now I’m happier — we have put a little knowledge of the area in our brains, and a delicious sampling in our stomachs. To me, this sort of event is what really kicks off the rally.
June 24, 2007 at 8:47 pm · Filed under Places to go
We’ve been researching things to do in the central Georgia area since my blog of last night. Denese Lee, a friend from South Carolina who is here at the rally with her husband David, read the blog and took issue with my statement that there was little excitement in Perry. She recommended the local Museum of Aviation, which is located about 20 miles away at Warner-Robins Air Force Base.
Fred checks out a warbird
Funny coincidence, since I got Denese’s email about an hour after we had spent most of the day at exactly that place, with Fred and Renee. The museum is very good, with dozens of aircraft and other excellent exhibits. The fact that it’s completely free is a huge bonus.
F-15 “Strike Eagle” and Stearman PT-17 Kaydet
The exhibits include five buildings full of aircraft (including a SR-71 and B-1B bomber), several acres of aircraft outdoors, a theater, and exhibits on the Flying Tigers, Art of Flight, WW II, Korean War, General Robert Lee Scott, Jr. (a native son of Georgia and military hero), and several other topics. For aviation and military history buffs, this museum is well worth the small detour off I-75.
We stopped off for lunch at an “all you can eat pizza buffet”, a sort of restaurant I’ve never encountered before. I snapped a quick shot of the lunchroom before sitting down and later discovered that someone was checking me out as I did it. Sometimes that happens. It’s always fun to find these little surprises when I’m reviewing photos on the laptop later.
Back at the rally grounds, not much seems to happen in the searing heat, but once the sun begins to set, people appear in groups near the Airstreams for the evening happy hours. This is a rally tradition that won’t stop despite a few gnats and high humidity. Things are slowly gearing up for the bulk arrival of the rest of the Airstreams, which should begin on Tuesday and Wednesday. The quiet period of the rally is about to end.
June 15, 2007 at 10:16 am · Filed under Places to go, Roadtrips
“Anywhere there are miners, you’ll find pasties,” said the lady at Joe’s Pasty Shop in Ironwood, MI. The last time we saw pasties for sale we were in Oxford, England in the mid-1990s. Apparently the tradition of making these baked meat-and-potato meals started with miners in Cornwall, England. Since the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is loaded with iron mines, the tradition spread here.
And now you can find pasties in virtually every town along the Upper Peninsula. We made a spontaneous stop at Joe’s new location along US Rt 2 and bought two fresh hot traditional pasties for lunch, and a few more frozen ones for dinner.
They were superb. One traditional pasty (which is a thin crust stuffed with diced potatoes, onions, and shredded beef) was enough for Eleanor and I to split for lunch. Sorry there’s no picture of it, but it was so delicious we ate it before the thought even occurred to take out the camera.
By the way, pasty rhymes with “nasty”, not “tasty”, which is really unfair since these things are just terrific. The ones we got at Joe’s are even better than the ones from Oxford — and in saying this I apologize to the nice people in Oxford who sold us nice pasties back in 1995.
All along the northern shore of the UP you can find pasty shops, and this inspired the idea of a “pasty tour”. It would be probably the most fattening trip you could take (other than a cheesecake tour) but probably also one of the most delicious.
Last night’s stop: Straits State Park within sight of the “Mighty Mac” (the Mackinac Bridge). Next stop is the end-of-the-road village of DeTour Township. The town is really a detour, but I think in recent history the name has been tarted up to seem more exotic with the capital “T”.
June 12, 2007 at 10:16 pm · Filed under Places to go
Well, you just go offline for a day and look how things pile up. It’s not the easiest thing to juggle work and travel, especially when you’ve got to cover 2000 miles in a week. In fact, I’m realizing it’s pretty much impossible.
We’ve been starting as early as possible to get from place to place, but these western states are huge and it takes all day to cover just one of them. At stops I’ve been jumping into the trailer to check email and take care of the most urgent issues, and then catching up in the evening on the rest. But Monday, being Monday, struck with a vengeance and so after a nice visit to Scottsbluff National Monument, I blew the rest of the day in the Airstream (in the parking lot) dealing with business issues, while the temperature soared to about 100 degrees.
Scottsbluff, by the way, is an underappreciated national monument in a quiet part of Nebraska. It’s a major intersection of several historic trails, including the Oregon Trail, California Trail, Mormon Pioneer Trail, and the Pony Express route. A shuttle bus can take you to the top of the bluff and there’s an easy hike down with superb views.
By the time we were ready to move again, it was so late in the afternoon that we could drive only a relatively short distance, to Custer State Park in the heart of the Black Hills of South Dakota. The Black Hills are another great destination that deserve much more time than we gave them. Heck, just Custer State Park is worth a week. The park is huge, with numerous campgrounds, a lodge, and many other features. But our whirlwind travel schedule this week allowed us only to take a sip before heading out.
One particular feature of Custer State Park is the wildlife. Like its western cousin Yellowstone, Custer has a population of elk and buffalo, which appear everywhere.
This morning we took a marvelous route from Custer to nearby Mt Rushmore. Route 16A connects the two sites, and it’s a circuitous, narrow, shoulderless road with three single-lane tunnels. This road will test your trailer towing skills, let me tell you. If you are not extremely confident in your abilities, take Route 79 instead.
My favorite spot was the third tunnel. Following procedure, we honked our horn several times before entering, since it is a single lane (12 feet 4 inches tall, and 10 feet 6 inches wide, enough for a wide-body Airstream with a safety margin of one foot on each side). As we came out, we found ourselves windshield-to-windshield with a tour bus. The bus was in the left lane so that it could swing wide enough to make a 70-degree turn into the tunnel. We ended up taking the left lane at about 2 MPH to squeeze between the tour bus and a rock wall.
Mt Rushmore … yes, it looks just like the photos. The park is free but there’s a mandatory $8 parking fee, which is not covered by national parks passes. Looking at a big granite mountain with faces on it is, for me, something of limited interest. But the park service has done a nice job leveraging the sculpture into a history lesson about the presidents.
The less said about driving I-90 in South Dakota, the better. I rarely confess to boredom, but must admit that this road rivals I-80 in Nebraska and I-55 in Mississippi for sheer tedium. No wonder so many people stop at Wall Drug. We stopped at Wall, SD, but we didn’t go to the famous tourist trap. Instead we parked on the street beside the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands Visitor Center and checked it out for a future trip. Ah! to be able to pause and explore the grasslands slowly. I’d like to spot the prairie chicken.
But not this trip. That seems to be our mantra now. We have to skip all the good stuff in the name of mileage. We are way behind on the schedule, but I managed to re-arrange some things that were scheduled for next week to give us a little more time. Still, we need to move on and thus with great reluctance we drove right past the Badlands National Park and the 40-mile scenic drive it offers.
It is raining now, a hard thunderstorm rain with frequent flashes of lightning. This is the first heavy rain we have seen in months, having been in the desert most of the winter. I find I don’t miss the rain. On our aluminum roof it is loud, but we are comfortable and safe inside with all our conveniences, including a movie for tonight (“Keeping Mum”). The torrential rain compelled us to stop sooner than we planned, so we are in the parking lot at Cabela’s in Mitchell, SD with a few other RVs. Perhaps before we leave we’ll get a chance to visit Cabela’s and the famous Corn Palace.
June 5, 2007 at 10:49 pm · Filed under Places to go
It seemed we were doomed again in our attempt to boat on Lake Mead. Last night the wind began to pick up, and by morning it was whipping a blast of hot air at us. This meant white-capped waves across the broad section of the lake, and a bumpy ride — just like last year.
But Lake Mead has an abundance of sheltered little coves, formed by the crannies and canyons of what was once wind-sculpted desert. We made for those as quickly as possible, and found tranquil blue-green water surrounded by dark brown canyon walls, perfect for diving and swimming.
Who thought of putting a lake in a desert? It’s a marvelous invention. There’s nothing like jumping into cool blue water with a 110 degree dry breeze above. (But remember to apply the sunscreen early and often. We used SPF50 water-resistant sunscreen and still got a little red in spots.)
As we jumped from cove to cove, we spotted some wildlife. The best surprise was a small herd of about 18 pronghorns who had come down to the lake edge to drink. We were looking at them, thinking how strange it was to encounter these mountain animals alongside a lake, and likewise they were wondering what a boat was doing in their canyon. At another cove, we spotted herons nesting, and a duck that we could not identify, with unusual plumage.
The most startling sight was this crashed boat. Only a couple of hours earlier we had seen a family pulling a tube behind this boat. When we arrived, they had apparently been rescued but the boat and all of their possessions were left behind. Although the boat was completed destroyed, it looked like the accident was survivable. A reminder of the need for boating safety …
The last stop of the day was back at Hoover Dam. There’s a small cove just before the buoys that warn you not to get closer. In this cove there is an unofficial anchorage. I named it “Moocher’s Cove” because of the ducks and large friendly fish that swam up to us looking for handouts. It was the idea spot to hang out and swim and snack for the last hour of the afternoon: calm, quiet, sunny, with delicious cool water.
This evening we have another guest in the Airstream. My mother has flown in from Vermont. That makes five people in here for the next two nights. This is the largest crowd we have ever had sleep over, and yet it feels very natural.
Tonight Emma and my mother are settling in on the converted dinette bed, Brett is in the back bedroom, and Eleanor and I are in our front queen bedroom. Emma is reading a bedtime story to my mother from the book she is writing, I’m up front blogging, Brett is in the shower, and Eleanor is preparing for bed. Being here together on the shores of Lake Mead with a balmy wind gently rocking the trailer seems to have made us all very comfortable. I think this will be a day we look back on for years and say, “That was a great day.”
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