Archive for December, 2005
December 15, 2005 at 7:20 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We awoke in our Ontario CA airport hotel yesterday morning knowing that we had a full day of driving ahead, but feeling good about our prospects. After all, the sun was shining, it was warming up to a nice mid-60s day, and the hotel had a nice complementary waffle breakfast — the kind where you pour the batter in yourself and they come out nice and crispy.
I was feeling particularly good despite the fact during our midnight airline approach to Ontario it was my turn to have equalization problems, and I went to bed about 1 a.m. (4 a.m. Eastern Time!) with my left ear basically sounding and feeling like someone had stuffed wet cotton in it. I woke with the same sensation, but by the time we had driven up and down the hills between Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, things had cleared up.
What to do on a long car ride? Having done I-5 just last week, it was a bit less interesting. We practiced animal sounds (Emma has a good rattlesnake and parrot, I’m the best at coyotes baying, and Eleanor does a fine chicken and bullfrog); we pretended to be Charlotte and Vendetta of the cartoon Making Fiends (a surreal online series which is somewhat addictive and entirely G-rated); Emma colored and worked puzzles, and we talked about the growing things we passed (almonds, oranges, grapes, unknown green vegetables).
The ride was longer because at the last minute we decided to bypass the turnoff toward Santa Cruz and head a bit further north to San Francisco. The reasoning was this: We wanted to go to San Francisco but had skipped it because it is not RV-friendly, we were already packed for an overnight without the trailer, and it would be easy to grab a hotel for one night to enjoy the city for a day before getting the Airstream out of storage.
Also, before we started this trip, we pledged to each other that once in a while we would get a nice hotel or B&B just for the experience. We hadn’t done it yet. With a couple of phone calls I found a fine room in the Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf. We plugged it into the GPS and pulled in around 5 pm.
San Francisco is one of our favorite places. Eleanor and I have been here several times, and we’ve always had a memorable visit. Bridges, bay, city of hills, fog, and the unique SF culture. It was time to give Emma a taste of this great town.
Last night we took a short walk around Fisherman’s Wharf to hunt up some dinner. Most of the restaurants in the wharf area are complete tourist traps, and others are just not the sort of place we’d take a 5-year-old, so we opted for seafood from the street vendors: crab sandwich, calamari salad, clam chowder in a bread bowl, etc. We piled it all in an open cardboard box we borrowed from the vendors and marched through the elaborate lobby of the Hyatt with our take-out dinner. The staff just smiled.
It was an early night because we’re still on Eastern Time, but the plan is to walk our feet off today, showing Emma some of the highlights of S.F. that she’ll enjoy. I’ll take a lot of pictures and there should be a good blog entry for tonight or tomorrow. Then we’ll head down the coast and resume our Airstream trip.
December 13, 2005 at 3:55 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Here we are again … JFK International Airport, NY, NY.
I am reminded of the joke they used to tell in the south. “It doesn’t matter if you are going to heaven or hell … you’ll still have to connect in Atlanta.” These days, it’s JFK for us, because that’s where JetBlue goes, and that’s the airline of choice out of Burlington VT.
Weather along the southern coast of California is pretty much like we left: peaking around 60, mostly sunny. Our big plan is to roam southward along Rt 1 to Big Sur, Hearst Castle, San Luis Obispo, and other coastal areas. Timeline? Haven’t got one. Reservations? Nope.
Everyone tells me that towing down Route 1 should be a challenge. I’ve driven it before, so I have an idea of what to expect. After I-70 in western Colorado, California Rt 20 through the Tahoe National Forest, the entrance roads to Arches NP and Colorado National Monument, and coastal Rt 101 in Oregon, I’m not sweating it. Looks like fun to me!
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.
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