September 9, 2007 at 8:24 pm · Filed under Places to go
Kansas has one huge advantage over other states. Most people who come here have terribly low expectations (“it’s flat”, “it’s boring”) so it is easy to be delighted by the little things.
Although we are not catching it on a great weather day Wilson Lakes is still clearly a very nice spot. It’s an irregular manmade puddle surrounded by rolling hills covered in delicate prairie vegetation. The campsites all have great views, and since virtually nobody is here, we were able to pick out a fine spot overlooking the water with total privacy.
There’s a marina in the park, so we did spot a boat going by towing a novice waterskiier, before everyone cleared out in the afternoon (it’s Sunday). On a sunny day this has to be a spectacular place to get in the water. The ranger station reports that a couple of weeks ago the water was 81 degrees.
About ten miles north on Rt 232 is the quiet little town of Lucas. It has one of those semi-dead downtowns that is so vacant you can stand in the middle of the road on Sunday and not worry about cars coming by for several minutes at a time. But it also has some of the most peculiar collections of folk art you will find in Kansas — or any other state.
One long-standing attraction is the Garden of Eden, actually a house of limestone carved to look like a log cabin. The garden is a collection of strange statuary made of concrete, created by Samuel P Dinsmoor decades ago. He’s still there — in the mortuary he built for himself.
We drove by but chose to visit the downtown Grass Roots Art Center instead. It’s an interesting place full of art by untrained artists who work in all sorts of media: stone, recycled junk, metal, pop bottles, even Barbie dolls. The tour takes about an hour and includes a backyard display of the local limestone architectural styles, and a side visit to the Deeble House. The Deeble House is filled with the work of one artist (the one who does the Barbie makeovers) and it’s interesting but strangely disturbing as well. Together with the Garden of Eden, these three places form the “Lucas Triangle”.
The other cultural aspect of the towns of Wilson and Lucas stems from the Czech heritage of many people who live here. Sadly, they don’t make much of it except at special occasions (and this Sunday in September is not one of those occasions). We would have liked to have found a Czech restaurant but the locals couldn’t point us to any place.
As I sit outside here at the picnic table (hoping for a better cellular signal), I can hear the crickets and other insects chirping and singing and humming. The tall grass prairie is alive with them, popping up and around all day and lending a melodic background to the campsite. All around us is tall grass, yellow flowers, the occasional moooo of beef cattle, and not much else. It’s very peaceful.
This post originally contained no photos because the local cellular network was not cooperating. I’ve found that when I’m on the so-called Verizon “Extended Network”, it’s code for “Barely functional network.” Generally uploads fail, which means I couldn’t post photos until I got to Denver.
Faithful blog reader Stacy has gently taken me to task for ignoring Kansas yet again, and rightly so. We habitually treat the plains states as things to simply “get through” rather than the subtly interesting places they really are.
Sure there aren’t a lot of high-profile attractions here. But the points of interest, such as grassy prairies and the wildlife, history, geology and scenic beauty that go with them, are still well worth investigating. Attractions like this take effort to fully appreciate, a willingness to learn, and a bit of imagination.
We have all those things, but we lack one other essential component: time. We are working against the impending winter. There are so many places we want to see before the mountain passes become impassable (to us, at least, towing a 30-foot, 7500# trailer) that we must advance west rather rapidly. It must seem strange to have full-timers complaining that there’s not enough time, but it’s true. There’s never enough time. This is a big country.
Guess where we are tonight. Yes, another anonymous roadside stop, somewhere in Kansas along I-70. It doesn’t matter where, since all Wal-Marts are pretty much the same. We decided to crash here for the night and then proceed in the morning to a state park recommended by our good friend Joe.
We thought we’d be stealth camping, following our usual procedure. We keep the curtains shut to make it less obvious we are in the camper. We stay hitched, of course, and don’t put anything outside to reveal that we are doing more than parking for a few hours (not even the entry step). We do some shopping in the store to show our appreciation. We also checked in the store to make sure it was OK to be here.
But not everyone follows these rules. Some folks think Wal-Mart is a campground instead of just a parking spot.
These folks are enjoying a lovely warm evening in their lounge chairs, not far from us. Subtle? Not hardly. They’re one step from putting out a hibachi, it looks like. I hate to see people being too obvious, because it encourages local campground owners and residents to clamor for a ban on overnight parking. Pretty soon we’ll all be forced into campgrounds every night by town ordinances. It’s already the case in dozens of cities we’ve visited across the country. It would be a shame to lose the option to just park somewhere for one night (with permission), but that’s the way things are headed, especially in a few high-impact areas where RV’ers have abused the privilege.
Parking overnight is a lot different from camping — if you do it right. It’s about a quick overnight stay, not spreading out. It’s a convenient way to stop without going through the hassle and expense of finding a campground. Nobody likes to pay $30 for parking space, which is pretty much what a campground amounts to when you arrive at dusk and leave in the morning.
I also am particularly annoyed by some campgrounds that ask for a whole personal dossier (names of all parties, vehicle and trailer descriptions, license numbers, ages, location of identifying body marks etc). I remember one which asked for all of that (except the body marks) plus more. The check-in took about 15 minutes, the stay cost $30+, parking in the site was a nightmare, they dumped a pile of paper on us about the rules & regulations, and that was all for a stay of less than 9 hours. We didn’t even hook up to the utilities or unhitch the truck.
Tomorrow we’ll find the state park and stretch out a bit. We have a free day to enjoy since we are ahead of schedule on the driving. From what I’ve been told, I’ll be glad to pay for that campsite, and after two days of heavy driving it will make a good break.
With all the business this week I forgot to mention the results of our service appointment at Airstream. They aligned the axles, replaced a few broken parts under warranty, re-packed the wheel bearings, verified that the disc brake pads are still good, and tweaked a few other things. Overall the Airstream has a clean bill of health and should be good to go for quite a long time before it needs service again.
This morning we hitched up and moved out again, away from the “Mother Ship” Airstream factory and on the road west. As we were prepping the trailer, we noticed the folks from the previous night who had locked themselves out of their trailer. Someone had decided to give them a “trailer dumping seminar” at the Airstream dump station.
I have never considered giving a seminar on dumping holding tanks, but from the rapt attention of these folks, it seems like I’d have an eager audience. We ran into the new owners again a few hours later, at a gas station in Illinois. They were on their way home to California. So I gave them a quick summary of overnight parking procedure at Wal-Mart, Cracker Barrel, etc. to which they reacted politely (but I could tell they were thinking, “Never in a million years.”)
Little stops like that are all we are going to get today and tomorrow. We are moving faster than usual in order to get a few stops completed, and up to Montana, before the weather starts getting too cold and stormy in the mountains up north. This means we have to make tough choices and skip some places where we would otherwise have stopped. Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas will all get passed over for the most part, so that we can spend time in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Alberta.
Covering 1200 miles in four days is do-able, even for us with a kid in the car. I just hate the sensation of covering miles without seeing much. On the other hand, I’m alone in the truck and it’s a chance to really think about things. If I want to talk to Eleanor and Emma I have the walkie-talkie, and if I want distraction I have the iPod.
I have come to measure distances in songs rather than miles, during these long drives. Perry GA to Vermont was 353 songs. From Vermont to here (St Charles MO), I’ve listened to only 186 songs (I’ve been thinking a lot). The iPod has 1,542 songs so I should be good all the way to the west coast, which we will reach sometime in October. By then we’ll have dropped off the Fit for temporary storage and I’ll have E&E back in the truck, so I may not get much further down the playlist. When we’re all together it’s hard to listen to music everyone likes.
The new blog is pretty much set up now. Let me know if you encounter any problems with it. Once I’m comfortable with it I’ll try to add some nice features for viewing photos, etc.
September 6, 2007 at 7:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
As you can see, the blog is undergoing a makeover. It’s far from complete but I should have it tweaked into shape in a week or two. All of the old blog content is here, but occasionally you may find broken links and pictures that don’t quite fit.
In the next couple of weeks all of the blog elements will move around until they find their comfortable places, so don’t be surprised if things change. I’ll probably also change the template that governs the look of the site. The current look is temporary — “Excuse us, we’re remodeling.” Behind the scenes there have been enormous improvements in how the blog works, which will make it easier for me to post and manage the content.
The new blog is courtesy of our lovely friend Charon, who in addition to being a sword swallower, fire eater, reader of tea leaves, bartender, podcaster, and blogger, is also pretty handy with computers. Moving our massive blog (700 entries, thousands of photos, thousands of links, and many customizations) over to WordPress was not as straightforward as we would have liked.
We did the final work in the Airstream visitor’s lobby this afternoon, and it was quite a sight: Eleanor with her Apple iBook, Charon with her Apple Macbook Pro, and me with my Apple Powerbook G4, and Emma with a paper book, all heads-down and concentrating. The folks who showed up for the 2:00 pm tour were amused by all the glowing white Apple symbols. Brett, alas, still uses a Windows laptop but we plan to convert him later.
Tom Collier, International Vice President of WBCCI, has been here for several days and he dropped by to chat, as well as Dave Schumann (who runs Airstream’s Customer Service, Parts, and Warranty operations). We told them that this was a gathering of Airstream Life staff: I was the Editorial Department, Charon was the I.T. Department, Eleanor was the Accounting Department (and Food Editor), and Brett was there as the Advertising Department.
We are planning to hit the road Friday morning, heading west toward Denver. At first Denver was just a stop where we were going to leave the Honda Fit, but serendipitously a number of very useful meetings have come up. It looks like our week in Denver will be very full.
September 5, 2007 at 9:55 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
It was all work today, so our adventures were minimal. But midday we did get a chance to break over to JC Pizza and meet with Jennifer and Bart Housholder. This was a meeting that had its roots in October 2005, when we were in Jackson Center and blogged that “JC Pizza is closed on Mondays.”
About a year later, I got an email from Jennifer saying that next time we were in Jackson Center we should drop in. I wrote back and said we would. This week, I gave Jennifer advance warning we were coming, and so today when we walked in we got a smile from the lady behind the counter as she said, “You must be Emma, and you must be Rich, and you must be Eleanor!” It was like coming to a familiar place at home.
The pizza was good and so was the company. Charon and Alex came with us, and Jennifer came over to our table a couple of times to talk. Like a lot of people we meet, she told us we were doing the right thing by homeschooling. She homeschooled all of her kids for years, too, before going into the restaurant business.
Since I was too busy running around all day with my laptop to carry my camera, I took no photos all day. But here are a few bonus shots from yesterday, when we were playing with fire at sunset.
Alex demonstrates the technique …
Charon practices lighting her tongue on fire
Rich cautiously attempts to eat a small fire without igniting mustache
Charon spent a few hours today moving this blog over to WordPress software. We’ll be working together on Thursday to complete the transition, and with luck we’ll be running the new software by Thursday night. There are likely to be some differences in the blog for a while, until we work out the glitches, but I am looking forward to a lot of new capabilities that should make it more enjoyable for you to read.
Tonight a couple showed up in the Terra Port with a new Airstream 25FB, and managed to lock themselves out of it. For a moment it looked like they might end up in a motel for the night, but I was able to slide in through a storage compartment door and push up the bed from the underside to gain entry. They’ll be getting a couple spare sets of keys tomorrow — one of the things that was on their list anyway.
September 4, 2007 at 11:09 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
This has been the most entertaining day I’ve ever had in Jackson Center. Earlier today a fellow Airstream full-timer named Paul dropped by to say how much he liked reading Airstream Life, and to play us a song he wrote about going out on the road.
I made a video of it to try uploading it to YouTube, but so far have encountered a lot of problems. I’ll have to get some experts on the job. Once we’ve got it successfully uploaded I’ll post the address here.
Later in the afternoon we were pleasantly surprised to see Alex and Charon pull in beside us in their 1965 Safari. We seem to run into this pair every year somewhere, sometimes in Florida, often here in Jackson Center. They are professional carnies, doing their act of sword-swallowing and fire eating at festivals and events every summer and fall. We featured them in Airstream Life back in the Fall 2004 issue (that issue is sadly no longer available). They also do a bunch of podcasts, and have a blog.
They’ve got a new pet, a ball python, and this immediately got Emma’s attention. Now she wants one for a trailer pet. I’m personally not wild about the idea of harboring a snake that grows to four feet in length …
This evening Alex and Charon felt the need to practice their fire eating. That was entertaining enough, but then after I stepped away for a moment I found out I had been volunteered to try it myself. Always game for an interesting new experience, I very carefully followed Alex’s instructions (the key one being, “don’t breathe in — it will take you nine months to die”) and managed to extinguish a small flame in my mouth. The only casualty was a slightly burned spot on my lower lip.
Because of the problems with the blog software and my general disgruntlement with MovableType (it can’t handle podcast video, it isn’t very well supported, it has random glitches), we will be switching this blog over to WordPress software this week. This may result in the blog disappearing temporarily, or being stranger than usual this week. Bear with me ..
September 4, 2007 at 8:48 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We’re back at Airstream for the second time since we picked up our trailer in October 2005.
For those who have never been here, and who own an Airstream or hope to own one someday, the factory is almost a mythical place. It doesn’t hurt that it is located far from the beaten path, sitting in a tiny town in Ohio that is surrounded by soybeans and corn. The inconvenient access of Airstream only makes the pilgrimage a little more satisfying.
Of course once you arrive in an Airstream here, it’s a very comfortable experience. The factory provides a little camping area called the Terra Port, which features full hookups, wi-fi, and a view of the Service Building. Most people camped here today are waiting for service appointments, and if you are, your Terra Port stay is free.
Around the corner of the Service Building is an outdoor display of historic Airstreams, including the famous “gold trailer” once owned by Wally and Stella Byam. (See Airstream Life, Summer 2006 issue for an article all about this trailer.) Inside the Service Building you can sign up for a factory tour, given daily at 2:00.
There’s not a lot to do in Jackson Center, being a small town, but we’ve found that you can make your own fun. Last night Emma and I spent an hour circling around the acres of asphalt on our bicycles, checking out interesting Airstreams and talking to other people who are staying here. Down the street is JC Pizza, a movie theater, and a laundry … so we’ll catch up on the simple things while we are here.
Tomorrow we have a service appointment scheduled. One of the tires is wearing oddly, which indicates a likely need for axle alignment. We also need a check of the disc brake pads, and to repack the wheel bearings. A few inside parts have broken (a knob on the stove, an arm for the folding cutting board, etc) and we’ll get replacements for those also. I’d like to see if we can do something about that front compartment which leaks when we tow in the rain, but only if the solution isn’t too invasive. This isn’t the week for us to get into major projects, since we want to be heading out Friday morning.
