We’ve had a great day here at the dealership. Early this morning a group from the local WBCCI unit (Sierra Nevada) showed up to help out with Mountain Family RV’s sales event this weekend, and they brought all kinds of stuff: photo albums of old rallies, cookies shaped like Airstreams, and even a diorama featuring little Airstream models.

They were set up on tables in the center of a circle of Airstreams for sale, right next to where we and Rich C have parked for the weekend.

The Sierra Nevada Airstreamers proved to be an interesting group, and ready to talk. Most of them eventually migrated over to our trailer to see our floorplan and the upgrades we’ve done on the trailer. Nobody had seen the Safari 30 “bunkhouse” model before, and several people were surprised to see a two-bedroom Airstream. They also liked the new window we installed a few weeks ago, especially on this 86-degree day.

Rich holding court with the other Airstreamers. Click for larger

Rich C was kept busy all day. Once people found out he had written a book about mobile technology for RVs, they peppered him with questions. I think he sold half a dozen copies of his book, too. He mentioned that talking all day was exhausting him, and I warned him this was just a warm-up for the International Rally we’ll be at in a few weeks.

Emma and Eleanor were gone most of the day, unfortunately. Eleanor needed to go pick up her new glasses at the mall, and with a few fitting problems, it ended up taking hours. Rich and I scooted off to the local Apple store to buy me a new “backup hard drive” (A.K.A. a new iPod), but for the most part we were here to chat up the Airstreamers. We’ll be doing more of the same tomorrow.

By the way, since I know some people will ask: I bought the iPod 60 gb model. I immediately loaded it up with a full backup of all my laptop’s documents, email, over 500 contacts, my calendar, over 1,000 songs, and about 3,700 photos from our Tour of America. It’s a very useful device, providing both backup and easy access to a lot of data that I use daily.

Our trip planning for the next three weeks is roughed out now. On Monday or Tuesday we’ll be heading to Nevada City CA, then Lake Shasta, then Eureka (Humboldt County, by the redwoods), and then north along the coastline to Oregon. We also want to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park and Crater Lake National Park, but both of those destinations are still largely snow-bound and both roads and campgrounds aren’t yet open. We’ll have to take it day by day — if the snow melts earlier than expected, one or both of those parks may be added to the schedule.