Not long after we arrived in Amador City, I knew we would want to stay two nights.   The town is just a tiny blip in a valley, the remnant of a gold strike along historic Route 49 in California.   There’s not a lot to do here, but the simplicity and quiet of the little town were hugely appealing to me.

Our Airstream occupies a huge chunk of Rob & Sadie’s driveway next to their Airstream, forcing them to park on the street, but they were very gracious about our request for a second night.   With an electric cord from the garage, a connection to their outside water spigot, and absolutely perfect daytime temperatures, we’ve been very comfortable here.   They are lucky that Yosemite is calling us, because otherwise we’d be tempted to stay a lot longer.

Just across the street are the remains of the first hard-rock gold mine in California, soon to be re-developed into housing.   The developer is considering plans to retain some of the gold mine remnants, since the site is somewhat historic.   He drove by our Airstream today and paused to admire it in the driveway.   I told him to remember to leave space in the development for Airstream parking, and he said, “No problem!”

Our mail arrived at the little post office one block from the house, two big boxes, two fat Priority Mail envelopes, and a box of ten advance copies of the Winter 2007 Airstream Life.   When we get mail, we usually get a lot of it.   I sat down in front of the laptop and spent most of the day processing all the business mail that came in. The two big boxes contained a treasure trove of CDs, mostly photographs and past electronic layouts of the magazine that I need to organize and copy.   I’ll be buying a new external hard drive soon for this project, and possibly moving my thousands of photos from the Mac’s default program (iPhoto) to something a little more robust.

By the way, copies of the Winter 2007 magazine should be in the mail to subscribers this week (but keep in mind they can take up to three weeks to arrive!)   The magazine has a little surprise about it which long-time subscribers will notice immediately.   I’ll let you find out for yourselves.

Rob gave us a little tour of his 1973 Airstream Safari, which he has been renovating for some time.   We last saw this trailer at the 2006 Rocky Mountain Vintage Airstream Rally in Creede CO.   The interior is very cool, with lots of interesting customizations.   Among other things, it has solar panels, a retrofitted gray tank, a pure-sine wave inverter that powers every AC outlet in the trailer, a security system, custom cabinets, and custom lighting.   It’s still not quite done but very usable and quite unique.

This afternoon Kelli called to say that Rt 140 into Yosemite is closed to vehicles over 28 feet long due to a rock slide.   They found out the hard way, and were in the process of figuring out their detour.   Fortunately, we will be coming in via Rt 120 (the northern entrance) and shouldn’t be affected.

Tonight and last night we have had dinner with Rob & Sadie in their little house.   Like us, they are fans of small architecture.   The house was expanded out of a 3-bay garage on a tiny plot of land.   Rob and Sadie have managed to create a beautiful townhouse that functions beautifully in hardly any space at all.   Like the Airstream, it reflects an appreciation for utility, form, and durability.   The house feels very comfortable because it takes into account the needs of human beings first, rather than trying to impress, which is what the best RV’s do also.