July 28, 2006 at 7:00 pm · Filed under Maintenance
… where the rain came in (metaphorically). We don’t actually have a hole in the Airstream, but we certainly had a few holes in our systems lately.
We packed up and left Cherry Creek today for Colorado Springs. But before we left, I picked up my Powerbook with the new 100 gigabyte hard drive, and a copy of Tiger too. That’s two items fixed from our bad luck spell: computer and phone. Eleanor also got me a very good t—– wrench (I still can’t say the word, but you know what I’m talking about) at Sears. Cost about $65 on sale, and I think the regular price was about $90. Well worth it given the alternative.
So I before we pulled out, I added two items to our pre-departure checklist: checked the lug nuts on the wheels, and checked the air pressure in all the tires. We won’t have THAT disaster again if I can help it.
Fred C wrote me to say “thanks for the KITA” (Kick In The ***). My hard drive failure inspired him to get serious about backing up his stuff too. I hope our disasters have been at least useful in preventing other people from having similar problems. That’s why I go out on a limb and admit all the stupid things I’ve done and the things that have gone wrong.
Now that my Mac is almost fully set up, I’m installing a program called Silverkeeper by LaCie. It is an automatic backup program, very easy to use and fast. I’ll run it at least twice a week to back up my files to the external LaCie hard drive. It works with any type of drive, including CDs and DVDs.
Our campground in Colorado Springs is not pretty. It’s sort of a dirt parking lot with views and sounds of a busy highway. The wi-fi does not reach us, predictably, and since I needed to download some big files I’m at the Panera Bread. We didn’t have much choice in places to stay, since everything else seemed to be booked up for the weekend. Fortunately, we are only spending two nights at this campground and then moving along to another one in the Colorado Springs area.
Tomorrow we’ll have some fun. It’s about time. There’s a lot to do in the area of Colorado Springs and I plan to check some good stuff out! I’ll also resume taking photos for you.
July 27, 2006 at 8:55 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We have been making plans for the next few weeks. Our obligations are declining for the late summer and fall, and that’s a good thing since it means less running around. But we still have a few things that must be done, and logistical problems to solve.
People often ask how we decide where to go and what to do. With Airstream friends all over the country, family, events, and seasonal changes, we never run out of ideas or places to go. Our bigger problem is figuring out the logistics of how to make it all work and not spend a billion dollars on gas. And when we are going somewhere in peak season, we have to work out places to stay, but we try to avoid crowds so that isn’t often a problem. I prefer to have freedom to meander, and having campground reservations can kill spontaneity.
Speaking of peak season, tomorrow we have to leave Cherry Creek because there are no sites available for the weekend. We’ll head down to Colorado Springs for a while. Next week looks like a work week, with some visiting. On the 9th or 10th we’ll head to the Rocky Mountain Vintage Rally in Creede CO for some fun.
After the rally, we are going to get our bent aluminum fixed at the Airstream factory in Jackson Center OH. It’s right along our route eastward. We should be in Vermont by the week of the 20th, and then we can stay put for a while. The trip eastward will be our last big mileage push for a while, which should be a welcome relief for the fuel budget.
At this point the only major trip from Vermont will be a week in Maine, visiting Adam and Susan. We’ll go across Lake Champlain to Plattsburgh, to visit with Colin Hyde at his restoration shop, and do a few upgrades to the trailer, but that’s just a short hop from home. We may take the trailer up to Montreal too, but again that’s a quick trip.
So that’s how trip planning is done. We just look at what we want to do, what we need to do, and usually a plan presents itself. There’s enough of interest in this country that we rarely have to worry about finding something to do when we get there.
July 26, 2006 at 11:16 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Since I’m working long hours this week to get the Fall magazine and other issues under control, we aren’t having a lot of adventures. Tonight we visited Fred Coldwell and took him out for pizza & ice cream, but other than that the day has been “just another day at the office.”
All long voyages have days like that, whether a long day at sea during which nothing much happens, or day of doing laundry and polishing the brightwork. I don’t regard it as time wasted, just time spent a bit differently. The lack of news gives me a chance to talk about other things.
For example, I’ve been reading more travel books as we go, and it occurs to me that I haven’t told you the latest items in my bedside book nook.
One classic of Airstream lore is Wally Byam’s book, “Trailer Travel Here and Abroad.” It’s half travelogue, half “how-to” guide for prospective trailer owners in the 1950s. Wally talks about some of the superb adventures he and his fellow caravanners had in the heydey of international trailer travel, when a trip to Europe was a glamorous experience available to an elite few.
The book also covers his many trips to Central America, Africa, and the Middle East. Interestingly, the insights and notes of the book echo many of the lessons we’ve picked up as we’ve traveled in the 21st century. I can read his comments about trailer travel and (excepting technology changes), many are as relevant today as they were half a century ago.
Fred and I were working on a project to scan this book (long out of copyright) and reprint it. I was unsuccessful at achieving a good OCR (optical character recognition) scan of it, and for now the project is on hold. If anyone has access to a resource that could handle this large task at low cost, let me know. I’d like for this book to be available to everyone, since it is very hard to find and rather expensive on eBay.
One thing in particular that echoes throughout the pages of “Trailer Travel Here and Abroad” is Wally’s firm belief that by traveling, every caravanner was a diplomat and emissary of international peace. We have noticed also that in travel we learn more about the diversity of people and come to appreciate the differences between human beings, rather than fearing them.
Wally was a self-described gadget man, too. He had a phonograph, wireless set, bullhorn, and other gadgets in his trailer. I expect that today he’d have wireless Internet, a cell phone, an iPod, DVD player, and solar panels — just like we do.
Another book I’m reading about a great voyage is Steven Ambrose’s “Undaunted Courage”. This is the story of the Lewis and Clark “Corps of Discovery”. Our recent travel has taken along their route (but in the opposite direction), from the Columbia River in Oregon to the Snake River in Washington and Idaho. We camped in Lewiston ID (just across from Clarkston WA), and followed their path into Montana. Their accomplishment is incredible considering the times.
It’s easy to find a copy of “Undaunted Courage” in western national park bookstores, and I’m sure it is still in print. Their rough-and-tumble voyage in a set of pirogues and river boats bears little resemblance to our cushy existence in an Airstream, but still I find tiny parallels. There are commonalities to all voyages, and it is inspirational to read of the fearlessness of this team that penetrated the west when the west was unmapped and mysterious to all Europeans.
July 25, 2006 at 11:07 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We really needed to settle into the Denver area for a while. There is so much to be done. I picked up my new phone today from FedEx, then spent a couple of hours trying to get my Mac Powerbook serviced. I finally settled on a specialist in Denver who will put in a new 100 gb drive and have it back to me by the end of the week.
While I was gone, Bill (The Health Chic’s other half), took Emma’s training wheels off and started teaching her to ride her bike, while Eleanor supervised. It went well, and now Emma is able to ride in a straight line all by herself! The campground is an ideal place to practice, since there’s no traffic, flat smooth paved roads, and lots of room.
In the afternoon I had a conference call, which I usually take outside so I can pace around while I talk. Unfortunately, we got a rare sprinkling of rain right around then, so I spent most of the conversation ducking between trees for shelter. I could have gone in the trailer but when I’m concentrating on a call I just can’t sit still — and besides, Eleanor and Emma were in there making noise. Such are the compromises of working in a trailer with family.
This evening we went to the home of our friends Forrest and Patrice for dinner. Forrest draws the cartoon for the magazine each quarter, in addition to occasionally contributing articles. We solved all the problems of the world in one evening, so if anyone needs to know the way to world peace, rejuvenating the WBCCI, or inexpensive electric power from cold fusion, just let me know.
July 24, 2006 at 9:30 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I’m so sick of the word “torque” that I’m going to try avoid the word for a while. Suffice to say, our wheels are still attached, and we are now parked for a few days of rest in this suburb of Denver. (We were here last October, and you can read about it in the blog archives.)
Not long as we arrived, I got an email from The Health Chic asking where we were. Turns out they were at a cybercafe in Denver catching up on email. I told them where we were and about an hour later they showed up for a night of camping in the next space! This is the third time we’ve crossed paths since last month. Are they stalking us? 😉
After work, Bill and I took Emma out for a quick bike ride and Eleanor and Wendimere sat in their trailer gabbing … for hours. I think Eleanor and I are still decompressing from the events of the past few days, and having someone else to talk to has been nice this evening.
This week will be busy. I’ve got to run all over town to get my new cell phone, get my laptop fixed, and meet with people. Eleanor plans on running her errands too, so we’re going to have to negotiate “car time”.
I have neglected to mention our recent experience with the solar system. It has exceeded our expectations. At this time of year, we can go indefinitely without plugging in. When we reached Victor ID, we had been unplugged for eight days straight — and our batteries were still at 95%. The only reason we bother to plug in now is for A/C. Everything else we have runs on the batteries and solar panels.
I’m going to be interested to see how well the system performs this fall and winter. Obviously it won’t be quite so good, but I still expect we will not feel the need for a generator at any time, which makes me happy.
July 23, 2006 at 9:18 pm · Filed under Places to go
Perhaps we are turning the corner on luck. Our drive along I-80 in Wyoming was uneventful, which lately is unusual for us. We stopped and checked those darn lug nuts at 10, 20, 30, 50, 70, 100, 150, and 200 miles. At the first few stops, 2 or 3 of the new ones I installed would move a tiny bit, but eventually they all seated and stopped moving. That’s normal, according to everyone I talked to.
So hey ““ I fixed my own trailer and I got 200 miles without a problem. And now I know exactly what to do if this problem ever recurs. That’s a great feeling!
The only bad luck today was at the last lug nut check. After I checked them, the new torque wrench fell apart in my hands. Apparently one of two screws that holds the assembly together vibrated out during travel. It has disappeared. The other fell out roadside and the next thing I knew, little springs and cogs were sprinkling down by my feet. We gathered all the pieces for re-assembly, but I may buy a better quality torque wrench instead.
If that’s the worst thing that happens, I’ll be grateful. Hopefully I can turn this blog back to the enjoyable part of traveling. (Although I must admit there’s a unique satisfaction in having rescued oneself, by doing a repair on your own trailer with your own hands “¦as long as the opportunity doesn’t present itself too often!)
I-80 in Wyoming is a vast arid landscape dotted with gas tanks and other signs of the petrochemical industry. The Green River Valley area is the hub of oil shale in this country, and we saw plenty of action out there. Further east, there’s a refinery in Sinclair, and all along the Interstate there are yellow Union Pacific diesel-electric locomotives running east-west with long trains behind them.
I suppose some people would call this landscape boring, but I liked it. I guess today I would have liked any landscape that we were not broken down in.
The camping options along I-80 are horrible. Most of the campgrounds are desolate gravel parking lots right next to the highway, with the requisite noise all night long, and sites so jam-packed you can reach out and touch your neighbor. For a view, choose from Interstate highway or oil tanks.
We were flying without a plan today, because we honestly didn’t know how far we’d get. By 4 pm we were in Laramie and I decided to follow Garminita’s advice to take Rt 287 south from there into Colorado. It looked like a nice scenic and quiet roadway, which might present interesting boondocking possibilities.
That was a great decision, if I do say so myself. Take Rt 287 south from Wyoming sometime. Once the road crosses into Colorado, you enter the most marvelous landscape of layered and eroded rocks, stacked like pancakes among the evergreen landscape. It is beautiful, open, and unpopulated. I kept thinking, “Why isn’t there a state or national park here?” It’s that nice.
About 20-30 miles into Colorado, somewhere between Virginia Dale and Livermore, we passed a white sign that said, “Cherokee Park.” WHOA. I hit the brakes, made a U-turn, and down the red dirt Cherokee Park Road we went.
I was hoping we’d make another “find” like we did last October in Iowa when we found a little county park way out in the farmlands, and had one of the most lovely nights of boondocking we’ve ever enjoyed. We had no information on this Cherokee Park other than the sign: no idea where to find it, how far down the road it would be, whether we could park there overnight, or even if we’d be able to turn around. But if you want to find the places “off the beaten path” you’ve got to be willing to take a chance on the unknown.
The red road twists among the fantastic rock formations, and climbs briefly at what I would guess is about a 10-12% grade. We had to switch to 4WD mode to keep the rear wheels from slipping. About 6-8 miles along, Cherokee Park Road descends and brings you by a dirt parking area with a set of signs that identifies the Cherokee State Wildlife Area, Lower Unit.
Parking in the lot is OK for up to 14 days, according to the signs. You can leave your rig unattended for 48 hours to go exploring. This is horse country, but an ATV would work well too. The scenery is fantastic. The spot is quiet and isolated. It’s great boondocking, and if we had more time I am certain the hiking would be superb as well.
One caveat: you are supposed to have a “Habitat” sticker to use this area. We’ll buy one, to atone for our minor sin of parking here without one. I think buying a sticker which supports the preservation and access to such beautiful lands is a small price to pay.
There’s only analog cell phone service here (and not much of that), so this blog entry will be posted in the morning as we head to Aurora CO. Other than running some backups on the computer and typing up this entry, I’m taking a night off. After all the stress of the past few days, I need a little break before the work week begins. This seems like a nice place to relax.
July 23, 2006 at 10:27 am · Filed under Maintenance
I’ve replaced all six studs and lug nuts on the offending aluminum wheel. The parts store did not have enough lug nuts for the other (steel) wheel on that side, so we are going cautiously proceed without replacing the lugs on that one for now. I’ll be checking torque very often.
Colin Hyde was on the phone this morning with some helpful advice also. It gets detailed, but the gist of it was to be sure the lugnuts were tightened evenly and absolutely on center. I’ve done that.
I did loosen and re-tighten the lugnuts on the steel wheel and found them to be VERY tight. They are now re-torqued to the proper amount. I also checked the other wheels on the driver’s side, which have not been touched by mechanics with air wrenches. All good.
More later if I can get online!
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