May 26, 2006 at 9:53 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I don’t golf. So it was with great trepidation that I accepted Airstream’s invitation to play in a golf scramble this morning. Brett insisted that I play, so we got up early to do some work before catching the 7:30 bus to our 8:30 start at the Angel Fire golf course.
Now, cruising around on an electric cart, through a beautiful golf course in the desert on a gorgeous May day is not such a bad thing. Our early game kept us out of the highest temperatures (it was about 100 again today). But otherwise, my golf game was 18 holes of humiliation. I redeemed myself slightly with one lucky chip shot and a few halfway decent putts, but otherwise the other members of my team carried the weight. Fortunately, we were playing “best ball”.
By the end, I was a lot more appreciative of how 18 holes can wear a person out, and our team was 6 under par. We came in third of about ten teams. I think before I attempt to play again, I’m going to need some lessons in how to swing the club and actually hit the ball in a useful direction.
Back at Caesar’s, we dropped by the pool to talk to Airstream people a bit in the afternoon (lots of interesting people-watching poolside). Then we picked up our bags and departed via taxi to pick up the Nissan. I’m pleased to report that after the transmission fluid re-fill, it drives like normal again. No charge since it was under warranty.
Next job was to catch up on work for a few hours. We headed back to the Airstream, and started our working day at about 4 pm. This has been a successful week but it has also left us with a lot of work to do. Both Brett and I are beat. We only got five hours sleep last night and it has been a complicated few days. We plan to decompress tomorrow by jetskiing on Lake Mead. I’ll have photos of that by Saturday night.
May 25, 2006 at 8:37 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I have to admit that there’s not much news I can talk about today. Eleanor and Emma are doing their stuff in Vermont but I’ve been so wrapped up in the Airstream dealer meeting that I have hardly had time to even call them. Brett and I are running around trying to get dealers to advertise in the magazine all day.
But Emma doesn’t want to talk to me anyway. She’s having too much fun with her grandparents. When I called yesterday she was washing the car with her grandmother and wouldn’t break away to talk to her old Dad …
I can show you an advance pic of a new Airstream that was shown here at the Dealer Meeting. There are some very cool new floorplans coming out, including a 27-foot FB (rear-door) model, and in smaller length they have introduced the “Ocean Breeze” trim package shown below. It’s a derivation of the popular Quiksilver trailer.
Sorry for the poor quality images. I had to borrow a camera since I left mine back at the trailer.
The new rigs coming out are pretty cool. They’ve updated the Classic into a 27-foot Classic Limited that is quite nice. The 19-foot Custom Bambi by David Winick is here, and that is beautiful. They’ve also added to the International line and added some new colors. And the Base Camps are finally here, looking very slick with tons of neat accessory racks and options.
May 24, 2006 at 9:20 pm · Filed under Maintenance
I was a bit worried these past couple of days. On our way into Las Vegas on Monday, I noticed the transmission acting strangely. What had been a silky-smooth tranny was now occasionally slipping and shuddering in first gear. Did we toast the transmission from too much towing?
I didn’t want to say anything about it on the blog until I knew what was happening. This morning I took it in to the local Nissan dealer here in Las Vegas. United Nissan provided me with superb customer service and I felt the truck was in good hands, but I was pretty spooked by the possibility of major transmission repair.
Fortunately, it was not a serious problem. United Nissan called back today to say the problem was merely a leaking line to the transmission cooler. Apparently the fluid level got low enough to cause the symptoms. The Armada does not have a dipstick on the transmission that is user-accessible. Like some other manufacturers, they are moving toward a sealed transmission that is never opened until the recommended service interval. So I haven’t been checking the fluid level regularly, nor does the Owner’s Manual advise us to do so.
United Nissan believes that the problem was caught in time and no transmission damage occurred. The replacement line was in stock and now we’re back in business. I’ll pick the truck up Friday after my meetings.
This episode reminded me of how dearly we rely on our truck. Naturally, we’re a one-car family, and if our truck is not 100% reliable we could be stranded with a big trailer somewhere that we’d rather not be. So if you’ve noticed that we seem to stop in for service a lot, you’re right. Preventative maintenance and dealing with issues before they become problems are very important. Plus, since 90% of our miles are towing, we maintain to the “severe service” intervals, which means more frequent service than normal. It’s worth the small extra cost to be sure we keep cruising the roads trouble-free.
Next major maintenance item will be probably tires. I think we’ll be buying a new set around 30-35k miles, based on the current rate of wear. Our tires are loaded to near the Armada’s maximum axle weight ratings most of the time, and that means they wear more quickly. At our current rate, we’ll need them this fall.
May 23, 2006 at 10:03 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Eleanor and Emma flew back to Vermont today, for a round of routine doctor and dentist appointments. Eleanor is going to have some allergy testing done to see if she is a candidate for desensitizing injections, or other treatments. Emma is going to go get spoiled by her grandparents, and get her teeth checked.
Note to prospective full-timers. Always remember to remove the bikes from the roof before you go to the airport! Otherwise, you have to park in the “Economy” lot far far away …
I am staying back in Las Vegas to do some work. This week I’ve got meetings at Caesar’s Palace. Brett has flown in to help out, and he’s crashing in the trailer with me tonight, then we are moving to Caesar’s for the next two nights. Since we won’t need the truck, I’m taking the opportunity to drop off the Armada at the Nissan dealer to have the transmission fluid changed tomorrow morning.
So it will not be a wild week of fun, but it’s all part of the adventure in a way. The working life is part of the traveling life, for us.
May 22, 2006 at 7:56 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Sadly we have left Zion National Park, but not before one more long play session between Emma and Hope (Doug & Trish’s daughter), and a big gabfest for me as well. Here’s a photo from last night, when Emma and Hope were playing on Emma’s bed and the bunk above it.
Our trailer boasts a small souvenir of our Zion visit. This pretty much sums up our philosophy these past few days…
Now we are in Las Vegas, 150 miles away from Zion. It’s not particularly glamorous here in this asphalt parking lot of a campground, but it is convenient for the business I need to do this week. And it’s cheap to camp in Las Vegas. Full hookups here, with the Good Sam discount, are about $22, and there are even cheaper places to be had.
Eleanor and Emma are flying home tomorrow. I’ll be busy with work for a few days, and then this weekend there will be time to play. I’ll tell you about that later. For now, here’s a quick Sign of The Week, as seen along the road from Zion somewhere in Utah. I don’t know what it’s referring to … and I don’t think I want to know!
May 21, 2006 at 10:50 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
It is decided: Zion is a favorite spot of ours. We’ll be back. Terrific desert weather, greenery, wildlife, beautiful scenery, peace and quiet thanks to the shuttle bus system, and thanks to good cell phone coverage, I can work from here too!
Today we decided to hike the Emerald Pool trails: Lower, Upper, and Middle, in that order. The total hiking distance was about 4 miles, which is average for us and well below Emma’s tolerance level of about six miles. Fabulous hikes! Scenery that you just can’t believe. The photos don’t do justice to the beauty of this place.
The Upper Emerald pool is not emerald-colored at all, but it is a tranquil and lovely spot at the end of a hot hike. Technically, no swimming is allowed, but the sign didn’t say “no wading,” so we did and cooled off nicely.
The Middle Emerald trail offers fantastic views and crosses over the top of the Lower Emerald Trail. Water from the sandstone drips down constantly to make small waterfalls.
There’s a lot to do in Zion besides hiking. For example, you can rent horses for trail rides, which seems like a fine idea. I think they organize these from the Zion Inn, which is midway up the canyon. The Inn looks like a fine place to spend a few days if you don’t have an Airstream. 😉
Bicycling is possible on the riverside Pah’rus Trail for a few miles, and there’s a museum right up from the campground too. In the town of Springdale, just outside the park gates, there is a giant screen movie theater and the usual artsy shopping, restaurants, and outfitters to browse too.
We got back around 3:30 and took the shuttle into Springdale to try the local pizza joint. We’ve been guzzling huge amounts of fluids due to the dry air and high temperatures (well into the 90s again today), so it was nice that the pizza place has a free refill policy. After some browsing in town and at the Visitor Center, we headed back home to the Airstream to shower and settle in …. and then a knock came on the door from surprise visitors Trish and Doug!
Turns out Doug has been following our blog for months, and since they live in nearby Kanab, they decided to look us up while camping in Zion for a couple of nights. They have a Casita 17-footer, which is very similar to the Airstream Caravel we started with two years ago, and they have a lovely 7-year-old daughter named Hope. Emma and Hope took off on their bicycles, and played checkers, and the adults spent the evening talking about everything, until 10:30. What a nice bonus!
Meeting people like Trish and Doug is a big part of the reason we travel like this. They’re wonderful people, full of ideas and enthusiasm, and we’re glad to know them. They’re not the only people we’ve met this weekend, either. Yesterday we met a couple from Essex NY (near our home town) who winter in Tucson AZ, and we plan to look them up later this summer when we are back east. You meet the most interesting people in National Parks. This has been the most enjoyable weekend we’ve had in a while.
May 20, 2006 at 7:36 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Zion is one of those rare places that is magnificent in many ways, everywhere you turn. This morning we walked from our campsite along the paved bike/hike Pa’rus trail and within a hundred feet spotted some of the wild turkeys that have been reintroduced to the park. Towering red cliffs of red Navajo sandstone surrounded us as we walked through a beautiful field to catch the shuttle bus.
Last night in the ranger talk we learned about how the many arches here (and in Arches National Park, where we were last October), are formed. The red sandstone is porous, and absorbs billions of gallons of rainwater and snowmelt. The water percolates down through the sandstone very slowly, taking centuries to reach a layer of impermeable shale or a fault. There, it emerges from the sandstone, and at that point freeze-thaw cycles cause the sandstone to collapse, leaving arch formations.
The photo above is an embyronic arch being formed along the Riverside Walk trail. Note the water forming a pool at the bottom. If this cliff were thinner, we might have a walk-through arch in a few thousand years, but this is the base of a mountain of sandstone.
Despite pleas from the rangers, warning signs, and the threat of $100 fines, people still feed the animals and the result is that the squirrels will come right up to you and beg for food. This happens with mule deer too, and eventually they bite people and have to be shot. Even our six-year-old knows better than to feed the “cute animals”. I wish more people would pay attention.
The vertical relief in the canyon is just mind-boggling. Like the California redwoods, this is a challenging place to photograph. Above you can see some climbers working their way up a fissure. They were about 500-600 feet up when I took this photo, and only halfway to their goal!
“Weeping rock” is another example of water being squeezed out of the sandstone by an impermeable rock layer. People come up here to stand under a natural alcove where it drips water 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Spots like this were cool oases in the park as we hiked. The outside temperature was in the 90s, but dipped into the 70s in the shady and damp spots.
Wildlife is everywhere if you look. We noticed most people never slow down long enough to see. We spotted the wild turkeys, lizards, a Western Red Start (a red-bellied bird, I might have the name wrong), a hummingbird (tried to get nectar from one of the graphics on our trailer!), butterflies, canyon wrens, caterpillars, and of course begging squirrels. They have mountain lions here, in theory, but of course we didn’t see any.
The plan was to resume hiking after lunch but nobody seemed to have the energy. We got back at 2:30 and wilted in the heat. The Virgin River, which flows through this canyon, is running about 52 degrees and too fast for swimming. I fell asleep on the bed after lunch, reading an escapist novel by Tom Clancy and when I awoke at 4:30 nobody seemed to want to go anywhere.
It’s been a nice easy day. We’ve been playing checkers and now Emma is helping Eleanor cook dinner. I’ve promised to make popcorn for the movie later tonight. We’re going to skip the ranger talk because the topic looks a bit dull.
Solar report: we were down 44 amps when we woke up this morning, but generated 30 amps by 2:30, and eventually got back all but 10 amps. Not bad, especially considering we also recharged both laptops and camera batteries. If we didn’t have solar, we’d be killing our batteries by tomorrow night. As is, we can stay indefinitely. I like the fact that now everything electrical that we use (cameras, laptops, lights, pumps, Internet box, cell phones, etc) is powered by the sun.
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