April 15, 2006 at 10:27 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The bike rack is on and it works great. Still waiting for the other mount to show up, but at least we know we have a good solution. To test it, I loaded up my bike and we went for a drive along US Alt-19 southward. The plan was to drop in on some beaches by Clearwater, but being a sunny gorgeous Saturday with temperatures in the mid-80s, a few other people had the same idea.
So we doubled back and drove a bit further south, eventually ending up on Treasure Island. It was the usual Florida barrier island scene, gorgeous white sands, pastel-colored hotels and condos everywhere, a mish-mash of body shapes hanging out of their swimwear, and overcrowded touristy streets. But as always we loved the beach, and we made our signature sand castle.
We also dropped in on Ted Peters’ Famous Smoked Fish. It’s an al fresco restaurant that also sells smoked fish to go. I could not resist the prospect of smoked fish for some reason, and so we walked out with a pound of mahi mahi and a pound of mackerel. They sell it right out of the smoker drawers, which you can see in the background of this photo.
We tried all the fish tonight. Emma preferred some pan-fried tilapia, but Eleanor and I ate the mahi-mahi and mackerel. The mahi mahi was moister than you’d expect, and very good. The mackerel was a bit dry and had some slim little bones. With a tomato & fresh mozzarella salad, and rice, it was a great dinner.
For a Saturday night movie we watched “Capetown to Cairo,” the original 1960s documentary of the famous Wally Byam Caravan. That’s a great flick for the Airstream fan, and fun for many other people, despite the obvious advertising pitches embedded in the narrative. Even Emma found it watchable, thanks to the appearance of a few lions and bears. It’s nearly fifty years old, but still a great adventure.
April 14, 2006 at 9:20 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Refitting continues amidst some fun. We mixed it up again today, with errands and homeshooling, then a big break at the pool in the afternoon.
The Nissan is almost ready for our 3000 mile trek to Myrtle Beach and then Las Vegas. I’ve had the oil changed, the brakes serviced, replaced the wiper blades and cabin air filter, and tomorrow I’ll check the tires, get the car washed, and put the new roof rack on.
The cabin air filter might seem like a minor thing, but with the recent spate of pollen-related allergy problems Eleanor had, I felt very motivated to do it. We checked the owner’s manual and found the cabin microfilter was supposed to be replaced every 15,000 miles. Well, we’ve done 17,000 miles through some heavy dust (in the desert) and through some heavy pollen (here). Take a look at the new and old filters and tell me if you think they needed changing.
Click for larger if you like to look at grime.
I bought an extra set so we can change those filters again at the end of the summer.
Over the last two weeks I’ve been selling the Yakima bike rack parts on eBay, and buying replacement parts for a Thule system. Blog reader Dave Morrison sent me a picture of his Thule setup on his Nissan Armada. Thule has a set of rack “feet” that integrate into the Nissan factory tracks, with rigid crossbars. This is far superior to the Yakima system that attached to the flexible factory crossbars.
That’s a picture of Dave’s system. With the bikes mounted backwards, we can still open the rear hatch fully. With the fork mount on a rigid crossbar, the bikes will be rock-solid instead of wobbling all over the place as they have been.
Only problem is that one eBay seller flaked out on me and hasn’t sent one of the bike mounts. Unless it shows up tomorrow, we’ll have to depart town with one bike on the roof and the other in the trailer. Brett has promised to receive the second mount and bring it up to us at the Region 3 Rally later this month.
April 13, 2006 at 10:08 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I think we’re in vacation mode now. Things are slowing down. I’ve been cleaning up little leftover tasks on my “to do” list and getting down to the final items. We are almost ready to hit the road again.
Emma was back at the pool again, enjoying the excellent Florida weather. It has been about 80 degrees every day, with lots of sunshine and relatively dry air. Perfect pool weather. As usual, she met up with some other little girls and they promptly organized a game of diving for sticks.
This evening, Barry and Susan came by to take us out to Safety Harbor, a quaint little village on the bay not far from here. There’s a nice view to Tampa from the pier, and a diner in town where we had a great and inexpensive dinner. (All-you-can-eat grouper, $7.50 with salad — I couldn’t resist it.)
Tomorrow I will tackle the bike rack solution if my final parts have arrived. With that, we should be ready to hit the road on Monday.
April 12, 2006 at 8:59 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
If you haven’t guessed by now, our stop in Tampa has been as much about refitting our ship as it has been about sightseeing. We’ve made numerous upgrades both large and small, and are trying to take care of as much “housekeeping” as possible before we drive again across the country. I call it “refitting the ship” in homage to Capt. Joshua Slocum, who wrote the book “Sailing Alone Around The World in 1899. Like Captain Slocum’s Spray, our craft needs periodic refitting to remain seaworthy.
In addition to the things I have already mentioned in the blog, we have been going through clothing and other stored items to cull out excess stuff. Our rule is simple: if we haven’t used it or worn it in the past six months, and we don’t need it right now, OUT IT GOES. Yesterday I shipped a bunch of clothes back to Vermont, and Eleanor has another pile of outgrown kids’ clothes to donate to the nearest charity.
One little thing that made a lot of difference was to remove all the DVD movies from their original cases and put them in a zippered disc case. The empty cases got shipped back to Vermont, freeing up nearly an entire overhead locker for other things.
This morning I took the Nissan over to the local dealer for brake service. We had developed a “brake judder” (a well documented problem for some Titans and Armadas). There was a Service Bulletin issued by Nissan on this problem, so it wasn’t a big deal. The dealer fixed it by replacing the front rotors and pads with a special new set, and replacing the rear pads as well. Now the Armada stops like new — smooth and sure.
Doug Dukane, fellow Airstream full-timer
This afternoon we were pleased to receive fellow Airstream full-timer Doug Dukane, who we haven’t seen in two years. Doug, his wife, and his two-year-old daughter live in an Airstream Classic 30, criss-crossing the country while he works on photographic assignments. Doug also contributes to Airstream Life magazine, and you’ll see some of his photos in the upcoming Spring issue.
We compared notes on the full-timing experience. It was absolutely amazing how similar our experiences had been. Like us, Doug feels no sensation of time passing while he is traveling and he is sorry that their trip is winding down. They’re building a home in Golden CO to use as a “lock & leave” base starting later this year. After that, they’ll only travel in the Airstream a few months each year.
We still have a few more refitting tasks to do before we leave on Monday, so I may blow them off in favor of some touristy stuff tomorrow. The weather continues to be gorgeous in Tampa and there’s so much more to see!
April 11, 2006 at 11:58 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Given this big chunk of time we are parked in Tampa, we are taking the opportunity to make many improvements for our next voyage. I’ve already documented a few of those in the earlier “Tweaking” posts. Yesterday, we moved from the mechanical improvements to cosmetic ones, with the purchase of new bedding.
It might seem like a minor thing, but in the small space of a trailer on an extended trip, you want everything in the space to be functional, compact, and if possible, attractive. Our previous comforter was an orange-and-pink nightmare (visible in an earlier post). Eleanor bought it for Emma’s bed months ago, and somehow we ended up with it. We’ve since replaced it with something we like: warm, “poofy”, and even more functional. It can be layered for cold nights and stripped down to a light blanket for warm nights, and still look good.
Emma, being a kid, wanted lots of bright colors. She got a mixed set of practically fluorescent sheets, blankets, and pillow cases (plus the aforementioned hideous comforter), and she loves it. It is so bright back there it practically glows.
The point is simply that you need to go with what works for you. Make the space your own whether you are in there for a weekend or a year. An Airstream is like a blank canvas in some ways. There are no rules about how you should decorate it, and that means we all get to enjoy a lot of artistic license, doing things we might not risk in the primary residence.
A few other preparatory items for our next adventures: I got a short haircut which Eleanor says she likes (that’s a miracle), the Nissan is going in for some minor service tomorrow to correct a shuddering when braking, and I’ve almost completed buying components for our new bike rack. We expect to meet up with another Airstreamer tomorrow too, our friend Doug Dukane. He’s another full-timer with small child, so I’m looking forward to comparing notes.
April 10, 2006 at 9:57 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Hoping to repeat our dinner feast back in Austin TX, when we visited Whole Foods Market, we dropped in on a place here in Tampa called Wild Oats.
It was not nearly as large or fun as Whole Foods Market, but we still found a lot of great goodies for dinner, and laid them out here for you to see.
Our smorgasbord tonight. Click for larger view.
OK, from top center going clockwise: Emma’s pepperoni pizza slice, a combination tray of sushi (with tuna and salmon) for Rich, croissants, a slice of fig almond cake, miso soup, dolmas (grape leaves stuffed with rice), sushi for Eleanor (eel roll), calamari salad, salmon pate, Australian blue cheese. In the center of the table, cornichons (little pickles), olives, onions, and more dolmas.
We never even got to the cheese, pate, or fig cake, and there were leftovers of most other things, so we’ll have an interesting lunch tomorrow. Between tonight’s shopping and other things we’ve had in restaurants lately, the 8-cubic foot refrigerator of our Airstream is stuffed full. I think I’ll be eating leftovers for a few days, but I like that, so no problem!
Well, maybe a small problem… Last night I had leftover gyros from Tarpon Springs. I had to eat them because every time we opened the refrigerator, the entire trailer would smell like garlic. I may have to prioritize what gets eaten based on what smells the most.
Financial note: this three week stay in Tampa has been by far the most expensive part of our trip. Camping here is expensive: $39 per day at this campground, and other places near Bradenton and Sarasota cost up to $55 per day. We are paying a weekly rate of $220, so we’ve spent as much to stay here for three weeks as we spent in the first two months of our trip.
This would have really trashed the budget but the offset has been that we aren’t spending money on fuel. Our propane bill has been $0 since we got here and our gas expense has been minimal. I’m glad we came and spent time with our friends in the area, but I wish we knew someone with courtesy parking. I’ll be glad to get back to our cheapskate ways soon.
April 9, 2006 at 9:41 pm · Filed under Tips & Ideas
We’re at it again — modifying the Airstream for more convenience. Brett and I started off the day with a ride on the Upper Tampa Bay Trail, which is another converted rail trail not far from here. Tampa has some excellent bicycling! Even though this one is short, we got in a good ride, about 11 miles round trip.
This put us in the mood to drill holes in the Airstream. (Don’t ask me why.) We met up with Eleanor and Emma at the local Steak’n’Shake and then proceeded to buy some hardware for the jobs we had in mind.
The first job was to install a level on the front of the trailer. For the past six months I’ve been levelling the trailer by eyeballing it, and it has worked well. But it seemed time to have the real thing. This is an easy item to install, so I didn’t bother taking photos of the process. Basically, just level the trailer, drill holes, and screw the level on.
The second job was to put in a secret hiding place. Brett and I spotted the perfect place in the trailer last week, and today I rigged it up. I wish I could show it to you, but then it wouldn’t be a secret would it? I’ll just say that it is very hard to find, opens in a non-intuitive way, and big enough to hold our Passports and some cash. I feel good about having this available, just in case we ever have a break-in.
The third job was to install a bed lift. I got the idea from David Tidmore at Roger Williams Airstream, who has installed them for his customers. The Airstream bed sits on a plywood platform, which is screwed to a storage base. To access storage below the bed, you normally reach in through openings in the side of the storage base. But it would be much nicer to be able to just lift the bed up and access everything from the top.
To install the bed lift, we removed the screws attaching the plywood, added a long piano hinge, and then attached two automotive-type gas struts beneath. Now the bed can be lifted up off its base by anyone, with just one hand, and it stays up as long as you are accessing the storage area. Even Emma can do it!
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