April 8, 2006 at 10:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We had a houseguest last night. My mother escorted Emma down from Vermont yesterday, and spent the night with us in the Airstream. She’s only the second guest we’ve had overnight — the first was back in Tucson when Andy visited. As before, it was no problem having a guest, but we’ve found that it takes a while for people to get used to the small space. We’ve learned how to move around without bumping into each other, and we’ve gained a sort of awareness of what other people are about to do before they do it. This allows us to move efficiently, but when a new person is added to the mix it gets a bit tricky, even humorous, as people crash into each other and say “Oh, excuse me!” a lot.
Today we needed something kid-friendly to do, so after dropping off my mother at the airport for her return flight home, we took in the Museum of Science and Industry. This one is great for little kids since it has an entire building filled with an exhibit called “Kids in Charge”. It easily kept Emma (and us) occupied for a few hours. And once again, we got in free with our ASTC Travel Passport. Today’s admission would have been about $56 for the three of us.
I hate to admit it, but we’ve been parked within a hundred feet of a heated pool in the beautiful Florida sunshine for nearly two weeks and we haven’t gotten in the water yet. So tonight we all jumped in for a while before sunset. They keep the pool well at about 80 degrees, which is fine this time of year. In the photo above, you can just see an Airstream at the top. That’s us.
A pool is one of our favorite modes of exercise. Emma always makes friends with the other kids too, and there are several here who are her age. I expect the pool will be a daily visit from here on in.
We are debating where to go from here. Right now the leading contenders are Hillsborough River State Park (not far off), and then Kissimmee for a visit to Sea World. We promised Emma she would see Sea World in San Diego and then we forgot … so this would be a chance to make good on that promise. I’d also like to drop in on Blue Spring State Park, and perhaps some place in the Cape area on the east coast. Eventually I think we will work east to St Augustine and then up I-95 to the Region 3 Rally in Myrtle Beach.
April 7, 2006 at 8:08 pm · Filed under Tips & Ideas
For six months we have been taking photos of our travels, and posting many of them online in our photo album. (You can see them using the link in the left column that says “Pictures”.) But until this week, we’ve never printed a single picture.
This week we selected 29 favorite photos and burned them to a CD. We dropped by Walgreens and printed six of them as a test, then framed them in some fun frames Eleanor picked up at various local stores. All of the prints are either 4×6 or 5×7, which are good sizes for mounting on the walls of an Airstream travel trailer.
The outside walls of our Airstream are lined with a white fuzzy material that velcro sticks to. Hanging pictures on those walls is easy: just use adhesive velcro strips on the pack of the frame. The interior walls are a woodgrain laminate. We use double-sided tape to stick frames to those walls.
The photos make a huge difference to the interior of the trailer. Now it’s much more personalized. It feels homier. Emma walked in the door today — back from Vermont — and noticed all the photos immediately. These are the best souvenirs that we can have. Every day we’ll be reminded of the great travels we’ve enjoyed. I expect we’ll be printing more of the 29 photos I selected, in the next few weeks. There’s plenty of wall space left!
April 6, 2006 at 9:52 pm · Filed under Places to go
Tonight is our last night before Emma returns. We decided to spend it exploring the “sponge docks” area of Tarpon Springs. In the early part of the 20th century this harbor was a thriving center of sponge diving activity, but in the 1940 and 50s a blight wiped out most of the sponges. Today, the sponge docks area survives as a tourist district.
Normally tourist districts are not our first choice, but this one has a special element which attracted us. The Greek families who were the mainstay of the sponge diving industry are still here, running restaurants and bakeries. We came for a walk, and some serious noshing.
Somewhere behind that hair is Eleanor … (Click for larger image)
Sponges are everywhere here, even though I suspect many of them come from far far away now. You can’t walk 50 feet without passing a display of sponges, a shop selling fancy local soaps, and then a few more sponges. One of the sponge shops hosts a free museum where you can learn much more about sponges and sponge diving than you ever wanted to know. Occasionally you’ll see someone hand-rolling cigars, too.
But we didn’t need any sponges, so we headed right into one of the restaurants for a Greek feast. Stuffed grape leaves, calamari, and gyros … and the gyros were so big we had to get a take-away box for the leftovers. We also got a few fresh pita breads so we can make gyros sandwiches with the leftovers tomorrow.
She’s still hiding behind that hair…
Then it was off to the bakery to get even more stuffed. Take your pick, there are several in town and all of them are good. Let’s see, we got dark chocolate cake, baklava, and Eleanor got a special baklava with an apricot top and a tiny cup of Greek coffee. By this time, nobody wanted to move too quickly, so we hung out and watched a crowd of regulars — nearly all of Greek descent — show up around 9 pm for dessert and chat.
Tarpon Springs seems to come to life at night. Not so much on the street, but inside the restaurants and bakeries. It migrates from being a little tourist trap of sidewalk shops to a sociable late-night community of good food and good friends. It’s a nice vibe and that made it a fun place to be.
Here’s your sign of the week:
April 5, 2006 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
It has been a working day so we can’t claim any grand adventures, but it has been a beautiful day anyway. The big thing has been that the new Airstream Life store is up and running! I’d appreciate it if you took a look at our early efforts. We’ll be adding a lot more cool stuff to our virtual “shelves” over the next few weeks.
The store has been consuming a lot of my time over the past few months, so it is good to have it finally launched. While I’ve been here working out bugs with our programmer, Eleanor was out shopping for groceries, so I’m expecting a very nice dinner tonight. She said something about spicy chicken coconut curry. (She was watching the Food Network all the way back from Vermont on those seatback TVs Jet Blue has. Thank you Jet Blue!)
But dinner won’t be ready for a couple of hours, so I’m going to head out with Brett and check out digital cameras at the local Best Buy. He dropped in this afternoon and brought his laptop & cell phone, so the two of us have been working from the dinette, both using the high-speed Internet from our campground. (I think he is realizing that he can work from his motorhome several days a week if he wants to. More and more people are able to do it.)
Both of us at work at 5:30 pm on a sunny Tampa afternoon
It has been a very pleasant day, working with the Airstream’s door open and the Fantastic Vents humming. It has been sunny, around 80 degrees, bug-free, with a light breeze all day. I feel so productive when things are quiet and beautiful like this. Offices depress me, so this is the way I want to work for as long as I can.
Now, with the working day done, we’re ready to go browse gadgets and then come back to Eleanor’s Indian food. Not bad!
April 4, 2006 at 11:28 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Another beautiful day in Tampa! Eleanor and I had needed to catch up on some work today, but by afternoon we were able to relax a bit and enjoy the nice weather. At 6:30, we met up with Barry and Susan for a special night out at a local sushi restaurant.
Susan and Barry in Barry’s Miata. Click for larger version
First of course, we had to give Susan a quick tour of the Airstream. Like nearly everyone, she was a bit curious about how we live. But a tour of an Airstream takes only a few minutes if you don’t get into rivethead talk, and besides, we were hungry.
Now, the special thing about tonight was that Susan speaks Japanese and knows what the heck everything on the menu is. She goes out to this place every week or two. We sat back and let her order. And of course, since she did it in Japanese, we had no idea what was coming.
Only half of the feast! Click for larger.
But we weren’t worried. We like to try new things and it was all great. Salad, miso soup, squid, sushi, tempura, yellowtail “shoulder”, two types of tofu, rice … yum …. It was a great dinner.
We tried to get some dessert at the Panera Bread nearby but they closed at 9. We actually ended up at Border’s bookstore, huddled in the corner among some books slurping coffees and iced chai. I regaled Barry and Susan with tales of towing through the desert, the redwoods, and a couple of tight car washes. They tolerated me for quite a while before we all called it a night. It was what I hope will be the first of a lot of lovely warm evenings in Tampa.
April 3, 2006 at 11:06 pm · Filed under Tips & Ideas
Now, before I launch into this diatribe about what tools I carry, I will tell you what I know you all want to hear: Eleanor arrived this afternoon, feeling fine. So 2/3 of our Tour family is back together. Emma will follow on Friday.
What I really want to talk about is tools. People often ask us what we carry with us to deal with those little household repairs and roadside situations that can crop up. I composed a list of what I carry in the trailer for your general info. While I can’t promise that this tool kit will deal with every emergency that could happen, it does suffice for 90% of what we encounter — and the rest I leave to professionals.
In a small blue fabric bag from Sears, I have the following items:
— small hammer
— screwdriver set
— drill bits and screwdriver bits for cordless drill
— tape: electrical, duct, & masking
— Gorilla glue
— (2) medium sized adjustable wrenches
— Reese hitch lube
— 3M silicone lube and graphite lube
— set of allen wrenches
— retractable safety knife (“carpet knife”)
— pliers
— small wire cutter/stripper tool
— plenty of misc screws, washers, and grommets
— one small bungee cord
— rivet tool
— small tube of Parbond, aluminum color
— small tube of GE Silicone II sealant, white, for kitchen and bath area
— assortment of “bullet hole” stickers
AND
— a small plastic “tackle box” or similar with internal compartments, with:
spare 1156 bulbs, glass fuses of varying amperage, several large cotter pins, single-sided razor blades, misc screws, several hose washers, 3/16″ POP rivets, Olympic rivets, mini 10w Halogen bulbs for the reading lamps, extra 303 Protectant samples for the Fantastic Vents (keeps ’em from sticking), automotive blade-style fuses (various sizes, open your Magnatek to see which ones you need).
I have used almost everything on the above list in the past year. No kidding! Things loosen, jiggle free, crack, and pop in thousands of miles of travel. With this kit you can fix almost any small problem without assistance. Without a kit like this, you could spend a lot of time visiting repair shops for little things, when you’d rather be having fun. And even if nothing goes wrong, the kit is useful for those little upgrades and personalizations you’ll want to do.
Also strongly recommended:
— cheap 12v air compressor with a looooong cord
— lug wrench (and be sure you have a spare tire and know how to change it, or you’ll end up waiting hours for roadside assistance someday!)
— cordless drill — very handy for setting stabilizers with appropriate socket and adapter
There are many other pieces of equipment you’ll want to have, but I’m only including the tools and parts here. Obviously you need extension cords, chocks, etc., but I’m assuming if you own an RV already you’ve figured that stuff out.
April 2, 2006 at 11:44 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Today was my last full day of bachelorhood. Eleanor comes back Monday afternoon. (Emma will stay in Vermont a few more days with her grandparents.) And while I’m looking forward to see Eleanor, it was a great last day for me.
Florida is warming up into the 80s every day now, with endless sunshine and palm trees waving in the breeze. I took care of some business online and via phone in the morning, and then decided it was just the right sort of day for a bike ride.
Our campsite. Click for a larger image!
So I called up Brett and we headed out to the Pinellas Trail, a rails-to-trails bikeway that runs north-south along the coast. I’ve taken the old bike rack off the Armada because I got sick of it and sold it on eBay (that’s another story that I’ll explain later, but in short we do have a solution to the bike problem). But without anyone else in the car it was a simple matter to toss the bikes in the back and head over to Tarpon Springs, just a few miles away.
I recommend the bike path. You’ll see some older “historic” downtowns, and there are plenty of opportunities to cut over a couple of blocks to the waterfront. The trail itself is mostly scenic and very easy to ride. We took it about 11 miles south before turning back. And we stopped for ice cream TWICE, so you know it was a nice day.
I’ve spotted enough things to do in this area that I think we will stay here two more weeks. There are 2-3 parks to check out, some nature trails, the Clearwater beaches, several interesting restaurants, and a couple more old downtown districts. Plus, Brett has promised to teach me how to swing a golf club some evening soon.
Tomorrow I’ve got to finish getting this trailer cleaned up for Eleanor’s return. I am trying to make her homecoming as pleasant as possible. This is the first time we will have been without a child since we launched our trip last October. It should be a fun week!
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