March 4, 2006 at 6:48 am · Filed under Uncategorized
I missed a day of blogging only because I’ve been hunkered down working on the Spring magazine. Well, in addition, we are doing mundane things right now. We are actually parked in the back lot of Roger Williams Airstream in Weatherford, TX, awaiting service on a few things. Our friend Gunny is here as well, so it’s like a mini-rally. Gunny just bought a new Safari 25 Special Edition with the cool front & rear wrap windows, leather couch, and all the other options. He’s having a few other tweaks done to it before he takes it home, including disc brakes.
So while there’s not much going on, I wanted to let you know of something interesting. Airstream Life magazine will be launching a major Airstream restoration project in the next month. We will be taking the 1952 Airstream Cruiser that we found in North Carolina last month from “as found” condition, and turning it into a beautiful custom trailer. It will be professionally refurbished, modernized, polished and outfitted to a world-class condition. The project will be documented in Airstream Life magazine and on a weblog.
We’d like to run this project a bit like “This Old House” where we have a client involved in the project from the very beginning. The client would be able to direct many of the customizations, and then be able to buy the completed trailer at the end of the project.
If you or someone you know wants to own this cool trailer, now’s your chance. The ideal client would be willing to participate in the project by providing their input from time to time (via email or phone is fine), and be financially qualified. It’s a unique opportunity for the right person.
We expect that the final cost to the client will be approximately $60-80k depending on the level of options they select. This is well below what an equivalent custom trailer would cost, because we will obtain sponsor donations and/or wholesale parts for the project from supportive companies, ranging from Airstream to Zip-Dee.
The 1952 Cruiser is a very special Airstream. Our is the only Airstream Cruiser known to exist with two axles. All other Cruisers were single-axle trailers. We believe this modification was made by the Airstream factory in California.
Photos of similar Cruisers (but with single axles) are available online by clicking here.
The length is 25 feet, a popular size, and this trailer can be configured in a number of ways. At this time we are leaning toward an arrangement with front and rear bedrooms that quickly convert into private living spaces, but that is subject to the client’s wishes.
Time is short, so if you are interested or want to refer someone, get in touch with me ASAP using our Contact form (link in left column).
March 2, 2006 at 5:46 am · Filed under Places to go
Apparently it’s a rule that you can’t come to this part of the country and not visit the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco, TX. So being good visitors, we took the afternoon to drive 30 miles down I-35 and check it out.
The Dr Pepper Museum is a must-see for people who love vintage Americana. It’s also a fun stroll through the past if you remember some Dr Pepper commercials from the 50s and 60s (primarily), and interesting for the person who likes factory tours. The museum is not actually part of any Dr Pepper facility today, but it is located in the first Dr Pepper plant in downtown Waco, and they have a nice collection of antique syrup-making and mixing equipment.
But the museum is rather small. A $5 admission brings you through two levels of exhibits that you can skim in about 30-45 minutes, or browse in-depth for maybe an hour or more if you stretch it. We spent nearly as much time in the restored soda fountain shop, trying the “original” recipe for Dr Pepper which uses Imperial Cane Sugar rather than corn syrup.
Does it taste better? You decide!
Along the way north on I-35, you’ll pass Exit 353, where there is an abundance of Czech bakeries. It’s one of those little ethnic settlements that can be found in unlikely places in Texas. We dropped into “Little Czech Bakery”, and came out 30 minutes later with a pile of boxes filled with interesting things to eat: buns stuffed with various meats and cheeses; pastries variously filled with poppyseed, cream cheese, and cherry. That, plus a little of Eleanor’s leftover Mexican corn salad (added to tomato soup), made up dinner — easy and delicious!
Today, regretfully, we are departing NTAC. The people here have really rolled out the red carpet for us, giving us dinner, courtesy parking, high-speed Internet, local information, and little gifts. For example, I returned to the trailer yesterday to find this rock on our doorstep:
… so of course I turned it over. Who can refuse a rock that is so polite?
Sign of the week!
March 1, 2006 at 8:28 am · Filed under FAQs
A reader of this blog writes:
“How do you protect your trailer from theft when you park it in places other than an RV park, i.e. Walmart, or a courtesy park? I often find myself wanting to unhitch our towing vehicle to drive around town, etc. I ordered a Guardian hitch lock, but still feel uncomfortable about leaving our 2005 28′ International CCD behind.”
That’s a good question. We’ve been lucky enough that most of the time we have been able to park in safe places, but of course that may not always be the case.
When we are outside a state park or RV park, we generally don’t unhitch. Definitely not at Wal-Mart — it’s considered bad etiquette since you are only supposed to stay one night, and certainly would be risky. You might also get a ticket that way. For overnight enroute stops we try to arrive around sunset and leave as early as possible.
Courtesy parking is usually safe, but again we don’t usually unhitch when we are in a friend’s driveway or on the street. If we need to unhitch, we look for a spot that is safe in the sense of having plenty of neighbors around, someone home to watch, or obstacles that would make it difficult to take the trailer. Blocking the trailer in with a car is enough to discourage thieves.
Here at NTAC, the entire complex is gated and the residents are very aware of who comes and goes. Everyone we have talked to has commented on how safe they feel here. So courtesy parking here is an example of one of the better security situations available.
Similarly, when we are in state or national parks, or attending rallies, we consider ourselves to be fairly secure. It’s a “safety in numbers” situation.
All of the trailer thefts I hear of are from unattended storage lots. This suggests that best thing you can do to protect your Airstream is to use it a lot! If you must store it off-site between trips, I would definitely look for a gated lot with security and use a good hitch lock (not just a regular padlock that can be easily cut off).
In addition to a hitch lock, consider a set of Rotochoks. These can be padlocked for a bit of additional protection. The trailer won’t move with these babies installed!
But having the whole trailer stolen is fairly rare. I think a more practical concern is the contents of your trailer. Most of us travel with a laptop computer or two, plus cameras and other items that would be attractive to a “smash & grab” type of thief.
I have seen many vintage trailers with obvious prybar marks on the door. It’s fairly stupid to try to open a vintage Airstream door with a prybar when there are far easier ways of doing it (which I won’t mention here), but then whoever said the average thief was smart? If you have a vintage trailer, get a deadbolt installed.
We take several precautions against break-ins. We have a deadbolt and we use it every time we leave the trailer. We also put desirable items in obscure places where they won’t be easily found. (Good luck finding my laptop if you break in!) I keep backups of my critical data on a separate hard drive, and I mail home DVD backups periodically. We close the curtains when we are gone. And we often get to know the people around us, so they will notice if someone else comes to mess with our trailer while we are gone.
See what Terry and Mike have done with their trailer? Those are custom vinyl letters, inexpensive and hard to remove. Similarly, our trailer is very distinguishable by its custom vinyl graphics. You might think about adding something to your trailer to make it easier to identify. Yes, such graphics can be removed with a hair dryer, a scraper, and about 30 minutes, but the mere fact of their existence might make a thief more likely to go elsewhere. I’m sure a thief wouldn’t want to be towing a “hot” trailer across town with an obvious personalization on it.
February 28, 2006 at 12:57 pm · Filed under Travel / lifestyle musings
I’m working all day today and haven’t had time for any adventures. Eleanor and Emma are over at Janie Haddaway’s doing laundry, so they are working too.
Since we don’t have any exciting news, I thought I’d share a few photos of us having a typical day in the Airstream. These photos were taken by Andy, who visited us back in Tucson a few weeks ago. He caught us candidly doing the things we do every day.
Every morning the trailer is filled with hubbub. Usually one or both of are working on the computer, and I’m often pacing around talking on the phone. When you call Airstream Life magazine, and you hear noises in the background, just remember this picture of my “office”.
Andy was with us on our hike to Sabino Canyon and I’m really grateful that he took a few pictures of us together. We hardly have any good shots of us as a family. This hike in Sabino Canyon is a treasured memory.
And here I am at the end of a typical day, taking care of subscriber inquiries that came during the day, downloading my photos, and writing up a blog entry for you to read.
We are planning to stay here at NTAC for a couple more days, and then I think we will head over to Roger Williams Airstream in Weatherford for some minor repairs. After that, I am leaning toward visiting Hot Springs National Park on our way north to Indiana, rather than heading west to Mississippi. The more direct route will give us more time to stop along the way.
February 27, 2006 at 6:44 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We spent the morning catching up on work but when we finally poked our heads out we met two neighbors right away. NTAC is a friendly place and everyone wants to say hello and offer something: laundry machines, lunch, a place to work, directions.
It feels like a rally all the time. There is an Airstream in every garage, literally. NTAC is a gated community of villas, “RV port” homes, and grassy lots, each with full hookups for an Airstream. People lease the lots and own the improvements. Most are second homes, but for some people they are their primary residence.
By the way, any Airstream owner can visit here. You don’t have to be a member of WBCCI. Normally you’d be parked in the gravel lot, but since we are courtesy parking, we are parked on grass between two houses just up from the clubhouse. Our host has told us we can stay as long as we like, which is very good for our budget.
NTAC is across the way from the town of Hillsboro, which is centered on a mammoth French Second Empire courthouse. I’ve spotted two of these courthouses in Texas so far (the second one being in Weatherford).
Jim and Janie Haddaway invited us to their NTAC villa for dinner this evening before my scheduled talk about our travels. We feasted on “taco soup” — a Texas dinner, I’m told. Jim is a past International President of the WBCCI, and we were joined by Dr Earl Elam, the current president of the NTAC Board of Directors, and his wife Eleanor.
At 7 pm I presented a slide show about our travels to about 25 community members. I picked out 160 slides from the thousands in my albums, and talked about where we’ve been, how we live, and what we do. Although that sounds like a lot of slides, we were done in 90 minutes and everyone seemed to like it. People are always curious about us since we are a bit of a anomaly as full-timers who aren’t retired, and traveling with a child.
The audience poses after my slide show
In short, NTAC has rolled out the red carpet for us and we are having a fine time, so we’ll be here for a couple more days at least. I’ve got plenty of work to do, and tomorrow I’m on the program for the Computer Rally going on this week, speaking on “Getting Online While Mobile.” Emma wants to ride her bicycle and Eleanor is going to catch up on laundry. We’ll also do some research and figure out where we’re going between here and Indiana. I’m leaning toward Natchez Trace Parkway but I’m not sure we’ll have time to do it properly.
February 26, 2006 at 7:35 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Now that was the right way to run a rally “¦ er, “campout”. The Heart of Texas Unit really has a great way of doing things. We had the most relaxing Saturday, and a great time despite the fact that it rained nearly all day.
Emma and her newfound friends spent the entire day together, playing card games in their ’67 Caravel, and getting into mud by the lakeside. We got her back at dinnertime, soaked, covered in mud, and as happy as a five-year-old can be.
I spent the morning sleeping. After my dawn breakfast, I decided to go back to bed, and didn’t wake up until 11! By then, breakfast was over but everyone was still out under the canopy talking, so I just showed up and nobody questioned where I’d been all morning. Eleanor and I ended up with David Tidmore in our trailer all afternoon, exchanging Airstream knowledge and planning some of our trailer upgrades.
David is a man of ideas and he knows how to execute them. In a few hours, he had me convinced to upgrade to disc brakes, re-wire my trailer for more efficient charging, and add solar. He also showed me the upgrades his dealership has done for other members, some of which are pretty clever, and he pitched me on switching to a Hensley Arrow hitch. We pitched him on our ideas to change some of our cabinetry, upgrade two of the windows, and possibly add a Vista View window. We’re going to keep talking this week about those projects.
Carter and Karmen Yountz’s 1961 Bambi
Saturday’s dinner was an incredible Mexican-themed potluck. People in this unit really know how to cook. I was amazed at the quality. By dinnertime, a cold front had blown through and cleared out the rain, so it was cool but still nice enough to eat outside with a jacket on.
Emma and her friends came over at 8:30 to watch “The Princess Bride” on our TV and I made a big batch of popcorn for them, while Eleanor spent the evening out in our folks’ trailers looking at pictures and exchanging travel ideas.
In short, we had a great day. Today was nice too “¦ a casual morning with breakfast at 9:00 or so, plenty of sunshine and chat, then I roamed around taking photos for future articles.
One “typical” family at the campout
In the afternoon we headed over to North Texas Airstream Community in Hillsboro and that’s where we are right now. I’ll tell you all about that this week.
February 25, 2006 at 7:30 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We are finally at the first organized rally since we started traveling in October. The new “Heart of Texas” unit of the WBCCI invited us to join them in here for a “campout”, and so we slogged for four hours through the biggest rainstorm Texas has seen in months to get here.
I am certain it will be worth it. There are about eight or nine Airstreams parked with us beside a little lake, ranging from a nice ’67 Caravel to a polished Classic 280 Turbodiesel motorhome and several newer units. Two of the couples besides us brought their young kids! That’s a rare event indeed for most WBCCI events (but the norm for this new unit). Of course Emma is thrilled with her new friends, even though they are all a bit older than her. By nine o’clock she had been adopted by the other kids and was off playing flashlight tag in the dark.
A couple of people were kind enough to say that they made an extra effort to come because David Tidmore, president of this unit, told them we were coming. They all want to hear about our travels, even the people who read the blog regularly. It’s really nice to see that people are interested, and so I’m going to try to put together some photos and ideas to share with them this evening.
One of the unusual things about the Heart of Texas Unit is that almost all the members are not retired. So they do things a bit differently. The usual WBCCI unit rally includes breakfast on Saturday morning at 7 or 8 a.m., but David stood up last night to announce that as usual, breakfast would be held at “about 9:30″. Given that dinner was set for “about 7″ last night and we didn’t actually get to eating until 8, I figured I’d sleep in and then have brunch with the group.
But it has rained hard all night, with thunderstorms, and they woke me up at 6:30 “¦ and I ended up having breakfast alone at 7 while Eleanor and Emma slept blissfully through the patter of rain our aluminum roof. The forecasters say the rain will end today, which is fine with me. The Texans wish it would keep raining, because the state is in a severe drought right now.
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