November 14, 2005 at 7:36 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Gotta love those guys at Sutton. What a nice bunch. Today we were leaving, so they hitched us up to their little forklift and hauled us over to dump the tanks. Then they filled our propane, adjusted our tank monitors, and fixed a minor issue with our water heater. In the meantime the entire staff was just incredibly accommodating and nice … and they fed us donuts and hot mulled cider.
AND they offered us tons of advice on places to see along the Oregon coast, directions to everything we might want to do, and, and, and, …. I could go on all day. Thank you Debbie, Crystal, Tom, all the guys on the sales staff, Sig, and of course George and Martha. You guys ROCK!
Just before we left, George showed me his latest delivery: a “WBCCI 50th Anniversary Edition” Airstream Classic Limited 30 slide-out. Nice rig.
Everyone we’ve met in Oregon has been exceptionally nice. Last night fellow Airstreamer Jim Jordan (who we know only from the Internet) dropped in and chatted for a while. Today he came back with his wife and we spent another pleasant half hour talking Airstreams. Another couple dropped in too, folks we didn’t even know before but who had heard (via Internet) that we were there. And Dan Patch dropped in again, too, just to give us a nice card and wish us luck.
Everyone has done two basic things: (1) plied us with extensive advice about the wonderful things to do in beautiful Oregon; (2) educated us on the proper way to say “Oregon.” Being from New England, we say “OR-uh-GONE”. Locals tell us that it should be “OR-ee-GUN.” We are practicing but far from fluent in Oregonese.
So now we are in Florence OR, which is by the coast. The weather is very mild here, so freezing nights are a remote possibility but it probably won’t get much over mid 50s either. We arrived after dark, so I can’t tell you much about the place but tomorrow Eleanor and Emma will go exploring while I work.
I’m afraid this may be a fairly dull week for the blog. I expect to spend the next four days plugging away on my computer, in the “Activity Building” of this campground where they have free wireless Internet. But I’ll try to get E&E to post about their adventures. They are planning to visit a haunted lighthouse, see Sea Lions, get salt water taffy, and walk on the beach, among other things.
November 13, 2005 at 7:53 am · Filed under Emma's posts
[Editor’s note: The following post was dictated by Emma. She is describing her experiences in Denver and Colorado Springs around Halloween.)
Emma says I love you DiDi. We are having a great time.
Me and mommy went to a Aquarium and at the end we got to pet some Manta Rays. We could only touch them with two fingers at once. The little manta rays felt like velvet. I wouldn’t touch any of the big ones because they felt like itchy scratchy velvet. I did not like the big ones feel.
When I was sleeping over at my cousin Hannah’s house, um we got to stay up very late and we watched movies all night. It was so cool. Let’s see, in the morning I wanted scrambled eggs for breakfast. Hannah wanted fried egg and we asked for toast with butter and when our butter with toast was served she (auntie Ali) also gave us some grapes. Hannah couldn’t have fried eggs because my scrambled eggs were all ready made. So Hannah got scrambled too. After breakfast we went back down stairs to play dress-up again.
We went to Chuckie Cheeses for lunch. When we got there we first went on a big slide. It was the best slide ever! And we played almost every game in there. Auntie Ali got us balls to take home.
After lunch we want back to their house to get ready to go trick-or treating. Boo!!! Did I scare you? I was a ghost for Halloween. Hannah was a princess. We had such a great time.
goodbye
November 13, 2005 at 7:34 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Parking at the dealership is nicer than a few campgrounds I’ve stayed at! All day Saturday we were surrounded by nice people (staff and customers) who dropped in to chat with us in our trailer. It was always a laugh when someone would open the door and see me typing at my laptop, Emma watching a Scooby Doo cartoon, and Eleanor nearby. They’d do a double-take, recoil for a moment, and then say, “Oh I’m sorry — I didn’t know anyone was in here!”
Well, that’s why we put the “OPEN” sign by the door. Can you guess who drew it?
We gave a half dozen tours of our trailer during the day, and around 1:15 I was briefly interviewed by the local radio station for the live audiocast. We spent the rest of the day visiting with people, checking out all the Airstreams (we like the Safari Special Edition 25), and snagging free donuts.
Last night a magazine reader and follower of this blog came by and took us out for Italian dinner. Dan Patch, a new friend, lives in this area and we had a great time visiting with him. Toward the end of the evening, I was able to recruit him to write an article for the magazine, too, so I expect we’ll be hearing more from Dan in the future. What a nice guy.
It’s being able to make friends everywhere we go that makes this trip so special for us. Sure, seeing the country is great, but building and solidifying friendships is really where it’s at. One point of the trip for me is to look up as many current and future contributors to the magazine as I possibly can. We have friends all over the country now, and it’s all because of our travels in our Airstream. That’s why I get so enthusiastic about it.
November 12, 2005 at 7:46 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Hey, where is everybody? We woke up here in Eugene, parked among a couple dozen Airstreams cheek-to-jowl, and I felt like I was at a rally — except there’s nobody in the other Airstreams. They’re all for sale. It’s like living in a ghost town. But that’s going to change soon!
When we arrived yesterday, George told us what he had planned for this weekend. They’re having a 3-day sale. The dealership has done a bunch of radio and newspaper advertising, and later today one of the local radio stations is coming over for a broadcast from here. The folks from Thousand Trails (a campground association) will be here to run a contest where people can win free gas or diesel for a year. And the dealership is giving out free turkeys, too, to new buyers.
When they saw the Tour trailer with all the decals, they decided to park us front & center, which is sort of an honor but also a bit like being in a golfish bowl! See, George & Martha run one of the largest Airstream dealerships in the country, but their lot is not that huge (as RV dealerships go), so the result is a traffic jam of units. You can get lost wandering among them. I feel like I should have a map on me at all times.
So here we are, right smack in front of the dealership’s front doors, a bit of a human sideshow amongst the empty Airstreams waiting for happy new owners. As people notice the Tour Trailer, we will open the door and invite them in for a peek. We’re part of the action this weekend, “free turkeys” of another sort … 😉
Eleanor and Emma did their usual running about yesterday afternoon, to get oriented to the local scene. They spent some time at a McDonald’s playland to get Emma exercised, and then went out and bought so many groceries that we could survive for weeks if necessary. I have been told that people are interested in Eleanor’s continuing perspectives on being a mother and homemaker on the road, so she is composing some throughts and I expect you’ll hear from her soon.
November 10, 2005 at 10:12 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We hustled yesterday … from the foothills of Nevada City to the warm sun of the San Joaquin Valley, to the foggy heights north of Mt Shasta and eventually into a twisting valley between the Coast Ranges and the southern Cascades.
We called George Sutton from the road and he said, “You’re in for a beautiful drive!” He was right. I-5 in California has the reputation of being dull, but in the northern part of the state that’s not true. The San Joaquin valley section is straight and flat, but after weeks of mountain passes it was a nice change to drive at sea level past olive and almond trees.
I had to stop at a rest area on I-5 to do a previously scheduled interview with the guys from Airstream Europe at 11 a.m., but that was easy: just pull in, open up the laptop, and take the call from the bedroom (while Eleanor and Emma did some home school work on the dinette).
Mt Shasta was the most stunning thing on the drive. You can see it coming for miles, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger… Lake Shasta is also beautiful to see from I-5.
Just north of Mt Shasta, in the town of Weed, we spotted what looked like a band of smoke from a forest fire. It turned out to be a wisp of fog from a huge fogbank. We were engulfed from there for the next 60 miles, in a deep gloom and temperatures hovering around 33.
It just kept getting deeper and darker, until finally, at 4300 ft pass just over the Oregon line (Siskiyou Summit), it got so dense that we could barely see road signs. Trucks were pulled off to the right lane with their flashers on, waiting it out. Eleanor was gripping the armrest as we crept up the pass, and we were wondering if we would have to pull over, too — when suddenly, the sky broke open and we emerged into brilliant blue sky and a gorgeous sunset down the long long descent into Mt Ashland. A pity for the truck drivers who were parked in the fog, only half a mile behind us, none of which probably had the slightest idea that they were only 2000 feet from perfect weather.
Two misc notes: (1) ain’t no parking at the Wal-Mart in Roseburg. We’re at a truck stop (hidden amongst a row of 18 wheelers) by the “Apple Peddler” restaurant off I-5. (2) After a shower and breakfast, we’ll head up to Sutton RV and join the fun. Apparently they are having a big 3-day event there this weekend. More later on that, and I’ll post pics tonight after my laptop battery re-charges.
November 10, 2005 at 8:27 am · Filed under Uncategorized
It’s been a hectic three days, but a lot of fun too. I got a lot of work done in the Velocity7 offices but there’s so much more to do that I could have stayed a week. But we promised we’d be in Oregon this weekend and a lot of people are expecting us, so off we go this morning.
Nevada City has a lot more to offer than we’ve had a chance to explore, so we may be back at some point. I like working downtown. It’s just couple blocks walk through the historic district to a bunch of great restaurants. Yesterday, Emma, Eleanor, Laura, and Bailey (the 3 yr old) met Robert and I for Chinese lunch.
Last night we gave the kids a few hours to play together before dinner, and afterward they collaborated to make us all “Airstream cookies”, while Laura served chai tea.
We are packing up now to leave, sadly. We’ll stop somewhere in northern California tonight and then arrive in Eugene tomorrow. I’m looking forward to exploring Oregon, but also to coming back to California. This is a great state and we’ll enjoy spending more time here in late November and December.
November 9, 2005 at 8:06 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We’ve got a fun little thing here to share. A friend of ours made up a bunch of these cool “Keep the shiny side up!” silicone bracelets and we bought the entire bag of them. So, whenever we see any of you at one of our stops, we’ll give you the silver bracelet.
Tomorrow we have to drive north, so our next stop will be in Eugene Oregon at George M Sutton RV. If you live in the area, come over to say hi this weekend, and we’ll give you a copy of the new Fall issue of Airstream Life plus a silicone bracelet and spend some time chatting. We’d love to see you.
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