Things are heating up for us in all sorts of ways. We were blessed with a sunny day, temperatures in the upper 80s, and a nice breeze all day to dry things out. With more sunshine forecast today it looks like we’ll have no trouble using the grass to park trailers on Tuesday.
Our major task for the day was to stuff 275 goody bags. Dave Schumann of Airstream’s Service Center arranged for us to have access to the service bays, so I pulled the U-Haul full of stuff (that Brett brought from Florida) into the relatively cool and wind-free space. We swiped a few tables from the breakroom and set up an assembly line, with Brett, Lisa, Alice, Tim and myself working on the project. (Eleanor was off doing laundry. She cut her finger rather badly on Saturday night and can’t do much with her left hand now. She is going to be wrapped up in bandages for the week.)
We finished the bags in about three hours, including a post-project celebration with guacamole & chips that E&E brought over. It’s sort of cool to be working next to an unrestored 1935 Bowlus and the Jesse James Airstream Chopper. Strangely, “Schu” showed up to see how we were doing, at exactly the moment we finished. I think he was watching through the windows…
Eleanor and I took a trip down to Dayton airport to meet my mother and hand off Emma. She’ll be winging it back to Vermont today, and we’ll see her again in about ten days.
On the way back, the Mercedes was running very low on fuel, so of course I stopped to buy diesel. The combination of a nearly-empty tank and high Memorial Day fuel prices set a record (for us) for most expensive fill-up ever: $108. I know for a lot of folks with big truck tanks a three-digit fill-up is commonplace, but this is the first time I’ve ever spent that much for a single fill-up on any vehicle I’ve ever owned. It’s a psychological shock, that’s for sure, but I’m reminded of what people told me when we first started full-timing in 2005. Back then gas was running about $2.80 per gallon and I heard, “Boy did you decide to go traveling at the wrong time. Wait a while until prices drop again.” I’m glad we didn’t wait. It always seems expensive at the time, but having been to Europe and paid $7 a gallon I know that we still have a cheap deal here.
Another pair of key Alumapalooza volunteers, Lou & Larry, showed up last night. They are our dear friends from eastern Ohio, with whom we’ve courtesy parked many times. This week they are also the Vice-Presidents Of Parking, or whatever title they care to give themselves. Parking is the toughest job at Alumapalooza, and with the tricky logistics caused by all the rain recently, we are going to spend a lot of time today wandering the fields so we can finalize our strategy and be ready for the onslaught of 100 Airstreams that is coming tomorrow.