The Florida State Rally is a little bit special for me, perhaps because it was the first place that I publicly announced I was going to start an Airstream magazine, back in 2004.   At that time we were spending the winter in central Florida, and took our 1968 Airstream Caravel over to Sarasota to visit this event, the 2nd largest of all Airstream rallies.   I met a few people at that event who became good friends, one of whom is Brett.

And so, last fall when airfares dropped I booked a cheap ticket from Tucson to Tampa so that I could revisit this rally.   It’s the fourth time I’ve attended it, and it is almost exactly the same each time.   That sameness drives off many people who are bored with it, but my interest in the rally isn’t the presentations or the dinner, but the opportunity to see a lot of Airstream folks who are leaders in the community.   And you can’t really complain about Sarasota in February …

Tuesday I got up in the dry desert darkness at 4:30 a.m., caught a flight at 7 a.m., and by late afternoon Eastern Time I was driving over Tampa’s Sunshine Skyway with the windows rolled down, smelling the sea breeze blowing in from the Gulf of Mexico.

I love Florida.   It’s full of good memories, and good friends.   All I have to do is smell that curious tangy air (a mixture of salt water, humidity, and decay) and I’m transported back to all the great times we’ve spent in Florida.   I like driving by the little waterways and lakes scattered all over.   I like finding bits of “old Florida” along the roadside, remnants of campy tourist attractions and little shacks selling green boiled peanuts.

There’s a sense of things growing incessantly here, life just constantly bursting out of dampness, with flowering bushes and sandy grass and creepy-crawlies everywhere.   You get the sense that if Florida was closed for a couple of years, the living things would take over and by the time Florida re-opened there’d be nothing left of civilization but a few moss-covered heaps.   All of that and more came back the moment I rolled down the window and started on my way from Tampa down to Sarasota.

So now I am installed in Brett’s motorhome at the rally, and all the people I’ve expected to see are here.   Colin & Suzanne are here (with Malcolm), Hunt & Sue, Mel & Glenda, Herb & Sidra, and many others from the Vintage Airstream Club.   More friends will arrive this weekend. The folks from A&W are here doing embroidery as always, and I’ve given them my camera bag to be customized with the Airstream Life logo.   Steve Ruth of P&S Trailers is here, and we talked about him polishing and clearcoating my Caravel this May at his shop up in Ohio.   There are lots of other folks whose names I have forgotten over the years, but who wave to me and ask how Airstream Life is doing, or ask about Eleanor and Emma.   (Inevitably people look disappointed to hear that I flew to the rally without Eleanor and Emma.   For years I’ve known that they are the big attraction wherever we go.   I’ve learned to live with that fact that people regard me as essentially a transportation service for them.)

My primary tasks here are to take photos for future magazine articles and help Brett with advertising sales.   But there’s plenty of time to socialize and explore Sarasota, too.   The Florida State Rally is what you make of it, and so I usually design it to my specifications by organizing or joining ad hoc parties or outings, rather than attending the formal program.   But last night they had the Opening Ceremonies, which are a tradition full of pomp & circumstance, and I got caught up in it.   I went just to take a few photos but then couldn’t leave because of the constant sequence of rituals: an Invocation/prayer, the Canadian National Anthem, the American National Anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, acknowledgements of all the various officers of the club, etc.   Walking out in the middle might have been construed as disrespectful, so I was forced to stay until the general announcements, about 30 minutes later.

Having survived that, I am probably done with the official schedule.   Today’s official schedule included these items: choir practice, line dancing, beginning Joker (a card game), arts & crafts, bridge, and several vendor seminars.   Our actual schedule included breakfast in the motorhome, some general conversation, and then a few hours of work at the laptops, with the balmy Florida breeze blowing through the windows.   If I have to go to work, this is the best way I can think of to do it.   Our afternoon was spent talking to the vendors, browsing the new Airstreams, photographing a refurbished vintage trailer interior, and grocery shopping at some gourmet store in town.

Of course, every day at 4 p.m. there’s the time-honored tradition of Happy Hour.   Every Airstream rally has it.   The vintage section usually has the most lively one, and that’s where I usually go, but little Happy Hours pop up all over the place under various awnings.   Tonight’s theme at the vintage area was “the most memorable experience you’ve had Airstreaming (that you can talk about).”   Mostly people talked about various interesting disasters they’ve had on the road.   Being owners of trailers between 25 and 50 years old, sometimes it’s hard to stop with just one disaster story.

I’ll be here through Sunday, so there will be more reports from Sarasota this week.   Let me know if there’s something in particular you’d like me to check out.

Our visit to Quartzsite was something of a bust.  With Eleanor sick most of the time, we didn’t get out much, and on the last couple of days when she started to feel better, the temperature plummeted.  With the ever-present breeze, a sunny day in the 50s felt pretty cold.  Being weak from not eating for a few days, Eleanor was not equipped to go hiking in the Kofa Mountains in cold weather.

For my part, having been fairly sedentary for the same amount of time, I wasn’t prepared to sit around a few more days just socializing (which is the major activity in Quartzsite, after browsing the flea markets).  Weighing our options, we decided to move onward to our final stop in Tempe, and perhaps return to Quartzsite another time.

Our stop in Tempe is strictly practical.   We are planning some overnight backpacking trips this year and our equipment needs updating.   Most of it comes from 1992, when Eleanor and started doing a lot of tent camping.   Since this was in the era B.K. (Before Kid) we didn’t have anything for an eight-year-old sidekick, and some of our other items were worn out or had gone missing.   Fortunately, Tempe has a good REI store.  In fact, Tempe seems to have one of everything, retail-wise.

We’ve become bottom-feeders in the retail world, so our reason for hitting REI this week was to see what was left from their January clearance sale.   We scored three very lightweight and packable sleeping bags, some boots for me, and a hydration pack for Eleanor.   The sleeping bags are rated for 30-35 degrees F, which should be ideal for warm-weather camping.

To be sure, we slept in them last night and set the furnace to 50 degrees in the Airstream.   Temperatures went down to the upper 30s outside, so we were at 50 degrees much of the night.   I was comfortable, Eleanor needed socks, and Emma was too warm at first.   I found her under her regular bedcovers in the early morning, but she gamely climbed back into the sleeping bag and decided it was just right for 50 degrees.

We still need a few other things, like boots for Eleanor, and backpacks for Eleanor and Emma, so we’ll finish the shopping at one of Tucson’s local outdoor stores, like Summit Hut.

There are other attractions to urban camping in Tempe.   We have a friend who lives in his Airstream here, one who we like to visit and who also often has useful business advice.   Additionally, there are an enormous number of middle eastern restaurants here.   Periodically I need infusions of rogan josh, hummus, and stuffed grape leaves (for health reasons, of course).   Poor Eleanor wasn’t up to such foods yet, so she missed out.

Tempe has a new light rail line that passes directly in front of this campground and it is very cool.   The sage and pewter-colored trains whisk by quietly every few minutes, heading into downtown Phoenix.   They are modern and sleek, traveling on all-new track laid down the center of Apache Blvd.   I’m told you can ride all day for $2.50.   If we had more time, I would definitely take a ride to Phoenix.

But alas, time has run out on us.   As when we were living in the Airstream, there is never enough time to do everything we want.   Emma has doctor’s appointments and karate classes, I’ve got business travel, and we still have a few renovation details in the house   that never got quite finalized.   A friend is coming for a visit in early February, the giant Tucson gem show will be happening, and then there’s the Florida State Rally, which I plan to fly to.   All of that has trumped the Airstream for a while, but we’ll be back to traveling in it as soon as possible.

A couple of days of walking the Strip isn’t the same as hiking the trails of Death Valley, but it amounted to decent exercise anyway. It was about two miles from our campsites at the KOA Las Vegas to the Bellagio, and I made that roundtrip trip three times on foot. With all the detours that one has to make (via overpasses and storefronts), the trip seems more like ten miles.

The Las Vegas visit was really entirely business.   I didn’t get a chance to play poker with Brian and Leigh, and none of us spent a dime in the casinos. Airstream’s president was in town for KOA’s introduction of rental Airstreams, as well as numerous people from the KOA management team and Airstream’s PR agency.   Brett and I met with everyone, took hundreds of photos, and did all those things you do to solidify relationships between business partners.   Having accomplished all that, I dropped Brett, Adam and Susan at the airport, and on Saturday the Airstream was rolling again south to our next stop.

In the most recent issue of Airstream Life I wrote an article about Quartzsite, which is a town that has become the center of an annual winter RV phenomenon in the midst of the desert.   Being a convenient stopover between Las Vegas and Tucson, and having the bonus that some friends were there, we aimed our ship thataway.

It’s about 200 miles south of Las Vegas down Route 95, or about 150 miles west of Phoenix.   The scenery occasionally gets a tad dull, so we brought along two episodes of “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” on the iPod and Emma read books.   But after the second episode was done, Eleanor began to feel sick to her stomach.   Pretty soon we realized she had picked up something viral from one of the many coughing-sneezing northern visitors that we passed on the street.

Thus she has proven that it’s not true that “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” It has come with us to Quartzsite. Two days ago Eleanor was dancing on the piano at FAO Schwartz, and now she is confined to the trailer, where there are a bed and a bathroom within 20 feet of her at all times.

There are several options for camping in Quartzsite.   You can stay at any one of about 70+ campgrounds, with varying levels of service and amenities.   You can camp in Bureau of Land Management “Long Term Visitor Areas” for $40 (two weeks) or $180 (6 months), with dump station and trash dumpsters.   You can camp in BLM free areas without any amenities at all (not even water).   Or you can go to private boondocking areas for $7 per night.

We chose the latter, because we didn’t expect to stay for long, and also because the El Camino Real Unit of WBCCI was holding a rally there.  Our friend Tommy G (ukulele aficionado who we met during our San Diego visit) is part of that group, as well as other uke players.  Each night of the rally they had a uke jam/sing-along and by arriving on Saturday I was able to join them for the final night.

Several other friends are here too.  Daisy and Don (who we recently met in Campo CA at the railway museum), Patti and Tom (“vintage Airstream” friends who we see at all the western vintage events),   Yank and Rickie (who we originally met at Crater Lake in July 2006 and keep running into), Mike & Tracy from Silverton CO, and Jim Breitinger (the Airstreaming meteorite dealer, who was also camping in Quartzsite with me last year).

All of the El Camino Real folks bailed out on Sunday, and Jim took off to Phoenix to fly to a funeral, but Daisy and Don are still here to keep Emma and me company while Eleanor recovers.   Mike & Tracy and a few other friends are around as well, but parked a few miles off in one of the LTVAs, so we don’t see them as much.  It is a good thing we traveled from Las Vegas in our usual “ready for anything” mode (full water, empty black/gray tanks, plenty of propane and groceries) because we’re going to have to stay longer than we had planned.

The major activity here is browsing the shows.  “Show” is code for flea-market-style vendors clustered by the side of the main drags, selling everything from Indian frybread to Chinese jade phalluses.   No kidding.   The emphasis varies according to which show is current, but it includes lots of tools, rocks, carvings, RV supplies, hats, county-fair food, and used “stuff” of every possible description.  With Daisy and Don, Emma and I wandered the aisles for a few hours and boosted the economy by purchasing exactly one egg slicer and a few tacos.

Eleanor may not see any of Quartzsite, but fortunately we have no schedule this week. We are just going to take it one day at a time and see how her recovery goes.   At $7 per day we can afford to stay as long as we like, and there’s plenty of sun to power our solar panels.   Hiking in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is definitely out, but with luck she’ll be feeling well enough to walk around this afternoon.   Being sick is never fun, but at least we are “home” in the Airstream, and not in a hotel room.

We’re having a great time in Las Vegas.   It turns out that everyone here reads Airstream Life magazine!

Last night we caught up with our friends Brian and Leigh (former Airstream travelers who spent two years on the road), Adam and Susan (defrosting from New England), and Brett (flown in fresh from Tampa, like a crate of oranges).   Here’s a photo from Leigh’s iPhone:

Brett, and Adam & Susan, are staying in the brand-new Airstreams that the KOA Circus Circus has imported.   The KOA will be renting these Airstreams for $49/night (introductory price) here in Las Vegas, so at long last, you can actually try an Airstream before you buy one.   They’ll also be available at other locations across the country, including Sugarloaf Key Florida, and Bar Harbor Maine.

Getting a bunch of Airstreams together is a great way to have a reunion or party, we’ve discovered.   It’s like a rally but you don’t need your own Airstream.   They even come furnished with linens, towels, dishes, pots & pans, etc.   I think they will prove a very popular option.

We’re going to spend two more nights in Las Vegas, and then head down to Quartzsite …