It’s amazing the impact something like a wedding has on things, even after it is over.   Eleanor spent a week recovering from her massive one-woman catering effort, I spent hours sorting photos and burning DVDs for people, and there were random days of cleanup and other tasks sprinkled in as well.

Steve and Carolyn took a very interesting trip down Lake Champlain in their little Boston Whaler, all the way through the locks and canals to Troy NY, and then back.   This took four days and struck me as the kind of honeymoon I’d like, because unusual trips interest me.   Then they came back to base and sorted through the wedding garbage, looking for recyclables.   Somewhat anti-climactic, but typical of them: right back at the hard work, persistently motivated.   It’s not every new married couple that starts off their new life with a hunt through maggot-covered trash.

Last Thursday Brett flew in from Florida and we retrieved his motorhome from Colin’s shop in Plattsburgh.   Friday we visited the WBCCI Region 1 Rally up at the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds in Essex Jct VT. I was the after-dinner entertainment, speaking about “Camping in National Parks,” which was well-received by a crowd of about 70 people.   We ran a little contest as I talked and showed slides of some of the 130+ national parks we’ve visited.   The people who could identify the most parks in the slides won prizes, like Airstream Life t-shirts.

I’ll be presenting the same talk this week at the Vintage Trailer Jam, in Saratoga Springs NY.   We arrived here on Tuesday, and by then Brett, Colin, and a couple of others had already set up.   Tuesday was “early bird” arrival day, with about 8 trailers ultimately showing up.   Yesterday was the arrival day for the all other registrants, and we saw about 30 more trailers pull in.   Today we are expecting another 25 or so, plus on-site registrations.

It looks like we are in for a great week.   The weather has been humid and warm, but thankfully mostly sunny and mostly we’ve avoided the thunderstorms.   The trailers and tow vehicles coming in are very cool to see. I would guess that about 60% of them are repeats from last year, and that means plenty of new people and trailers to check out.   We’ve got really cool door prizes to give away every day, including items from Thetford, Worthington (aluminum propane tanks!), a Cyclo polisher, a complete set of Airstream Life back issues, and tons of other items.

This year Eleanor is joining the panel of invited speakers. She will be co-presenting a short seminar about “Backing up your trailer without getting divorced,” with me today.   On Friday she will give a talk on how to set up your traveling kitchen to do anything you want, and on Saturday she’s giving a kids program about bats, where the kids will all get to make bat t-shirts.   We’re expecting 15 kids this year, which is really great.   Emma will come down on Friday with Steve and Carolyn to join us.

It’s go-go-go all day every day, so I’ve got to rush off this blog and head into town to drop off a FedEx package and make some photocopies.   While we’re here at the rally I hope to post daily, so there will be more photos and details coming …