Archives for 2010

May 20 2010

Denver, CO

One of the very best things about owning an Airstream is that we can “live” in all of our favorite places without having to buy second homes, timeshares, or hotel rooms. As we’ve traveled the country we have found a number of places that we seem to be drawn to again and again. Without the Airstream, we just couldn’t afford to make the long visits to those places that we’ve become accustomed to.

Denver, our current stop, is one of those places. We have a remarkable number of friends in the area, including several regular contributors to Airstream Life. There’s a very active vintage Airstream community here. Recreational opportunities are excellent, the climate is mostly dry, and Colorado in general is a great state. Every year we spend a week or two here, and it costs us about $250 a week to live in the Airstream, conveniently located in Cherry Creek State Park, with all the comforts of home.

Another spot is in Vermont, where we have family. With courtesy parking, two months in our rolling condo costs us exactly $0. Florida is another. We spend a month in Florida every year or two, which costs us perhaps $800-1,000 for camping. (Compare that to a vacation rental.) And for that we get to camp on the beach in places like Fort Myers, Destin, and the Keys, plus Disney World’s Fort Wilderness campground and next to beautiful Florida freshwater springs in various state parks. You can’t beat it.

Over the years we’ve collected a lot of favorite places. I think discovering those places has been a big part of the joy of travel. The first visit to every special place has always been the most memorable. We go back mostly in hopes of feeling that joy again.

I have talked about all of our favorite spots in previous blog entries (mostly the Tour of America blog) but I haven’t compiled a formal list because everyone needs to find their own. Sometimes the aspect of a place that strikes us is something subtle that we can’t quite describe or quantify: a smell in the air, a small-town atmosphere, or a formative experience in an otherwise ordinary place. It doesn’t matter. The important thing is that we made a wonderful memory and if we go back we can add to the original moment. You’ll find yours, too.

This week we have been making the rounds of friends and places in Denver. Our major tourist moment was going to the Denver Mint on Tuesday. If you are hoping for free samples you will be disappointed, but you can buy a shiny gold-colored presidential dollar coin in the gift shop for the bargain price of … $1. Considering that we are talking about the Federal government here, that’s really not bad. No tax.

The tour is about 30 minutes and includes a peek at some of the heavy-duty industrial gear that is used to make coins. You don’t get to see too much, and photos are strictly prohibited, which is why you will see no photos here. Security is tight. An armed officer is positioned both behind and ahead of the tour group at all times, so there’s no possibility of wandering off on your own tour. You can’t bring in anything larger than a wallet. We went through a metal detector and they required me to remove the battery from my cell phone.

There are good exhibits, but the machinery is mostly hidden in the form of a series of large metal boxes that do mysterious things. Unless the conveyor belt is running, you can’t really tell what anything does from the mezzanine viewing area. You could just as easily be touring a cheese factory. Go for the exhibits and the tour guide’s interpretation, not to see big machines stamping out coins. By the way, the Denver Mint doesn’t make paper money. The word “Mint” in its name might have tipped you off, but a lot of people are surprised by this, so I thought I’d mention it.

After the Mint we checked out the state capitol building, just a short walk away. That meant another metal detector, but after that we were free to explore the architecture. Colorado’s capitol follows the usual rotunda-and-marble theme of most others. It’s fine, but Wisconsin’s capitol building in Madison is considerably more interesting for tourists. Not far away, across the park is a bizarre mishmash of architecture surrounding and including the Denver Art Museum. You have to see it to believe it. Downtown Denver is spectacular for architecture, and I could definitely take a few days to walk around and see it all.

Visiting local friends and being tourists on Tuesday has meant several meals out, so Eleanor has not had need or opportunity to make dinner for us since her video debut on Monday. Tonight she’s going out to see a friend without me, which is great for me since I’ll get to eat leftovers of Monday’s fantastic little stew. I think we’ll try to do another food video blog in a few days. This weekend we’ll be boondocking across Nebraska, which might result in some brutally honest “we just towed 400 miles and I don’t feel like cooking” moments. Will we just roll over and eat at Cracker Barrel, or will Eleanor get creative? Tune in to find out.

May 17 2010

Where’s my dinner?

Eleanor and I are trying a new experiment. No, it’s not one of those experiments to “liven up the marriage,” but just something that we’ve wanted to do for a while. As we travel, we’d like to periodically produce a simple, low production-value, video blog about food. So we took a stab at a first episode today, and you can see it here.

We have no particular aspirations for this, and we don’t expect it to be a major hit. It’s just one of those things we do for ourselves. Eleanor has a lot of good ideas and a lot of experience at cooking (not to mention a degree in Culinary Arts). It has been more than a decade since she last worked as a chef, and so the video blog is simply an outlet. It’s a chance to explain what we eat when we are in the Airstream and how she prepares it. Hopefully it will be helpful to someone else who likes to travel and cook, too.

Right now the video blog has no name, and no home. If we keep doing them, we’ll set up a website for them. (Don’t expect anything as professional as The Long Long Honeymoon, however. Those two are pros — we’re just hacks at this video blog game.) For now, it’s just for fun. We’re thinking about calling it, “Where’s My Dinner?”

Our drive today was only about 70 miles, from Colorado Springs to Aurora (a suburb of Denver). We’ll settle in here for a few days to get some work done. I have plenty to do. Although most of the work for Alumapalooza was completed weeks ago, we still have lots of small tasks, and as the event date approaches the phone seems to be ringing more. We have 118 trailers signed up and we expect over 125 in the final count. About 260 people are signed up to attend so far. An amazing number of people are flying in, too — I think the Hampton Inn in Sidney OH (our official hotel) is going to be Party Central for all those folks without trailers. So Brett and I have been very busy trying to make sure everything comes off just right.

The only thing that keeps me awake at night is the possibility of rain in the days before the event. Everyone hates mud. Since this is an El Nino year and it seems like it has been wetter than average almost everywhere, we’ve got a tractor on standby just in case things get sticky in the field. Pray for dry weather on May 29-31 … but probably it will all be fine. I’m obsessing a little because I want everyone to have a terrific time.

On the maintenance front, I did get around to lubing the squeaky ball on the Hensley hitch, but I didn’t shoot a video of it. It would have been a horrible video, because everything went wrong. I forgot to do the job before unhitching the car, and it’s really difficult to do once unhitched, because the darned thing is so heavy. I use the car’s receiver connection to support the hitch head (which is what I was going to demonstrate on the video) and of course I didn’t remember until the trailer was completely set up.

So everything had to be done twice, and there were plenty of glitches like the cordless drill battery going dead, and me accidentally smearing the back of my hand with grease. It wasn’t a pretty scene. But eventually it all got done and now we are squeak-free again.

This may seem like a small thing, but it’s actually very important. I like the hitch to run as close to silent as possible. That way, if something cracks, loosens, or otherwise fails to operate normally, I will hear it and know to investigate. This turned out to be quite important two years ago when a hitch bolt came loose on our Nissan Armada. The squeaking of the hitch ball was driving me insane today because it kept setting off my “danger” radar.

One other thing I forgot to mention: we are traveling with a four-foot long fiberglass greyhound. It used to hang in the Greyhound Bus station in Phoenix. I call it “Glassie.” As pets go, it is pretty good. No “walkies,” no scooping, no barking, no shedding. I could get used to this but the dog belongs to a friend in the Chicago area for whom we are transporting it. An Airstream is a better and safer method of shipping a dog than UPS, as it turns out, except that the dog keeps falling asleep on our bed during towing, and I have to evict it to another part of the trailer at night.

May 15 2010

Colorado Springs, CO

We were lucky — the weather driving up I-25 from Las Vegas, NM to Colorado Springs, CO was nowhere near as bad as I had feared. A few sprinkles to wash the Arizona dust off the car, and gray scudded skies were the worst of it. Even in the Raton pass the wind was not bad at all, which made the trip only mildly uninteresting, which is better than extremely interesting when you’re talking about weather.

I am really enjoying the rear-view camera we installed on the Airstream. I leave it on most of the time we are towing, and it acts basically to replace the rear-view mirror. The wide angle lens is ideal for backing up because I can see things to the sides and above the trailer (like tree branches that might scratch the top) but the corollary is that it is not so good for seeing vehicles at a distance as they approach on the highway. No matter — it is still great to have early warning as vehicles approach to pass, or when somebody is tailgating. It’s also great that I can now back up short distances (like at a gas station) with positive assurance that nobody is standing behind the trailer in the blind spot. We don’t have a blind spot anymore.

I’ve found, however, that there is no substitute for Eleanor standing beside the trailer to guide me in when backing into a campsite. The fish-eye perspective of the camera makes judging distances almost impossible. I tried it here at Cheyenne Mountain State Park yesterday and it was clearly not going to work. So we’ll continue to back into tight spots the way we always have, using hand signals.

Last year I blogged about Cheyenne Mountain State Park, saying that it was a great addition to the Colorado State Parks system, and clearly many people agree. We had to book our weekend reservation weeks in advance, and even then we could not get a contiguous 3-day stay. So today we had to hitch up and move to a new site for our next two nights. It’s still worth it. Like some other Colorado State Parks, the campsites are primo: landscaped and manicured sites with pink concrete pads, full hookups, beautifully laid out, hiking trails everywhere, and almost every site has a view. Plus a good laundry, store, an awesome visitor center, picnic areas, etc. I should stop talking about it or the next time we won’t get in here at all…

It’s particularly ironic to be enjoying the great state parks of New Mexico and Colorado when the goofball politicians back in Arizona are busy devastating the state park system there. If you want to camp in Arizona, be aware that the state park you planned to visit may be shuttered or operating on a limited schedule this year. Other states are enjoying record attendance in their parks (SD) (NC) (VA) (FL) (MO) and can clearly see the economic benefits of state parks, but some of Arizona’s state legislators have seen an opportunity to raid a fund and cut a budget item. Which will be the most sustainable long-term choice for the state’s economy?

Well, we’re spending our money in Colorado now, and thanks to this state park in Colorado Springs we will stay for three nights when otherwise we would probably have stayed only one or two. If we hadn’t made reservations up in Denver for Monday, I would be booking a fourth night, because I’ve since found more things to do here. State parks are a long-term investment in a state’s future economy and quality of life.

Today we had planned as a free day, but the weather was not great for outdoor stuff, since it is cool and thunderstorms have been popping up. That’s when the errand list comes out. There’s always something that needs doing, whether it’s a little shopping or a bit of maintenance on the trailer. Since we just got started, I had only two items on the trailer list. The strut jacks on the Hensley hitch have been binding lately, and that’s a problem solved with a few shots of silicone spray. As we pulled into Colorado Springs, I also noticed the distinct squeaking that tells me the hitch ball needs lubricating. With a Hensley, that’s a job most easily done while the car is still connected. I’ll do that on Monday when we get to our next stop, and maybe shoot a little video to show you how we do it.

When we were full-timing we were often asked how we decided where to go. There’s a long answer to that, which involves juggling a bunch of priorities, but part of the answer is that we try to get ideas from people we meet. That’s what happened today, when we met up with blog readers Al and Jo. They told us about the work they do with Canine Companions for Independence, training puppies to become service dogs. We learned that these service dogs go through a lengthy training before they can become service dogs, and when they are done they actually have a graduation ceremony. So attending one of the ceremonies got added to our list of “interesting things to see” and we might even get to see one this November.

May 13 2010

Storrie Lake State Park, New Mexico

The worst part about long driving days is that there is so little to recall at the end of the day. There’s just a sense of ennui from looking at too much concrete, combined with agitation from unspent energy. This is the price we are paying for delaying our trip and having to rush through New Mexico.

Finding interesting rest stops and overnight stops provides some relief. The best stop we made all day was a four-mile detour to Pecos National Historic Site in northern New Mexico. The site interprets and preserves ruins of a Native American pueblo, along with the ruins of Spanish Conquistadors who occupied the territory while they were searching for fabled gold. The site has a long and interesting history, and the Visitors Center does a very good job of showing it, with a nice display of artifacts (mostly pottery) and dioramas. I don’t think it had a Junior Ranger Program but in any case we arrived too late in the day for Emma to complete one.

Pecos was a nice break, but it did chafe to pass so many other possible stops. New Mexico is loaded with Ancient Puebloan history, early American settler history, Route 66 history, and attractive natural areas that were begging us to just pull over for a few hours. But we got a late state this morning and ended up a solid 100 miles short of our expectations for the day. If we procrastinate any further we will disappoint a lot of people, so we really have to keep on truckin’, at least for another day.

Our stop tonight is at Storrie Lake, a little state park just a few miles from I-25 near Las Vegas, NM. It’s like a miniature version of Elephant Butte Lake, not as majestic, not as large, but pleasant in a small-town kind of way. The sites are the same: primitive, developed, electric, and at the same prices. Since we had full sun most of the day, our batteries completely recharged during the drive and so we chose a non-electric site by the shallow little lake.

I had forgotten how disciplined about work I have to be when traveling. At the end of a day of driving, I have to immediately jump to the computer and catch up on email. But today I got caught out: while the phone works fine here at Storrie Lake, the Verizon Wireless Internet card does not. It connects, but no data transpires — so I can’t get online.

This happens sometimes on the road, and I have a variety of strategies to combat it. In this case, the solution is to leave early on Friday, and stop along the way (perhaps at lunchtime) to catch up then. But I was still worried this evening about certain problems that were up in the air, and that was bugging me.

The answer came courtesy of the iPod Touch. As we tow, the iPod is constantly in touch with the Internet because our Verizon card is installed in a Cradlepoint wireless cellular router (in the Airstream), and I leave it on all day. This gives us a wifi hotspot in the car in case we want to look something up from the Internet. Translated from geek-speak, that means that the iPod Touch was picking up my email as we drove. So although I can’t reply to anything tonight, I can at least read the 21 emails that arrived since this morning. Fortunately, in the batch there was nothing urgent.

Tomorrow looks like a rather dreary day. We have to tow about 300 miles through what is expected to be rain with low temperatures. Part of the drive will bring us up to nearly 8,000 ft elevation (at Raton Pass). It was snowing in our destination, Colorado Springs, this morning, which does not bode well either. I do not want to see snow, and I especially don’t want to drive through any of it. It could be a very long and slow drive …

May 12 2010

Elephant Butte Lake State Park, NM

At long last we are back on the road. Getting back into the Airstream was easy, like riding a bike, but getting out of the house was not. Even though we delayed our departure a couple of times, it was still a long day on Tuesday settling final projects and packing the Airstream.

Part of the trouble stemmed from the fact that the Airstream will be away from home base for six months, and it contains a growing child. Eleanor desperately tried to plan for Emma’s expected growth this summer by test-fitting every single piece of clothing, culling the borderline outfits and finding suitable replacements. This was a process I’d just as soon never see again, much like touring a meatpacking plant or a Congressional committee hearing.

But it’s all done, and by 10:20 a.m. (only an hour behind schedule) we were heading away with everything we’d need for an indefinite time on the road. We got back into the full-timing groove almost instantly. At the first rest stop, Emma commented wistfully, “It’s good to be back.” I had to agree, although I realized that she was twice the size and twice the age she was when we started out the first time. She used to be able to sit cross-legged on the dinette and take pictures through the window, but now, she’s a pre-teen approaching five feet tall. Still, the Airstream is home to her.

Having trimmed a full week from our original itinerary, we have to make some miles at first. Rather than dawdling through New Mexico, we are making a simple overnight stop at Elephant Butte Lake State Park in central New Mexico (near Truth Or Consequences) and then proceeding north to Colorado. Our trip plan calls for about six hours in the car on Thursday, then about three hours on Friday, and then we’ll pause in Colorado Springs for the weekend.

Zooming past the scenery is not all that bad today. Generally we like to go more slowly and explore, but this time we are making notes for a future pass through the area. There are a lot of interesting state parks, historic and natural areas, and “blue highways” that we would like to explore, and we will, next year. The sky is brilliant blue, the mountains are red and tan, and the weather has been absolutely perfect. Best of all, the Airstream and Mercedes are performing optimally, with no strange glitches resulting from months in storage. So our opening day has been auspicious and I hope it will be the start of a long stretch of happy towing.

Elephant Butte Lake is a nice spot. There are “developed” campsites (shade ramada, water, barbecue grill, $10) lined up on a bluff overlooking the long and convoluted lake, and we chose one of those. Our Verizon Wireless cell phones seem to work fine here. Down below are sandy primitive sites ($8) where tenters are camped right next to their boats pulled up on shore, and a large marina. Off to the west and mostly lacking a view, is an electrified campground ($14) where all of the other RV’ers seem to have chosen to be. I don’t think you could go far wrong choosing any of these, but I would warn RV’ers to avoid the sandy primitive spots by the lake, because you could easily get stuck.

After a long day in the car it’s really important to get out and move around a while. There was just time for a nice walk down to the beach and back (about a mile total), settling in, and dinner, before the sun set. We needed that break to work out the little travel stresses that build up in a long day of driving. I spent the evening on the bed, working on my first little travel video about towing with the Mercedes. Eleanor shot it for me with her little Canon digicam. The video quality isn’t superb but it does the job, and it was fun to make. You can see the results of our first effort on YouTube.

Now the wind is blowing warm against the side of our trailer in the dark, with a brilliant star-filled sky, like it should be in the desert this time of year. I had forgotten about this: a night with the trailer gently rocking in the breeze. I won’t ruin it by putting the stabilizers down. Emma was right, it really does feel like coming home.