When you are on the road and just zooming along the highway, the little events sometimes become the big events.  That’s something to be grateful for.  It means that your wheels are still rolling, your engine is still running, and life is good.

Our trip from Ohio yesterday was completely ordinary.  Concrete highway beneath the wheels, broken up by the occasional toll booth on I-90, a few rest stops (they have Tim Horton’s along the tollway rest areas, so Eleanor bought some coffee), a slight pattering of rain on the windshield, and lots of farms and fields flying by.  By dinnertime we were settled in a parking lot, and by 10 p.m. we were video-streaming an episode of The Tonight Show on the laptop (via Hulu).

Around this time Eleanor noticed a smell like propane gas. We started sniffing around in the bedroom, but it was elusive; sometimes we could smell it, sometimes we couldn’t. To me, it was reminiscent of the odorant in propane, but not quite the same.  I tried to reassure Eleanor that whatever it was, it wasn’t dangerous, but she was nervous.

Now, I wasn’t concerned because I know a few things about propane.  First, all the propane lines in an Airstream run outside and beneath the trailer.  So there are no lines in the bedroom to leak.  Second, propane is heavier than air,  so a leak in any of the outside lines would settle to the ground or blow away, not float up inside the bedroom.  The only real concern would be the few points at which propane lines come into the trailer and those are all in the kitchen area (where our stove/oven, water heater, and refrigerator are located).

Since the mystery odor was in the bedroom only — very close to the bed — I was sure we didn’t have an explosive situation and was prepared to go to sleep, but sometimes logic is trumped by wifely concern.  Eventually I found myself standing outside the trailer in the light rain, wearing pajamas, and sniffing around the propane tanks to show her that we didn’t have a leak outside.  Nor was there any smell whatsoever on the breeze.

But that left us with a stinky mystery.  When I came back inside the trailer I could still get occasional whiffs of …. something … and so could Eleanor.  It was like propane, but it wasn’t.  We turned over pillows, slid the mattress to the side, checked each other’s clothing and even our own breath.  Nothing.  And yet, there it was again.

Suddenly Eleanor broke up laughing.  “I know what it is!” she exclaimed as she leapt from the bed.  She dug around in that heap of “overflow” groceries that she stores by her side of the bed during travel, and came up with two bags of garlic naan that she’d bought from Trader Joe’s the day before.

Well, let me tell you, even in a plastic bag, garlic naan can put out quite a stink. So that’s your Airstreaming tip for the day: don’t store the garlic naan in your bedroom.  You probably didn’t need that tip, but there it is anyway.

And knowing that the worst thing to happen to us all day was the Mystery Smell made me feel good, and we went to sleep.

(Photo by Alison Turner, official Alumapalooza photographer)

Our final post-‘palooza tasks completed, we are at long last moving east again.  It was touch-and-go for a while there, since we kept thinking of things we needed to do before leaving the Airstream factory.  We don’t expect to be back there for a year, and I’m always careful to consider any possible trailer maintenance that needs doing, before I drive away from a competent repair facility.

We seemed to be ready to go, but as I was hitching up there was a snag with one of the two jacks associated with the Hensley hitch.  They had been getting progressively more difficult to turn over the past few weeks, so I had lubricated them with silicone spray when we moved to the Terra Port.  I noticed that a fair bit of rusty lube dripped out of the driver’s side jack as I ran it up and down, and it still seemed to be binding a little.

When I went to hitch up yesterday, the jack got about 3/4 tight, then slipped. It acts as if the internal gear is stripped at one point, and no longer can be tightened to full operating tension, which means that one of the two weight distribution bars couldn’t be adjusted properly for travel.  Another delay.  Airstream doesn’t stock Hensley parts, so I got on the phone with the company HQ in Michigan and ordered a new one.  Problem is, with ground shipping it won’t arrive for four days, so we had to come up with a work-around.

The work-around was to tighten the jack as much as it would allow, then move the connecting pin at the bottom down two holes (thus shortening the jack) to compensate for the rest of the distance it needed. Normally this isn’t recommended but I was assured it is OK for a temporary fix.  We towed uneventfully for three hours to our destination at Lou & Larry’s home near Cleveland.

Well, I shouldn’t say “uneventfully.”  Our new friends sKY and slaDE (I keep thinking of them as “Kentucky and Delaware”) were delayed for their own reasons, and wouldn’t be able to get to their destination 7 hours east in Pennsylvania, so I invited them to caravan with us for a night of hospitality with Lou and Larry.  They immediately accepted and so we had a fun drive across Ohio on Route 30, making jokes on the walkie-talkies.

So now we are parked in the driveway, our rigs nose-to-tail, each with water and electric hookup, and just a few steps from the backyard with its little fire ring.  About a dozen Airstreamers were here last night for dinner on the lawn, most of them from the local area.   We’ve stayed here many times, and it always is a very relaxing experience.

Since the weather is fine and I have a huge backlog of work, we are going to spend another day parked in the driveway.  Eleanor went out this morning with Lou, sKY, and Loren to stock up at Trader Joe’s, while slaDE hung back and enjoyed some solitude in his trailer, and I tried to catch up on the 78 emails still unanswered in my Inbox.

Tomorrow we expect thunderstorms again, but we’ll spend most of the day driving so it won’t matter.  I prefer to work on the sunny days because I can open the windows and have sunshine filling the trailer, which is inspiring; I prefer to drive on the mucky days and enjoy the scenery, which is comforting. And since Eleanor and I will be alone in the car as we go, it will be a great opportunity to talk about anything that comes to mind.

Of course, the minute everyone was gone, the weather cleared up in Jackson Center and it has been beautiful ever since.  I’m talking about 72 degrees, dry and clear.  A big cold front shoved through the last thunderous storms on Saturday night, and then it apologized by bringing absolutely perfect weather. Although everyone said they had a wonderful time at Alumapalooza, I wish they could have had just one day like we had on Sunday.

One of the last events of the JC Community Days was the town parade in the afternoon.  It’s a classic piece of Americana, complete with horses, tractors, beauty queen floats, fire trucks, prize-winners and politicians.  They even throw candy from the floats as they drive by.

Brett, Lisa, and Dale Schwamborn were invited to sit on a platform with the mayor of Jackson Center, as honored guests.  We roamed the street taking pictures and just absorbing the down-home pleasure of small town life as the parade drifted down East Pike Street.

After the parade we went back to the rally field to see what debris was left.  The field was amazingly clean — everyone picked up after themselves, so we had very little work.  We pulled out the stakes, flagging tape, and markers, turned off the power, and that was all it needed.  The water was ankle-deep in some places, and the mud was reaching dramatic levels in a few spots.  Here and there we’d see the scars of a mighty battle to pull out through a soft spot.  But the field will heal soon enough and if we are lucky next year will be a little less meteorologically dramatic.

As a reward to ourselves and our friends who stayed on and helped, a group of us went to The Spot To Eat, a diner in Sidney. There were ten of us, and we pretty much took over that little restaurant for a couple of hours.  It was the perfect end to a great week, with heaping plates of specialty burgers (the Main Street comes with a pumpernickel bun, Swiss cheese and mushrooms), onion rings, fries, and sides (root beer, frosty malts), etc.  Eleanor and I both had rhubarb pie for dessert, too — a big dietary splurge for us these days.

slaDE asked me what day was my favorite of the week, and I said, “Today.”  That’s because the pressure of Alumapalooza was over, all the attendees had gone home happy, and I was relaxing with friends.  On Sunday, Jackson Center felt like The Spot To Be, for me.

In the front row: Rich, Kristy, Eleanor, sKY, slaDE.  Back row: Sean, Brett, Lisa, Adam, Susan.  Photo taken with Sean’s camera on timer.

Today we are clearing up a few items before departing.  I’ve bought some LED replacement lamps from the Airstream store (for energy conservation while boondocking), and we’ve put our large items for next year’s Alumapalooza into storage.  We also bought a few other things from the store, including a piece of glass for the Caravel, so re-packing the car and trailer is part of our pre-departure agenda.

Most of the other folks are here because they need things from the Service Center.  Adam and Susan are staying on until they can get a damaged awning repaired (a victim of the high winds this week).  Brett and Lisa’s plans are vague.  Gunny is staying another week to get some aluminum repairs.  Sean & Kristy bailed out this morning, and sKY and slaDE will be gone as soon as their flat tire is repaired.

We don’t need anything further from the Service Center, but the weather is so nice again today that I hate to leave.  Still, we need to retrieve Emma in Vermont, and many other things are pressing.  We’ll head out this afternoon and make a short trip across Ohio to adventures that lie ahead…