Jun 22 2009

Hot hot hot Springs National Park, AR

I take it back — I can see why we had no trouble getting a campsite at Gulpha Gorge this weekend. The peak season was probably a few weeks ago, when the heat/humidity combination hadn’t yet hit. But there’s a nice little creek running past the campground that, while shallow, seems worthy of a dip on hot days such as we have been having.

Being Sunday, the campground cleared out and now we are sitting mostly alone, which feels more comfortable for us. We’ve typically traveled in the off-seasons and are used to mostly vacant campgrounds. I like the extra peacefulness of empty campgrounds.

We decided to take it easy all day, since we’re facing several more days of intense driving. The first stop was The Pancake Shop, a popular downtown restaurant. Of course, we all had omelettes. I’ll warn you that the cheese omelette does not mislead in its description. I think I ate enough cheese that I’m now well prepped for a couple of weeks among the Wisconsin cheese-heads — a useful acclimation, since we are indeed headed to Wisconsin this week.

The historic district of Hot Springs does have lots of little attractions, including an Arkansas Walk of Fame, several water-jug filling stations, the Grand Promenade, some tiny parks, outdoor sculpture exhibits, and (as I mentioned before) quite a variety of architecture. A fair warning to those who are seeking a cool drink: the water fountains produce cool-ish water, but the filling stations come right from the springs and are hot. We wandered around, sipped the water, and saw it all, and then dropped back into the blissfully air-conditioned interior of the National Park Visitor Center for the Junior Ranger Program.

This has to be one of the easiest badges to get. Today’s program was simply to make an insect out of colored pipe cleaners. They don’t seem to go in for heavy history lessons here. Emma chose the most difficult insect to make, a praying mantis, and the result was pretty good. The Hot Springs park also offers the best arrangement of kid swag I can recall: a badge, a button, a patch, and a certificate for every Junior Ranger. There’s no relationship between the difficult of the program and the quality of the goodies at national parks, but I suppose that teaches a life lesson of sorts: Life is like a box of chocolates. Or something like that.

Today promises to be rather dull. We have nothing on the agenda except to cover a lot of miles. I don’t know how far we’ll get but we aren’t off to a promising start since it is already 9 a.m. and the trailer isn’t ready for towing. We will drive until it seems like it’s time to stop, and there we’ll be. This is why we usually take a month or two to get from coast to coast. The fun is in getting there, but only if you’ve got time to stop. I’m very much looking forward to arriving in Wisconsin, when we will finally be back on the original schedule and able to hang out for about 10 days.

Jun 21 2009

Hot Springs National Park, AR

At long last, we are back in a National Park, Hot Springs in Arkansas. I really feel like these are the places we belong. They are all different, yet every one feels like home.

To get here we had a relatively mild drive along I-30 through quiet parts of east Texas, then a winding scenic drive of about 30 miles through the hills and lush green forests of Arkansas. I’m still on edge about the mechanical things, so the slightest lurch or squeak got my attention, and when we exited the highway for the back roads we began to hear strange clunks and thumps from the hitch. The noises had no particular pattern except that the only occurred when we were turning, and then the sound varied from a light thump to a series of clunks. It sounded as if stress was building up in some part of the Hensley hitch and then being released unevenly. Naturally, my first thought was that somehow our newly-reinforced receiver had developed yet another crack, but upon inspection in the campground (with a flashlight), all of the welds appeared perfect. My presumption at this point is that the Hensley is making a bit more noise than usual because we’ve got the strut jacks tighter than we did with the Armada. I’m going to try a little silicone spray on the stinger and upper connections to the strut jacks to see if this quiets the hitch.

That niggling issue aside, everything else is great. The campground at Hot Springs (called Gulpha Gorge), is shady and attractive, nestled in a river gorge with newly renovated full-hookup sites. There are only about 30 sites, and 1/3 of them are still undergoing renovations, yet we had no trouble getting one on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. on Father’s Day weekend. I can’t understand why it’s not more popular. For anyone visiting historic Hot Springs in an RV or travel trailer, this is a great place to stay.

On the other hand, Hot Springs is filled with historic hotels and bathhouses, and the variety of architecture in and near downtown is fantastic. We dropped into the Arlington Hotel just for a look. It would be fun to spend a night in it or one of the other hotels in town. The buildings seem to fall into three general styles: late Victorian, Art Deco, and 60’s modern. On the fringes of the downtown area a lot of the architecture is in disrepair, and I get the sense that this area is just aching for a massive preservation movement and revitalization. As it is, the Central Street area is pretty lively, thanks largely to the historic hotels that are still active and the presence of the national park service.

There is of course the usual tourist stuff (amphibious boat tours, wax museum, various “gift” shops), but it is easily ignored if you don’t care about that stuff. Take a walk on the brick-paved Grand Promenade walking path instead, just above downtown and behind the regal bathhouses that line the north side of the street. There are thousands of hot springs on the Hot Springs mountain, and you’ll see them all capped by green boxes (to preserve the water source), but a couple of them are left open for viewing purposes so you can imagine how the mountain looked when all the springs ran wild. You’ll only see this if you get off the shopping trail and up on the elegant walking path.

From the campground it is about three or four miles by car to downtown, or you can hike up and over the Hot Springs Mountain in about 2 miles. But even though we love hiking, there’s no chance of that this weekend. It’s too hot and humid for enjoyable hiking, even in the early morning. The humidity helps keep the heat in place, and so it never seems to cool off here. We wake up in the morning and it’s still 80 degrees with humidity that slaps you like a hot wet blanket. The next time I hear a Tucsonian complain about how hot it is in the summer, I’m going to buy them a one-way ticket to Arkansas or Missouri. Tucson is much nicer this time of year. At least it is dry, and it cools off overnight so that we have refreshing early mornings.

I will give this area credit for not having hordes of mosquitoes. I don’t know why, but I have yet to see a biting insect since we arrived in the Land of the Humid a couple of days ago. Being from the northeast I fully expect to be riddled with bug bites whenever I’m near a forest this time of year. I won’t question it — just roll with it. I’ll donate blood to somebody’s larvae later this summer anyway.

Since we are on a schedule (groan) and still hustling to make up for two weeks of delay, we can’t stay long. But since this is the first time since we began our trip that we are spending two nights in the same location, we’ll relax today. Emma will do the Junior Ranger program at the NPS Visitor Center, we’ll walk in town a bit, and drop in on some place for a leisurely lunch. I doubt we’ll do much more than that. After 1,200 miles of driving in four days, we all feel the need to decompress a bit, and in my case (since it’s Father’s Day) I expect that may call for an afternoon of reading with the air conditioning turned down to 72 degrees.

Jun 20 2009

Mt Pleasant, TX

More signs that the bad luck spell is changing: we got our service completed at Roger Williams Airstream in record time. Denver had the Hensley hitch off the trailer and disassembled by 9 a.m., and the tire that had been stabbed with a furniture foot was sent next door to the dealership’s tire shop. The tire was patchable, fortunately.

I am glad to have the routine maintenance on the Hensley done. It was functioning perfectly, but some items needed attention. The inner spring-loaded nubs on the grease zerks often wear off, and one of ours was broken. The bushings that hold the weight distribution bars were definitely a bit stretched (oval rather than round), and the bracket that holds the bushings together had broken. None of these things are emergencies. There wasn’t time for a really good strip-down of all the old paint and rust, but Denver managed to get it lightly sanded and repainted anyway. It looks a lot better and there’s a feeling of confidence in knowing that the entire thing has been inspected.

Everything was back in and set up by 2 p.m. or so, leaving us plenty of time to navigate the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex traffic. Driving through this area is no fun with a trailer, and we are careful to avoid it at rush hour. Since it takes over an hour to get from Weatherford to the east side of Dallas, we were pushing it a bit to depart as late as we did. We encountered two places where traffic inexplicably screeched to a stop for no apparent reason, and several slowdowns. That’s not bad by D/FW standards.

Along the way I happened to observe a Honda Pilot ahead of us. The rear wheels were obviously bowing outward, from being seriously overloaded. I pointed it out to Eleanor as a cautionary example. People think that if the vehicle seats 8 people, it can take 8. But that’s not always true. When we owned a 2003 Pilot I remember being mildly impressed by the 1100 lb carrying capacity. But divide by 8 and you’ve got 137.5 lbs per person. How many adults do you know that weigh 137 lbs?

We caught up to the Pilot a few minutes later, and sure enough it was filled with six or seven people, all of whom were large. I estimated that the Pilot was carrying something on the order of 1,400 to 1,600 lbs of human cargo, plus whatever personal belongings they had. I’m sure the people inside had no idea how badly they were overloading their vehicle, but they must have noticed the horrible wallowing handling, and eventually they’ll find other “unexplained” problems like abnormal tire wear.

Worse, the high center of gravity of most SUVs gets even higher as you add more people. People in the towing world become cognizant of loading issues (if they want to stay alive), but the average SUV owner probably never thinks about it. For comparison, our vehicle while loaded with the three of us, our belongings, a full tank of fuel, and towing a 30-foot Airstream requires about 90% of the available carrying capacity, while that poor Honda Pilot was easily 40% over its carrying capacity. Most people would guess we have the heavier load, but appearances can be deceiving, which is why we go to truck scales to be sure what we are carrying.

I think I mention this because I always get grief about my tow vehicle, no matter what I use. When we towed with a 2003 Honda Pilot (then pulling a 17-foot Airstream Caravel, and later a 24-foot Argosy), I was roundly abused by people who told me how unsafe I was. When we switched to the Nissan Armada and the 30-foot Airstream Safari, it was the subject of long-winded discussions by many people who were sure that we were a rolling death trap. Four years and 80,000 trouble-free miles later, I think the choice proved itself.

But I expect no less commentary from the current tow vehicle. People will talk. Personally, I don’t engage in tow vehicle debates. I will only say that I do the numbers and the research, and satisfy myself that we are safe. Also, my choice is not for everyone. You can probably guess from this that we are not towing with a large American pickup truck. That should narrow it down for those who are dying of curiosity about the new tow vehicle.

We left Weatherford early because we could get a jump on the drive to our next destination, Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. Midway along I-30 there is not a lot of excitement, but in the little towns along the road we had an opportunity to stop for Texas barbecue. You can’t get real Texas barbecue in Arizona, any more than you can get an authentic New Orleans muffaletta in New Jersey, or a Maryland crab cake in California. You have to go to the source.

Our overnight stop has been in Mt Pleasant, home of Bodacious Barbecue. It wasn’t the type of dry-rub Texas barbecue I was hoping for (Bodacious goes in for sauce, which is a point of differentiation between barbecue enthusiasts), but it was just fine. And we had another sweltering humid night boondocking in a parking lot, because we arrived too late to make a campground stop appealing. The overnight temperature never dropped below 80 degrees. We’re getting used to it, slowly, and using all the techniques for keeping cool that we used in Death Valley the one time we camped there in June. But tonight we shall have electricity again. I don’t think I am ready for several days in the humidity of east Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri without air conditioning just yet.

Jun 19 2009

Weatherford, TX

I can now remember why I blogged every day when we were on the road before. There’s often too much going on to summarize in a less-frequent post. Life moves at higher speed (figuratively and literally) in this mode, even when we’re not really accomplishing much.

We spent a warm and sticky night in Odessa without air conditioning. We’ve gotten used to the dry air of the desert and it was a small shock to the system to suddenly be smothered in heavy air. We slept on top of the sheets, silently wishing for a small whisper of cool air to slip in the windows. That never happened, even with three vent fans running all night, but somehow we managed to eke out a few hours of sleep.

At 7:15 Eleanor poked me awake and I leapt out of bed to be the first in line at the Wal-Mart Tire Center, only to find out that the tire guys wouldn’t show up until 10 a.m. Apparently they were only doing oil changes at 7 a.m. I put the Airstream’s spare tire on, and we headed to Weatherford, 280 miles away, for our planned service appointment at Roger William Airstream. It was bliss to get into the comfortably air-conditioned car after a night of Odessa heat.

Roger Williams Airstream is not currently a dealer, but a dedicated service center. We’ve often come here for the service and the comaradery of Robert H (manager) and Denver (technician), as well as friends who live in the area. Since our last visit, huge canopies have been installed that cover the parking lot. These were mandated by the insurance company as a hedge against future hail damage, but they make life in the parking lot rather plush. We’ve got a water and electric hookup, and shade from the canopy, all of which make the 95+ degree temperatures and high humidity bearable.

Only a few minutes after we arrived, we received our first visitors. The Hughes family on a three-week trip from Illinois, spotted the Airstreams from the road and dropped in. Sandra read the old “Tour of America” blog and knew all about us. (We’ve gotten used to people we don’t know showing up and telling us all about our lives.) They turned out to be a charming family and we hope to see them again on the road someday, perhaps when they swing through the southwest next year.

Our good friends the Mayeux invited up to their place for dinner, about 30 miles north of Weatherford. Roaming Airstreamer/artist Michael Depraida was there as well, being currently courtesy-parked in their yard. This was our first chance to meet Michael, which is long overdue since he has been contributing to the magazine in little ways for over a year. His art is very popular among the Airstream community, and I plan to feature more of it in upcoming issues. We talked about that as well as the story of how he became a full-time Airstreamer. He’s been on the road since 2000.

It was well past 11 p.m. when we finally got back to the Airstream, and I was exhausted. We’ve been driving too much, sleeping too little, and were in danger of getting run down before our trip really got going. It was a real pleasure to get back to the Airstream, with the air conditioning set to a comfortable 74 degrees, and our beds awaiting us. The Airstream has once again accomplished its mission: I feel revived and relaxed this morning, ready to take on whatever today throws at us.

Administrative note: I’ve been getting tons of comments and private emails from folks since I started blogging this trip, so clearly I need to write more often as we travel. I plan to post every day or two until we get to Vermont, which should be in about three weeks.

Jun 17 2009

Karma on the rise

If luck, karma, biorhythms, or psychic energy go in cycles, then mine is finally on the rise again. After weeks of disappointments related to the new tow vehicle, and having to cancel two weeks of road trip plans, things have begun to go my way. On Tuesday I got the long-awaited receiver hitch repair, and it is not only only cured of the failed welds, it is amazingly fortified. From the street there is no sign of alteration, but beneath the car it is a hidden dragon, replete with gussets and plates that strengthen it. Looking at it, I feel like I could ram a M-1 tank and come out the victor.

We probably went a little overboard in reinforcing the receiver, but I didn’t want a chance of a repeat occurrence. If by some chance a weld does break, there’s enough redundancy in the design that the hitch should not fail catastrophically (e.g., come off in pieces). I’ll be checking it regularly from here on it, too.

With the hitch done, I was able to take the Airstream out for a 45-mile spin around Tucson, and back to the truck scale for a re-weigh. It handles beautifully. So we re-packed the Airstream, cleaned up the house, and made it out the door by 8 a.m. this morning.

Being so drastically behind schedule, we were obligated to violate one of our most sacred rules: Thou Shalt Not Tow More Than 300 Miles Per Day. We usually choose to travel more slowly so that we can stop and enjoy things along the way. But now we’ve got commitments in Texas, Wisconsin, Ontario, and Vermont that just won’t wait. Knowing this, we planned a brutal frontal assault on the travel plan, and towed the Airstream 600 miles today, ending up in Odessa, TX at the …. (wait for it) ….. Wal-Mart. Oh yeah, we’re back in the saddle again.

Considering the ambitiousness of our first day out (with a new tow vehicle and a new receiver hitch), it was remarkable that absolutely nothing happened along the way to delay us. That is, until we pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot. I did my usual post-drive walk-around, during which I routinely inspect the tires, hitch, and underside of the trailer. There it was: a fresh reminder of our uncanny ability to attract pointy metal objects. We had picked up a nail through one of the trailer tires.

OK, so my karmic score is somewhat less than 100%. It’s still better than it has been the past couple of weeks.

The offending object is actually one of those plastic buttons that go on the bottom of a piece of furniture. The nail that should be securing this plastic to a couch is instead securing it to our tire, and holding air quite nicely. Nonetheless, it has to go. Fortunately, this particular Wal-Mart is a Supercenter and includes a “Tire Express.” We’re parked right next to it, and at 7 a.m. when they open I expect to be standing there with a trailer wheel. If I’m lucky (uh-oh) we can be on our way with a patch in 30 minutes or so. If I’m not lucky … we might be losing a couple of hours scouting for a new trailer tire.

Since Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Savings Time, we managed to cross two time zones in one day, and we arrived at 9 p.m. local time. This is not to our advantage. I’ll have to be up at 4 a.m. Arizona time in order to be the early bird at the tire shop. But that’s a small price to pay. I’m so accustomed to getting nails and screws in our tires that it hardly even fazes me anymore. It’s just part of the routine.

Our roadtrip marathon is far from over. We have to go 1,400 miles in the next 7 days, with a couple of non-driving days in there for appointments. Keep your fingers crossed for us. And if you happen to be going to the International Rally in Madison WI next week, we’ll hope to see you there.