Sep 21 2010

Hopewell Furnace NHS, PA

The smoke and the hubbub of the full campground died down on Sunday as all the weekenders headed back home, and by late afternoon we found ourselves virtually alone at French Creek State Park. We didn’t mind the loss of the campfires, since we were now finally able to open the windows and air out the trailer a little, but it was a shame for the other campers to miss out on such a fine fall day.

We took the opportunity to head over to Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, which is directly adjacent to the state park. It’s one of those smaller national parks that we often miss because it’s not a “destination” park for most people. But you get a lot of value out of these small parks, and I’m always glad when we can get a chance to drop in on one of them.

Hopewell is a small community that supported an iron foundry. They diverted water for miles, to power a waterwheel, cut down acres of trees to make charcoal, and hauled in iron ore and limestone to make iron. This was a major business in the 18th and 19th centuries, strategically important in the war of independence against England and in the general independence of the new American nation. A small settlement surrounded the main building (blast furnace and casting building, where parts for cast-iron stoves were made), with housing for workers, a school, blacksmith shop, barn, store, smokehouse and spring house. You can explore most of the buildings by reading the interpretive signs or by audio tour. And yes, there is a Junior Ranger program.

Monday was one of those days that gets lost in travel. We had only a 2.5 hour tow planned, from Elverson PA to Columbia MD, but all of the minor tasks surrounding the tow ate up the rest of the day. I spent about two hours working early in the morning, then shifted over to getting the trailer ready to tow. Then we pulled over to the water outlet (further down the campground loop) and refilled the trailer’s fresh water tank. Then we hit the dump station. As a result, the Airstream actually rolled out of the park about 11:30 a.m.

Half an hour into the trip, we stopped for diesel fuel and Eleanor spotted a convenient grocery store. Since she was planning to make dinner for our next hosts, she went in, while Emma and I stayed back in the trailer (another opportunity for me to catch up on Monday work, while Emma dug into one of her books). By the time Eleanor was back, the groceries were packed away, and everyone had had their bathroom stop, it was 2 p.m. We pulled into Columbia at 4 p.m., and then it was time to quickly set up the trailer in our friends’ driveway, and start making dinner. Poof! Another day gone.

Well, not entirely gone. We at least got to see some friends that we have not visited in four years. Eleanor fed everyone a huge dinner of bowtie pasta with a cream sauce and chicken, grilled vegetables (eggplant, onion, baby peppers), tossed green salad with one of her homemade dressings, etc. It was a good ending to a long day and since we will be in the driveway at least one more night, we’ll get a chance to relax and maybe even explore a little before pressing on to StarFest later this week.

Now, some disturbing news. Kirk, a friend of Alumapalooza (author of the Alumapalooza anthem), spontaneously had 2,000 “Alumapalooza” decals made up. He was doing a job for another client and tacked these little stickers onto it. He notified us afterward and shipped all the stickers to my office in Tucson.

What was I going to do with 2,000 little stickers (about 5 inches long) that say “Alumapalooza”? Well, if you order anything from the Airstream Life store including hats, shirts, books, or back issues, you will receive absolutely free of charge, a bonus of several of these silly little stickers. Such a deal, eh?

If you want a few, but don’t want to order anything from the store, just send a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope to: Airstream Life, Alumapalooza stickers, PO Box 42288, Tucson AZ 85733-2288. We’ll be happy to ship you a few at no charge. They’ll look great on your Airstream’s bumper. Really.

If you order something from the store but don’t want any stickers, I’m sorry but you’re getting some anyway. I hope you can find a use for them. Maybe they’d be good for minor repairs, in place of duct tape?

But in the interest of full disclosure, here’s the disturbing part: Eleanor noticed that if the sticker is turned upside-down, it says “ezooledewme.” We have no idea what that means. It could be an ancient and powerful magical incantation. It could be a gross insult in some foreign language. It might be a secret code word that will get you into the back door of the Nigerian embassy. All I can say is that if you dare put this sticker on your trailer upside-down, I can’t be responsible for the consequences.

Aug 19 2010

Pendleton blankets

Everyone has got to have a hobby, right? Well, most of the Airstreamers I know have several. It seems to be part of the Airstream owner psychological profile to be interested in lots of things. Perhaps it comes from our deep-seated need to explore.

My friend Fred Coldwell is a prime example. In addition to being the foremost authority on historical Airstreams (and hence a frequent contributor to Airstream Life magazine), he is also very well-versed in the history of WW II Jeeps and “agrijeeps”, and lately, Pendleton blankets.

He’s written two articles for Airstream Life about the history of Pendleton’s long-running “National Park” blankets, and he also has a website on the subject, for collectors. Fred claims that Airstreams and National Park blankets naturally go together. In his first article he suggested that it would a most sublime experience to visit some of the parks in their 100th anniversary years, and then go to sleep in your Airstream beneath a warm woolly blanket from one of those very parks.

Visiting Fred’s house, I’ve always been struck by the incredible collection of vintage national parks blankets he has. His bed is literally buried in them, so many that I wonder how he is able to get in bed at night. He has chests full of them, each with a very specific historical significance that he can explain. The stripes and designs of each blanket have meaning, and many of them are limited editions or historical versions that are no longer produced. It seems almost as if there as many variations to collect as there are with Hummel figurines.

Fred has been single-handedly responsible for my interest in the Pendletons, too. Not long after he wrote his first article, Eleanor and I spotted a limited edition Grand Canyon blanket at the North Rim, and we bought it as an anniversary present to ourselves. A few months later, I bought another one on eBay, “Homage To Spider Woman.” (No, not Spiderman’s girlfriend, but a person from Native American lore.) That one was featured in a fine art post card by Facerock Productions (no longer pictured on their website) and came to me with some red dust still in it from the photo shoot.

The Spider Woman blanket was used on our couch for the winter, and has since gone into the Caravel. The Grand Canyon blanket covered our bed in the house until this summer when I bought three more Pendletons in a bit of a blow-out sale. A guy had gotten these using coupons he’d won at an Indian casino, and was selling them on eBay for cash. Fred, again, was the motivating factor. He emailed me to say, “You’ve got to have this one!” and looking at the Man In The Maze pattern, I decided he was right.

When the buyer came over, he offered me a deal I couldn’t refuse on “The Record Keeper” (pictured at left), so now we have a total of four Pendletons. One for each Airstream, one for Emma’s bed, one for our bed. I plan to rotate them around, since I love all of the designs.

Pendleton makes the collecting habit even more addictive by creating limited-production versions for special groups. For example, the special Grand Canyon blanket we bought could only be purchased at the North or South Rim stores, and only for a year or so. It wasn’t even advertised. You had to go there in order to get one. The “Man In The Maze” blanket is only sold by the Tohono O’odham community in Arizona. My Spider Woman blanket is also no longer available. There are zillions of really cool designs that you simply can’t buy today, unless you can find one used. This ensures scarcity of certain designs, and drives collectors into a frenzy to get “rare” blankets.

But the only really bad thing about collecting these Pendletons is that they are expensive. Typical retail is $200+, although I’ve managed some bargains. They last forever, with appropriate care, and can become heirlooms, but there’s no doubt that collecting blankets is not cheap.

And that brings me to the key point of today’s blog. Pendleton Woolen Mills is running a video contest in which you can win a full set of National Park blankets. Their “Celebrate the National Parks” contest runs through November 1, 2010. To enter, make a short video of why you love our National Parks or describing your favorite National Park, and post it on YouTube. (Details here.) If your video has the most views by November 1, 2010, you win. So, if you are heading out to any national park this summer or fall, take the video camera and maybe you can win the entire set!

Jun 06 2010

It’s (officially) over

As I write this at 8 a.m. on Sunday, the Alumapalooza field is half cleared out. The programmed part of the event is over, and only the “after party” remains. A lot of trailers pulled out last night around dinnertime, fearing that they would be stuck in the mud by Sunday, but most remained until this morning.

There was a lot of rain yesterday — our wettest day all week. We just dropped the walls down on the western side of the big tent, to keep the rain from blowing in, and the seminars proceeded comfortably: Kristiana Spaulding talking about interior design, Sean & Kristy Michaels talking about their Long Long Honeymoon, and Joe Diamond’s amazing “bizarre” magic on stage.

The 7:30 a.m. blast of Jimi Hendrix was perfectly appropriate given the weather conditions. Imagine the scene: a hundred Airstreams quietly parked in the gray early morning fog, grass glistening with dew, patches of mud at all the traffic areas, and people inside their trailers getting breakfast on … when suddenly from the tent comes the loud and clear notes of Jimi’s guitar wailing out the National Anthem in similar weather conditions at Woodstock, NY, forty years ago.

We kept the schedule light on Saturday so that people would have plenty of time to tour the trailers during Open House (including a display of new Airstreams), and meet Airstream staff during lunch under the tent. That turned out well, and despite the swaths of mud that were growing everywhere, spirits stayed high. In the afternoon, as a few people got nervous, Guy Lotz got busy pulling out the trailers that needed help, and by sunset there was a small outpost of perhaps 6-7 trailers parked on the asphalt by Airstream’s paint building. The Terra Port filled up, too. I kept telling people that they would not become permanent residents of the field, and we would definitely get them out with the tractor, but some of them didn’t want to wait for the tractor and pulled themselves out at their first opportunity.

Last night the biggest storms blew through. I have had a weather radio set on “Alert” mode for the past few days, and twice last night I heard the alarm for tornado watches. Those were not near us, and we were never in danger, but it was disconcerting. Eleanor and I woke up at 3:30 and checked the weather radar again on the laptop. Plenty of action around the state, but not much more here than occasional heavy rain and high winds. High winds are not much concern for an Airstream that is designed to slip down the highway at 70+ MPH all day long, so we went back to sleep. When we awoke, we discovered that the western side of the big tent had collapsed partially, and the vendor tent was starting to dismantle itself.

… I was interrupted in writing this blog by the arrival of a few people who wanted to say goodbye, or just chat. Sky came over, as well as Forrest, Brett, Lisa, Zach, Deb,etc. Everyone wants to keep the sociability of the event going, even though the field is now nearly empty. We finally packed up our trailer and headed over to the Terra Port around noon, grateful to be out of the field. It had gone from squishy to borderline marsh overnight. It was getting tricky to walk around and retain dry feet.

The Terra Port is packed with leftover campers from Alumapalooza. Most of them have service appointments for the coming days, but a few like us are just spending one more night before heading onward. For us, this last day is our chance to get everything cleaned up (including the Airstream and the last few bits of stuff from the field) and decompress. We’ll have a pleasant afternoon with our friends in the Terra Port and then head out on Monday.

Jun 05 2010

Silver locusts

I think all the trailers we expected are here now, roughly 125 in total. Alumapalooza has taken over Jackson Center like a plague of silver locusts, and the locals love it. The hardware store is keeping a pin-board showing where all their customers have come from this week. Phil’s Market was completely wiped out of some items, including milk.

Last night’s lasagna dinner at the Methodist Church ran out of food at 6:10 p.m., only forty minutes after they started serving. The Airstream store and Service Center are doing terrific business and will both have to stay open on Saturday just to keep up. The Fire Department dropped by with their new truck last night during Happy Hour and was inundated with donations to help them equip it. (We’re grateful to those guys for watching over us when the big t-storms were passing by.)

This is all great because Jackson Center is a small town in a quiet part of Ohio, and the economy hasn’t been too good anywhere lately. I’m glad we were able to bring Alumapalooza together here and help the community while we also had a good time.

And we ARE having a good time! I can’t count the number of people who have come up to tell us how much fun they are having. Everyone has been very complimentary. There’s no doubt we need to make this an annual event, so we made the formal announcement on stage with Bob Wheeler (president of Airstream) that Alumapalooza 2011 will be held May 31 – June 5, 2011. We’ll have online registration opening up in July this year.

Our day started with sKY and slaDE leading the yoga class again, followed by Colin Hyde pontificating about vintage restoration. (Colin knows what he is talking about — two hours later he was still talking and people were still listening.)

Then we were excited to have our European contingent arrive, led by Michael Hold of Airstream Europe (UK). Ten European Airstream owners have come on a group tour, all wearing identical white group shirts with AIRSTREAM EUROPE printed on them. Some were British, two were Dutch, and I think we had a couple of Germans as well. They turned out to be a wonderful group, very engaged and excited about being here. They got a private tour through the facilities by Dave Schumann, then toured the factory, and afterward joined Michael for his presentation about Airstreaming in Europe. Our “Silver Swingers” event, where American owners had the chance to interact with European Airstream owners and possibly discuss trailer swaps, was well attended, although I don’t know if any arrangements were ultimately made.

Eleanor was contracted to provide the Europeans with a private lunch, so we spent half the morning prepping for that under the shade of our awning and Brett’s motorhome awning. The group said that her meal was the best one they’ve had since they left Europe: lentil and vegetable curry, chick peas with onion and ginger, chicken kabouli, saffron rice with peaches, basmati rice, sweetened iced chai and hot tea, with lemon cookies and nut clusters for dessert. Once serving was done, our crew of four sat down with them and enjoyed OUR first good meal all week, too!

Bob was kind enough to allow rooftop access to a small group of photographers who wanted to capture images of the event. Our official photographer, Alison Turner, was among them, and I am expecting some terrific photos from her later, which we will post on the official Alumapalooza 2011 website a little later.

I heard from our vendors (JJ Johnjulio of SkyMed, Michael Depraida, Kristiana Spaulding, Steve Ruth of P&S Trailer) that it was a great day to do business. Kristiana was nearly cleaned out of her great silver trailer jewelry.

The day’s seminars ended with Jim Webb of Zip-Dee talking about awning care and repair, and then Andy Thomson’s fascinating talk about towing. You might be thinking that towing is a dry topic, and you might believe all the misinformation you have read on the Internet about what makes a safe towing vehicle arrangement, but Andy can broaden your knowledge on both points. Many people told me they were impressed by the depth of his knowledge, research, and thoughtful consideration of the problems involved in setting up a tow vehicle and trailer. Today he is going to offer people the chance to test drive his Jetta diesel hitched to a new 2011 Airstream 23-footer.

We had a ton of leftovers from the lunch (Eleanor always cooks too much) so we invited a few folks over for potluck dinner. Lou & Larry came over, along Bob Wheeler and his family (Kelly and the kids), two of their friends, our crew of four, Terry & Sue B, Joe Diamond (tonight’s entertainer), Michael Depraida, Kristiana Spaulding, and Alison Turner. And somehow, through the magic of potluck, we STILL have more leftovers!

After dinner we all headed back to the big tent to see Chris McDaniel do his fantastic western roping show. Even though I’ve seen it before, it was terrific fun. He roped Dale “Peewee” Schwamborn on the stage and then cracked off 1-inch chunks of a stick of pasta that was stuck into Peewee’s bound hands. He sang, danced, did rope tricks, bullwhip tricks, magic, and generally just entertained the heck out of us.

Last night we had a chance to take things easy. I got some time to sit down with people I’ve wanted to talk to, and Eleanor and Lisa went for a walk. Around 10 p.m. a big thunderstorm appeared in the dark to the west and we got a pretty good light show for half an hour. Eventually Brett, Joe, Brad, and John Long (pictured above with the Bowlus) all ended up at our trailer watching and photographing it.

This morning we are going to surprise a few people by playing Jimi Hendrix’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner” really loud on the PA in the big tent, just before the Swap Meet is scheduled to start… A lot of people have said they are coming back next year. Maybe a little Woodstock flashback music will help ensure they are really committed!

Jun 04 2010

WOW-za, Alumapalooza!

I’m finally awake at 7 a.m. on Day Four of Alumapalooza, much later than any other day because it’s all catching up with me. I think I mentioned before that we are basically running this event on a team of four crewmembers, plus a few volunteers like Tim & Alice, Kirk McKellar, and Greg Blue. (Lots of other people have volunteered to help but we’ve tried not to impose, since we want them to enjoy the event.) This “lean” approach has worked pretty well, considering we now have 107 trailers on the field and well over 200 people attending, but it did require a lot of pre-event organization, and we’re all working hard every day.

Airstream luminaries are still streaming in … yesterday saw the arrival of Kristiana Spaulding (“Silver Trailer” jewelry designer), David Winick (designer of the 75th Anniversary Bambi), and Bob Wheeler (president of Airstream), among others. We had a full day of presentations again, with Vic Smith, Forrest McClure, Bert Gildart, Eleanor, a representative from Dexter, John Long speaking about Bowlus trailers (a big hit, especially with his gorgeous restored Bowlus sitting right outside) and ending with Larry Huttle, chairman of Airstream. Eleanor’s “traveling kitchen” show packed the tent again, and I heard a lot of compliments from the attendees later, which made us both happy.

But I think ALL of the seminars have been well received. People are just raving about them. One of the biggest compliments we’ve gotten came from folks who had planned to stay only 3 days. They canceled their other plans so they could stay 5 days instead. People are already planning to come again next year.

We’ve been lucky with the weather again. The morning looked very grim and in fact the outdoor polishing seminar got rained on, but no thunderstorms, and the rest of the day was sunny and dry. We definitely beat the forecast. From here on in, things look much better (weather-wise) so I think we are in good shape.

sKY and slaDE are doing yoga classes every morning at 8 a.m., and getting a huge crowd each time. That was unplanned, but clearly people like it. We will have to invite them back next year. It was interesting to see them doing yoga under the small tent while simultaneously in the big tent we had 300 doughnuts on a buffet table at the SkyMed presentation. You could stretch and breathe at 8 a.m., or sit and munch — your choice!

The Service Department at Airstream has done amazing work for everyone here. They were booked solid a few weeks ago, but they’ve managed to squeeze in lots of people like us who didn’t get early appointments. They are even working on Saturday to clear up the backlog. Our trailer got hauled into the Service Center yesterday for the leaks and came back a few hours later. The skylight was replaced (for cracks) and several spots were re-caulked. Paul, our tech, took about 10 minutes to walk through the trailer with us and explain everything he did — which struck me as remarkable considering how busy they are.

Today we have the British Invasion scheduled. Ten European Airstream customers are coming on a group tour for Friday and Saturday. Eleanor is catering their lunch today, so she’ll be busy half the day with that. We’ve shut down our registration operation and will just register the last few new arrivals near the main tent after they self-park. I hope that will give some of the crew a chance to attend a few seminars today.

Every day it gets easier, more fun, and better weather. Alumapalooza is really happening now. Our Facebook page is going nuts, too. I think we are destined to do it again in 2011!