Not an Airstream thing but maybe travel?….

Michelin unveils list of 'value' restaurant picks - San Francisco Business Times

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

For memorial Day weekend 2012 the family and I headed up to Salt Point State Park between Jenner and Gualala.  I've always enjoyed the area, it's a relatively small State Park with two campgrounds, Woodside (east of Highway 1) and Gerstle Cove (west of 1).

Fort Ross is only a few miles south and is a favorite destination for us, it's a recreation/restoration of the rich history fort that served as a self-sustaining but never profitable Russian trading post and later as a export post for the US shipping sandstone to SF and timber.  The fort is very nicely maintained and free for visits if you are camping in one of the Sonoma County parks.  We spent an hour or so visiting the fort itself and then strolled out the western gates and viewed the shoreline, beach, and had a brief picnic near the caretaker's cottage.

Like much of the Sonoma county coast, Salt Point features dramatic bluffs and tranquil beaches.  Sunday we visited Stump Beach which is only couple of miles north and the creek was still feeding into the ocean and our girls and other kids loved playing in it, creating dams, wading, looking for critters, etc.  We explored the sea caves, tide pools, and even saw a curious seal who came close to the shore to visit.

Originally we planned on staying 3 nights but unfortunately we're a little more tethered to the Internet than we may care to admit and Sunday afternoon we headed back.  This did give me time to get everything put away on Monday and to give the Airstream a much needed bath and do some maintenance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yosemite Webcams

SF Chronicle just reported a new webcam in the park that displays Yosemite Falls.

Yosemite webcams | Yosemite Conservancy

May 1, 2012 Sear's Point CLASS Track Day

On May 1 I attended Reg Pridmore's CLASS school at Sear's Point - Infineon.

While this isn't really an Airstream post, someone did have a 16' Bambi there.  ;-)

Photos and videos here.

Mancation 2011

July 21 - 24 was the 2nd Mancation weekend trip for me.

Like the first one, I headed toward the Sierras, namely an area near Icehouse Reservoir on the edge of the Desolation Wilderness.  I arrived Thursday night around 9 PM and checked campgrounds but they were all booked so after spending almost two hours driving around from site to site I started watching the GPS for forest service/OHV roads.  I found one that looked promising and drove down.  Of course, I've had mixed results with trying to find unofficial campsites late at night and kept my fingers crossed as I headed down a steep hill of an area that looked promising, at least on a 2 dimensional GPS map!  I managed to find a site at the bottom of the grade and off a little bit.  I backed the trailer in and leveled things out and it worked out great.  It was near the end of a now defunct logging road and there was a family group camped out a few hundred yards away with tents.

I brought along the VFR in the back of the truck so the next morning I unloaded it and took several rides through the area on Friday, spending some time sitting by the different lakes and hopping on the Internet to keep tabs on things when I had signal and take in the mountains and at one lake, a few mosquitos!

Saturday morning I met up with my friend Lance Bucher of Placerville, my old neighbor and we had breakfast in Markleeville and then headed up one of our favorite roads, Highway 4.  While we weren't trying to put a knee down we did have an enthusiastic ride up and back down the pass.  I love any twisty road with a 20% + grade!  Unfortunately since I started riding Ebbett's, it's clearly become much more popular but with cars and weekend drivers who often seem to have a tough time respecting the fact that it's only a 1.5 lane road and just because there aren't lane markers that they should stay toward their side of the road.  All in all though, a great ride.  I went back that afternoon for some more riding around the Icehouse area and came back for an early dinner and some reading.

Sunday morning came around and it was time to head home.  It was a great solo camping trip, good man time, lots of fun.

Olema, July 2011

Olema is our safe hand that we play when we want to get away for the weekend but we're not quite ready for a long road trip or foreign environs.  We stay at the Olema Ranch Campground.  It's a surprisingly large campground (private) considering that it's in an otherwise quite uninhabited area (Point Reyes Station-Olema area in west Marin).  It's a simple campground and we generally stay in the partial (water & power) area and we can relax, let the kids play at the small playground, go into PRS for supplies (albeit grossly overpriced), get one of the world's greatest hamburgers at Marin Sun Farms Butcher (12 - 4 daily), check out the community garden, or go to Heart's Desire Beach or the Point Reyes Lighthouse.  Tons of stuff that we've done several times but enjoy all the same.

It's always great to get out with the family and have some activities and sit around the campfire.

July 8 - 10, 2011.

Montana-Idaho-Wyoming-Nevada 2011 Trip

The trip was a huge success! We covered roughly 2700 miles in 10 days, 2-1/2 days up and 2-1/2 days back. We saw more than we expected and did more than expected, family and kids were all great.

Drive Up

Left at ~4:30 PM on Tuesday, drove until about 2:00 AM to Deeth, NV, an area I rather like pulling over and camping. My usual spot was blocked and the backup was flooded with a small river running across the run (fun surprise at 2:30 AM!). We went for a new plan C and had a good night's sleep.

In the morning we had a relatively easy drive up to Ketchum, ID. It was great watchin

g the

Sawtooth Range get larger as we app

roached. We arrived around 2:30 PM and broke out the bikes and had a nice ride and stroll through Ketchum as well as spen

ding some time by the river with the girls who started the first of their many sessions of throwing rocks in the river there. After grabbing some soup and rolls from the local grocery, we headed up over Galena Summit toward Stanley, closer yet to the really dramatic bits of the Sawtooths. We drove up toward Red Fish Lake, which is a pretty rough dirt road and camped out shortly before the lake. It was a brief but peaceful and quiet camp. There was a bit of snow falling in the morning though it didn't stick.

We then headed up toward Salmon, ID, a drive I've done many times before and still enjoy. We had lunch next to the Big Hole River in Montana near Wise River and played for a little bit. We

got back in the truck and headed over through the Pintlar scenic route toward Anaconda and then toward Butte on Interstate and up to Helena, arriving around 4:30 PM PST to a whole bunch of family and a big dinner. All my brothers (Pip, Kevin, Andy, & Sam) were there with their wives or girlfriend along with my mom (Diana), and dad (Leo) and my step-mom, Chris. It was a great time though Andy's kids were a bit under the weather so they didn't make it up that night.

Friday was an assorted day including going to the local exploratory museum for the kids and we finally got all the grandkids together at my mom's house, in fact, the grandparents even offered to watch the kids while the parents went to dinner at the local 'On Broadway.'

I have a feeling it might have been a bit like Lord of the Flies while we were gone but I think it was still fun.

Saturday Chris and the other grandparents and moms had coordinated a gargantuan 2 year olds' birthday party at the Great Northern Carousel.

 

 

 

Rick and Mary Jane drove down from Kalispell for this and the kids, parents, and grandparents had a great time. After the kids woke up from their much needed naps we drove

out to Leo & Chris' house toward Clancy. There the kids explored the creek, got wet, swung on the tire swing, a

nd had a tea party in the tent in the back yard.

Sunday was the start of Part 2 of the reunion, with a convoy of sorts driving to Island Park, ID. We stopped in Ennis, MT for lunch.

I had completely forgotten what a beautiful area this is and after lunch we let the kids run around in the park in town. The dads and uncles played with the kids while the moms checked out the local stores. After an extended break and some now-tired kids, we got back on the road for the remainder of the easy drive to Island Park, ID. I had never been there but it turns out you can see the Tetons from there, across a huge valley so on a map if you locate Grand Teton National Park and then look west, you'll see the Island Park area. Apparently it's quite popular with fishermen, snowmobilers, and ATV riders. You have the Centennial mountains to the northwest not far away and lots of water and pine trees. We had a wonderful 4 bedroom cabin that slept everyone except for those with trailers/RVs. The trailer folk had water and power and the place even had a hot tub and washer/dryer!

Monday morning we did the caravan to West Yellowstone, about 45 minutes away, and crawled through the first 20 miles of the park as the Yellowstone first-timers gawked at Elk and Bison (never mind the fact that there would be hundreds coming up just a few miles later). We headed toward Old Faithful Inn for a view of the iconic geyser and a walk around the others. We snapped lots of pictures,

had a nice lunch in the big dining room, and afterward some did a loop through the park and others headed back to put the tired kiddos to bed. That evening, like many of the others, we had nice campfires and Chris brought s'more fixings so we indulged. Later some of us took advantage of the hot tub.

Tuesday Andy & Sherri, Sam & Alexis, and Carrie headed up toward Big Sky for a rafting drip down the Gallatin. The others went for a drive down to Harriman State Park, a gorgeous area south of Island Park with available cabins for rent.

Quite beautiful and serene, with terrific views of the river. During that afternoon we lost a few members of our party as Pip & Alayne had to fly out of SLC that evening, Diana had to go to work that afternoon back in Helena, and Rick & MJ had to return to Kalispell for work. The smaller group still had fun but it was clearly approaching the end of the reunion.

Wednesday morning we did the cleanup and loaded up our respective vehicles for the return routes. Carrie & I opted to give Yellowstone another try since we didn't get to see or do much in the park the first try and we weren't on a particularly pressing schedule. After another tedious first 1.5 hours to go 20 miles, we took the Canyon Loop which would take us toward Fishing Bridge and Yellowstone Lake. Shortly before getting to the Lake we saw a bunch of cars stopped and I spotted a big Grizzly bear napping in the shade. We pulled over as soon as we could and Carrie and Sadie went back to check it out. At last we got to see a Grizzly bear but it wasn't entirely satisfying. We kept going to Yellowstone Lake and stopped at the Hotel, which is just a bit across the way from the cabins we stayed at many years ago. The Hotel, while grand from the outside, was a bit disappointing in side. We had lunch while overlooking the lake which was outstanding in vistas. Afterward we got some ice cream for desert before the girls were scheduled for a big nap and I'd keep driving through Teton National Park.

The views of the mountains are amazing, and it doesn't take a long time to drive through the park so if you're in the area, it's highly worthwhile. We stopped and took pictures of the mountains and Jackson Lake as we had some outstanding lighting in the partly cloudy late afternoon sun.

Not long after the lake, several cars were pulled over and I spotted the Grizzly mulling around int he grass.

There wasn't room for me to pull over so I started snapping pictures like mad out the window while driving (I know, not the safest thing but it was only 5 mph). When we had a chance we pulled over and checked the photos, turned out that a few were pretty okay and there was a special surprise picture, there were two cubs in one photo with their ears poking above the sage brush!

We continued on to Jackson, WY where we stopped and walked around and went to Wort's Silver Dollar Bar & Grill inside the Wort Hotel for dinner (which was outstanding!). After dinner a storm was clearly moving in so we got back on the road to head over Teton Pass. I wasn't worried about pulling the pass for elevation as it's about the same as the Sierra Nevada passes that I've pulled many a time, however it's pretty steep, most of it with a 10% grade. The rain was coming down pretty hard and it was dropping to about 40 degrees near the top. This was the first time I wished I had a bigger truck, namely a turbo-diesel but my F-150 did it and was fine afterward. As we got to the bottom the campground I located on the iPhone was there and had a couple of sites available so we pulled in and put the girls to bed.

The next day was the long haul leaving the Teton mountain range to go through the south central part of Idaho, mostly flat agricultural country and then down highway 93 to Jackpot and intersecting Interstate 80 at Wells, NV. This was a highly uneventful drive once we got to Idaho Falls and past and I drove across most of Nevada at night which I rather enjoy. We stopped near the Highway 95 intersection and camped out on some public land and had one of the best views of the sky you could ask for--high desert with no moon makes for amazing star displays!

In the morning we packed up and headed into Reno to an old haunt of ours, Peg's Glorified Ham and Eggs and had a huge and delicious breakfast. We made one more stop at the top of Donner Pass to commemorate our trip and recollect what we'd seen and done.

It was a great trip, and was truly hard to come home and admit that the trip was over. We'll have more trips this summer, extended weekends, mostly, but this was our big one for the year and will serve as a great reminder of why we love the west, the camaraderie of my immediate family traveling together, and the adventure of traveling and camping with the Airstream!

 

Many thanks to everyone for contributing their photos to the collective pool.  We got some good ones!  If you'd like to see more of the photos, please follow this link.

Long Overdue...

Not that I have a lot of followers but I meant to do more posting than I have.  So, with that said, I'll try to post some stuff about our upcoming trip.  We'll be heading to Montana and Yellowstone National Park.  I'll be seeing pretty much all of my immediate family--my parents, step-parents, brothers and significant others, and nephew and nieces.  Looks like a good amount of rain (and possibly snow!) is in the forecast but we're going to make the most of it nonetheless.

Technology wise we're dialed in with primary and redundant mobile wifi (two different carriers), a small NAS, a Popcorn-hour based appliance loaded with kids stuff, even an iPad for the kids and a pair of kids headphones (I've overheard Tangled about 43 times, one more and I may have a breakdown).

Carrie has busted butt getting supplies and kids ready and as soon as I can get out of the office, I'm heading home to finish my last couple of things.  I just setup my blog so I can readily post photos from the road so I'll try to do that as well, either subscribe with the Atom link at the bottom of the page or check back.

Good Sam Insider Article, RVing with Children

A timely article for us by Good Sam Insider Newsletter....

Are We There Yet?
Tips for RVing with Children

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An RV vacation can be the ultimate family bonding experience. Nothing quite encourages communication and the sharing of good times like a getaway in a fifth wheel, motorhome or travel trailer. And with recreational vehicles featuring many of the comforts of home, RVing is the ultimate in kid-friendly travel.

But, traveling with families, especially kids, can also be challenging. Following a few simple tips the next time you hit the open road with your children or grandchildren can be the key to ensuring you have an amazing family vacation.

Allow extra time. When traveling with children, don't over schedule and don't rush your trip (unless you absolutely have to be somewhere at a certain time). Kids, especially younger ones, get bored easily, and even the roomiest RV can be confining for children. Work in places to explore or events to attend along the way. Make frequent stops to allow for restroom breaks and for children to run around. And, arrange to stop early enough each day to let the entire family unwind before bedtime.

Keep kids entertained. A plan to keep kids amused or busy along the way will increase the enjoyment of everyone in the family. Bring along plenty of fun road games as well as activity books, playing cards and some favorite toys. Engage in "on the road" trivia or play the license plate or letter game - find letters from the alphabet on the road signs, etc. Pack plenty of CDs, DVDs, even books on tape to keep the entire family entertained. Choose kid-friendly campgrounds that feature activities and amenities and are located nearby family attractions.

Prepare for emergencies. Be prepared for any type of emergency that may come up. Remember to pack a first aid kit-especially important when traveling with children. Always have a list of emergency contacts including your insurance and roadside assistance provider. If you are on your way to that perfect camping getaway with the kids or grandkids, the last thing you want to have to deal with is a breakdown in your RV. Good Sam RV Emergency Road Service has taken the worry out of RVing. They are the authority on RV towing. It is their business and they know the right questions to ask in order to send the right people and equipment to assist you.

Provide for comfort in vehicle. Comfort is especially important when traveling with small children. Pack their favorite stuffed animal, special blanket and pillow, family photo or similar items. It's also a good idea to give each child an assigned space to keep toys and personal items. No matter how small this area, it will make them feel more at home and also help keep your RV tidier. Packing a cooler with snacks, fruit juices and bottled water will also help ease a long trip.

Map it out. With preparation you will find it much easier to travel with children. Design your course and plot out directions, destinations, kid-friendly campgrounds, and attractions along the way. When you carefully map out your trip, you can determine the path that offers the most interesting events and sights en route. With travel tools like Good Sam Trip Routing, you can calculate mileage and driving time, locate Good Sam Parks where you can claim your 10 percent discount and identify the most RV-friendly route.

Hit the road this summer with your children or grandchildren. RVing is a great way to create happy family memories. Just remember to keep these tips in mind…along with a patient attitude…and get closer with your family on an RV adventure

Airstream March Newsletter - Big Sur

Big Sur write-up

March San Luis Reservoir/Basalt Campground

March 13th Sadie and I drove down to Los Banos to pick up the Airstream from Toscano RV Center from its first annual warranty checkup. I had a few small issues taken care of and it was great to be reunited with the silver bullet. They gave it the best bath it had had in months and we celebrated by taking it over to the Basalt Campground nesteled in some trees at San Luis Reservoir. It was just a quick overnight trip but we had fun nonetheless. Sadie squealed when she saw the Airstream and cried when I took her out to go handle the paperwork. The whole evening camping she didn't want to come out of it and instead ran back and forth and read and played with her toys, even though there were lots of rabbits and magpies hanging out in the campground. It's a really nice, quiet and clean campground. No utilities but that's fine by me!

February Olema

Feeling the need to get out for a quick camping trip, we packed up and went to one of our favorite local campgrounds, the semi-developed Olema Ranch Park.

It was cold and windy when we got there on Friday and proceeded to dump rain on us all day Saturday. Other than watching Sadie splash through the mud puddles, we don't have much to report on the trip and ended up heading home Saturday afternoon.

Uneventful trip but always fun to get out in the Airstream!

January Monterey - Carmel - Santa Cruz

With a 3 day weekend for MLK's birthday, it only made sense for us to do a camping trip! Since we hadn't been to Monterey/Carmel in years, we thought it would be fun. The weather, while not providing much of the needed precipitation this year, was splendid for a camping trip. It was 75+ every day and no heat was necessary. We camped out at Laguna Seca County Park outside of Monterey just off of Highway 68. Laguna Seca is, of course, where the races take place. While much of the track was closed off for people to wander on and walk around (probably a good idea), we did get to see some of it.

We arrived Friday about 8 PM to a very clean campground, very quiet with lots of very nice RVs there. The campground has power and water (30 amp power) so we plugged into both and put Sadie to bed. As much as I relish dry camping in state and county parks away from people, it was kind of nice to not have to worry so much about conserving power and water this time. The campground was $30 per night and was really a nice place to come back to each day.

Saturday morning we headed over to Carmel and drove through town and scoped things out so we'd know what else we would come check out the next day. We went back to the trailer for lunch and then headed over to Monterey to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium where we spent 3 hours checking out all the aquariums and interactive exhibits. Sadie got to touch a couple of starfish and see a giant octopus moving around in its area, penguins, sharks, sea otters, and countless other critters. We had dinner at the Sea Harvest Fish Market, a very reasonably priced restaurant (not overly charming but also not littered with tourists) and had some great seafood. I liked Carrie's comment, 'this didn't come out of a box!' They also have great prices on raw fish if you want to buy it there and cook it up at home.

Sunday morning we went back to Carmel and strolled the shops and grabbed sandwiches from an Italian deli and sat out on the beach and had a really nice lunch. Afterward Sadie and I played in the sand and we all people-watched in the 75 degree weather. That afternoon we then drove up to Santa Cruz and checked out a couple of other campgrounds for future return trips, New Brighton being the one we really want to try next with one of the 'premium' sites backing up to the cliff overlooking the beach and ocean below. Should make for some spectacular sunsets there! We then drove around Santa Cruz and toured UCSC (home of the banana slugs) and then when Sadie woke up we headed over to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Only half of the rides were open but we took Sadie on a few of the kiddie rides--the jet helicopter (she had to do that solo), the speedway (Carrie did it once with her and I did it with her), and the merry-go-round (which at about the same age my parents had taken me to).

After hitching up Monday morning, we paid the $9.25 and did the 17 mile drive. There we saw some of the most amazing homes we've ever seen, nonetheless with one of the neatest vistas you could imagine as the homes had phenomenal views of the Bay. We grabbed lunch in Pebble Beach and then made the rest of the drive home.

It was a tremendously enjoyable trip and we'll remember it for years to come.

New Year's in Yosemite

Neither Carrie nor I had seen Yosemite in the winter so we headed off for the long weekend to spend some time in the Park. We hadn't been there in a few years either and we both needed a mountain fix.

Upon arriving to the park entrance, at night, we discovered some pretty ice and snow packed roads. There had been chain requirements and 4 wheel drive was pretty much a necessity. I seem to have a habit of arriving to our destination after dark and this was no exception. Instead of only being dark though, we got to park in a tight site with a bunch of snow. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to park on the most level portions of snow in the site, we finally got pretty close and it worked out okay. It was colder than we expected and there was about 2 feet of snow throughout the campgrounds but it was fun for all of us.

We ended up spending a good amount of time in the Ahwahnee Hotel's big room sitting by the fire, running around with Sadie, and relaxing. We also drove up to Wawona one afternoon and I finally got my cheeseburger fix there. We did a few short hikes and checked out Badger Pass ski hill and watched the ice skaters at Curry Village. It was a really good time and was neat to see the beauty of Yosemite in the winter. We took some pictures too!

First Winter Camping in the Safari SE!

We're heading out tomorrow afternoon on our first winter trip and we're going to Yosemite. The park doesn't take reservations in the winter months so we're hoping to get a spot but I'm not too worried about it. There are lots of sites in the park and lots of NFS land outside of it. While the weather forecast shows lows in the upper 20s, I noticed that it was only +9 F this morning so we'll see how the Airstream furnace does on keeping the tanks toasty. Since the furnace draws so much battery power I've also brought along the Mr. Buddy to supplement the heat so I don't have to use the furnace quite as much. I also have a spare battery in the form of the Duracell/Xentec battery/inverter. Last time out I used it for watching a couple of movies and for Sadie to watch a Sesame Street and it worked out great. Of course I always travel with the generator too so those things combined with fully charged batteries, a 110 watt solar panel, and many of the interior lights being converted to LED, I think we should be okay.

I don't expect to get all the way into the park tomorrow afternoon/evening so we'll probably pull over somewhere along the way on Highway 120 and set up for just the night and pull into the park early in the morning on Friday.

Both Carrie and I need a snow and mountain fix since we've not been to the mountains since early last year when we camped in the Hope Valley (between Markleeville and Kirkwood, one of the nicest boon-docking areas imaginable!).

We're all excited about the trip. I'm burning a couple of movies for Sadie to watch on the drive (more Sesame Street, actually), got the cameras, the Autonet Mobile wireless (let's see how that does in the park....), iPhones and chargers, bicycles, and firewood. Carrie got lots of good camping food and we're fired up. Hopefully I can sleep tonight and will be able to focus on work to get the last bits wrapped up before we shut down for the day.

Sky Gypsies, Rodeo NM

I've been following Rich Luhr's blog for a year or so. Rich produces the highly regarded Airstream Life magazine, a very nice quarterly magazine about travels, restoration, and Airstreams. Rich and his family have been full-timing (or awfully close to it) for at least the past 2 or 3 years and for some periods before that. Anyhow, this sounds like a great trip and the combination of flying with camping with vintage Airstreams sounds great to me.

Sky Gypsies, Rodeo NM: "

Our last(?) stop before Tucson is an assignment I’ve given myself, for the magazine.   There’s a little airpark in the very remote town of Rodeo NM, where a group of ‘Sky Gypsies’ fly light sport aircraft from a 7200 ft packed dirt airstrip.  While I like flying, the real reason we are here is because this park contains a small array of vintage Airstreams, polished and arranged in a semi-circle next to the runway.

This is the fun part of my job.  I interview everyone I see, take a lot of pictures, and then write up the experience for the blog and (eventually) the magazine.

The Airstreams are housing for members of the park association as well as students who come here to get certified to fly light sport aircraft.  Neil Bungard teaches these folks in Air Creation planes every morning and evening when the air is relatively calm and the temperatures are moderate.  It takes about 28 hours of flight instruction to get certified, and so having the Airstreams as temporary housing is handy.

We parked our Airstream in the gravel lot adjacent to the field for a night.  There are no hookups and no formal transient spots for visiting RV’ers, but plenty of room to just dry camp.  At night it’s very quiet, but in the morning and evening it’s nice to hear the sound of little aircraft engines practicing touch-and-goes on the runway.  For a pilot, aircraft noise is a good thing.

We’re 30 miles from a very lonely stretch of I-10 out here.  This is a quiet corner of New Mexico.  It’s 60 miles to a grocery store.  Apparently it’s a popular place for retired astronomers to go, since the night sky is very dark and clear.  It’s also a great place for observing the natural desert world.  There are lots of interesting creatures here, including giant grasshoppers, tarantulas, and javalinas.  Emma found a black widow spider last night, which was exciting for her but then caused her to worry they’d climb into the trailer while she was sleeping.

Coming into the park requires a half mile drive down a washboard gravel road.  When making a 90-degree turn at low speed on this road, the right rear tire of the Nissan blew out. (The on-board Tire Pressure Management System that comes with the Nissan was no help at all — it alarmed 30 seconds after the tire blew out.)

I’ve been watching the Nissan’s tires for a few months.  They are nearly worn out after about 40,000 miles, and my plan was to replace all four when we reached Tucson.  Apparently I waited a bit too long.  This one seems to have failed as a result of wear, sharp rocks, and the added stress of carrying a trailer.  There was a two-inch long rip in the tread, emanating from a central failure point.  There was no sign of a nail or other object (other than rocks) that caused the failure.

We put the spare on but it’s a solid 80 miles to the nearest tire shop, so I am taking a few steps to reduce the risk of the other rear tire going.  We are going to transfer some cargo from the Nissan to the Airstream to lighten the tire load, and increase the rear tire pressure slightly.  We’ll also keep the speed down on the highway today, although lately we never tow over 62 MPH.

"

(Via Tour of America.)