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.

What I've Done So Far

While at first I didn't think there'd be that much that I'd want or need to add to my Safari SE 25' FB, it turns out I've done a fair amount. I'll try to compile my list here:

added a solar panel and charger (see earlier post)
added Xantrex 400 watt pure sine wave inverter--while I don't use it a lot, it is good to know that I have 120 volts available at half the trailer's outlets when dry camping if I want it; I put the remote switch on the galley wall, using the pre-wired cabling
replaced the stock 10 watt recessed halogen bulbs with 5 watt for virtually no discernible difference in light output but reduced power consumption by 50%
added a 19" 16:9 Polaroid LCD/DVD player TV to the bedroom, mounted on a Peerless articulating wall mount; this draws 3.5 amps on 12 volts and doesn't require an inverter since it comes with an external power 'brick' that converts from 120 volts to 12 volts, perfect for dry camping with relatively low power drain
added an AppleTV with 160 GB hard drive; I keep this at home and have it automatically sync new movies & music and pop it into the trailer when I go out
I am in the process of replacing many of the incandescent bulbs with LED's, warm white in color though it still is a little 'cool', slightly warmer than fluorescent but not quite halogen or traditional incandescent in color/temperature but uses 10 - 15% of the power
added a TriMetric battery monitor; since we usually dry-camp, this is an indespensible device for monitoring charge state, power consumption, and percentage of power left
replaced the stock water pump with a ShurFlo Extreme 4.0 pump; it's almost silent and no more pipe rattling!
I just ordered custom fitted flannel sheets

There's still more experimenting to be done with LED lighting on my end, though I may wait to replace the halogen lights until the color is better tuned
I like the idea of another solar panel but I'll have to find room on the roof
Probably going to replace the factory vent in the bedroom with a second Fantastik Fan but I'll wait until it's warm out
The factory mattress leaves much to be desired so at some point I'd like to replace it with something more akin to the Tempurpedic we have at home but hopefully lighter and nowhere as tall

We've made at least 15 trips with it since getting it at the end of March this year and have slept in it at least 30 nights and really like it. The walk-around perpendicular queen bed is a mixed bag--nice size (over the full size in the old trailer) but since I sleep on the side closest to the front of the trailer, it's a hassle getting in and out of it, not to mention making it is a pain, the 27' is mounted length-wise and is probably more convenient but adds weight and cuts down on the number of places you can take it

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.)