Nuestra casa rodante - Our Airstream, travels and such…

We made it back from our week’s long excursion. We started on Thursday and, as I was hooking up, I noticed that one of the trailer tires was starting to split in the tread. Time to get another. Luckily a local tire store had a tire and said it would take 20 minutes to mount it. Sure enough, that is all it took. Removal and reinstallation on the trailer was speedy due to my TrailerAid. We got on the road, got some supplies and lunch in Oakhurst at Todd’s Cookhouse BBQ. The drive through Yosemite and down Tioga Pass took a bit of time due to the speed limits. Roxie did not like the downhill part of Tioga since she was right by the dropoff. Arrival at Obsidian Dome was about 5pm.

The Sierra Nevada Unit of WBCCI is a very likable group. We had a total of 8 trailers there. The evening turned out to be a bit too cold to sit around and talk much. The recent fire limitations did not allow a campfire which put a bit of a damper on things. The next day some of us helped out the Forest Service to remove some fire rings in the area and make the area look like they never existed. This is to try to deter people from camping in areas where they should not. We took a much needed nap that afternoon and then went into Mammoth Lakes for some supplies. On the second day we were welcomed with a waffle breakfast which filled everyone up. The planned potluck at lunch was pushed back until dinner. We decided to go to Devil’s Postpile National Monument. I hadn’t been there since 1974, Roxie never.

We were going to stay one more evening but decided to go visit my sister in Bishop, since we were over that way. After that we headed back through Yosemite to the Yosemite Pines RV Park, our stop for the next 3 nights. The park is OK. They say they are rated #8 from the Travel Channel but I don’t agree. It is not very lush, all dirt. Our sewer hookup was uphill from the trailer which made it hard to empty the tanks. What is does have going for it is that is close to many things.

The first day we decided to go through some Gold Country towns along Highway 49. We went down the CA-120 grade, past Lake Don Pedro and through Jamestown. We stopped for lunch in Sonora at a very good Chinese restaurant, the Hong Kong. We then decided to go to see a movie. We saw “Live Free or Die Hard”. I always liked the Die Hard series but a added benefit was how many Nokia cellphones were used in the film. I saw an N76, E61 (the one I have) and an E90. After the movie we went to Columbia and walked around a bit. Not much to see so we continued on. We ended up in Jackson and had dinner at a forgettable Mexican restaurant. We then returned home via a different route.

Day 2 was in Yosemite, we went into the valley and took the 2 hour open tram ride. We have only lived for 22 years about 90 miles from Yosemite and have been there a scant 4-5 times. I have seen the trams and thought it would be fun. It was. I usually do the driving and therefore don’t get to see all the scenery. This time I could just relax and enjoy things.

The next day we headed home. We went a bit of a circuitous route to get back. Groveland, down 120 to 49, south on 49 to Coulterville, west on 132 to the Merced Falls turnoff, then south to Merced Falls and on to Merced.

This just added. I forgot to show my favorite place to dump the holding tanks. Click on the photo for more information:

It was nice to get out with the trailer after such a long time.

It is about time!! We finally have plans to take the trailer out. We are going to join the Sierra Nevada WBCCI unit for their rally at Obsidian dome. It is between June Lake and Mammoth Lakes on the east side of the Sierras. We will be going through Tioga pass to get there then we will stay a few nights at the Yosemite Pine RV park and visit Yosemite and/or the Gold Country. I will put up a postmortem when it is over.

Blue Numbers

Originally uploaded by larock.

The big red numbers are fairly well known. They denote your membership number in the Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBCCI). The blue numbers denote my membership number in the Airstream Forums (actually called AirForums now). In my personal opinion, AirForums may take over as the ‘official’ gathering and contact point for many new Airstreamers. This must be what has garnered the change to AirForums, to possibly avoid any future litigation.

BTW, this was posted from my Flickr account.

No, it is not ours, yet. We are casually looking for a different trailer, perhaps a bit bigger. We want a single bed not twins like we have now. My wife would LOVE a permanent dinette.

We saw this one listed locally and went to take a look at it. Here is an external pic:

I have further information about this listed here at the Airstream Forums. Contact me for even more info.

One of the things that was nice about our house was we had parking for a trailer next to our driveway. Not many houses in our neighborhood can claim that. We live on a corner and when the builder was going to place our house on the lot they talked to us about it. They wanted to move our house as far away from the street as possible. We nixed that idea. We told them to build it as close to the street as possible. Our living room was the room next to the street, not our bedroom so we weren’t worried about noise. The nice thing about doing this is that it put our house 14′ from the neighbors lot line.

When we initially got our trailer, we put down some pea gravel to park it on and parked it right next to our driveway:

The problem with this (not shown in this picture) was the the nose of the trailer was VERY high and the wheels were sitting on an incline. Not too stable of a setup. So I did this:

I dug out where the wheels would be. This made less of an incline for the wheels and it lowered the nose tremendously. A side effect was it was easier to park since I had a spot to aim for and the back birm let me know when it was in.

Forward to about 2 months ago. We have been doing some remodeling to our house. One of the things was to concrete in at the side (remember that 14′ wide section) for parking for the trailer. We also had to change the gate configuration. But it is done. We now have a place to park the trailer by our house and behind a fence. I think our neighbors like us better now that the trailer is not blocking their view, plus we have a place to park our daughter’s leaky ‘83 El Camino. Here is a pic of the trailer in its’ new hiding space (I did have to relocate the satellite dish a bit higher).

Not the kind of itchy that I can get medicine for, but itchy to take out the Airstream.  Due to holidays, work schedules, ilness, etc., we haven’t been able to get out since the Redondo Vista trip in October.  We have to do something about that pretty soon!

In the summer of ‘06, we went to Salem, OR for the Wally Byam Caravan Club, International (WBCCI) rally. Since the rally was a week long, we didn’t have too much time to sightsee on either side of it.

Our first night was in Redding, CA at the Premiere RV Resort campground. It was interesting to ‘return’ here. My parents owned this campground as a KOA from 1971 until 1980. A lot has changed in that time but it was fun to look around. Here is what you see when you come in:

What you don’t see is that it hit 122° on the day we got there. It was hot all the way up the valley. I was concerned about tire temperature so I did not go much over 60mph. The first thing we noticed was that the refrigerator was not working well. I was suprised since the refrigerator was about 2 years old and had not given us any trouble. That was a point of concern. We also noticed that the plastic tab that keeps the medicine cabinet above the bathroom sink had broken. It was now swinging free.

The next morning didn’t prove much cooler but I knew we were going to a higher altitude. We stopped at a few RV shops to look for the elusive part for the medicine cabinet. We used a bungee cord to keep the door closed. We didn’t find the part. So we headed north.

The next stop was the KOA at Sisters, OR. Sisters is a cute little town. It appears that many come up there from the Portland area for R&R. We saw a few Airstreams in some of the other RV parks. We noticed that some of them had dates and times stuck in their windows. We didn’t know what this was all about, yet.

Driving back from ‘downtown’ Sisters that evening, I noticed a weigh station that was showing zero on the display. Someone left it on! I had always wondered about the weight of our rig but never had the time to check it out. I had weighed the both the truck and trailer together in Bakersfield one time and the total weight was 15,000 lbs. I was surprised since I knew the GVWR of the trailer was 6300 lbs. This meant my truck was close to 9,000 lbs?!?!? I was able to weigh it that night and, yes, the truck weighed around 8,500+ lbs. WOW!

After that it was to the rally.  One of the reasons for going to Sisters the night before was to make sure that we were at the local fairgrounds BEFORE 4pm.  That was the latest of each day that they would park you on the grounds.  If you were there after that time, you had to spend the night there (or elsewhere) and get parked the next day.  You see, 4pm is the magical ‘happy hour’ time.  One afternoon I rode my bike over to the ‘bullpen’ at 4:15 and saw no WBCCI officials but a few trailers getting ready to spend the night.

We got there around 2pm and after a very brief interaction showing our registration, etc., we were parked.  We were in the blue section and the end of a row.  One side of our trailer was on dry grass and the other was on asphalt (I have a shot of this in the photos section).  We DID have power (30amp) provided by a very large generator down the row.  However, it would shut off sometimes which was not good for our DirecTivo unit.  We also had water in a daisy-chain fashion (trailer to trailer).  Sewage was pumped out once when we were there.  A truck came around and they attached to your drain and essentially sucked it out.

At the top of this page is a panorama shot from our trailer.  We had very nice people parked by us, one was Rich C. that very graciously had a wireless hotspot setup in his trailer and invited all to use it that wanted to.  So in the evenings I would go outside, sit down with my laptop and get on the ‘net.  We made it to most of the evening programs where they had a lot of ‘old people’ entertainment.  It was OK to sit there and watch because we got to sit.

Airstream had about half of their service department there running around on golf carts and fixing people’s trailers.  They also had a parts store going.  Great!  I can get my cabinet latch from them.  I went up to the parts manager and she said she knew exactly what that was but they don’t make them anymore.  No source for a replacement.  Alas, I am still looking for a replacement and we are still using the bungee cord.  George M. Sutton RV was there to sell new and used Airstreams.  We got to see a few models but did not get to see the Front Bedroom Classic since someone bought it the first day and removed it from the floor.

There were things to do at the rally but very few that attracted our interest.  There was one talk about wheel, axle and trailer loading that was very good and made me realize that I was running my tires at too low a PSI.  Since the activities were so slow, we took a few afternoons to go visit some other sites.

First up was the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Aviation museum:

Next was Silver Falls State Park:

The last full day of the rally was the 4th of July (Wally Byam’s birthday).  All that we saw going on was the WBCCI parade and an Elvis impersonator at the evening show.  We decided that we would pass and leave a day early.  By doing this we changed a single day 400 mile drive to a 2 day, 200 mile each day drive.  Much better.  We also got to camp right on the Rogue river at the RiverPark RV resort.  We even talked with a few vintage owners there.

The next day we travelled to Humboldt Redwoods State Park (below) for a couple of nights.  Along the route we saw many other Airstreams, probably heading home also.

We made a stop at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield.  We were going to take the tour but the line was too long.  We made it to our last stop, the Stockton/Delta KOA for one night.

Headed home the next day.  Why does the last 100 miles seem to take the longest?

All in all, I am glad that we went.  We will NOT be going to this years rally in Perry, GA.  Summertime in Georgia does not sound like a good idea to me.  We will plan to go to the rally in 2008 in Bozeman, MT.  The last time the WBCCI, in 1989, was there, they had around 5000 trailers and LOTS of MUD!

You have seen the maps on RV’s. The ones that show what states they have visited in different colors. There is a website that allows you to create your own. Here are two variations for me.

This is the map of where I visited with my parents and the Airstream.

This map is where I have taken our family with our Airstream.

Go get your own map!