Category Archives: Airstream

Paso Robles recap

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The weekend started out uneventful.  We setup the trailer to go to Paso Robles on Friday.  Took our time, brought stuff from the house, chasing cats out of the trailer and finally on the road.  We stopped in Hanford for lunch and I checked the trailer tires for any hot ones, as I always do.  One was warmer than the rest.  I saw the tread was bulging out all round the tire.  I have already replaced a trailer on highway 41 in 104 degree heat and I did not want to do anything close to that this time.  We stopped at Carrol’s tires in Hanford and got new one (~$94).

We made it to Wine Country RV around 2pm and setup the trailer.  We went around and met people from our San Joaquin unit and the Central Coast unit.  We then returned to the trailer for a bit to unwind.  That evening we went to eat in Paso and went to Good Ol’ Burgers.  We have been there many times over the years and have always enjoyed it.  Their onion rings are outrageous:

Coincidentally our son was also in Paso visiting a friend and they joined us there that evening.

We went back to the trailer and opened the door and something ran out of the door!!  It was one of our cats that had stowed away!  Now what do we do?  Damn cat!  Down to WalMart to get food, cat box, litter.  That put a damper on things for me.  Roxie thought it was hilarious.  All in all the cat did not do too bad.  The pathetic part was that we actually looked in the trailer for that cat before we left.  Grrrr…

Saturday we wanted to go see the Airstreams at Sky River RV, and I was also looking for a 12V lamp for the oven.  I went to the parts at Sky River and asked about the bulb.  They didn’t have one.  I also asked him about the Airstreams as there were NONE on the lot.  He told me they move them to a lot in San Luis Obispo.  We had nothing else to do and didn’t know what to do for lunch so it was off to SLO!

We went to the new Airstream lot and looked around.  We do want to get another Airstream in about 4 years but will always look when we get a chance.  They had numerous models but we really liked the 27FB Classic and the 30′ Classic.  We will see how it goes.

One thing we like to do when we go to Pismo Beach is Roxie eats clam chowder at Splash Cafe and I eat tri-tip at Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ.  Luckily they have them in SLO also so Roxie picked up her bread bowl with clam chowder and we both went to Mo’s.  I love the garlic fries but not so much with Roxie due to how long they remain.  That evening we went to a chinese buffet with the WBCCI units (17 people).

Sunday morning had a meeting regarding the state of the WBCCI and what can be done to help it out.  Essentially it is dying.  They are not getting younger people attracted to the club.  Joe tenBerge, Region 12 2nd vice president, was there to talk about the subject.  I told him about Airforums and there were many discussions about the WBCCI there.  He said he has seen them but they were very negative.  Well sometimes you have to swallow the negative to learn things.  He said he would look around there.  I was surprised how many from OUR unit have never heard of Airforums OR Airstream Life magazine.  I need to educate them.

We had a lunch of tri-tip sandwiches with the units and then in the PM, ice cream sundaes.  That evening we saw a couple of trailers from the Airforums Western Womens rally but did not meet any of them.  Monday was the trip home.

We are thinking about going to the Bass Lake rally in April and/or a rally in Tehachapi in May.  We will see.

Addendum and a change of plans

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Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday, it will be explained further down.

I forgot to mention lunch Tuesday.  We looked online for a restaurant in Gallup, NM since we were heading through there at lunch time.  We had two choices, Earl’s and Genaro’s.  Earl’s was a bit like a Route 66 cafe so we opted for Genaro’s.  Might as well have one last meal that represented New Mexico.  We found out again how California Mexican food differs from New Mexico Mexican food.  I feel the difference is in the chile’s used.  I have not been a real fan of chile in general but I have liked what I have been tasting here.  One reviewer of Genaro’s raved about the Green Chile Cheese Fries so we thought we would try those.

CCFries

I wasn’t so thrilled with them but they were OK.  Roxie had a burrito with Green Chile sauce on top.  I had a shredded beef taco. They both were good.  The salsa with the chips was the hottest we have ever had, I believe.  Roxie found out the hard way.  I have learned NOT to dip into the salsa before I get my drink if I have never had the salsa before.  Roxie didn’t wait, she dug right in and took a big dip.  She was VERY glad when her drink came.

The real topper was the sopapilla.  We have had variations of them, even two days previously.  A puffy pastry that you eat with honey.  It did not prepare us for the biggest sopapilla we have ever seen:

Sopapilla

This thing was the size of someone HEAD!  It was huge!  It was pretty good but it would have been nicer to have a few smaller ones instead of a big one.  All in all we did like Genaro’s and would seek it out again.

This brings us to Wednesday.  As you may remember we had made it to the KOA at Holbrook.  That morning (Wed) we found out that we had to get home and cut our trip short.  The reason was not due to health reasons but something that we could not take care of on the road.  We decided to get on the road and get to at least Kingman that night.  We were sad that we could not continue on but we did accomplish our main goal, the Balloon Fiesta.  We can get to Arizona with only one night of travel so we can, and will, hit the locations we want to see.

So we got into some rain and cloudy weather in Flagstaff.  On a truck related note, the passenger door switch used to think it was closed all the time.  Now it is thinking that the door is open when it is closed and closed when it is open.  Another thing is there is a check engine light that came on again.  This is the ‘generic’ check engine light.  While refueling I remembered there was an auto parts store nearby.  I was able to rent a OBDII code diagnosis tool.  What it told me was the computer had not relearned some sequence.  I think this may have happened during the transmission service.  I read on the internet that I was supposed to clear the code and let the truck idle at operating temperature for 5 minutes.  I did so and the light is gone.  Yea!

We made it to Kingman but it was about 3pm and we thought that was a bit too early to stop.  We know that the more we travel this day, the less we travel the next.  We pushed on to Needles, but we wanted some more variety so we took Route 66 through Oatman, AZ.   The first part of the road was standard desert road wide, straight, bumpy.  However it did change to a more Route 66’ish road but narrower.  Right when it changed we came across these two in the road.

Burro

We had read about their friendly wild burros.  I read that as an oxymoron.

This road is very interesting.  Even moreso when towing a trailer.  Very narrow, curvy, a lot of up then a lot of down.  The truck handled it with aplomb and we eventually came to Oatman.  We were there just before 5pm and things were closing up so it is somewhere we need to come back and see again.  We did see some more of those burros.

Burro2

These were being fed from a store owner in town.

We made it to Needles and stayed at the Desert View RV Park.  The price was good and they said their WiFi was very good.  Well it was not, we had to sit outside at the end of the trailer by the road to get service.  But it was a bit too cold (yes, we remember it being 100 degrees the week before) to be outside so no WiFi.  I think they need a few more antennas in the park.  I tried my 3G card but it was only Edge and it cut in and out.  Hence no blog last night.

On to Thursday.  Left Needles and traveled the boring I40 W to CA58 W.  Yawn!  Down the Tehachapi’s, the hill that started our truck fun.  No problems.  We made it home about 5pm.

Would we go back to the Balloon Fiesta?  Sure, probably not next year though.

Will we get to Northern Arizona?  We want to, this was the second attempt.

Do we want to east New Mexico cuisine again?  Definitely.

Did we meet many new interesting friends?  We always do.

Will we take another trip?  Come on!!!