Our Airstream Takes A Ferry Ride

The repairs by Colin Hyde to our Airstream are finished.  It took nearly eight months from the mishap but once we got started, the work looks great.  Here are a couple of final photos.

The interior back in place

The two end panels all fixed and the awning and trim reinstalled.

Today, I went over and picked up the 'Stream and brought it back across Lake Champlain.  It was a beautiful day and and easy trip -- excepting the fact that the electric jack seems to have died.  Just another project to tackle before snow.

The truck and Airstream riding the ferry homeward.

A calm day on Lake Champlain, looking back toward the Adirondacks

The sister ferry passing us on its way to New York

So now the trick is to work on the interior and get the walls polished so that I can install the beds and cabinets.  We are thinking of using it for our Thanksgiving trip -- if it's ready by then.  

Airstream Repair Photos

As I posted a couple of weeks ago, I dropped off the Airstream at Colin Hyde's repair facility in Plattsburgh, NY.  The other day, I got a bunch of photos showing the progress on the replacement of the panels.  They have to remove both the inside and outside panels to be able to rivet so that the rivet heads are proper.  Looks like good progress.

The top panel is gone and the lower one is being removed.

Airstream Has An Appointment

After months of waiting, I got an email yesterday saying that I could bring the Airstream over to Plattsburgh, NY next Tuesday for the "facial" it needs to repair the dents I put in it last winter.  I just winterized it -- which is good since it below freezing this morning, and it should be all set to move.  

I'll wind my way through Montpelier and head up I-89 to the Champlain Islands and take the ferry across to New York state.  I have no expectations that this work will be a quick deal -- not sure when Colin Hyde and his gang will get to it -- but it is good to finally get it on the way.  I think I'll keep this blog active to cover the results of the repairs but still invite you to visit my other blog, Vermont Birder, at http://www.vermontbirder.com and sign up through the rss feed or email signup.

Vermont Airstreamers is taking a sabbatical

Since we have decided not to travel to the Southwest this winter and since the Airstream is sort of laid up due to the damage to the back, I am putting this blog on hold for a while.  I invite you to visit my other blog, Vermont Birder, at http://www.vermontbirder.com.  I hope you'll consider subscribing through the rss feed or through email signup.

Airstream Turns 80

The Airstream recreational vehicle, all curves and chrome, was originally designed to evoke the open road and the aviation age. Hawley Bowlus, the man who created the brand's toaster-over-in-a-wind-tunnel look was also the chief designer of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis. His America was all about going places and the Airstream was intended to be both a way to get there and a way to stay.

Over the years, the vehicles have gone from being associated with innovation to being of a piece with thrift store Americana -- what Instagram is to cameras, Airstream is to vehicles -- yet, in 1932 when company founder Wally Byam was just moving beyond tinkering in his back yard, he was engaging with a very modern notion: Mobility is the ultimate luxury.

The irony, of course, is that a company catering to Americans' travel yen has itself been nothing if not stationary. The popular vehicles are still manufactured in Jackson Center, Ohio and their names still betray these roots. Buyers can choose between Sport, Flying Cloud and Classic Limited models. There is also an International, but that seems almost antithetical to the whole endeavor.

Despite its proud middle-American sensibility and heritage, Airstreams have always been more than middle class kitsch. They helped ferry generations of children and parents to beaches and wild places. They may not have conquered the West, but they certainly made it more accessible, allowing the denizens of America's growing suburbs to get back into the outdoors. If Airstreams now look tiny next to the rolling mansions being offered by recreational vehicle manufacturers, there is a reason: They were designed to help us get away, not to help us schlep everything along with us.

Eighty years later, an Airstream in the driveway still means one foot out the door, an American stance if ever there was one.

Many thanks to Reminisce Magazine for providing a background on Airstream History.

Review slideshow from Huffington Post

Who Put Those Dents In Back?

I have not blogged about my encounter with a Texas tree, which must have moved behind me as I backed up, but to make a long story short, I was in a hurry to get going from Falcon State Park. We had emptied tanks and the layout forces you to turn around to leave the park. I thought we were clear and as I backed up (not having asked Mary to help) I heard sort of a crack of a branch. Just thought it was brush I'd backed over so I pulled ahead, backed up and heard it again. And off we went toward Corpus Christi.

After an hour or two, we stopped for fuel and as I approached the trailer from the rear, this is what I saw.

 It didn't make my day. I was sure there were no trees back there, they must have moved!

We had an insurance person take a look at it before we came home but now it is time to deal with the dents.  So, the other day, I hooked up the Airstream and we drove over to see one of the experts in Airstream restoration, Colin Hyde.

Colin, well-known for his renovation work, is located across Lake Champlain, about two hours away.  The day didn't start well -- I again had trouble with the electronic jack that raises the front of the trailer.  I tinkered with that and soon we were heading toward Burlington on I-89.  It made us think of the last time we had done that -- just four months ago, when the weather was similar with low clouds and spitting precipitation, but the temperature was about 30 degrees colder.

Getting to Plattsburgh involves either driving up to Rouses Point and way back down the Northway, or taking the ferry.  I'd never used the Grand Isle ferry with the trailer but it was a piece of cake.  Colin's operation was just down the road and soon, he was looking things over.

The problem with having an expert look at your used trailer is that he sees everything -- the problems with the floor, the inoperative break-away switch, the leaky vent -- I came home with quite a laundry list.  Don't get me wrong, it's great to have sharp eyes helping and Colin is very good at separating "nice-to-do" items from critical ones.

Colin's business is booming and I'm going to try to shoe-horn our project into his busy work schedule.  We brought the trailer back and while he is ordering parts and scheduling the work, I'll take a stab a disassembling some of the cabinetry and other items needing to be removed before his work begins.  It' going to be a hassle but who can I blame but myself.  Trust me, I'm much more cautious with my backing up and now always ask Mary to help me out.

Critters We Left Behind

Having been back in Vermont for over a week, I've been thinking about some of the critters we encountered on our Southwestern trips.  While we have a wood fire going and snow pellets in the air here, it also is nice to take walks with the dog and not worry about poisonous or dangerous things.

We first encountered potential trouble in Louisiana when I was out on some trails hiking with the dog and saw this sign. It sort of got my attention but it was early spring and I figured that probably snakes were still staying warm underground or wherever.  Of course, it was a warm day for January and as I poked through some brush off trail, I was startled to see this cottonmouth coiled up on an old stump.  It had one of these, "And who might you be?" looks if snakes can have expressions.  Penny was off leash and sniffing here and there but I grabbed her before she found our friend.

After taking a couple of iPhone pictures, I made a quiet retreat and stayed on the trail the rest of the walk.



This state park, Lake Fausse Pointe, also gave us our first real exposure to mosquitoes.  Southern mosquitoes are big and nasty and it's not fair to have them around in January.  Mary seems to attract them and we had several bouts later in Texas.  They seem to find any small opening in the Airstream and with a white ceiling, give us a pre-bedtime ritual of swatting them.

Of course, you never know where you'll run into alligators.  It didn't raise our confidence level when one park ranger told Mary, "Ma'am, don't worry about them -- they only go after the old and the slow." Well ....   I tend to worry more about the dog hassling them and keep her on leash in alligator country.  Some of these get pretty big -- here's one we saw at a Louisiana refuge.

We have a few black bears here in Vermont but they are hardly ever about - I've only seen three or four in our woods in ten years of outings.  On the other hand, in Texas I've heard and seen coyotes frequently and also seen many wild pigs and javelinas.  Here's a coyote that crossed right in front of us at a campground at Big Bend.

Javelinas love to browse at feeding stations at Falcon State Park.  They seem skitterish but when they have young ones with them, they reportedly can get ornery.  We just give them a wide birth at any time.

And the worst critters we encountered this trip came at the end when both Penny and I hit infestations of ticks.  Now, we worry some about ticks in New England and Penny is on meds for fleas and ticks but we were out in the brushy woods at Village Creek State Park, north of Beaumont, Texas, and just got whacked.  I was wearing shorts and both of us were covered.  These suckers were hard to remove and we kept finding them.  We moved on to Mississippi and like an idiot, I went out again and apparently brushed by vegetation with more of them and we spent another evening searching and removing them.

I had bought some tick medicine from a vet in Texas.  I normally use Frontline on Penny but she carried something else, saying that it was just as good.  Well, these ticks just laughed at the generic substitute.  Our friends Jason and Kevin picked up some Frontline for Penny and we dosed her in Mississippi and it did the trick.  I just wore long pants and tucked in socks and stayed out of tick areas.  Neither of us seems to have developed any issues from our encounters.

And lastly, while we were at Falcon, a neighbor told me about a scorpion that some folks found dead in the women's bathroom.  He then showed me a live scorpion that he caught underneath a rock down by Falcon Lake.  He was going to bring it to his grandson who reportedly was excited to get it.

The thought of capturing a scorpion to bring back to one of our grandkids never crossed my mind.  I have a good relationship with my daughter and daughters-in-law and want to keep it that way.  We left all the critters behind us.