For now, we are enjoying these last few days while we still can. Luka is no longer the helpless 3-month old baby he was when we left last July. Here is is looking for his mommy who is taking a little private time in the bathroom.

Ava and Mila both had birthdays on the road. As a 6 year old, she has been learning about all of the place we have visited with her teacher/momma.

In the last 7 months, we have visited 24 states. We visited a bunch more states that we didn’t get to see during our last trip and retraced our steps about half of the time. Ava is starting to get a real hang of the US geography.

She can even start to pass down some of the wisdom to her sister and brother.

She is starting to learn that, much like her parents, alone time is difficult to come by with little ones around.

It is especially nice when someone finally goes down for a rare nap in the Airstream.

One of the biggest differences between this and our last trip in 2010 is that Ava now has a playmate wherever she goes.

Mila was not quite a year old back in 2010 and Ava had to just deal with us across the entire country and back.

Now she has her sister and best friend to be with day in and day out. As for Mila, Ava’s affection is definitely reciprocated. There is no one else Mila would rather be with than her big sister.

With just a few days officially left on the road, we are trying to make the best of it.

I’ve said it many times before, these kids never have any fun.

We have some more smaller trips planned in the near future with anticipation of a much bigger trip planned in about a year or so. If everything works out as planned, we will once again be back on the road.

All that hanging out and relaxing at the playground gave the girls adult-size appetites. We found a nice Vietnamese noodle shop for dinner.

Of course there is ALWAYS room for frozen yogurt.

over and out,
dan

The post Day 203: A lazy Airstream day at Lake Cahuilla County Park Campground. appeared first on Mali Mish.

Last night was our first night of camping with electric and water since we left Houston almost 3 weeks ago. We had electric in Gilbert Ray and Marfa but it is nice to use the sink without hearing the water pump running.

Luka also found out that if someone is in the bathroom, it means playtime for him.

Even though the Vintage Trailer Show isn’t for a couple of days, we drove by to check out the setup. One of the exhibits we wanted to see is the Airstream Land Yacht concept trailer that has been touring the country. It is a 25 ft FB floor plan just like ours but at the same time, it is nothing like ours. Right off the bat, you can see a few differences in this photo. There are 2 grilled vents next to the door. Presumably it is for the water heater and furnace. There are also dual AC units as well as the new Zip-Dee power awning.

We were not able to go inside to see the trailer. That will have to wait until when the show opens up on Saturday.

On the outside, a lot of cosmetic touches were added to make it look more ‘nautical’. Like the stainless cap for the 50 amp plug.

Surprisingly, on this high-end Airstream, they opted to go with Goodyear Marathon trailer tires. The Michelin LTX tire are all the rage these days and are much better for extended use. I suppose it kind of makes sense being that this trailer is expected to do more sitting than moving.

This is the bedroom interior as seen thru the window on the street side of the trailer.

The Land Yacht is actually on display next to all of the pre-fab buildings in the parking lot here. If we ever get ourselves some land, we would love to put something like this on it next to the Mish.

On our way back to the campground, Marlene wanted to stop by and check out some thrift stores. Supposedly there is one thrift store called Angel View that is like a jackpot of goodies. All of the retirees take their old junk here when they downsize. The only thing we found was this sad little abandoned pooh bear laying face down in the back parking lot.

With a little sun left in the day, the kids got to play at the playground for a minute at Lake Cahuilla.

These kids never have any fun.

This little monkey never drools.

Time for Ava to read a little story to Mila before getting ready for bed.

over and out,
dan

The post Day 202: The Airstream Land Yacht Concept and Palm Springs. appeared first on Mali Mish.

Some things have changed around here since our last visit over 3 years go. The buffet breakfast we were looking forward to having in the morning is no longer there. A Wendy’s is in its place so we reluctantly ate breakfast there. Not that there is anything wrong with Wendy’s but when you are expecting all you can eat bacon, biscuits and gravy but instead you get square hamburger patties, it is not a good day.

Mila, now a 3 year old, has developed into quite a character in the last 7 months. As a kid, she doesn’t really have a filter with the things she says. There was a little kid at the table next to us who is probably about a year old. It looks like she had taken a fall and got a little scrape on her nose. After looking at her during breakfast, Mila produced these gems:

“She has a boo-boo and WE don’t.” “She doesn’t know because she is a bay-bay.”

Just as she was staring at the other girl, their eyes met. Mila proceeded to make the ‘I’m watching you’ signal with her index and middle finger pointing to and away from her eyes. I don’t know where she gets this stuff.

And just like that, we are back in California.

Of all of the states we have been to, California is the only one that makes you go through an agricultural check point.

These palm trees have seen better days.

Having done a little bit of research on BLM boondocking along I-10 near the south entrance of Joshua Tree, we wanted to get our eyes on some potential camping spots. This is just outside of the National Park. Great cell reception and very private but the dirt is a little soft in some spots that might get you stuck if you don’t have four wheel drive.

Instead of boondocking we decided to head into town near Palm Springs. I have been eyeing some heavy duty bins to store the generators. Probably would have helped more if I bought them 7 months ago.

We found ourselves back at one of our favorite campgrounds in the Coachella Valley, Lake Cahuilla County Park.

It is much more crowded here than we have seen previously. Apparently there is a fishing competition coming up this weekend and a lot of folks are already here to get ready.

We were a couple of sites down from another Airstream but they didn’t come out much to chat.

With just a few nights left before we head back to see Marlene’s parents, we will take a little breather and think about transitioning to a more static life.

Excuse me, but I have to go wipe up some drool on the dinette table.

over and out,
dan

The post Day 201: Heading back to our home state of California. appeared first on Mali Mish.

This little bird greeted us good morning at Gilbert Ray as we were getting ready to head out. There is suppose to be a storm coming into Tucson so we decided moving on was the best course of action.

The nice thing about being at Gilbert Ray is that it is next to one of our favorite places to take the kids in Tucson: The Living Desert Museum.

The girls have been a number of times but this is Luka’s first. We parked the Mish in the RV area and a nice museum host gave us a ride in his golf cart.

The girls always look forward to sitting on the bronze javelinas when we come here.

To just show some highlights of our visit, this is a beautiful, non-releasable American Kestrel.

I grew some bat years from hanging out in their pretend cave.

The girls doing some hands-on learning with archaeology and fossils.

Of course there has to be a healthy dose of ice cream sprinkled in there.

The sugar from the ice cream made Ava a little crazy.

Marlene’s favorite exhibit here is the hummingbird aviary. Dozens of hummingbirds are in this area constantly buzzing around. If you know anything about hummingbirds, you might know that they are extremely territorial. Having all of them in this small space probably exacerbates that a little bit.

The bird-nerding continued when we left as she snapped a photo of this Cactus Wren in the wild as we were wrapping up our visit there.

As we left the Living Desert Museum, we began our drive towards Phoenix. Our plan of sticking around longer in Arizona to do some boondocking is not really working out as planned. We did however arrange another meet up with a traveling family who we have been virtual friends with for a long time. Last time we were this close to the Boyinks family was 5 months ago when they had just left their home state of Michigan. They were in Madison, WI visiting some friends while we were traversing south through Sheboygan.

We decided to meet at one of our favorite places for pizza in the greater Phoenix area: Organ Stop Pizza.

Organ Stop Pizza does not look that special from the outside but the second you step in, you realize that the entire building is built around a massive organ. Each night, multiple sets are performed by some of the most amazing organists we have ever had the pleasure of seeing. From this Wurlitzer that rises up from beneath the stage, our organist played everything from Disney movie theme songs to classical arrangements.

The girls’ favorite part is when the curtain rises in from of the Wurlitzer and dancing cat puppets appear to dance in sync with the music.

We had a great and memorable dinner with the Boyinks as we headed back out on the road towards California. Tonight, we will stop just short of the California border to spend a night at Ehrenberg, Arizona.

over and out,
dan

The post Day 200: The Living Desert Museum and Organ Stop Pizza. appeared first on Mali Mish.

Today we spent most of our day roaming around the town. The Cup Cafe at Hotel Congress was our choice to stop for breakfast.

We have been here many times and have never been disappointed.

Hotel Congress first came on the scene in 1919 when a club called The Tap Room first opened. Less than a year later, Prohibition became the law of the land. Hotel Congress is also famous for its fire in 1934 while John Dillinger happened to be staying here and was captured.

The Cup Cafe is relatively new to the building. It did not open for business until 1990.

But the food is pretty phenomenal. This is called ‘Braveheart’. It is smoked brisket on sourdough toast with melted Gruyere cheese. Marlene still can’t eat any dairy since Luka is still allergic so she opted for her usual: Oatmeal with no milk.

And no dessert for her either. At least I won’t be tempting her with my lack of a sweet tooth.

Every time we come here, we always help ourselves to a little walk through the hallways. We have heard that there are ghosts hanging around here from the people who perished during the fire but have never encountered any. Ava and Mila have both outgrown their ‘gifts’ so we will have to depend on Luka in a year or so to help us with our ghostbusting.

I hope Hotel Congress doesn’t get mad at us because there are signs clearly stating that only hotel guests are allowed upstairs.

Mila will gladly work off any incurred expenses by working as a telephone board operator.

Another one of Carrie’s suggestions during our visit this time was to see this little home decor boutique that her friend owns. She knows Marlene real well and thought that this is right up her alley so we decided to come check it out. Her friend wasn’t working but her mom was. I don’t think she liked that kids were in there too much. She made a real effort to straighten out anything the girls touched even if it didn’t really move.

Another great place to see is the Spanish mission here in Tucson. When we came here last time, the facade was under repair so it didn’t make for a very good photo opp with all of the scaffolding.

I think they purposely left the right tower original as a comparison to the refurbished one on the left.

We even let Ava take the SLR camera for a view from her perspective.

As Ava is getting older, she now has a lot more stamina for climbing and hiking. Mila is still too small and gets tired quickly so Ava and I climbed to the top of the stone mountain to see the cross and to get a view of the mission below.

Since today is a Sunday the mission was packed full of both visitors as well as people attending Mass.

As we left the San Xavier del Bac mission, we headed back into town with plans to meet up with another friend in town. Just as we parked, Mila’s nose started gushing blood. It has been happening a lot since we got back into the warm and dry desert climate. Maybe we need to turn around and head back to Florida.

Our last visit of the day is with the Luhr family. That’s Rich, Eleanor and Emma. They have just wrapped up Alumafiesta so we didn’t want to oblige them to a visit at their home while we are here. Instead, we met at the Magpie’s Gourmet Pizza near the U of A campus. When we first met the Luhrs, we had just bought our Airstream and Emma was only 6 years old. Now our family has nearly doubled in size as has Emma both in age and size. One thing that hasn’t changed for both of our families is we are still loving our Airstreaming lifestyle.

Tomorrow there is suppose to be some weather coming in the area so we will head out of Tucson and into the Phoenix area.

over and out,
dan

The post Day 199: Hotel Congress, Mission San Xavier del Bac and more Airstream friends. appeared first on Mali Mish.