But there is one small problem…

The speakers on the inside are mounted directly beneath the overhead storage compartments. It is right above our heads as we sit at the table. As they are pointed downwards towards the floor, unless you are sitting at the dinette, you have to turn the sound way up or you can not hear it at the gaucho seat. Exactly where Ava likes to sit and watch a little Wow Wow Wubbzy. You would think we could just turn the volume down on the speakers and only use the sounds from the TV. But that does not work when we are watching a DVD. The TV speakers are disabled. Time to go back to the drawing board.

The only option we have is to turn the sound up so she can hear her favorite cartoons but it is much too painful for us sitting directly below the speakers. We needed a solution and it came from a little dome that our Airstream’s entertainment system was bundled with that looks a little like a miniature, green R2D2.

This little guy has been living inside the hallway closet of the Mish for the past year. It is actually a wireless outdoor speaker made by Advent (ADV-W801) than receives radio signals from a little transmitter connected to the stereo. It is not necessarily the latest technology or the best of its kind but it does the job well. It is meant for casting your tunes from the stereo to the outside of the Airstream while you are grilling up a nice piece of rib eye or enjoying a cold one under the awning during a hot summer day. We found another use for it.

Being parents to a toddler and an infant, we won’t be having very many cocktail parties at the picnic table outside. Just as we thought this useless wireless speaker system was taking up too much of our precious cargo space, we have found a use for it that is making it irreplaceable. We are now glad to have a this little droid ride along with us.

over and out,
dan

Let’s try something new in this post. How about I start with a nice scenic shot of the beautiful campsite we stayed at for 8 nights before jumping into the details. Ahhhhhh….. Lake Cahuilla. I don’t know how to pronounce you but I surely adore you.

OK, on I go with the rest of the story…

Since Mila came home from the hospital almost 2 months ago, we reached a milestone in our lives. The milestone of going at least a couple of years without adding another member to our ever growing family. At least that’s the plan for now. With Marlene being pregnant and needing regular visits to the doc, we were figuratively chained to our home base. The only camping trips we have gone on in the last year have been short weekend ones. 3 nights in Lake Casitas, 2 nights in Port Hueneme, 1 night in Lake Piru and 2 nights in Malibu pretty much sums up the nights we’ve spent in Mali Mish since the start of the pregnancy.

Now that we are all working from home and Ava is, for the moment, not attending day care, we are finally ready to head out for an extended ‘faux-time’ excursion. Three-months, we thought, ought to be a good length of time to hit the road this winter. Well, on second thought, let’s get a shake down trip under our belt with all of us under one sheet of aluminum before we head out. Just to make sure we are still going to enjoy this as we did a year ago.

What we decided to do is a one week trip to someplace fairly local and fairly familiar. Not anywhere we’ve gone before so it can be a nice new experience but a place that we can quickly get back home in an emergency. At this time of year, Palm Desert is a nice choice because it is still warm enough during the day to hop in a body of water to cool down and it is comfortable at night to not need any sort of heating or cooling to stay comfortable. Being only around 300 miles away, we could hop in the van and shoot back if anything were to happen. So I researched some places and decided on Lake Cahuilla County Park in La Quinta, CA.

Of course Yoda has to also come along for the ride. So that makes 5 of us in the Airstream. 25 foot trailer, 5 of us, that’s 5 feet of space for each of us. Plenty of room! Right? On the first day, we drove to our friend Nicole’s parents house in Rancho Cucamonga. It is just about half way between our house and La Quinta. They graciously allowed us to camp at the curb and even threw us a big orange cord to keep the juices flowing.

Towing the Mish with the van was a breeze as usual except for the first leg of our trip. The coolant light kept coming on. There was no effect on the engine temperature but it still concerns me. It’s been happening even as I drive the van around town so that surely will need some attention before any further ambitious runs eastward. This time though, a little pour of pre-mixed coolant will have to do as a band-aid to get us through this week.

Marlene usually sits in the middle row captain’s chair next to Ava while I drive chauffeur-style up there by my lonesome. This time, it was not to be. Mila needed a place to dock her spaceship so my backseat driver was upgraded to my passenger seat driver. This is something that we will have to work out as well on longer trips because having an infant and a toddler taking turns fussing about behind us while we are driving is going to be trouble. The second row is laid out with a ton of leg room which means we can not reach them with our seat belts on.

Inside the Mish, sleeping arrangements are also going to have to be re-examined. In the past, Ava sleeps in her tent bed, which is designed for kids upwards of 6 or 7 years old. She likes the fact that it is hers and it is enclosed in a way that kids like cardboard boxes. That still works but Mila on the other hand, still sleeps in a bassinet.  We don’t have enough room to put the entire bassinet inside the trailer and she needs some form of protection on our bed so we don’t crush her in the middle of the night.

A little trip to Target and 40 bucks later, we have a handy dandy Co-Sleeper that tucks nicely in the the corner of our bed with a little built-in LED night light to help with the late night feedings. We are just about set.

The first night with all of us in Rancho Cucamonga was great. Right back in the swing of things. We were reminded of how comfortable we are on the road waking up inside the Airstream. A little coffee and some hot tea later, we packed up and were ready to head out to Lake Cahuilla.

Lake Cahuilla County Park is a municipal recreational area in Riverside County. It is a water reservoir for drinking so no swimming is allowed. It is a man-made lake for just that purpose so some of its features are kind of interesting.

Like these steps carved along the side of the lake.

This fenced-off structure for some type of maintenance purpose.

And some wooden steps that let you walk down to the edge of the water. The water you can’t swim in…

Lake Cahuilla is designed as a recreational area so there are some nice activities for locals and visitors. First of all, they stock the lake with lots of fish so people can come and drop a little line for an afternoon of casting and reeling. If you are into that kinda thing. None of us are fishermen so we look around for more things to do.

Around the corner from the campground, there is a big swimming pool and a playground for kids. Needless to say, Ava was excited to hear about that.

“Yay! Lets go swimming!”

“Ummm, Nicole? Why is there no one in there?”

“What is there a fence around the playground?”

“Oh snap! This place ain’t open anymore!!”

Sorry Ava, we didn’t know before we left that apparently every public pool closes at the beginning of October in Palm Springs. Even though it is still in the low 90s during the day, it is still apparently too cold for the locals who are use to 110 degree summer weather. We know this because we saw them buying sweaters at the store.

Well, at least the scenery is still beautiful.

Since Marlene and I are both working from home, and home is wherever we park the Mish, we had to pack up a little work with us on these trips. That means until we find another pool to dip our feet in, Ava is resorting to playing with her toys inside the tent I set up next to Mali Mish while I get some bills paid.

The first few nights there at the campground, we just had water and electricity. We had to use the public showers and be careful with our gray water consumption so we didn’t fill it up too quickly. After the second night, we decided that we wanted to stay a couple more nights. Unfortunately our site is booked for the 2 following nights after our original checkout date. We had to option to move 10 spaces down to a full hookup site for only $3 more a night.

“Ummm, dad? Full hookups? Only three bucks more? What are you waiting for?”

Having little choice but to move in order to stay the 2 extra nights, we packed up and shuttled down to the site a few yards down the road.

The new site is actually much closer to the water with great views right outside of our window. We had to make sure to keep an eye on Ava so she didn’t walk too close to the edge. With sewer hookup and the ability to take private showers, it was well worth it.

Didn’t take long to settle back in and get cozy again in our chairs.

Here is Mila reaping the benefits of a warm bath inside the Mish.

Did I mention the scenery is beautiful?

Lake Cahuilla is kind of a hidden gem in the greater Palm Springs area with all of its hotels, resorts, spas and golf courses. The entire time we were there, the campground never got filled up even half capacity. Maybe it’s because we visited toward the end of the summer season and the playgrounds and pools have already closed. But you bet that we will be coming back here again. As of 2009, hookup sites without sewer run a mere $22 a night. $3 more gets you one of the few full sites with your own dump connection. That is a bargain when it comes to camping in California where State Parks charge as much as $30 a night for primitive dry camping.

Before you start feeling bad for us with the pool not being open, here is a little preview of what we DID get to do:

Stay tuned for more posts from Mila’s maiden excursion in Mali Mish! There are lots more to come!

over and out,
dan

Today is Halloween!!

Say TRICK OR TREAT!

What?!?!

I can’t just lay here and look cute?

That’s what I thought

A year ago, Ava was not yet 2 years old, has not had a hair cut and was still wearing diapers. One thing that IS the same however, is that she still is a fan of Dora the Explorer. Here she is bringing Dora along to see Mali Mish for the first time with ‘backpack’ on her back.

We have done a good amount of exploring in the ol’ mish in this last year. From Lake Casitas to San Mateo State Park in San Clemente. From KOA Lake Isabella to The Shady Dell in Bisbee, Arizona. We have been priming this birthday girl for a big trip that has yet to come.

One thing that has yet to have happened is for us to go full timing in her. Our intention from day one was to do just that. Many circumstances, good and bad, have cause us to delay the trip. The main reason, which falls under the good category, has to do with this little one:

This is a photo montage of the first 30 days of our new baby girl Mila. A new addition to our clan already full of girls. Which is now a total of 4 girls strong if you count Yoda the cat. Which we do.

With Mali Mish being 1 year old and Mila having almost 2 months under her belt in this world, we think she is almost ready to take on an extended trip around this great country of ours. Having just gotten back from a brief trip to the California desert, we think it won’t be long before we pack up much of our belongings and head east for awhile.

Happy Birthday Mali Mish and stay tuned for a series of posts from Mila’s very first trip in the little mouse.

over and out,
dan

You can stop rubbing your eyes now. This is a Hello Kitty Airstream. A 25 foot International CCD, I believe. And it could be yours… if you have $150,000 to drop… and if you aren’t allergic to cats.

the end,
marlene

We drove by the coastal campsite at Faria Beach to check out what the deal is with reservations. We’ve never looked into it these premium spots… mostly because this campsite seems packed every day of the year… and because it’s just a hop, skip and jump away from us. As we drove slowly by all the trailers and RVs, we saw this cool vintage trailer with a matching old school car.

And then we saw a lovely silver Airstream that made us miss our Mali Mish. Badly.

Hmmm… Faria Beach? I wonder if we should stay here for Mila’s first trip.

Looks like this place is first come, first serve.

And the beach is just so lovely here.

And it has been two and a half months since our last trip.

But is the beach the best place to take a newborn for her first outing in our Airstream? Not sure. You’ll just have to wait and see.

the end,
marlene

We didn’t know what to expect since we have heard that this was more or less a concrete parking lot with hookups right in the middle of the strip. Turns out it is pretty much at the end of the strip just north of all the action. It is still very walkable to many of the casinos in the north end of Las Vegas Blvd.

We heard earlier this year that Airstream was teaming up with KOA to bring rentals on-site to their campers. It was only going to available at limited locations and Las Vegas was going to be one of them. We had been in Vegas and away from Mali Mish for around 10 days so we couldn’t wait to get a little sight for our sore Airstream eyes.

“What’s that Dada?!”

That’s right Ava, it’s Mali Mish’s long lost cousin!

Apparently the Las Vegas KOA was furnished with a few 27 foot Flying Clouds in the same floor plan as our International Ocean Breeze. Although ours is only 25 ft, it is like the 27 ft minus the extra storage, microwave and a bed that runs length-wise instead of width-wise. The Flying Cloud is the new model that replaced all of the Safari line that was in production in the last few years. The name is a legacy that dates back to one of the original models from the early days of Airstreams. Simply by seeing the location of the windows from the outside, we could tell that this was the same ‘Front Bedroom’ floor plan which has worked out very well for us.

All of them were equipped with a couple of yellow Adirondack chairs and a propane BBQ grill on a outdoor rug right outside of the door. It didn’t seem like any of them were occupied the day we were there and probably because it was in the middle of the week.  Unless whoever was locked up in there was using it as their personal sauna with all the windows locked and no AC running.

KOA has all of them permanently hooked up and was basically using them instead of the log cabins as seen in some of the other locations. To get into one of these, it will costs you about $110 a night. KOA ran a special at the start of the program for around 30 bucks a night but that has long gone. The price might sound steep but it is still one of the cheapest ways to spend a night in a new Airstream if one is in your future.

Just to the south of the massive parking lot they call a campground is a towering 1970’s vintage concrete casino named after red and white big top tent. The irony was not lost at all on us.

Here’s Ava enjoying the last few months of her not having to share her Dada with anyone else.

Baby? Did someone say baby?

If you can’t tell since black is so slimming, Marlene here is about 6 months pregnant here with Mila (whom at the time was just an unnamed baby with an unknown gender). This trip was kind of her ‘babymoon’. Here Ava and Mama give their stamps of approval on the Adirondacks.

Another one of the Flying Clouds in its new Las Vegas digs. Someone might have been in this one since the shades were open and the roof vents were up.

The Las Vegas KOA has a pretty large reception/general store area as most of them have. We stepped in there for a couple minutes for a nice deserved AC break as it was pretty much high noon in the early Nevada summer. Not for long though because Ava spotted a shaded play area for kids right next to it.

Weeeeee!

OK, me too, ‘WEEEEE!’

As in most places you might consider staying at in Las Vegas, a swimming pool is a must. This is not the fanciest pool we’ve every seen in Las Vegas by any means but a decent size one with a good amount of lounging area all around. Since this was early in the summer as well as being in the middle of the week, hardly anyone was there.

KOA also realizes that many RV travelers like to bring their pets on the road with them. We no longer have our dog Rudy but we do bring out cat Yoda with us on extended trips. She probably wouldn’t make much use of the Pet Playground but I am sure it is a welcome feature for many canine loving road trippers.

The Las Vegas KOA might be on one of the most expensive pieces of property in all of the KOAs real estate portfolio. For as much as land sells for on the Las Vegas strip, this has to be one of the best bargains around town second probably only to the late night prime rib sandwich at Imperial Palace. We will definitely be coming back here soon and you can bet that our little silver mouse will be in tow on the next trip.

See you later Mr. Clown!

over and out,
dan

FYI, here are the 4 KOAs that offer Airstream rentals at time of posting:

Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay KOA (Watsonville, CA)
Sugarloaf Key/Key West KOA (Sugarloaf Key, FL)
Bar Harbor KOA (Bar Harbor, ME)
Las Vegas KOA at Circus Circus (Las Vegas, NV)

Born on Thursday, September 3rd at 2:11 in the afternoon. Weighing in at 9 pounds 1 ounce and measuring 21 inches long. She is as sweet as can be.