The Dinette

Who puts light blue and white in an RV? Apparently Airstream. I love, LOVE the interior of ours, but the white faux leather and the powder blue ultra suede have their challenges when camping. Especially when Lucy wants to sleep on the dinette all the time. So after 3 weeks of labor intensive sewing, I completed these:

They’re not perfect, but they look great and I’m so proud of myself for pulling it off!  It took about 3.5 yards of fabric (JoAnn’s Better Homes and Gardens fabric from the Indoor/Outdoor section). I opted for velcro instead of a zipper (I didn’t have a lot of luck finding a 51″ dark blue zipper) which worked fine. I had to pattern it together a little differently than the original slip covers but essentially did everything like a box pattern. I had so much fun doing these that Im looking for upholstery classes to take so my technique gets better!

The Bedroom

If you have a 22 foot with the back bedroom area, you know its got its challenges, especially when it comes to sheets that fit and don’t slide around all the time when you’re sleeping. Oh, and if you happen to draw the short straw and have to sleep next to the window, there’s also the chance that you’ll be in contact with cold metal sometime during the night. Well, Ive been working hard on fixing both of these things and have come up with solutions that work well for us.

There’s a small area of interior wall that runs under the window down to the bed frame which needed to be covered. Deke and I went through many ideas from using yoga mats to even trying out cradle bumpers. What we came up with, and what worked great all weekend was fabric covered foam. We measured the space and bought a piece of 24″ x 44″ one inch thick foam and cut it into 3 8″ x 44″ pieces. Then we looked for an indoor/outdoor fabric that would resist soaking up the condensation on the walls which sometimes happens when we cook inside. We went with black fabric because no one is really going to see it and Deke thought it would be good to have something totally neutral so it wouldn’t clash with whatever sheet or curtain fabric was being used. I cut the fabric to fit the foam, wrapped it like a present and sewed velcro on the interior in two rows to prevent sliding. It fits perfectly!

Over our long 4th of July weekend, we took advantage of the extra day off to do a little maintenance and sprucing up of The Weasel. Some items were general like cleaning the fans

and some were improvements to provide more space which makes me happy.

The Kitchen

We haven’t even scratched the surface of using all the space we have in the kitchen. With two large upper cabinets on both sides of the kitchen, we probably use 1/3 of what we have. The trouble is keeping what we have organized and in place. Believe it or not, I’m so short I can’t actually see into the cabinets, so looking for a mug or a bowl when they’ve slid to the back is hard for me. Then I got an idea… from my closet. In my closet I have all my shoes in clear plastic bins so I can always see what’s there and they don’t all come sliding down on me when I pull one down from the shelf. It seemed like the same system might work for the kitchen cabinets, and I’m happy to say it does. You can’t put the lid on obviously, but those little shoe bins from The Container Store fit great and keep all the stuff in place.

I’m a sucker for storage gadgets and the under sink cabinets were my next project to tackle. They’re big but with no built in shelves, so a lot of space was wasted and smaller items like sponges got lost in the back. I found these pull out shelves at Bed, Bath and Beyond and so far, they work great.

This one for under the sink has two shelves that pull out and little feet on the bottom to screw into place so it doesn’t shift. Plus it fits the odd size we needed and still gives us enough room for the water filtration system that Deke’s working on (more on that later).

The refrigerator will be an issue for us at some point. It’s a mini frig, and a small mini frig at that, but, we’re making the most of it. Fitting things in the doors is tough — they’re really narrow and I’ve found a bottle of wine definitely doesn’t fit (OH NO!) Then I got an email from Jeremy in Chicago raving about a brand of box wine he found and I had an a-ha moment. Surely box wine would be easier to travel with — and it is, AND it fits in the door of the refrigerator. Bandit from Whole Foods, thank you for making this for me.

Oh, and the freezer? Ugh. Thankfully we found these great little silicon ice cube trays (we can fit several in the frig) that freeze up in no time. Bonus: They’re shaped like the aliens from Space Invaders.

In March we cancelled a trip to Atlanta State Park because of weather. We heard great things about the park, located near Texarcana (or the ArkLaPlex as we heard on the radio), so this time we were determined to make the trip because the long holiday weekend would give us extra time to make the drive. Almost the whole time we’ve lived in Texas I can count the number of times its rained on one hand, but Thursday and Friday the rain was pouring down, and  Texas really doesn’t know how to deal with so much water… the streets were flooded and traffic came to a dead stop, but we decided to leave anyway knowing that Atlanta looked relatively clear on weather.com.

What should’ve been a 3 hour trip ended up being about 5. You know its bad when 18 wheelers are pulled over on the road waiting for the weather to pass — visibility was low, but because people were pulling over, the road was clear so we drove on. Then we almost ran out of gas, but thankfully found an Exxon. Then we had to swerve to miss running over an armadillo. And one more time for a raccoon.

It was about 11pm when we got to the park and thankfully they have great signs! We found a good spot (#18, pull-through with full hook ups) on the Knights Bluff part of the camp (as opposed to the White Oak Ridge branch which is water and electric only). Sites 16 -23 are pull-throughs and across from them are sites 10-15 which are back-in sites. All the sites have a picnic table, a grill, a fire pit, and are paved but with a little yard – some with huge trees, others cleared a bit. The sites are spread out more than at Lake Tawakoni  and relatively flat. The grill and fire pits in all the sites are a bit worn, but we made them work.

Sites 15 and 16 are closest to the lake, but also closest to the rental party area which was fully occupied the whole weekend and loud. Even being 3 sites away from the area, we could still clearly hear the noise.

On our second day we rode our bikes to the White Oak Ridge part which is on a hill up a windy road with tighter corners, but the spots were beautiful. Because of the road and the hill, the spots were scattered around which we really liked. Next time we visit, we’ll definitely stay on this side of the park. I think with a large 5th wheel and possibly a longer trailer towing a boat, it might be a rough ride, but maybe worth checking out if you don’t mind just water and electric.

The Nature Trail on our side of the park was beautiful. It was a mile one way to the lake and it was like walking through a forest in the northeast — huge pine trees, vines, evergreens… and then it just opens up to the lake (which is huge). Unfortunately the swimming area was closed this weekend due to flooding from the week’s heavy rains, but the lake looked great — and there were a lot of people fishing in the mornings.

The Park Headquarters is a nice little office with fire starter kits in case you forgot yours, maps of other state parks in the region and most importantly, coffee mugs. You can also rent canoes (although there about $40 a day).

As a side note, Lucy’s been taking classes at our local PetSmart because although she listens to us pretty well, because she’s a rescue we’re sometimes concerned about how she’ll handle seeing things like raccoons in the wild. At dog school we’re concentrating on getting her attention if she’s fixated on something else and having her come to us when called. So far, school is paying off. After 4 classes she’s doing amazingly well. If you’re not sure how your dog will handle the distractions of a campsite, I recommend a few classes!

The appeal of Lake Tawakoni began when I saw an article online about the  ”Giant Communal Spider Webs of Lake Tawakoni“. Given my increasing fascination with the animals of Texas, this was definitely something that I needed to see, maybe in order to conquer my arachnophobia-instilling bite from 2007. (There are 3 photos – arachnophobia, instilling and bite– that some might find a little gross….)

There’s a lot to say about this park…. some good, and some just informational. First of all, the address (10822 FM 2475) looks more like a zip code/radio station than a location the GPS would easily find. Knowing it would be a challenge (see previous post on our GSP), I did some searches on roads in that area and found out a lot of roads in rural Texas have “FM” in them– it stands for Farm to Market. I’m sure that  in Chicago, visiting Texans would find it odd that we named our train routes after colors, or that Wacker Drive has a north, south, east and west direction, but Farm to Market just seems like one more thing to remind me I’m not in Chicago anymore.

After some kicking and screaming, the GPS located the park, and it was a breeze to get there. We left after work so the office was closed, but there was a ranger on duty to give us a map and our name with our spot number was posted on the bulletin board — we just had to stop back in the morning and pay.

Our spot was #30 — close to the entrance and a back in. Definitely not the best spot to have, but we were across the road from the Park Host, who besides wiping down his enormous 5th wheel and F250 every morning, we didn’t really see ,or actually know, what he did all day.  All spots are slabs, have a picnic table and fire pit and have a decent amount of trees for shade.

We walked around and checked out the other spots — #20 and #22 were really nice and private with a lot of trees and a view of the lake. Number 19 also seemed really private. In general spots were kind of close together, but provided much more space and shade than a lot we’ve seen.

If you’re not going fishing and don’t have a boat, there really isn’t any reason for you to go to the actual lake, which is kind of odd — I thought that would be the main event. They say it has a beach (because there’s sand, I guess) but its really a tiny bit of sand that’s poured up to a grassy, marshy lakefront with a lot of tall grasses. I seriously expected an alligator to pop out any moment. After a short deliberation, we decided not to go in the lake. If I cant see through the water, Im not getting in the water.

There are a lot of hiking and biking trails around the lake… a few miles here and there that are well marked and really nice to walk through. We hiked two of them despite the 96 degree temps both days but were disappointed to hear from the park ranger that the giant communal spider web wasn’t around this year — instead there were a few smaller webs forming this year in several different areas. The spiders are spreading out….

Oh, and there were also bullfrogs,

and plants with giant thorns (had to throw those in).

The best discovery of this trip was learning that our A/C worked in the Airstream. We’d never used it in Chicago, because, you know its only summer there for about 5 weeks, but it worked great here in 95+temps. We were all cool and comfortable. We’re also starting a few more projects on this one that we’ll post soon!

In two weeks we’re heading to Atlanta State Park for the long 4th of July weekend and then we’re going to stay at a place we passed on the way to Lake Tawakoni called Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park. Its a bit off the highway and looked interesting — more long term campers seem to be there which is always a nice mix of folks to meet.

And…..crash.

There was bound to be a dent or scratch at some point but I was completely unprepared when it happened.

Deke and I both learned something very important on our camping trip to Ft Griffin –  Deke should never listen to anyone but me when backing up or turning around the RV and I should always double check the real map against the GPS.

Our TomTom GPS was programmed to the Ft Griffin address which we got from their website, and until the last 15 miles or so, had gotten us there fine. Eventually we were told to turn left down an unpaved road next to a ranch, but after about 40 yards it just didn’t seem like the right place to be. There weren’t  any signs and the ranch looked abandoned. Granted the address was a little wonky–US Highway 283 North, so frankly Im surprised we got as far as we did without a map.

After realizing this road was probably not where we wanted to be, we decided that the best thing to do would be an attempt at turning around the RV. I was confident we could do it and we were just about there when a car came down the road. We were either going to get shot for trespassing or about to meet a very nice person who was going to help us turn this thing around.

After sizing up the situation, the landowner (who looked like a cowboy Santa Clause) generously offered to open the ranch gate for us to give more room to back up the trailer. The opening was a little narrow, but we had an extra 2 feet on each side. As I stood on one side and the resident cowboy stood on the other, we each gave Deke direction to ease the trailer through the gate. Unfortunately, said cowboy wasn’t familiar with the turning radius capabilities of an Airstream and apparently he didn’t have a great depth perception either. In one “go ahead, you got room” we backed right into the edge of the fence leaving a one foot by one foot dent on the passenger side rear panel. Bummer.

In Chicago there was only one place to take your Airstream for repair — and it was about 90 minutes away. Luckily we have two options here in Dallas, and we chose to take ours to North Dallas RV in Carrollton (they’re still working on their website). It’s both easy and hard to miss this place — there are about 30 Airstreams of all makes and models fanning out around a small garage, but its also right under the George W. Bush Highway. The construction of the highway apparently caused North Dallas RV to lose their previous front lot, which would make them much easier to find. George W, yet again to manage to impale a small, hardworking business.

Randy has been working on Airstreams for 26 years. He’s a leathery gentleman with the kind of tan that comes from hours, months and years of working outside in the Texas sun. He’s nice as can be and proud of the work he’s done, and he should be! He showed us around one Airstreams he’s working on that had been under several feet of water during a flood and been backed into by a car that didn’t have its parking brake on. Randy redid everything from floors to electrical and it looked great.

The lot outside his garage was full of vintage Airstreams with worn off WBCCI numbers, gutted old and new models that need to be completely redone and even one that looks like its being turned into a traveling food truck (awesome!).

After a few weeks at North Dallas RV, The Weasel came back all shiny and new. Her rear bumper had been replaced and she had a new rear passenger side panel. Our insurance paid for most of the work and thanked us for introducing them to Randy (the RV rep in Dallas didn’t know the place). When we picked her up, Randy was hard at work on another model that had been jackknifed under a bridge…. it seems his work will never be done. Thanks Randy!

There was so much to write about from our trip to Ft Griffin, that I had to divide it into two posts!

The Fort
We didn’t get to see the actual remains of the fort until Sunday morning. We were fully rested and full from Saturday Night Smores so we decided a walk around the fort would be a good way to start the day. Having visited state historical sites before I was fairly certain that this would be similar to those experiences, but I was truly wrong and don’t mind admitting it. Established in 1867, the fort and the remains of its structures, as well as the grounds around them, are meticulously kempt and the unobtrusive signage is the perfect amount of interesting information that makes you want to read every single sign you come to instead of skipping over them like I’ve been known to do. Of the structures in tact, the most complete is the bakery. It’s so awesome to be able to walk inside a structure like this from over 100 years ago and get a sense of what peoples’ surroundings were like. To see the unique craftsman ship in the carving of the keystones above the windows and the care taken with lining up foundation stones by hand is pretty refreshing in a world of prefab. Of all the structures, I prefer those in various states of ruin like the general store, the officers’ quarters and the highly photographed administration building. The other two highlights are the view from the peak of the hill that looks out over the valley and the cemetery at the entrance to the park. Those of you who know me also know of my love for cemeteries and the workmanship put into tombstone carving. Unfortunately for me, the tombstones are gone. The stone wall around the cemetery marks its place, but the bodies of the soldiers were moved to the National Cemetery in San Antonio when the fort was abandoned in 1881.

The Longhorns
One of the coolest things about the Ft Griffin site is the herd of longhorns in and around the campsite. They’re technically the Official State of Texas Longhorn Herd, and are cared for by a staff of about 8 people whose job it is to help sustain the integrity of the longhorn breed. These animals are huge. I mean really big. And they’re just grazing all over their vast yard enjoying themselves. If you want to be really close to them at the campsite, I suggest spot #22 — its literally surrounded on three sides by the longhorn pen.

The Town
Albany is the nearest town to Ft Griffin — about 10-15 miles away — so its a good idea to make sure you have everything before you get to the camp. If you need to get food, there’s a grocery store in town called Brookshire’s that has everything you’ll need for picnics and camping (plastic silverware, hamburger, charcoal) and a great selection of fruits and vegetables. What wont it have? Beer or wine. Albany is a dry town, so the nearest liquor store is in Moran. One of the gas stations in town, Prairie Star, also sells bait if you didn’t bring your own and apparently has really good food too.

The Trip
We desperately needed to get the Airstream washed on the way Ft Griffin and found Blue Beacon in Weatherford and the guys there did a great job. We took the highway to Ft Griffin from Dallas, but thanks to a couple from Mississippi, we took 380 back. It was a beautiful and easy to navigate, but there are only about 4 very small towns along the way, so its a good idea to stop and get gas at the first place you see. We saw a few small RV parks too, a lot of lakes and we were told to stop at the Dairyland Drive In for some BBQ which we did.

Hail. It’s the one word you don’t want to read in the forecast when you’re planning a camping trip in an Airstream. Deke took off Friday so we could have a 3 day weekend in Atlanta State Park, so all week I’d been watching the weather — and all week it said ‘hail on Saturday”. Not “chance of hail” or “hail possible”, just straight up “hail”.

In these types of situations, I’m usually the one to throw in the towel and scrap the trip for a better weather opportunity, but Deke kept a level head and suggested we travel opposite the storm and drive west. Opening our guidebook to Texas campsites, one of the first listings within a manageable drive was in Albany where you can find Ft Griffin Historical Park, or what I refer to now as The Best Campsite Ever (www.visitfortgriffin.com).

The trip to Ft Griffin wasn’t the best road experience we’ve had (through no fault of Texas or their roads). Many things happened that frustrated and disappointed us, and we were hoping that this place (keep in mind we’re visiting it sight-unseen) would wash all that frustration away. From what we read, it promised to be quiet and peaceful with just enough interesting things to keep us busy for 3 days — and it did. Ft Griffin was built to protect the area from a variety of unsavory types and is just one fort in a line of defenses around the area. The remains of the fort are located on top of a hill that looks over a town known as The Flat. A short drive down the road you can see a few of the structures — a saloon, blacksmith, store, and jail — some original and some rebuilt (I think). It’s kind of what I imagine Tombstone looked like before the reenactments and the tourist trap stores that line the streets by the O.K. Corral. The land is owned by a man now, who hopefully will just keep it the way it is.

But back to the campsite. To check in at the campsite, you actually have to go to The Fort Headquarters, which is less than a quarter of a mile on the opposite side of the road from the campground entrance. There are about 28 sites here, both tent and RV spots and when we pulled in, only one other site was occupied so we had our pick. We chose #13, but you really cant go wrong with any of the sites. They’re very spread out, some have stairs down to the creek behind the site (there are little canoe-like boats to rent for $10), some are next to the Longhorn Pen (more on that in a minute), and some are just by themselves along the road. You can get full hook ups, or water and electric (the dump station is right at the entrance by the bathroom/shower). All sites have a grill and a fire pit and ours came with a resident armadillo. There are beautiful large trees in most of the spots to provide shade and what I noticed most is the place is incredibly clean. There wasn’t a sign of litter anywhere and even the restrooms were spotless when I checked them out on Sunday.

On the way up to the Fort Headquarters you’ll pass a fishing pond that’s stocked. I know nothing about fishing nor have I ever fished, but I had a lot of fun with Lucy walking around watching Deke and I tried casting a few times but mostly ended up hooking a tree. It was still just a lot of fun to be there and do something new. We also ran into an employee of the park, Eric, who told us a bit about the fort, the animals and the history of the area. We even got our photo taken for the Ft Griffin Facebook page. We saw Eric a few other times during the weekend when he stopped by our site on his daily drive arounds to see how we were doing. I’ve learned that people in campsites are incredibly nice and will stop by and share info or help you with something if you need it. Coupled with how nice people are in Texas, meeting Texans at a campsite is a deadly combination of niceness that 13 years of cold, hard Chicago attitude will breakdown in no time.

The rest of our Saturday was spent grilling food, walking along the many trails in the park, visiting the Longhorns and just relaxing. There’s no Wifi here, yet, but we didn’t mind.

All I have to say is thank god for hail.

(Part 2 of Ft. Griffin up next)

Sometimes the best things in life are not free.

Deke recently got a job offer at id software in Dallas, so last week we packed up everything we would need for a week or so and headed south to The Big D.

We left Chicago on a “unseasonably cold” Monday and took, what was for us, a newly traveled route — 57 South, straight through Illinois.  There are many roads out of Chicago, but our thinking with Rt 57 was the sooner we could get south, the warmer it would be. Having lived in Chicago for 13 years, I am firmly and unapologetically a city girl. I have not explorer the state in which I lived these 13 years, and until this past year, I considered Chicago to be almost its own little independent state.  From my atlas (that’s right, much to Deke’s distain, I own an atlas) I knew it would take some time to get through Illinois, but as we passed by signs on the highway, those towns big enough to put on a sign just never seemed to get closer.  That first night we only made it to Marion Illinois (320 miles)and decided to stay at a little campsite right off the highway, however, when we got there the site had no water available and if there was one thing I needed, it was water.  I didn’t really feel like paying $30 for electricity when it was 11pm and we didn’t really need any.

Luckily along Rt 57 there are many, many Walmart stores, all with large parking lots.  My advice at this time, however, is although a 24 hour Walmart might seem like a good idea (the parking lot lights are always on and there’s bound to be security through the night), it is not the best idea. I think we averaged about 3 hours of sleep that night between the tractor trailers, the guy cutting the grass in the parking lot and most of the drunk people in the town needing food at 3am.  I decided that the next night, no matter what, we would stay in a quiet place with water/electric/sewer.

My wish would come true at the KOA in Hot Springs, Arkansas and we would pay $40 for the privilege. And I would use all the hot water I could handle, turn all the lights on and sleep quietly in the woods. This KOA is easily the nicest I’ve seen so far and as we drove by a few others in Arkansas and Texas, I think its probably the nicest one on this route. Its off the road and the spots are spaced out among the trees on the side of a hill so the views are great from the back-in spots on the top. Some spots have patio areas with chairs, a table with an umbrella and a fire pit, while others just have a small fire pit/grill. We had spot D29 — closer to the bottom of the hill because we asked for a pull-through so we wouldn’t have to hitch/unhitch. There’s a pond, a nice bathroom and an enclosed dog run. Oh, and a family of ducks that don’t make noise. Seriously, they don’t.

Yesterday I was talking with a co-worker of mine and mentioned how excited I am for the 2010 RV season to begin so Deke and I can take advantage of all the events the WBCCI has planned. His response was: I hadn’t realized that the primary purpose of owning an Airstream was to spend time with other Airstreams.

I guess in a way, I hadn’t realized that either.

We received our WBCCI identification number in the mail a few weeks ago…..it’s the big red number you sometimes see on the forehead of trailers or motorhomes that belong to club members. Before we bought ours, we often wondered what they meant and by the looks of the number of postings about them on Airforum.com, a lot of other people wonder too. The numbers are utilitarian and symbolic and are not to be messed with (take note those of you who just want to paint numbers on your model or affix your own random numbers). The practice of numbering the trailers was adopted by Wally Byam as a way of recognizing members from a distance on those long caravans (he was #1 of course). After you join the club, you’re assigned a number and that number stays with you, and moves with you throughout the years – it can be transferred to new Airstream models as you trade up or scale down your home on wheels. Our number is 5 digits, and with the help of Sue Chestnut, Northern Illinois Unit Treasurer, we got one that’s easy for us to remember: 17707. One is easy enough to remember, and followed by the day we got married, we shouldn’t have any problems telling people what number we are. Technically, its 17,707 – but the numbers in the club go much higher. That’s a lot of Airstream members who have joined, caravanned and made the most of their experiences in the WBCCI.

When I got the club directory, one of the first things I did was look up who had the lowest number. Whether or not this person is the first official recipient of the number or it was passed on to them*, there’s something very romantic about imagining what the rallies were like when everyone had two digits.

As for the numbers themselves, keep in mind that in the age of vinyl letter cut-outs, instant banners and wall decals, these numbers are unlike anything we’ve seen. Their font is unusual, but does come up as the “Airstream” font (http://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/Airstream.htm), and not all the numbers seemed to be the same size when we got them. They’re incredibly angular and severe which is only magnified by being fire engine red. The thought of putting up 5 numbers in perfect alignment on a surface 9 feet up that wasn’t even flat did not have a promising ending, but we managed. Getting the numbers on the Airstream seemed a bit of a production as we read through the two page instructions that came in the envelope. In the end we learned that water is the key – probably the opposite of what you’d think. For more instruction, see our article on how to apply the Red Numbers in the Lessons Learned section.

The Weasel looks a little different now that she has a number, but it also makes her look like a member of the team – kind of like a number on a sports jersey. In our little Airstream community, I’m glad people will know we belong to the club and I look forward to the conversations I’ll have with others about what rallies I’ve been on. I’ll keep the WBCCI directory handy on trips so that when we pass someone or see someone in a park with a number, we’ll be able to look them up and see where they’re from as well. There’s a camaraderie about all this that I look forward to.

* If you let your membership lapse you lose your number. It then gets recycled back into the mix for the next person to use. If you buy a used Airstream, you might be able to see the remnants of the old number and be able to find out who owned it in the past.