Not All The Water Pipes Were Frozen

We’ve spent the past week volunteering at the Wally Byam Airstream Club’s headquarters in Jackson Center OH on several projects. The office staff are wonderful, there’s plenty of stuff to help with, and it’s something we like doing when we can get here. This visit, though, we encountered more than we bargained for. Well lower than the forecast low temperature, we saw 2 degrees (that’s Fahrenheit, unfortunately) overnight.

Chasing 75 Degrees is our well-known slogan amongst our readers. When we meet people they frequently say, “Oh Hi, you’re the couple who’re chasing 75 degrees?” Yep, that’s who we say we are. We wrote two years ago how poor we sometimes are at chasing 75 degrees. We’ve not improved – or we’ve become so calloused we don’t appear to care about the weather.

“Chasing 75 degrees” takes back seat when we’re in such a gorgeous place

We awoke to a beautiful snowfall in the National Park on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon while on a caravan.

 

 

 

 

Can we get away in time?

On our last day in Ketchum Idaho a snow shower started up. We started up too, and bugged out. Didn’t want to see how much or for how long it snowed.

 

 

 

We’d leave but it’s so pretty and not too cold – yet.

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina on the first of November a few years ago we had a pretty snowfall. The next day temperatures rose to over 55 degrees. No threat to our plumbing.

 

 

 

 

 

As these pics  show, we’re no strangers to cool weather. In fact we really like it. It’s the Airstream that has limits on getting really cold. We are big fans of having hot and cold running on demand in the Airstream, so haven’t experimented much with camping “winterized”. It’s really cold weather we’re not as familiar with.

Our Airstream is fabulous and has met our living needs wonderfully for more than twelve years. And it isn’t a four-season camper. When the weather’s really hot, the trailer can get pretty warm. When the weather’s really cold, the interior is a little cool sometimes. This, to us, goes with the lifestyle. We’re camping – sort of. Okay, really we’re glamping, right? With our gorgeous and comfortable Airstream, we’re solid for almost all weather we encounter. Especially if we chase 75 degrees, and happen to miss by not too wide margins either way.

Really cold weather sometimes complicates our plumbing system. The Airstream has a gas-fueled battery-powered furnace and a heater in the roof-mounted air conditioning unit. The trailer’s potable water runs from the fresh water storage tank below the floor through a water pump to the faucets on east and west side of the trailer. The furnace, in addition to heating the living area, blows a little heat into the piping area under the trailer. It also carries a little heat behind the cabinets where some of the piping lives above the floor. In freezing weather the furnace can keep the piping from freezing. But not always.

Two degrees overnight, even with our furnace serving overnight as the sole heat source, caused our hot water pipes on both east and west sides and the cold water pipes on the east side to freeze last night. We shouldn’t take such pride in having never winterized this trailer since taking delivery thirteen years ago. We had cold water into the kitchen sink, and no hot water anywhere. We needed to warm the trailer with the furnace all day, cabinet doors opened, hair dryer blowing warmth under the vanity because it’s on the east side.

Finally, at 2pm today our faucets all work. That only took a gallon of propane and seven hours! Last night might have been a great time to have drained the lines. We like sleeping cold. Maybe we’d have avoided this freezing if we’d run the furnace overnight at a higher setting than 46 degrees? We don’t know. We’ve dry camped a week on asphalt in Sun Valley Idaho with lows nightly down to 19. No problem. We’ve camped overnight with shore power in Eastern Oregon with a low of 11. We’ve frozen our west side plumbing in the daytime with 21 degrees but the wind was blowing the cold up into the wheel well.

We’ll probably have another go at it. We love chasing 75 degrees but won’t be limited by it. There are so many things to do, so many places to go, and the weather might not always cooperate. Besides, not all the water pipes were frozen.

See you down the road!

Jim and Debbie
visit our website
©2007-2019 Dreamstreamr odyssey

When We Last Checked In . . .

We were walking about in mid-December over nine months ago relishing the cold air and gorgeous snowfall on our Ashe County NC property. The forecast weather wouldn’t be the coldest we’d endured but it was cool enough. Jim found a comfortable pair of leather mitts with wool liners to allow his fingers to stay a little warm when walking or working outdoors here.

There’s little we like better than enjoying time and activities on our little Blue Ridge Mountain place. What’s not to love about frequent walks in quiet woods, dark skies displaying brilliant constellations and occasional satellites speeding across, cooling breezes wafting about us, and having relative freedom from unwanted interruptions?

Opportunities to spend time with family, commitments we’ve made to the Wally Byam Airstream Club, and our penchant for travel offer welcome diversion from our hermitage on the hill. Our grandchildren are all within a day’s drive, are fun to visit and have room for us in their little lives. Our volunteer work for the Club was still peaking when last we posted here. It generally allowed flexibility of location as long as we maintained connectivity and contact. And we still love the feel of the road as we pull our travel trailer (and, incidentally, our rolling home) down the road.

Eleven years in our house still is 188 square feet and on wheels. It’s a just right size for us alone, whether encamped or touring. We previously had a 22′ Airstream but upon deciding we wanted to live full-time on the road decided the 25′ CCD International by Airstream was a better fit for us. Our homework and Airstream’s product both were spot on. The Airstream keeps us dry and comfortable. It’s perfectly cozy. We have ample storage for our needs

Whoops! A fawn just walked by, not 30 feet from our door, grazing his way up the hill. Another, larger deer is ambling up the same walk line. Then a third, another small deer walks into the scene. A few days ago we watched eight or nine turkeys scratching and pecking along in the dirt along our gravel drive forty feet from the Airstream. Our neighbor says the turkeys and deer don’t see us as a threat. Fine with us, we appreciate wildlife sharing their space with us.

Seven years into full-timing in our Airstream 25′ trailer we were enchanted by this gorgeous property. We’ve installed a road, underground electric, well, and septic system since. Increasingly we find ourselves regarding the property as a stewardship we enjoy. This wasn’t on our radar, nor on our wish list. Webster says stewardship includes, “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care”. We’ve become managers, however inept, of our property.

Our volunteerism with the Club reduced radically June 30 this year. Between us we spent forty hours weekly last year on Club business. Deb worked very closely last year with Jim, the Club’s manager, and the Rally volunteer manager on the Salem Rally. Deb continues to help on the Rally Committee as they develop next year’s International Rally in Doswell Virginia. Jim graduated to International Past President and serves this last year as a member of the Club’s Executive Board. This is a radically less demanding position that still allows assisting the other Board members and Committees. We’re both engaged but enjoying more time for ourselves.

We’re still full-time in our 25′ Airstream and loving it. Living in a small space, minimizing what we purchase, maintaining what we need, storing very little, all suit us well. We continue to enjoy full-timing even as it morphs for us. We’ll attend four rallies with the Wally Byam Airstream Club’s local chapters in October and November, plan to spend lots of time with family, and we find our travels bucket list is again growing.

Plans are exciting. There are still so many places we want to visit and we have so much time. When we’re not rolling we’re at our mountain camp relaxing. Oh, and thinning weak trees, watching for wildlife, maintaining the creek banks, improving trails and walking a lot.

Thanks for your “pot-stirring”, getting us back onto the dreamstreamr odyssey.

Jim and Deb
Fleetwood N.C. or North America
Our website, dreamstreamr.com

Chasing 75 Degrees of What?

It’s 26 degrees an hour after sunset and going down to 22 degrees tonight. So we’re essentially at 1/3 the temperature of 75 degrees. We’ve camped in colder weather without freezing pipes (well, mostly true). We have 120v power, two full propane tanks, a full tank of fresh water, and full pantry and fridge. Our clothes and boots are easily a match for these conditions so if the Airstream can handle it so can we.

How about if we temporarily say we’re chasing 75 degrees from some compass bearing or another? Otherwise we’re either no good at chasing 75 degrees or we’re nuts for voluntarily moving our Airstream trailer up to the mountains. Rather just admit we’re here because we really like it and are grateful we can choose.

We love visiting our mountain camp in North Carolina’s Ashe County. Appointments and family plans in the city pulled us away last week during the first good snowfall this season. Despite the forecast for one more cold night we drove up today. The farther west and north we drove, the more snow we saw on the northern slopes.

We became concerned as we pulled the trailer up the snow-covered state-maintained gravel road leading to our driveway. What if we can’t get the trailer up the snowy 10% graded driveway? Fortunately we put new tires on the truck last week and had no problems getting onto our site. After arriving this afternoon at 2:30 we changed into warm clothes and our boots for a nice walk in the snow.

Two pictures are from the snowfall last week and the third is on today’s walk.

Fresh snow on our driveway

Beginning of snow fall

Overlooking the orchard this afternoon

Way To Go, Stud

I thought this evening I’d grab my slingshot and spool of fishing line and rig a 73′ ham radio wire antenna when we returned to our trailer this afternoon. We’d been at a wonderful luncheon with our local unit of the Wally Byam Airstream Club and I told them what I wanted to do when we got back. I’d love to have that great antenna working in the morning between 7am and 9am for the daily 40 meter net session. But something more appealing came up after the luncheon before we even left Winston-Salem.

Yesterday morning one of the two gas struts supporting my truck’s tonneau cover broke. The gas strut’s fine but the attachment at one end broke from the tonneau cover’s supporting arm. Hatch doors on SUVs and SAVs and some vans have two gas struts to lift and hold that hatch door. One won’t do the job. It’s the same with my tonneau cover – two gas struts, working properly and together, just barely get the job done. One strut alone leaves you with a truck bed cover that you’re going to need a prop stick for, if you can even get the tonneau cover open.

Pretty much anything with gas struts has ball studs. The ball studs are the attachment point for the ends of the gas strut. The ball studs are under a tremendous force and may break off. Mine did over a week ago (after a mere eleven years daily service). I sort of fixed it but the repair didn’t hold and yesterday I realized I needed to find the right parts to really fix this.

8mm ball studs

A good friend suggested I might find at an AutoZone auto parts store the gas strut ball stud I needed for my tonneau cover. I’ve never bought one before. I didn’t even know how they’re packaged or who would sell them. Last night I searched on line and found it’s sort of a specialty item despite tens of thousands (way more?) cars and trucks use this. But Randy is right (by the way, he says Camping World also sells these). AutoZone on Country Club Drive in Winston-Salem had one package of 8mm ball studs. A pair of them set me back less than $4 with tax. Thanks Randy for the spot on referral.

I didn’t realize what the 8mm or 10mm label on ball stud packaging referred to or I might have worried I wouldn’t have the tools I wanted. Turns out, the measurement refers to the threaded portion. Not realizing this, I pulled out my grab bag of threading taps and found one to match the threads on the ball stud. Guess what, it’s an 8mm tap. The correct drill bit size is embossed on the side of the tap. I was delighted to find the requisite 17/64″ drill bit (very slightly larger than 1/4″). I have a drill, bit, and tap. Okay, what I didn’t know or plan hasn’t hurt me so far.

One of the gas strut’s ball stud had yanked clean out of the tonneau cover’s hinged support arm. The hole was too small for the 8mm shank of the new ball stud. I could have drilled out the hole to 5/16″, slid the new shank in and secured it with the included nut. But I decided it would be stronger (and a little bit of fun) to drill and tap the support arm for the 8mm shank to thread into plus put a nut on the extra length of shank on the other side. It looks like this:

ball stud threaded through support arm and secured with nut

The gas strut snaps onto the ball after I pry the spring release open. I made a mistake and pried too far. The spring popped off and landed in the truck’s pretty messy bed. Once I found it I realized what a mistake it was to pop it off. Much harder to put this spring on than to open and close it. I’ll be more careful in the future to only pry it open enough to release from the ball. Here’s a picture of the gas strut snapped properly onto the new ball.

gas strut snapped onto new ball

I’m no mechanic. I’m just lucky enough to have some tools I’ve collected over time and a tiny bit of mechanical aptitude. I’ll admit I have no idea if this installation method, tapping threads in the support arm, is better than making a larger hole and slipping the threaded shank through. But it was fun to do this and, like a puzzle completed, it’s satisfying to have the pieces fit together. This took me 15 minutes to complete once I had the tools out and the drill plugged into the power receptacle. Here’s a picture of the not so many tools I needed and used today for this quick and easy project to keep my tonneau cover easy to lift and hold open.

all the tools needed for this job

The oddest thing is to figure why I have an 8mm threading tap. I guess it’s from 1978-79 when I was keeping my Toyota Hi-Lux truck going. I never thought the tap took up space I needed for something else. It’s approx 5/16″ diameter by 2.5″ long. Of course, this is one of how many threading taps I have in the toolbox? Debbie doesn’t worry too much about what’s in the truck or under the trailer as long as I find things to do outside when she wants inside space. And you wondered how two of us live full-time more than ten years in this small Airstream trailer?

On Our Way to NYC This Week

We left Pittsburgh a couple of days ago on our way to meet up and go to NYC with a bunch of Wally Byam Airstream Club friends from Ontario. There were several potential routes to the meetup and we hadn’t settled on where to stop the first night. Then BANG! “Why don’t we spend a day touring Niagara Falls?” Okay, small route change and no problem. Let’s do it.

Sunset on Lake Erie

Why do things work out really well sometimes? Apparently someone cancelled their plans for an RV site in Four Mile Creek State Park. This is near Niagara Falls and our site backs up to Lake Erie. Four Mile Creek State Park is a gorgeous campground with several hundred sites. The shower houses are very nicely built, although there was no walk path from our loop. The sites are large and have electricity. Water is available throughout the loops for refilling fresh water tanks and the dump station is conveniently located on our way out. Best of all, the drive between Four Mile Creek and Niagara Falls is a pretty and short twenty-mile drive.

Our NY State Park camping fee also covers the day’s parking fee while we’re visiting Niagara Falls. This happens sometimes, especially if we listen and take someone’s advice, are willing to be flexible, don’t let our expectations keep us from enjoying things, and let things work out. It’s not just a freedom of full-timing, but that helps too. Sometimes you wonder what you did wrong. Sometimes you get very lucky.

Garbed up for the boat tour

We checked in for our online-purchased tickets when we arrived at Niagara Falls State Park in the morning. The visitor’s desk lady asked us, “Do you want to get wet now or later?” Our choices were to get wet on the boat tour, or wetter on the Cave of the Winds walk. We started the day at the Falls with the Maid of the Mist boat tour.

Can you see us on the boat?

The falls almost overwhelmed us on our boat tour. Not capsized us, but it filled us completely with awe. There are 675,000 gallons per second rushing over the Canadian Falls and we were struck dumb by the tremendous power and beauty as we bobbed along in our boat near the base of these falls.

taken from the Skylon Tower

Best laid plans were thoroughly doused in our next adventure. The issued blue ponchos had kept us entirely dry on the boat tour despite wet blustery air currents and showers. We wore our waterproof hiking boots and gore-tex jackets too, so we felt well-prepared for whatever the Falls could dish out. We went next to the Cave of the Winds and boldly advised the flip-flop passer outer that we had on our waterproof shoes and wouldn’t take the free flip flops.

Ha! Our waterproof boots, once they filled with icy cold water on the boardwalk so near the falls, kept the water from leaking out from around our feet. We sloshed back to the truck where, fortunately, we had two pairs of dry socks to change into. Note for next time: use the flip flops.

Our park pass admitted us to all the attractions and also onto the trolley. We made good use of the pass, checking out all the stops on foot except for the Schoellkpof Power Station site. The trolley trip there was nice and quick and allowed us time to tour this and see the movie in the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center. Our last stop was for dinner reservations on the Canadian side, 1.6 miles distant. We walked across Rainbow Bridge, the largest hingeless arch bridge in the world from its 1941 construction until twenty-one years later when surpassed by a nearby bridge (Lewiston-Queenston) of the same design.

Perhaps exactly midway across the border we were standing astride the border between two of our favorite countries, the one where all our children and grandchildren live and the one where two of our grandchildren were born. Someone told us earlier in the day we’d find the Canadian side of Niagara Falls cleaner and neater than the American side. The remark didn’t surprise us and we weren’t surprised to find it so, again. We had a nice appetizing walk to the Skylon Tower and made our early dinner seating right on time.

dinner reservations at Skylon Tower

Debbie had arranged for a prix fixe, where everything’s included in one price, at the revolving restaurant atop the Skylon Tower. We would ride the yellow elevator up the outside and have seating in the window for a one revolution per hour dinner. The dinner was several courses, the food was very good, and the views were wonderful. This was a really nice way to spend the evening after walking all over the Niagara Falls State Park.

dining in Skylon Tower

The spontaneous stop in Niagara Falls allowed one of our best touring days ever. The weather forecast was for rain. We figured we’d be getting wet anyhow (and we did, or at least our feet did), and the rain apparently kept the park from being very busy. We arrived early and stayed until nearly 7:30 in the evening. We didn’t spend enough time on the Canadian side and didn’t quite finish the American side either.

As usually occurs, we left thinking, “We’ll want to return and see more of this”. It was a great day!

See you down the road,

Jim and Debbie
see us at dreamstreamr odyssey, chasing 75 degrees
see what’s going on at WBCCI, The Wally Byam Airstream Club

Why Settle for Less?

Jim’s long enjoyed making, repairing, or installing things for himself and our friends. He does his best work when he’s helping someone else. But working for himself, he says, he sometimes just tries for “good enough.” That can leave him wondering if and when he’ll go back and redo his project the way he really wants it.

We recently enjoyed a special visit with friends in York, South Carolina, near the NC-SC border. We were traveling north from Florida. John and Susan Leake invited us to park our Airstream at their house on our way up. We’ve known John and Susan several years and like them a lot. We’d heard of their beautiful home and old fashioned Southern hospitality. But this post isn’t about what great hosts they are, what a great cook Susan is, or how much we like their home. They are, she is, and we really do. Read on and see what affected us so much on this visit!

Even with the high praise we’d heard for Leake’s Antiques we weren’t really prepared for what we found. John and one of his sons, Jay, are creating gorgeous furniture masterpieces, one at a time. Their signature piece, a cellaret, is pictured below (read about it in the Garden and Gun Magazine article, linked further below:)

Leake’s Antiques Cellaret

Read what the Leakes say on their own website,

“John and Jay Leake hand make period reproduction furniture in the styles of William and Mary, Queen Anne, Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Sheraton. Using all solid wood, each piece is made to order using the finest mahogany, cherry, walnut and maple available. Not only is the wood of the finest quality but also our hardware and brass. Customers who identify quality and craftsmanship will especially appreciate our furniture. 

John Leake and son Jay build fifteen to eighteen major pieces per year in their York, South Carolina shop, each with craftsmanship featuring hand carving, dovetailing, and pinned mortise and tenon joinery.

We don’t have a “line” of furniture. Pictured on our showroom page are some of our favorites. We often duplicate them but can also adapt or modify them for your needs, or build you a totally custom piece. We work on 1 piece at a time for 1 customer at a time. We welcome your inquiry, better still, a visit.”

Doesn’t that sound pretty special? We think so. The real thing’s even better and they’re receiving well-deserved recognition for it. A couple of years ago, Garden and Gun Magazine did a feature on John and Jay’s work. The link takes you to a wonderful article with nice photographs of the Leake’s shop, showroom, and the guys too.

Jim’s dad built furniture as a hobby. He instilled in Jim a love for woodworking and finishes. When Jim graduated from college he worked for years as a construction carpenter then ran a woodworking and cabinet shop. He did all the shop work and installations himself and learned what it takes to do good work. John and Jay don’t just do good work, they do beautiful work. Their craftsmanship is amazing.

This matters to the rest of us. Have we heard anyone complaining about how poorly things are made nowadays? Are our lives affected by cheap or inappropriate clutter? Does quality pay? Do beautiful things improve our lives? Does a job well-done improve our outlook? The answer to all five is, “YES.”

Competing priorities can confuse things. There’s only so much time and money and there are plenty of rationalizations:
“We’re leaving tomorrow and this needs to be safe and secure first;
We didn’t spend much on this because it’s just a trial and we might not like it;
I’ll do this better later when I have more time.” And you can think of some others, right?

We see there’s a new Dyson $399 handheld blow dryer on the market. Dyson reportedly stated his company has never designed “down to price.” He’s not interested in competing with companies offering lower-cost goods. He makes the best product he can and the buyers who want it will pay for it. If a buyer like his products and thinks they’re worth the price then everything’s copacetic. (ed. note: we don’t own any Dyson things :-)

Dyson’s new hair dryer

The Leakes aren’t compromising on quality either. We’ve never seen better crafted furniture than John and Jay are making. The attention to detail and the joinery is superb.  Jay hand cuts the beautiful visible dovetailed joints, and even the blind structural joints are dovetailed. Their furniture has perfect joints, flawless inlay, beautiful hardware, gorgeous finishes. They’re taking their time to do their very best work on every piece they build. The result is pleasing to the eye and soul.

We thank John and Jay for showing us how high quality work matters to them and to their customers. They create beautiful furniture. As John Keats wrote 200 years ago in his poem, Endymion “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” Seeing the high quality work Leake’s Antiques turns out made all the difference to us. Why settle for less?

See you down the road,

Jim and Debbie
see us at dreamstreamr odyssey, chasing 75 degrees
see what’s going on at WBCCI, The Wally Byam Airstream Club

Enjoying Full-Time Living in Our Airstream Trailer

Enjoyed a few cups of coffee with friends today and returned to the house mid-morning. What to do with all that morning caffeine? Turned on some energy music, pulled out a few cleaning supplies, and started burning calories. Cleaned ceilings, walls, floors and doors of all our rooms. How long does that take? About two albums worth, listened to all of Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin II.

cleaning’s ez pz

This brings up a benefit of living in a tiny house. Our former home was 3,000 feet on two floors plus a detached 1.5 story 2 car garage. We lived in four rooms of that large house, the bedroom, small den, breakfast nook, and kitchen. With company, we’d use more space. How often would that happen? We’ve known homeowners of all ages who lived similarly, gravitating toward the cozy space for reading or browsing, eating in the kitchen, sleeping in the bedroom, while supporting a house of anywhere from 2,000 to 6,000 square feet. The less-used spaces still require upkeep of dusting and vacuuming. Somehow all the washrooms seem to need cleaning. There are lots more windows to clean.

For now, we’re enjoying the benefits of living well in our tiny house. Do NOT get rid of your nice home. We love visiting you. We love occasionally housesitting for you (we call it “playing house.”) You love your home and we do too. In a way we don’t really know what we’re missing. Some ask us, “What d’ya miss most about your house?” Our answer varies with the season or our moods.

How do you answer about something that, in a way, never was? Sometimes we reply, “We never lived in it as retirees – as soon as we quit our jobs, we sold our stuff and the house and split. We don’t know what it would be like to live there now.” We also fondly recall hosting folks for large gatherings, like Jim’s high school class during Christmas holidays 2007, or a sister’s wedding brunch with family from near and far, and baby showers for friends and family. Just can’t invite as many into this tiny house. Those are nice memories. Would those occasions still arise if we had a large enough house? Do we miss doing those?

How many camping stoves does a fast-hiking 4-person backpacking team need to carry? Does everyone need a car in case they want to run an errand, or can we share cars or support mass-transit and taxi solutions more economically (and with less carbon footprint?) Do we all need enough house to host family and neighborhood gatherings? Is it fair for the tiny house people to not share in the cost of the host homes? Are we willing to own and maintain a “big home” again?

A large fixed location house isn’t currently one of our needs. We don’t miss owning a large home. Taxes, maintenance, and utilities comprise the large portion of an annual household budget. We’re saving, by not supporting a large home, nearly half of our current entire annual budget. We’re enjoying volunteer leadership for the Wally Byam Airstream Club, life in our Airstream trailer, and our ability to travel where, when and for how long we want.

How much Spring Cleaning time do we save by living tiny? It’s not really the point. We’re enjoying living full-time in our Airstream tiny house. Easy maintenance, inside and out, is a great feature of Airstream trailers. We love living in ours.

See you down the road,

Jim and Debbie
see us at dreamstreamr odyssey, chasing 75 degrees
see what’s going on at WBCCI, The Wally Byam Airstream Club

The Road Less Traveled By

Any other highway but I-10 would be fine this time. So we started westward on I-20 and almost magically found ourselves entering the Sacramento Mountains on US-82. How could we have known how cool this was going to be? How many times did we not take this road?

We’ve crossed the continent, out and back, almost every year for the past ten. Every time we’ve been pulling our sweet 25′ Airstream home-on-wheels behind us. It seems like we’ve taken I-10 way too many times.

Really we probably used other highways at least half of the times we traversed the continent. We’ve crossed on The TransCanada Highway once, and each of I-90, 80, 70, and 40 at least once in both directions. Interstate 10 gets all our other crossings because it’s the most southern route and therefore the most suitable for towing our unwinterized RV in January, Feb, or Mar, which we often seem to do.

We were headed from North Carolina to Casa Grande AZ for the WBCCI Airstream Club’s annual winter Board meeting. Each evening on this trip we looked at the possible routes and weather a day ahead ahead. An overnight in Sweetwater TX on I-20 gave us a good look at a route we’d never considered. We saw a straighter line than I-20/I-10 offered from Sweetwater to Las Cruces, by picking our way from I-20 to US-82. We had no idea the adventure we were facing, the route simply looked more direct.

One hundred or so miles later we were in an incomparably beautiful area, the Sacramento Mountains in Lincoln National Forest. Without a doubt this was the prettiest part of our entire drive. The two lane road gently turned and climbed back and forth as it followed an ancient route through a gorge and then inexorably upward toward Cloudcroft NM at 8,650 ft above sea level.

There were long stretches of nothing but unspoiled terrain. This natural beauty reminded us of driving on Top of the World Highway between Dawson City YT and Chicken Alaska, where for as far as we could see away from our road there was no trace of civilization anywhere. Gradually we started seeing more homesteads, then RV parks, and finally stores. In Cloudcroft we even drove by a small ski slope filled with folks enjoying skiing on a sunny afternoon.

It took a little while for us to recover from the excitement of watching our engine and transmission temperatures climb on the mile-high climb and imagine our brake temperatures climb on the 4,300′ descent. Then we realized we were going to be driving right by White Sands National Monument. Several times we had driven on one border or the other of the White Sands Missile Range. We’d never been on this side of the area and hadn’t thought how to find our way to it. We had to stop!

We spent a fascinating hour touring the Visitors Center and watching their very good video about the area. We learned some history and geology about the area, and why the white sand is special – it’s gypsum instead of quartz. What surprised us most is the rule prohibiting taking any of this white sand out of the park. Sure enough, we saw little piles of it on the sidewalk of the parking area where people dumped out their shoes so they wouldn’t be absconding with the material.

I’ve friends who won’t take that road, the one less traveled. Their travel’s going to be on the four-lanes and GPS-referred routes. There’s nothing wrong with that. Those roads are likely to have good paved shoulders, softer grades, great sight lines, and perhaps other safety features. The best thing is that the really interesting routes might remain, in Robert Frost’s words, “the road less traveled by.” It did make all the difference for us yesterday.

See You Down The Road

Jim and Debbie,
dreamstreamr odyssey, chasing 75 degrees
©dreamstreamr odyssey 2017

Preparing for Snow?

This morning on the telly NC’s new governor, Roy Cooper, announced declaration of state of emergency for all 100 counties. They’re pretty sure this snow’s coming. We’re in the dark blue region on this map so things could become messy. We made a quick trip to the local store, beat the rush. We have enough scotch and bourbon for the weekend.

We were planning to leave NC today for sunny Arizona. We miss 75 degrees and look forward to a great Board of Trustees meeting of the Airstream Club. Our new plan is to enjoy the snow and tow our Airstream southbound starting Monday. We’re ready to go!

See you down the road,

Jim and Debbie
see us at dreamstreamr odyssey, chasing 75 degrees
see what’s going on at WBCCI, The Wally Byam Airstream Club

Not Chasing 75 degrees

It’s 40 below, raining, and we’re thriving. Not 40 below zero, 40 degrees below our vaunted (and often achievable) outdoor temperature target of 75 degrees. We’re glad to see the rain, have opportunities for walking and other exercise on our land, and consider improvements we might do someday.

Our Airstream is keeping us warm and dry, as always. The furnace was running upon our return from a nice 45-minute walk in the rain. That’s unusual. We normally turn the furnace down to 45, the minimum, after we warm the trailer’s interior in the morning. Then we’ll use the catalytic heater and the portable Pelonis electric heater to maintain 66-68 degrees inside. For our walk we left only the catalytic on. The interior temp fell below 64 and we’d forgotten to turn the furnace down so it was trying to keep up

Our central heat, if we ever build a house, will be very quiet. We’re weary of noisy heat, even if grateful for warmth. The Pelonis ceramic heater is the quietest of our mechanical heaters, followed by the gas furnace, followed by the electric strip heat in the roof a/c unit.

Our Olympian Wave6 catalytic heater is silent, radiates great warmth, and we can focus it in the direction we wish. Nearly ideal, except it adds moisture to our space (a bad/good thing.) The moisture wants to condense on cold surfaces and our many single thickness windows are happy cold sinks. The mechanical heat sources help dry the air more. But they’re so darned noisy. We prefer the silent radiant heat when we’re awake and indoors (we NEVER leave the catalytic heater operating when we’re napping or sleeping.)

And we love the coziness of our 25′ Airstream trailer in the rain. Even freezing rain.

See You Down The Road

Jim and Debbie
dreamstreamrs, still chasing 75 degrees
See our website too

Kickstarter for Alumination, a feature-length documentary

We’d never contributed to a Kickstarter campaign. We’d never even browsed their web site. Kickstarter claims 15 diverse categories and thousands of projects. I’d wondered what was the motivation to contribute to a campaign. Someone I know kicked in on a project a few years ago. He received a handful of the items when it went successfully to production and he gave us one. Still I wondered, why get involved in this?

Eric Bricker is a friend we first met at Alumaflamingo (Sarasota FL) several years ago. We’ve since met with him several times in other locations. He’s each time impressed us with his enthusiasm for the Wally Byam Airstream Club and all things Airstream. Clearly he’s done his homework about our Club and community. This morning we opened Eric’s invitation to look at his Kickstarter campaign for “ALUMINATION, a feature-length documentary”. We love it and we’re all in!

This film is something all Airstreamers can look forward to enjoying. Eric’s trailer will give you a pretty good understanding of his feel for our Aluminum community. I’m interested in supporting this project because of his demonstrated talent, hard work, and successful portrayal of something I believe in – the Airstream lifestyle. I hope you’ll agree his project is worth supporting, and you’ll open your wallets to kickstart it like we have.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/81888336/alumination-a-feature-length-documentary?ref=nav_search

Jim

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©2007-2016 Dreamstreamr odyssey

Stittsville News article

We had a delightful interview with John Curry, news editor of the Stittsville News. He found us at the Ontario Airstream Club’s rally in Richmond Ontario. In fairness, he could have filled two more pages about the rally’s crowd, entertainment and great dining.

The Ontario Unit of the Wally Byam Airstream Club is one of the largest, with almost two hundred members. Their rally attendance sometimes has seventy Airstreams, so this rally was a little small at nearly fifty rigs.

More later, wanted to share the fun interview we read today in the Stittsville News online. We hope you have fun reading it too.

 

15 Years Ago Today

I am one very lucky man

Jim

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©2007-2016 Dreamstreamr odyssey

Love in World of Hate

How can any of us hate another human being? How often do we not even know a thing about them, and aren’t willing to try? Because we don’t understand them.  Tom Basson says, “the only way to understand is to listen.” Tom’s passion for kindness and fairness stirs me, and I hope it does you too.

MEMORIAL DAY

Memorial Day, which is observed on the last Monday of May, commemorates the men and women who died while in the military service of our country.
[http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/]

Safe Travels,

Jim and Debbie
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©2007-2016 Dreamstreamr odyssey

Air travel is Again safe

Tried to get through TSA screening today with Chapstick in my pocket. It’s nonmetallic, non-liquid, right? The full-body scanner picked it up, thank heavens. We then submitted to the one-on-one.

“Sir, do you have items in your pocket?”

“Yes.” Reach in and retrieve the Chapstick, and I show it to him.

“Sir, I’ll need to pat you on that side.” I guess it was good for him. Then he said, “Please open the Chapstick.”

Okay, that worked. I get to keep my Chapstick. They either didn’t detect the individually wrapped lifesaver mint in my other pocket or they know what it is. Probably the latter, eh?

I hope we’re safer now. So long as only goodness comes in Chapstick- and smaller-sized packages, I do feel safer.

Who needs TPMS?

We never thought we needed tire pressure monitoring on our truck. Until yesterday. Last summer we upgraded our trailer’s TPMS to a really nice TST system sold by friends of ours. What to do with the old system? Aha! Put it on the truck tires. We can monitor the truck’s tires with the old system instead of junking it.

TST with display turned off

We’ve been monitoring the truck tires pressure since last July. Everything’s been rock steady, just as we would expect. Until yesterday. An alarm sounded while we were towing the trailer north on Interstate 77. I looked immediately at the new TST system to see if a tire was flashing (while keeping the other 100% of my attention on driving.) No alarm.

I asked Debbie to read the old system for me and see what’s up. Yep, the RR tire had dropped from 73 to 50. No, it’s to 40. It’s going down fast! I was able to pull over immediately onto a wide paved shoulder. And the tire pressure monitor showed 23 pounds. The (600HP) brass and rubber valve stem’s rubber base was broken. It showed an break at the wheel rim when I flexed it. I anticipate switching to metal clamp-in stems, like the one below on the right, on the truck.

We’d never had a tire incident on our trucks. 162,000 miles on this truck, 115,000 towing miles on it, and this is the first time we’ve pulled the jack and rods from under the truck’s back seat. Pretty intuitive setup, so we’re able to get the truck up, tire changed, and ready to go in under 45 minutes.

Friends have expressed concerns over their ability to get 3/4 ton truck wheels off and on in a road emergency. My tire stores are torquing the truck’s lug nuts  120 to 140 ft lbs. Using the Silverado’s lug wrench I was able to break the lug nuts loose before jacking the tire off the ground. We didn’t need to lift the flat tire or the spare, we just rocked and rolled them into place. The spare tilted onto the hub easily, and the flat tire cranked up (in a mere 40 turns of the crank) into the storage spot under the truck’s bed. The biggest effort I expended was setting the jack under the axle and cranking the jack and the spare tire crank.

We frequently torque the trailer wheels so already have the socket for those lug nuts. I hadn’t realized I lacked a socket for the truck’s wheel lug nuts (when have I needed it?) so couldn’t have used my breaker bar and pipe extension. If one of the truck’s lug nuts had been especially tight I would’ve had a problem. Today I spent $5 on a 7/8″ six-point impact socket. I can now torque the truck wheels and more importantly I can break loose the most stubborn lug nut with my 3′ extension on my breaker bar. 

One especially bright moment in our roadside stop? A big yellow truck pulled up behind us and raised his large traffic hazard warning sign. NCDOT State Farm® Safety Patrol is a free service that provides roadway assistance to stranded motorists – regardless of their insurance provider. He asked if there was anything he could do to help? I told him I was already putting the spare on and really appreciated him blocking from the rear.  His presence comforted me  – it reduced our vulnerability while we attended to the business at hand.

Thanks to State Farm® for sponsoring this program.  In NC, simply push *HP on your cell phone to call for assistance. They’ll change your tire, provide you a little gas or diesel, boost your battery, all to help you get back on the road more quickly and safely.

Lessons learned?

• Keep using TPMS on both the trailer and truck’s tires;
• Carry the lug nut 7/8″socket for truck wheels in my tool box;
• Switch to metal clamp-in valve stems on the truck;
• In NC, call *HP before I start working at roadside.

See you down the road!

Jim and Debbie
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©2007-2016 Dreamstreamr odyssey

How many years full-timing?

2015 was a good year for us. It wrapped up an enjoyable eighth year of full-timing. We began the year in a wet and chilly Corpus Christi TX, and the year mostly improved from there.  Our year was full of interesting travels throughout much of the United States. We visited another FL state park (Silver Springs) for the first time before visiting Sarasota and Miami again. We added another state, Pennsylvania, to our camping list with two weeks enjoyable visits there.

We traveled a different path westward to Farmington NM for the Airstream Club’s annual meeting and rally. It was fun to stop at the mother ship of Bass Pro stores in St Louis MO. Along the way we discovered a free city park in Elk City OK (electricity and water,) and nice RVers everywhere we went. While in Farmington at the annual meeting, Jim was elected to 2nd Vice-President of the international Airstream Club. This was an exciting event and promises to provide a lot of hard and rewarding work.

Farmington NM is a great part of the USA to visit. Attractions include Shiprock, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, and Aztec Ruins, and Hovenweep National Monument, and Durango, among other ancient and more recently developed attractions. Summer may not be the best time to visit the southwest but we found the weather manageable and enjoyed our stay and the attractions.

Sadly, Jim’s mother died in mid-March last year. We left Miami earlier than planned to rush home to be with Catie and family during this tough time. Thankfully the campground in southwest Miami was very accommodating about refunding our unused camping nights, and we’re glad we weren’t any further away from the family home. Our full-timing lifestyle allowed us to quickly respond to the family’s needs and care for Catie so she could stay home during her last two weeks.

One of our daughters and her family repatriated from Vancouver in Canada last month. They’re getting settled in with many adjustments after being out of the country for ten years. We’re excited to have all our children and grands living in North Carolina for the first time. We sense, on the other hand, a tug to start settling on our NC mountain acreage. Doesn’t this look really inviting? We have courtesy parking – let us know if you’d like to stop in. It’s pretty nice.

 

Two new grandchildren joined our family last year. We’re grateful our travels and their arrivals all timed well, and they’re both in N.C.

 

We encountered our fair share of mechanical issues last year. Our fridge and water heater both failed on our rain-soaked trip from Farmington. Not until we hit some dry pavement in Tennessee did these start working again. Our batteries stopped charging from shore power. We accidentally destroyed our folding step when we ran it into a projecting concrete sidewalk. Precipitates from the water heater clogged our sink faucet completely. The solar charger quit. Debbie’s makeup mirror LED lights failed. We found ourselves needing to replace the trailer’s brakes and turn the drums. We had our worst water leaks into the cabin. One that soaked the fabric base of our sofa and one that dripped onto the floor from inside the roof air conditioner.

These are all pretty routine maintenance issues to us. To have a gaggle of mechanical issues in the same year is unusual for us and was frustrating at times. We sometimes defer maintenance when we think we can count on getting to it before long. Ideally, we catch problems before they catch us. Other times, a delay turns out to be punctuated by a repair instead of preventive or scheduled maintenance. Dry camping is easy when most things are working. Living in an RV is easy for us when most things are working. Our RV is eleven years old and is apparently becoming a little more demanding. Okay – we’re on it!

Our 2015 towing mileage was 11,740, down from 14,866 miles in 2014. This brings our total full-timing towing miles to just under 108,000 miles. Our truck has 157,000 total miles, so towing represents 70% of our total truck mileage. The truck and trailer each continue to delight us with low maintenance needs and costs. We still plan to run the truck to 200,000 miles, or another three to four years, before replacement. Get your bids in soon for future purchase of a lightly used truck!

Our full-timing travel costs continued another year to trend downward. We spent $2,966 on camping sites, down from $4,050 and $4,565 the prior two years. Our average cost of camp site rental for 2015 dropped to $8/night, down from $11 and $13 the prior two years. Our average nights stay per site returned to six nights.

One expected decrease is our towing miles per relocation. We averaged 178 miles per relocation in 2015, our second lowest number in eight years. Moving more often within southeast USA from July through December 2015 drove this and other reductions. This year we’re likely to spend more time traveling out west, so some of these may swing upward again.

Finally, we now freely admit we’re likely to build a house. We bought very nice land two years ago in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Weeks spent at various times of the year getting a feel for the sun, the weather, the wind, and the neighbors, provide us good ideas for site placement.

This attraction to building a house runs counter to our full-timing ethic of the past 8+ years. We promised we would only stay on the road full-time so long as we wanted. We’re still loving it, but are beginning to wonder how many more years. We think it’d be nice to eventually have a house again.

See you down the road!

Jim and Debbie
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©2007-2016 Dreamstreamr odyssey

A wonderful Thanksgiving message from South Africa

I didn’t write this post but really like it and thought you might. This one seems the perfect Thanksgiving message. I’m thankful for so much, and glad I found Tom’s uplifting message about thankfulness. My sister asks if it’s a chicken and egg thing. Tom seems to be saying thankfulness is the start and, perhaps the end too. See what you think.

“An Attitude of Gratitude“, by Tom Basson
So often when preaching on a topic I find myself having to really live it out in the weeks before… This Sunday my wife & I are both preaching on giving thanks in ALL situations, and in the last 10 days the following has happened: I have broken my foot, requiring painful surgery. I’ve had to cough […]

https://tombasson.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/an-attitude-of-gratitude/

Illuminating Discovery

Jim and Debbie rarely pass up the opportunity to browse an IKEA store. Not so much that it’s a destination for us, IKEA trips are entertaining diversions sometimes. For a full timer, the urge could hit anywhere. How better to spend a few (or more) hours than browsing the tremendous variety of fun stuff we don’t need and probably don’t have room for in our tiny tiny house?

Many stays in Vancouver BC included visits to the Coquitlam store, near Burnaby Cariboo RV resort, and to the Richmond store on the south side of Vancouver. Closer to our normal haunts is the Charlotte NC store, one we visit at least annually. They make it fun, offering good coffee free and tempting us with sweet rolls in the café. Too, they have entrees and marzipan in the “cafeteria” upstairs. Stay long enough and the body needs fuel to continue browsing.

Our clear favorite target at IKEA stores is the kitchen layouts. A close second is the arranged apartments, showing complete living quarters in under 600sf. Jim likes the display of chairs, particularly the comfortable armchairs and the lighting section. He sits in the POÄNG armchair every visit and wonders if this could be the thing most missed from having a roomier house these past eight years.

Ah, but the lighting section. Now there’s something we can sdd in our 188sf house, can’t we? Debbie’s practical and reasoning voice patiently says, “What problem does this solve?” Jim sometimes admits, “But isn’t this light (or switch, or whatever) just cool?” IKEA is the first big store to convert widely to LED lighting. Their LED product offerings are coming along gradually too.

Last year we finally succumbed to the inevitable. We bought and installed this little light. We waited till now to share it, after making sure we like it (did we delay too long? Can’t find it online now.) Would it hold up with mobile living? Do the batteries keep on or wane quickly? Is the light worth it’s cost and small weight? Probably!

Automatic LED light shines just when we need it.

A year and one set of AAA batteries later, this light is a win. It hasn’t fallen off, chipped, started any fires, or failed to light when we open the cabinet. Its biggest workout is when we show off our Airstream (and remember to open this cabinet.) Not all cabinets need this lighting. This one is the apt application for “appropriate technology.” We like it.

Hmm, what other treasures can we find at an IKEA store? So many displays, so much marzipan and coffee. . .

See you down the road,

Jim and Debbie

dreamstreamr odyssey™
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©2007-2015 Jim @ Dreamstreamr.com