http://www.airforums.com/forums/ Share your stories from the road, discuss best highways, campgrounds, parks, etc. en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:47:14 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.airforums.com/ugala/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.airforums.com/forums/ http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/rock-n-roll-airstream-aka-the-bambi-sessions-58685.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:06:05 GMT Howdy airstreamers! We are a band of two, and a family of 4 (mama, daddy, baby and doggie) who recently hit the road in our new/old 1961 16 foot Bambi. We are touring the country, playing music in our band, Hymn For Her and recording an album in our airstream as we travel. Where do we find the... Howdy airstreamers!
We are a band of two, and a family of 4 (mama, daddy, baby and doggie) who recently hit the road in our new/old 1961 16 foot Bambi. We are touring the country, playing music in our band, Hymn For Her and recording an album in our airstream as we travel. Where do we find the space in such a small airstream for all our equiptment? Well, check out our facebook page where we blog often and add unique little clips daily, weekly or whenever we can hook up. We are now in Malibu staying at the RV park on the hill overlooking the ocean. Life is good. See you out there. Peace. H4H

you can find us on facebook under: Maggi Jane and also under Hymn For Her

hymn for her ]]> On The Road... H4H http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/rock-n-roll-airstream-aka-the-bambi-sessions-58685.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/new-brighton-state-beach-58676.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:13:45 GMT Has anyone stayed at New Brighton near Santa Cruz, and what did you think of the place? Has anyone stayed at New Brighton near Santa Cruz, and what did you think of the place? ]]> On The Road... Zugbug http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/new-brighton-state-beach-58676.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/departing-corpus-christi-for-western-texas-58590.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:57:25 GMT File:Wpdms republic of texas.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Gene will note his Colorado home is part of original Texas; the map...]]> CrawfordGene's 2009 travelogue inspired this.


Republic of Texas
File:Wpdms republic of texas.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Gene will note his Colorado home is part of original Texas; the map isn't quite east/west correct.)

I've borrowed from Wikipedia and TSHA below:

Were one to come up the Rio Grande River at Eagle Pass from Corpus Christi (via Bluntzer & Orange Grove & Cotulla) the route would have traced the Nueces River from delta to headwaters (admittedly, a backroad all the way; FM 624, but a good one for that); what the Mexicans argued in the 1840's should have been the border.

Cotulla

Cotulla was where a young, college-educated Lyndon Johnson taught school, changing his own outlook and making lives better before he left:

Virtual Classroom

If anyone you know has received Federal aid for college, this wide spot on the road deserves your reflection. (I make my pilgrimage stop at the Dairy Queen [a Texas small town institution]).

Eagle Pass

The United States Army established the presumably permanent Fort Duncan on March 27, 1849, a couple of miles upstream from [Camp] Eagle Pass. The building of the fort was supervised by Captain Sidney Burbank. It was named for Colonel James Duncan, a hero of the Mexican War. After the war, trade flourished under the protection of the fort. The fort was near the trail of westward immigration to California. It also served as an outpost against hostile Apache. It was abandoned and reopened several times. In March 1860, it served as the base of operations against the border assaults arranged by Juan N. Cortina.

Fort Duncan was held by the Confederacy during the American Civil War. On July 4, 1865, General Joseph O. Shelby, en route to offer his troops' service to Maximilian in Mexico, stopped at Fort Duncan and buried in the Rio Grande the last Confederate flag to have flown over his men. (Appomattox was months earlier; Texas was a long, long way from Virginia; see "Juneteenth").

Eagle Pass has a recommended restaurant:

Parilla De San Miguel
408 So. Texas Drive, Eagle Pass, TX
830-757-3100

Del Rio

In the mid-1950s, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) noted Laughlin's remoteness that allowed for secret operations, and opened its strategic reconnaissance program there with the RB-57, a bomber modified for high altitude reconnaissance. SAC soon transitioned to the high altitude U-2 Dragonlady and based all of them in Laughlin AFB. In 1962, it was Laughlin-based U-2s that took the first photographs of land-based nuclear missile sites being constructed in Cuba. This was the photo intelligence that started the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is today the largest Air Force flight training center.

The US-Mexican border is the traditional home of the US Army, from the 1840's to the 1940's. It is again becoming so (see: Fort Bliss, El Paso) thankfully, as Mexico has again made the descent into moral insanity.

The border -- the Rio Grande River -- is another world from El Paso down to Laredo and beyond; Texas' 1,250-mile border with Mexico is remote from the 20th century except for paved roads and the occasional detritus of the oil/gas industry. Giant landholdings. A world of grasses and short trees & shrubs at Del Rio and south. All prickly, as are the natural denizens. The original cattle kingdom. From here and southwards is the world written by Larry McMurtry in Lonesome Dove (and relying much on the character and some incidents in the life of Charles Goodnight).

Del Rio has a reliable Mexican restaurant:

Don Marcellino #1
1110 Veterans Blvd (Hwy 90/277)
Del Rio, TX 78840
(830) 775-6242

The following two movies are set, roughly, in this area (Del Rio and Ciudad Acuna and south towards Laredo), and are excellent:

Lone Star (1996)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Star_(1996_film)

El Mariachi (1992)
El Mariachi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




Broke Mill RV Park
6069 West Us Hwy 90
Del Rio, Texas 78840
Phone: 830-422-2961
RV Park Del Rio Texas, Local Attractions, Lake Amistad, Broke Mill RV Park, RV Campground, RV Spaces, RV Storage, Free Wireless Internet

Using the above-listed route, Google indicates 283*mi – about 7 hours 47 mins.

I would allow more time pulling a trailer.

This is a route where what you can't see is often key. You'll note miles and miles between fence gates. Etc. Reading is recommended in Texas History (a high school graduation requirement).


The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense Walter Prescott Webb, 1935, University of Texas Press

The El Paso Salt War of 1877 C. L. Sonnichsen, 1961, Carl Hertzog and the Texas Western Press

The King Ranch. - Tom Lea, with Richard King, 1957 - Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

Thomas C. Lea, III - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Horgan, Great River: the Rio Grande in North American History, 1954

Won both the Pulitzer and Bancroft

"Transcends regional history and soars far above the river valley with which it deals . . . a survey, rich in color and fascinating in pictorial detail, of four civilizations: the aboriginal Indian, the Spanish, the Mexican, and the Anglo-American . . . It is, in the best sense of the word, literature. It has architectural plan, scholarly accuracy, stylistic distinction, and not infrequently real nobility of spirit" (Allan Nevins )


1941: Dobie, J. Frank (author). - The Longhorns. - Boston: Little, Brown and Company

Oscar Martinez, Troublesome Border
Troublesome Border, Revised Edition, Oscar J. Martínez, Book - Barnes & Noble

Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family
Charles Bowden, 2002
(this story "appears" familiar. But the depth of detail -- and the authors struggles -- make it a must read).

(Only Horgan and Bowden "need" be read).

One must use the same imagination that sees a flourishing future where others saw The Great American Desert.

This is country that is off the map for Americans. But not for Texans.



Larry McMurtry
Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen
Salon Reviews | "Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen" by Larry McMurtry

1985 - Lonesome Dove, 1986 Pulitzer Prize winner. The book is, as always, superior to the movie. But, the voices in the movie translate well to "hearing" the printed page.

2000 - Roads: Driving America's Great Highways
http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/07/1....16footet.html

(He also owns the largest used bookstore in North America in tiny Archer City, TX)


West from here is the beauty of the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park. North, on US 83, is the loneliest highway in North America. Climate change, the disappearance of Arctic ice and trade across the North Pole with Asia will change it all in a new north-south trade route.

From Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, to Churchill, on Baffin Bay (a port bought by a Texan):

http://www.greatdreams.com/political...hway_facts.htm

More to it all than meets the eye . . . . ]]> On The Road... REDNAX http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/departing-corpus-christi-for-western-texas-58590.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/eastern-sierra-nevada-58569.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:23:43 GMT Looking for somewhere to go in July on the Eastern slope anyone have recommendations? Looking for somewhere to go in July on the Eastern slope anyone have recommendations? ]]> On The Road... Zugbug http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/eastern-sierra-nevada-58569.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/pacific-coast-trip-58519.html Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:36:22 GMT We are planning a two month trip on Hwy 1 and our 101 from Oceanside Calif. up and around the Olympic National Park in March and April of next year. We would like information from those of you who know of interesting places to stay and see and eat along the way. Thanks, Al We are planning a two month trip on Hwy 1 and our 101 from Oceanside Calif. up and around the Olympic National Park in March and April of next year. We would like information from those of you who know of interesting places to stay and see and eat along the way. Thanks, Al ]]> On The Road... Allen H http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/pacific-coast-trip-58519.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/1000-more-miles-58480.html Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:31:00 GMT Well 1000 more miles then we will be in NV to get our new AS :D We had some set backs but we will be there to get it by Sunday :D All the way we talked about what all we would do and places to go :D even if we get it back to Dallas and never get to go at least we tried and that is all that... Well 1000 more miles then we will be in NV to get our new AS :D We had some set backs but we will be there to get it by Sunday :D

All the way we talked about what all we would do and places to go :D even if we get it back to Dallas and never get to go at least we tried and that is all that counts :D

Be Blessed and if your out on 40 watch out for us :blink:

oops not sure if I wrote this in the right place ... I am always lost in here :blink: ]]> On The Road... Victorialhq http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/1000-more-miles-58480.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/rayford-crossing-rv-spring-tx-58348.html Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:47:35 GMT The weather has been great here in the Houston TX area for the past week and looks like it will continue through the weekend. So we packed up the Airstream last Tuesday and drove about an hour from our home on the SW side of Houston and are Staying at Rayford Crossing RV in Spring just off of... The weather has been great here in the Houston TX area for the past week and looks like it will continue through the weekend. So we packed up the Airstream last Tuesday and drove about an hour from our home on the SW side of Houston and are Staying at Rayford Crossing RV in Spring just off of I-45 less than a mile from the Woodlands. What a great RV park. Surrounded by heavy woods you would think you are miles away from a major metropolitan area. The layout is great with spacious pull through sites so you don't feel like you are parked inches a way from other rigs like I see in so many other RV parks. Great pool and club house area with some of the cleanest rest room showers I have seen. A lot of fine looking big coaches here makes my 31' sovereign look tiny. As usual I win the price as the oldest RV in the park with my 1976 Airstream. Unfortunately there is not another Airstream in sight.

Mark this one down if you are ever in the area, you would have to look long and far to find one as nice as this.

Don
1976 31' Sovereign


Rayford Crossing | Luxury RV Park and Resort | The Woodlands/Spring, TX | Houston Texas area ]]> On The Road... adonh http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/rayford-crossing-rv-spring-tx-58348.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/alaska-state-ferry-58346.html Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:59:05 GMT We would like to take Lucy to Alaska sometime in the next couple of years. We have been contemplating this adventure for some time, now. We have done a lot of research, reading, and talking to other campers. We are thinking that we would like to drive up to Alaska in the late summer, stay for... We would like to take Lucy to Alaska sometime in the next couple of years. We have been contemplating this adventure for some time, now. We have done a lot of research, reading, and talking to other campers.

We are thinking that we would like to drive up to Alaska in the late summer, stay for about six weeks. We then would like to ferry back on the Alaska State Ferry System, seeing several locations on the way back south.

We know that the Ferry is pretty expensive, but have decided that we are going to spend what it takes to have the Airstream adventure of a lifetime.

We would appreciate input on our plan.

Brian ]]> On The Road... moosetags http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/alaska-state-ferry-58346.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/movie-tickets-for-campground-reviews-58254.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:29:38 GMT Rewards for Reviews You have to sign up to post reviews but it's free....]]> I just found this website which is offering free movie tickets for your reviews of campgrounds and RV parks. Take a look at their offer here:
Rewards for Reviews
You have to sign up to post reviews but it's free. Looks like they've got a fair number of reviews there already too. ]]> On The Road... Crusty http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/movie-tickets-for-campground-reviews-58254.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/jefferson-texas-rv-parks-58251.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:30:15 GMT We are headed to Jefferson, TX this weekend. It's myself and my 10 year old daughter. Any recommendations on a fun RV park?
:D ]]> On The Road... kds http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/jefferson-texas-rv-parks-58251.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/whats-on-your-iphone-great-apps-58250.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:04:08 GMT I'm an iphone convert and have been having fun exploring cool apps. There are a bunch of good apps useful for camping. Other apps replace gadgets I used to tote along and save space and streamline packing. What's on your phone?

Here are some I have:

Dual Level Pro - for leveling, hanging pics etc. Has a remote function using chirps to help you level when you can't see display. Set it on the counter above fridge and adjust your jacks.
Redlaser - this is a cool barcode scanner that reads bar codes and then searches online for a better price. Very cool for on the spot major purchases - no need to go home to comparison shop!
CarMinder - reminds you when maintenance was done and it's due.
GasCubby - Tracks MPG and Maintenance
RV Checklist - Very useful for using and creating lists. Great for makinf sure that everything is done before leaving. Developed by an Rv'er
Cleartune - the worlds best digital tuner
Tempo - metronome
Mobile RSS - reader, sync functions, etc.

The best way I've found to locate iphone apps is Appshopper
Multiple ways to search...much better than itunes. All of the above can be located there. A nice feature is that you can set up an app to "watch" for price changes and sometimes paid apps become free for a few days.

What's on your phone?? ]]> On The Road... Janet http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/whats-on-your-iphone-great-apps-58250.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/touring-north-south-and-central-america-in-a-b190-58223.html Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:34:58 GMT This couple toured North, South, and Central America in their 1995 B190. 44,000 miles in over 500 days. It's a really interesting site... be sure to read the part about traversing the Darien Gap if nothing else! :) Being owners...]]> This couple toured North, South, and Central America in their 1995 B190. 44,000 miles in over 500 days. It's a really interesting site... be sure to read the part about traversing the Darien Gap if nothing else! :)

Being owners of B190s, we of course were very interested in their trip, so we did an interview with them that tends toward the mechanical end of it - how did they prep the van, how did they handle oil changes, etc.

Both of these are really interesting reads (however, I actually run B190.com where the interview is, so I'm biased there :) ). I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. :) ]]> On The Road... Skater http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/touring-north-south-and-central-america-in-a-b190-58223.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/great-site-avail-thanksgiving-week-along-frio-river-58183.html Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:58:48 GMT I just had to cancel one of my sites for thanksgiving - normally have 2 of the best for the area, but had to cancel one as some things came up for our family. Site 22 is now open at Parview Riverside RV park, right on the Frio river and across from Garner State Park in glorious Texas Hill... I just had to cancel one of my sites for thanksgiving - normally have 2 of the best for the area, but had to cancel one as some things came up for our family.

Site 22 is now open at Parview Riverside RV park, right on the Frio river and across from Garner State Park in glorious Texas Hill country...

Here are a few pics from last years:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/...xas-36314.html

Parkview Riverside RV Park | South Texas RV Park and Camping

Would love to see some fellow airstreamers get it. They go FAST!!!

Kevin ]]> On The Road... Bambi_Bandit http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/great-site-avail-thanksgiving-week-along-frio-river-58183.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/the-southwest-suggestions-welcome-58173.html Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:32:49 GMT Preparing to head out for the Southwest this winter.
My blog will continue... after Bambi repairs are completed.

Adventures of Phantom & Bunny - Vol. 2 - the Southwest

http://www.airforums.com/forums/blog...0-phantom.html

Loosely intended itinerary: please feel free to make suggestions!
Mammoth Cave & canoeing the Green River
Nashville onto the Natchez Trace Parkway
Natchez, MS down to New Orleans - volunteer for Thanksgiving homeless
US10 to Texas - down gulf coast... Galveston, Corpus Christi, Brownsville
Up the Rio Grande to Big Bend Nat'l Park - Christmas?
canoe down the Rio Grande - day trip
New Mexico - White Sands, National Forest & BLM camping. Las Cruces
Arizona - Coronado Nat'l Forest, Organ Pipe Cactus Nat'l Monument
California - San Diego, Salton Sea, Joshua Tree, Mohave, Death Valley
Return - more northerly if weather/temps permit... Grand Canyon,
Utah - Zion, Bryce, Canonlands, Arches... Route 66?

Love to hear suggestions :) ]]> On The Road... Phantom http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/the-southwest-suggestions-welcome-58173.html http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/new-orleans-and-st-petersburg-58168.html Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:47:11 GMT We will be leaving early December from San Antonio for 3 + weeks, and will be driving past New Orleans. We are thinking about staying at the KOA there and am wondering if anybody has any thoughts or experience with the campground or the city in general. I have been to New Orleans a long time ago,... We will be leaving early December from San Antonio for 3 + weeks, and will be driving past New Orleans. We are thinking about staying at the KOA there and am wondering if anybody has any thoughts or experience with the campground or the city in general. I have been to New Orleans a long time ago, and I remember it as being an interesting place to visit.
We have made reservations at the Long Key State Park as shown in the Fall 2009 edition of Airstream Life magazine, and will do a day trip to Key West. I have been there many times for sailboat regattas, and have always enjoyed it for a few days.
On the way back to Texas we were thinking of visiting St. Augustine, Florida, for no particular reason other than the fact that it sounds interesting and we have never been there. Any thoughts on places to stay and what to do?
Thank you,
Barry ]]> On The Road... Barry Parkof http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/new-orleans-and-st-petersburg-58168.html