Adventure starts Wednesday…

[Boondocker]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

Waxing, other than the endlessness of it, allows me to see all the "issues". The scratch on one side that I must have gotten in Santa Fe as I tried not to hit any piñon branches in the dark at the Rancheros campground, dings in the stone guards, drips of sealant in various places, road tar all the way up on the roof, sloppy application of sealant around courtesy lights, windows and such, and some "stuff" on the chrome band at the bottom of the aluminum panels.

mere beauty marks

Next adventure—next weekend at Ridgway State Park.

And we will be expecting a full accounting including photos

[Gene]

Just back from Ridgway where I attended a grueling 2 day board of directors meeting for a nonprofit where I am now the acting president. We stayed at Ridgway State Park, a very nice one with hundreds of campsites, quite a few with full hookups. Quiet at this time of year and not a lot of people there for the weekend. $22 for the site and $6 for the park entrance fee. They were nice enough to let us stay over several hours past check out. Reservations start May 1 and it may get crowded quickly. The reservoir is still low as they are letting the water run through the dam figuring there will be a lot more runoff soon. Many boaters come to this park.

Ridgway is a small mountain town 27 miles south of Montrose on US 550. The park is 9 miles north of Ridgway. Kate's place on Clinton, 1 block north of the highway to Telluride (Colo. 62 or 64 or something like that) is good for breakfast and lunch. There's a pretty good Chinese and Thai restaurant on that highway—I think it's called the Oriental. It's about 8 miles south to Ouray, more expensive for everything, a Victorian era mining town with quite a few old houses and touristy. Ridgway is more like a real place.

Ouray is in a box canyon with spectacular mountains close in to the town, but long before you get to Ridgway you see the San Juan Mtns, still with a lot of snow. A lot of jagged peaks and every view of them is wonderful.

Gas was around $3.50 in Montrose, higher as you go south.

A cold weekend with this morning's temp around 20˚ and high in the low 50's. We've had temps about 10 degrees higher lately. This will help slow the runoff and ease the possibility of floods.

Everything is working fine though there are a number of warranty issues to be taken care of later. We are thinking of taking the trailer to Denver in July for that and a friend's wedding. Before that the Shrine Pass rally and I'm unsure there's any time for anything else before June. We go to NYC in less than 3 weeks driving our 4Runner and will have to sleep in uncomfortable beds, eat bad food on the road, carry a lot of our own food and drive like banshees to get to the East Coast and back in a 3 week timeframe with a week in NYC, 1 or 2 in RI and the same out on LI. We're thinking of visiting Jackson Center on the way back and see if we can spot why QC is so bad for so many people.

Sorry, Rodney, we didn't take any photos and have a bunch in the camera we've never gotten to download. Then I have to figure out how to get them into thumbnails, something I haven't mastered yet.

Gene

[Boondocker]

Sounds like a great trip! I envy you for living in such a neat area. Look on the upside about the NY trip. All the bad food and uncomfortable beds will just make you appreciate the AS more.

[Gene]

On the first day of summer, we went to our first rally. Since I had an afternoon of meetings, we couldn't leave until after 5 pm for an about 200 mile trip to Leadville, Colo. We left from Delta, Colo. with a full tank of gas and drove hard and fast. I wanted to get to the campsite before dark and figured we had a chance to make it. First comes Cerro Summit and another pass east of Montrose, and then to Monarch Pass, 11,312'. It's a long way up and down and it takes many gallons of gas when you're passing cars going uphill.

The Safari follows like a parasite even when speeding downhill and around sharp curves. I guess I wasn't going too fast because Barb wasn't screaming (when we were in NYC several weeks before—no Airstream there—I heard her gasp a few times, but I didn't think Manhattan traffic was that bad). We got to Leadville around 9 and called Charlie (Pacerized) to help us find the site and he graciously came to lead us. We did miss a turn, but got back to the meeting place as Charlie got there and led us to the campsites. We parked amongst the lodgepole and ponderosa and were so wired we stayed up to midnight.

On Saturday we slept really late and then went out and started meeting people. Rodney was there with his work in progress Tradewind—he greeted us when we arrived. Charlie's very special and rare Airstream was very nice. I think there were six of us ranging from a Bambi to a 31'. Everyone was friendly and no matter what we disagree on about politics or religion, we share Airstreams and the love of travel.

We had a feast Saturday night gathering near the campfire. There are always a few people who want to put all the wood on the fire and you just never know who the potential arsonist is.

We and Rodney stayed an extra night and I enjoyed talking about university life and a few s core other topics. We tried out the 1,000 watt generator. Since we were camped in a tall forest, the solar panels didn't get too much direct sun and it was good to have the backup. I tried running the microwave and toaster (separately) with the generator plugged into the trailer. It didn't work very well. The combination of altitude (about 10,000') lowering the efficiency of the generator and some likely voltage drop in that long cord meant neither worked well. I have to experiment with plugging the appliances directly into the generator and seeing how they work. That may tell me something about getting a short cable from the trailer to the generator. There seems to be no clear way to adjust the fuel/air mixture, but I'll probably look into taking some panels off the generator one of these days to see where to adjust it (like 10 minutes before I want to use it).

The monitor panel, which had worked perfectly, stopped working well at all. One of the others there with an Airstream manufactured in the same month as ours has had the same problem. After the dealer replaced all sorts of things without success, he found out it was dirty connections on a buss block. When I took it to the dealer, they said the panel had to be replaced and it wasn't the buss block—we'll see.

We did find we could boondock easily for three nights and each take one shower and still have fresh water. We brought an added 5 gallons to be safe. Unfortunately, we have no idea how much water was left in the tank since the monitor went crazy.

This rally was very informal and we liked it that way. I understand there are really big ones with much formality and I think we will avoid those. I'll have to check out Forum rallies, though I am unsure just when we will have time to go on any rallies for a while.

We used a lot of gas getting there—3 passes plus getting up to Leadville. I think we averaged about 9.5 mpg instead of our usual 11.5. Driving like a maniac in the high country uses much gas. We did much better going home since we had only one pass, though I can't remember how well we did on gas.

Our next trip was to Denver to get warranty work done. I posted that story on the 2008 Safari Quality thread. When we got the Safari back, we ended up in a really crummy RV park in Golden. When Barb made reservations, they were the only ones that answered the phone. Most of the very narrow sites were filled with permanent residents. The pad was about one foot wider than the trailer and it was quite difficult to get into the site given the narrow access road. Fortunately we weren't there much because a good friend was getting married in Boulder and we went to the pre-wedding dinner and the wedding and were mostly gone. The Safari is pretty well insulated against sound, so even in a place so crowded we heard little noise. We also got to see some friends including one who got me hammered on gin & tonic (officially it had tonic, but it seemed to be gin, gin and more gin and a lime slice).

Denver was extraordinarily hot—96˚ on Thursday and 99˚ on Friday. When we went through Denver's Platte Valley on Thursday, our Tundra told us it was 106˚ there. I've never seen Denver so hot, though it was 10˚ cooler officially. When we got to the RV park we turned on the AC. It was 100˚ inside and after 2 hours it had "cooled" to 89˚. We kept the blinds, curtains and skylight closed. I was not impressed with the AC. A 13,500 BTU AC should do a better job. The refrigerator stayed at 60˚ for at least 2 hours, although the freezer was down to 16˚. Then we went to the dinner. When we returned at about 10 pm, the AC was down to 70˚ and the refrigerator to 39˚. On Saturday, we set the AC at 70˚ at 7:30 am—not our electricity—and it was close (73˚) when we returned around 2. It was only 82˚ on Saturday in Denver and not in the upper 90's. I'm curious whether the AC can handle hot weather. The refrigerator just takes time and was ok after that.

When we went to Denver midweek, there was a lot of truck traffic on I-70. I am now used to passing and getting used to judging the length of the trailer so I don't cut too close in front of people. Some truckers signal it's ok with their headlights, most don't. If they do, I signal "thank you" with my courtesy lights. Lots of passing on that highway and not an enjoyable drive.

Next trip is only about 100 miles to Basalt, Colo. since I have a Board of Directors meeting in Glenwood Springs. It's the closest good campground available since the ones around Glenwood are all filled with oil and gas and construction workers except for one in Glenwood Canyon with very difficult, narrow pads to back into. We'll have to go back to Denver to have some parts the dealer ordered installed and will try to combine that with a state park if we go in August, or start a trip to the west coast going east first.

I still haven't bothered to post any photos because I'm too lazy to figure it out. Several Forum members have sent me instructions, but I just haven't done anything yet. Some day…

Gene

[Gene]

Continued improvements. I installed one of those large, wide levels just under the front window. I used locktite to seal the screw holes. The first time I've drilled into the aluminum; it felt like a violation. Put up a hook next to the bathroom door so we have a place to hang a towel and grab it when we get out of the shower. The suction cup hooks stay up for a while, but eventually fall down.

My infrared temperature goodie arrived. Sure I tell myself, I can watch my tire temps. Of course, I can get similar information from the tire pressure monitor. But it's a cool toy and I've measured the temperature of my palm, my armpit, my wife's left ear, the stove pilot light, the AC, the TV screen, various walls, floors and ceilings in our house. All useful information. Best deal was on Amazon, about $42.

With the price of crude oil down this past week, I'm hopeful we can make the long anticipated NW trip this September, our longest so far in our Safari. I haven't heard anything about fires in Cal lately, but maybe the media got tired of that news. I'm even thinking about Alaska next year. I have to convince Barb that's it's ok to take the Safari to the North Slope on the Dalton Hwy. We were there in '02 (pre-Airstream) and you do have to worry about gravel hits, but it wasn't all that bad on the truck and the rock guards and the truck ought to protect the Safari. The North Slope is an awesome place.

Of course, if Iran is attacked, forget all of it—fuel will skyrocket in price and gas lines will be longer than ever. We will have an extended recession, maybe worse.

Gene

[Gene]

Getting ready for our longest trip—3 weeks. We're going to travel west through Utah and Nevada, much of it on the Loneliest Road, US 50. Then make our way to Marin County and start north up the coast. Somewhere in Oregon, maybe as far as Astoria, we'll turn inland and make our way back home. Usually I plan everything so I have a pretty good idea where we are each day, though I leave some room for spontaneity. This time I'm leaving a lot to whatever we decide to do since I have no good idea what it's like to travel this far with a trailer. I guess it might be good for me not to plan so much, sort of like therapy, but I'll be thinking ahead anyway.

I been busy going over the truck—washing, waxing, vacuuming, cleaning windows and applying Rainex to the windshield and front side windows, going over all the fluids and checking mechanical stuff. I did my third oil and filter change and as with the others, I've never had a vehicle that was so difficult to do and took so long. I sent an ugly e-mail to Toyota this morning to make myself feel better.

Today I hope to wash the Safari and at the least polish the plastic rock guards over the windows and the stainless steel rock guards. I have some Griot's Paint Sealant, and I'm eager to try it, but may not have much time before we leave Tuesday, especially if I keep writing.

I've checked out the internet for locations of Camping Worlds if we need RV supplies, Airstream dealers for emergencies, and Trader Joe's because they have good food.

Yesterday I installed an LED lamp in the ceiling. Our Safari has 11 halogen lamps in the ceiling and I think the light is too bright at times, somewhat harsh, and uses a lot of battery power. When boondocking, we use them as little as possible, but the rotating reading ("task") lights over the dinette aren't really that good. I've thought about putting a 12v rheostat in the line, but haven't spent a lot of time looking for one (electrical engineers: does a rheostat means less electrical consumption since some goes to making the rheostat hot?). I would probably mount it near the switch under the sink cabinet. It looks pretty difficult to get into the switch box, but with some ingenuity and a lot of cursing, I'm sure it can be done, someday.

The center halogen lamp of three right in front of rear hanging cabinet seemed like the best one to experiment with. Airstream is checking out LED's and since I asked some questions, they sent me one to get our impressions. Since I didn't have the right connectors, I had to solder the new ones to the trailer wiring, use residential wire nuts and then tape around that. The lamp does not have the metal rings around it since it's a prototype. It is a plastic opaque circle. The light is bluish instead of the yellowish color rendition of halogen or incandescent lamps. It's more diffuse and I guess 11 of them would be less harsh, though I don't know about brightness. We were wondering if 11 of them would make us look like corpses if the color rendition can't be improved. They take 1/10 the amps of the halogen lamps. LED's are the future of lighting, not compact flourescent. They use less power and last far, far longer, but color is the problem (CF bulbs can be weird too and dimable ones apparently make things grey). The springs that hold these style lamps can make it hard to remove and install them and from personal experience I can report that when one whacks you on a finger, it really hurts. I can also report it's really easy to get small scratches in the ceiling, but so far, Barb hasn't noticed. Don't tell her. If the color rendition isn't improved I would consider maybe changing half of the ceiling lamps to mellow out things and save amps. I think they should match the OEM lamps though. I suggested to Airstream a rheostat would be useful as original equipment because depending on what you're doing, different lighting intensity is useful. I wouldn't change the bedroom lighting, I think, because we don't use the ceiling lights very often and when we do, we want them bright.

Time to do something instead of writing about it, though this is more fun.

Gene

[Mike Leary]

Be very carefull driving around Salt Lake City, we go through very early in the morning. You can get
some cool t-shirts along 50.....it is indeed, lonely, but a great cruise.

[Boondocker]

Sounds like the makings of a great trip Gene! I bet you have a blast. I suspect that you will find that simply having a general route without regimenting yourselves further is a nice way to go. That is the general approach I took for this past summers trip ( been back less than a month and can't wait to get back out there ) and it worked very well. The 9 months of preparation, finding out what was out there to see, getting local knowledge (which you certainly provided plenty of) and so forth was worth the effort, but going day to day was wonderful. Want to spend another day or two where you are? fine; tired of where you are? hook up and roll on down the road. In any case, I hope you will be posting from the road so we can all live vicariously through your adventures while we sit at home (15 weeks until my next trip but who's counting ).

[2airishuman]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

...Today I hope to wash the Safari and at the least polish the plastic rock guards over the windows and the stainless steel rock guards. I have some Griot's Paint Sealant, and I'm eager to try it...

hi gene

unless the rock guards are scratched badly, skip the polishing step.

it's time consuming and if not done well will make them look worse.

it also removes any slickness that repels bugs and road debris, so the next cleaning will be more difficult...

instead clean them (soap/water) inside out and follow this with an alcohol based window cleaner....

THEN apply something that makes stuff SLICK (but not wax or sealant) like a detailer spray, but not rainx...

i'd suggest some specific brands/products but won't.

try the g' sealant on ONE circle of the toyata HOOD, or 1/2 the hood.

then check the look and durability NEXT MONTH.

it will save you the effort of doing the entire tube, perhaps.

segment protectors? again soap and water, followed by a simple solvent to remove tar...

then a quick wipe with oil based stainless spray like zep4stainless.

hiway 50 is pretty cool, it's easy to drive PAST the pull-offs so looking at a detailed 50 map and marking just a few helps.

cheers
2air'

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Mike Leary

Be very carefull driving around Salt Lake City, we go through very early in the morning. You can get
some cool t-shirts along 50.....it is indeed, lonely, but a great cruise.

Mike, thanks for the tip. The SLC area seems to go on and on and on. We'll stay south taking I-70 from Grand Junction, then cut north and west from Salina (or is it Salinas, or something like it?), Utah, pick up I-15 south for 10 or 15 miles, then make our way west to Delta, Utah where and take US 50 until we meet up with I-80 in western Nevada. We've done that leg many times and always enjoy the Nevada mountain ranges and wide valleys. There are plenty of places to boondock along the way, and we'll see what happens.

Coming back is another story—hard not to come through SLC. We'll deal with that in about 3 weeks. My theory of urban interstates is stay in the middle lane if there are 3 because that's the safest place to be. If there are 2, stay right because most of the turns are there. Change lanes and break above rules when necessary. Think way ahead. Study maps beforehand to see if there are left lane turns. And most of all, think about going around the area.

Gene

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Gen Disarray

In any case, I hope you will be posting from the road so we can all live vicariously through your adventures while we sit at home.

Rodney, I'll keep you posted because I like to write about myself.

Gene

[Gene]

Originally Posted by 2airishuman

hi gene

unless the rock guards are scratched badly, skip the polishing step.

it's time consuming and if not done well will make them look worse.

it also removes any slickness that repels bugs and road debris, so the next cleaning will be more difficult...

instead clean them (soap/water) inside out and follow this with an alcohol based window cleaner....

THEN apply something that makes stuff SLICK (but not wax or sealant) like a detailer spray, but not rainx...

try the g' sealant on ONE circle of the toyata HOOD, or 1/2 the hood.

then check the look and durability NEXT MONTH.

it will save you the effort of doing the entire tube, perhaps.

segment protectors? again soap and water, followed by a simple solvent to remove tar...

then a quick wipe with oil based stainless spray like zep4stainless.

hiway 50 is pretty cool, it's easy to drive PAST the pull-offs so looking at a detailed 50 map and marking just a few helps.

cheers
2air'

2air,

I have a plastic polish for the window rock guards and have used it twice. They seem to stay pretty clean and there's no chance of damaging the plastic. Mostly they collect dust out here in the dusty West. I only use Rainex on glass on the truck—not recommended for plastic as it is a petroleum based product.

I used wax on the stainless panels last Spring and they looked terrible. I haven't noticed things sticking to the wax. That's when I learned the panels were stainless so I'm going to try a generic metal polish we have here and has worked well on some sheet metal we have in the kitchen.

I'll probably do a small part of the trailer with the Griot's to see how it goes. I doubt I'll have time to do more.

All will get washed with mild soap and water first.

Not knowing when we'll leave on Tuesday—could be anywhere from 10 am to 1 pm based on previous first day experiences (just getting the refrigerator loaded seems to take 1/2 hour or more), we'll probably make it to Green R., Utah, and be glad to be babied in an RV park. Next day we get to Nevada after crossing through Skull Valley in western Utah (one of my favorite western place names). We could go up to Great Basin NP and stay in one of their campgrounds, or keep going west and stop off near the road somewhere. Perhaps the Nevada mountain ranges have FS campgrounds, but I can't remember.

Gene

[Mike Leary]

Whatever; get moving, pics?

[ROBERT CROSS]

Much good luck on what sounds like a wonderful adventure.

Sandra and I like to travel the same way, as you can tell by my tag line.

Not a lot of plans, just a start and stop time.

We ended up in Ft. Bridger WY. completely by accident, well worth it.

Same thing at Wind Cave S.D.

Have a GREAT time.

Stream Safe

[Aage]

Gene, leave those waxes alone and go!

"Fair winds and following seas", as boaters wish one another.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Aage

Gene, leave those waxes alone and go!

"Fair winds and following seas", as boaters wish one another.

Aage, wish I could. Tuesday's the day, clean things now.

The metal polish ("Mr. Metal") did a much better job on the stainless than wax. Now it looks like it did when we bought the Safari. I guess it wouldn't be named Mr.Metal if "he" didn't know what he was doing.

Got a lot of bugs off with a bug remover. Tomorrow I'll polish the rock guard windows and try some Griot's. I'm not doing the whole thing because then I can't see the difference and I'll be getting ready to go anyway.

I sure want to go right now!

Gene

[2airishuman]

Nevada's Highway 50

The Loneliest Road in America

as u must already know, turning around, backing up or slowing down while towing can be a challenge.

many of the things i like to stop and gawk at on 50 are poorly signed and have only one pull out.

the shoetree, the sand dunes the petroglyphs and so on.

also there are many 'rest/camping areas' that are just 50-100 yards off the road and behind a berm or pile of desert....

so 2-3 minutes after pulling off the lonely road, one can REALLY find solitude for lunch or a nap or both...

hiway 50 rocks but are u qualified?

"Brave young men carried mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.
To become a rider, the requirement was-'young, skinny, wiry fellow not over eighteen.
Must be expert rider willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred."

cheers
2air'

[Aage]

But 2air, wouldn't having a GPS help that? I would never leave home without mine!

Many of them put monuments and such in their database, then tell you a pretty precise distance to it...

[Gene]

Originally Posted by 2airishuman

hiway 50 rocks but are u qualified?

"Brave young men carried mail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.
To become a rider, the requirement was-'young, skinny, wiry fellow not over eighteen.
Must be expert rider willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred."

cheers
2air'

2air, don't worry. A long ago relative of Barb's was a Pony Express rider and so she is qualified. It's in her genes.

Gene(s)

[Mike Leary]

Here's a site we use a lot when traveling in the fall. Happy trails.
USDA Forest Service - Caring for the land and serving people.