What do you read and play in your Airstream?

[wahoonc]

but unfortunately taking them on the road would probably overload my Airstream I seem to run in series, I am currently re-reading RF Delderfield, I have a couple of CS Lewis books that ALWAYS travel with me. It is about time to revist James Herriot. There are always back issues of Analog to catch up on. We have several game sets available, including chess, checkers and backgamon. And like some others I always pickup a few of the local specials. Other than my laptop, Airstream Forums and a cycling forum I steer clear of electronic entertainment. Need to find room in my custom interior for the handcranked Victrola

Aaron

[SafeHarbor]

Hi, Aaron,

No contest compared to a Victrola, but I did just find a 50's RCA Victor ("His Master's Voice") single-tube 45-rpm record player/changer in the barn today. I plugged it in, and it's pure 60-cycle noise, but LOUD noise. I think I can change out the capacitors and have a cool "history of rock" conservation piece. (I found a stack of records, still in their sleeves, too.)

Lamar

[redeagle313]

On our last long trip, I grabbed David McCullough's 1776 (for me) and John Adams (for Tim)...American History never gets old!

Since we have kids, our book and game choices are often influenced by their presence. A couple perennial favorites about child rearing that I have taken are: The Parent's Tao Te Ching (Ancient Advice for Modern Parents) and The Blessing of a Skinned Knee (Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children)...both are excellent for people of any faith, or not, for that matter.

Kitchen Confidential, Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain and anything by Ruth Reichl ease my separation from the Food Channel when we are away from home. My repeated giggling even got Tim curious enough to pick up the Bourdain book. He enjoyed it, too!

We usually take these games, Sequence http://www.puzzlesforsale.com/Games/...e_original.htm and Apples to Apples...I recently acquired Blokus Trigon http://housefullofgames.com/title.php?id=493 , a strategy game, and it seems like a perfect game to play in the Airstream. We have the travel version of Blokus but only two people can play and Trigon is for 1 to four players. Or it is fun to simply make a mosiac-like picture using the game pieces and board. Both my girls spent at least an hour one night last week creating pictures with the thing.

For our youngest, who enjoys *doing her own thing* rather than playing board games, we always take a deck of cards that have 52 pictures of different dog breeds on them...she sorts them a million different ways...by suit, by color of dog, by fluffy vs. flat coated dogs, by dogs with upright ears, etc. Not really a game, but her absolute favorite thing to take is a collection of miniature superballs that we have...must be about 20 or more of them. Accumulated them from trips to the dentist, ophthalmologist, gumball machines, etc. It's quite interesting to have them all in motion at once...that started a few years back in the kitchen at home and has somehow carried over to the Airstream.

Randi

[firefly007]

Originally Posted by GlenCoombe

Carol, I go through a book a week. Joined the library to cut cost. Best book in a long time is "A Land Remembered" by Patrick Smith. A very good read.

You might also like "Light a Distant Fire" Lucia St. Clair Robson. http://luciastclairrobson.com/LightaDistantFire.htm not sure if it's in print but her writing is quite enjoyable. She's done a few others...

Wow Glen, Good choice. I have a signed First Edition of that one.(A Land Remembered) A must read for anyone interested in Fla. Also try the Travis Mcgee series by John Macdonald or if you are really daring try Harry Crews, Gypsie's Curse.
NO VIDEO GAMES ALLOWED

steve

[Rhodie]

We carry the Airstream Life magazines, The Next Exit, and The Unofficial Guide to the Best RV & Tent Campgrounds, as we are always thinking about our next getaway. Ernie the JR commands the rest of our attention!

[Condoluminum]

Favorite series are books by Carl Hiaason, who writes for Miami Herald Newspaper and has written about 10 hilarious wacky adventure mysteries about Florida.. Stormy Weather and Double Whammy are classics...

Also enjoyed Jimmy Buffett's books, both autobiographical (A Pirate Looks at 50) and novel (Where is Joe Merchant..)

Game of choice (2 of us..) is Gin Rummy...

John McG

[LuminumTraila]

Originally Posted by Condoluminum

Favorite series are books by Carl Hiaason...

John -- we also enjoy Carl Hiaasen's young readers -- Hoot and Flush. A great writer for all ages!

[genearnold]

My wife, Bert, and I are avid readers. Our tastes include some good stuff (educational, spiritually uplifting, Bible study materials, etc.) and various recreational reading over a wide subject area.

Some of my favorite authors of fiction (and in no particular order) are: Tom Clancy – his earlier four or five books were much better than the later ones (and I don’t like his co-authored paperback stuff at all) – John Grishom, Nevada Barr, Rex Stout, Louis L’Amour, Erle Stanly Gardner, J.A. Jance, Sue Grafton, Clive Cussler, Michael Connely, Nicholas Evans, Chaim Potok, Joel C. Rosenberg, Herman Wouk, and Nicholas Sparks.

My son introduced me to Terry C. Johnston whose historical novels of the post civil war west seem quite accurate. I confess to being stalled out after reading the first three as they are pretty painful reading and since lately I’ve had some pretty painful stuff in my real life I’ve put a pause on Johnston. One reason I like him is also a reason for my current pause; I spent many of my school years in central and northern Wyoming where much of the action happens (Fort Phil Kearny and Fort McKinney were very close to where I went to High School) and my familiarity with the area makes his stories very powerful to me.

A few years ago Bert and I both got caught up in Jan Karon’s, The Mitford Years series. The same thing happened to Karon’s books that seemed to happen with Clancy’s – the later ones didn’t seem to have the quality of the earlier. Popular authors seem to be pressured by their publishers to “crank out” their books (IMHO).

For non-fiction more serious reading we like Max Lucado and Charles Swindoll.

Nearly all our books come from thrift stores or garage sales – I know, I’m cheap!

Bert is an avid jigsaw puzzle person and we always have several in the trailer. I don’t get into that much but we sometimes have guests that help her out. It seems to provoke an atmosphere for good conversation.

I'd hate for you to see the books we carry - waaaay too much weight, but that's us!

Gene

[dufferin]

We do take Airstream Life, VAC Mag, Vanderlust 75th..., Airstream Living,
I do also read Airstreamforums.

[Rivetedude]

Unfortunately, I have yet to use my Airstream for "Camping". We went to Homecoming '05, and then we Lived in it for 4 months in downtown New Orleans. I found myself being a geek on the computer, playing X-Box, playing guitar, well....wait...I did read a few books from the Laundry room at the campground. One in particular was "The Thieves of Heaven" by Richard Doetsch. It's about a professional thief who is coerced into stealing an ancient set of keys from the Vatican! He has no idea what the keys actually open! A great thriller...but don't take my word for it....check it out!

[Mackhopp]

We take along Cranium to play - always gets everyone laughing and in the party spirit. The boys (4 and 7) play Candyland or I Spy Bingo, or cards (War is a favourite).

There's usually no time for serious reading on a camping trip due to the boys' activity levels, but I do like to relax now and then. I have a subscription to New Scientist magazine - comes out once a week, so I gather them up to catch up on the latest feats in Nerd-ville!

-Michelle

[26.982 amu]

A few excellent books that seem to fit the Airstream experience: "The Stations of Solitude" by Alice Koller; anything by John Gierach, but especially "Standing in a River Waving a Stick" and "Trout Bum"; Dean Koontz supernatural thrillers. For serious reading: "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" by Anne Rice; anything by Carlo Carretto, but especially "The Desert in the City" and "Letters from the Desert"; David Attenborough's wonderful nature books such as "The Trials of Life" and "The Private Life of Plants".

I don't play games.

[Rivetedude]

Originally Posted by Vince Brach

A few excellent books that seem to fit the Airstream experience: "The Stations of Solitude" by Alice Koller; anything by John Gierach, but especially "Standing in a River Waving a Stick" and "Trout Bum"; Dean Koontz supernatural thrillers. For serious reading: "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" by Anne Rice; anything by Carlo Carretto, but especially "The Desert in the City" and "Letters from the Desert"; David Attenborough's wonderful nature books such as "The Trials of Life" and "The Private Life of Plants".

I don't play games.

Nice trailer you've got there Texas...You're right next door too. We'll have to hit a rally sometime!

[CaddyGrn]

Hummmmm,

Lots of interesting posts here! We usually take whatever we are currently reading whether it be books, magazines, etc. Sometimes I throw in a paperback or two I have picked up somewhere and might start it... also have a deck of cards. Storage is a issue in our Airstream... but we usually are visiting, out doing something, or just relaxing. We have lots of board games at home, but haven't taken them along yet. Will be good to think about when the weather gets chilly for the cool nights.

Let's go camping!

Mrs. NorCal Bambi (traveling in S Tardis)

[Mel]

Originally Posted by Condoluminum

Favorite series are books by Carl Hiaason, who writes for Miami Herald Newspaper and has written about 10 hilarious wacky adventure mysteries about Florida.. Stormy Weather and Double Whammy are classics...

YES! Nothing better than kicking back in a lawn chair with a cool drink and a Carl Hiaasen book. Definitely my favorite to take camping.

As for games - we travel with Uno and Yahtzee, among others.

[64 Lawncondo]

Aside from the cards and current book, we like to have a few vintage movies that I remember from the 60's, that go with our trailer.
"Endless summer"
"The Party"
and my latest score.... "Flipper"....that Sandy was hot!

Always looking for more???

Patsi

[summerkid]

Funny, who knew there were so many Carl Hiaassen fans on the forums! Count me in, but he doesn't make my travel list (see below). And wheel interested, that "bath & BandAids" theory is so perfect. If only more adults applied that to themselves rather than sitting in lawnchairs & watching the kids live in their bodies as God intended!!!

I have some really convoluted theories & policies about traveling, and one of these policies mandates that even entertainment choices differ from day-to-day proclivities. After 30 years of traveling the world, I've developed a quirky master packing list with subcategories for international, skiing & Amtrak. (Except for the ski trips, which tend to be ONLY ski trips, I pack the same for a weekend jaunt as I would for 2 months in Europe, believe it or not, and it all fits in 2 small carry-ons. This is because travel should be all about elegance & lightness but struggling with luggage definitely is neither.)

This is under 'Entertainment'
*For games, just a chess set, cribbage & Scrabble. All involve more skill than luck, they're the only games that interest me & they cover people who are good at words, cards & problem-solving. I have a tiny cribbage set & magnetic chess & Scrabble. Plus the card deck allows a poker game if you run into some good players. Lately, Sudoku books have crept into the mix somehow.
*For books, I limit myself to difficult classics that I haven't yet read, such as "The Iliad." This is because, given the choice at home between "The Iliad" and some gardening book with lots of gorgeous pictures, ummmmmm ... well, I've never read "The Iliad." So it's in the suitcase right now. The other reason for this strict reading rule is that I have to be very careful about picking up fiction because I'm not capable of putting down a good book until the very last page & it's a shame to stay up till dawn & waste perfectly good daylight hours on vacation. So no fiction on trips.
*Electronics are limited to iPod & language tapes. Period. Once again, the intent is to force myself to study stuff that I truly do enjoy but that too often gets shunted aside at home.
*For the artist in all of us! Similar to maxandgeorgia's journaling, I have a little box with markers, paint, stamps & fancy sewing supplies, plus a small, sturdy notebook divided into watercolor-quality paper & lined pages. Each trip, I tuck in a 7" canvas square & Ziploc bag for each day. Each square is painted & otherwise messed with as the day inspires, then it is thrown into a Ziploc with additional notes & mementos. At home I finish each one up into a unique little artifact & they eventually make their way into my artwork.

Airstream addendum
*If fortunate enough to be going by Airstream, I have the luxury of adding a couple of project books (currently cabinetry so I can look around the trailer & plan its overhaul) & a maximum of two architectural or garden coffee table books (so that I eventually have to unpack "The Iliad").

[summerkid]

To paraphrase one of my favorite sites, gofugyourself.com, I worry that the previous post makes me look like an old codger. Do you think I look a little old-codgery? I think I look like an old codger. A little bit. A little old-codgery.

[moosetags]

We carry and read mainly Airstream books and magazines. We also bring along Trailer Life.

[brunoffrance]

Hi there;
As most of you, i read " airstream life " magazine and it's a great pleasure to smoke a cigar in reading; so i love reading books about Airstream (silver palace by example), with great pictures,or about harley davidson story,or about waves on the basque coast ( they are in the biggest in the world ) ,or about surf and boards ( i've began this year with a 9'2 wooden venier ), see there:

http://american-dream-in-france.blog...airstream.html

I love watching TV in the evening when it's began to be a bit fresh or when it's rainning...

So most of time, we do sport and ride the harley(s);

Bruno.