Category: airstream

Trout Lake 2010

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream, barclay, dave2 Comments

Every year our camping friends get together for an early summer campout at Trout Lake, WA. We pack up our wee little Airstream trailer and join in when we can. This year it was on the ‘must do’ list!

This isn’t half the trailers – just the ones on our end of the campground.

For me, the primary thing I love about this campground is the spectacular view of Mt Adams just a few miles away.

Of course the opportunity to hang around and catch up with old friends and make new ones is pretty cool too.

Barclay managed to find his way into the center of the circle most of the time and did his best to schmooze lovin’ and treats off the other campers.

 Dave and sleepy Barclay at afternoon nap time for doggies

Dave and Barclay
Dave insisted on getting a picture of me and Barclay!
Closeup of Mt Adams
So pretty and rugged!
We had an expert ‘smores’ cook serving everyone around the fire
And then a jam session broke out
And I just sat staring into the warm fire and enjoying the music
Until it was time to go to bed!

Airstream plumbing part 2

On By stefrobrtsIn airstreamLeave a comment

I seem to have fixed the problem by just patching a piece of PEX into the system, replacing the leaky copper pipe, using one of these $5 Apollo compression fittings from Lowes.

I couldn’t get the ‘Gatorbite’ fittings to make a good seal over the old warped copper pipe I needed to attach to, but this thing finally did. We’ll see how it holds up down the road once it’s felt a little road vibration.

Even if it’s only temporary, it’s better than replacing the whole system. That was going to set me back somewhere in the $100 range, and who knows how much time!

My next challenge is that once the pipes were pressurized the kitchen sink was dripping (running actually). So I pulled out the cartridges and it’s back to the hardware store. 

Fixing the Airstream’s plumbing

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream1 Comment

My view today is all about the broken water system in my Airstream. Life with a vintage trailer mean occasional repair jobs, and refurbishment. We’ve gotten away with not having to do anything for a couple years, but this winter I didn’t get all the water out of the pipes, I got lazy because I always keep a spaceheater running in there. Unfortunately the GFI plug switched off, the heater stopped running, and the pipes froze and cracked. So now I need to get it all fixed in time for our next camping trip in May. So I began with an inspection of the system.

Here is the waterpump. The freshwater tank is on the right, and a variety of different types of hoses come from the tank outlet, through a drain valve I’ve never had cause to use, through a little filter (which I have never messed with) to the water pump inlet. The pump goes out through another hose which connects up to copper pipe. There are two drains that allow you to drain the tank out onto the ground, or to fill the tank when the trailer is hooked to city water.

The copper pipe runs back behind the couch, I have already pulled out the city water hookup because it leaked.

 
The pipe goes straight back to the bathroom closet. where it T-s off to go to the toilet. The brass connector is a ‘gatorbite’ I tried to use to connect PEX to the old copper but it still leaks. The cause of all my problems.

The piece that goes to the toilet connects to a small bit of PEX my friend Darol installed when he put the new toilet in for me a few years ago.

The main pipe continues under the shower and comes out on the other side of the trailer, where it T-s to the water heater. There is also a drain which drains to the ground. There is a T right before the drain which splits off two cold water lines for the sink.

The hot and cold pipes come up in the front corner of the cabinet and split off in two directions – one goes around the front of the sink, one goes around the back…I had a leak in one of these pipes on our big OK trip and it was a real bear to fix!

And they come back to nearly the same place, because the bathroom sink has two faucets – one for the sink, and one with a hose that goes up to the shower head.

Theres also hot and cold pipes continuing on to the kitchen.

And they go right up to the faucet. I’ve messed with these pipes before when I replaced the faucet a few years ago.

So I think a simplified plumbing layout without the ‘city water’ hookup would look something like this. I don’t have a problem with losing that hookup because we never used it anyway. I prefer to get all my water out of the freshwater tank and refill it every few days when necessary – we rarely stay anywhere long enough to worry about that. This might be over simplified, I’m still doing some research.

Airstream at the Home Show

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream4 Comments

We went down to the Portland Home & Garden show to check out our Airstream on loan to the Pendleton Woolen Mills for the National Parks Blankets display. They have a wonderful area set up, with lots of neat product, I didn’t know they made so many different things, plus lots of wool displays and raw wool. Makes me miss my sheep! But there in the middle is my little gem…

Inside was decorated with blankets and a little dinner set on the table to make it look cozy and inviting. They did a great job!

While we were visiting people were peeking in the trailer, and saying how cute it was. One of the ladies working the booth asked where the bedroom was 🙂 No hidden bedroom in this little trailer – what you see is what you get! The couch pulls out into a bed.

I left them a list of which park blankets I wanted and she said they would leave them in the trailer for us when we come to pick it up on Monday. So it has a long week ahead of being admired! Also the blanket you can see mounted on the wall above it was measured on Tuesday for a world record for the longest blanket. So there have been news crews there filming it. I’m going to watch the local news to see if I see my trailer on TV!

Cars and Trailers – random stuff

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream, cars1 Comment
 
 First off, recent windstorms yanked the top off the vinyl carport that protects our old Airstream from rain. This is the second time we’ve had to replace the roof. The frame has been holding up just fine since it’s attached to the shop, but the fabric has a more limited lifespan.
   

And here’s a picture of our car parked at work, next to the landlord’s car – same car, different colors! His is a newer model, so there’s a few other differences, but I did have a customer come in on a day when the yellow car was there and our green one was not, and ask if we’d had our car repainted yellow!

Trip to the beach

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream, dave, travel5 Comments

Dave and I haven’t had a chance to get away for a long time, so today we took a fun day-trip to the beach. We started by heading North to Longview and crossing the Columbia there to get back on the Oregon side. Heading North to get to Oregon seems wrong, but it works.

Paper mill and container ship on the Columbia at Longview, WA.

We headed down to Fort Stevens on an exploratory visit to prepare for an Airstream Trailer rally we are organizing in March. After checking out the park we went to see the Peter Iredale shipwreck,

As you can see we were quite a ways back from it, the water was coming in.

Immediately after getting this picture we were looking at the camera screen going ‘hey, we got it, nice shot’, when we realized the wave was still coming up the beach! We turned and ran as fast as we could, laughing the whole way, all the way to the dunes! 
 
I looked back and snapped this picture, look how much deeper the water is around the ship, and the HUGE logs the wave pulled down across the sand.
We headed North to Longbeach and stopped to visit the boardwalk and watch the far off waves cresting and throwing spray high into the air.
 
 
 
Near the parking lot they had this wonderful relief map of the NW, showing all our favorite mountains. 
 
I got down low so it looked just like flying up the Columbia river towards home…
 
OMG!! What’s that hideous monster?!!
 
We were taking the back way out of Ilwaco and ran across this neat little vacation spot.
 
 
 There was one Airstream mixed in there, mostly Spartans, a Silver Streak, and a couple I couldn’t name. Neat find! I love old Spartans!
 
That was a really fun day, wandering up and down the coast with my wonderful hubby!

Goodbye Darol

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream1 Comment
This is a picture some friends took at an Airstream campout a couple years ago. Around the back from left to right is me, Dave (looking like a hippy), Don, Janet, and the guy in front with the umbrella is Darol.  I just got a note this week that Darol had passed away from leukemia right after the holidays.
Darol was a great guy. I met him a few years ago because he was into restoring Airstreams, and he lived right down the road from me, so it was natural to run into him. I loved going to his house to visit and see what projects he was working on. He was a master craftsman. Everything he did wasn’t finished until it was perfect. He always found the most elegant solutions for problems. Nothing was overdone, it was always just done right. He restored a number of Airstreams which are with happy owners around the NW.
When I was restoring my Airstream and had troubles he was always a phone call away, and he came over a couple times to help me screw down the floor, or fix my water tank where it had cracked. He helped me plan the install of the new furnace, and finished up my clumsy attempt at cabinetry by lifting the fridge and building an extra drawer under it. Everything he touched was better when he got done with it, something I can’t necessarily say about my own efforts.
We had a great time camping, and I loved going over to his house and we’d sit out on the back patio, listening to his stories about being a shop teacher in Alberta, or being drafted at the tail end of Vietnam and ending up being a military phone operator, or of the boats and Airstreams he’d built. He had tons of interesting stories to tell, and told the funniest Sven & Ollie jokes you ever heard, and could have everyone roaring around the campfire.
I have been thinking about Darol a lot. I would have enjoyed another ten years of hearing his stories. He was just a genuinely nice guy, talented, great fun to camp with. He had a dry wit and a wry sense of humor. I think the lesson he left us is to enjoy every day, and don’t put doing those things you love off too long. None of us know how much time we have left to wander around and see the world, and of course the best part of any trip is the fine people you meet along the way.

Trout Lake Campout

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream, barclay, petsLeave a comment

Every year our friends with Airstream trailers get together for a campout at Trout Lake. There’s no lake at Trout Lake, but there is a mountain, and a river running behind the campground. It is our top secret hideaway. I think it is paradise, the most beautiful place on Earth! Fields of grass lead up to miles of national forest land and wilderness area, all the way to the slopes of Mt Adams.

23 trailers and motorhomes gathered at camp. We weren’t going to go, but friends sent pictures of what it looked like there (we’ve been several times, so we already knew it was beautiful!) and emailed us to get our butts in the car and get up there! It’s only two hours away, and a very relaxed and pleasant drive. So we closed the store early on Sunday and drove over in time for dinner.

No point roughing it, so we hooked up the airstream and took it along. It’s nice to have a comfy bed and your own bathroom.

Barclay waded around in the water. We left Alki and Jack at home. Neither enjoys car rides anymore, and they could keep each other company.

Folks gathered around the campfire after dinner and played music until well into the night.

Hank appointed himself guardian of the marshmallows.

Dave and Barclay went to bed earlier than I did. Barclay had been playing with all the other dogs and was pretty tapped out by dark! I stayed up til 1am laughing and telling stories around the campfire.

Early in the morning Barclay had burrowed under the covers and kept our feet warm.

In the morning we packed up and hit the road home in time to open the store on Monday. Can’t wait to go back again, there’s never enough time to spend relaxing with friends around the campfire. Glad we got to escape for a little bit.

The Airstream

On By stefrobrtsIn airstream, cats, mighty, pets2 Comments

We have a 1968 Airstream Caravel – that’s a 17ft trailer – which I restored myself over the last 5 years, with help from my friends in the Airstream community. It is my pride and joy, and we don’t get to use it as much as I’d like. All this winter weather is giving me cabin fever – I want to hook up and hit the road! So instead I went out and did some cleaning up, fixed a bad light switch, and just hung out inside with the dog for a bit, letting him get used to it while I read a magazine. He went camping with us a couple times last season, but he has a bit of separation anxiety, so I want him to learn it’s a safe place to be when we’re gone.

Since it’s only 17 ft long, the tour is short. There’s a kitchen down one side…

And a couch that folds out into a bed on the other (in Airstream-speak, that’s called a ‘gaucho’). The bathroom is in the back, and it’s full-service 🙂 That’s a requirement for me when we’re ‘camping’.

And there’s a dinette in the front which folds down into a bed as well, but we use the side bed. It’s actually nice and cozy inside, and never seems cramped. It’s small size is easy to tow and fits into any camping spot. We are forced to keep everything neat and orderly when travelling because there is no room for clutter inside.

Mighty followed me into the trailer, and then I left to play with the dog, and when I came back and opened the door she had a lot to say to me about forgetting her and leaving her locked in there all alone for TEN WHOLE MINUTES!!! Apparently it was quite traumatic. She may require therapy…