Katzklaw's Aluma-blog!

It is apparently "Pit Bull Awareness Day" today...

2010-10-23T15:11:00.001-04:00

so let me say this: I am a nearly middle aged housewife. I mostly work in RV parks. I am a full-time RVer who travels the country in my Airstream.

and i own a pit bull.

She was used by a local animal shelter in a fundraiser once ($1 per kiss), she has been mentioned and/or pictured in the newspaper four times, she has worked as a therapy dog in a nursing home, and she has been our faithful companion for the past 7 years.

Thank you Luna for being the wonderful dog you are, and for teaching me, and many many others, that "Pit Bulls" aren't what the media and the hype makes them out to be... they are just dogs. wonderful wonderful dogs.

you see interesting things when you drive near nashville...

2010-09-17T09:47:00.000-04:00

like Loretta Lynn's dusty pink tour bus with her name across the side.

or this slightly more understated one:

by the Belamy Brothers

drove past the Grand Ol Opry, too. was cool! squeeeeee! :D

hehehehe

2010-09-16T11:45:00.001-04:00

What could cause electric trailer brakes to drag slightly at random intervals? It's driving us nuts and screwing our MPG.

Holy crap this dog is awesome. and in other news....

2010-09-05T22:53:00.000-04:00

stumbled across this vid tonight, and it is awesome. best dancing dog i have ever seen. had to share

and in other news... we returned to Rodanthe early early this morning. very minimal damage to the park, altho the ground was wet and squishy, and the road still had some water and sand on it in places. Earl was a big threat, and a big nothing. o well, better safe, and out, than sorry and stuck there. back to work as usual

Earl's comin' to visit...

2010-09-01T01:04:00.000-04:00

so i'm getting the heck outta dodge. leaving tomorrow and heading a couple hours inland. hopefully the bridge stays up so we can get back.

i'll take pictures of whatever happens wherever i end up, but i won't be on the OBX, thas fer sure :D

WARNING. pissed off rant ahead...

2010-08-22T12:58:00.004-04:00

I like my job in NC. it's very busy here, busiest KOA i've worked at yet, and the first corporate location i've worked. there's a new manager here this year, which brings me to my complaint.

i am getting sick and friggn tired of hearing how great the last manager was. how everything was spotless and beautiful and perfect and how things have gone "so far downhill" this year. normally i would just blow this off, yeah, things tend to take a dip the first year a new manager takes over... its the learning curve. so WHY does this bother me so much this time, you ask? because in this case, the last manger let the whole park fall apart... he didn't repair ANYTHING. he would just slap a fresh coat of paint on the wall that was rotten inside and falling down, and hang a flower basket in front of it, so it LOOKED pretty... and he let the park fall to ruin like that for FIVE YEARS. now a new manager comes waltzing in, and the whole place collapses around his ears, and he's doing all he can just to keep his head above water, and every day i just hear about how great the last guy was.

ARGHHH!!!!

yeah, the grass gets a bit tall on occasion, we're severely short-staffed. we have maybe 1/4 to 1/3 the staff we SHOULD have for a park this size. we get on it as fast as we can. yeah, the bathrooms get a little dirty-looking sometimes. hello, we're at a beach, people track sand in constantly. every dall, all day... and with the aforementioned short-staff situation, we can't mop as often as we should, but it does get done! there's a nail sticking out of the deck? someone's there with a hammer. toilet clogs? someone's there with a plunger. we're doing our darndest, but there's only so many of us, and so many places we can be at one time.

and to that guy who pissed and moaned about the dump station, and then wrote a paragraphs-long nasty review about how pissed you were and you were never coming back and we're an ecological disaster...shut up. we don't want or need you back if you gonna act like that. the whole park is on a septic. not sewer. no city pipes hauling your crap away, no siree. there's a big ol crap tank down there, and they DO give out after a while... especially when handing the needs of a 300 space park. you just happened to be the lucky guy that the thing blew up on. if you'd come in the office and expressed your displeasure in a reasonable manner, we woulda probably given you some money back, maybe a free night at some later date when things were fixed up right. they're nice, reasonable people here... but no, you came storming in acting like a d-bag and threatening to call the EPA on us. well guess what. that dump station has a BRAND NEW tank now. there is no 'ecological disaster'. the thing works like a charm now. and it isn't because you pissed and moaned and had a temper tantrum in our office. it's because it broke, and our new manager actually FIXES things that break. imagine that!

we've been here for a month and a half, and we've gotten a brand new septic tank, new bikes on order (because the old ones are hideously old and rusted and falling apart, like everything else), and a new bouncy pillow. the pillow is important because the old one broke. people LOVED the pillow. corporate said they wouldn't pay for a new one. it was too expensive. the manager somehow managed to GET ONE ANYWAY.

so yeah, we don't have flowerpots hanging out front and fresh paint on everything this year. sorry. we're actually spending the corporate budget on FIXING things that are broke this year. i guess NEXT year we'll focus on pretty.

signed, that smiling face at the front desk.

BRING ON THE PAIN~!~!~!

2010-07-12T20:55:00.003-04:00

sheesh. this is turning into a man v food blog with all the crazy stuff hubby keeps eating everywhere we go....

this time it's Texas Pete hot fries at Lisa's Pizzeria in Rodanthe, NC. the SMELL alone had me cringing, i wasn't brave enough to try them. lol

2010-07-10T19:38:00.004-04:00

He's doing it again. This time it's a two pound burger called the Cylone at a little place called Top Dog Cafe in Rodanthe NC. Photos are here!
now that's a big burger!

A bittersweet move

2010-06-28T23:46:00.002-04:00

I enjoyed Amarillo. really i did. it was pretty there, there was much fun stuff to do and look at in the area. i loved the atmosphere. even the hot weather didn't bother me that much. I didn't like the treatment... long story very short, the management style of our bosses in Amarillo really didn't agree with us. We started workamping to have fun and see the USA, not be berated and maltreated. if we wanted to take that kind of abuse, we never would have left our good-paying-but-stressful jobs in New Jersey.

we left

my skill with computers and hubby's skill with everything else got us snapped up from the job market very quickly and after the past 3 1/2 days on the road and 1700 miles we are in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. it's beautiful here. i look forward to my first day tomorrow.

the aftermath...part deux

2010-06-22T22:18:00.002-04:00

man that poor skylight is beat up!

From Drop Box

the edges almost all the way around are broken off, and you can see the broken corner much more clearly. the backside had bad cracks all through it also.

we don't really have the $200 to spare that it would take to replace this with Airstream correct parts, so... husband creative fix-it powers - ACTIVATE! viola, a $9 roll of flashing fills the gap till we can fix it right.

From Drop Box

and the really awesome thing, we just finished about 15 minutes ago, and it just started to rain as i type this. it hadn't rained a drop since the skylight first broke 4 nights ago... and trust me, the weather has looked plenty threatening. it all bypassed. Thank you God.

picture

2010-06-18T09:45:00.005-04:00

i ran outside in the wind and grabbed it... it flew several car-lengths before it landed. most of the edges, and one corner, were all broken off (you can see the broken corner in the pic), but it was intact enough to tie back in to place to provide at least *some* protection if it decided to rain.
well.. this means Eric will be on the roof next time we have the time. :-/

2010-06-18T01:35:00.001-04:00

The wind ripped our skylight off tonight, about a half hour ago. I have a picture, but i can't post it right now because i have no internet. Hopefully pictures tomorrow (or later today, i guess) the wind is still whistling outside. I don't think i'll be sleeping well tonight. :-(

poor Eric

2010-06-16T19:19:00.001-04:00

he had a tooth pulled today. so he's kinda miserable :( it had a HUGE hole in the side of it, hidden between the teeth! no more pain from that puppy at least!
yay?

WHOA

2010-06-15T18:38:00.004-04:00

altho i have occasionally been posting minor updates, i have been woefully lax in providing photos to go with my posts. i am going to fix that.

FIRST... we were in Titusville FL because the state finally came thru after just over a year, and now Eric has a lovely set of brand new hearing aids that work GREAT. BUT, while we were there, we stayed for most of the time in a surprisingly cheap (for the location) hotel, right on the river, and they sent a shuttle up while we were there, so I got photos of that, too. sorry they mostly turned out blurry. most of those can be seen here.

home is home, no matter where you roam:

From Titusville, FL. 2010

when we hit Texas there's all kind of cool things to look at...
the Big Texan

From Amarillo, TX

Cadillac Ranch

From Amarillo, TX

the American Quarter Horse Association Museum and Hall of Fame

From Amarillo, TX

(which had some really beautiful saddles on display. check 'em out in the gallery.)

and the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum

From Amarillo, TX

and we havn't even been to the Palo Duro Canyon yet.
lots and lots more pictures here.

also, i changed the look and layout of my blog. like it?

Eric likes to hurt himself with food on our days off...

2010-05-26T19:51:00.001-04:00

why is that?

we're off to the Coyote Bluff Cafe to have the "Burger From Hell". well, he's gonna have one. I'm gonna steal his cheese fries. :D

2010-05-18T23:39:00.001-04:00

The steak won. But only 7oz left it knew it was in a fight!

2010-05-18T21:39:00.001-04:00

We at the big texan! Watch hubby stuff himself! www.bigtexan.com

2010-04-23T20:48:00.001-04:00

The hearing aids are finally aquired and we're on our way back to texas, our trailer, and a sense of normalcy. Not to mention a job! Yay!!!

2010-04-18T12:30:00.001-04:00

My life has become a comedy routine, because I am now, quite literally, "livin' in a van...DOWN BY THE RIVER!!!!!"
lol

2010-04-14T10:27:00.001-04:00

Well, after about four years and many games it was barely able to handle, my laptop has decided to give up it's hold on life. In the middle of a game my screen froze, then converted to a very low resolution along with a notice of a video error. When i clicked OK i got a BSOD. It will POST, but nothing else, and after a min it shuts itself off. Oh well.

2010-03-19T07:37:00.001-04:00

Why is it so cold in florida? And why did i leave my jacket in the trailer...900 miles away :(

2010-03-17T16:07:00.002-04:00

Well, after over a year waiting, we finally got the news that the DVR of Florida was ready to help us. Cue a whirlwind day of packing and planning, and we have just now departed to get Eric some new hearing aids! I hope everything goes smoothly.

mobile post

well, i did it again.

2010-02-25T16:45:00.003-05:00

my hair. 10 inches of it.
gonna send it off to Locks of Love within the next couple of days.

O.o

2010-02-23T16:29:00.000-05:00

you see this?

its snow.

SNOW.

fortunately it was all gone the next day.

BUT STILL!!!!!

the aftermath...

2010-02-17T18:37:00.002-05:00

well, after my last post, we were packed and on the road by that evening. we didn't make it too far the first night, but as everything in the trailer was frozen solid, and we hadn't had a good shower in a week and a half, our first night was spent in a cheap hotel. with heat. and hot running water. it felt like heaven.

two more days south and we stopped in a little town called Cedar Creek, TX. it took another 2 days for everything to completely thaw. that was when we were able to assess the damages:

one crapper hose - frozen solid and broke apart when trying to remove
the kitchen faucet - both the cartridge and the sprayer head cracked and leaked
the fresh water hose - was intact, but both ends expanded just enough to leak $2 fix at both ends
and the big nasty one... the water heater cracked.

we have not yet replaced it, all we did was bypass it and drain it. but we will have to fix it eventually. for now, no hot water and regular trips to the park's showers.

here's the new faucet tho

....

2010-01-08T11:15:00.003-05:00

The crew at Amazon offered the workcampers the opportunity to stay and work through January, and we figured that since we didn't have to be anywhere until May, why not. Everyone we talked to, and every weather site i looked at, said the average temp was 30-40s. cold, yes, but tolerable. we agreed to stay

our water froze Christmas eve. and it got colder. and colder

we waited for the cold snap to end. they always do. we can tough it out. everyone told us this was exceptional, this never happens.

and it got colder.

and colder

and we waited.....

as i type this, it is 2 degrees outside. and this is what i woke up to find:

my dog's bowl. half frozen. it was INSIDE the trailer. we're packing to leave today

I'm dreaming...

2009-12-25T18:24:00.001-05:00

of a white Christmas.

o wait, i don't have to dream, it happened.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Have yourself...

2009-12-24T22:09:00.003-05:00

a merry...little...

Christmas...

now.

Merry Christmas everyone. White Christmas pics tomorrow. <3

Whimper, part deux

2009-12-09T21:30:00.002-05:00

hooray... aunt flo started her visit today, AND i have a cold... on one of the coldest days i've ever experienced. i thought i got into RVing to get AWAY from this kind of weather?!?

and i think something froze in the van. it's trying to overheat again.

how much longer?

Whimper

2009-12-09T08:44:00.003-05:00

why am i here again? o right. paycheck. even teh van doesn't want to run in this. ima go back to bed now. g'night.

argh

2009-11-14T22:26:00.006-05:00

yikes. it is seriously time for some catch-up. ok, last time i posted was from Titusville FL. since then, I found a job in Abilene TX that was much better than the one in FL, so off we went. We stopped in Pensacola FL along the way to surprise my mom for her birthday. she cried. here we are in the KOA in Gulf Shores AL...the only KOA in the entire state!

It was Eric's and my first time in Texas, so we were excited.Luna, however, was unimpressed.

Abilene was a lot of fun, but very dusty and windy and somewhat bland. one exciting thing was there's an actual honest-to-goodness drive-in theater there. We went and watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. that was an experience for me! my first time at the drive-in! we also had one of the best steaks i've ever had in my life at Sharon's Lytle Land and Cattle. if you're ever in Abilene, go. you won't regret it. there's also a bunch of cool museums and old buildings in downtown Abilene.

the Paramount theater. all restored. "Mestena" (means "Mustang" in Spanish)

i don't know. but it looks cool

Denzel Crocker lives in Abilene. who knew?

When our time was up there, we went to Coffeyville Kansas to help Amazon.com with their Christmas rush. what were we thinking?!? o right... 11 bucks an hour... that's what.

I'll TRY to update more often now. 'specially since my old phone crapped out and i got a new one, so i can even update mobile-y. we're headed back to Texas for next spring/summer... Amarillo this time. rawr.

hmmmm.....

2009-04-21T22:20:00.004-04:00

some of you more astute readers may notice that the last picture is different from the one before it (and most of the ones before that) in one very important way... yes, that's right... our tow vehicle changed! the dodge was beginning to really become and endless laundry list of minor problems... nothing major... other than a major headache, and i suggested replacing it... and thus the search began!

i love Craigslist, really i do. while checking my local area, i found a guy with a van, and he was willing to trade for a truck! the day before we go to show the guy our truck, the power steering goes out. turns out the guy is really handy, and ready and willing to take on all the truck's idiosyncrasies... even the pump! we traded the truck for the van, straight up.

the van is a 1995 GMC G20 conversion van with all the bells and whistles (cruise control! how i've missed you!!!) and powered by a 350. it even had a hitch already.

not to say that the van doesn't have its own problems. i mean, come on... its 14 years old (holy crap, already?) right now it really needs a radiator flush and fill... but each problem as it comes.

THIS is why RVing rocks!!!

2009-04-21T21:04:00.003-04:00

Hungry? its lunchtime? whats that you say? McDonald's? BAH! how about grilled kielbasa and bread hot and fresh at a rest-stop respite, our little roadside paradise. recipe for success: park so that the shade from your own RV falls across where you plan to sit and you can have fun anywhere :D the whole rest stop was green with envy.

Yikes...

2009-03-15T20:11:00.004-04:00

its amazing what a lack of good internet connection will do to your will and ability to keep up with your blogging! :( wait... i've already said that once before. o well... its still accurate. i'm sorry everyone!

after a very enjoyable 5 months in Virginia, we hit the road again, and this time ended up in Cape Canaveral FL, or more specifically, the Titusville KOA in Mims, FL. Both KOA's have had extremely slow internet connection, but i really MUST update now, or i probably never will again. lol

anyways... Space Coast FL is beautiful... and i have a good spot that's in the sun in the am, and in the shade by noon.

and the thing that prompts me to post this evening is this: i just watched my first ever shuttle launch. i mean, of course i've watched them on TV... but this was the first time i've seen one personally, with my own eyes... watched the glow and the smoke trail, heard the roar, felt the rumble. very cool.

moar pics!:
IMG_0012-1.jpg
IMG_0013-1.jpg
IMG_0014.jpg
IMG_0016.jpg
IMG_0017.jpg
IMG_0018-1.jpg
IMG_0019-2.jpg

also going on this week: earlier in the week there was a big brush-fire close to the park, and ash fell like snow. it was interesting, to say the least.i'll try to get into a more regular posting schedule again... i'll probably be good for me. we're headed to Abilene TX in May! wheeeeee!

Yeah! It's good, to be back home again...

2008-08-17T22:52:00.000-04:00

thank you John Denver! lol

anyways, we've been here for a month now. Except for my allergies, I'm remembering why I still love my homestate of Virginia so much

It's also been absolutely beautiful weather... we haven't had to use the air conditioner more than 3 or 4 days the whole time so far. Also, the Airstream rally was this past weekend, not September like I thought it was! whoa!
I'll put pics of that later, for now, its late, i'm tired. say g'night Gracie.

its amazing what a lack of WiFi will do to your blog's current-ness...

2008-07-16T17:44:00.003-04:00

well, i have some catching up to do. it started getting *REALLY* hot in Alabama, and other issues were also frustrating me, so we started the search for another work-camping position. after a bit, i got an e-mail sent to me, saying they needed help in a park in Maine. i checked their site out, and the park seemed beautiful, and i contacted them back, telling them we wanted to be able to work for our site, and make a little money for groceries also. they responded back that they would work with us... i was feeling quite confident and excited about the opportunity, so we packed everything up, and set off on a 1300 mile trip to Maine.

well, when we got there, we found out that 'working with us' meant they wanted 20 hours from EACH of us (40 hours total) JUST for the site, and they didn't want to give us more hours than that... but he would buy things for the store, let me mark them whatever price i wanted, and i could have the profits. in the WEEK i was there, maybe 3 people checked in... profit? WHAT PROFIT?!!? also, the place was a complete and utter dump. it wasn't worth the $25 that The Woods charged for a site, let alone the $48 they asked. almost none of the amenities listed on their site were functional or available, everything was filthy and/or rotting, the office smelled of stale cigarettes and dog pee. there was NO rest room in the office, the only bathhouse that was open was... uhg... and the FIRST site they put us in wasn't even full hook up. when they finally moved us to a full hook up site, we had to park diagonal across the site just to reach the hookups: with the sewer hose stretched as far as it could go to the rear of us, and the electric cord stretched as far as it could go to the front.

we tolerated a week of that, (barely) then hit the road back to Connecticut to visit Eric's mom and brother. we boon-docked in a church parking lot for 2 weeks (THANK YOU VERY MUCH Grace Congregational Church on South St!!!!!!!! you're a life-saver!) and combed the internet for any job we could find.

finally, when we were nearing wits end... battery in the trailer was dead, the fresh water tank was empty, the black and grey tanks were full (and starting to smell funny)... we finally got a call. the KOA park in Shenandoah Valley Virginia wanted us! HOORAY! we 'battened down the hatches', so to speak, and hit the road. we arrived late Monday afternoon. so here we are, in Virginia. it is beautiful, and quiet, and shady. everyone is friendly. the owner likes our dogs. i even heard there's going to be an Airstream rally here in September *happy sigh*

its a good thing she's OUTSIDE

2008-05-22T14:40:00.003-04:00

well, this kinda creeped me out today, but like i said... she's outside. if she stays out there and away from me, fine.

the metal across the lower left corner is the rear bumper of the trailer.

worst..... night..... ever

2008-05-09T14:21:00.005-04:00

it started innocently enough. sunshiny day. plans to go hit the local carnival before the leave town... there was supposed to be a bit of a thundershower late in the day... but the radar was making it look like it would all swing north of the city and miss us. we got ourselves cleaned up and headed out a little after 7pm.

the first booth was one of those dart throwing booths... the guy gave me one free dart, and just kinda sucked me in. i ended up loosing 10 bucks to that booth, but on the bright side, i did get a nice-looking plush yellow rose with a pose-able wire in the stem. i wrapped it around my arm like a decoration, and we wandered over to the 'toss a ping pong ball into a mini-fishbowl to win a goldfish' booth. just as we got there, they started shutting the carnival down, because the weather was starting to look really bad. we said "bummer", and left to go to Wal-Mart, about a mile away.

by the time we got there, it was pouring so hard, you could barely see. the entrance driveway has no stop sign going in, but a cross street with stop signs both ways...just as we were going in, someone ran the stop sign on my side, and when i tried to stop, i hydroplaned into them. everyone was shaken up, but no one was hurt (thank God). it was still POURING, so hubby suggested heading over to one of the local stores, so we could at least talk out of the rain. i got back in the truck, soaked to the skin, sat down, turned the key, turned on the lights, and realized it was raining so hard, i couldn't see to drive. in the two seconds it took to reach that realization, the power to the entire shopping center went out. now i couldn't see anything at all besides the other car, 5 feet in front of me. then the wind kicked up harder, whipping the rain past the truck in sheets and bands instead of a solid wall. then, it started hailing. not hard at first, but as the hail got bigger and louder against the truck, the wind kept blowing harder and harder, until i could feel the whole truck shaking. lightning was flashing all around, and other flashes, like lightning, but lower, and the wrong color... orange-y or greenish, instead of the standard blue-white. i was terrified, and clung to my husband, shrieking into his shoulder... and he cradled me in his arms like he could keep me safe from anything.

it calmed down within just a few minutes, but it wasn't until about an hour later when the policeman finally got there that we found out that a tornado had passed by behind us, not more than about a thousand feet away... the flashes of light i'd seen were power lines going down as their poles either fell, or snapped in half.

this is a gallery of photos i took the next day of some of the damage i saw
in the map pic, the green dot is where i was, the red circles are places that i heard on the news that building walls had collapsed, and the red line is the stretch of road where i saw damage last night, and took photos today.

i went home, had some ice cream, and went to bed. that sucked.

Aluminitis!

2008-04-15T20:21:00.003-04:00

there's actually THREE aluminum trailers on the lot... AT THE SAME TIME! lol (well, including us, that is)

first one came in yesterday, and is actually an Avion, not an Airstream. they haven't left yet

second one came today and appears to be a late-model 25ft safari rear-door model.

Wow... this stuff is great! also, storm photos.

2008-04-12T20:36:00.006-04:00

Last weekend we had a gentleman in the park who was a distributor for a waterless car and truck wash product called Dri Wash n' Guard, made by DWG International. The company also makes an easy to use rub on rub off metal polish, which we bought some of. It really was easy to use, and I'm thinking of possibly getting into this stuff myself. It's one of those "sells itself" kinda products.

before

after

Also last week, a storm blew through, and I thought the clouds looked really impressive, so I snapped a few pictures of them before it started pouring on us.

and last but not least, Eric and i have taken up walking around the park for exercise, and i found that the view from the far back corner of the lot to be quite nice. 10 points if you can 'find the Airstream!' lol!

i should go buy a lotto ticket...

2008-03-30T10:06:00.002-04:00

seriously!

We had ANOTHER Airstream in last night. thats 4 in 2 weeks! again, no picture, sorry. they came in after dark, and left before i woke up. this one was a BIIIIIIG diesel-pusher MoHo, but it was still an Airstream!
:D

Finally... some Airstreams!

2008-03-23T20:17:00.002-04:00

after SEVERAL months being the only Airstream in a 107 space park, we've had 3 'streams come in over the last week and a half! I missed getting pics of the first two (a late 70s early 80s Excella, and a 2005 Safari), as they came in late at night when it was dark, and left early in the morning, but the third one, a motorhome, stayed for 3 days, so I was able to snap a photo.

My trip to Montgomery today! YAY!

2008-02-26T20:54:00.002-05:00

We went to finally see downtown Montgomery. We had alot of fun, but I screwed up the post the first time i tried to put it up. I've finally gotten around to coming back and fixing it. Look at all the photos HERE!

wow. long time no write.

2008-02-20T23:18:00.004-05:00

sorry about that. not really going anywhere lately, and not really doing anything exciting lately, so haven't felt the urge to write...however, there was a lunar eclipse tonight... how cool is that? so i took photos, using my pawn shop camera, and my $30 telescope! lets hear it for cheap stuff! WOOOOOO

BRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-11-08T15:24:00.001-05:00

IMG_0012
Originally uploaded by katzklaw33

anyone who tells you it never gets cold down south is either full of it, or they've never spent any time down here. this is what i woke up to this morning.

now granted, it all burned off a half hour later, once the sun was really hitting it, and its supposed to get nice later, it was still DARN chilly this morning!

in other news... lol last week, after we'd been camp hosts for all of... 2 days? another Airstream showed up on the lot! well of course, i had to wander on over and investigate. turns out, it belongs to a member of the same forums i belong to! Airstream Forums! i sat around and talked to them for so long, my husband almost sent out the search parties for me! they left the next day, but later that evening, ANOTHER Airstream pulled in! no pictures of this one, sorry. and on Sunday night, we had one more come in real late at night. imagine that... we spent all that time in various state parks and never saw any, and now we've seen 3 in a week!

God is still laughing....

2007-10-28T17:35:00.000-04:00

well. sorry for the long time with no posts. my ability to get online for the last month has been patchy at best. we were originally in the Memphis TN area (where we picked up Moby) because, due to changing plans, we were trying to get a job with a trucking company. Swift, specifically. well, they jerked us around for over a month, and finally ... FINALLY... told both of us we weren't hired, so here we are, broke, no job, no plan, in a very crappy area. i apologize to anyone who lives there, but Memphis TN and West Memphis Arkansas are the armpit of america. (at least the parts of them that i saw).

not really sure what else to do, i turned to searching online, when i could get online (free wifi at McAllister's Deli) i searched for how did other RVers make money on the road. most of what i found pointed at workamping... or work camping. where usually a camper, or a camping couple, will do some kind of minor job for a park (anything from office help to maintenance) and stay for no charge. sometimes, depending on how much work there is to do, there's a salary involved. well, i started looking, making phone calls, sending e-mails, and everything... and we found a nice little park right on the outskirts of Montgomery AL. i making this post sitting behind the desk on my first official 'day on the job'. we get to stay for no charge for the simple task of working 3 weekends a month. thats not bad at all for a park with full hook-ups and free cable and wifi! plus, if we clean the bathhouse 3 times a week, we get $15 for each time cleaned. not much, but not bad for about an hour's worth of work, either. There's also alot of construction going on localy, so my husband might be able to get into that for a little more money coming in. good news... good news... good news :D

and the title... was because i had, when we were driving to FL for the very first time, complained to my husband about how all the AL drivers i had ever had any experience with were, shall we say... not so good...and my assertation was backed up shortly after we first entered the state, and got cut off by a poor driver while trying to enter a parking lot so we could stop for food. almost caused a wreck. well... after all my complaining... where are we? Alabama!

the park we're staying in is The Woods RV Park. if you're ever in the neighborhood... come check it out. :D

Moby dog!

2007-10-06T22:36:00.000-04:00

ok, long story short, this little guy was owned by some young people who still lived at home with their dad. dad said "dog can't stay in our house!" (prime example of why you should always ok it with whoever yer living with FIRST before you bring home that cute lil fuzzy!) so he lived with the grandparents. all was well until he started growing up and getting stronger. it seems his young exuberant puppy self was too much for the people he was with, and he apparently pulled grandma off the front porch about a week or so ago. they said "enough is enough" and gave him to a friend of thiers. he let the little guy run free... because he couldn't afford to erect a fence. so he took to hanging out at the campground we're staying at. and last night he came directly to our trailer. and never left. all night.
i took him home the next morning, and he chased the truck BACK to the campsite.
we asked the owner about it, and he said "ya want him? i can't keep him, and i don't wanna see him get run over on the road or shot by a hunter. give him a good home, and he's yours."

so... we have another dog now. O.o

Here's a better picture...

2007-10-06T22:26:00.001-04:00

Just like the title says...

Men plan, and God laughs.

2007-10-06T14:35:00.001-04:00

Here we are, trying to downsize our life, getting rid of stuff, etc., and this little guy up and adopted US last night. He just wandered up and made himself at home. I'll explain more, ALOT more when i get online again, but we named him Moby. Mobile post.

The first RV?

2007-09-29T21:23:00.000-04:00

Another fine example of wierd, wild, and wonderful crap that can be seen at truck stops.

You see the darnedst things ...

2007-09-21T15:48:00.001-04:00

In truck stops! This is the front half of an actual Blue Angels jet. O.o

What was old is new again...

2007-09-21T15:44:00.001-04:00

Our travels took us literally right by the Airstream dealer in Cookville TN, which was the place that saved our bacon when we first picked the AS up. We decided to stop in for the heck of it :-) The picture is us parked in front of one of the brand new models there. Upon examining some of the features of the new trailers, I realized that all the really cool stuff we added, like the twist-lock power cord inlet and the single water inlet, are all things that the new AS come with...standard or as options. Our trailer only LOOKS old. It may as well be brand new off the showroom floor!

Get off the computer and play with meeee

2007-09-17T14:13:00.001-04:00

Wow. Sorry for the long time no update. Anyway, we were in Newfane VT. It's BEAUTIFUL there, but there is NO cell service out there! We finished up our cabinet doors, then we headed to an RV show in Hershey, PA. The AIR even smells like chocolate there! And now we're off again. :-) mobile post.

Life lesson for the day...

2007-09-03T09:38:00.001-04:00

Never ever EVER drive thru or around Boston at 10pm on a holiday weekend. We went past Boston after visiting Salem last night, and within the span of an hour I was almost in three different accidents! All three caused by someone trying to get into a traffic lane already occupied by another car.

After 1300 miles...

2007-08-30T21:04:00.001-04:00

For anyone who wondered how sturdy my lights would turn out to be, this is after we reached Vermont from Florida. Looks good to me. :-)

whoa! We have cabinets!

2007-08-30T21:01:00.001-04:00

Got the cabinet doors on in the kitchen. YAY!

Yeah...they tow good

2007-08-28T15:17:00.001-04:00

We arrived in CT on friday and stayed in a nice state forest till today. Today we moved to another location where hubby could play with his power tools. We still need to make doors and drawers, after all. Well, we just towed thru the bumpy roads and traffic signals of Hartford with all this junk in our cabinets. Only two things fell out. :-)

There stands Jackson, like a stone wall.

2007-08-22T11:49:00.001-04:00

Stopped at the Manassas National Battlefield Park. Funny, i lived in the area for 10 years and never went to the park. Now i have! More photos later, this is all i have on my phone. Mobile post.

Thought for the day...

2007-08-21T13:37:00.001-04:00

Freedom is stopping for a lazy hour at a rest stop to cook lunch instead of NEEDING to track down a McDonalds because you drove till you were starving.

Not all wine and roses...

2007-08-20T17:28:00.001-04:00

Well, we stayed in Tugaloo state park for two days. There was a lovely lake there, and last might we went for a stroll down the shoreline. After enjoying the walk for a while, i accidently slipped in mud and scraped up my leg pretty good. I'm ok, but it does sting.

Campin in style!

2007-08-19T10:26:00.001-04:00

In tugaloo state park, GA. very pretty, very serene. This is good. :-)

way down yonder on the Chatahoochi...

2007-08-18T16:53:00.001-04:00

We layed rubber on the Georgia asphalt, we got a little crazy, but we didn't get caught! Crossed the river into ga this morning. Stopped at stone mt. In the afternoon. All in all a good day. Mobile post.

FINALLY on the road!

2007-08-18T09:52:00.001-04:00

We left yesterday, only a week and a half late. bleh. And it seems hubby didn't learn the lesson taught by Luna bending and squeezing out the back hatch on our last trip, and left her loose in the trailer. She ripped out every single screen. At least she stayed in the trailer this time. This was a mobile update. :-)

2007-08-16T12:41:00.001-04:00

SUCCESS! the propane has finally been plumbed!

more decoration....

and we're packing up and GETTING THE HECK OUT TODAY. come h*** or high water... we are getting OUT

blargh.

2007-08-15T02:18:00.001-04:00

well. we thought we were gonna leave over a week ago now. but things didn't happen the way they were supposed to. partly due to hubby's brother saying "oh, no. i already had plans, don't worry about being here for my birthday. i won't be there"

i was feelin kinda bummed about it... so i decorated

handmade curtains, got the fabric supercheap (85% off original price) because a local fabric store was going out of business. i got enough to cover the dinette cushions, too. and my stuffed unicorn/pegasus/horse collection. scratch curtains off the "to do" list.

we SHOULD be leaving tomorrow.

2007-08-06T00:06:00.000-04:00

whooooo! we're *technically* road ready!

stove is in, sink is in. old sink, new faucet . Comet does amazing things. floor is in, and Luna approves. Luna also approves of the placement of her 'den'. toilet is in.

things still to be done to FINISH the trailer:
fabricate cabinet doors and drawers
hook up all propane lines
wire in inverter
sew covers for cushions and sew curtains

almost done!

2007-08-05T01:30:00.000-04:00

kitchen cabinets in, kitchen countertop in (its not anchored down yet in this photo, so don't worry about the funny angle its sitting at) bathroom countertop finished, but again, not anchored down. and the shower stall is almost finished (fought half the day with that stupid white stuff ... i'll finish it off later.

in all likelihood... carpet and tile will be going in tomorrow. hopefully.

Getting closer.....

2007-08-02T00:54:00.000-04:00

just a little bit more cabinetry to go... got most of the curbside cabinets in today... despite hubby injuring himself.

also installed, hooked up, and tested a washer/dryer combo. gotta be prepared if ya run outta clean socks and underwear, ya know?

tomorrow the rest of the cabinets will go in. along with, hopefully, the stove and sink. horay!

The bathroom!

2007-07-30T23:49:00.000-04:00

The bathroom is nearly finished. YAY! Very minor work left to be done on it. This is also my first time testing out the 'mobile posting' option. :-)

Land Yacht?

2007-07-28T16:25:00.001-04:00

let no one say i don't have a sense of humor.

Airstreams are called land yachts. more recently the term is applied to their motor homes, but back in the '60s and '70s, their trailers were badged with the term. see?

well. i was talking with friends about pirates, and ships, and other such things, and this pic just popped into my head, demanding to be drawn. YARRR!!!!!

FINALLY all caught up!!!

2007-07-27T22:41:00.000-04:00

yay! anyways, what happened so far in the month of July was: bed framing was finished, and electrical panels installed into them, walls started going up, and cabinets are being built and stained. the mini-dishwasher, fridge, and washer/dryer combo have gone in and are ready for use, and the dinette seats have been built.

we have a goal of leaving by August 6th to make it to CT by August 10th, for family birthdays. It is now the evening of July the 27th. We have 10 days. wish us luck!

Onward!

2007-07-01T19:10:00.000-04:00

near the end of May we finally got all the electrical done... at which point it was time to start re-installing the inner shell! boy, that was a fun giant jigsaw puzzle to figure out! after it was all put back together, we taped everything off and hubby sprayed it down with a nice light fresh blue-green color.
next was some nifty ceiling lights modified from standard house lights, and some 'reading' lamps for the front, then all the plumbing started going in.
the beginning of June saw the addition of a new valve to control the exit of waste from the grey and black tanks, and a port to plug our power cord into. we also replaced the nasty old water inlet with a nice new one with a regulator and backflow preventer built in, and plumbed the system so that with the flip of one valve's handle, you could run off city water, or fill the tank. then the framing for the bed was started, with the fresh tank installed just behind it. which leads us up to the current month.

the April camping trip......

2007-06-01T14:07:00.000-04:00

this is quoted, word for word, from the AS forum where i first posted it:

well.... the story behind the impromptu camping trip...

the idea to start off on the trip had several factors... one, my parents have been driving us nuts since we got down here, and it finally boiled over. two, we hadn't seen hubby's mother in many months now, when we were used to a at-least-twice-a-month schedule. three, we were starting to get tired of paying 90 bucks a month to store a bunch of junk in NJ that we couldn't use... soooooo..... we said "screwit!" threw a piece of foam in the back to use as a mattress and took off.

now... this was with a totally empty shell.. no inner shell, even. all we had was insulation...that sure was fun when we hit CT in April. remember how odd and chilly the weather was this past April? oh yeah. and my stupid self was up in CT freezing my backside off in a "absolutely nothing works glorified metal tent on wheels" trailer. we stayed for the weekend with her... and it rained.... the whole.... weekend. that sucked. altho on the bright side, it DID show us all the minor leaks around the windows and seams that we'd missed we even had a short run-in with the local animal control . we brought our dog... (didn't want to leave her alone for the several weeks we estimated the entire trip would take) but the mom-in-law lives in an appartment. we got permission from the management to park the trailer over on the far side of the parking lot for the weekend, and we got permission to have our dog on the premissis as long as she stayed in the car, and wasn't brought into the building. ok... sounds good. we slept with her in the trailer (with a little buddy heater and 4 blankets) and during the day she stayed in the cab of the truck... big bag-o-food sitting on the floor and a bowl with water propped up in the seat... and we'd come out about every two hours or so and start up the truck and run the heater. she didn't like being alone, and barked herself horse over it, but she was ok. well, the people in the complex see her out there and call animal control. we go out for our regular check on her, and there's two cop cars and the dog-catchers van all clustered around our truck. hubby walks over and says "what's going on?" and the cop says "We're taking your dog." WHAT?!?!?! "why???" and that quickly turned into a session of "look how bad a dog owner you are... see? see? see?" and my hubby shooting down every single point systematically (she doesn't have food or water. food is in the bag, water is in the bowl on the seat. i've been out here 45 minutes. well, yeah, you must have got here right after the LAST time i checked on her. well, uhh.... the door was locked. no duh, i don't want someone stealing or otherwise screwing around with my dog. you aren't allowed to have dogs in the appartment complex! i know. thats why i got permission first... thats why she's out in the TRUCK and not with ME inside (growl) ) ... and them finally saying, "oops, well, i guess she really is ok, you're going to be gone by Monday, right? ok. have a nice day."

so... we took off Monday morning... following the tail of the storm... so we were STILL getting rained on every single day, and drove to our old stomping grounds in NJ. we ended up driving thru High Point State Park on rt 23 on the 16th of April... and guess what. it was SNOWING. just in the park (and in a few other areas of very high elevation) so of COURSE we had to stop and get a pic.

from there, on to Succasunna NJ, where we stopped and, i'm sorry to say, we loaded the poor airstream up like some common utility trailer... packed to the gills with all the junk we'd had in storage. off we went again.. finally headed back south to sunny FL... making nearly 2 mpg less than we did unloaded

i had remembered my parents driving down from VA to FL to visit THIER parents when i was a kid, and something that really stuck out in my mind about the trip was South of the Border just over the state line in SC, so we HAD to stop there. it was still a little early in the season for tourists, but we had fun walking around and looking at the place. i got a bumper sticker. need one of those! that was where i got the funny pic i used in the April photo contest.... we were coming back to the truck stop where we'd parked, came around the corner of the building, and saw that. i HAD to take a photo of that!

the rest of the trip was mostly uneventful... we slept in truck stops the whole way... the only RV park we stopped in was our last stop before getting back home... Evergreen AL. they were nice and cut our cost down to $5 because we didn't need to hook up to ANYTHING.

Long story short.......

2007-04-27T13:33:00.000-04:00

i'm gonna shorten this... ALOT... because i have over 6 months of crap to catch up on!

literally the DAY after the can-opener rally, hubby starting ripping the floor up, a section at a time. this is the beginning of January. we replaced a section each time we pulled a section, so that the shell was never not supported. unfortunatly, about halfway through the month, due to what i can only call a tragic accident (and i will not go into any more detail than that) we lost two of our 3 dogs. they're now buried side by side in a pleasant sunny spot.
end of the month, the new axles arrived... much to the chagrin of my father. we had many fights over 'who knows best' for OUR future home-to-be, but hubby and i won out in the end. due to various problems, it took the majority of February to get the axles installed. halfway thru the month, one of them fell on my dad's finger, crushing it and requiring 9 stitches. i also about that time found time to install new LED taillights, and a nifty set of reverse indicators.
March i got a nice digital camera. no more camera phone pics! yay! other than that, March was very uneventful. we got the stabilizers installed. it rained alot, it was way colder than Florida has any right to be, and we helped my dad get his bus ready alot.
April started out on a great note of someone stealing the water heater we intended to install. we went and got a new one from Carpenter's Campers on Rt. 29 in Pensacola, and they gave us a great deal because of the situation. everything we've needed to buy since then, we've gone to them for! i also replaced all the running lights. that was the BEGINNING of April. we went and did something crazy at the end of April! we went camping! lol.

Happy New Years? yeah, i guess so

2007-01-10T22:31:00.000-05:00

ok, continuing what i started here... after the whole adventure of getting the darn thing home in the first place, it was nearly Christmastime. my dad had also been in the process of renovating an old bus (yeah, like a school bus) into an RV... and he decided it would be a grand idea to go celebrate New Years on the beach... in style. hubby and i decided that yeah, that was a cool idea... so... before we started any repairs, we checked the whole thing over, made sure all the important stuff worked (stove and fridge) and made reservations.

we ended up staying at this little place (yeah.. *snort*...little) called "Camping on the Gulf" in Destin, FL. beautiful place. we had two spaces quite close to each other, right next to restrooms. (because, notice, i didn't include "plumbing" in the list of "important things") we stayed two nights... New Years eve, and New Years day. spent most of the time just goofing off or walking around on the beach... watched a little TV, and cooked my first meal in the trailer. (altho, due to the aforementioned lack of working plumbing, i had to wash the dishes in the parent's RV). we also spent a good deal of that time "chillin'", because getting TWO RVs ready for a weekend o' fun, was quite tiring (as you can see. from left to right, Bengee, hubby, Luna, and Solar).

Now, at the same time, i was posting these self-same adventures to a forum that i joined just after purchasing the trailer: the Airstream Forums. (for ANYONE who owns, wants to own, or just loves those goofy silver twinkies, i HIGHLY recommend this site... its awesome) well, the weekend AFTER New Years, they were going to be holding their first rally of the year (the "can opener" rally... clever, huh?). hubby and i decided it would be an excellent idea to attend this rally, so we could pick the brains of all the knowledgeable Airstream owners in attendance, because at this point we'd owned the darn thing for less than a month still, and we still had a million and one questions. we launched into examining the existing plumbing, and figuring out what wasn't working, making quick n' dirty repairs, and off we went... this time to Henderson State Park. again, beautiful... not as crowded as the previous place... this park had almost a cozy feeling to it, and i enjoyed it very much. I would recommend this state park to anyone. there were plenty of beautiful Airstreams there, like this one:when we got home, that's when the "fun" really started, but i'll save that for another post.

And so it begins...

2006-12-31T19:35:00.001-05:00

well, first of all, please excuse any possible lack of capital letters at the beginning of sentences.

Hi, I'm Vicki. This is my blog about our '64 Airstream Overlander Land Yacht International. i do hope you will be tolerant of my first post to this blog being quite long, seeing as how i have an awful lot of catch-up to play at this point.

Rewind to the end of last year...about September-ish. the super-short-condensed version of this story is... hubby decided his job and life sucked, and since he was very handy, he wanted to get into the boom of "house flipping". the plan was, sell the house, buy an RV, find a likely-looking dump of a house, park said RV on the property, and go to town, so to speak... sell for a profit, and roll out and head to the next house... taking "road trip" vacations wherever we saw fit.

fast forward to the end of December... house sold, sold both junky cars and bought a '98 dodge ram 1500 with the 5.2 magnum V-8... intended as a work truck for the business. hubby had always been enamored of motor homes, so thats what we were looking at. we drove from NJ to FL to stay with my parents. (no hotel $$$ = good thing) after much looking around and thinking, hubby finally conceded that a trailer was actually a better move than a MH... but he hated the boxy look. lo-and-behold, i was surfing e-bay trying to find something... ANYTHING... and i ran across an airstream for only $2000. HOLY CRAP the husband actually LIKES the "silver hot-dog" look! one click of "buy it now"... and 2 days later we were on our way to TN to collect our new trailer!

AFTER i had commited to buy, and even paid for half as a deposit, i checked the dodge out... and we totally lucked out. it had a factory installed heavy duty tow package... complete with the tranny cooler my dad recommended...reciever/ball combo, brake controller, and a simple plug-in wiring harness was all i needed to hit the road. so off we went (on an unrelated note, i also picked up a brand new 150cc scooter on the trip up... convinced hubby it would be much better for putting around town than the truck would be)

since i wasn't sure what kind of plug the trailer had, i didn't purchase an adaptor. i figured i could get something locally. well, we finally arrived just as darkness was falling and after a thorough personal inspection (it is, to say the least, awkward to purchase something you intend to LIVE in, with only pictures and someone elses description to guide you) we hitched up and set off... SLOWLY... down the road to the nearest autoparts store... no lights, no brakes, no nothin'... fortunatly, it was a short trip. BUT... i bought the only 7 pin to 6 pin adaptor that Advance Auto Parts had... and all my trailer lights came on just fine, but when i went to pull out... the trailer's brakes were locked! several frantic minutes later, the auto-parts guy says "Well... there is an Airstream dealer just down the road... I can call them and see if they have a different kind of adapter...?" holy crap. what luck! calls were made... 10 minutes to closing time. jump back in the truck and try to make our way thru 5pm city traffic on a trailer still without lights or brakes and arrive with 4 minutes to spare. plug in the adapter, and hallelujia! it WORKED! i hugged the guy, paid for my part, and we hit the road!

we drove for several hours, and for being a rather old tired looking trailer, it towed quite well. i held steady at 55-60 mph with practically no undue vibration or sway... only the occasional shimmy when a semi would pass. we stopped in a truck stop to sleep the night... unfortunatly i wasn't brave enough to try to figure out how to light the furnace in an untested trailer, so we near froze our hineys off! but we spent the night in our "brand new" trailer, darnit!

after another full, if uneventful, day of travel, we finally arrived back in FL... only to have my dad try to back the trailer into his backyard and smack it into his gatepost, wrenching the already shaky entry stairs and breaking several slats out of the lower jalousie window. thanks dad.

From that point we studied up on how to replace the floor in an Airstream, and discovered that the interior walls sit on top of the floor, so the interior walls came out, then the very rotten floor (see the picture? lovely, ain't it?), and all the old water damaged insulation, old petrified wiring, and a few old mouse nests and whatnot. we replaced the axles (which was a whole trial in and of itself), put in new insulation, new plywood for the floors, and replaced the single tank setup with a grey tank in the rear and a black tank between the axles.

many many more photos of the trailer in its original condition may be viewed in my Flickr account, here.
and since we've done SO much, i'll be filling in more details of what all we've done... and trying to put in rough dates of when it happened, until i get to the point of the current day. please be patient with me, it will probably take a while to get to the point of being all caught up again.

Katzklaw's Aluma-blog!

It is apparently "Pit Bull Awareness Day" today...

you see interesting things when you drive near nashville...

Holy crap this dog is awesome. and in other news....

Earl's comin' to visit...

WARNING. pissed off rant ahead...

BRING ON THE PAIN~!~!~!

A bittersweet move

the aftermath...part deux

picture

poor Eric

WHOA

Eric likes to hurt himself with food on our days off...

well, i did it again.

O.o

the aftermath...

....

I'm dreaming...

Have yourself...

Whimper, part deux

*Whimper*

argh

hmmmm.....

THIS is why RVing rocks!!!

Yikes...

Yeah! It's good, to be back home again...

its amazing what a lack of WiFi will do to your blog's current-ness...

its a good thing she's OUTSIDE

worst..... night..... ever

Aluminitis!

Wow... this stuff is great! also, storm photos.

i should go buy a lotto ticket...

Finally... some Airstreams!

My trip to Montgomery today! YAY!

wow. long time no write.

BRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God is still laughing....

Moby dog!

Here's a better picture...

Men plan, and God laughs.

The first RV?

You see the darnedst things ...

What was old is new again...

Get off the computer and play with meeee

Life lesson for the day...

After 1300 miles...

whoa! We have cabinets!

Yeah...they tow good

There stands Jackson, like a stone wall.

Thought for the day...

Not all wine and roses...

Campin in style!

way down yonder on the Chatahoochi...

FINALLY on the road!

blargh.

almost done!

Getting closer.....

The bathroom!

Land Yacht?

FINALLY all caught up!!!

Onward!

the April camping trip......

Long story short.......

Happy New Years? yeah, i guess so

And so it begins...

Whimper