A Happy House

I don't know this from first hand experience since I was too young to remember but whenever my grandpa's semi-truck was parked in the driveway at my grandparents house, I always used to say it was "a happy house."  I've seen pictures of it sitting there.  It was a cab-over something or other.  Considering what a car-guy I am, it's kinda strange that I don't know the brand.  I suppose I could ask my mom to dig the pictures out.  One day I will find out.  There's pictures somewhere that show it sitting there in the driveway.  I'm not sure if it was my early love for all things mechanical and mobile or if it was because I knew it meant grandpa was home and not on the road.  I'm guessing the former since I can't remember a time that I was there and grandpa wasn't.  But, we've already established that my memory isn't great.  Anyway, this post isn't about history; it's about now.  My house is a happy house again today.  Not that it isn't normally, but today it is because of a situation similar to that of my grandparents house back in the day.  Today, the Airstream is once again parked in front of my house.  It can be there for various reasons but today it's there in anticipation of a camping trip.  It's there to cool the fridge, for Andrea to stock it with clothes and food, and in general for easy access before we head out.  This happens every time before we go on a trip.  Since this is the first trip of the year, it's there a little ahead of leaving for the trip.  It is a happy house indeed.  Because the Airstream is parked in front of it.  Even the boys are happy about it; imagine that.

repair time

This post isn't going to have a lot to do with my kids, although Mason did help me a bit while working on the Airstream today.  I've been waiting for a nice day in order to do some work on the axles, pack the bearings, and adjust the brakes on the trailer.  Along the way, I found the wires to one brake drum broken (and therefore not working) and also that one of the bolts on one stabilizing jack was coming out.  So, all was repaired over the course of about 3 hours.  I couldn't have done it without the help of my tractor.  It's really convenient to have a hydraulically adjustable hitch on it so that I can level (or un-level depending on my needs) the trailer when it's on the ramps.  The trailer is now sitting in the front yard awaiting load-up of our goods that we took out for winter storage.  I haven't put water to the trailer yet, but it sure feels good to have it out and starting to get ready for the camping season.

The Flying Buffalo

We were out to eat last night at "the flying buffalo" as Parker calls it (Buffalo Wild Wings, or BW3 as most of us know it).  We don't go there often as it's not the greatest food, but the kids love mini corn dogs and they can be loud and obnoxious and no one minds.  Parker has been asking for it for 2 weeks now and we've overruled him many times.  Eventually we had to give in.  So we were there last night and the kids were given crayons.  Parker quickly colored his "place mat" and was then bored.  So Andrea told him to flip it over and draw his own picture.  I suggested a campsite.  Parker did an incredible campsite drawing with the limited 4 colors he was given.  Being the dedicated parents we are, naturally we put the drawing in the table's condiment / menu caddy and forgot to take it with us when we left.  So this morning I asked Parker to draw me another campsite, but this time with all of the art supplies that he has at his disposal at home.  I must say, his idea of what a campsite looks like is pretty constant because this is exactly what he drew last night at the flying buffalo, just now with correct colors.  I'm actually surprised that he didn't draw the motor home.  The kids seem to like it better.  Maybe it's because he knows that the next trip we go on will be with the trailer.

Work Day

I'm still stuck in a mode of not being able to go camping nor able to do the work on my Airstreams that I would like to thanks to the weather.  But, there are moments of greatness with the weather and last Sunday was one of them.  I took advantage and went to the barn to work on the Argosy.  I hadn't really planned on doing all of the pin-stripes, but as it turned out I did.  Parker decided to join me.  After I finished a section of the pin-striping, I was quite happy with my results so I asked Parker to go and get the camera.  I expected that he would come back with the usual family camera, but instead he came back with his camera and decided to take many, many pictures.  Many included me in them which is weird because most of the family pictures are taken by me and therefore I'm not in them.  So, a summary of last Sunday's work on the Argosy from the perspective of a 5 year old...

You know you're an Airstreamer if you're holding a rivet in your mouth while getting ready to pull another one...

Another popular Airstreamer pose with drill in hand

 Incredible that a 5 year old managed to capture this.  I'm sure many of us have had this look on our face.

The picture that I had wanted when I originally asked Parker to go and get the camera

Parker admiring my work

Camping fever

My intent with this blog is to keep posts centered around family camping.  Well, camping fever has bitten the entire family.

A small moment of my own camping fever...  I started up the motor home on Saturday and moved it out of the barn and over to the garage so that I could work on it with power tools.  I had just completed an extensive tune-up on the engine and it felt great to fire it up again.  Just driving from the barn to the garage put a huge smile on my face.  Unfortunately the biting cold of the wind while working on the exterior of the motor home did not.  The moho was returned to the barn with only minimal work done as a result of many unexpected roadblocks on the route to the planned work.  I shut the barn doors and sheepishly returned to the warmth of the house only to be hoping for warmer weather and/or less wind next weekend.

So on to the kids.  Our first trip this year will be to an often visited location by us, but to a campground that we only stayed at for the first time last October.  That being Newport News City Campground in Newport News, VA.  The kids have been begging to go camping for some time now.  They have new sleeping bags and "headlights" to try out.  We told them where we were going, which of course means nothing to them until we start describing the things that they get to do while there.  We described the park and Parker says, "You mean the place where we get to run around like idiots?"  [chuckles from Andrea and I] "Yeah, that place."  The "place" is shown below.  There's a playground among them thar' trees!  And a big one at that.  

The first trip will be with our trailer, not with our motor home.  I expect the site to be the same, so it should look much like this.

Nothin' better.  Family, campfire, grilling food, traveling.  Now, if I can just figure out a way to get cheap gas...

School schedule

I love my kids, but their school schedule interferes with the family's travel abilities.  Before this year, both of my kids were too young for organized school (kindergarten) so we could basically travel whenever we wanted.  Now, the oldest is in kindergarten.  Yeah, I know, "take him out for family vacation...it's only kindergarten."  We've done that and will do it some more soon.  But even with that option, we can't just load up and go like we used to.  Bummer.  I guess that means we're now on the plan of about 50% of the rest of the USA in that we will be vacationing from June-Aug and during school holiday breaks.  Say YEAH! for busy season fees and gas prices!  If only our school district would go to one of those neat schedules where there's 2 months on, 2 weeks off, no summer break.  Ahh, I can dream to camp and travel more...

Bacon

Bacon.  It's not the healthiest option for food, but it tastes really good; so we eat it occasionally.  Those occasions are usually during our camping trips.  We typically purchased the better cuts of pre-packaged bacon at the grocery store.  However, this year we added to our carnivorous freezer stash by purchasing a whole pig. One of our primary reasons was so that we could cure and smoke our own bacon.  Wow, was that a great decision!  Andrea did the preservation side of things, then the smoking was up to me.  This morning, despite not being on a camping trip, we tried some of our own bacon.  That's great bacon!  Even the kids which were watching cartoons in the living room knew it was cooking.  The flavor...exquisite.  It will be tough to reserve this as a special treat only for camping trips, but it is in limited supply so that will help.