St Louis was a way to check Missouri off of our list...turns out we'll be back, I think.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before, but we have a goal to visit all of the lower 48 with the kids and the Airstream.  This past spring, we decided to add 4 more states to the "visited" list during a central states trip.  The first of those was Missouri and of course St. Louis.  Other than the arch, we really had no real plans in the city but figured we could find something to occupy 2 days in town.  As I now go through an blog it...this was the most eventful stop of the entire trip.

So first, we did indeed do the arch.  It's big.  The view is really good and we had a great weather day for the visit.

Outside the arch

When you ride up to the top of the arch, you must ride in a little pod to the top.  Not for the claustrophobic.

At the top of the arch, it's a bit like being in an airplane.  You have to lay down on the sides and look out of little windows.

The river on one side

St Louis on the other

During our visit, it was the 250th birthday of St Louis.  There were commemorative "cakes" all over town.  It just so happened that one was painted on the lawn below the arch the morning that we were there.

It was not a planned stop on our visit because we are more wine drinkers than beer.  But, what the heck, it's Anheuser-Busch.  It's a staple of St Louis.  Besides, they had Sunday tours and the reviews say it's kid friendly.  They were right.  Yes, the place makes beer.  But, the place is fully of history and they keep some Clydesdales there.  It's overall a highly commercial tour and not so much informative.  Nevertheless, at the end you rare treated to a full glass of whatever draft beer AB makes.  Some of them are only available at the AB BierGarten in St Louis.  I had a Shock Top Pretzel (one of the unique ones at the time) and I suggested that Andrea get the Shock Top Honeycrisp Apple since she doesn't like beer and I wanted to try it.  She finished hers before I did mine!  Thankfully, she gave me a sip and we promptly went to a store later and bought 12 of them.  The kids were allowed to have a soft drink, which for our kids is a treat since they do not often get them.  I think they were as happy with a root beer and a Sprite as much as Andrea and I with a beer.  In the end, a very good stop that was just a "what the heck" decision.

Same day or not...I can't remember, but we decided to hit "Pappy's" for lunch.  It's one of those BBQ places that's been on every food show so it's incredibly popular.  We decided to get there right when it opened in order to mediate the line as much as possible.  We were there at 10:20am; the place opened at 11:00am; and there was already a line of about 50 people.  We waited, and thankfully they opted to open a bit early.  Service was expedited in my favorite fashion: order and pay at the counter, go sit down, they bring your food to you.  No wait staff other than to bring you your food and refill your drinks.  It was good BBQ, but not so great that you need to travel to St Louis for it.  Any BBQ joint that doesn't fold after 3 months in business would be this tasty.

The final chapter of this visit, and one that makes me want to go back because it seems there is nothing else like in the country was the "City Museum".  We should have gone here first.  We would have never made it anywhere else in the city.  When we checked in to the mom&pop campground in St Louis proper no less, they were highlighting things on the city map and the guy said, "The city museum is just 4 blocks from here.  Definitely want to take the kids there."  We've been to kids' museums before.  Usually rather pricey for some over-sized science experiments that our kids don't take much interest in.  So I wasn't enthused.  Ever the online review reader though, Andrea pushed that we had to go there before we left.  So I gave in to the impending cost of visiting.  We went, found one of very few places that our tow vehicle could park in, and entered.  Even from the outside, this place was weird.  I didn't change much inside.  We were surprised by the suggestion that you write your cell phone number on your kids' wrist band.  We didn't do it.  We should have.  There's places in here that you kid can get to that YOU can't.  You will for sure lose your kids here.  All you can do is sit and wait for them to come back by.  Thankfully, there are employees stationed at key locations to make sure un-escorted kids don't get to places that they shouldn't.  After about 2 hours of our visit, I was ready to leave.  It was sensory overload for me and too many people.  Then we found the patio and the bar.  Now I was good for the rest of the day.  We found some chairs outside, a couple drinks, and let the kids continue to play.  We stayed until the place closed.  We would have been back the next day, but our loosely planned itinerary said we had to move west.  I plan to go back to St Louis someday while the kids are still young just because of this place.  I've looked.  There really is nothing else like it.

2014...so far

I've only made one update to this blog this year.  Have we not been camping?  Nope.  Have we been camping a lot?  Yup.  So much has changed in the last year that it's amazing.  I changed jobs (same place, different position), we bought the new Airstream (previous blog post), the Excursion died while on a camping trip and we bought a new truck during that trip, we sold the old Airstream, and have been camping as much as we can in the new one.  All of this has made it next to impossible to keep up with this blog.  It's now November though and the Airstream is winterized and pushed as tightly into the corner of the barn as possible.  The winter weather and time change is upon us and therefore my Saturdays are being spent inside more so than out.  There will probably be a rather rapid series of posts from me as I have now sorted through and collected all of the pictures from all of our devices from over the year.

With this post however, I take a step back to the last camping trip that we had this year with the old Airstream.  At the time, we had no idea that it would be our last.  Only in the process of making a repair/upgrade after this trip did we decide to casually start looking for the new Airstream.

The Amish Country Rally in Wooster of 2014...the last trip in the '74 Overlander for our family.  It was smaller than in past years, but given the weather predictions and weather in the prior days which made the rally grounds very soggy, I think the rally did well.

The final picture of the '74 Overlander (left) in use by us.

A staple for me at local rallies...my smoker.

Potluck and festivities building setup for dinner.  Nice photobomb from Mike, too.

Lastly, I am posting some pictures of the '74 Overlander that I took for the ads to put her up for sale.  There's a lot of my family in that trailer.  It taught my family that we love camping and more so to love Airstreaming.  She gave me a hell of a crash course on camper and vintage Airstream repair.  But, it belongs to someone else now and so far, it seems like it still has a good life.  It exists now in the Florida Keys.  I've seen a couple pictures of her there.  Not bad, I think.  Farewell my friend.  I wish I could have kept them all, but you can only use one at a time.

Changing of the Guard

It's been a whirlwind of an operation.  I never expected such a turnaround, but were are now owners of a 2005 bunkhouse Airstream.  I anticipated searching for months to find one that was close enough to haul home in a weekend and to agree on a price.  But, nope, it happened in a matter of 48 hours.  The next weekend, we were picking it up.  We even took an extra day to spend a night at one of our favorite campgrounds, Newport News City Park Campground in Newport News, VA.  The boys got to do something they've never done before...cook hot dogs on a fire.

Halloween AGAIN!

So this isn't a second post about our annual trip and Cardinal Center, but instead about an annual Airstream rally that we've not been able to make it to...ever; and it's in its 3rd year.  An unexpected bonus to this rally is that the campground (Findley State Park http://parks.ohiodnr.gov/findley) moved its trick-or-treat from the previous weekend which was lousy weather to this weekend.  It is also the campgrounds' annual chili cook-off.  So we hit the tri-fecta.  Trick-or-treat, chili, and an Airstream rally.  Loren left no stone unturned as usual for her rallies.  This rally is also the "Anniversary Rally" for Loren and Mike.  So there's a lot of things that came together for this rally and we were thrilled to be able to finally take part in it.  It was a bit chilly weather-wise, but we came prepared.  The kids scored big-time on candy.  The rally was a hit as 32 Airstreams showed up from two countries and (I think) 3 states.  I discovered a thing called Everclear, and I hope to never discover it again.  I don't remember much after consuming it.

This is what a rally should look like.  A gathering around a campfire.

It got a little chilly at night around the fire.

The boys ready for trick-or-treat/

The campsite.

Candy gathering made easy...just run the gauntlet.

  

Cellular reception was good.

 

This was a great picture taken by one of the rally guests.  It has been printed in full size and will become a picture that is hung on our house.

Halloween, again

This post is the first time in this blog that I'm repeating myself.  It's likely to happen again since our 4-camper group reserved our spots at this campground again next year for the Halloween party.  We've gone to Cardinal Center Campground (http://www.cardinalcentercamp.com/) for the past 4 years now for their Halloween weekend and party.  The usual events are primo trick-or-treating within the park and pumpkin decorating.  There's other things for costumes, site decorating, hay rides, etc, but we've not done well at participating in those so they aren't big events for us.  The other general attraction to the campground is their large indoor pool.  When the weather turns cold, an indoor pool (and a huge one!) is a major plus.  Amazingly, every year except for the first we have had exceptionally good / warm weather.  This year was no different as the trick-or-treat candy had to be set in the shade to keep from melting!

After the weekend, the four of us who have religiously showed up to this gathering since the first year decided that we might has well succumb to the fact that we're going to be here again next year.  So, what better thing to do than to reserve our sites before leaving.  This is something that is advertised by the campground, so we got in line (literally) and reserved for next year.  Surprisingly, there's not "squatters' rights" for sites and we scored some nice sites in a cul-de-sac with full hookups for next year.  A full group dinner is planned for next year as well.  It only gets better from here.

No captions for the pictures in this post.  I think they speak for themselves.

What?!? No other Airstreams?

Believe it or not, not EVERY camping trip that we go on revolves around meeting up with other Airstream owners.  We have friends that camp without an Airstream.  I'm not sure how they do it ;-) but nonetheless they are still fun to camp with.  Back in September, (yeah, I know I'm way behind on updating the blog) we camped with some local friends at a local campground.  No driving for a day to get there, no scrambling after breakfast on Sunday to pack up and drive the whole day to get home.  It was a complete departure from the norm.  We had a great time though.  We were at a campground called Hidden Acres (http://www.hiddenacrescampground.net/).  We were there about 10 years prior when some relatives visited with their camper and we were still in a tent.  Dealing with the management in order to get 3 sites near each other that could accommodate our group was a bit more drawn out than it needed to be, but in the end it was just because the owner/management was trying to be TOO accommodating in their service and doesn't normally deal with weekenders.  If anyone has happened upon this blog entry as a result of a search for this campground, please send a comment and I'll get with you about questions.  It's a worthwhile visit.

Back to the trip itself, though...  We were there with two other campers.  We're local and see each other often, but it seems that we only get together with our campers every couple years.  Each of the families has kids with overlapping ages and for the most part they manage to find things to do together.  One such event occurred Friday night when the younger crowd decided to take over the Airstream as their art shop.

We walked around the campground the following day.  It's largely a seasonal campground.  On our way back to basecamp (pardon the intended pun), I paused for some pictures of the campsite.

The Airstream is partially obstructed by that beautiful vintage Ford Excursion, but nevertheless it was a nice setup.

Here's the people we were camping with.  I know...which ones?  The two closest SoB's in the picture are our camping mates.

I wasn't going for clarity here.  This was more to demonstrate the kids around the campfire and the apparent need for electronic devices.

One of the neat things that this campground does is bingo on Saturday night.  Pretty much the whole campground shows up and it's a very social event.  I remember this from camping here 10 years ago and it's still going strong and just as fun.  Parker managed to get BINGO on a four-corners match and netted himself $43.

An evening of BINGO and a campfire can suck the energy out of some kids

Despite being a "local" campout, we still managed to be up at a way too early hour for the weekend, did breakfast at a leisurely pace, cleaned up, packed up, and were hitched-up and headed-out before anyone else.  I try to get the kids to sleep in.  It rarely happens.

SOLD!

I occurred to me some weeks ago that I have a constant list of to-do items for both of my Airstream campers.  As soon as I would finish camping in one, it would generate a to-do list for when we got home.  I would set aside that list in favor of tackling the list that I put-off previously from the other camper.  As we switched from moho to trailer and vice versa, there was always an, "Oh crap, I've got X weeks to get all the stuff fixed before we go camping again."  Granted, I'm somewhat of a perfectionist.  In my book, there's no "It's a small leak, I don't need to fix it right now."  To me, it's a flaw and it needs to be rectified as soon as possible.  So there's a constant stress which is multiplied by 2.  On my last adventure into working on the Airstream trailer, I found some things which concerned me and that I feel need to be professionally handled if the trailer is to continue to last many years for my family's enjoyment.  I felt it was time to consolidate efforts and funds into one Airstream.  I felt the bug to have many Airstreams, but I had to understand that pretty much everyone I know that has multiple Airstreams doesn't use all of them and is generally in the business of repairing and re-selling them.  As much as that would be cool, it's not in the cards for me right now.  I had to go to one Airstream, and the trailer was it.

I didn't expect the moho to sell.  Period.  I thought that the chances of someone wanting a 36 year old motorhome which had some considerable money and work put into it would never happen to the level where I could be comfortable with a selling price.  So I threw out ads on craigslist and airstream classifieds.  Initially there was one serious inquiry, but he opted for a trailer instead.  I dropped the price $500 to see if I could get more interest, but honestly expected the ads to time-out and I might try to sell again in the spring.  But the $500 drop did its duty and suddenly the inquiries were coming in.  I weeded out the scammers and remained in contact with the real people.  One lucky couple happened to be the first to offer up a deposit to hold it.

On Friday (8/30) they arrived at my house from a considerable distance.  Despite the list of flaws that I never got around to fixing, they were tickled with the moho and giddy with excitement not unlike my family when we bought it.  Although I told them to camp in it overnight in my front yard and to make sure it was what they really wanted, they paid me for the moho and we did the paperwork Friday night.  We spent some time sitting around the fire table on the deck talking and socializing as so often happens when strangers, Airstreams, and fires come together on the same occurrence.  In the morning, they were early risers and they hit the road to get their tow-dolly in order to tow their car home behind the moho.  It seems from our conversation that the new owners have every intention of picking up my to-do list and completing it and maybe going a bit further.  We live a long ways apart so I doubt we'll cross paths too much, but I only hope that someday I can pull into a campground and see them and the moho camping right along side my trailer.

For the benefit of my kids in the future since I'm not sure how much they will remember in the limited time that we had the moho, here's some pictures of the moho right when we bought it and were acclimating to it as well as some pictures of the family improving and otherwise enjoying it.

This was the picture of the moho in the sale ad from the previous owner and pretty much the location it was in when we picked it up.

If the new owners are following this blog, they will notice subtle differences from these pictures to what they bought from me.

Mason did always love the driver's seat.  I'm pretty sure he's the one that left his mark by breaking the cruise control control.

Brought it home and had to get under it right away.

Bunk installation, which I think will soon be removed!

From one family using it to another, have fun with your "new" moho.