Camping without the kids

Thanks to Airstream choosing Cleveland Browns colors for the Argosy, I was nominated to take the Argosy to the Cleveland Browns opening day.  A co-worker of mine is a regular in the municipal lot, so he was the tour guide.  We left the kids with grandma for the night and headed for Cleveland for the night.  We "camped" on the street in front of a friend's house and got up at 5am to head to the lot the next morning.  It was a rough morning, but nonetheless very fun.

The Argosy is buried in there

The view out of our front window

The Argosy gets a bunk!

When we bought our Argosy motor home, I noticed that there were Airstream bunk brackets and hangers already installed.  Of course I asked the seller if he had the bunk frame.  Alas, the usual answer came: No.  So I've been hoping to find an original bunk since so much of the rest of the Argosy is original.  So, I was ecstatic two weekends ago when I got a notice from Airforums.com that someone had posted a classified ad wanting to sell an "original bunk" out of a 1977 Argosy motor home.  Not that it needed to be from the exact year and from an Argosy or even a motor home; but it was neat that it was.  I was expecting the "cot-type" Airstream bunk.  So, you can imagine my surprise when I met the seller and he pulled this out.  His Argosy even had the same exact upholstery as mine.  I couldn't hand the money over fast enough.  I ran in to a small hiccup in the install because it seems that the inner-wall ribs are differently placed in the bed area on a 24' moho like mine vs. the 28' moho that the bunk came out of.  Nevertheless, I made it work with some advice from a fellow Airstreamer.  If you look closely, you'll see that the hanging belts are in a different position than in other pictures.  This is because the straps were moved.  The center of the bunk is not as well supported as before, but the straps are much better anchored, now.  

The kids love it.  We should be trying it out this weekend.

Half way installed

I dress to impress when I'm working

First installation (note the hang straps close together)

A view from the back of the moho

In pseudo-couch format.  The gaucho is somewhat extended out in this shot and the bunk is fully stowed.

The boys approve

Andrea demonstrating our second pseudo couch idea, this time with the bunk / couch back supported outward at the bottom so that an adult can sit normally.

Mackinaw Bridge

As is normal for us, we went camping with some Airstreams this past weekend.  Some cards fell in line just right and we were able to add this "Exploring Under the Bridge" rally to our list this year.  We camped within view of the Mackinaw bridge and Mackinac Island.  I didn't snap a lot of pictures, but I did get some.  There were about 20 Airstreams there and we were lucky enough to nab a cancelled site on the water.  I tried very hard to get some great shots of the the moon over Lake Huron and of the bridge at night.  But none of them came out well.  I guess I need to start travelling with my tri-pod.

A big ship going through the closest lock at Sault St Marie, MI

Checkin' out the locks

Mason shows us the way

Checkin' out the Upper Tahquanemon Falls in da' U.P.

Fascinating, obviously

More falling water

I told him to smile, this is what I got

The railing was of the perfect height, so it's a rare picture with all of us in it.

The Lower Tahquanemon Falls.  By this time, the kids were pretty well done for hiking and such, so we took a look and then left.  Bummer, 'cause these looked to be the more fun falls since people can actually go swimming in the spillway.

The Birthday Bash

We choose the rallies that we go to for reasons.  In the case of this past weekend it was for utter relaxation, letting the kids play and have a little freedom from mom and dad, and lots of food and drink.  This trip was one with the moho (motor home) and was the widespread debut of it since completion of all the updates and repairs.  By coincidence, we got a lovely spot at the end of the row so that all could see it in it's 1977 glory.  It was also nice that the end spot had a nice breeze!


A day at the Bash starts with a full-spread breakfast prepared by the hosts and volunteers.  There may or may not be activities throughout the day.  For our family personally, it included a nap everyday in the afternoon.  Reading, bike riding, and socializing in the meantime.  This was one of those great rallies where we needed to go nowhere.  Everything we needed was on-site.


Thanks to everyone involved in putting the event together that made it so that my family could really concentrate on being a family and having a great time.  And for being able to visit Airstream friends until all hours of the night after the kids were asleep.

The moho at the (thankfully) breezy end of the row.

The moho visiting friends.

Mason working on learning to ride a bike.

Lots of kid crafts

Food and socialization for all ages.  A requirement at the rallies that we go to.

No, it's not a water bottle convention.  There was just a lot of consumption at this rally be it water or otherwise due to the heat.

Some relief for the little ones.  There were a number of water toys bought for young and old.

The runway to the slip n slide

The pack of kids (oh yeah, and Andrea) waiting to kit the slide

The "Bash Cab".  It ushered folks from place to place and allowed everyone to see the full expanse of Cooper's Lake Campground.

Maintenance

I seem to have an ever going list of things to on both of the family's campers.  They are usually small things.  This week, I decided to tackle the ones on the trailer.  One the list was installation of in-the-floor tie-down hooks for the bikes and install a new clock in the front head-locker.  Of course, more things got added along the way.  I moved the trailer from the barn to in front of the house on Sunday.  It's still there.  You can see below the typical method of movement at home.  It works great until I need to mow the lawn or something else that requires the tractor.

Not the fastest tow vehicle, but it gets the job done and makes things really maneuverable.

Yes, I did make holes in my wood floor.  Yes, this will make transport of our bikes inside the Airstream a lot better.  No more finding bikes laying on their side and stuff broken after travelling down the road.

Mason can't resist checking out what I'm working on.  This was no exception.  He was pretending to be asleep on the back couch.

Tin Can Tourists

I've long since wanted to go to the Tin Can Tourists Gathering.  It's held in Milford, MI which is not far (in my terms) but for some reason or another, we've never made it in past years.  This year, I wanted to go and show off the Argosy.  Andrea stumped about being stuck with the kids while I went off an saw campers / socialized; which is a valid complaint.  So, I arranged for a daughter of some friends that I knew would be at TCT to babysit  for us for a few hours on Saturday so that Andrea and I could go see campers (Thanks especially to Hannah and the entire Asselin family for helping to keep our kids occupied for the weekend).  Since this blog is first and foremost about camping with my family, the pictures relating to the kids come first...campers second.

We released night lanterns (Thanks, Kathy!).  Parker is watching his go off into the distance while Andrea helps Mason with his.

Mason's is almost ready to go!

There it goes.

Mason seems more enthused with Hannah's lantern than his own.

Still working on getting Mason's to go.

DJ working on getting his off the ground.  Mason is equally enthused.

DJ about to let go...

 And now, on to the cool campers we saw...

Antique camping gear demonstration.  They had cool stuff back then (1927).

I hate plumbing

We haven't been camping in a while, but I feel obligated to put something up here every so often even if we aren't camping.  This post does deal with some issues leading up to camping next weekend, though.

As with many old things, they require much upkeep.  An old Airstream is no exception; perhaps the leader on the repair list, actually.  Airstreams were (and still are) made good in comparison to others, but they still need repair.  In my case today, it is my motorhome.  I de-winterized it finally the other day.  I detected both front low-point drain valves leaking around the stem of the valve.  No biggy I thought, remove the valve body, get new, screw in, done!  Not so.  Apparently no one "repairs" valves any more.  They just replace.  I even called the local plumbing store that has ANYTHING you need and the guy said, "Ah, no, we don't carry that.  We'd just replace the valve."  So I wasn't about to try to set a torch to remove 35 year old solder from valves that are sitting right on the (wood) floor.  So I decided to cut out the valves and fashion all new out of CPVC and then splice back in with Shark-Bite fittings.  Very easy to do IF your old copper pipes have not expanded due to being frozen with water in them at some point.  When that happens, life sucks.  That's where I'm at.  I fixed an issue with some 1/2" copper that had expanded, but the 3/8" line feeding the hot side...nope.  So I've opted to cut yet again but further back into the system.  I will have to deal now with 1/4" line that T's off of the 1/2 and 3/8 lines and goes to the kitchen faucet.  But, hopefully now I'm far enough up-stream that nothing has expanded.

On a similar note.  I would have also been dead in the water tonight since my CPVC epoxy was unusable when I opened the can.  Things you should check before beginning the project...