Category Archives: Airforums groups

Picking up the Airstream and heading out again.

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We went to Toscano’s on Wednesday to pickup the Airstream after the repairs were done.  Well, at least some of the repairs.

We have some wood that has cracked on both sides of the bed.  The parts have been ordered from Airstream but it is unknown how long it will take to get to Toscano’s.  We also had issues with the fresh water tank not reading correctly on the sensor.  I would take out 3 gallons of the 50 gallon tank and the meter would show 5/8 remaining?  The techs said they could actually see the meter drop as they were running water.  Changing the sensor and the meter made no difference.  The company that made the meter was stumped.  They will try again when we take the trailer back.

The other issue was the jack.  It made a terrible noise when operational.  They found a broken bolt inside but left it on the trailer.  They stated that the manufacturer was sending a new jack head.  OK.  I can live with that as long as it will get fixed.  I went to raise the trailer to hookup and the jack did not work at all.  I thought maybe the techs turned off the 12v switch but all the other 12v systems were working fine.  They came out and found the jack was blowing fuses each time they put one it.  The replaced the jack with a ‘loaner’ one.  Better it happened there than on the road.

We stopped off in Fresno to have dinner with our son and I had to do some interesting maneuvering with the trailer.  Like a u-turn at a very busy intersection.  But my philosophy is that the more practice I get in tough situations the better I get overall.  We got home around 7 and I didn’t even back it into its spot for a reason.

We had reservations to meet up with an Airforums group in Three Rivers starting Friday.  Oh yes, off again!  But realize that Three Rivers is only 36 miles from home so we did not have far to go.  We all met at the Sequoia RV Ranch.  We had about 12 trailers show up.  Roxie and I had driven through the park previously but never stayed there.  We will go back sometime.  Here is a few of the trailers:

Sequoia RV 01

The group of Airstreamers were a very friendly one.  We found some old friends and new ones as we always do at these.  Had a nice low key happy hour on Friday night and a great potluck on Saturday night.  We also had our granddaughter with us for the weekend.  We stayed 3 nights but she had to get home on Sunday.  We were going to meet her mother in Three Rivers so we didn’t have to drive ALL THAT WAY home and then back!

Sunday we decided to head to Sequoia NP and climb Moro Rock and have a picnic.  We have done this before but our granddaughter had only done it once.  Only over 350 steps to get to the top.  We just took it slow, how else could we?  Here are some shots from the top (even one with both of us in it!):

Sequoia RV 03 Sequoia RV 04

We had the local newspaper come by on Saturday and ask questions about the Airstreamers.  It will be fun to see what gets written in the article.  I know they talked to me quite a bit and took some pictures.  Probably didn’t hurt that we were local also.

On Saturday we were off doing some other hiking in the lower levels of the park and someone came through and took photos of the trailers.  He did an HDR manipulation on them.  I was able to get a copy from him and we love it!  Here it is:

Sequoia RV 02

 

We had a very fun and uneventful weekend.  The only problem is that I dropped our awning lights (see above) and broke one of the bulbs.  Ouch.  Don’t know if I can find them.

We went home on Monday with the knowledge that we were going out again the next Saturday!  Do we ever rest?

Cool on the coast

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We like to get away when we can but Roxie’s schedule makes it tough to do on the spur of the moment.  When I saw this I figured it was a good time to go.  And we did.  Off to the Monterey area, technically Marina Dunes RV Park.  Cooler weather, the coast, a bunch of Airstreams, getting away from the grind, what else could we want?

We had reservations to be there Thursday through Sunday.  We were thinking of just going over on Thursday but another opportunity arose.  Our son’s girlfriend was having a birthday dinner in Fresno on Wednesday evening.  We thought we would hookup, drive up there, have dinner then head up the road a bit with the Madera WalMart in our sights.

And that is how it all went.  Our son said something about the Madera WalMart was in a bad part of town, actually he also said that all of Madera is a bad part of town.  We got there and found it not to be true.  We parked at the far end of the parking lot.  I went and checked with the manager and was given the green light.  Here is a rare picture of myself, the next morning with proof! (Roxie insisted that I was in this one):

Madera WalMart

 

 

On our way over to the Monterey area we normally pass through, or by, Los Banos.  Who knows what is interesting in Los Banos?  The Airstream dealer!  Toscanos.  We stopped in to look around and I wanted to discuss a few more things with their service department.  I also wanted to let them know that my modification to the wardrobe doors seemed to be successful so far.

One of the things that concerns me now that we have a larger trailer are grades.  Previously they were not too bothersome but with potentially 3000 more lbs. of weight behind us that is more to get up the hills.  I know that the westbound Pacheco Pass is not too bad.  There are sections of steep grade but then it levels out for a bit.  It is very much broken up into pieces.  The truck did fine.  I think I got down to 50mph sometimes.  The westbound traverse is the really long one but that wasn’t until Sunday.

As we were nearing Hollister it was close to lunch so we thought we would stop for a bite in the trailer.  I looked for a city park to pull up by and chow down.  We found one at the Dunne Memorial Park.  It was much cooler than the valley so eating in the trailer was very comfortable.

We made it to Marina Dunes RV in the early afternoon and backed into our TIGHT spot.  Things are a bit more tight now with 6′ more trailer!  However a longer trailer is easier to backup.  There were a few Airstreamers there already but more would show up on Friday.  That evening we took a walk to the beach which was under 1/2 mile away.  Here is Roxie looking thoughtfully at the sun:

Roxie at Sunset

 

 

Friday we decided we would be a bit touristy.  It has been a long time we have been to the Monterey Aquarium.  The last time we were in this area we did not go.  Going on a Friday was nice because the bulk of the visitors were school kids on field trips.  We signed up for a behind the scenes tour all about Jellyfish.  It was interesting and lengthy.  Here are some photos that Roxie took:

Sea Horse
Jellyfish
Jellyfish
Jellyfish
Sea Horse
Diver in Kelp Forest
Sea Horse
Sea Horse
Sea Horse
Jellyfish
Jellyfish
Sea Horse

 

We continued the tourist theme by eating at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.  It was OK.  The food was not hot enough for Roxie’s tastes but it was sure nice to sit down!!

By Friday evening all the Airstreams were there, along with one non-Airstream.  So we all went around and visited each other.  Some were new acquaintances and some old.  Here are the photos of all the units:

 

Saturday was a real day of rest for us.  A real rarity.  We did, however, make it to the potluck that night for more Airstream camaraderie.

Sunday was the day we dread on a weekend.  That means the next day is a work day!  After retirement we won’t have to worry about that though (check my countdown at the top right of this page).  We took our time getting things ready because we didn’t want to head back to the heat.  I thought I might have a few issues getting out of our spot but it was surprisingly easy.

So back on the road.  I like to take different routes to and from a destination if I can.  However in this instance it would have been a bit more difficult.  We could have headed south on 101 and cut across 198.  However that stretch of 198 from about King City to Coalinga is not very recommended for a trailer.  I know there are some big hills at the west end and sharp curves at the east end of the stretch.  So we opted to go back over Pacheco Pass.

As it was on the leg to Marina we were going through Hollister at lunch time so we stopped at the same park but a different spot.  Nice and cool in the shade.  I also had an ulterior motive for Hollister.  Previous to the trip I had located a Car and RV wash there.  I thought it would be good to spray off any ocean spray.  On Google Streetview it looked like a pretty good spot.  Well it was a bit difficult for maneuvering.  Once I pulled in I knew I would have to back out on the street to get out.  C’est la vie!

After a bit of difficulty to get the spray flowing I was ready to rinse.  I wanted to get up as high as possible to get a better angle on the trailer.  So I got up on the back bumper of the truck facing the trailer.  I put my left foot up on the trailer hitch to get better leverage.  I got exactly the opposite.  The first thing that happened is my left foot slipped off the jack, this caused me to fall to the left.  I caught my left foot on the equalizer bar.  Whew!  That made my right foot slip off the bumper so now I was falling to the right!  This time I caught myself on the right equalizer bar. Double whew!  Oops, not done yet!  Now my left foot comes off the equalizer bar and I go down to the asphalt on my left side.

It didn’t hurt other than being embarrassing and getting my left side all wet.  Roxie’s expression was pretty funny.  She had this look of helplessness.  I got up and assessed myself and all seemed to be fine.  I never let go of the sprayer all the way down, trying to spare the trailer any damage.  I was wrong on both counts.  A few days later my thumb looked like this:

Bad Thumb

 

 

The trailer did not come out unscathed either:

Ouch

 

 

The rest of the trip was uneventful.  I will leave you with a shot of the entire rig at a rest area:

Rig

 

 

Where will the next trip take us?  I know but am not saying, right now.