The girls are excited for Mali Mish that she is going in to get much needed work done. Don’t worry, we DO put seat belts on them when we are driving. We are not driving in this photo, put the phone down, there is no need to get the cops involved.

Last year just before we left we brought her into C&G Trailer in Bellflower, CA to get an overhaul. With over 10,000 miles ahead of us, we had the entire trailer looked over as well as doing the yearly chore of repacking the wheel bearings. We head a clean bill of health, as expected, since we had not been on any major trips besides a handful of them to Arizona. The brakes were estimated at having at least another 10,000 miles before it needed replacing. At the time, we turned down the wash and wax service they offer which turned out to be very reasonably prices as compared to some of the other service centers we encountered while on the road. This time however, we are going to let her get her wax on. She deserves it. She had taken us all through the southern states with great care and barely a fuss.

The last 10,000+ miles we had worn out a few of the perishable items on her. One of the biggest problems we had was the tongue jack that went out on us in the Florida Keys. Giving full credit to good ol’ Murphy, it just so happened to be the furthest point from home throughout the entire trip.

Also during our trip through Louisiana, we had a steel belt break on us in one of these Goodyear Marathon tires. It was not time for it to go as it had plenty of tread left on it and it definitely wasn’t due to over or under inflation as I diligently checked the levels during our trip, especially those early months. Plus these broken steel belts are not really an easy thing to spot if you are not checking your tires on a regular basis. When one of them break, it is not immediately visible from the outside nor does it make much of any sound that would cause any alarm. The only way to find out is to keep an eye out for flat spots on the tires. Many people think that those flat spots are from tires locking up during sudden brake pressure but in reality, it would take a whole lot of your wheel locking up to get to any noticeable flat spots. The tire manufactures love that you assume it is your fault when that happens but in reality, as a belt breaks inside the tire, you have probably just a couple hundred miles left on that tire before you have a blow out. Lucky for us, we have not yet had a blow out. For those of you who have, I know it is a traumatic event. Especially if you are a single-axle trailer.

We drove on the spare from Louisiana all the way to Miami before I finally bought a new tire and changed it back on. We drove the rest of the way home without another tire incident. Although it is now time to get the rest of them replaced, I am going to hold off and see just exactly what I want to do. Rich from Airstream Life has been running LTX tires on his trailer and so far is happier with them than these Marathons. I may contemplate a change but I think these old shoes will hold up for another couple months of light use.

Even though we are leaving her here for a few days, Ava knows that we are well on the way to more new adventures in the near future. Look at all these Airstreams. Only if they could talk and share their stories with us.

Alright Mali Mish, maybe you can get these old guys to open up to you during your stay using your irresistible charm. See if any of them knew Wally!

over and out,
dan

Our shakedown trip to northern California went as well as anyone can expect in the rain. We got a chance to hangout with my family for a few days and stayed at a beautiful campground that we will surely visit again in better weather. With a few thousand miles under our belt prior to that trip, it was actually the first time we have headed that far north. We came home with a some more items added to the pre-flight checklist and got ready to push off on the evening of January 29th.

The plan was to head down to San Pedro, CA, a suburb of Greater Los Angeles, for a few days where Marlene parents live. Her dad was having a big 60th birthday party and we were going to join in on the festivities.

With so many of Marlene’s family members residing in the area, we had a chance to see them all one last time before our big trip. Mila being only 5 months old, she will surely be a lot different by the time they see her again.

Another purpose of the stopover is to get some of the last items taken care of on the Airstream at C&G Trailer Service in Bellflower, CA. It is one of the most respected Airstream service centers in California because of the quality work that they perform. We have heard and read about C&G from many other Airstreamers and it being only 2o miles from Marlene’s parents house, it was a no brainer. We made an appointment to bring her in on Saturday morning and left her there for a 4-night makeover. We had actually been trying to find a place to store Mali Mish for the 5 nights we were going to be down there. It worked out perfectly with the drop off and pick up dates at C&G so we didn’t have to worry about getting hassled by the traffic cops in LA for parking curbside. It is pretty much illegal to do it in most cities in the Los Angeles area and we just couldn’t let them ruin our trip for us.

We had a few nagging issues plaguing us during the Nor Cal trip that we wanted to make sure it was looked at. Fixing a flickering running light, testing a finicky furnace, repacking axle bearings and the usual 1-year service was on the docket for this visit. We also wanted to make sure she had her brakes checked before we start putting some serious mileage on her. It might just be me but she definitely feels lighter on her feet with the freshly greased bearings.

The service was done as promised on Wednesday morning which is the day of our departure from LA. We turned down the wax and wash job since more rain was in the forecast but some of the other Airstreams there sure looked good with their fresh coat of polish. We are suppose to be washing and waxing her on a regular basis and we have not stuck to that schedule real religiously. Hopefully it is not causing more filiform corrosion to appear on the aluminum panels.

One thing I realize I really need to roll my sleeves up for is repacking those axle bearings. It was well over 50% of the visit’s cost just in labor alone. At $250 a year including parts and labor, I could probably use that money on some of the more expensive parts of my solar ambitions to better suit us for boondocking.

The report card on our trailer brakes was well above passing which is good news. We have about 10,000 miles left of moderate driving before they will need changing and we probably won’t be putting that many miles on it during this trip. Of course it can all change once we pass the point of no return somewhere in Texas. I figure getting the brakes changed would not be too big of a hassle on the road as long as we found a good Airstream service center.

As we dragged her back to San Pedro to spend our last afternoon in CA prior to taking off, Mila hit the 5 months old mark. She is way too young to remember anything we will experience from this trip but we will sure have lots of photos for her to look at when she is older.

With everything tucked into every nook and cranny of the van and trailer, the girls gave Nona and Dida one more good night hug for the road.

We were anxious to get some miles under those tires so we made it all the way out past Palm Springs before we stopped to get gas. Don’t you just love how brightly lit truck stops are? Ava was awaken by these lights in the middle of the night and asked to wear her sunglasses!

Sorry Ava, you are just gonna have to get use to the bright lights of the road. It’s not easy being a vagabond. Next stop, Arizona!

over and out,

dan

Our maiden voyage in Mali Mish with looming clouds and rain (November 1, 2008)

We have been checking lists and packing bins now for the last several days. It seems never ending at times but we are starting to feel like we are ready. At least as ready as we will ever be. All the while we are seeing the rain and wind just keeps piling on. So much so I can’t even get into the car without first crossing a river that has formed by the sidewalk.

Before all of you starting thinking, “Is this dude in California REALLY complaining about the weather there?” I’d like to point out that this is the heaviest rain we’ve had since 2005 when the mud slide in La Conchita (Just minutes from us) destroyed over 30 houses and killed 10 people almost exactly 5 years ago to the date.

Aftermath of the 2005 La Conchita mud slide.

These El Nino storms are not as severe as the heavy rains we got in 2005 but we do have some strange weather patterns going on all around us. Rare tornados/waterspouts touched down to the south of us flipping over cars and sending boats 30 feet up in the air in the greater LA area. A funnel cloud was caught on video in Goleta which is a half hour north of us in a suburb just outside of Santa Barbara. Needless to say, we were a little concerned about a late night drive up north where winds have exceeded 60 miles per hour.

KEYT News footage of local tornados

For now, we are staying put for the next couple of days. The weather is suppose to ease up by Saturday and we hope to be able to salvage what we can out of a trip to northern California. We actually really need this rain as all of our water supplies in the state are, and have been for years, well below the historical average.

over and out,
dan

Ava staking a claim in her corner of the Airstream

OK, maybe subdividing is not the most efficient use of space and we probably should learn to share. Being that we are now 4 people strong as a family, we are, more so than ever, running out of space in our 25 foot long Chipotle burrito. That is not even counting Yoda the cat who will surely need her own space to do whatever it is that cats do when they go on an Airstream road trip.

When we first started road tripping as a family, we only had one child who was 11 month that barely walked. We just had a little T@B tear drop trailer and had dreams of traveling the country by land. That dream is slowly becoming reality and we are now less than a week from unplugging from the grid and rolling away.

“We lived 2 weeks in this!?!?!”

Now that we are bigger and badder, we are having a harder time trying to figure out how to keep things to a minimum. Having a toddler and an infant, they do not play with the same toys. Actually, Mila is barely playing with any toys at all. She is just starting to grab at objects. By the time we get back, she will probably be ripping Ava’s toys right out of her hands and causing a riot in the process. That means we need to have all of those transitional learning tools handy for her to grow, learn and progress during this trip. It seems that the more we think about what we need, the more insanely long the packing list becomes.

I know the right thing to do is follow the K.I.S.S. mantra. For those who don’t know the acronym, it stands for ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’. Fairly self-explanatory, I thought. As easy as that might sound, it is a very hard concept to commit to. Everywhere we look around the house, we see items that could come in handy. But the reality is that we will make do without 99% of this stuff. After all, isn’t that the reason why we are heading out on this trip? Get away from all these earthly belongings that do nothing but clog up space? People in every corner of the world live on a tiny fraction of what we do here in the U.S. and somehow manage to enjoy their lives just as much if not more. I have a sneaking suspicion that the more stuff we end up packing into the Airstream that is suppose to help us with life on the road, the more it will actually hinder it and get in the way.

That is a very liberating thought and proclamation. Will I be a testament to the K.I.S.S. concept of road living? Well, I will try, but probably not. I am sure by the time we shut the doors and lock the dead bolt, we will have a trailer and van full of crap that we just ‘can not’ go without. I guess we will have to learn this one by doing instead of taking the advice of the wise ones that came before us. With that said, I am headed back into the garage to see what else we might want to bring.

The girls are all sound asleep. I’d better be quiet.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………………….

over and out,
dan
(whispering….)

Today is Ava’s 3rd birthday. It is also the start of our last full week at home before we head out on my long awaited journey.

Ava and Grace at Golf and Stuff on her 3rd birthday

Even though we are not officially headed eastward until February, we have a trip planned in Northern California. We wanted to spend some time with my family who lives in the Bay Area before we take off on this adventure, so we decided to pack up and head up to San Jose for a week or so before swooping back through Southern California one last time. This trip will be a good way for us to figure out if we packed everything we will need for the trip. Whatever we forget to bring, we will have one last chance to come back to get it. Like-wise with items we feel that we will not need to lug around with us, we can drop it back off at home during the drive through.

Jasmine’s castle at Golf and Stuff

This Sunday is Ava’s official birthday party. We have friends and relatives coming into town to help celebrate. As of right now, she is soundly asleep after spending her first day celebrating her life as a 3 year old. A little trip to the Disney store, mini golf and a night cap with some ice cream sundaes with her friend Grace at home.

We will have a couple more days after the party on Sunday to get everything ship-shape before we disembark on Wednesday. The next 7 days are going to be difficult to fit all of our to-do items in from the list. Visitors will start filing in as early as probably Friday. On Monday, we are planning on taking Ava to see Dumbo at El Capitan theater in Los Angeles. That means we will have the next 3 days to get as much off of that 15-item check-list done as possible.

Here are some items I will be focusing my attention on:

1. Tune up the van and check the brakes
2. Check the Airstream’s under carriage and repack the bearings if necessary
3. Inspect the tow system and tire conditions on both the van and Airstream
4. Check house batteries and Honda generator. Fix and/or replace where necessary

These four items are what I would call ‘the dirty work’ on our list. They are more involved than other items on this list like, ‘Cancel DirecTV’ or ‘Buy some pillows and cushions’. As much as I don’t have the motivation to do them, it could potentially be disastrous if anything is overlooked while we are traveling. Wish me luck. I need all that I can get.

over and out,
dan