Eighth Trip Update: April 12th - 17th

Hello all!`

Right now, Sunday, 17 May 09 at 11:30 AM we are at the KOA Campground in Cody, Wyoming, Rte 14/16/20, where we spent Saturday night following our full day at Yellowstone National Park (Old Faithful Geyser). Today our destination is South Dakota (Badlands, Crazy Horse, & Mt Rushmore. We are en route eastbound and we are homeward bound. Our planned route home is Rte 90 East to Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH; and Virginia. Our new projected arrival home to Alexandria, VA, is Thursday, 21 May 09. Our trip statistics follow to date:
* Depart Date: Sat., 4 Apr 09 (D + 47 days)
* Harvey-the-RV Silver Bullet Start Milage: 52,454
* Current RV Milage: 61,024 (D + 8, 570 miles)
** Last and best MPG to date was 9.5 mpg
** Worst MPG: 7.24 mpg
* Experience: All 4-Seasons (including a snow storm and scorching desert heat) -- "Priceless" -- Just What the doctor ordered... :-)

Blog & trip followers -- we want comments!!!! Please? :-0

Update - Tues., 12 May 09 -- California - Oregon to suburb of Seattle, Washington: On the 12th we left the Lakehead Campground in the Shasta Mountains and National Forest in California, and due north to Oregon, which we continued through nearly non-stop until Portland. We stopped in Portland around 4 pm to do a quick tour of the city. Portland is a very clean and pretty, but small city that seemed very nice. Surprisingly, Portland was empty, quiet, and devoid of the high population density and typical city hustle & bustle activity of a typical business downtown and waterfront area, especially so early in the later afternoon and early evening. However, the transportation system and small size of the downtown appeared to be designed for quickly and effectively moving commuters around and in & out of the city very effectively. From Portland we continued with a good bit of driving. We stopped and camped on the outskirts of Seattle late in the evening, and in the morning started our tour of Seattle.

Update - Wed., 13 May 09 -- Seattle to over Mt Baker and into Cheney, Washington: We started off the day (May 13th) by going straight to the icon of the city -- The Seattle Space Needle! We went to the top of the 502' spire to the observation deck. The 360% view of Seattle was incredible! We spent an hour or so before taking the elevator down 1-level below the observation deck to the 1-rotation per hour rotating restaurant for a 4-star dining experience of fresh Pacific Salmon for me (Shan) and and dungeoness crabcakes for dad (Scott). It's probably the most upscale place we've eaten the whole trip, and the food and view was great, albeit a bit pricey.

From the Space Needle we went to the adjoining Encounter Music Project museum & Science Fiction museums, both founded and owned by Co-founder of Microsoft Corporation (Paul Allen), who clearly needed a place to put all his invaluable collectibles and " priceless guitars." Moreover, the EMP museum had the most incredible historical collection of guitars that we'd ever seen!

The museums were outstanding, especially the EMP for a guitar enthusiast and "officionado" --like me! Seeing the exhibits on the history of music, guitars, and some famous artists like Jimmy Hendrix made quite an impression on me, as well as having expanded my knowledge and understanding of my primary musical instrument. Also, the EMP interactive exhibits were filled with actual instruments, and small recording booths for practicing and jamming -- dad and Icut our first CD!!! :-)

We didn't have as much time in the SciFi museum, but it had a lot of cool things to show. Namely a lot of Star Trek memorabilia. From there, we went to our final stop in Seattle. Leaving the museum in the typical rainy weather of the city, we took the monorail to a few short walking blocks to the Pike Place Public Market along the waterfront, which is famous for lots of fish, fruit, vegetables, but most known for the Pike Market "fish throwers"! We had a great conversation with some of the Pike Market Fish Vendors who tossed the purchased fish around like baseballs -- wow, what a neat, fun, and crazy place! Be sure to see the photobucket for these photos! We bought a 2 lbs fresh piece of Pacific Salmon, which we froze and transported to Cheney, Washington (suburb of Spokane) for our planned dinner the the next day during our visit the Schwalbe family.

From Seattle, we headed out of the city en route to Cheney and Spokane., Washington, on Rte 90 over Mount Baker (elevation 6,278' / Snoqualmie Pass elevation 3,022'), where the rain turned to sleet and then to a full-fledge snow storm. At the Snoqualmie Pass Summit, the temp dropped to a low of 33.6 degrees F, which wasn't cold enough for an accumulation or black ice on the road, but it definitely slowed us down to a crawl -- especially on the back-side of the summit. As we went down the back-side of the summit the weather returned to temperate -- 60 degrees F, clear skies, and dry -- very wierd! It was an experience to remember. We drove several hours more until we reached Cheney, Washington, where we stayed at the Peaceful Pines campground on Rte 904.

In the morning(May 14th), we met up with Scott's old buddy Professor Dr Steve Schwalbe, COL, USAF (Ret), who showed us around Cheney, central Spokane, and gave us a tour of Eastern Washington University, where he works on staff as the Study Abroad Manager. We headed back to the Schwalbe household in the late afternoon, had dinner -- the Salmon we bought at the Pike Place Market in Seattle -- and learned and played the Air Force renowed billiard/pool game "Crud".

We departed the Schwalbes and Cheney, Washington by about 10:30 AM on Friday, 15 May and drove to the Airstream of Spokane Dealership to pick up a few "Airstream-specific related parts" needed for maintenance, and some airtream memorabilia, hats, and stuff...and then took a "Airstream Promotion Photo"! :-) We then continued our eastward trek along Rte 90 through Idaho and into Montana. We drove all day and then diverted southerly along Rte 191 en route to Yellowstone National Park. At about 10:00 PM we stopped at the KOA and camped in
Bozeman, Montana.

On the 16th we departed the Bozeman KOA and went on our way to Yellowstone National Park. About 2 hours and more than a hundred miles later along Rtes 191; 287; and 20; we arrived and entered Yellowstone from the west entrance. We drove along the southern road to Old Faithful. The road twisted and turned as it paralleled the Gallatin and Madison Rivers. We stopped often along the Upper, Mid, and Lower Geyser Basins en route to Old Faithful to see, photograph, and hike to the hot springs, geysers, mudpots, and fumeroles along the way, which were simply beautiful. Along the way we also saw and had to stop for buffalo in the road, as well as to photgraph the herds of buffalo raoming freely in theri natural habitat. We also stopped to see a very large Black Bear that was about 50 yards from the road and giving everyone a great show. We also saw many other herds of elk and gazelle that seemed to follow the herds of buffalo. One of the hot springs - "Saphire Pool", was incredible. The water in the pool was the most pure brilliant shade of saphire blue that we'd ever seen. Also, the runoffs of hot water through the sandstone and sulfer around it created a barage of colors, from yellow to purple.

Around 4:30 we arrived at the highlight of the park -- "Old Faith Geyser". The next predicted geyser eruption was at 5:30 pm, so we did looked around the park center for a while before nature's show. The Geyser was really awesome, and went on for a good 5 minutes and it spewed an estimated 100 feet into the air. It was really spectacular and we got lots of video and photographs of the entire event that reoccurs on a regular cylce every 90 minutes or so.

After seeing Old Faithful, we headed out of the park and begain heading east towards the badlands. We drove until around 10 PM until stopping at the KOA campground in Cody, Wyoming, for the night.

From here we'll continue on east to South Dakota to visit our next destinations of the Badlands; Crazy Horse; and Mt Rushmore, which we expect to reach on Moday, 18 May.

Stay tuned for more.

New Pictures up on our Photobucket:

http://photobucket.com/airstreamadventurers

'Till next time,

Scott & Shan
PS: Leave us a comment to let us know you're there!

Seventh Trip Update: April 31st - May 111th

Hello All!

Sorry for the long break between posts. We have been having so much fun and have been so busy since arriving in California that time has gotten away from us. As a result, this update picks up in Las Vegas and brings our Airstream Adventure through California from 1 -11 May.

Currently, we are camped at Lakehead in the Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area between the Trinity Mountains and the Cascade Mountain Range of Northern California (241 miles north of Sacramento and about 60 miles from Oregon along Interstate Route 5, California. Tomorrow, Tues., 12 May our destination is Seattle, Washington, and then to make our way towards Spokane, Washington to start our Airstream Adventure eastward.

UPDATE - 30 Apr 09: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas! ....Or we just ended up getting our feet tired by walking the strip until Two AM. It was a lot of fun though.

We stopped at the Ed Roman "King Of Las Vegas" Guitar shop on the morning of 1 May before leaving Vegas. It was filled with lots of pricey handmade guitars that I wish I had the money to buy. We spent about 2-hours there.

From Vegas we took Rte-15 into Riverside, California, to visit our friends -- the Bruces, who hosted us at a local Italian restaurant with Friday night Kareoke, to catch up. After dinner we visited their home which has a magnificent panaramic mountain vista of the resevoir below and the city lights of Riverside beyond the resevoir.

On the 1st of May we left Riverside and headed a bit farther south to San Diego CA, to visit the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park, and then to meet up with one of Scott's friends -- Billy and Patty Bird, who Scott grew up with. Billy and Patty took us to Pacific Beach to watch the surfers on the wave machine and to stroll along Pacific Beach. Then, we went to Casa Del Riza in Old Town, San Diego for a great "Cinco De Mayo Party" that celebrates the historical Mexican Liberation from French rule and domination. The Cinco De Mayo party included mariachi bands, dinner, dancing, singing, and a great rock n roll band on stage at the far end of Old Town San Diego. At about 10 PM, Billy, Patty, daughter Venessa, and Granddaughter Venassa treated to a late evening windshield tour of all of downtown San Diego, Coronado island, and surrounding areas -- it was great fun!

We camped Saturday and Sunday nights at "Campland On The Bay" in San Diego. On Sunday, 2 May, we reconnected with the Bruce family at San Diego Sea World Park. It was amazingly and really quite an impressive park. You can see it on TV, but to see a Killer Whale jump out of the water 20 feet high in front of you with a trainer standing on "Shamu the Killer Whale's nose is astounding."

On the 3rd of May (Monday), we headed up the coastal Pacific Highway to the world famous Santa Monica Pier. There was an artist on the Santa Monica Pier doing clay sculture portraits. We both got ours done. We camped on Malibu Beach and took out the instruments and jammed on the beach a bit before turning in for the night.

On Tuesday the 4th of May, we stopped at Vandenburg Air Force Base on the California coast just north of Santa Barbara where we watched a USAF Delta rocket launch. This was amazing and serendipious because we had no previous knowledge of this launch. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time. We still don't know what payload that it was carrying. When we were at NASA in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Endeavor Space Shuttle was on the launch pad, but we didn't get to see it launched. Bottom Line: It was amazing to see a live Delta launch!

After the Delta launch we continued northerly towards San Luis Obispo to see San Simeon The Hurst Castle), but we got sidetracked by the fog bank that moved into Morro Bay that captured our interest and imagination. It was like being in Stephen King novel -- "The Mist." We had a lot of fun with the video camera filming in the mist on the pier at Morro Bay -- It was eeeerie! As a result of the sidetrack, we arrived too late at San Simeon to see the castle, but we didn't care because the Delta Launch and the experience in the fog bank were infinitely more fun than some old castle tour! We then stopped near San Simeon to watch the Parachute Surfers.

Leaving southern California, we began our adventure in central California by driving along the Big Sur coastline towards Montery CA (dad's ole graduate school stomping grounds). The drive along Big Sur in the morning was absolutely amazing, from the giant fog bank creeping over the mountains and flooding everything in sight until it looked like Steven King's "The Mist", to the sheer cliffs along the water, and the beautiful waves and coves in shallow water. Hopefully the pictures we took will do it some justice. We made it within around ~40 miles of Montery before dark, and stopped in the Kirk Creek Campground on Big Sur for the night. We camped at Kirk Creek in the Los Padres National Forest in Big Sur along the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean, high above the surf. The fog and mist had moved in so we didn't get to see the view to the ocean horizon until the morning.

In the morning we continued on up in the morning, continuing to explore the cost. While stopped at a construction flag on Big Sur we ran into a group of Hostel Bums, from Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden. They'd been traveling around the world for the past two years, and were touring America, in a Canadian van. Quite a funny group to run into, but really interesting to talk with.

We stopped at an interesting Art Gallery on Big Sur and we bought a few interesting musical items and momentos. We reached Montery around 2 PM and our first stop was the Naval Postgraduate School, where dad (Scott) went to graduate school. We toured the campus a bit and stopping by the base exchange. Then, we went down to the Montery Yacht Club where dad (Scott) use to be an avid member. He manged to meet up with the current Comadore of the Yacht Club (Ron Baxter), who was kind enough to take us out for a sailing cruise on the bay and to watch the tradintional Wednesday night races. I got to see the Shield boats flying the spinnakers that dad use to race. It was a very nice evening. After the sail, we grabbed dinner at the clubhouse and then headed to the campground.

In the morning we stopped by DLI (Defense Language Institute) where dad (Scott) studied Russian. We then headed on to the Monterey Aquarium which was an amazing stop. We then drove the Monterey Peninsula 17 mile drive from Pacific Grove to Carmel, and then we stopped at the Spanish Mission in Carmel.

From Carmel we headed on up to Yosemite, staying at another KOA 23miles outside of the national park.

We spent all of Friday in Yosemite, driving through the park, hiking a few of the trails, and waterfalls, and doing a bunch of photography. The park is amazingly beautiful, and far more rewarding then I had expected.

In the evening, we heard of a special natural phenomenon that happens at Yosemite falls on a full moon, which we were lucky enough to see and to photograph. The full moon creates a lunar rainbow ("Moon Bow") across the mist of Yosemite Falls. It is very vauge to the eye, but when photographed correctly, is absolutely amazing. I learned quite a bit from some of the other more experienced photographers there, and got some really good shots.

Around midnight we left the park, and this is where we experienced some bumps in the road. Leaving Yosemite, we ovburned out our breaks going down the mountain, as well as our alternater. We overheated our breaks and boiled the brake fluid causing the brakes to fail 31 miles from Yosemite Park along a 6 % downhill grade. It was touch and go there for awhile, but thank God that our guardian angels were watching over us. Luckily, we were able to stop the vehical safely, but we had quite an adventure trying to get out of the small roads with limited breaking. At the same time our alternator decided to dye after 59,000 miles. However, we found a safe place for the night. It was an interesting experience that we don't want to go through again -- did it, done it, don't want to do it again.

On Saturday, 9 May we we're in Oakdale, CA, trying to figure out what we would do about our mechanical repairs (replace the alternator and getting the brakes checked out). The repair shop couldn't replace the alternator until Monday, so we decided to do it ourselves. We went to the local NAPA auto parts store and bought a new rebuilt alternator and had the motorhome all fixed and back on the road within a couple hours.

We arrived in San Francisco on Saturday early evening (around 6 PM). We spent the evening photographing the Golden Gate Bridge in the remaining daylight and then at night with a full moon as a back drop. I got some incredible photos. We camped at Candlestick RV Park on Saturday night -- directly across from the Candlestick Park (home of the S.F. 49ers Football franchise).

We spent Sunday on the SF Embarcadero and Fishermans Wharf. We ate lunch at #9 Fisherman's Grotto, then went on a 30-minute "Rocket Boat" ride on SF Bay. The Rocket Boat is powered by 4800 HP jet engines and water jets (no propellers) to go over 40 knots. The boat is about 75 foot long and it carrys about 75 people. Everyone wears seat belts and they give everyone an exciting ride and view of the Bay. The rocket boat is the fastest thing on the Bay.

We departed SF around 4 PM to visit our cousins Maryjane & Gus and their family in Novato, California (about 25 miles north of SF in Northern Marin County). We had a great dinner and visit with them.

We departed Novato at noon and drove to Sacramento where we did a windshield drive by the California State Capital where we took some photos and then to Old Sacremento where we ate lunch and enjoyed the historic Old Sacremento.

From Sacramento our next destination is Seattle, Washington; then Spokane. After Spokane and visiting with our friends Steve, Ingrid and Sophie, we will start heading east to return home at lightening speed via Yellowstone National Park, Mt Rushmore & Crazy Horse; Ohio, and home to Virginia -- all by 17 May 09 (6 more days), hopefully!

We are still having a great time on our Airstream Adventure. Stay tuned -- more to follow!

New Pictures up on our Photobucket:

http://photobucket.com/airstreamadventurers

'Till next time,

Scott & Shan

PS: Leave us a comment to let us know you're there!

Sixth Trip Update: April 26th-30th

Hello All!

We're currently in Las Vegas!

The last four days have been an absolute blast.
On the 25th, we arrived in Sedona, Arizona, driving through the beautiful Red Rock Canyons surrounded by Butes, mountains, and hillsides. Sedona is a small "artsie" town full of shops, restaurants, and "beautiful people", things to do, and earthly beauty beyond belief!

In the morning we explored the town some more, and ended up finding some really cool "Taos" Native American drums, that dad (Scott) had to have and subsequenly added to his collection. We broke them out with the guitar and "jammed" in the Sedona marketplace...and made three bucks (does that make us pros??? ;]

Around noon we departed Sedona, just making a few more stops at the scenic view points along the way. However at the last peak, we ran into quite a treat. An exotic car club pulled in with about twenty Lambroginis, a few Ferraris, and a Buggattti Veyron 16.4! If you've never heard of the latter, it's the most expensive, as well as the fastest, production car in the world, At a whopping 1.8 million dollars -- it can hit 250 mph.

From there, we went took a quick deviation to Meteor Crator, and then straight to the Grand Canyon. We got there pretty late, so we camped outside the park.

In the morning on the 27th we headed into Grand Canyon National Park. To put into words how incredible it is to stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon(Especially at the "Grand View" point) looking across nearly ~16 miles, and down ~15,000 feet, is a very hard thing to do. "Majestic" is the only thing we figured came close.

We travelled along the entire South Rim, stopped a "bajillion" times for photos, and we also did a good bit of hiking around the edges, stood out on all the ledges we could find. We went to "Hopi Point" for the sunset over the canyon, which according to Yahoo's poll of the top twenty most beautiful vantage points, it is the #1 vista in the world. Sadly it was a bit cloudy, and we didn't see all we had hoped to, but it was incredible non the less. We had dinner at the Arizona Room in the Bright Angel lodge before heading back to the Mather Campground in the park.

Having done most everything to do on the South Rim except for the 8 hour mule rides into the canyon (long advanced reservations required), we headed to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai Indian Reservation (pronounced "Wal-i-pie") for a 1-day 45-mile white water rapids rafting excursion on the Colorado River in the Canyon, that concluded with Shan's 1st helicopter ride -- from the river at the bottom of the canyon to the west rim. From there, we went to the Hualipai "Sky Walk" -- Wow!

Along our way, we passed through Siegelman, AZ, along Histoeic Route 66, which is an absolutely awesome town. Seligman currently claims to be the birthplace of "Historic Route 66", as it was the starting place of the petition to bring the highway back out from decomission. We spent a few hours in Siegelman, going throgh all the vintage shops and memoribilia, and met some really amazing local folks, including Frank & Lyn (USMC, Ret), who own and the local coffee shop there.

From there we drove a couple more hours, and arived at the Hualipai Indian Reservation Lodge for the night.

Sunday morning we got up and went into the Lodge to assemble to begin the day of White Water Rafting adventuring! They bused us into the canyon by 9 AM, and we were on the Colorado River. The ride was about 45 miles, and took around 5 hours. Going through 9 sets of rapids, including a class seven. Being inside the canyon, and much less on the river, was incredible. The upward view of the canyon walls and Vistas is different than anything else that we experienced. Part of the ride also included stepping off and hiking to a waterfall inside the canyon wall, which is another beautiful sight most probably don't see. The ride was a blast, and we met quite a few real interesting people on our raft.

After the ride, they airlifted us out of the canyon via helicopter, then bused us back to the lodge. However, before the lodge, they brought us to the newly constructed Grand Canyon Skywalk, which we found pretty cool, but not worth all the hype.

That night we drove a few hours towards the Hoover Dam, and camped at the Davis RV Camp in Arizona along the Colorado RiverNevada State Line. In the morning, we swam in the 65 degree Colorado River.

Today's been a lot of fun as well, slept in a bit and headed to the Hoover Dam, then we drove the Airstream across and walked around the engineering marvel, also getting to see the new bridge mid-construction across Colorado River in front of Lake Mead. In addition to walking it, we took an exhilarating helicopter ride above Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, getting a great areal view, and plenty of pictures.

From there, we drove the 40 miles into Las Vegas! Where we're figuring out what to do for the evvening. Stay tuned!

New Pictures up on our Photobucket:

http://photobucket.com/airstreamadventurers

'Till next time,

Scott & Shan

PS: Leave us a comment to let us know you're there!

Fifth Trip Update: April 19-25

Hello all!
Sorry for the long gap between posts. Safe to say, there isn't a lot of Wireless Internet service in the Southwest deserts!

Right now we're in Chandler Arizona, outside of Phoenix, visiting our Cousin/Nephew Jason Braun & his wife Olga.

The past 6 days have been VERY busy, and a lot of fun.

From Houston, on some local knowledge, we decided to head to San Antonio TX before Austin, and staying at a KOA camp ground for the night right outside of the city.

Sunday morning we took the bus into San Antonio, walked the river walk and local shops, and saw the Alamo. Before leaving, we stopped in one of the river walk restaurant, and had some of the biggest BBQ ribs we've ever seen! We left around mid afternoon and went up to Austin, which has a VERY different feel and look from the rest of Texas. We drove around the city, saw the capital, and went around the local park trails, where we got to see a bit of the Annual Austin Reggie Festival that was going on. In the evening we met up with our good friends the Merrits to see the Congress Avenue Bats flight, from under the Congress Ave Bridge, and dinner at a local TexMex place.

That evening we made a little ground towards the the NM border, camping in Forst Stockton TX for the night. Monday morning we continued on, stopping in Fredericksburg, a small Germantown in Texas where we had some great Bavarian food at the Auslander Restraunt. Also, stopped into the National Pacific War & Admiral Nimitz Museam.

From there, we headed straight to Carlsbad New Mexico, to see the Carlsbad Caverns. Sadly we arrived too late to see the caverns that day, so we camped near by down the mountain, and hit it up early Tuesday morning. But WOW was the delay worth it, the Carlsbad Caverns are absolutely amazing. We spent about 6 hours in the caves, and probably walked 20 miles. It's absolutely a geographical marvel.

From Carlsbad we went to ROSWELL! (Que spooky space music here). We stopped in more for a novelty, but made ourselves Tin Foil hats to keep the Aliens out of our brains, as seen above!

From Roswell we went straight to Albuequrque, got in around 11:30 PM, and parked outside Smith's shopping center, where we were scheduled to meet up with our Balloon crew for the morning! We were up up bright & Early at 5:30 AM, and then to the park to for sun rise lift-off by 6:15 AM - sunrise liftoff with A lbuquerque mountains as a back drop. We were airborne about 1-hour, but it was about a 3-4 hour proccess all together. It was an absolutely awesome experience -- quiet, serene, and majestic! It was a very different form of flying than anything we've ever done before.

We were finished by about 9:30-10:00 AM and then we continued west towards Arizona -- driving along the mountains and found Albuqueques and New Mexico to be truly the "Land of Enchantment." From Albuquerque, we drove west along Rte 40, stopping a few times in some small towns, including Grants at the Continental Divide, and the in Gallup, the last town in NM before crossing into Arizona.

Our first stop in Arizona was just befor Holbrook AZ, to see and tour the Pained Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. It was a 28 mile drive through amazing scenery of the colorful hills and sands, before heading on to Heber, AZ, where we stopped and camped for the night.


In the morning we drove through quite a lot of mountains towards Phoenix, passing through Payson, which is a small town outside a natiional forest and Indian Reservtion where the hunting, fishing, and canoeing would be amazang. Payson is at 5,000 feet above sea level (nearly a mile high small town). We stopped in Payson, AZ for an Oil change, and while waiting discovered a local Antique and Classic Car show that was really interesting and which ended with a huge classic and antique car parade through the town that we videoed.

From Payson we drove to 2-hours southerly to Chandler, AZ, which is a suburb of Phoenix, Mesa, Scotsdale, and Tempee (home of Arizona State Unniversity, to visit with family - nephew Jason Braud and his new bride and familymember Olga. Friday evening Jason and Olga took us out to the Tempe Market Place for dinner and some live music to see and experience some local flavor and catch up with family.

Today (Sat., 25 April) we said our goodbyes following a windshield tour of downtown Tempe, and then we headed out with our next destinations beiing Sedona, Arizon, and the Grand Canyon. Stay tuned...more exciting adventures to come in our Airstream Adventure!


**LOTS** of New Pictures up on our Photobucket:

http://photobucket.com/airstreamadventurers

'Till next time,

Scott & Shan

PS: Leave us a comment to let us know you're there!

Fourth Trip Update: April 16th-18th

Hello all!
We're currently taking a break from the road in front of the San Jancinto monument in Houston TX, waiting for some heavy rain to pass.

Since Thursday, we've had a great time in New Orleans, and passed through Louisiana on to Texas!

New Orleans was absolutely fabulous, our good friend Zoe Christopher-Hernendez gave us a great tour of her home town and the French Quarter, hitting all the great places. The French Market, Cafe Du Monde, and of course... Bourbon Street! We had a great time, and got to see plenty of street musicians playing New Orleans Jazz.
Also stopped into the VERY COOL, International Vintage Guitar Store on Tchoupitoulas St. to fuel my guitar addiction...

On Friday we said our goodbyes and continued on west, driving through Baton Rouge briefly, but mostly just aiming for the Texas boarder. We made it before dark, but not before hitting a very intense thunderstorm. Stopped at a picnic area off Route-10, around 70 miles out of Houston for the night, and then made our way in this morning.

Today's attraction thus far in Houston has been the U.S.S. Texas Dreadnought Battleship(BB-35), which had a very ominous looming appearance in the messy weather we've seen here. Also, it happens to be the last remaining Dreadnought in existence today.
And, right nearby, the San Jancinto battlefield and monument, where Texas gained it's independance.

When the weather lightens up, we'll be on our way up to Austin.

New Pictures up on our Photobucket:

http://photobucket.com/airstreamadventurers

'Till next time,

Scott & Shan

Third Trip Update: April 13th - 15th

Hello all!
We're finally out of Florida! We're currently camped at a friends house in New Orleans (Metairie) for the night. We plan to check out the French Quarter tomorrow.

Before leaving the Tampa area on Monday, we stopped in for lunch to catch up with some good friends (Bob & Donna Smith). Our goal had been to make Tallahassee by nightfall, but we ran into some of Florida's thunderstorms and we ended up stoppig and sleeping at a rest stop about 80 miles from Tallahasee.
We had a quick drive to Tallahassee in the morning where we had a really nice windshield tour of the Florida state capital by our friend "Moscow Marge" Brayfield. We saw the ancient Lake Jackson native Indian Mounds (1200 - 1500 AD); the Governor's Masion, Capitol Building, and Florida State (Seminoles) University; and the local American Legion and VFW. Tallahassee definitely has a different feel than the rest of Florida since it has rolling hills and large oak and pine trees versus palm trees.
We left the city around mid-afternoon on Tuesday, we headed to the Gulf Coastal communities of Destin, Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola. On our way stopping at the Air Force Armaments Museum, which had a whole lot of really cool static displays, including a B-17, B-52, and an SR-71 Blackbird!
When we got to Destin, we stayed at a RV park that was right on the beach. We tried to go swimming on the gulf, but it was around 63%, and the water was surprisingly cold.
Before leaving the Gulf Coast, we stopped to explore Hurlburt Field (HQ AFSOC), where they have the Airfroce SpecialOperations Command. But today's mostly been driving through Alabama and Mississippi to Louisiana. We stopped at Battleship Park in Alabama to see the U.S.S. Alabama.
We are still enjoying the road, and tomorrow we'll be seeing New Orleans thanks to the Christophers who'll be giving us a tour.

New Pictures up on our Photobucket:

http://photobucket.com/airstreamadventurers

'Till next time,

Scott & Shan

PS: Leave us a comment to let us know you're there!

Second Trip Update: April 9th-12th

Hello all!

Still in Florida! Today's Easter, and we're camped out at the Bay Shore Cove RV park in Tarpon Springs outside of Tampa on the Gulf Coast. Since Thursday we've spent our time in Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach, and Miami.

Thursday & Friday in the Cape, Touring NASA to see Endeavor on the launch pad, and and Apollo rockets they have on display. Before leaving the Cape, passed  through the Cocoa beach scene and stopped at the famous Ron Jon's Surf Shop. 

Saturday & Sunday, we stayed in Miami to visit with some good friends (Alba & Tyler Weinman and Alba's neighbor and friend Ted H.)  Alba and Tyler gave us a windshield tour of the Miami, Coconut Grove, Biscayne Bay, Miami & South Beach, and the Coral Castle in Homestead.  One really cool thing would have to be the Coral Castle, which we were astounded by...Worth looking up. 

Today we drove through the Everglades, and took an air-boat ride through the area, and...as in the picture above, got to interact with some Alligators that they had at the reserve! It was all a lot of fun.

From here on we're still just finding our own path, but heading north. If we had a real schedule, we'd probably be a bit behind, but Florida's got a lot to offer, and we've been having a great time.

New Pictures up on our Photobucket:  

http://photobucket.com/airstreamadventurers

'Till next time,

Scott & son Shan

PS: Leave us a comment to let us know you're there!