On this page we record our observations, trials and tribulations, and other
experiences related to living in an old 24' trailer that we haul seemingly daily
from one neck of the woods to the next.
The Trailer
Airstreams were designed to be light, and ours seems to be (although it
probably weights somewhere around 4500 pounds). It tows well, although we
have to go more slowly that we otherwise might. Each time we stop, we have
to level and unhitch the beast, an interesting process ripe with opportunities
for spouses to find fault with each other's communication and signaling
skills. Jody and Doug seemed to have worked this out OK, although it is a
still-evolving process. Our record for hitching up and battening down in
preparation for departure is 40 minutes.
Driving
Until we got to Louisiana, we never even came close to getting
lost. Florida was a whole other story. Florida streets often seem to
change names at every intersection; perhaps this is due to the limited counting
abilities of the city planners, so that they never have to contend with
addresses greater than 3 digits. At any rate, it is incredibly
confusing. It even goes so far that street names listed in the phone book
are not the street names listed on the road signs. When we asked about
this after a frustrating drive searching for a store, we were informed that you
'just had to know about it'. That's solid urban planning.
North Carolina roads are yet again different: instead of changing name all
the time, a single piece of roadway may have as many as 4 or even 5 different
numbered designations, and no name at all. Further, some of these roads
will claim to be headed in contradictory directions: you may find yourself
driving North on Interstate 40 East/801 South/55 West. Seriously. If
we had not had the dashboard compass and really good maps, we would still be
driving around in circles somewhere in the Carolina woods.
Alcohol
Jody and I don't generally drink much, and the varied alcohol
regulations we are encountering are encouraging us to cut down. In
Georgia, it is illegal to purchase alcoholic beverages in stores or markets or
such on Sundays. We, of course, found this out the hard way, by bringing a
six pack of beer to the register only to be told "We caint sell that ta you
tahday". It is perfectly legal to buy a drink in a bar or restaurant,
or to drink in your home. This has the
effect of insuring brisk sales on Saturday -- so no reduction in drinking
probably occurs at all; just a massive inconvenience for those of us who don't carefully
keep track of which day of the week it is. Further, in Georgia, there are
no "Liquor Stores". Instead, they speak in code: they are
"Package Stores". More hypocrisy. In North Carolina (and
other states out East, I believe) there are "dry counties", where they
can't sell alcohol at all. Everyone who lives in that county and wants to
buy alcohol just drives over the county line to the first grocery store they
find (and they are strategically situates RIGHT on the county lines), buys their
booze and drives back home, thus depriving the dry county from additional tax
revenues. Real bright. Probably thought up by the same folks who lay
out the street names in Florida.
Food and Cooking
We are mostly shopping organic, although we have to do so weekly.
The pantry, fridge, oven and range are more than adequate for Jody. So
far, she cooks pretty much every meal; there is no question that she is the
superior cook, although the girls are learning fast. Aside from
improvisations, we eat largely like we did back home, only more so: more fat,
more sugar, and certainly more food.Books and Reading
Reading is big on the trip -- we brought more than 7 linear feet of
books with us. I have already finished 3 books, and am now into my
fourth (P.D. Ouspensky's "In Search of the Miraculous").
This many not sound like much, but I am a pretty slow reader. Jody too
spends a lot of time with one book or another (currently, it is "Pleasure
Packing", a book about backpacking in comfort; prior to that it was "And the
Skylark Sings with Me", a paean to a home-schooled child prodigy). The girls are reading some, but most of
their reading time is occupied by math workbooks or listening to Harry Potter
tapes.
Net Connections
Connections to the internet are few and far between, as evidenced by the
infrequency of our web site updates. We have a cell phone with us that can
make an internet connection, but this is always glacially slow (for those
techies among this readership: 4800 or 9600 BPS, speeds circa 1985 or so).
We can check email via the cell phone (sometimes), but uploading new web pages
and pictures needs the speed and reliability of a 'land line' -- tech speak for
a real live phone line connected to a wire. Some RV Parks have a dedicated
line for this purpose, but not many. We have also used airports and
Kinko's stores.
