I've Been "Cut-off"!!!

Do you all remember my accident a couple months ago...you know the one in which I smash my collar-bone into a gazillion pieces...what, you say!!! You don't remember!?! Well,F#@% that! You apperently aren't reading this blog too closely!!!

Well anyways...

I had a Doctor's appointment and apperently the Doc tells me that polishing the Airstream is not helping my bones mend too well...something about "too many vibrations...too much pressure" FRANK, STOP THINKING DIRTY!!! I'm talking about polishing the Airstream, not...well...

So as of this date there is a conspiracy going on...and both my Doctor and my Wife are involved...They don't want me to polish the Surfin' Safari until the collar-bone is fully healed. Possibly another 6 weeks, ergh!!!

I am currently on lock-down and all my tools have been hidden...even my brand spankin' new Cyclo Polisher that arrived the day after my Doctor's appointment...hmmm...maybe the UPS guy is in on this conspiracy also...

A Little Known Secret...

Since it has been raining outside and I am unable to work and the Surfin' Safari I have decided to record a post for nostalgia's sake.  A post that will let everyone in on a little secret...The Surfin' Safari was not my first Airstream.  "What!!!" you say...well don't worry...here is the story of my Sovereign of the Road:

Excitement coursed through my veins as I attempted to convince my wife that we needed this 31 feet of marvelous, somewhat shiny, piece of aluminum history, a 1969 Airstream travel trailer...to be more specific, a Sovereign of the Road.  Yeah, that's right...the shiny ones that look like a silver Twinkie on steroids!

The previous day I was driving through the countryside in southwest Michigan and there She sat, next to a garage with a weather worn "For Sale" sign leaning against her rusty propane tanks...the trailer of my dreams...an Airstream.  Why was I driving down that back-country road that afternoon?  Well, I have no idea...but I slammed on my brakes, skidded to a stop and threw my car into reverse.  The old man sitting in his screened-in patio looked at me with an expression of bewilderment and curiosity as I drove up his drive-way.

As Arlen & Shirley Manning write in Polishing with the Manning's:

I think that anyone who buys an old classic trailer should pay their dues, and the story often goes like this:  fall in love with the first one you find, put hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars into it, find out what a really good trailer is, sell the hopeless example you have invested everything in (usually at a considerable loss), and THEN go buy that exceptional example that you really want and rightfully deserve.  It is a lesson usually hard learned...

If only I had read that quote before I drove down that drive-way...Well as they say, you live and you learn...

As I walked up that drive-way and the Old Man stood to greet me, I knew that no matter what price was asked...I would pay.  I would just need to convince my wife.

I knew this would take some doing...you see my when it comes to  money, it would be easier to wrestle a banana from the hands of a wild mountain gorilla...but I am a resilient fellow.

I began my research...I googled "How to convince your wife to do almost anything"...no luck, unless of course I wanted to spend $49.95 for some self-help book.  But then lo and behold, my Spring 2008 issue of Airstream Life arrived at my door that dealt with this very idea!!!!  The article entitled, "Winning Over the Reluctant: Getting Your Spouse To Share The Excitement" seemed as if it had all the answers!  Heck, the article even referenced the work of the great Harvard psychologist Dr. Howard Gardner.  Still, I felt a little uneasy...you see,my wife...well, not only is she cheap, after over 13 years of marriage, I have learned she is immune to mind tricks.  I would need to do something drastic...I would need to take her into the Airstream and appeal to her emotional side and be honest...a scary place to be for any husband.  And you know something...it worked!  I am not sure how, but it worked and I was able to purchase the trailer of my nightmares...err...I mean dreams.

I want to now refer you back to the quote from the Mannings...go ahead, re-read it...I'll wait...

After we got the trailer, the costs started to mount up and my wife was beginning to tire of hearing "a couple hundred bucks" and "Airstream" in the same sentence.  After a replaced floor, a new refrigerator, and multiple other items with no end in sight, I knew I had also reached my limit.  So I decided that we needed to sell the Sovereign of the Road only after my wife agreed that I could keep everything we sold it for and apply it to another trailer...one in better condition.  I also had to take the trailer out at least once...so we did that...and boy did people stare...not the normal."Wow! It's an Airstream" stare, but rather the, "I don't want to drive behind them in case the thing falls apart" stare.  

So a couple thousand dollars later, and a great weekend in the Sovereign, we sold it...surprisingly I even made a couple hundred dollars!  It was enough for us to purchase our new baby, the Surfin' Safari.

Here I am, walking away from my first Airstream...a dark day

It's Raining, It's Pouring, The Old Man is Snoring...

Well like much of the midwest it's raining here in southwest Michigan.  I have not been able to do any polish work on the trailer due to the weather...in fact I discovered some extra work I will now need to complete.

As Colin says in the Vintage Airstream Podcast, "They all leak!" I too have a leaky trailer.  There is some good news however...with all the rain, I know exactly where my leaks are and they will be easy fixes...well as easy as anything can be when working on a 40 year old trailer.  It seems as if all the leaks are around the windows.  All i will have to do is order some new gaskets from Inland RV, tear out the old ones, place a bead of the 3M Super Weather Strip Adhesive, and attach the news ones...easy breezy...right...

Well as a side note, i finally ordered a copy of Wanderlust from Overstock.com to add to my expanding Airstream library.  I couldn't pass up the deal, including shipping the cost was about $28.  Now if I can just get my hands on the DVD that came with the first edition.

The Polish Begins...

As I hinted at in my last post, I began to polish the Surfin' Safari. So I went out and purchased a polisher from Harbor Freight...well I guess you get what you pay for. As you can see in the picture below, it lasted all of about two feet before it died.
So I promptly returned to Harbor Freight, and they gave me a brand new unit since I had purchased the extended service plan.
I decided that I didn't want to run back and forth to Harbor Freight...So I decided to fork out the big bucks and by a heavy duty polisher from Sears. So I got a Milwaukee and It cost me $200 and while it is a little heavy, it works very well...anyone wanna buy a brand new polisher from Harbor Freight?
After I got my new polisher, the process began to work much smoother. After my first weekend of polishing this is what I have gotten done so far. BTW, I also purchased one of those foldable ladders from Lowes and it helps tremendously when getting the higher stuff because it converts into scaffolding as you can see in the picture.
And of course, here is the "up-close" shot that you see in all polishing posts. You can see the above is the before and the below...well you guessed it, the after.

One thing that I am refusing to do is keep track of how many hours I will spend polishing...I know, I know...everybody else does it. But I don't want to know how many hours I spend baking in the sun grinding away...So I am not going to do it...no matter what you say Frank...I am not gonna to do it...nope, nope nope...no hours here!

Over the weekend we went camping (probably just like a bunch of you!) and boy did we have a blast!  We ended up at the River Farm Campground in Pentwater, MI.  

It was a nice relaxing campground in which we didn't really have the big Labor Day crowds.

We found a great Mexican resturant (we love Mexican food), I found a bottle of my favorite wine  at a local food mart (2005 Tintara Shariz), and 

Zach caught a couple fish while I caught a rather annoying turtle!  

The funny thing about our big fishing expedition was that while Zach and I labored for hours to catch our "big" fish, Kim walked down to our super-secret fishing spot, cast in a line and within 10 seconds caught the biggest fish of the weekend...and boy was it HUGE!

One of the coolest things about our Airstream is the fact that we get hang out in an area and really get a chance to visit as opposed to just "driving through" (As well as just hangin' out in the Airstream).  

We really enjoy visiting a town and getting to know it, not just visit the local tourist attractions (however, we enjoy doing that also), but visiting the places off the beaten path.  For example, on this trip we knew about the historic village of White Pine.  And we enjoyed the Lumberjack breakfast and historic baseball game between the Ludington and Hartwick Pines...However, we didn't know about the great Mexican restaurant in Hart, Mi called La Fiesta...great food!  I guess you have to have great food if you are going to last over 20 years.

Well since Summer is almost over and Zach starts school on Tuesday I guess we won't be taking anymore trips...NOT!  In fact we have already scheduled a trip in a couple weeks...Oktoberfestin Frankenmuth, MI...great food, great beer and great fun!  (All with Wiener dog races!)...I can't wait!

In the meantime, I will begin to polish the Surfin' Safari...stay tuned...