Endless delays

Part of my prepping this summer was to gather all the previous (4!) summers' photographs, which has led me to reflect on the successes and failures and strategies for this summer. For example, the last 3 summers had elements of moving involved, which meant there was lots of extra stuff in the trailer and the car. This summer, none of that. There is no element of "stuff" being "transported" but not for use during the trip. I can't believe how spacious the trailer has become! And every prior summer, I have had the cats with me, and each summer has been hotter and hotter. Well, no more worrying about cooking cats; they are staying home to be calm, happy, and air conditioned. I'll miss them and surely get lonely for them, but they will like this more.


I've always "planned" these roadtrips in a very spontaneous way. I usually pick a direction, a few towns that seem like good ideas, and maybe a few specific destinations (you know, like Car Henge). But otherwise, I really try to minimally plan. Heck, I usually pack the night before.

The problem with this strategy, is lots can go wrong. For example, last year, I had set the date I would leave, regardless of the moving and sales status of my house. I made the realtor people prepare the paperwork early so I could sign it and be gone, even though Closing wasn't for a few more days.

The problem with this strategy this year, is in addition to the last minute packing and such, I also didn't set a hard-deadline-departure date. As a result, my soft deadline was repeatedly attacked, and "leaving Friday" turned into "leaving Monday" to "leaving Tuesday" and so on. Right now, I am planning on leaving tomorrow. See that? I probably jinxed it, right there.

For some comic relief, I want to share a typical chain-of-events that contributed to the delay.
Found injured bat in house >> called Animal Control to "take care of it" (we can go over my guilt about that later) >> Animal Control realizes my indoor cats were near a bat and aren't exactly up on their shots so he puts them under House Arrest for 10 days, and will be back to "dispose of them" if the bat tests positive for rabies >> bat tests negative >> I take cat least-likely to be current on vaccinations in for shots and teeth cleaning >> need to do a blood test and have him come back the next day for tooth surgery >> come back to find his blood sugar is 496 and he is likely diabetic and will need insulin 2 times a day to get it under control before his infected tooth can be removed. We will have to show a neighbor how to do it on the nights S comes home late, as they are supposed to be given at the same time every morning and night, exactly 12 hours apart. Someone is getting an extra neighbor present this year...

Another:
Needed to change car plates from MT to IN. Yeah, I should have done that a while ago, but they weren't expired so I wasn't worried. Titles had gone missing, so I was putting it off. Finally, went in with all my forms of identification to beg and see what could be done. Turned out I had the car title with my birth certificate, so that got taken care of, but new plate won't arrive before I go. S will bring me the new one when we meet up in a few weeks. Trailer one still missing, so I have to snail-mail a request for a new MT title before I can request my IN title. Yep. That's not really going to happen before I go.

Another:
I needed to repack the bearings (basically, the axle bearings on old trailers are hand-packed with grease every few years, and need to be cleaned and re-greased). One thing lead to another and one of the parts original to the trailer had been jerry-rigged by the previous owner. The mechanics working on it couldn't manage to jerry-rig it in the same way, so I 2-day air-shipped the part needed to get the job done. I used a CRAPPY VENDOR who took 2-day air to mean they could take FIVE days to get it to UPS, who did get it to me in 2. So I paid extra to get the part in a week instead of a month, apparently. On the bright side, I would not have taken the cat to the vet without this delay, and it may have saved his life. Serendipity. So I have the part now and will drive back to the mechanic so he can hoist up the axle to install this thing. If it doesn't fit, I will get the part from Peru, IN and just hope for the best, because I have GOT to get on the road!

(Another Bonus to having the extra days: I have been having annual plumbing problems when I "wake her up" from winter and this year was just as bad if not worse. I replaced the kitchen faucet and the valves and they are working better than they every have. I didn't know a faucet could go bad.)

Alice Roadtrip 2013

5AM lightning storm finally subsiding

Welcome new visitors! I just wanted to write a short summary of what adventures Alice will be setting out on this year, and give some background for new followers.

Over the past 4 summers, I have traveled around the country in this 1964 aluminum Avion trailer. She is named after Alice Ramsey, the first woman to drive across the US in 1909. We left on out first trip on the 100 year anniversary, and it have proved to be a lucky name. During our travels, I began photographing Alice as a stand-in for the nuclear-family-on-vacation she was originally built for. Here is Alice at a scenic vista or the Grand Canyon or at an once cream factory. She also stands in as an object of desire, a referent to the nostalgia we have for what-could-be or might-have-been. 

The first summer was an ambitiously long trip, covering a broad area of the country but slightly more focused on the West and Southwest. We stuck to blue highways over interstates whenever possible. The most famous roads were Route 66 and the Pacific Coast Highway. Beautiful, exciting roads if you have the time to take them. The next two summers (2010-11) were mainly the central and northern sections of the Midwest. Last summer, 2012, was mainly spent in the Rockies. 

Whew, that was 15000 miles. Now for this summer, our most ambitious trip yet. I expect to cover 22 states in the south and the east, including trying to drive in Manhattan and to the tip of Key West. I'll be using Facebook this summer to solicit insight into local scenes and give brief updates along the way. Posts here should still happen many times a week, but for play-by-play, I'm using the FB (I used to use Twitter for this but it was more tricky to update photos). 

I welcome you to follow our journey over the next two months. Our first destination will be Benton Harbor, Michigan, where Avion trailers were born.

Rhino then flamingo.

I can't decide if I'm the flamingo or the guy trying to eat when the rhinoceros hits the table. That's how it's felt this week. I don't feel like going into all of it here. I don't want to go into it because that will give it history and immortality. I don't want to focus on that. Rewatch the video and think it's like having the rhino hit the table, then pounding your head on the table like the flamingo. And laugh at it. We won't worry about animal control or missing trailer axle parts or finances or bureaucracy or operating systems or anxiety. Laugh and wonder where that guy got the pink flamingo suit.

No more classes

I turned in my last grades this morning, with 4 whole minutes to spare! I could have slept in 4 more minutes!

Now comes the fun part--planning the summer travel. I have 21 states to cover and two months to cover them. Alice is getting her moth balls shaken loose and so far, no biting or stinging trespassers have been found.

More on map routes in the coming days.

Attached is a picture of thrift shop fabric I didn't buy.

New old books in my collection

Books from my collection (above)

Books I am collecting (with descriptions of what I would like):
- pre-1980s books on "How to" do things to the house
- pre-1980 books to make certain kinds of art (like driftwood art), or books on physics for kids (with models to build).
- pre-1950 text books, especially with annotations