Happy Birthday, Someday!

 One year ago today we purchased our dream Airstream, "Someday."

January 30, 2010

January 30, 2011

 

 

We celebrated by singing Happy Birthday and eating cake... in the trailer of course.

Happy Birthday, Someday!

Someday We'll Have a White Christmas

This year, Atlanta saw it's first white Christmas since 1882.  We thought it was the perfect occasion to spend our fist night in the trailer.  Christmas afternoon, the kids played in the snow while Brian and I cleared a space in the trailer for us to put our camp mats and sleeping bags.

bags and camp mats in the front... tools and construction gear in the rear

It was a chilly night in the trailer.

...we weren't too excited about leaving our warm bags in the morning.

The kids enjoyed looking out at the snow and decorating the windows.

 

When we went to sleep there was snow on the ground but none on the Airstream.  

In the morning, we had a light dusting of snow on top!  

Three cheers for our maiden camp-out!

Hooray for Christmas!

Hooray for snow!

Hooray for our first night in Someday!

   

Airstream(ers) in Hawaii

For the last two weeks we've been on vacation in Hawaii.  I looked diligently in backyards all over the state (well, all over the two islands we visited) and didn't see a single Airstream.  On our last day I was ecstatic to see one!  Admittedly, the Airstream I spotted was in the airport on the front of a magazine.  

I was smitten nonetheless.

 Here's a few (read= probably too many) gratuitous vacation pictures:

 We camped at different places all over the Big Island for a week.  

(A green sea turtle came to visit.)

We camped here for 2 (chilly) nights... and still didn't have enough time to see everything we wanted to see.

We hiked across the Kilauea Ike cauldera.  

In 1959, the year our trailer was made and Hawaii became a state, this cauldera erupted. 

In the 1960s it was a lake of molten lava.

We had to watch our step on this 4 mile hike.

We visited the Thurston Lava Tube in Volcanoes National Park (even if it wasn't as adventurous as the "off the chart" one we explored later.)

...hiking to where the road was covered with lava

watching volcanic steam

Sunrise (not far from our tent) at Laupahoehoe Beach State Park

Sunset (near our A-frame) at Hapuna Beach State Park

All dressed up for a Hawaiian wedding.  

(Happy Marriage David & Karen!)

We did it!  We climbed Diamond Head!

 Visiting USS Arizona...I learned so much!

Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve

(We got to see an octopus!!!)

We sure enjoyed getting to see America's beautiful 50th state!  There's nothing like traveling to make you want to travel more.... I think it might be time to get back to work on that Airstream.

Christmas in July

It feels like Christmas!  My friend Cynthia found this gorgeous aluminum Christmas tree for me.  Wikipedia says they were most popular from 1958 until the mid 60s.  

It's the perfect tree for our trailer!  

If only Santa would send us come cooler weather...

Summer Vacation

We are really enjoying our time with friends while they are out of school.  From February to May our weekend and evening time was spent working diligently on our Airstream.  For the last few weeks we've been enjoying a little time off.

When the trailer was at the warehouse we made a concerted effort to get out of the door at right after dinner and up to the warehouse to work on the trailer.  I was convinced it would be even easier to work on the trailer once it was home.

 I was wrong. 

We've had the trailer home for almost a month we haven't worked on it. 

Not once. 

Now, I have an even greater respect for all of you Airstream-restoring folks who work on your trailers from home in your spare moments.  We have found that since our trailer is home it's easier to be distracted by other tasks.  (Or maybe it's just that we're no longer able to "escape" the fact that we haven't worked on the house in 4 months.)  

We do have a few excuses.  The first week the trailer was home, Brian was in Denver for a programming conference.  The second week, we took a non-maiden-voyage trip to Missouri for a family reunion.  (Our first RV park experience... blog material, for sure.)  The last two weeks we've just been doing our best to enjoy the summer before it slips away. With all of the cook-outs, swimming,water park-ing, hiking, picnicking, doughnut eating, bowling, and slumber-partying who has time to work on the Airstream in this blistering heat? 

Samuel swimming at our neighborhood pool

Mark Twain Landings Water Park in Monroe City, Missouri.
(Thanks, Mom!)

Kabobs for the 4th of July

Krispy Kreme with the gang

Samuel and friends bowling in their swimsuits

I'm sure we'll get right back to it when our schedule slows down and the temperatures cool. Time to go pack for another (tent) camping trip...Summer Rocks!

A Big Sigh of Relief...

I wasn't really sure how much we had accomplished this week until I went back and looked at the pictures of the trailer at the beginning of the week.
 

Nice and airy.
No windows.  No drip caps.  No bumper.  No taillights.  

Tasks we finished this week:

• cleaned up the windows (8 windows)
• repaired corner welds on a few window frames
• installed new window glass and seals (three per window)
• cleaned up & polished the drip caps
• attached the windows and drip caps to the trailer (except the one over the door)
• attached the bumper
• restored two Airstream badges
• made trailer lights ready for towing
• finished installing the access panels on the belly pan
• sealed the seams (to keep out water)
• made the trailer water tight

As I look at this list I notice "cleaned up the windows" sitting innocently at the top of the list.  This task leered at us from the top of our "To Do" list for quite some time.  Cleaning up the windows was a huge job. We used an abrasive wheel attachment for the drill and worked on the windows in spare 1 to 2 hour periods of time over the last couple of months.  

We couldn't have been happier to be finish with this tedious task.

Annabelle wore the tool belt and handed rivets to Daddy when we installed the drip caps. 

Samuel has been waiting (at times not so) patiently for his first chance to use the soldering iron.  He finally had the opportunity this week.  He and Brian are looking forward to more wiring work soon.

We have really been spoiled with our rented warehouse space but now it's time for us to move out.

 Our last evening in the warehouse was an almost-all-night-er.  Brian and I finally crashed on the floor with the kids for a few hours.   Sunday morning we packed the trailer with tools and headed out.

We had lots of tools and supplies to move... 

(Not to mention: an old axle & wheels, the fridge, lots of scrap aluminum and two ornery endcaps)

 

 Home again home again jiggity jig.
Windows. Drip Caps. Bumper.  Taillights.  License Plate.

It was important for us to make the trailer water tight before we brought it home.  For a couple of the vents "water tight" involved putting a plastic bag over the vent temporarily.
Sunday evening brought a summer shower and we had the chance to check our work.

All I can say is that it's amazing how much water can come in through a rivet hole.  The front window has a rock guard.  It still needs a few repairs before we can attach it to the trailer.  It's not critical that the rock guard be in place for us to use the trailer so we forgot to consider that not attaching it would leave a seam of open holes on the side of the trailer.
(Golly.  What were we thinking?  I think we were sleep deprived.)
Now it's waterproofed with duct tape.


After putting forth our best effort we finally decided "Someday" will not be making the maiden voyage in June.  Instead of being disappointed we're hugely relieved.   We're still making the trip but we'll be bringing out tent.  I have had my heart set on an Airstream for 7-10 years...waiting a few more weeks before we take our first trip really isn't a big deal.

We're Tired.

Pun intended.

We've been putting in some long hours this week.  Sometimes when we're so close to finishing something it's just hard to go home.  Here's a couple of projects we finished this week:

We installed the axle and wheels.

Ready to roll?  Not quite... but getting closer.

 One of the hardest thing about installing the axle (besides having the proper hardware) was making the U-bolts squeeze tight enough to fit into the tie plate.  Tools required:  Lots of patience and a C-clamp (preferably one without a pivoting clamp face.)

Speaking of the tie plate, we're so grateful that SAM was willing to weld our shock mounts to the tie plate.

Thanks again, SAM.

Axle is installed!

Thursday night we finished riveting in the belly pan.