Day 5 - Westward Ho! (to Cali)

Day 5 – Joshua Tree…um, no.

Everyone warned us that driving through California on June would be a hot experience. And they are RIGHT! When I called in early May to make reservations for the campground near Joshua Tree, they laughed at me, telling me that it was the “off season”. No kidding! It was HOT! We had every intention of stopping at the park for a visit, but when we pulled off at the exit, we had a change of heart. The truck had just pulled up a large hill, and was already hot. Nobody in our party was excited about spending more time outside in the heat. And we were making good time, so we decided to push it on through to our next stop: Anaheim.

When researching the campgrounds near Disneyland, all we could see from the pictures were acres of asphalt and concrete. Some had pools, others had dog kennels, but they all had concrete and little grass. Except one. Nestled off of highway 91 en route to LA in a town named "Riverside" is a simple campground called “Canyon RV”. I was a bit concerned about the facility, since we were planning on spending 3-nights. But out of all the campgrounds we have been to, we have been pleasantly surprised by the area. There is a pool, and a water park, and a playground, and a river. There is the sound of the highway in the distance, but this is really the only drawback. The staff located us centered between the pool and the playground, with the washroom facilities nearby as well. There is so much green space for our kids and dog to run…it’s like having your own park to camp in. The staff are friendly, but a pleasant surprise is the locals. Evidently this campsite is one of Orange County’s best kept secrets. Many people live in the RV park, semi-permanently. They can only stay for 6 months at a time, but they live here fulltime during those 6 months. Then leave for a week and return for another 6-month stint. And I can see why – it’s beautiful here. If we ever decide to throw away city life in Denver…this place would be high on the replacement list for us. The kids would love living here, for sure! All the “locals” have their own little golf carts to putter around in, and gardens boasting large, ripe tomatoes, and flower beds with their own plants. As I type, I’m watching my daughter play at the playground with some of the local kids while a teenager bikes laps around the facility on the smoothly paved road surface. It seems like such a safe haven for families, either to live or to camp. About the only drawback, besides the constant traffic noise of Hwy 91 in the background, would be that the pool is unheated. Otherwise: nearly perfect!

Forgive my typing and grammatical errors. Time is short: I have a limited battery life and a game of Mancalla to race back to. Besides...I'm suppose to be camping!

Day 6 - Disneyland!

We gave the kids an option: do you want to sleep in? Or hit the park early? It was unanimous: hit the park EARLY! Traffic wasn’t too bad, as we seemed to miss much of the commuter traffic.

Sidebar:

LA traffic is C-R-A-Z-Y! I’ve never seen so many cars, or so many lanes, or so many highways and byways and commuter lanes and interstates woven into one organic driving mess. I could not do this on a daily basis. The cars are driving fast and weaving in-and-out, switching lanes at a dangerously close proximity. In the words of my daughter Kim, “Nooooooo, thank you!

One thing we learned about Disneyland during our research is that they have a dog kennel available for you to use. They don’t feed or walk your pet, but they do give Fido water. For $20, they give your pet a blanket to sleep on, it’s own kennel, and then require you to check in on your dog periodically to walk it, feed it, and give it some attention. It was money well spent! They have a cute little dog walk area for you to encourage your dog to do their business. It was very convenient for us and allowed us to enjoy the day, relatively carefree.

Disneyland – A California Adventure. Since having children, we have been to the Orlando retreat 3 times. I’m the only one in my family that has ever seen the California resort, and that was when I was 8 years old. We had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time! To see the twinkle in my youngest daughter’s eyes when she finally gets to see the castle, and the princesses, and Mickey and Minney – it truly is magical.

We stayed at the park from 9am-11pm. The park opened at 8am, but we made a few wrong turns. And the park stays open until midnight, but our kids were dog-tired by 10:30pm. We rode Space Mountain 6 times, Splash Mountain 4 times, Big Thunder Mountain and the Matterhorn twice, The Haunted Castle and Pirates of the Caribbean, plus numerous smaller rides. But the record, this trip was the Autorace. Jade rode that ride 7 times. She was crazy in love with this ride. Kim had a great time driving the sooped-up go-carts!

NOTE: Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain were the same as in Orlando, except that Splash Mtn was single-file carts instead of tandem. The Haunted Mansion ride was the same, but the outside was noticeably different. I guess they changed the Pirates ride to reflect the movie more. I didn’t like it as much as before. And Space Mountain was very different (tandem seating instead of single). I like Orlando’s ride better, but my wife and son liked California’s better. It’s all about preference.

A couple of "pretty, pretty princesses"































Kim LOVED driving these cars. She was a CRAZY woman!!






























The four of us ready for the fireworks...and one of us out already :-)














The firework show was spectacular, as always. This show had both Tinkerbell and Dumbo flying in the background. Very, very impressive. Overall, we had a magical time in the park, riding the rides, watching the shows, eating too much food and buying too many souvenirs. But it was all worth it to see the smiles on our kid’s faces, especially the little one, who had never experienced the joy of Disney before.

I love taking night shots of fireworks...here are some of my favorite shots:












































BOOM!!































I don't know if it was intentional or just my camera angle...but I see mickey in this explosion!

Day 7 - The Pacific Ocean

We had one goal today: to drive to sea level. After asking a few of the locals about their preference for beaches, it was unanimous: Hwy 55 to Newport. They told us to drive West until we hit water. This pretty much summed up our goal for the vacation.

The ocean was perfect. The temps were in the mid-80’s, the waves were rolling, but not too powerful. The sun was out and the water was cool. We had a fantastic day! Kaleb was out in the water playing in the waves before any of us could get our shirts off. Jade started in the water, but quickly retreated upon learning that there were “living” things in the water (um, they’re called clams, and they’re about the size of a dime!) It was all very educational for the kids, and I enjoyed strolling in the salt water. We had a great day, a “down” day as I called it, coming down from the Disneyland high. We ate seafood for lunch, and strolled along the pier, watching fishermen catch a few stingrays and snub-nosed sharks. Ewww!






























Kaleb was meant to be near the Ocean. He will end up in Hawaii when he's older!

The locals weren’t friendly, but they weren’t mean either . I think they just wanted to be left alone. The biggest drawback was that our dog was not welcome. Not on the beach nor on the pier. Bummer. She hasn’t had the best trip…but hey, at least she’s not at home!

I succeeded in taking my family from mile-high existence down to sea level. And we had a great day at the beach. The worst part of it all is that tomorrow we have to pack up and head home. It’ll be a long trek, and I’m not looking forward to getting back to work. But that’s why they call this a vacation. Hmmm, maybe the RV park can reserve our spot for 6 months…and the wife and I could work at Disney. Don’t laugh…it’s possible! $700 per month for one camping spot, and that includes: water, power, trash, and sewer – plus a pool and shower facilities. All in Orange County…the wife and I are considering our options!

Tomorrow's a big trip...400 miles to Zion National Park. *sigh* The trip is nearing the end.

The 'New' 1963 Airstream Safari

My friends, at this time, I'd like to introduce you to our newly restored, VINTAGE, 1963 Airstream Safari:

















The Zimmer family is making the preparations to head west:
......to CAL-I-FORN-I-A!!

We leave on Friday, and are very excited about our trip. Along our journey we will be visiting and camping at National Parks: Mesa Verde (the Anasazi Cliff Dwellings), Four Corners, Grand Canyon (South Rim), Joshua Tree, Zion, and Arches (Moab).

We'll be camping on SoCal for 3 days, with one of the days spent at....


wait for it....



DISNEYLAND!!!!

Yes, we are heading to Anaheim to visit the Disneyland Park. Our kids volunteered this winter and earned free tickets to the park. So we will spend an entire day (8am-midnight!) enjoying the Magic Kingdom. Kim is very, very excited to see all of the princesses. She's not sure which dress she's going to wear -- she has about 6 to choose from.

If you've been visiting the blog lately, you've seen that I've been working on restoring our Airstream. Most of what I've been blogging about is polishing the exterior. But what I haven't been sharing is the restoration of the interiors. I figure I've spent over 200+ hours this spring working on getting the bullet ready for the road.


It all started with this:

A stock, 1963 twin-bed configuration. For whatever reason, I guess it was taboo for mom and dad to sleep in the same bed in the '60's. Hmmm? So when we bought the trailer, I immediately recognized a critical design flaw: my snuggle partner and I were separated at night! Had the original sleeping configuration allowed for the two beds to meet and turn into one, I would have saved myself a TON of trouble. But nope. Instead...I got busy with my hammer and power drill!



This is a stock photo from the summer of 2006. Ahhh, that young man is only 32 years old *sigh*.

Here you can see the young pup removing the drawers and framework for the benches. All this CRAP would be stored in various areas of my back porch and garage throughout the next four years....patiently waiting to be brought back to life!



Let me put this timeframe into perspective for you. This young man is 4 YEARS OLD!!!












This is the same young man (and the same haircut!), but he's now 8-years old, and just got baptized at church this past weekend!

By his "earthly father" and "spiritual brother"





So after the dust had settled, and the asbestos tiles had been removed, I laid down a masonite floor and began my plans for the interior restoration.



Ummm....then life got in the way. I could blame a whole list of reasons why I left the interiors alone for so long: the economy, the house addition, the kid addition, bad weather, good weather, fishing, etc. Truth is, we were fine sleeping on the floor and not in a hurry to get it done. In fact, because of my need for perfection, I knew that I had to have certain factors lineup before I could rebuild the interiors correctly: time, money, material, tools, skills, help -- I needed the stars to align before I could begin my project.


Since the fall of 2006, this is how my interiors sat. A big, open storage space. Sure, we would move the stuff around as needed. And we would inflate our airmatress at night and sleep on the ground. It was great! No hurries. No worries.
p.s. This picture was taken less than 2 weeks ago.




And this picture was taken 2 nights ago:
















Certain things began lining up for us. We had set aside some money to begin the restoration. I found a friend with a HUGE wood shop. His shop is closed on Fridays (my day off), so he let me use the shop for my construction needs. He also taught me several useful woodworking skills: joining, doweling, gluing (who knew there was a technique for this?!), mitering. And he gave me helpful advice and tips from years of experience.

You can see in the picture that the plain surfaces are custom White Oak 1/2" veneer that I had fabricated (less $$ than buying it at the store). And the marbleized darker pieces are walnut benchtops that I built. The picture doesn't do much justice. You'll have to swing by our place and check out the interiors in person. We can share a pint of homemade root beer while kicking back!


For the past 5 weeks my garage has been transformed into a makeshift woodshop.








I've been cutting, planing, sanding, doweling, squaring, sanding (again), shootin' squirrels, gluing, staining, and finishing the various pieces.

It's been a fun and highly rewarding experience.

Plus my little 5-tap buddy (pictured there in the background) has been keeping me company during the long working hours.

Custom wood-working is a meticulous trade when you're dealing with the nearest 32nd of an inch -- and sometimes smaller.






It takes a great deal of patience and devotion to make it all work.

Fortunately my family has been very supportive and understanding these past few months. In turn, I plan on completely spoiling them with my time and attention during our Cali trip!


One of the coolest toys I was introduced to was an antique doweling jig. Okay, so it was only 20 yrs. old, but they don't make them like this any more!



It was a fun little tool that was indispensable for helping me piece together my project.

Just another way that the stars aligned to help us get the interiors done. Correctly, that is. Like I've said to Kathy numerous times -- I could have done this on a weekend for a couple hundred bucks. But I didn't want a quick, cheap fix. I wanted a vintage-looking installation.


Yea! Me, my box, and my lucky shirt!



...and a GREAT lookin' kegerator in the background!



I'm not naming names, but let's just say that some of the holiest of holies has partaken in my homemade rootbeer and specialty beers, and have blessed the sacred spirits. :-)

Okay...now I'm bragging ;-)

Interior Update: Just took this panoramic shot during lunch. Trying to get a better picture for ya. One good question is how this new configuration turns into a bed. What's missing in the picture is the custom table that I have yet to build. It lowers to fill the gap between the two benches, and then the cushions (not sewn yet) fold down to create the bed. These will be summer or fall projects. But building/installing the benches was a starting point.