What happened to Burning Man???

If you are landing here for the first time, check the advice in the column to the right to understand how this blog is organized - you are at the final entry.

Looking for Burning Man itself? For some, Burning Man is controversial so I've decided to cover our time there in a separate blog - see:

The Murrays do Burning Man 2008

Thanks to the many or few that took the time to look through this blog - I hope it gives you a taste of what it is like traveling about North America in an Airstream, and a little bit about life in the WBCCI.

Another flat, Dana and Aja to the rescue...

We stopped near Medford for a wonderful lunchtime visit with cousins Dana and Aja, only to find a flat tire on returning to the trailer.

With a little help from Aja and Dana, we were able to get the tire changed fairly quickly and complete our journey home.

Land Yacht Harbor - Lacey WA

After leaving Andrew we visited Washington Land Yacht Harbor, the Airstream campground at Lacy, WA, owned by the Washington unit of the WBCCI.

We camped in their transit parking lot and before we could get unhooked we ran into our fellow caravaners Malcolm and Sue, Chuck and Marggie, and Felix and Joanne. Next Steve, also a fellow caravaner and permanent resident of the park, showed up and he and Elaine invited all of us over for a spontaneous reunion dinner.

Of course, Steve also showed this rather receptive audience his growing collection of vintage Airstreams.

Seattle August 18-20, 2008

The Maple Leaf Trail caravan is over, we are in the US, diesel is cheaper, no more loonies and twonies, and we are on our way home. But first a visit with son Andrew and Mary Lou, and their dog Freddie (not shown, cats Pumpkin and Sprocket). These are all rescue animals, now well adjusted and seemingly happy.

Andrew hosted the great first night with pizza at his townhouse in Seattle; on the rainy next night Marcia made a wonderful dinner at our trailer and Freddie got to use his raincoat; tonight I’m taking the humans to birthday dinner – we had not seen Andrew since his or his mother’s birthdays.

Getting out of Dodge...the jinx strikes again

On returning from the caravan banquet in 2007, after a mishap-free trip (well mostly mishap-free), I managed to run over a hose bib in our campground. This caused flooding of 2-3 sites and the need to turn off the water throughout the campground for an hour.

This time, with the caravan completed and while waiting in line to board the ferry home, Floyd noticed that I had a flat trailer tire.

This is when this caravan stuff really pays off.

With boarding to begin in 45 minutes, Floyd, HV, and Cal jumped in and started changing my tire while Marcia hustled us all coffee from a local vendor. (Floyd -shown with his dog Taffy - and Jolene are from Colorado where he was in the Air Force and was a teacher; she spent her career working for the USAF Academy and the AF Space Command.) In the time it took me to find my spare tire, Floyd produced a battery-powered impact wrench and removed my old wheel. We had my spare inflated (it was low from storage) and on the trailer with plenty of time to spare.

What a group.

Final Banquet – Four Mile Roadhouse

Tonight, August 17, 2008, the Maple Leaf Trail caravan came to a close with a banquet at the Four Mile Roadhouse – reportedly the 4^th oldest house in Victoria’s history, and a former brothel. (Many good places seem to have a dark side in their past.)

It is amazing how easily sixty-some people traveling together can become a family. We will hopefully meet again on future caravans.

The ladies have High Tea

The traditional high tea at the Empress costs something like $20 so the Ladies of WBCCI decided to have their own in the meeting room of the Ft Victoria RV Park.

Butchart Gardens reappraised

But after that hour (or so) we and four other couples settled on the no bugs, not over-watered, not under-watered, weed-free greens of Butchart for a picnic dinner and a little wine.

Butchart provided a folk music trio which we half-listened to while enjoying each other’s company and the, well, wine. The music and singing seemed cheerful in a background sort of way, even though I caught them singing “… end of the world as we know it”. Always bring wine to a folk concert, just in case.

We then moved to a fireworks viewing area and at 9:15 PM enjoyed a half-hour of really very good fireworks, not well documented here. There were, of course, the usual spectacular sky-bursting types, but there were also excellent ground level devices that moved dramatically on tracks, accompanied by strong music and singing.

At the end we grabbed our lawn chairs and blankets and walked through the darkness toward the exit. We had heard of more entertainment in other parts of the garden, but this didn’t really prepare us for what happened next: a floating apparition of a woman in a well-lit window, a halo of lights above her head, playing “Girl from Ipanema” on an organ.

Marcia and I headed on home. The others stayed for a guitar concert in another area of the park.

Judgment: Butchart Gardens rocks these days, if you go late in the afternoon on a summer Saturday, when you can enjoy the extras.