We finally went on a two week trip with the Ambassador. Everything went great. We left Northern California for Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

We did have one overnight stay on the way. We found a $20 hookup site on the side of the freeway somewhere in Nevada. We arrived outside of Yellowstone about 5pm the second day. We did not have any plans on this trip. No reservations. The first campsite in West Yellowstone, MT was fully booked. They had turned away about 30 trailers before we got there. We had to settle for a site about seven miles from the park entrance.

Not a bad site. They had a stream nearby. I think the stream and weather brought the millions of misquotes though! Our site did have a low voltage problem. When we turned on the microwave the lights would dim. I confirmed with a voltmeter and found the voltage drop to 90vac. That will kill your A/C. We found another plug on the pedestal to use that worked a little better. This turned out to be a temporary fix though. On the third night we returned to a dead trailer. The park power at our site dropped to 4 volts! I had to use my 30 amp extension cord to borrow power from the next site over. Always be prepared!

Immediately after pulling into the park we were stopped by bison. I’m not sure the difference between bison and buffalo, but they always called them bison. They would pretty much stop traffic. That was an easy indicator of something to see. We also saw moose, elk, bald eagles, and even a black bear.

Of course the animals are not the only reason to go to Yellowstone. You have all the natural water features. The most famous is the geyser Old Faithful going off every 90 minutes. The family favorite were the many hot springs in the lower loop of the park.

There was also the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. I caught this rainbow in the falls.

From Yellowstone we headed toward Seattle, WA to check out the Space Needle. Here is one of many typical rest stops for a driving break.

The Seattle campground was the most expensive, probably due to its location. This site actually had the sewer connection in front of the trailer! I had to use my 45 feet of sewer hose for the first time. Luckily I had it!

We picked up a city pass for $44/person that allowed for five events. These included the zoo, aquarium, boat tour, and a couple of museums. It was a good deal. The pass is good for 9 days, but we crammed it into two!

A couple of things it seems like everyone has is an iMax theater and a butterfly house. We kinda got tired of the iMax. In Yellowstone the free movies at the visitor centers were actually more informative.

After Seattle we made our way to McMinnivile, OR to the Evergreen Aviation Museum to see the Howard Hughes Flying Boat. Better known as the Spruce Goose. They had a nice parking lot we used for the midday stop.


Evergreen is a really nice museum if you are into planes. They also just opened a space museum, but we did not go in it.

We headed down the coast through the California Redwoods and wound up in Fort Bragg. A really nice drive. Although the curvy road from Oregon on hwy 1 to Crescent City was pretty interesting. Fort Bragg is a great place to check out the Botanical Gardens.

I’m happy to say that the truck and trailer did great. We had gas mileage as high as 13.9 and as low as 10. All in all it was better than I thought it would be.

Only one small annoyance in the trailer was a slow tub drain. I’ll have to look into that one. It worked fine this spring when we used the trailer.

Fifteen nights in the 28 foot trailer with five people was a little bit of a challenge. But we got through it.

One thing we would do different is only pay for one night at a time. Some campgrounds were not as nice as advertised and others were better. We made the mistake of staying at a less than desirable campground for two nights just so we could have a catch up day on laundry and shopping. The campground advertised new laundry facilities which was nothing more that a new washer and dryer in the bathroom. We ended up going to a local laundry mat. Next time we’d continue on down the road to a better campground with proper facilities.

So thats the trip, not too shabby. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the kids handled the long driving days pretty well. Funny on non-camping trips its nice to get home. On camping trips, everyone always wants to stay longer.

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Whirlwind weekend.

I flew out on the redeye at 12:15 am last Thursday for the Cherry Blossom Rally in Upper Marlboro, MD and arrived local time at 10:25 am. Rob and his family picked me up from the airport in Washington DC and told me they wanted to go to the mall.

I was wondering why they wanted to go to the mall, I just wanted to see the White House. Well, turns out that’s what they call the mall. It includes the White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, etc….

Here is a photo at the White House. If you look close you might see Marine 1 in the air carrying the President back to the White House.

Continuing on down the mall we went by the Washington Monument. It was huge. You can actually go inside of it if you get tickets early enough.

Next up is the Lincoln Memorial. This is cool. It is a 19 foot carving of the President.

Next we walked down to the Vietnam Memorial wall. This wall contains the names of those who died in that war. One thing I noticed is that all of the other memorials you can hear people talking and making noise. When walking the Vietnam Memorial there was a silence that was very distinct.

After what seemed like several miles of walking the mall in 90 degree heat after my being up over 30 hours, I was ready to crash. We drove on to the rally site at the Rogers farm and found many aluminum homes setup for the weekend.

That picture was taken the last day of the rally when the rain clouds came around. The previous days were hot and muggy.

Colin arrived a day late so I had to find a room elsewhere. Luckily Dave Morrison had a nice spot on his gaucho which was just reupholstered. Nice and comfy. Thanks Dave!

After Colin showed up I moved my stuff in his trailer since he was there by himself. Colin had recently turned 50 and we teased him about needing a walker to get around. A fellow Airstreamer Steve brought a walker to hide in Colin’s trailer for a joke. Only Colin thought it was mine since I had just moved in. It was quite funny.

But I did happen to snap this photo…..

At the CBR they always have entertainment for Saturday night. Some how the scheduled band did not show up. So theVAP was fill in. We recorded a show in front of a live audience in the tent. Once again Dave Morrison to the rescue with his pro audio gear and had us sounding great. You can check it out in theVAP Episode 68.

Here we are setup doing the show.

Here is a shot of all of us with Frank. Frank is a dedicated listener to theVAP. Frank was responsible for getting me to the CBR in the first place. He challenged Rob and Colin to see who would have the best bathroom restoration by the time of the rally.

From left to right: Tim, Frank, Rob, and Colin.

Traveled 3000 miles and didn’t even win a t-shirt. Are you reading this Steve H.? !!!

I want to thank Rob and his family for the help with the flight out to Washington and the hospitality at the rally. I also want to thank Colin and everyone else at the CBR.

It was a fun time talking with everyone about their trailers. Lots of fun folks. If you have the opportunity to go to the CBR I highly recommend it. Too bad its so far for me. I’d love to have my family and trailer there.

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