Starling Travel

Last January, Mike and I attended the Quartzsite RV Show in Arizona. It has now been almost two months since the show and I can safely say that it was not for me.

The RV shows in Salt Lake City are huge collections of trailers, motorhomes and campers all available for sale. The hype around the Quartzsite show was that it was, and I quote,

The largest gathering of RVers in the world.

I thought that meant that I would be able to look at trailers and campers from every manufacturer in the U.S., but I read it wrong. It’s the largest GATHERING of RVers, not RV dealers or manufacturers. It was a show for people who RV, not an RV show.

Sure, there were a few RV dealers there, but they brought only the biggest and most extreme motorhomes and fifth wheels. I literally had a salesman laugh at me when I said we were looking for trailers 16 feet or smaller. He said,

“You can’t even sleep in 16 feet.”

That was the moment when I realized that the man had never heard of a teardrop trailer, much less had one to show me. For weeks before the show, I dreamt about finally being able to see a Heartland MPG or Forest River RPod in person. I stared my disappointment in the face as the salesman tried to show us a Starcraft AR One, which is quite possibly the ugliest lightweight trailer on the market today.

The big tent was filled with As Seen On TV products. It was like the Utah State Fair, but there were THREE salsa making demonstrations instead of just one. There were a few representatives from campgrounds there, trying to attract RVers, but when we asked if they had tent sites, they looked at us like we were insane. I could almost hear the gears clicking in their skulls. “Why would you sleep in a tent when you can sleep in an RV?” I could almost hear the question come to their lips, but they just shook their heads and said, “No, we don’t have any tent sites.” It was as if I had stepped into another dimension, where sleeping in a tent was nearly incomprehensible.

When we ate lunch, we sat at a table with three other couples. All of us enjoyed the delicious BBQ and talked about what we had seen. I asked them a few questions. “Are any of you full-timers?” Only one couple was. The other two were escaping the bad weather in Canada and Minnesota.

“Did any of you camp in tents before you bought your RVs?” Everyone said that they had. “Why did you buy RVs?” The answers were unanimous. They were sick of sleeping on the ground. I held my tongue and didn’t mention the cots that set up in less than a minute. None of them mentioned the cold, which is the only reason I’m really attracted to an RV.

I wished them all well and gave them my phone number so they could call me when they passed through SLC on the way back home, but it was obvious to me that I would never see any of them again.

Quartzsite just isn’t my scene. I’m not the target audience.

Starcraft AR One Photo Via: Starcraft AR One 2012

The first thing I thought when I saw the website for the Jack Sisemore Traveland RV Museum was,

“I want to go to there.”

I realized that I don’t want to haul an RV across the country when I can just throw a tent in the hatchback, but I DO want to look at the old RVs. They are beautiful to me and I love to see them lovingly restored or in their original condition.

Among their many lovely RVs, they have the Gornicke’s Bus that followed Robin Williams’ family across the country in the movie RV. I wrote about that movie earlier here:

• Starling Travel » RV: Another Reason I’ll Stick With The Tent

I wish they also had the damaged and waterlogged RV that Robin Williams’ family rented, The Rolling Turd. Seeing them side by side would be like stepping into the movie.

The museum is in Amarillo, Texas, so it’s quite the drive for Mike and I to take to see it. Here is the contact information:

Jack Sisemore Traveland RV Museum
Phone: 806-358-4891
4341 Canyon Drive, Amarillo, TX
Admission: FREE!
Hours: Monday – Saturday 9am-5pm

The museum is free to the public and appears to be the collection of the owners of Sisemore Traveland RV Sales.

Via: Texas RVer: Amarillo hosts free RV museum

Photo Via: Jack Sisemore Traveland RV Museum

While we were working at CES this year, Mike and I stayed at Tahiti Village. It wasn’t the worst hotel we’ve stayed at in Nevada, but it was pretty close. Here is Mike’s evaluation of the place:

We liked the price. Otherwise it was nearly the worst hotel experience we’ve ever had.

Hotel staff was rude and inattentive. Internet didn’t work until we spent half a day talking to 8 different employees, all of whom tried to avoid helping us at all. Heater didn’t work in our room. One lamp had dangerous exposed wiring. Not particularly clean. The room smelled of mildew and the bedspread smelled worse. Staff spent two days noisily cleaning carpets outside our room. The tap water tasted terrible and must have been specially imported to complete the experience, because Vegas water is usually just fine.

He forgot to mention that there was no housekeeping at the hotel and if you wanted the room made up, it was an extra $55 charge! There wasn’t even anyone around to ask if we could get fresh towels.

After the ordeal of trying to get the Internet to work in our hotel (the front desk had failed to enable it in our room and it took that many employees to figure out the problem), I was ready to abandon the hotel, but all the hotels in Vegas were booked solid for the week because of CES, so we ended up staying there.

Aside from living with the mildew smell and avoiding the smelly parts of the furniture, we had no further incidents that week, but the low cost for the hotel room was NOT worth it. Next time, I’ll pay more and stay at a different hotel. There are certainly enough to choose from in Las Vegas.

It’s possible for Americans to visit Cuba, but there is a ton of red tape to cut through and even more hoops to jump through before you can. If you are just a casual traveler, Cuba really isn’t an option, but you CAN see Cuba, just not today.

Here is a video travelogue from 1937, showing a pre-Castro Cuba in all its glory.

Back then, travel via airplane was a novelty and an expensive one at that, so most citizens of the United States were only able to visit Cuba vicariously through this film reel. Just like us, they were trapped in their movie theaters, unable to visit this island, but the restrictions were pecuniary, not political. Just recovering from the Great Depression, so many of our citizens were just glad to have survived.

The next time you are feeling trapped in your hometown, whether it’s because of the economy, gas prices or the fact that our countries are still locked in disagreement with each other, take a virtual vacation to Cuba and fly the Lindbergh Trail.

I love this video of Felicia Day’s Trip to Belize. All of us take a lot of video and photos while we’re on a trip, but her audio commentary is what makes the video so entertaining.

I’ve never been to Belize, so it was nice to see how it looked. When you’re feeling trapped at work and in need of a vacation, take a few minutes and watch this video. It will make you feel refreshed and ready to get back to the daily grind.

I love this video recording campsite number 104 at Cape Disappointment in Washington State.

How did Cape Disappointment and Dismal Niche get their name? According to Wikipedia, it was named by a member of the Lewis and Clark team in 1805. They were trapped there by a storm and called the place a dismal niche. The name stuck, but it was not a fair assessment. The place looks like a dream!

Here is a video of the lighthouse at night:

Here is a video of Beards Hollow at Cape Disappointment. It’s better if you mute the audio because the music is rather intrusive.

Next time you’re planning a trip in the Pacific Northwest, take a look at Cape Disappointment. It promises not to live up to its name!

I absolutely adore this video of a camper showing his friend how to cook stir fry while camping.

The cameraman is laughing his head off, so I immediately assumed that they were high. The more I thought about it, though, I have found myself being just as silly and laughing over the simplest things while camping at Lake Mead while stone cold sober.

They are using the exact same pan set that Mike and I have. I can’t even remember the brand of those pots, but they have been the BEST for us. It’s obvious that these guys like them as well.

These guys don’t have a huge camp kitchen setup with a table. Instead, they just cook on the ground and put their plates on the cooler. Whenever I am camping, THIS is the feeling that I usually get from cooking, sleeping and just relaxing in the outdoors. It’s so lovely that they were able to capture that emotion on camera and brought it to me in less than two minutes!

Update 02-20-12: I took a good look at my camping pans and they are the Bugaboo set from GSI. I tried to find them on Amazon, but it looks like they’ve been replaced by this set:

• GSI Outdoors Bugaboo Camper Cookset at Amazon.com

It includes cups and plates, which my set didn’t have. It was just a set of six pans (three pots and three frying pans). The beauty of my old set is that they were sized to nest so that they take the space of only one pot. They also sit so that the frying pan can be a lid for the similarly sized pot and vice versa.

Most importantly, they have lasted us for YEARS. The non-stick surface has stayed scratch-free and has not flaked off into our food like a cheap pan from Kmart. I love how the new set nests the pans AND the dishes in one convenient package and I’m tempted to upgrade, but since our pans have lasted so long and so well, there really isn’t a reason to change.

After my grandpa died, I scanned in all the photos that we found in his house. Going through them, I found this photograph of my grandmother. Click on it to see full-size.

This was my grandma in her blond phase. I remember as a child, she told me that she had been blond for a while, but she didn’t like it. She looks like a knockout to me, so maybe there was something else about being blond that she didn’t like. I have NO IDEA who the ruffian with the bandaged forehead is. It’s certainly not any of her three husbands.

The photograph isn’t quite as important as the cover it was enclosed in. This is the front:

It reads:

Birdland: Nightly Concerts of Jazz

Broadway and 52nd Street, New York

This is the inside cover:

I knew that my grandmother had traveled greatly over her years, but when I saw this photograph, her life suddenly became an adventure that I had only briefly glimpsed. Birdland Jazz Club was the hip jazz club in New York where all the cool cats played.

• Birdland (jazz club) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It still exists today, if not in the original location.

• Birdland
• Birdland Jazz Club on Google Maps

Knowing that my grandmother was a small part of that historical place makes me happy. How I wish she had told me the story of the night she went to Birdland and who she saw play there.

After seeing this video, I immediately wanted to hop on a plane to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Throughout the entire video, I was trying to figure out which city it was. I had pretty much decided that it must be Austin, Texas, because they were the coolest city I knew with bridges and a population willing to participate in a video like this.

This is a LONG video (over ten minutes), but it is totally worth it right to the very last minute. Give it a watch:

Video via: I’m Not Working Hard Enough – Amazing Video | Nice Photography Magazine – The “Why To” Magazine about Creative Photography and Film Making

Mike and I found this old photo of Las Vegas in an antique store a few months ago.

The caption reads:

Modern Version of the Old West – Las Vegas, Nevada

Vegas Studio

The cars in the photo look like they are from the late Forties or early Fifties. The I can see Hotel Apache and its casino, the Boulder Club, Overland Hotel, Hotel Sal Sagey, The Las Vegas Club, and Boulder Drugs.

Seeing the Boulder Club and Boulder Drugs in this photo, made me think that it wasn’t a photo of Las Vegas at all, but rather Boulder City, Nevada. That city, however, hasn’t allowed gambling since 1932, so it couldn’t be a photo of Boulder.

Adding to the mystery is the handwritten note on the back of the photo:

It reads:

This must be one of the side streets, as main street has neon the full length and full height of the buildings.

So, even the person who sent this picture to a loved one so long ago didn’t recognize which street in Las Vegas it was. I was able to find an old postcard for the Apache Hotel on Flicker, but it didn’t have an address.

Hotel Apache was most definitely in downtown Las Vegas. In fact, in 1932, when it was built, it was the first building with an elevator in Nevada. You can find out more about it here:

• Early Vegas: 1930’s Vegas – Apache Hotel

It appears to have NOTHING to do with the current-day Apache Motel that is on Main Street of Las Vegas. The building is completely different.

To me, the best part of this touristy photograph is the title: Modern Version of the Old West. Eighty years after Hotel Apache was first built, this picture is looking not very modern at all.