Friday, October 26, 2007

Airstream Travel Trailers are Sleek and Retro! by Mike Schantz

Airstream Travel Trailers can definitely be considered as Americana. These crowd pleasers have been around for nearly eighty years. They are distinctly recognizable with their symmetrical design and shiny aluminum exterior. The Airsteam Trailer Company has a slogan: "See more. Do more. Live more." This message has been the inspiration for generations of trailer happy trekkers.

Airstream Trailers were founders of the travel trailer business. They've never let their status as the first and most economical travel trailer available to lull them into a false sense of security. They have diligently worked to stay on the forefront of the travel trailer industry. Airstream Travel Trailers continues to produce the lines of trailers that will fit into any budget, and satisfy any taste. Anytime, anyplace, these trailers continuously live up to the company's assertion that "The next best thing to an Airstream Travel Trailer is another Airstream." It appears to be a very good point!

Consider the quality of the construction that is put into every Airstreamer. It doesn't matter whether you are considering the most expensive trailer on the lot, or the least expensive trailer on the lot, you can always be sure that any Airstream trailer was built on a solid foundation, with a unique body design, and equipped with specially engineered running gear. Not to mention, amenities are available throughout the entire product line! This means that all Airstream trailers are entirely self-sufficient and are fitted with any conveniences that you'll require for travel. This includes water and sewer hook-ups. Your Airstream choices are virtually endless!

Airstream offers its customers four lines (some with different models) to choose from. The most affordable is the BaseCamp Travel Trailer. It can be recognized as a light-weight, versatile, tent-trailer. It gives you the comfort of an RV crossed with the convenience of car-camping.

Another extremely popular model is known as the Safari Travel Trailer. More of this type of travel trailer have been sold than any other model. They are a famous highway icon, that is terrifically suited for the small family of travelers.

If you require a little more room, you should consider the Airstream Trailer lines, International and Classic. These Airstream Travel Trailers will make you feel right at home with their spacious interiors and comfort exuding amenities. It's not a joke!

Look no further for the durability kings, as Airstream Travel Trailers are really hard to conquer. Just think, more than two thirds of the Airstream Travel Trailers built since the 1930's are still in use today. Talk about lasting a lifetime! Your Airstream Travel Trailer will be an investment that you can someday pass on to you children. Now, that's impressive! If you have caught the traveling bug, purchasing an Airstream just might be your best cure!

Check out more about Airstreams and other Technical trailer issues HERE.

About the Author

Mike Schantz is an active partner in 2 different trailer companies for more than 20 years. His position has centered around the design and engineering of all types of trailers, but he has also dabbled in sales, marketing and even customer service. For more information about him or trailers in general please visit http://www.trailer411.com.

I SAW THE LOCH NESS MONSTER - A True Story Of Inexplicable Events! by Tim Richardson

The much feared great white shark has been regarded as non-existent, in UK waters. Until very recently that is! Apart from recent claimed sightings from fishermen in Cornwall and from Newhaven and other fishing ports, there had been no 'proof' that great whites frequent the cold coastal waters of the UK. There has never been a recorded shark attack in the UK as far as I can find and the chances of attack, even off California where great whites hunt seals, are still ridiculously low. Sharks are intelligent too in their own highly developed ways.
I always 'knew' they were there though. Anglers have caught shark species unknown to science off the south of England and more mysteries are yet to be revealed. Giant sturgeon have been stranded far up rivers like the Stour, miles inland. Gigantic leatherback turtles have regularly been washed up on shores around the south west coasts. Giant tuna well over 500 pounds in weight are still seen off the Yorkshire coast. Even Gavin Maxwell's book "A ring of bright water" describes a creature resembling the fabled 'Loch Ness Monster' with a long neck off barely inhabited Scottish islands. I myself experienced the creature's presence while standing by the freezing cold flat calm Loch on a bright sunny morning in February 2002.
The day was calm and sunny but temperatures were cold following a hard frost that morning. Standing on the jetty by the castle in Urquahart bay I felt an unprecedented irrational fear sweep over me and I backed off the jetty fast. I walked up the grassy slope feeling foolish not having felt such a feeling ever before strong enough to move me from standing over the cold peaty red - black water.
Now as a very serious fisherman I have spent 30 years intensively spending a great proportion of this time on the banks and shores of hundreds of lakes, lochs, rivers, seas, ponds, and stretches of water, most often all night long. But I've never experienced such a unique feeling of fear before even at 'haunted' locations or in fierce lightening storms or on the darkest of nights miles from civilisation.
I know fish behaviour pretty well and felt something was very 'wrong' when just then I observed trout leaping high out of the water. This was only 200 metres away from my position over far deeper water and these fish were in such a highly excited state, darting about everywhere as if looking to escape something unseen below them. I quickly felt in my bag for my binoculars when I realised I did not need them...
I am more than scientific when it comes to the 'unknown,' requiring measurement and evidence and past records to verify anything unusual. I preferably would experience things 'first hand' before analysing and concluding anything substantial. I did not really think the mythical 'Loch Ness monster' existed except in the minds of fantasists or locals benefiting from the tourist trade in the area.
The major 2 reasons for this was that the entire loch had been under ice during the last ice age, so most likely preventing anything from remaining from previous times. Not only this, but detailed surveys show 'insufficient' fish stocks present in the loch which would appear to not be able to support a population of large animals for sustenance.
Please picture this now, because this is what I observed next: As a fish turns its flank over and rolls just under the surface of the water, it raises the water above it. I have observed this hundreds of times over the years being a big fish angler (mainly of giant catfish and big carp) of 30 years experience. The width, depth and length of the fish is indicated by the dimensions of this water movement discerned by the experienced eye. What this indicated was a massive creature.
For example an average sized large 30 pound carp may move a significant oval shaped area of water at the surface of perhaps to 3 feet. Such a fish would be about 3 feet long and between a foot and a foot and a quarter deep. The surface water movement I observed was about 15 feet long by 10 feet across... I never saw what caused it but I've fished right next to large seals, seen deer swimming in a lake, know very well the depth of sturgeon and dolphins compared to carp and whatever caused this phenomenal water movement was none of these possibilities. This was no killer whale or known cetacean either if that's what you are thinking...
There was a weird fact about my camera which is not uncommon at this loch. It has never failed me in thousands of photographs taken on thousands of bright days or dark even misty nights or on the hottest to the coldest of winter night temperatures. I am very careful to keep the battery at least new or at least 'half full.' On attempting to photograph the water anomaly, the camera failed completely despite calmly retrying. Filming under pressure of speed is not at all new to me with this camera. No photo was achieved.
Once all was calm, as if nothing had ever happened to disturb the completely calm surface of the thousands of feet deep bay without even a ripple present, I tried the camera again. This time it worked; in the 5 years since then, it has never failed either. There is definitely far more to this place than is yet known and not merely electrical anomalies. As someone has actually touched a ghost person - I therefore KNOW not merely just believe they do indeed exist, just like our 'electro-magnetic energy body' exists.)
I conceive that this Loch Ness creative could possibly be a 'ghost' or some kind of recording released by the electrical energy produced by gigantic forces caused by the faults and rocks movements present beneath the entire length of this long loch. (This does not explain sightings by police and military in waters with no faults present.) However, there are unusual lights occasionally observed in the Loch Ness area attributed to electical effects from the rocks and fault below the loch.
Whatever happened, this is my experience. This was no 'giant bubble' of gas escaping from the depths. I do not subscribe to the 'plesiosaur' theory - having seen in close detail the fossil skeletons of plesiosaurs and plesiosaur-like animals in the 'Natural History Museum' here in the UK. The chest and abdomen dimensions were not correct for the depth of water movement I saw and there was no evidence of water disturbance from flipper appendages either. I feel this creature I experienced is a different one to the popular 'mythical' version altogether.
One of the most puzzling aspects of this whole 'mythical' creature and its sightings, is that when Urquahart Castle was inhabited for generations (overlooking the very deepest water at the mouth of Urquahart Bay) this phenomenon was never reported. So what is really going in this ancient place?
By Tim Richardson.

About the Author

Tm Richardson is a professionally trained horticulturalist, with a background in zoology. A naturalist and big fish angler for 30 years, Tim has written expert bait making books for targetting giant catfish and big carp. Find these massive and unique books along with free bait articles at: http://www.baitbigfish.com

Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Russian Package: a short story

I just found a website called 365 Tomorrows, which posts a new scifi short story everyday. This one caught my attention; I just wish it were longer!
I am adding the webpage to my links in the sidebar, to make it convenient to visit regularly.

Kate Autry (Affair with Gravity) talks about the SoCal Fires

Saturday, October 20, 2007

American ham

Common-place.org has a very good article about the history and production of American ham. It is a good and informative read. Click here to read it.
I've always wanted to try my hand at raising a few hogs, and then home-processing the meat. Maybe one of these years I'll have a chance to do so. They are a wonderful homestead animal, especially for those who are creating a homestead in the woods, because they will "till" the land, digging up roots and grubs, making the land arable while fertilizing it for future vegetable production. Chickens and goats help the process, too. Not to wax political or alienate any of my readers, but that is one of the things I think vegans are missing: the symbiotic relationship between homestead vegetables and animals. Without the hogs, chickens and goats, one must use internal combustion engines to efficiently raise vegetables.
Another use of hogs I have heard about since I was young, is fencing them into a newly-dug pond for a year so they will pack the ground and thus cause the new pond to become watertight. Otherwise one has to use, you guessed it, a petroleum-based product.
Oh, and one last thing: if you have hogs and goats, you are not likely to have problems with rattlesnakes, copperheads, and the like.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Homebuilt slide-in camper

"Budget Camper is 13 ft long, fits on long-bed full-size pickups, and is rugged enough to take the beating of off-road trails - the kind of punishment that would reduce most campers to rubble. The secret of Budget Camper's strength is in her unique construction method. Campers are usually built up of many short lengths of 1 x 2 wood, which are held together with staples. Budget Camper's frame is different. It is built with an integral truss-style frame, cut from sheets of 4/3-inch plywood using a portable reciprocating saw. The framing for each wall section is cut from a single sheet of plywood. This creates a structure that is many times stronger, and it also means that there is nothing to come apart when the going gets rough."
So says the blurb at this site, which sells build-it-yourself plans for $45. It looks intriguing. I've always liked pickup truck campers, but most of them tend to be either very expensive, or structurally unsound. Note: if there is any sign of past or present water leakage, it is probably structurally unsound. Building your own is a possible way around both problems.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Terlingua Time

I just found this on another blog. It is a good read and has some awesome pics, to boot!

"We are finally on Terlingua time I was told yesterday, arriving a couple days late at my friend’s Paul and Voni’s house to visit for a few minutes on our way back from Alpine. That is a good sign! We fall into that space invariably as we settle in one area, but it seems that as we move, for some reason or another, the reality of a man (or woman) made time unit seems to surface a bit. Even this Blog seems not to be in a chronological order today, we continue to explore the area… but do I really need to write it all down in the order it happens?" Read more

Speaking of Terlingua time, I am planning another trip there, and other places, very soon. I don't plan to be there for the chili cook-off, but I will just miss it.

Archived Terlingua Ranch article

The entire 4-part article is now archived here, for easier access.

Friday, October 5, 2007

180 mpg!

Man, this is so cool. I gotta build one. I think I'll build it on my old CB500T. Enfields are easy because of the separate tranny, but they're too expensive. Of course, I could build it on my YZ490 and have an offroader. I don't ride the '490 anymore because my XR500 is a much better trailbike, and I'm too old to be riding an open-class motocrosser anymore. That bike's a psychopath.
These diesel conversions really do get 180-200 mpg.

David Gilmour

There are many videos out there of "Comfortably Numb", but this one is my favorite by far. Why? Caroline Dale on cello. She absolutely gives me chills.
Unfortunately, the audio doesn't come through very well on this video. It's perfect on the DVD it was taken from, though. I highly recommend the DVD; in fact I recommend it so highly that I have posted a link so you can get your own copy!

Ian Anderson interview

Cheap boondocking van?

I love it! I'd like to build one of these. Not suitable for the Interstates of course, but it would be good for running into Niland to pick up necessities.