winner, winner, chicken dinner!

I hit the Airstream lottery! Rob Baker called to tell me that I won the '64 Tradewind raffle. Cannot express how excited we are here at the Hansen household. Thought I was being punked.

goodbye clearcoat

I had time today to apply a gallon of RemovALL 220 to the trailer. It took just about 3 hours to coat the Safari, putting in on with a big 'ol brush. I could tell it was going to go well because areas that I had gone over earlier and overlapped a bit were already starting to come off in sheets.Here we are with the stripper applied.

You can see where the clearcoat had already come off (shiny spots).

Turn on the powerwasher and watch the fun!

I've got the pressure set very low here but increased it quite a bit as I progressed.

The end result is a pretty nice looking old girl...I'll have to go back and touch up some of the stubborn patches, but I'm done for the day.

Osceola, Wisconsin rally open house

Well I made it to my first rally and found out that Airstreamers are indeed a great group of people. I got up to Osceola, Wisconsin this past Saturday with my daughter Josie in tow. We spent the first few hours in town at the fair watching a tractor pull, walking through the art fair, going to the exotic animal petting zoo, and eating corn dogs, cheese curds, and apple pie with ice cream. I asked Josie if she noticed anything different about the people and then I pointed out that no one (not even the kids) was on a cell phone. It was just good folk having a good time. We walked through the parking lot that had all of the old tractors waiting in line for their turn at the pull. Lots of John Deere(s?), and then you had your Farmalls, Olivers, etc. What I didn't see was any Minneapolis Molines. They are a personal favorite of mine ever since I played in a roots band by the same name. I wish I would have thought to bring my camera to the fair, but left it in the truck.Josie took most of the pictures for today's blog. She assured me that she had pictures of every dog at the rally. Not exactly what I was looking for, but I had to give her artistic freedom, I guess. Here is a shot of most of the trailers. If you look in the center of the photo, you can see a frisbee dog in action.

Here's Ed Emerick with his dog. I have to add that the dogs at the rally were just as friendly as their Airstream owners were. Just a great group of people and pets. Ed is the past president of the VAC (Vintage Airstream Club).

This is a '64 Globetrotter that belongs to Bob and Bonny Herman from Florida. The crazy thing is that I saw this trailer in a small county park about 5 miles from my home on August 26th but couldn't track down the owners. Josie was camping with her girl scout troop right across the path from the Hermans. I left them a card with my name and a photo of my trailer on it, but didn't expect to see them again. Small world!

Here's Paul and Marcia Hahn out of Denver, Iowa. I met them as I saw they had a '66, same as me. Being from NE Iowa, they've seen some of the same music groups as I have and been to some of the same music venues such as the Inwood Ballroom where my blues band opened up for Canned Heat. Oh, yeah, their dog's name is "Dude."

This is the Hahn's '66 Globetrotter looking great on a perfect late summer afternoon.

Three pictures of a Liner hooked up behind a Lincoln Zephyr. What a great combo platter! The inside skin was painted with a super cool treatment that made it look like wood or leather depending on how many cocktails you've had. Bed in back, kitchen in front. That's Josie sitting at the dinette looking casual. The only thing that surprised me about it was the lack of headroom. Not a trailer for a tall guy/gal. I didn't find out who owned it, but it did have Minnesota plates.

This Streamline is west of Rochester, Mn and I drive past it whenever I'm heading down I-90. Finally stopped and got a picture of it. Looks like it's in fine shape.

This mystery trailer is my latest obsession. Don't know what it is, I only now that it's little and cute and I want it.

Josie and I had a great time in Osceola. Met some friends from the Airforums up there (Tim and Doug and Jan) and had a beer or two and got to talk Airstreams for a couple hours. Next year I've got to have my Safari ready to tow so we can stay longer and make more friends.

Still waiting for my Por 15 to show up...

Peace