Frankly speaking

It's been a long time since I blogged (as I was reminded by Frank) and the reasons are two-fold. One, I haven't done any work on the Safari as I've been saving money to head east to the Birthday Bash and pick up my '64 Tradewind that I won in the raffle. (Still can't believe that.) The money has become tight because of reason number two: the rebuilding of our lake cabin that was totalled in a fire last Fall. I wish I had some before pictures to show you but the after photos will have to suffice. It turned out great but as most building projects go, it went over budget and the Airstream funds went into the cabin kitty.

This is a shot from the loft. The old cabin didn't have this feature. The kids absolutely love this space for playing board games and generally hanging out. The big kids love it too!

Just a shot of the driveway and the back of the cabin.

The deck is still waiting for railing but we had to celebrate my mom and dad's 62nd wedding anniversary and what a great day we had for it. Low 80's, nice breeze and great family get-together. Most of the kids are still up in the loft. Not pictured in the foreground are the big kids playing some very competitive bean bag toss.

That's all for now. I've got two weeks until I load everything I own into my Tahoe and head to New York state to meet up with a big group of new friends. Looking forward to breakfast by Frank, canoeing, fireworks, and God knows what else.

Peace!

vintage hat!

My buddy Jim Bier called me up and said "I've got something for you that you're gonna like" and I said "Is is an Airstream?" So I was close and he was right, I dig it!

This is my 8th grade girl Lucy. She played on the Rochester Lourdes high school varsity tennis team this year. They took 4th place at state as a team. We're pretty proud of this one.

It's leaf raking time and my 4th grader is in charge (takes after her mom). Josie loves the leaf piles and she's a huge fan of the family Airstreams. She can tell you the year, model, and length of both of our trailers.

It's time to get the fireplace going, tune in a hockey game and enjoy a cold one! Game on...

back to the 50's

With the onset of cold weather, restoration of the Safari has ground to a halt. I am in desperate need of a 60 degree day to apply Por-15 to the frame and Mother Nature is quite content to keep it cool around these parts. So in lieu of anything on the trailer rehab front, I thought I would pass along a photo that one of my radio announcer friends posted on his Facebook page. It is a shot of his dad's tow vehicle and trailer from the 50's. He says the trailer was a Mallard (manufactured by the recently defunct Fleetwood trailer company). My buddy Jim Brunnette is the little guy in the photo which includes his brothers and father. You gotta dig the color of the TV/trailer combo! In his Facebook post he said there was no doubt, you could see us coming down the road.

In other news, any plans of getting work done on my '64 Tradewind have been shot to heck by the need to rebuild the family cabin which was lost in a recent fire. The insurance doesn't really cover the price of a new structure, so money that I had earmarked for Airstreams is being dumped into a lakeside gathering place. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. If it means using a portapotty and looking like a hillbilly for a couple summers, I don't care. All I know is that I can't miss any future camping seasons so I'll use what I got and hope for sunny days and moonlit nights.

Enjoy the photo, peace to you and yours!

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

classic shot and a great gig

I've been looking forward to posting the "classic" Airstream renovation picture and finally...here it is! Man standing on the ground in the back of his trailer. It doesn't get any better than this. Of course I will say the same thing when the Safari is roadworthy. Time to order some Por-15 from VTS and an axle from Colin Hyde's Trailer Restorations.

Sunday night, me and my great friend Charlie Lacy got to open up from blues singer Shemekia Copeland. She is the daughter of the late, great Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, a blues guitar legend. What made the gig great was that Charlie's daughter Molly and my son Louie both played the gig with us. The kids are 16 and they got to play in front of a couple thousand people on a big stage. We played a 45 minute set and had a stone-cold gas!

Here's a shot of our band "wiggleFoot" before the gig. Front row is Molly and Louie. Back row left to right is me, Rick Miller (harmonica), Charlie, and Geoff Mattson (sax). Rick's dad died early Sunday morning in his sleep, but Rick told me that his dad would've wanted him to play the gig. A very emotional day for all, but music has a healing power and we know that Rick's dad, Bob, was watching from the best seat in the house as his kid poured his heart and soul into his amplified blues harp.

My manchild hanging out backstage with Shemekia Copeland. Her guitar player joked that she better "watch her hands, he's not old enough for you" and she didn't miss a beat and said "he will be someday!"

Shemekia took us all to Church with her singing. Please visit her website, buy her music, see her in concert. In fact, go see as much live music as you possibly can no matter what style you like. It's all good....peace! http://www.shemekiacopeland.com/