Perdón por la Ausencia

The inactivity of this blog is directly related to my life on the road – simple as that! Living and traveling thousands of kilometers from home and inhabiting a series of hotels, hostels, pensións, and friend’s homes, coupled with the intensity of both my work and travel schedule do not facilitate writing. Since my last real post (not including a minor update) I have worked a couple of months in Connecticut – Hurricane (i.e., Super-Storm) Sandy response and recovery for FEMA – came back to Colorado (and to the Airstream Mother-ship – Ms. Bertha) briefly (literally only a day) and spent the Christmas holiday in Winter Park, Colorado with good friends (my extended Colorado familia), then headed back East to pick up my wife and to fly to Istanbul – about a week thereabouts, then off to Jordan where I presented a couple of papers at the World Archaeological Congress, then to Israel and home to Denver – Phew, this Gypsy / Bedouin lad is just a wee bit tired.

I left Colorado with only about eight hours notice to head to New England in anticipation of the big hurricane strike. I packed and tried to get Ms. Bertha prepped for what was proposed to be a 60-day deployment. I was fearful of not buttoning her up properly – but did manage to shut off water and leave notes for neighbors, friends and colleagues about my hurried departure. I also sort of went through the refrigerator and removed things I thought would spoil. I turned down the temp on the fridge and freezer (as a good environmental steward). I left the freezer full thinking there would be no issue with frozen food. As I was rushing to leave at 0-dark hundred hours the next day, literally greeting the taxi cab driver taking me to the airport when I remembered all the fancy beer I had stashed at various locations both within and outside of Bertha. With the assistance of the taxi driver (who has become a pal of mine) and in the darkness of the very early morning we threw the precious and expensive beer into the semi-empty fridge and wrapped the rest in a sleeping bag and wool blankets to prevent freezing. I did not leave the heat on in my absence. Off I then went to Connecticut to fight the good disaster fight.

I had been thinking and fretting about the visitation of Old Man Winter to where I live along the Front Range of the Rockies ever since I purchased the Airstream in April. I like to think that I knew what to do in advance of cold temps and snow. The problem is that I had to bug out in a heartbeat – and it was not cold or snowy when I left the week before Halloween. I did not buy antifreeze for the plumbing, nor did I blow out the lines before I left. I also did not install the various types of insulation that I had been gathering. I did have a plan and like all things related to Airstreaming – was looking forward to the tasks of winterization.

I did managed to get a neighbor, the RV park super, and friends/colleagues to check on Bertha and to run my truck while I was gone. There were no apparent problems during my absence (& the beer did not freeze).

My work in Connecticut came and went and I eventually came back home the day before Christmas – to very cold temps and snow. And, the temps in Colorado were low and there was a fair amount of snow mostly through my entire deployment. Bertha was on my mind a lot, but so too was my upcoming trip to the Middle East with my wife – who I have not been spending much time with since starting to work on the road for the Feds 4+ years ago.

When I returned to Bertha I only had a few days before I had to leave for the East Coast and thence to Turkey, etc. All seemed well in the initial few hours whilst I was aboard the Mother-ship. I immediately cranked the heat and opened the outside water valve. The roof of my outside ramada caved a bit from the snow load, but that was easily fixed by reattaching and re-rigging a series of bungee cords and tension rods.  I checked the fridge and all was good, but when I opened the freezer I immediately got a whiff of something wrong – the deer meat went bad. How could that be I pondered until I realized that because the temperature outside and inside the rig were lower than the thermostat setting of the fridge/freezer, this temperature differential tricked the compressor into not working correctly (similar to the problems one will have with a refrigerator placed in an unheated garage in winter) – so the delicious venison steaks were tossed and I quickly washed the interior and put a box of baking soda in to absorb the odor. After this excitement and while I was prepping to head to Winter Park for Christmas eve, I quickly turned on each water source and immediately noticed water leaking at three (inside) locations – toilet, kitchen sink and shower. It was painfully clear that there was ice in various portions of the PVC plumbing and that when I connected to and turned on the (fairly high-pressure, but regulated) city water source it met the ice dams and blew seals / joints at three locations. I flew into action by once again undoing a section of Bertha’s winter skirting and climbing under her belly pan to shut off the outside water valve. I spent the next hour or so mopping up the water that had quickly shot all over – and unfortunately in a couple of virtually inaccessible areas. Knowing full well that there was not much I could do to remedy the situation on Christmas eve, I packed up and made my merry way to the mountains over icy and snowy roads.

I only had 5 days back in the bosom of Ms. Bertha between Christmas and the New Year – after which I was to leave again for about three weeks. My work schedule was crammed with duties after being away for eight weeks – so, I could not tend to the broken plumbing. I buttoned up the rig once again (in exceedingly cold temps and snow) and headed to the Middle East.

So, this is the tale of my adventures away from and returning to my aluminum womb. More posts on the plumbing misadventures and the continuance of winter living will follow shortly now that I am back into a somewhat “normal” routine. I thank those friends and colleagues and fellow Airstreamers who have subscribed to or otherwise read this blog. Anyone with plumbing tips to pass on – I am all ears!