Ali overheard a conversation this morning between two twenty-ish year-old girls.
“Oh my god, you know that pregnant goat of my mama’s?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, last night she just got up and tried to jump the fence. Didn’t make it though, got all tangled up…”
And that was all Ali heard. It drove her crazy all day not knowing if the goat was all right or not.
We drove the Mark Twain National Forest through towns with no discernible beginning, center, or end. Eventually we drove past a small campground along a river with a big playground. We’d only managed about eighty miles for the day, but it seemed as good a time as any to pull in.
So far we’ve found that a hundred-fifty miles is about our daily limit. We keep to the back roads/state highways, which means lots of small towns, curves, and hills. It also means that a hundred-fifty mile day takes us about five hours.
We stopped in Poplar Bluff, a town at the southern end of Missouri, for lunch today—a small diner called the Huddle House. I can’t tell you what a shock it was to our Yankee mentality to walk in and find two signs: Smoking and Non-Smoking. Inside this small restaurant with no walls were two sides that I feel like I haven’t seen since I was a kid, though I suppose it wasn’t really all that long ago. The place was packed and the only booth left was on the smoking side. Seeing as it couldn’t possibly make a difference in the small space, we sat down and ate patty melts while rings of smoke curled from one booth to the next. Yummy.
As we were leaving town we heard a metallic clunk outside. I looked in the mirror but didn’t see anything in the road. I pulled into the next driveway to have a look around, climbing underneath the bus and not seeing anything amiss. Eventually I decided that the metal step must not have been pushed all the way in, and we got back underway.
Ninety minutes down the road we took a bumpy turn and heard it again.
“What is that?”
Ali thought a second and asked, “The canopy?”
In a flash it dawned on me, “Shit.” I jumped outside and sure enough I had forgotten to tighten down the canopy. Each side has two arms, one with a hook on the end that clips into the other, and then there is a little wheel at the top that screws down to hold them tight to the bus.
I knew what had happened. That morning I had started warming up the bus with the choke opened up a bit. The engine was idling fast as I went outside to put the canopy up. I got it all unhooked and then rolled it up to the ceiling, but before finishing the arms I ran inside to close the choke. That was all the distraction it took to get me off my task. I finished picking up the rest of the bus and completely forgot about the canopy.
That first clunk we heard back in Poplar Bluff was the hook and spring piece falling off one of the arms. It’s got a pin in it and shouldn’t be able to fall off, but it did.
Six days in and I’ve rendered a forty-year-old canopy useless.
We turned around and started to head back, but after thinking about it we realized we’d end up spending sixty dollars in gas to search for something we had little hope of finding. We turned around hoping that Zip Dee awnings will still be carrying replacements.
47 Comments on “Canopy-less in Arkansas”
It cracks me up that you are basically going sailboat speed… 150 miles a day. Looks like you’re in the warm weather though. Hooray for that. Keep following the sun!
150 miles a day is a nice distance though. With our kids, of similar age, we rarely go further. That’s one of the benefits of having your house with you. 🙂
Truth is, we’re down under a hundred the past few days. Now that we’ve reached warmer climes the need to push isn’t there any more.
Cindy, the only difference is that I can’t sleep while we’re underway, but I can sleep without moving when we’re not.
Born in Poplar Bluff. Can confirm. It’s a strange place.
The Huddle House looks like a little shack where locals might huddle (http://goo.gl/maps/0Svcz) but that’s only until you check out the menu: http://www.huddlehouse.com. MAN!!!
I am sure that you have been there by now…. but http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_kw=zip+dee+awning
I had the same awning on my 1972 Argosy Travel Trailer.
Watch the weather this week. I think OK has higher risk advisory than Arkansas Tuesday & Wednesday. Come on over and we will fix that canopy. 4th pic looks like an old Kodachrome slide from 1966! I like the park bench front bumper, cool.
The park bench has totally grown on us both. It’s awesome. You can’t believe how much stuff we can fit in there, and better yet we don’t have to pull out the chairs, we’ve already got them out.
As you travel further south, you may encounter a phrase that some of us apply to ourselves when we do something unusually thoughtless, forgetful or just plain dumb. “Ate up with dumb-ass!”. Use sparingly.
Thank you, Steve. 🙂
Been following you guys for quite a while and have never taken the time to write. So great to see you on the move again! Man, it is strange to see how quickly kids grow up….went by too quickly for me. Give them all the hugs and kisses they will take because before you know it, you two will be staring at each while on a boat, train, bus, or who knows with you two and wondering where it all went. Love living vicariously through you guys.
Turquoise bus….so cool.
Many thanks.
Thanks Mike. We realize it too. It was killing us just being stationary for a few months knowing that they were growing up the whole time and we weren’t doing what we wanted to be doing together. Feels great to be back out on the road making memories.
Like Mike and probably many others, I’ve never written either but have been following you for years. Bumfuzzle, your first book, got me hooked since I spent a couple of years “bumming” around o a sailboat. Since then it’s been a delight to follow you, see you build your family and, like Mike says, live vicariously through you guys. Your spirit is truly amazing and I hope you’ll keep it going for a long time. Brigitte
So tell us about no seat belts and no car seats and kids sleeping in bed while you’re driving!!! Besides being against the law, it’s crazy and dangerous. These are your children!
Y ou made it and so did I. No helmets for our bicycles either. Aren’t you just a bit tired of big brother telling you how to do it?
Pat answered that question the first time one of you nanny types asked it. The kids ride in booster seats with seat belts.
Dont cross the road either… It could get you killed!
June 2004…. west of Lincoln NE heading for Alaska in a 1989 Mallard 21′ class C motorhome….there was a 40+ mph headwind when all of a sudden there was a terrible ripping sound….in the side mirrow what I thought was the roof turned out to be the awning…it finally landed in a deep ravine next to the interstate where it probable still lies…..
Not sure if your aware of the Army Corp of engineers campsites.
I discovered them bringing my sailboat from Miami to Tampa last month. They had five berths, but have great RV spots. $25/night Clean, clean, clean. Must are near water. You can reserve only through their website
If your going to be in the Tampa area in April would love to up with you guys. I have to go back to Canada after that.
Thanks, we’ll check it out. Never heard of them before. Do they have one on the New Orleans levees? 🙂
COE campgrounds are the best around! (most of the time – there are a few that aren’t) Check this website too – http://freecampsites.net/usa/
We’re stayed in some really great campgrounds that we found on freecampsites.
We’ve got the exact same awning on our 30 year old Airstream. Spare parts are readily available. Zip Dee publish a parts list here: http://awningsbyzipdee.com/8001.html
Love seeing the VW Bug on a trailer…and why are those screws backing out of the front of your bus?
Number 8 screws in old holes that have turned themselves into #10s, I guess.
Also, I am aware of your dislike for tools of the electronic variety, but the Allstays Camp & RV app that’s available for both Android and iOS is fantastic.
Haven’t had a phone in a decade. You can’t comprehend how badly we hate them. 🙂
Allstays is also available on their website
Back in 77 when the kids were little and we were traveling for over a year in a motor home. I would wake up at 6 am and drive for 3 hours to our next destination . Then the rest of the family would get up and we would have a new back yard.
That worked on the boat, but for some reason I think they’d pop up the second I fired up the Dodge.
We did the same David. We only drove about 4 hours a day and the first 3 were with kids sleeping. 🙂 Still remember those quiet early mornings on the road…
Been following you guys since nearly the beginning (Cruising World blurb?), but have only commented a couple of times. Like many, our family, which has paralleled yours on a less adventurous scale; we are roughly same age, married around the same time, have a 4 year old girl, family straight out of 1960’s in values, etc…lives vicariously through yours- at least until we get the stones to cast off ourselves. We were looking for a vintage motorhome, it was down to a GMC and a Travco, and you guys pretty much sealed that decision for us when we saw that you went with the Travco.
I had two hopefully easy questions; 1)What’s that beast cost to fill up? and 2) When the kiddos are old enough for school, what are you going to do?
Susan is right about one thing – they’re your kids! I admire that you don’t let other people tell you what to do, and my wife and I always comment that we hope we are giving our girl as good of an upbringing as you guys do for Ouest and Lowe. The will grow up to have the best memories, and when it comes down to it, what else does anyone really have at the end besides those?
We wish you health and happiness and continued adventures!
Hey Casey, We get 8 mpg right now. Hoping to boost that a smidge after fixing/tuning up a couple of things when I get the chance. As for school we just sort of play it by ear. If we’re somewhere at the time that we can settle in for a few months and let them go to school we will. If not we’ll handle it ourselves. Thanks for the nice note!
The mileage will get slightly better as the weather warms and you don’t have to warm up the engine. But . . . you’re still pushing a lumbering giant down the road. Keep the mileage expectations reasonable and the wheels rolling.
Casey, FWIW, we hit the road RV’ing from 2004 to 2007 when our kids were 2, 4, 7 and 9 and they had never been in a school. we eventually settled down in Mexico and they are all now in (obvsly) Mexican schools. THere is so much learning on the road it is amazing.
Haha you finally made me laugh out loud today! As a caravan family, we feel your pain! You may remember us from asking you Mexico in the winter advice…
Maybe try a Fiamma awning, they are super cheap , light and easy. Not sure if they have them in NA, we know them from Europe.
Anyhow, to all you nannys telling them to buckle the kids up, can I just say, f*** Orf! Life is meant to be lived, not whined about!
Keep on trucking on you amazing family!
PS, please tell me you are heading to South America soon!
x
If you haven’t had a canopy fly off while driving down the highway, then you can’t really call yourself a RVer. (That said, I really really like our new electronic arm-less awning that do not have that option.)
You’re so right, Terry! Ours opened in 50 mph winds in the Arizona desert. We do like our new automatic one, but I can’t picture that on a vintage Travco!
Pat and Ali,
Here is an option that some of us in the Vanagon community are having success with. May be worth checking into:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-…V%20Awning
of course its not OG Zippideedoodah equipment, but….
Here is the entire thread for your intel:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=577269&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
J
Oops, try this:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=ALEKO%C2%AE%20Camper%20RV%20Awning
Sorry I started this crap about seat belts.
I only asked at the time but now that I know that you are going on the back roads and averagering 30 miles per hour.Ishould have kept my mouth shut.
Thats how we have traveled around England, Scotland and Ireland and it lets you look at the way people live and is far better than staring at someones tail lights on some beltway.
Still recond that you should go into The Great Race.
I have relented.
You dont have to wait in the carpark.
Keep going and dont forget to pull the power plug the next time that you stop at a park with electricity.
Cheers from sunny Queensland
If you don’t have three point belts and proper child seating, which it doesn’t look the bus has, then you may as well stay in bed when you’re doing 40, on the outside, on roads that are both dry and empty. The risk is pretty minimal.
You are getting close to my neck of the woods. If you find yourself in or near Fort Smith, AR, and need anything or would like some BUM followers to take you to dinner, give us a shout!
Hey you two – we’re in Savannah, GA now so if y’all make it this way let us know! There’s a lot to love in the South, came as a surprise to us. There’s a saying down here, in Atlanta they ask what you do, in Augusta they ask where you go to church, in Savannah they ask what you’d like to drink. 🙂 We like it here.
Kristy & Deena (formerly Feel Free)
Your photography as always is amazing, the angles, and unique perspectives is refreshing.
Wonder if these same people yell about the kids on school buses, drove by young adults, and they have no seat belts. Just enjoy this families tales of the road.
I live on a boat, wonder if there is anything you miss??
I used Permatex RTV sealant on the screw threads on our vintage Winnebago. They ALL eventually began to back out otherwise.
We traveled with our kids during their entire childhood years, no seat belts or car seats. When underweigh we let them move about to a limited extent – except in dense traffic. When they were sleeping on the back bed in the mornings – it was very peaceful. 8 mpg was always our goal. We avoided interstates when possible.
If you go down coastal Texas, I recommend the Port Bolivar approach onto the Galveston Island Ferry.
You are welcome to stop at our place in zipcode 78570.