Airstream to Utah

April 3, 2017


The view makes the 5 leveling blocks and frequent tending of the portable solar panel to recover about 50 ah of nightly furnace use at almost 8000 ft totally worth it. #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #boondocking


Big arch, tiny Airstreams. Driving up the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway approaching the 1.1 mile Mt. Carmel Tunnel (completed in 1930 at a cost of $503K). Oversized vehicles pay a $15 permit fee at the park entrance and rangers at the tunnel temporarily switch traffic to one way so you can drive down the center, making the "gallery" windows blown from the sides of the tunnel all the more spectacular. #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #pairstream #mtcarmelhighway #zionnationalpark #findyourpark


For anyone looking for a solution to boost your cell connection while on the road, @weboost asked me to evaluate a new everything-in-one-box solution that I really do think is about 99% there. And yes, this is #sponsored. Well, sorta anyway... . So we've used @weboost (formerly Wilson Electronics) boosters since we started traveling: first a Sleek 4G cradle, then a 4G-M and now a 4G-X. Paired with a decent external omni antenna and, for particularly tricky applications, a directional antenna, they've squeezed (squozen?) a usable signal from some pretty remote places and are what I always recommend to others. . While recently boondocking outside of Zion with about 7 other Airstreams, one of the rigs was having trouble getting a decent connection without a booster, a connection they needed to do the work that allows them to stay on the road. I dug into the back of my wardrobe and pulled out the Drive 4G-X RV kit that WeBoost had sent me to test. Honestly, I hadn't been sure what I was going to do with it, since I already owned the same booster and antenna it came with. . That first day, we jury rigged the pieces together to test everything and immediately salvaged the spotty connection into a strong one for work (and even some NetFlix and Chill after the kids are asleep). So the other day, the owner of the rig completed the install... in a little over an hour on a beach on Lake Powell! . Check out the link in profile to get the info from WeBoost (and yes, we get a kickback if you like what you read) and look at the upper right on the blog at advodna.com for some more info on what I really like plus the couple small tweaks needed on this handy all-in-one kit that brings together several of the products I've been recommending to folks for a couple years and is a great base for a capable but expandable remote connectivity setup. . #rvinternet #rvconnectivity #workontheroad #airstreamgeekery


Yup, that's the Pacific Ocean after a 366 mile day. And in the spirit of the Hidden Brain podcast we listened to about over-curated social media feeds, I'll mention that an 18 wheeler blew a tire right in front of us on the highway and we had to dodge the flying rubber; we battled 50 mph wind gusts for most of the day which ended up flipping up our propane cover, partially unraveling our awning and breaking off our radio antenna; we got trapped in a truck stop car wash line for half an hour after realizing it wasn't the self-serve coin-op deal we thought it was; the regional park we tried to stop at to feed the kids dinner was closed so instead of the pizza I'd planned to make, I opened the fridge for quicker options and had a carton of eggs fall out onto the floor; and then when we found a Chipotle in Rancho Cucamunga, a mall cop - I $hit you not - on a three wheeled scooter told us we had to park in the employee lot across the street (and worst of all, I missed the picture). But now, a bottle of wine is open, we're listening to the waves outside the windows of the trailer, the kids are in bed and we've got a surprise for them in the morning! #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #airstreamwithkids #cucamugaisafunnyword #bustedbyblart

We returned from a little over 2 years living full-time in the Airstream to settle into our newly-remodeled 800 sq ft house in November of 2016, but we promised ourselves we'd leave the Airstream packed and ready to roll. In April of 2017, we hitched up and headed out to Utah to meet up with Airstream friends, some new and some old.

In the end, it was a little over 3,000 miles in 24 days. While we had to blast out and back to make it work, we averaged out to 125 miles a day. We ended up paying for 8 nights, boondocking 15 and moochdocking 1. We camped with 21 adults and 16 children, 2 cats and 5 dogs in 9 Airstreams. Felt great to get back into the trailer!

April 2017