15 Minutes of Fame

I was scrolling through Airforum posts on the Canopener rally this morning when I discovered the rally was also the subject of a blog from RV-A-GOGO (full-timers whose blog I follow).  Of course I had to skip over there and read the latest post... Breezin's little red table decoration was there in the middle of the blog, snapped during our open house on Saturday.

A friend and blogger I follow - Postcards from the Road, featured a post with some Airstream info this week, and there at the bottom of the post was a very nice stylized picture of Breezin' !

A T@bber friend does this incredible job with doodling/painting shoes and hobo bags depicting scenes of camping life...  Get ready Crystal, because you just officially crossed over into Airstream fame as well, hope you have your pens and paints ready :-)

Breezin' has enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame.... and his owner has had a pretty good time the last couple of weeks as well!

Opening Cans

The first trip of 2015 was an Airstream rally known as The Canopener and held at Topsail State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.  I tried to make this trip last year and had to cancel at the last minute so I was very excited to get Breezin' on the road this time.

My favorite view in the rear view mirror

Canopener is an Airforums rally, organized by volunteers who all did a spectacular job.  It was a sea of aluminum with 103 trailers attending!

Topsail is located in the Florida panhandle on the gulf coast, with a beautiful beach.  Wish it had been warm enough to enjoy it!

The park itself is very nice and well maintained.  Several miles of trails and bike paths, tram service to the beach (about 3/4 mile walk), a club house, bath houses, laundry, etc.  Most, if not all, sites had full hookups.  Unusual for a state park but it's also a bit pricey for a state park.

Our campsite at Topsail

I did a little sightseeing the first day before the rally began and drove over to Seaside for lunch.  Seaside is known for the Airstream food trailers that line the main street.  Grace and I walked around and picked up some lunch, visited the bookstore and took a walk along the ocean before returning to Santa Rosa.

The rally got started on Thursday with a chili dinner.  Friday included an open margarita bar and a corn hole tournament at noon.  Friends Beth and Pete both played, with Pete taking second place out of almost 40 players.  Friday night we went to town for seafood at Stinkey's Fish Camp - good stuff.

Saturday's events included an open house at noon.  It was nice to be able to see all of the various floorplans and the modifications people had made.  The afternoon concluded with a pot luck, tons of food - a few giveaways and some entertainment provided by one of the local dealers.

It was great meeting everyone.  Can't wait for next year!

Sundog Books - Seaside, FL

Food trailers

dinner at Stinkey's with Pete and Beth

Saturday evening pot luck - quite a crowd

Happy New Year - Setting the Tone

Welcome to 2015

Since I've decided to really try to blog more this year, I thought I'd start by wishing you Happy New Year... even though I just told you about Christmas yesterday :-)  Thank you for following along, I really appreciate you taking the time to read this!  If you are so inclined, leave me a comment sometime.  I'm like a kid at Christmas when I get one (or Sally Fields at the oscars if you remember that one).

Back in a previous life, my friends and I would always ride on New Year's day.  Believing that our activity on New Year's day would set the tone for what we would do the rest of the year, we would saddle up and ride.  Sun or rain or sleet or one time even snow, we would ride.  Sometimes it would just be a quick jog on the trails across the street from the farm and sometimes it would be a planned week long camping trip.  But however it manifested itself that particular year, New Year's day always included a trail ride.  I don't know if it 'set the tone' for the rest of the year but it was the very best way to start the year with good friends.  I have some wonderful memories of those rides, even the short ones.

Keeping with that tradition, I spent the morning hanging out with Breezin' and getting some organizing done before our trip next week.  I really hope that 2015 contains lots of time traveling and camping!  We received (or gifted ourselves) a plethora of "red" for Christmas.

A new Keurig mini - no more waiting for the percolator when we have electric!
Thank you family

New skillet - I'm good with the love & peace, not
so sure about the taco grease though

My favorite - these are magnetic on the top and stick together - take almost no room
includes spatula, spoon, pasta server, slotted spoon and they sit in the ladle.

New knives - red polka dots!  And they even work well :-)

Walkie-talkies for the next caravan so Sue doesn't have to call me on the cell phone to tell me to pass the dang car in front of me and catch up!

For the rest of the day, I hope to take in a movie and maybe settle in with a book and a glass of wine. If that sets the tone for the rest of the year, I couldn't be happier!

Hope your start to 2015 is exactly what you wish for!