AguaDream

Set up in the Artists Area at Banjo Stage Warren Hellman photo by  Ron Baker As was posted a while ago, my little trailer was asked to become part of the set backstage at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass , one of the country's largest (if not the largest) free multi day music festival.  HSB as it's known, is a Bay Area treasure which along with the Treasure Island Music Festival and Bridge School Benefit makes October a very special month for music here abouts. Created 12 years ago by the late Warren Hellman , the Bluegrass loving Billionaire and antidote to wall street greed and inhumanity, to introduce his beloved San Francisco to Bluegrass music, Strictly Bluegrass evolved from a 2 day 3 stage affair to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass a 3 day, 6 stage, multi genre music extravaganza that well over 100,000 attend each year. To give you an idea..Here's the line up from this year. I had spent the better part of the last 3 weeks getting Aguadream a new paint job and g...

Just got back from the 2012 Fall Strawberry Music Festival.  Gorgeous weather and the exceptional line up more than made up for the much more crowded camping scene.  Below is the "road"  the first line of Strawberry that begins before dawn on the First Day of the Festival as 4-5 miles of vehicles await entry and then an orderly but urgent scramble to obtain their cherished campsite.  The line:  We were about a mile back even though we pulled onto the road well before the stated 6 am line up time.  That's us in the middle, and then a miles long line behind us. We ended up with a fairly nice campsite, nearby our usual spot.  We did have a fairly cozy relationship with a rather large tree branch.  The new door and screen door worked out brilliantly! Ben wasted no time hopping on his bike with all of his climbing gear to find a suitable spot to set up an anchor and rappel.  He spent hours scrambling on the big granite outcro...

Aguadream will be featured as part of the backstage set at Banjo Stage, the main stage, at this year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival (fondly known as either HSB or Hardly Strictly).  HSB is perhaps the worlds largest free music festival, held each year the first weekend of October in Golden Gate Park.  You can learn more about HSB and the legacy of it's founder and benefactor, the late Warren Hellman at  http://www.strictlybluegrass.com/   Apparently this years theme is Travel America, including a huge "Mt Rushmore" featuring the faces of some of the legends who have passed this year including Hellman, Doc Watson, Hazel Dickens and Earl Scruggs.  Of course, this will mean a flurry of activity to get her looking her absolute best.  I've been reupholstering the dinette seats, and this weekend is Painting!!  A few finishing touches after that and she'll be the belle of the ball.

Fallen Leaf Lake near Tahoe  is a wonderful campground, and the site of an informal annual gathering of vintage campers organized by Kathy Lebs.  All in all about 30 folks and 20 trailers and numerous four legged friends of various vintages sizes and states of restoration showed up for a few days of relaxing, hiking, and potlucks.  Unlike trailer rallies, this was much more casual...no schedule...no organized tours or clinics...just a bunch of friends enjoying the natural surroundings and each others company and common interest in aluminum homes on wheels.  My son Ben was off on an adventure of his own for the weekend, so Lucy my Lab and I enjoyed a grown up weekend.  A couple of firsts: 1.  Hike to Cathedral Lake in Desolation Wilderness...stunning, and an 1800 ft gain in elevation. 2.  Wahdingers-- a campfire treat of biscuit dough baked on sticks (dowels) and then stuffed with goodies, yum! Wahdingers! banana boats Potl...

Another successful trip up to Camp Mather for the Strawberry Music Festival  up near Yosemite for 5 days of camping, great music and festival friends.  Weather promised to be nice, but was quite cold and did rain (and even hail/snow for a few minutes) for one day.  the music was superb and our little Shasta was quite a gathering place.

I got to combine two of my favorite activities over this weekend.  Camping and Kayaking!  Each May I coordinate the Cache Creek Slalom and Downriver Races on Cache Creek (between Clear Lake and Woodland on hwy 16) in California.  You can learn more about the races on my other blog http://tinyurl.com/cachecreekraces .  We had a great time with more than 30 folks participating in the races and another dozen guests enjoying the camp and helping out.  The only thing missing was my son, Ben, who had a big bat mitzvah to attend and couldn't join the fun. I also got to put up my awning and set up camp for the first time with everything (except, paint and upholstery) done, and could really show off.  I really enjoyed having folks come and poke their heads in and oooh and awe.  The flowers were given to all the moms in attendance.   I had a couple of young friends who thought the trailer was a perfect magic place for them. What a great place for ...

Cascade Kayak and Raft After a night in Boise we made our way up the road to visit our friends the Longs who run Cascade Raft and Kayak on the Payette River near Horseshoe Bend Idaho.  Tom and Debbie Long started Cascade about 20 yrs ago and run the premier whitewater rafting business on the river as well as a first class kayaking school.  One day we hope to visit their winter digs in Picon Chile. For the past several summers we've made our way here so that Ben could spend a week at Kayak Camp and I could enjoy myself camping along the banks of the Payette at the Long's private camp just north of Banks Idaho at a rapid called Otter Slide. This year because of our plans to do the Junior Olympics, we skipped kayak camp but instead chose to paddle a couple of runs on the Payette and explore some of the other sights in the area.  We had hoped to do the South Fork as well but high water kept us away. Three highlights of our trip Running the North Fork CA Barton Section...

We took the Long Long Trailer on our road trip and watched it for the fist time today.  I have a feeling we'll pop it in to watch a few times more. Knock on wood, we don't encounter any of these mishaps on our journey.

Have been a little preoccupied this week. Ben my 12 yr old attends oakland school for the arts. He has been in a school production called "That 60's Show". He had the opportunity to sing the lead on Dylan's The Times they are a Changing. Have a look. Hope the trailer turns out as well as this performance...though I doubt the finished product will bring a tear to my eye as this did.

Aguadream what kind of name is that? Well here goes for the explanation. My son and I are both whitewater kayakers. Ben taking on one of the bigger rapids on the South Fork American at age 10 Mom (me) on the South Fork I've been involved in river conservation and advocating for clean water in one way or another for the past 30 yrs. Ben and me on one of his first river trips approx age 5 on educational trip down the Mokelume River Our plan is to repaint this trailer somewhere in the aqua/blue/green range. And the interior decor curtains, quilt, seat covers etc... same. The color scheme for Aguadream We'll be pursuing a dream I've had for some time this summer-- to take the summer off and tour the west with my 13yr old. He'll be participating in the kayak junior olympics, and we'll also explore rivers in Colorado, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Wyoming. So traveling in our newly renovated Shasta trailer will be an Aguadream. Ben in a junior ol...