T-minus one day…
Ann here: I’ve run all the errands I can think of, and I still have piles of stuff around the house. It’s still just a matter of committing to the things in the piles. Tom is off at a repair place to get this last thing looked at…some glitch in the homemade wiring that is not letting the other battery talk to the rest of the electrical needs in side. We were planning on “camping” the first night anyway. And we all need to lose a little weight…And we’re going to visit friends at a lake in two days. So we’ll be clean. Thanks for the info on Asheville, Deborah. Elinor has her yarn stores mapped out, and I just found three bead stores! Plus my grandfather is buried there, whether we visit him is still up for grabs. I just did a practice ride on a bicycle to the bank and back. Sheesh. After the first fall, it was ok. But I have forgotten how much ones sweats in B’more humidity. A woman in the bank said how much she liked my hat, and I’m thinking, “I hope I have this bike helmet thing on right.” Hopefully, I’ll be more graceful on my own bicycle, rather than Elinor’s.
pre trip thoughts day -2
Yesterday Tom spent part of the day figuering out the batteries and the holding tanks. Amazing. And most of the neighborhood took a tour through it at the 200 Woodlawn Fourth of July party. I have small piles of things to pack all over the house. I hope I remember to pick up and stash them in the Cacafuego on that hopefully cool and slightly over cast Tuesday morning when we are packing. Who am I kidding, this is Balitmore and it will be 90 degrees, hazy, hot, and humid at 7am the morning we want to pack and leave? Today is a day of visiting a museum with family members and then running errands, like maybe getting that folding dish drainer from Ikea. Sarah should arrive home around midnight tonight and then a whole new level of excitement will be added. That’s all my thoughts for now. COFFEE….
Pre-trip post: Hello!
Hi there! You’ve found your way to the highly interesting and informative weblog of the Summer 2008 Voyage of the Cacafuego.
The Cacafuego is a 30some 20 foot Class C caravan (RV): an Itasca. It’s small, with an overcab bed, a dinette that turns into a bed, and a sofa in the back that turns into a bed. Comfortably, it will sleep three, which is why we bought a tent. Yeahhh.
The original Cacafuego was the Spanish navy ship Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, captured by Sir Francis Drake in 1579. According to wikipedia.org, In Spanish, “caca” is a noun meaning “shit”, while “caga” is the third person of the verb “cagar” which means “to shit”. Therefore, the proper nickname for this galleon was “Cagafuego,” which could be translated as “shitfire” or more accurately as “fireshitter”.
We’ve decided to call the silly little caravan the Cacafuego as a reference both to her gas consumption (she’s a 1978, don’t you know), and the noxious fumes she emits as we drive across the country.
The trip is intended to take five weeks. We are leaving Baltimore July 8th, 2008, and intend to be in a campground on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona by July 28th, having taken a southernly and then westernly route through, among others, Asheville, Austin, Santa Fe, Durango, Mesa Verde, and Glen Canyon. After about four days at the Grand Canyon, we will head north to Yellowstone National Park, and then east and north to the corn palace and Mount Rushmore. We will drive through the UP of Michigan, possibly hit Quebec, and be home around the 15th of August.
It’s an adventure, that’s for certain.
I’ll be back possibly with a few pictures of the Cacafuego. It would be unfair of me to misrepresent the coziness of the vehicle, and so a small demonstration of the close quarters may be in order.
Cheers!
