AIRSTREAM PADAWAN
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Episode II
A New Hope

Denver

6/28/2018

5 Comments

 
Well folks, city #1 was a mixed bag. There were excellent successes and some disappointing failures. The Kanes forge ahead tomorrow, St. Louis or bust. Here are our highs and lows:

The Children’s Museum

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What an amazing place! There were so many exhibits to play with. Ben’s favorite was The Big Backyard. It was in the style of “Honey I shrunk the kids”, where everything was huge. I marveled at the team of engineers and artists they must have to make a place like that possible. I’m sure this was Ben’s high, maybe Maya’s too. She was feeling a little too old for some things (which was a new parenting experience, yay!), but kept a positive attitude for her brother.

Damn Plumbing

I usually can do plumbing ok, but it’s my own personal hell when it goes wrong. It turns out the guy who put in the tub did everything wrong. Sometimes, as a teacher, Monday Me hates Friday Me. Friday Me typically has a lazy attitude whereas Monday Me is meticulous. It was definitely that Friday guy who did the plumbing under the tub. Consequently, it both leaks AND fails to drain. I think I had a quick fix for the leak (won’t know until tomorrow), but the failure to drain the last 1” of standing water will take major work.
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As a result, we needed to take showers at the coin-ops tonight. It feels like a major failure. I think I can fix it fully, but it’ll need to wait until I have time. We’ve got a few beach days planned around the 4th, maybe one of those will work.

Fine art

Sara’s favorite place was the Denver Art Museum. It was an art museum.

The hardest part

The hardest part is figuring out how this works. How do 4 people who usually lead separate, but intertwined, lives suddenly spend 24/7 with each other? We’re not arguing or fighting (we’ll the kids have a little), but we’re all exhausted. (The heat didn’t help. It was 102 today.) Sara and I are both big on personal space, so we’re trying to be graceful and articulate with each other. We’re about 50-50 on the day.

The best part

Sara is a do-er. She did an amazing job creating a day that was an experience the kids will treasure. On vacation, I’m a sitter. Here’s my favorite moment of the day:
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Tomorrow, St. Louis!
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5 Comments
Erin Dailey
6/28/2018 10:48:24 pm

I'm excited to follow you guys on your trip and see the ins and outs.

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Mary T. Lewis
6/29/2018 04:54:01 am

When we camped with the kids, there was oven things that go bad and things that were wonderful. Enjoy the wonderful ones!!! :)

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Denise
6/29/2018 02:30:36 pm

The 24/7 thing is hard. Personal space does become an issue!! Looks like Denver was a blast though! Lots of good memories!

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Aaryn link
6/14/2021 02:48:15 pm

Padawan, I'm about to tackle my shower in a 1972 Airstream. Can you tell me more about why your shower didn't drain? I'm planning on putting a hepvo valve and a horizontal run of about 2 feet (with 3 angles) to drain into a grey water tank under the shower.

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Mark
6/14/2021 05:52:27 pm

It took a while to figure out with lots of tinkering, so I'm not sure which problem was the bigger one. I initially thought it was the P-trap that kept the tub from draining and I took it out. It was so close to the top of the tank. In retrospect, it might have been fine, because the tub still didn't drain. Maybe it did a touch better, but it still was a problem.

I came to the conclusion that the air vent that I put into the walls must have clogged. I didn't want the obvious (and original to the design) vent stacks through the bathroom counter. But I bit the bullet and reworked the design to vent the way Airstream originally did, using ugly 2" pipes through the counter top to the ceiling. It works fine now.

So my advice is that if you try to put the tank vents in the walls, use PEX or something with high rigidity to the pipe walls. Maybe PVC if it flexes enough. I used a semi-flexible tube that probably melted under the heat of the sun.

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    I'm not an Airstream Jedi, yet.  Airstream Jedi would have sounded presumptuous, like I know what I'm doing. That couldn't be further from the truth. Padawan is a title I can hope to live up to.


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