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[Bunjov AT aol.com]

OMG - Tuolomne Meadows - a voice from my past! Until I was fifteen or so,  
our annual family camping trip took us to Lake Tenaya, up that horribly 
scary,  
steep-cliffed mountain road that you had to back down if an oncoming vehicle  
appeared. My mother and sister and I spent most of that uphill trip with our  
hands over our eyes (peeping, of course), and thank God that it was in the 
days  before my dad started to drink. I wouldn't be here to tell the tale!
Coming back down was not so bad, because - from the seat on the right-hand  
side of the old Plymouth I was next to the mountain - but going up...I was on 
 
the outside, and you can't tell me there's a deeper canyon anywhere in the  
world! (Although I know there probably is).
We camped in the same spot every year. Kept our perishables cold by  
anchoring them in the lake. Hung the rest of everything between the trees so 
it  
wouldn't get gone in the middle of the night. I still have a vivid image of 
my  dad 
in the middle of the night, stark-naked, brandishing nothing more than  a 
flashlight, chasing off a bear who had tried to come into the tent. I can  
still 
smell that greasy, canvas tent, if I think about it, and I remember how  
terribly heavy it was. Somewhere in my bedroom closet, I still have the 
little  old 
Coleman stove that we used. We spent our days hiking and reading.
Yellowjackets in the bacon every morning. Who thinks of insects as being  
carnivorous...but I guess they are!
Bluejays to die for. smart-alecks that they are. If anything would make me  
move to a higher elevation, it would be the promise of bluejays and 
chipmunks,  
and the smell of pine needles and all different kinds of bark.
Sandy
Mid-Mojave
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 10/5/2008 2:05:03 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
lurine AT softcom.net writes:

We used  to go up outside Toulomme, past the Meadows, several times each 
summer to  a restaurant that served authentic Basque food.  The cook was a 
guy  who spent each winter with his sheep and came down in late spring to  
cook.

There was also another one up on the North Shore of Lake  Tahoe!  Again, only 
seasonal.

Absolutely to die for  food!

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From:  <Bunjov AT aol.com>

>snip<

> In our midnight raids,  we fell in with some Basque sheepherders, and -
> although there was an  insurmountable language barrier - we were in awe of 
> their
>  'rigs' - and the food!
> Thank you for all the information -
>  Sandy
> Mid-Mojave
>
>
> In a message dated 10/5/2008  4:48:45 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
> don.bowen AT earthlink.net  writes:
>
> The idea  of a truck based camper comes from the  earliest days of  the
> automobile.  Several people built  various homes on the backs of  early 
> cars
> and trucks  from the Ford Model TT to a large FWD.  By the  thirties  there
> were several factories producing campers from the simplest   to very fancy
> rigs.  The well known Airstream started with a  design in  the very early
> thirties.
>
> Magazines  like Popular Mechanics  published many articles on building your
>  own travel trailer or  Teardrop.  Most were light for use behind the  
autos 
> of
> the day and  used materials and methods  suitable for the home shops of the
> time with few  power  tools.  The eventual owner of Airstream, Walley Bayum
>  published  at least one how to article on building a travel  trailer.
>
> By the  fifties with the power of the automobile  increasing and the 
> leveling
> of the  American incomes  many families could afford to purchase 
> Recreational
> Vehicles  and take weekend and two week vacations.
>
> I  live in a  travel trailer, currently parked in the beautiful Missouri
>  Ozarks  on Genes Heartwood Homestead.  This afternoon I leave to go  visit 
> my
> son in North Carolina for a month.  Then in  November me and my RV  will be
> back here for a brief visit then  on to Southern  California.
>
>> I have gone to the  trouble now of finding out whether  or not a draft 
>>  horse
>> could pull a small RV - sans engine, in these  days of  looking forward to
>> no oil - and I am told that yes, it could   be done.
>
> Long before the automobile we had all sorts of horse  drawn  living
> arrangements.  Medieval paintings show wagons  fitted out as  quarters for
> tournaments.  By the late 1700s  the huge incomes from  colonies allowed
> England to start on a  massive road improvement giving rise  to the Gypsy
> Ledger Wagons  and fancy Vardos.  These were very heavy  and were used to 
>  how
> off the owner's best team of horse.
>
> In this   country the vast western distances gave rise to the Sheep Camp. 
>  The
> Sheep Camp was often little more that an old farm wagon fitted  with a 
> canvas
> top, a bed, and a stove.  They were  usually very light to be  pulled by a
> single horse.  By the  fifties most had disappeared and the  Basque
> Sheepherders moved  into pickup campers.  The Mojave Desert used  to be 
>  home
> to many flocks of sheep tended by Basque   Sheepherders.
>
> The huge western grain fields gave rise to the  cook  shack.  A simple 
> wagon
> fitted with a cook  stove, water barrel, pots  and pans, dishes, etc.  The
> sides  flopped down for serving tables and  to allow air flow.  The cook  
> shack
> traveled with the harvest  crews.  My wife's  grandmother was a cook on a
> Washington Palouse  Country harvest  crew.
>
>> Am I crazy?
>
> No.
>
> I  would  suggest you not use an automobile based camper as they are  heavy.
> Build  something like a Sheep Camp or a Teardrop  Trailer.  I have a  whole
> file of plans from the thirties to  fifties on building camping  trailers 
> and
> pickup mounted  campers.
>
> Don Bowen   KI6DIU
>  http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html
>
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