[monochrome]

For real? Does your wife has one? How does she like it? And have you really tried towing it with your mountain bike? I bet on flat ground and granny gear you may actually be able to move it LOL!

[EDIT] My wife says that photo is either the Sport or International 16' - the smallest Airstream. GVWR is 3500. Sleeps two. self-contained in all respects. Dinette is the only seating.

She has rented and toured in that length travel trailer before we met. I've towed larger Boy Scout trailers but knowing what is good for me, I surrendered gracefully.

In our family lingo, she "owns" that trailer since the discussion is settled. We WILL tour the Front Range in New Mexico and Colorado, whether in an owned or rented one, summer 2013.

Of course, I have to pedal.

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Last edited by monochrome; 01-12-2012 at 02:13 PM.

[RioRico]

Actually Mayan indigenous religion *doesn't* believe it's some apocalyptic 'the end of the world' like people imagine it to. I'm not really an expert there but I think the 'gloomiest' prophecies involve like a big upheaval of the human order, with animals and tools/machines turning against people, etc.

Nope, nothing like that. It's just turning a page of the very-precise calendar, that's all.

History: The MesoAmerican calendar was apparently created by Olmecs, centuries before the rise of the Maya. The earliest inscriptions of the system have been found at Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico, near my fave city San Cristobal de Las Casas. (SCLC is high and comfortable; Chiapa is low and hot.) The calendar was later adopted by Mayans (who independently developed writing and zero) and conquering Aztecs. Mayans and Aztecs found it useful to shoehorn their histories into the calendar system. Imagine that...

[I'll omit details, but it was the most accurate system until the advent of atomic clocks.]

There is no "Mayan indigenous religion". Mayans speak about 24 languages, with at least that many distinct cultures, and their religions are mixes of traditional faiths and imposed Xianity. Holy wars are still being fought (violently) by neighboring villages with differing theologies. There is zero uniformity of belief. Any apocalyptic beliefs arise from mutant Xianity, not traditional polytheisms. And this whole 2012 bullsh!t came from NewAge waste-oids. Anyone remember HARMONIC CONVERGANCE? Same dumb source.

Hay, ya wanna see waste-oids, visit a Maximon (maw-shee-MONE) service. Show no fear.

[Jasvox]

How could they be clever enough to predict the end of time, but couldn't predict their own demise?

Jason

[RioRico]

How could they be clever enough to predict the end of time, but couldn't predict their own demise?

What demise? Guatemala is 60% Mayan; the southern Mexican states are about the same. Mayan city-states collapsed centuries ago, but the cultures still live. In some cities, Catholic cathedrals are essentially Mayan temples, especially visible in the Quiche (KEE-chay) Maya market town of Chichicastenango (CHEE-chee-KAS-ten-ANG-go) Guatemala.

Chichi hosts the biggest indigenous market in the Americas, a must-see! (Market days are Wednesday and Sunday.) You'll notice eternally-burning piles of incense at the bottom of the cathedral steps, and only Quiche elders may walk up those steps -- all others must use a side door. Inside, the bare floors are strewn with incense and flowers; oversize figures of santos line the walls, awaitingl the next procession through town (tomorrow, probably). Nobody bothered to tell the Quiche Maya that they're extinct.

But I digress. The Maya aren't gone, and neither is time. But apocalyptic literature sells like hotcakes, eh? OK, when is the next End Of The World after 2012? Write about it and get rich, eh?

[Jasvox]

Mayan city-states collapsed centuries ago, but the cultures still live.

That is more or less what I meant.

Jason

[HockeyDad]

Well all I know is that if it's not the end of time, I'm likely to have a heck of a hangover because we're throwing a party like we did when civilization collapsed on Y2K new years eve!

[Ratmagiclady]

There is no "Mayan indigenous religion". Mayans speak about 24 languages, with at least that many distinct cultures, and their religions are mixes of traditional faiths and imposed Xianity. Holy wars are still being fought (violently) by neighboring villages with differing theologies. There is zero uniformity of belief. Any apocalyptic beliefs arise from mutant Xianity, not traditional polytheisms. And this whole 2012 bullsh!t came from NewAge waste-oids. Anyone remember HARMONIC CONVERGANCE? Same dumb source.

Hay, ya wanna see waste-oids, visit a Maximon (maw-shee-MONE) service. Show no fear.

I wasn't asserting there *was* one: actually I was saying, myself, that that apocalyptic stuff wasn't a feature of it. There are obviously, still folks practicing some form of traditional ways, however changed by time (Or, ah, 'interpreted' by New Age... folks. Trust me, I've heard plenty from *them* over the years. ) (wait a minute, where'd that eyerolley emoticon go. )

[bigdavephoto]

We WILL tour the Front Range in New Mexico and Colorado, whether in an owned or rented one, summer 2013.

Of course, I have to pedal.

If you do that, you better eat your Wheaties and drink a lot of Gatoade.

[pz1fan]

Since time is running out, you should be giving away all your RV!!

As a former owner, don't buy one in the first place. If you think any camera QC is bad, you ain't seen something yet. Best day of RV ownership is the day we sold it. No question.

[jogiba]

We keep our 41ft travel trailer on a concrete pad and use it as a summer bungalow and the kids love sleeping in it. It has not been on the road since gas prices went up .

[RioRico]

As a former owner, don't buy one in the first place. If you think any camera QC is bad, you ain't seen something yet. Best day of RV ownership is the day we sold it. No question.

I have owned two RVs, both small: a 22-foot Mobile Traveler made in Kansas, and a 24-foot something-or-other made by Fleetwood in California. The Mobile Traveler lasted decades; the Fleetwood didn't. Fleetwood makes crappy "modular homes" (trailers) too. But I think the big difference is that Kansas has much more brutal weather, and RVs built there *must* be rugged. Never buy an RV made where weather is good.

A note on Kansas weather: When I long-ago wrote a field guide to the cacti of California, 81 species and sub-species were recognized within the state. Arizona had 128; New Mexico had 112. Even Virginia hosted 4 native species of cacti. And how many in Kansas? Just one (1), and it's a gnarly little brute that can withstand Arctic winters and hellish summers. An RV must be just as tough to survive there. Think about it.

[Rupert]

Just in case...you can get a personal reading from the Devil Squirrel for just $6 and a small bag of roasted peanuts. He says you shouldn't worry about December, a lot of you won't even be around then anyhow....unless of course, you buy a bottle of his protective Elixir, which guarantees a long life and calm nerves.
He doesn't care much for RVs, but did say the wiring in them is fairly tasty.
[IMG] [/IMG]

[Paleo Pete]

OK nobody actually answered the question...

RV = Recreational Vehicle. Be it towed or traveling under its own steam. I like the term land yacht myself...

From what I understand from not much research, the Mayan calender indicates the end of an age, not the end of the world. The Mayans believed in cycles of a couple of different lengths, one was something like 42,000 years, another over 100,000 years. (I can't remember the precise numbers) One of those cycles ends in 2012.

The Olmecs were a much older race and I think were extinct or near it at the beginning of the Mayan culture. I need to dig out my book again I guess, it had a lot of interesting info. The Mayans, though, had an extensive knowledge of astronomy and apparently a quite impressive knowledge of mathematics. Their calender is widely known to have been highly accurate. But the end of the world idea is based on a misconception.

What's actually going to cause the end of the world is when Hostess goes bankrupt and all the fat ladies will no longer be able to find any Twinkies!

[nikigunn]

Years ago, my great uncle Carl had a Caddy Hearse converted into an RV. My grandpa took this slide of the camper in 1966.

[RioRico]

Big RV = land yacht. Little RV = housecar. No RV = motels every night. Or tent-camping. We can afford motels|posadas|hospedajes every night in Mexico and Guatemala but not in USA. I've outgrown tents; I'm too old to sleep on the ground. And neither tenting nor moteling will work on the next drive to Alaska. One night in Moosejaw would pay for a week or two around Zacatecas. So we'll be looking for a housecar fairly soon, maybe before December 2012.

Transitioning to the next Mesoamerican calendar cycle is rather like incrementing millennia in our Western calendars (Julian --> Gregorian). Millennia and even centuries weren't much thought of as events until just a few centuries ago, but that's another story. So this end-of-cycle event is about the same as flipping the page from 1xxx to 2xxx CE. And with no Y2K bugs to worry about! Then there's the tale of the 20th-century COBOL programmer who was awakened from suspended animation in 2994 CE to help with Y3K bugs, but that's yet another story.

I have it on good authority that The End Of The World As We Know It will occur in 2038. That's when the UNIX clock turns over. Chaos and hilarity will ensue. Stay tuned.