Heading west (home) again. . .

A year ago last week we left the Monterey Peninsula in California for points east, south and who knows where else following the hood of the truck would take us.  And we did go to points in the south and east, in fact, all the way to the eastern-most point in the U.S.

About August, while we were in Maine I started missing “home.”  But wait a minute, I’m a full time RVer who loves the lifestyle of living and traveling in a fifth wheel RV!   For seventeen years home has been where we are for however long we are there, so why for the first time was I feeling this way?

Almost all full time RVers have a “home base”, the place where they return to periodically.  For many it is where they lived in a traditional home prior to going on the road.  This is often where their primary care physicians, dentists, accountants etc are located.  This was the case for us although Gary had elbow surgery and I had dental work done in Louisiana.  My brother Don and sister-in-law Lee kept Bellingham, Washington as their home base the 10+ years they full time RVed. Others adopt a home base along the road.  Our full timing friends Duane and MaryJane adopted South Carolina as their home base and then settled there when they were done full timing.

Ah ha, so what I am missing is not my home but our home base!  The familiar places we love to eat, our family and friends, the roar of the race cars and motorcycles at Laguna Seca Raceway, beautiful Monterey Bay, “my” Safeway market and even the summertime brown hills of the Golden State.

While home is where the heart is, it is also true that home is where the familiar is.  Of course this doesn’t mean we are anywhere near settling into a home that doesn’t move. . .not by a long stretch!

And when you are making plans, life happens

Once again I’ve been distracted from writing about FDR and Eleanor’s beloved island Campobello - who knows if I will ever get back to it!

One of our “words to live by”, “Our plans are like jello, very flexible” took on a whole new meaning last week when we received a call telling us that the grandson we helped raise was in a one car crash and was pretty banged up.  Since we are in Maine we couldn’t have been further away from Fresno, California when it happened and because of HIPPA privacy laws we were unable to get very much information about his condition over the telephone.  Husband Gary had flight reservations made for me almost before the news had fully registered and I was on my way back to California.

Jorden was wearing his seatbelt and definitely had his guardian angel (us in the family think it was our nephew Michael who was taken from us too soon) in the car with him when he fell asleep, hit a guard rail, flipped, rolled down an embankment, hit a tree and is not only alive but, after only seven days, was released from the hospital and healing.  He has a compression fracture to his L1 disk for which he is wearing a back brace for about three months, a broken nose with lots of stitches to repair the skin and which will have to be re-broken and set when swelling is gone, a bruised lung, concussion, all of which, whew, will heal with time. For now his goal is to rest and recuperate.

I won’t show a photo of Jorden but here is what remains of his Honda:

On Thursday he and I joined Gary back in Maine. We flew from Fresno to Phoenix (unbeknownst to us barely missed another haboob, one of the huge dust storms Phoenix has been experiencing this year,) then on to Philadelphia where our flight to Bangor was delayed due to weather.  While waiting for our Bangor flight we had four gate changes. Thank goodness for those electric carts that ferry those who need them!  And we were safely at home at 3:15am.

Our 49th anniversary happened while I was in Fresno, only the second time we haven’t been together on August 17th!  The first was way back when Gary was in the US Air Force stationed in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Here we are back in ‘62.

We are now watching hurricane Iris to see if it truly makes its way all the way up the East Coast as the Weather Channel say is possible.  If so, our plans will again be like jello and we will point the truck west pretty quickly --- our fifth wheel prefers not to ride out huge winds!

FDR & Eleanor. . .oops, I got distracted!

This morning I sat down to write about FDR and Eleanor’s beloved island Campobello and got distracted.  I remembered that it was time for Grammie & Papa to send the Little Ones grandchildren their yearly back-to-school shopping money.  It is usually a Target gift card which they love but there isn’t a Target here in Ellsworth, Maine so I’m sure they will be quite happy with cash.

It wouldn’t do for Grammie to just throw the money in an envelope!  UMMM-what kind of cards should I make?  I decided to make little cards and then thought, ah it’s cash, I’ll do cash gift envelopes!  I started to draw out a template but wouldn’t checking on-line for a template be a little easier?  Yep, Googled it and found a very nice template on Mirwood Designs (I bookmarked that site for future projects; it has lots of neat templates!)

My bone folder is a real bone given to grandson Jorden by an Alaskan artist.I used Printmaster to find some fun back-to-school graphics.  Even though I liked the Bulletin Board graphic, when I tried to center the template over it, it just wouldn’t feature enough of the graphic so this went in the trash.Found another cute graphic, printed and cut it out. Oops!  Why does the president seems to be peeking though the cutout?  I know used the correct template!  (Had never noticed before but on older bills the president is centered and on the newer “large face” bills the faces are off center.)  Well, I figured out that, in order for the cutout to be in correct alignment, the right side of the template and the printed graphic design had to be facing when cutting it out.  Easy fix there.

Here, I have the process down and having fun making personalizing graphics for each “grand.”  Colored pencils for ten-year old Stanley, cute paint pots for nine-year old Mary and leaves, pencils and books for seven-year old Will.Finished product, loaded with a “president,” tied with a ribbon and ready to go in a mailing envelope!  That was fun for me, hope the “grands” like them too.So now I can get back to FDR and his beloved island!

Fulltime RVing: A SUMMER IN THE “BRIG”. . .

museum, that is.  

Interpretive Hosting at Farragut State Park in Idaho was one of our more interesting Fulltime RVing experiences.  My article about this experience was published in the Workamper News photo contest a few years ago. Text of the above:

Few people are aware that 4,000 acre Farragut State Park in the panhandle of Idaho was once the location of a World War II Naval Training Center.  The Brig (Navy term for jail) is the only remaining building of about 700 which were quickly built after the Pearl Harbor attack.  Farragut Naval Training Center trained 293,381 “boots” for the war effort during it’s short operation from 1942-46.

We thoroughly enjoyed our assignment as Interpretive Hosts at the “Brig” naval museum.  We felt we were caretakers of an important piece of our country’s history.  A highlight was hearing both the stories of the men and women who trained and worked at the center and those who lived during the war years.  Most often they started with “we didn’t do anything special.”

From Park Manager Bryan and rangers Dennis, Al, Jim, Tami, Keith, Pam to Park Interpreter Nancy, friendly helpful park aides, Visitor Center personnel and especially the campground hosts we were made to feel welcome and valued.

Situated in forests of ponderosa and other pines, nowadays this quiet scenic park on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced Pond Oray) hosts campers, bicyclists, horse back riders, Boy and Girl Scout Jamborees, a shooting range, and even a special area, (formerly parade grounds for the training center) for remote controlled airplane events.  Abundant wildlife roams the park with an occasional “black dog in the area” alert.  Black dog is a code word for bear!

For the 14th time in our eight years of full timing our Workamper assignment was a positive experience. Thanks, Workamper News, for publishing the “Sears catalog” of working and volunteering on the road.

The photo of us and grandson Jorden, a seasoned “Junior Workamper,” is taken in front of the museum map of the naval training center.

The Brig is the only remaining major Naval Training Center building. Unruly “boots” would have entered through the large gates on center front of the Brig.  Brig Museum entrance is at left front of the building. Our site was tucked into the Ponderosa pines beside the Brig and entrance to the museum.Before arriving at Farragut we were unaware that the Navy had a land-locked training center during WWII.  Makes sense since it was feared that coastal locations would have been vulnerable to enemy attack.Unrestored solitary confinement cells in an area of the Brig not open to the public.  Although it is rumored that ghosts of long-gone sailors roam the Brig we didn’t experience any paranormal activity.This cell would have housed four to six inmates.  The mattresses aren’t exactly Tempur-pedic are they? And the blankets were scratchy wool--ouch.Another cell without the chain link door and enclosure.  Items on the bunks are WWII era Navy uniforms.The display board demonstrates many many sailor knots. Kids, and adults too, I must say, were attracted to the practice rail for learning knots such as clove hitch, anchor hitch and bowline. Signalman operated this signal lamp and also utilized semaphore flag signaling.  The red and white flag is a semaphore dating back to the war.A blackout headlight used on military vehicles.In addition to our Interpretive Hosting duties we took on other projects at the Brig.  Here Gary is painting a new sign for the museum.  Jorden took part in several “Junior Ranger” programs such as tree planting, bike safety and wolf education.

Are you familiar with any of these Nautical quotes?

"Damn the torpedoes, Full speed ahead!" -Admiral David Glasgow Farragut

"Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!"-Lieutenant Howell Maurice Forgy

"Don't give up the ship!"- Captain James Lawrence

"I have not yet begun to fight!"-Captain John Paul Jones

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning”

“There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.” Joseph Conrad

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest -- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" R.L. Stevenson

Folklore legend update. . .Paul Bunyan number three

I wouldn’t have an interest in folklore legend Paul Bunyan had I not grown up visiting him and Babe every summer when my family drove from North Dakota to Minnesota to visit my Finnish grandparents Charlie and Lempi.  The trip wasn’t complete until we had stopped in Bemidji to see this giant and his blue ox.  He and Babe don’t seem quite as large as they did when I was a little girl!  At eighteen feet tall he was built to a three to one scale of the six foot tall man he was modeled on.A few years ago I was surprised to see ANOTHER Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe while driving north on California Highway 101 in Mystic Trees near the Klamath River. This Paul Bunyan is tall at 49’; I think Babe is quite a nice looking Blue Ox!So that was number two - and now I’ve seen a third Paul Bunyan in Bangor, Maine, but no Babe in sight!  At 31’ this Paul Bunyan claims to be the largest in the world (a discrepancy since California Paul is 49’ tall!) He was placed to overlook the Penobscot River but now looks straight at the casino which was built across the street.

Maine and Minnesota both claim to be the birthplace of Bunyan and Babe.  Whichever is true it is told that it took FIVE storks to deliver him!  And both Minnesota and Wisconsin lay claim to having him buried in their state. Popular guy isn’t he?

I know there are more Bunyan’s and Babe’s out there. . .will update you if/when I happen onto more!

I’m technology boondocking. . .

So, here we are, settled in our Camp Host site at Lamoine State Park in Down East Maine.  The Maine woods and Frenchmen’s Bay at our doorstep are beautiful---I even have hummingbirds at my feeder! About the second day of wonderfulness, the reality of not having internet hit me.  I really can’t sit down at my laptop and log on to Blogger, Facebook, Goodreads, E-Bay, Amazon, Google, on-line banking or E mail!  This is not an adventure but a challenge (I won’t go so far as to call it a problem but I am a bit stressed!) 

Of course, as with almost every challenge, there are always options.  One option is to drive about five miles for wi-fi access in the parking lot of the tiny Lamoine Town Hall but presently this is not doable since my laptop battery lasts about 10 minutes. (I have a new battery and auto-charger for the truck ordered from Amazon.com so this may become my go-to place.)For now we are driving twelve miles to the historic 1897 Ellsworth Library where they have excellent wi-fi and electricity.  We found a nice secluded corner table in the second-floor genealogy section and I quite happily settle in.   However Gary is ready to go after a few minutes and then sits “patiently” staring at me to see if I’m about done.  OK, let’s go.This current situation reminds me of the progress that’s been made in the seventeen years since we started full-time RVing.  Back then there was no Internet (well, it was out there but hadn’t been widely commercialized.)  I’ve had a personal computer since 1984 (two floppy disk drives) and bought a little Compaq notebook when we went on the road.  Of course it didn’t hook to anything but I enjoyed using it for word processing, budgeting, my journal and making greeting cards.  

Then, in 1999 our friend Dean introduced me to E mail!  He gave me a floppy disk for Juno,  I loaded it and was on my way--I had E-mail!

Do you remember floppy disks?I quickly learned that modem access on a road could a real challenge.  RV parks were advertising “modem hook-ups” and “modem friendly”  which often meant balancing the laptop on a stack of boxes and almost standing on my head to reach the hook-up, normally behind the fax machine in a far corner of the office.  But I had E-mail and Internet access!  I was thrilled!

Soon most RV parks had comfortable dedicated modem locations, maybe in the office or rec hall but there were surprises.  In 2002 when we checked into the beautiful Tom Sawyer RV Park on the Mississippi River in West Memphis my sister-in-law Lee and I asked if they had modem access.  Oh yes, of course, it’s at site #12.  Wow, we thought, they have a building, so we grabbed our laptops and walked to site #12.  It was the utility post with a telephone connector!   (Note: when we stayed at Tom Sawyer RV Park again last Fall they had really good wi-fi.)

My denim jacket is over my head to block glare from the bright sunlight!Now, of course dial-up is pretty much outmoded and wi-fi is the thing.  In 2006 I wrote in my Christmas newsletter that I feel terribly inconvenienced if I don’t have wi-fi in my fifth wheel!   RV parks sometimes neglect tell you that doesn’t reach your site.  When making reservations I ask three questions:  “Do you have w-fi?  Does it work?  Will it reach my site?” 

In Galveston last December this was the “computer room,” complete with that very uncomfortable metal chair in the lower right corner and a very annoying gurgling water sound, where the wi-fi signal came in clearly!  All in all I am more than happy with computer access technology on the road and plan to check further into tethering or an air card, more fairly recent technology. . .it’s hard to keep up!  Unfortunately I will be roughing it for awhile but beautiful Lamoine State Park and Frenchman’s Bay more than makes up for the inconvenience.  

For now it’s a trek to the Lamoine Town Hall parking lot or the Ellsworth Library so I won’t be posting to my blog very frequently or checking your blogs as often as I’d like!  Don’t give up on me, I’ll be popping in and out and will be back with you on a regular basis. . .in a few months!

I’m technology boondocking!

OH, what a day!

It starts out to be a great day.  We are on the road early, eager to get to Lamoine State Park where we have been accepted to be volunteer Campground Hosts.  The drive through the woods of Maine from Houlton to Lamoine is beautiful even though we are on an interstate highway.  Our goal is to take secondary “blue highways” (often drawn on maps in blue) as William Least Heat Moon calls  them in his Blue Highways book but today we take the fast route. We arrive at Lamoine State Park about 12:30PM and are greeted by friendly rangers and volunteers.  So far so good!  Let’s get our fifth wheel set up!   Here’s where the day goes, as the saying goes “to hell in a hand basket!”

UH-OH-the entrance to our site isn’t very wide and there are rain runoff ditches on either side.  AND. . .trees, lots of trees, and brush on either side of the road making maneuvering very touchy.  Gary, who loves a challenge, gives backing into the site a try  --- nope, the wheels of the fifth wheel start falling into the ditch and the nose of the truck is deep into brush and trees across the road.

On to plan B-back in from the other direction.  Hey, it’s working until. . .the fifth wheel starts shifting and leaning into what turns out to be soft earth!  Oh no! The rather large tree and our home are becoming perilously close - 6 inches or less!!In my mind I envision the side being bashed in and with it the refrigerator which, inside, is exactly beside the tree.Gary jockeys the truck back and forth trying to get out of the rut but the rut only gets deeper.  This rig is going nowhere-not forward, not backward without it sliding toward the tree!  He and Bob  slip boards under the tires by jacking the whole rig up with bottle jacks.  Inch  by inch it is moved forward but THEN there is no more room for the truck to go forward because of the trees.  Can’t go forward, can’t go back!Let’s see now, if we could only swing it around to the left just a bit.  Gary unhooks our GMC and very carefully, almost inch by inch, ranger Bob’s VERY HUGE Mack truck pivots the fifth wheel just a few feet.  Gary hooks up the GMC again and eases the fifth wheel over the boards, the boulders, a granite slab the Ranger has dropped into the ditch but, oh-oh, the 17,500 lb. fifth wheel is sinking again!  Keep it moving Gary!  He does and, five hours after this odyssey began, we are safely out.  WHEW, WHEW and double WHEW!Now what?  Will we be staying at Lamoine State Park or will we have to leave?  For tonight we make NO decisions.  We boondock in the parking lot for the night (for you non-RVers, boondocking is parking with no water, electric or sewer hookups.)  With the electric coffee and tea maker out of commission, I dig out the good old percolator and tea kettle for my morning Earl Grey and Gary’s Maxwell House. The not-so-scenic view of the parking lot from our window.A new day dawns with a decision to be made.  Is it back on the road or ??  Dulee and I go for our morning walk and see that they have moved the granite block to the other side and filled in dirt over the ditch to make the entrance about four feet wider.  Gary says “piece of cake!" and we’re soon in position for day two’s maneuvers.   The fifth wheel moves pretty smoothly over the makeshift arrangement with just a little sinking into the dirt and the boards crack as it passes over but we are soon set up in our Camp Host site. Much better clearance with the tree!

We’re home for the next couple of months!

My age: I’m Beyond. . .

One of the segments on the Today Show a few days ago was “How to look good in your 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and beyond.”  Wow, my age is beyond!  BEING a beyond is not a problem, but did I like being clumped into beyond?  Well, I wasn’t so sure, so I googled “50 and beyond” and came up with a wealth of BEYOND:

A magazine article Hairstyles for Women 40-50 and beyond is quite positive but still manages to convey the beyond group as being pretty anonymous:  “Women who are over forty, over fifty or beyond should wear their hair in any style they choose.  If your hair makes you feel good and you like the way it looks, wear it with confidence”  Even though I have this hair that does what it wants to with no regard to my choice, this is still good helpful information for beyonds! So far so good.

 Loving Life at 50 ~and Beyond  This is really a pretty nice blog with a great watercolor background. 

Staying Slim in your 40’s, 50’s and beyond.  This blog has some good information which is divided into two categories: “40’s” and “50’s and beyond” 

A workout video by Angela Rippon Fabulously Fit at 50 & Beyond (No, I don’t workout so didn’t even watch it all the way through!)

Weightwatchers even has a group called FABulously Fit B4 50 & BEYOND!

I found a Beyond 50 Radio blog.

I like the description of Susanna Starr’s book Fifty and Beyond, New Beginnings in Health and Well-Being
“A non-authoritarian approach to fitness and well-being, aimed especially at people approaching and beyond age fifty (50). An inspiration during a time of mid-life for those who are ready for new beginnings. Clear and insightful suggestions for developing our potential through expanding the mind, caring for the body and celebrating the spirit.”

I read a few of this blogger’s very moving posts on Zero to Sixty and beyond and will be following her.

SOOO. . . my conclusion: although it feels somewhat like being in a grey cloud, beyond is not such a bad age.  While I have nothing against my chronological age I just may have changed my age to beyond!

Gary & I before we were beyond.

And here we are, both age beyond.

I saw my first moose in Maine!

Well, it isn’t a real moose but it is life size!  A man we talked to in this little park by the Meduxnekeag River (NO, I can’t pronounce Meduxnekeag  and YES, I had to look up the spelling!) said that if we stay in Maine very long we will see a live one.  I’m on the watch!

Other moose we’ve encountered in our travels:

1998 at Denali National Park in Alaska.  This was before digital cameras were readily available---I wish I’d had the 26X zoom Nikon camera I now have!

She(?) was enjoying her lunch! This was taken in 2002, the summer we were docents at the Brig Museum at Farragut State Park in Idaho.  We were on our way to visit the Carnegie Library in nearby Wallace and spotted her in a lake beside the highway.

By this time I’d had my Sony Mavica digital camera for a few years and used the 3X zoom to take this photo.

Thanks for stopping by to see my moose!

Why oh why isn’t the plural of moose, meese?

I’m going to make books! Correction: I’ve made a book!

I found this book in the gift shop of the Renwick Gallery, the Smithsonian gallery which features American craft and decorative arts.  Umm, I can do this; I have no artistic talent but am creative and can follow directions very well!  Rather than carrying the book around that day I waited, found it on Amazon.com and saved about $10 over suggested retail.  I LOVE a deal!

The layout of the book seems to progress from very simple to difficult so I started by making this instant book from Chapter One-Instant Books. 

Instructions for making an instant book are quite simple and I mastered it very quickly.  Fold, fold, fold, fold, snip, pull apart and re-fold into book form---that’s it!  A book! 

Combining this newly acquired bookmaking skill with my computer skills I printed an 8-1/2” X 11” sheet of paper with graphics of a daisy, a birthday cake and birthday greetings to my sister. First go-round I had the birthday cake upside down so had to go back to the drawing board/computer. Second attempt was a success!

OK, that’s a little bit TOO simple, I’m moving on to the chapters on accordions, stab stitch, chapbooks, mutant (mutant. . . that sounds intriguing!), long stitch and Coptic books.  I’m working my way through the “How to Make Books” book.

Wait a minute!  I almost forgot that I made accordion books for our three children a few years ago. . . and I made them without any instructions!  I’m glad I took pictures of them.

A message to the kids is on the inside cover. 

Three copies of each of the items in her wallet await assembling in the accordion books.

The covers are a stiff cardboard covered with black fabric to simulate the black plastic of Grandma Mary’s wallet. For the title on the front cover I found tiny scrapbooking frames at Michael’s Craft store.

Black poster paper was just thick enough but still folded quite easily into accordion “pages.”

Reverse side of the replica of a wallet photo holder.

I wonder how close I came to author Esther Smith’s method?  I’m not going to peek ahead; will wait until I get to that chapter!

This has absolutely nothing to do with books, but have to show you the wonderful lobster we had for dinner last night.  Price:  including a quart of (the best) clam chowder, the dinner for two was $36.84!  (yes, we are in Maine)