just checkin' in - keepin' the home fires burning bright

Well, the groundhog has failed in his mission to end winter and more snow is expected today. The birds flock around the feeder like the proverbial office water cooler on the Monday after the Super Bowl and drain it every 2 days. My wood pile is getting perilously low and I am thinking about destinations for this summer.

I think I am taking to the vagabond life of a full-timer or semi-full-timer. It is such a joy to see this big wonderful country with its mountains, deserts, glaciers and oceans. The wonder of climbing up a mountain to view a grove of trees that was standing there before the birth of Christ or the Roman Empire and the vast layers of earth that form the Grand Canyon and places like Monument Valley that we have all seen in movies pushes the imagination to great heights and depths. We have seen so much but there is way more to see.

We arrived home early in October and I promptly was hit by allergies which morphed into a cold and sinus problem followed by the flu. This made absorbing back into society very difficult. I did not leave the road easily. The house that we worked so long and hard to renovate has not sold and that affects our ability to wander far and wide and this in turn affects our plans for next summer.

We got right back into the church supper routine with some great improvements. While we were gone, another couple took over running the suppers and have continued running them even after we got back. That leaves Cheryl and I to just cook and not have to plan or do the shopping. That is a big improvement. Instead of working 3 days on every supper, we only have to work on the day of the supper. We show up early on “supper” day and help prep the turkeys and load them into the ovens. Then while everyone prepares the potatoes and veggies, I make the stuffing. Then it is easy for a few hours. I just baste the turkeys and keep an eye on them increasing or decreasing the temperature to meet our time schedule.

I digress. We had an ice storm that knocked out the power around here for 4 nights. We were really glad to have the wood stove. We kept it going steadily for that time period and kept some heat in the house. The living room was toasty and the rest of the house was certainly warmer than the outside. Even my mother suffered this time. She lives downtown and usually gets her power back when the town gets its power back. They are on the top of the list of places to fix. Unfortunately, this time wires were down on her street. Since the street is small and there are only about 20 houses, she moved to the bottom of the line and only got her power back a couple of hours before we did.

She had a gas fireplace put in at the same time we put in our wood stove so she at least had one warm room in her house. That was her family room which is one large room containing her kitchen, living area and dining room. One of her neighbors moved in with her and they camped out in the family room.

Eventually the power was restored and everything returned to normal. The downside was that all of our Christmas preparations were knocked back by 5 plus several recovery days and we were way behind all the way to Christmas. It all worked out and we had a nice time over the holidays.

We ended up with problems at the house we had for sale. A relief valve blew out and flooded the cellar. That took some time to rectify and we cleared out the water, got a plumber and finally got the place back to normal. I think the cold affected the relief valve and caused it to blow. No harm, no foul.

We are not sure what we want to do this next summer. Selling the Parent Street house is the bottleneck. We need to get rid of some of our expenses and selling the house will go a long way to resolving this issue. As a result, we have a real wish list of things to do. Primarily, we would like to go back to Alaska and catch the Northwest Territories. That is the only Canadian Province I have left to visit. If we catch it on the way home in September, we stand a good chance to see the Aurora as there is an area where it is visible starting in August. We also have the northern part of Alaska that we didn’t get to on our last trip.

The second long trip would be the northwestern part of the US. Cheryl hasn’t seen this part of the country and I would like to spend some quality non-working time exploring Northern California, Oregon and Washington. The trip home from there would give me the opportunity to get my last state (Idaho).

The third and most probable is to spend the summer exploring the Canadian Maritimes. I have been to all of them but would like to spend a lot more time there. I have made several trips to Nova Scotia but have never been to the lower part. If I get up there I always head for Cape Breton Island. I would also love to go back to Newfoundland. I spent 2 weeks there several years ago and have always wanted to go back. Cheryl has been in all of the Maritimes but Newfoundland so she needs that and Northwest Territories to close out her Canadian experience.

Another possibility is to head down the east coast and visit all of the states between here and Georgia (our home campground is in Georgia and we have never been there). That is probably the least likely of the scenarios with each of the other 3 having an equal chance. An additional possibility is to find a campground and land there as a seasonal. That certainly solves the gas problem.

Well, that about covers our months since we landed back in Maine. We have had snow snow snow. I would gladly trade all of this snow for some of those 120 + degree days in Arizona.

Hope your winter is much less stressful than ours. See you back on the road!

comments and questions to estabrke@gmail.com

Clayton