Halifax

What do you get if you take a New Englander and make them considerate and friendly? You get a Nova Scotian.  This country just floors me.  The level of civility is so refreshing.  Strangers on the street here treat people better than some waitresses I've had in the States.  Nova Scotia is no exception.  I think the province motto is 'Why not smile?'

We were in Nova Scotia roughly fifteen years ago, but we spent the majority of our time in Cape Breton which is the northern portion.  This time we concentrated our time in the south, and in Halifax.  Without a doubt the most impressive edifice during sightseeing was The Citadel.

This place was so massive and at the same time open air.  As an attraction it was extremely well done for sightseeing by utilizing just enough historical re-enactors (mostly college students) to

make the place come alive.  The Citadel is a stone fortress sitting on top of the highest point in Halifax overlooking the harbor which the British picked out in 1750 as one of the prime harbors in North America.  Naturally, they wanted to control this prime real estate in the age of sailing ships, so they promptly set about bamboozling it away from the Mi'k maq.  (We are shocked, just shocked.)  The original 'citadels' were constructed out of logs, and there were two of those before before the stone one was built.  It only took 28 years to finish it beginning in 1827  and finishing in 1855.  The supreme irony is that the Citadel was never attacked.  Legend claims after the fortress was built,  spies would infiltrate the place and return to proclaim they couldn't find a weakness that could be exploited.

Most of the re-enactors were costumed as The Highland Regiment from approximately 1850.  There were pipers as well as soldiers in full dress uniform and others in their 'daily' uniform.  And, yes, the various bagpipers give small impromptu concerts at about 15 minute intervals.  There was one group of WWI clad soldiers in anticipation of a re-enactment event over the weekend.  The kid below (in the kilt) confided to us those uniforms were really, really uncomfortable compared to his.

Most interesting was the Corporal's wife.  According to her, she would have been instantly recognized as a corporal's wife because she had a row of buttons as well as a belt on her dress.  A sergeant's wife would have had not only more buttons but a lace trimmed neckline as well.  A poor private's wife would have neither lace nor a belt and only one or two buttons.   There's a three week training course for these summer jobs to learn the history of the place, a specific job, and about the people as well as how to deal with the public.  Another way the Citadel engages tourists is you can sign up to learn to fire the cannons (and really fire them) or learn to load and shoot an antique rifle - the newfangled weapon of the 1850's.

This was our first sight when we entered the Citadel, and it was LOUD.  In addition to the wonderful scenery from atop the walls, there are a couple of museums inside what used to be the soldiers' barracks.  There were 11 soldiers to a room and the rooms were daisy chained together.

The red coated soldiers are displaying the Highland Regiment's dress uniform while the ones wearing the buff colored top are in the daily uniform.  Their sporins are sporting a stag's head and the motto (He Who Saves the King) which emblem and motto were awarded by the King to the founder of this regiment.  This came about when the regiment founder and the King were hunting together.  Suddenly a full grown and antlered stag charged the King, and the founder jumping in front of the King, beheaded the stag with one slice of his clay-more (heavy sword) before the King could be harmed.  As the re-enactor pointed out - several Scottish regiments have this story as THEIR legend!  

Anyway, no expense has been spared on these uniforms, and it's obvious the students portraying these historical figures are very proud of them as representations of their country.  

The other stand-out sight in Halifax is the Public Garden.  It was really wrecked by an Atlantic hurricane in 2003, and the entire city pitched it to restore it.  They did a wonderful job because it was literally the breath of Spring.  We saw rhododendrons in mass in bloom for the first time since the Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.   

If you're interested in more photos, click the links!

I'm almost as colorful as the flowers, but the wind was blowing, blowing, and it was chilly - about 16 degrees.  (Yes, I'm going to be annoying and post Celsius.  Double and add 30 for approximate Fahrenheit.)

https://goo.gl/photos/QBcHBBb9mzuCnEhd9 - The Citadel

https://goo.gl/photos/DEDmvBRf3evqiguR7  - The Public Garden

  

 

New Brunswick

We've managed to stay in the most suburban town ever, shades of Hurst, Texas, just four times larger.  Moncton, New Brunswick is a quiet, family community of about 150,000 people filled with pleasant, courteous, kind Canadians.  This is the 'bilingual' province. All the signs are in both English and French with a very slight size edge towards the English.  The street signs seem odd at first when they are bilingual:  644 Rue Main St. with both the French and English for the type of road (Rue) and (Street). They also have a Mexican Restaurant I have my eye on for our one night stay after Newfoundland - at least I can get a margarita - I hope.

New Brunswick is all about TIDES.  Their biggest attraction is the Bay of Fundy which claims the highest tides in the world.  Above is Herring Cove inside the park at relatively low tide.  Where Drake is standing, will be covered with about 30 feet of water at high tide.  Typically, at this time a year, the tides rise and fall about 35 feet twice a day when the weather is 'normal'.  Unusual storms coupled with a full moon, and the tides can change up to 50 feet from low to high.  At low tide, you can walk around on the 'ocean floor'. The Fundy National Park isn't very dramatic, but it had a beautiful waterfall, Dickinson Falls.  As important from my POV, the trail to it was EASY.

Much more dramatic, and much more fun, were the Hopewell Rocks with their signature attraction, the flowerpots. This is a private operation, not a National Park, so I got to rock hound to my heart's content. I picked up some nifty ones.  (I'm very virtuous about never picking up anything in a park or historical site, but I will scavenge any rock from the side of the road or wherever it's not prohibited.) Anyway, it's the same 'walk around on the ocean floor' concept, BUT they have large rocks the size of 5 story buildings with trees and plants growing on the tops of the immense rocks, thus the name: the flowerpots.  That's Drake standing next to one of the rocks showing 'perspective' for me.  When the tide comes in, the rocks are covered up 2/3rds of the way with water.  A lot of the 'ocean floor' is gelatinous mud making this a kiddos' paradise. (Oh, that reminds me, I ran into someone who, upon discovering we were from Texas, mentioned he had taught school in Texas for a couple of years, and it amused him we refer to children as kiddos - who knew it was so regional?)   The mud is interspersed with caches of the most wonderful rocks.  I spent a lot of time in the Sanibel crouch while here.

This has been an odd stop for me because we didn't go to a single museum.  There really wasn't anything of interest here except for a quilt exhibit at the library which, of course, I went to.  This has been the third 'spring' now in a row.  The first wildflower out are fields and fields of dandelions which are in such profusion they are blanketing the fields and yards.  People actually 'mow' around them.  One man's weed is another man's flower.  When we return, supposedly, there will be lupines in the same type of profusion as bluebonnets - same family - bigger color scheme.

We now understand the 'mosquito' issue we'd been warned about.  Yesterday, we packed a lunch to take while touring around.  Getting hungry, we found a small town with a 'lookout and picnic park'.  We drove up, unpacked the food, and repacked it immediately.  We were both covered with 30% Deet, so we really weren't getting bitten, but the young flies and mosquitoes were literally swarming us.  Even in Houston and New Orleans we didn't experience the 'swarm factor'.  I think this is going to be the first of many of these occurrences.  We are definitely rethinking 'picnicking'.

Tomorrow, we head for Nova Scotia where we have a house rented on the Atlantic Ocean.  It's taken me a week to write this blog, so the Nova Scotia one will probably be out close to this one.

If you want to see more pictures of flowerpots, and the Fundy Bay, here are the pictures:

https://goo.gl/photos/2so7yCown41TrGNs6  - Hopewell Rocks

https://goo.gl/photos/TaiLtETsreQ7sd6fA  - Fundy National Park

           

A Viewpoint of Maine

Maine is a coin with two sides.  On one side are the people who live here year round.  It's not so much that they 'love' winter as much as they love the isolation of this place.  I believe this is the only place in New England not teeming with people.  These people also love the sea since it's the only source of real income.  Until the last 50 years, the sea provided adequately since fisherman caught not only lobster, but also all varieties of finned fish.  The depletion of the finned fish, in what for centuries was one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, is a cautionary tale.  However, that topic is a whole other discussion in itself.

Little did I know at one of Sarah's graduation parties I would meet someone who grew up in Maine, and he would give me insight into who these people are.  He talked freely about the mindset of 'year rounders'.  First, it's about doing anything and everything to make a living here.  Life is very day to day.  Most people we've either met or observed, especially on Vinalhaven Island, didn't have one job - they had several.  It is a constant challenge to make enough money to get through the year as well as battle winter.  It is so cold here for so long winter is, in fact, a battle for survival even with the modern conveniences of the 21st century.  Never having lived in a cold climate, this startled me.

Then, there are the limbo people who we've seen in every super-tourist town.  (Bar Harbor certainly qualifies because it's the service town to a heavily visited national park.) In Bar Harbor the people who have served us are A-B people.  (In Sun City, we call people who live one-half of the year in AZ and one-half of the year in another fixed place A-B people because each year they travel from A to B and back again.)  Well, in the 'tourist' areas of Maine, people work seasonally. They live in Bar Harbor or Booth Bay or wherever tourists congregate for the season, and then, they live elsewhere (such as Portland or Boston or even back home in Jamaica) for the rest of the year.

Until 1947, Bar Harbor was like Newport; it was the summer playground of the wealthy. They built gigantic opulent homes and came to Bar Harbor for the summer to escape the heat of Boston and New York and socialize.  There was a 'millionaire's row' similar to Newport, Rhode Island.  Down Highway 3 just outside of the sleepy fishing town of Bar Harbor was one magnificent estate after another.  In 1947 a devastating fire  destroyed fully one-half of Bar Harbor and burned most of the homes on millionaire's row as well as 23,000 acres of Acadia National Park.  Most of these mansions were never rebuilt due to postwar changes in culture and lifestyles, as well as the tax laws.   The town of Bar Harbor reinvented itself as a summer destination for ordinary people.  In place of the estates were built a row of motels to house the new middle class summer visitors, and many large homes left were transformed into bed and breakfast establishments for the upper middle class as they all visited the national park, and thus the tourist town of Bar Harbor as it is today was born.

The other side of the Maine coin are the 'summer people'.  There are still some large vacation homes dotted all around Mount Desert Island as well as Vinalhaven.  (Yes, this place is also an island, but a very large one unlike Vinalhaven.)  Bar Harbor is but one town of many on this island.  Southwest Harbor, another Mount Desert town, and Vinalhaven are still obviously filled with homes of wealthy people who come to Maine for the entire summer, or in some cases for a few weekends. The example of these people are the Bushes who 'summer' in Kennebunkport.  Other families, not quite so famous,  with their vacation homes are replicated throughout the coastal areas of Maine. These summer people, or more specifically the HOUSES of summer people allow the year rounders to continue working through the winter maintaining and caretaking those houses.  There's a certain tension caused by the changes to island life these temporary people impose upon the year-rounders.  

Overall, Maine has been interesting.  Acadia National Park doesn't have the visual drama of the western parks, but we got a bonus:  It's Spring! Everything is in bloom, and all the trees have that beautiful soft vibrant spring green which only lasts for a few weeks.  It's so early here there are some trees still without leaves.  Ominously, the bugs are just starting to come out. This place is full of pools and fens and marshes; it is mosquito and tick heaven.  Their are two great things about this park.  First, the juxaposition of mountain and sea, and second, the carriage roads.  These are gravel roads built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. around the 'sights'.  They are no bicycle and walking roads on which you can enjoy riding a bicycle or walking without dodging cars.  This makes Acadia unique in that older people and people with disabilities can access this park.

Drake on a Carriage Road

Another surprise here were the azaleas!  I had no idea azaleas could grow here.  The plants here, while looking very similar to Gulf Coast azaleas are totally different plants - mostly Japanese azaleas which can handle the extreme cold of the winter months.

Flowering crabapple tree

Azaleas at Asticou Azalea Garden

Tomorrow, on to Canada.  I've very excited about that prospect since we have done extensive planning on a scale which would have daunted us had we but known how much work there would be.  Oh, and FYI, if you want to reach me, please email since I will not be using my iphone for anything except emergency calls while I'm in Canada.      

A Deeper Look at Island Life

I would never want to live on an island.  After spending five days on Vinalhaven Island my gut feeling of what would be right for me has been reinforced.  First, this place is basically 5 miles by 7 miles and is 1 hour and 15 minutes by ferry from the mainland - in this case - Maine.  There are about 1300 people here year round.  (Summer population swells to 5000.)  There's an average of a foot of snow that stays on the ground from October 1st through the end of April.

The Town Park and Flag

And then, there's the wind. The local paper, which is really a weekly newsletter, is called 'The Wind'. This place makes West Texas look like the center of the maritime doldrums.

Vinalhaven was settled by a core group of families from Boston circa 1760 .  You can still see their names in the telephone book.  It was and is a fisherman's paradise.  The finned fish are virtually gone - fished to commercial extinction.  However, if you ate a lobster today anywhere in the country, the odds are it came from Vinalhaven.  This is the lobster fishing capital of the world.  Approximately 50% of the island's economy relies on lobsters. There are traps piled up everywhere,

and we've seen boats stacked high with traps in preparation of going out into the ocean around the island and setting them.

Saw these guys out on a Sunday while we were hiking

Some families have been lobstering for generations.  Each family has a designated  area, and personal buoys which mark their traps.  The buoys are colorful and painted in individual colors/design.  It's been known for a lobsterman's traps and buoys to wind up in a heap on a shoreline if he puts his traps outside his own territory.

Drake waiting for the rolls

One of the best lobster rolls in Maine is at Greet's Eats, a food truck at the Vinalhaven harbor, selling burgers, chicken tenders, and lobster rolls.  Every fisherman in line ordered a cheeseburger, but some of the locals and all the

early tourists were scarfing up lobster rolls.  Drake and I bought two, planning on eating them later, but they were so tempting we devoured them immediately.

Quality granite was discovered on Vinalhaven in 1826, and was quarried and shipped out as the building blocks of the American construction craze of the 19th century.  Vinalhaven granite is found in the Washington Monument, old Penn Station in NYC, custom houses, and post offices all around the country, most of the federal buildings in Washington D.C. and the St. John the Divine Church in NYC.  When Penn Station was rebuilt, Vinalhaven was given back one of the granite eagles gracing the top of the old Station.  However, when it arrived, locals quickly realized it was not granite but limestone, and it was carved not on Vinalhaven, but in Tennessee.  With characteristic thriftiness, they promptly put two slabs of their own granite beneath it, and it now graces the entrance to the harbor parking lot.

A legacy of the granite era is the island is dotted with old quarries which are now filled with water and are the swimming holes during the summer.  Drake is thinking the season is here as he's preparing to dive in.  (Oh, sure - it was about 60 degrees this day.)

We stayed in a house built in the 1850's by a member of the owner's family.  It was originally a family home, then converted to a hotel and finally a down and out boarding

house.  Amy and Craig, who are full time residents of the island, inherited it and are slowing re-doing this money pit and are now members of Airbnb. Craig's trying to get the exterior of the house scrapped, repaired, and repainted. Since he also works full time doing construction and caretaking on the island which is dotted with extremely expensive vacation homes of the wealthy, it's a slow process. Those expensive houses, their construction, maintenance, remodeling, and winter care taking are the backbone of the economy which isn't involved in lobstering.  There's some tension between the summer people and the year rounders, but the summer people generate much of the income needed by people for whom Vinalhaven is the good life.

With so few year round people, it's a tight knit community, and the long brutal winters reinforce their reliance upon one another.  According to Amy, Vinalhaven is filled with clubs, and activities in which they make their own fun.  This community is very progressive. For instance,they were the trial for three wind turbines on the island which generate almost enough energy to take care of the island's electrical needs.  (The turbines are the newest 'attraction', and everyone ignores the no trespassing signs to get a closer look at the behemoths.)  Additionally, there is the Vinalhaven Land Trust which has been collecting and protecting island land from development.  We hiked on two of these preserves.

At the same time, they revere their history - there was a Memorial Day Service today  in which the names of all their dead veterans were read - which took about an hour and goes back to the Revolutionary War.  In fact, their town monument is an obelisk on which are carved the names of that war's dead.

All in all, this has been a relaxing portion of the trip after the excitement of graduation and the hectic pace in Boston.  It's heaven to wake up to total silence after New Haven and Boston.  This accommodation is scrupulously clean and comfortable rather than luxurious.  Amy, a woman after my own heart, likes to repurpose and salvage items which is how she's managed to get this place up and running.  We've also managed to start tuning up our hiking legs with a couple of short hikes while here.  So, it's goodbye to Vinalhaven, and keep your fingers crossed, perhaps I won't be seasick on the ferry ride back to the real world.

A Note from Vinalhaven Island, Maine

Hello from Vinalhaven Island, Maine.  The good news is I didn't have to use the emergency barf bag (a big zip lock I found in my purse) as I conscientiously sucked down three pieces of hard candy ginger - expired, who knew? - as we were ferried to this island off the coast of Maine.  The ferry was small, and the weather was overcast and rainy.  I was not hopeful.  However, like everything else about this trip so far, the rainbow which appeared in Holbrook, Arizona over Joe & Aggie's Mexican Restaurant (our favorite), on the very first day of the trip was a definite omen immediately seized upon by the superstitious (me).

We had our first trip interaction last night with the local population.  We ate at the local bar and hangout which was an obvious institution.  Upon arriving, there was an uproarious bar scene following every pitch of the Red Sox game against the Angels. Walking into the dining room, and I'm using the term very, very loosely, there were only a couple of empty tables.  The rest were occupied with extended families as well as a table of young people.  Smart enough to know the one waitress we spotted, who was running between the  bar and the restaurant, wouldn't have time to seat us, we grabbed a couple of menus and seated ourselves.

Immediately, the busy waitress appeared with an Ipad.  I'm thinking, "Wow, how impressive is that in this burg - a waitress taking orders electronically."  However, instead of asking for food orders, she began reading a trivia question.  (What woman took over representation of this rock musician in the 1980's after he was fired by his band and later married him?)  From uproarious, the room went to dead silence listening to the question.  It was somewhat unnerving until Drake leaned across to me and said, "That's Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, right?"  I said, "Hell, I don't know, but it's a good guess."  After a couple of minutes, the table across from us, looked up in frustration, and one of occupants said, "Do you know the answer?"  We shrugged and gave them Drake's guess.  Well, we were right, and we became instant consultants at the local Friday night trivia game.

It was a good start in Vinalhaven.  I confess all we did was reorg and cooking today - I made chilli as well as chocolate chip cookies while we regrouped.  Drake did all the laundry, and we messed around with our stuff consolidating and repacking.  I admit graduation from Yale was glorious, but exhausting.  Plus, we arrived in New Haven a day early breaking our rule about not driving more than 350 miles a day.  Instead, we drove 1100 miles in two days to spend a few more hours with THE SMARTEST WOMAN AT YALE UNIVERSITY who now officially has two Masters' Degrees.  We win the sweepstakes.  Our daughter has more education than we do, and a better job at age 29 than we ever had...  Every parents' dream.         

What did You Want for Christmas in 1983?

I love to read magazines, and our nomadic lifestyle precludes paper magazine subscriptions. Yes, I know now days you can 'subscribe' online, but I still find it difficult to 'read' a magazine on-line.  I even have a Zinio subscription to use in a pinch.  When in Sun City, I can find bins of magazines for the grand sum of $.25 per magazine.  What you find IN the bins is sometimes startling.  Point in fact, last week I found a 1961 Good Housekeeping, and, yes, it's filled with Jacqueline Kennedy! The most common magazine, which I sometimes think reproduces while we aren't looking, is National Geographic.

On the last magazine run to the bins, I found a 1983 Saturday Evening Post.  Now, this 1983 mag was a far cry from its heyday publication during the the first 30 years of the 20th century.  The 'real' Saturday Evening Post published from 1821 until 1969 when it was killed off by television.  The 1983 magazine I found was actually just a 'nostalgia' issue.  Those issues published sporadically throughout the 1970's and 1980's.

The Saturday Evening Post became famous for its cover art.  Can anyone say "Norman Rockwell, and before Rockwell was "Charles Gibson".  Gibson originated the 'Gibson Girl', a pre-movies ideal of the modern American girl next door who wore sensible clothes, no corset, rode a bicycle, used small amounts of make-up, and viewed herself as part of the larger world.  The Post also published short stories, but those offerings were considered more popular works than literary (that field was covered by the New Yorker and Collier's).  The notable exception was F. Scott Fitzgerald who published in the Saturday Evening Post.

So, back to my 1983 Saturday Evening Post.  I bought it to see what America looked like 32 years ago.  There was a profile of Willard Scott, already the 'beloved' weather man of the Today Show.  An editorial was bemoaning the lack of 'commitment' between young people.  (Boy, those young people are always a source of constant disappointment to the older generation, aren't they?)  The article which really, really grabbed my attention was "Electronic Gift Giving - Batteries Not Included".  The subtitle was:  'Our choice of high-tech offerings you may want to plug into your Christmas shopping list'

The first product was 'Component TV'.  A Proton (yes, really) 600M 19" color monitor with a high resolution picture and a home computer hook-up to the 600T video tuner could accommodate 105 cable channels!  It retailed for ONLY $1050.  (That's about $2500 in a today's dollars.)  Then, there's digital sound which has just been 'improved' to no longer have a stylus but instead uses laser technology.  Forget LP's, in 1983 it's palm sized discs featuring shiny surfaces that send digital messages to the player.  Each disc is in the $20 range (about $48 in 2015).

There are also available for the 1983 Christmas season computer phones with microprocessors that remember numbers and have a speaker - only $350 for the Genesis AT&T model.  My two favorite gifts were:  the Seiko Talking Watch (which SEP compared to the 'Dick Tracy' watch of the comic strip.)  On the talking watch 8 seconds of sound could be recorded and played back at a set time all for just $195 ($463 today.)   

My big winner of 1983 was the cutting edge electronic game:  Monty Plays Scrabble! This was a hand held scrabble game which was NOT inactive beyond the 'hint' function if you let the device randomly select your letters.  Up to three people could play, and it came with a 12,000 word  (politically correct) dictionary.  In later years, you could 'upgrade' the dictionary with add-ons to bring the dictionary up to 44,000 entries.  (FYI - that's roughly one-fourth of the current words available to an English speaker.  I wonder which ones were left out of the Monty dictionary?)  Monty had a few drawbacks: It didn't display the game board since it only had an 8x4 character LCD display.  You had to draw the board with paper and pencil or use the traditional game board.  As far as I could tell, the biggest plus was you didn't have to carry all those pesky wooden tiles with you and a paper dictionary for disputes. This was 'scrabble on the go' circa early 1980's

Casio also had an entertainment entry in 1983 using microprocessors in its $200 electronic keyboard (with an built in cassette player, already passe' at the time).  The keyboard could simulate additional musical instruments as well as 16 beguiling background rhythms.  I've heard these, and oh, you never forget them.  This high-tech addition to the keyboard world quickly jumped into the organ market, and there are still churches out there with tango rhythms to embellish the hymns.

'Notebook' computers are in their infancy.  The first available for the consumer market were packed into medium sized hard case briefcases, and had to have an external power supply (ie plugged into the wall).  The newest models of 1983 "have a full keyboard, a large 40 column LCD display and built in word processing and communication programs" (They don't mean email.)  These are marketed for traveling journalists - meaning let the company pop for this - because they cost $799 ($1900 in 2015).

Finally, video learning is touted in this 1983 magazine as the 'new genre' in the video game market.  Video games are disparaged as "having at least one redeeming factor - they help develop coordination.  Few, however, deserve the hours of attention some young users give them."  (We are talking about Astron Belt and Donkey Kong, Jr to name a couple). The new video teacher is Basic Number Facts.  It "combines flashy fun with educational qualities".  You'd think they could have found a better name - oh, yeah, I want to play number facts with a teacher.

As I flipped through the magazine, I especially noted the advertisements.  Yes, we were already a consumption society.  I came across the "Itty Bitty Booklight", a product I still have.  There was also the 'Best Little Bullshit Scraper in Texas!' with *shit* censored out of the title.  It's only $9.95 (plus p & h).  Obviously, 'shipping' is not something used for such a low priced product.  It was made of heavy cast steel, weighed 3 pounds and you pushed it into the ground at a door entrance as a shoe cleaner.  A full page ad of 'Toast Your NFL Team' by purchasing mugs, tankards, plaques, tote bags or even the tankard lamp with a free key ring thrown in for with every purchase looked pretty much like the tasteless sports items available in 2015 until I noticed there were no Titans or Ravens, and very few of the logos were unchanged.  There were still personal ads, much more genteelly phrased, Currier and Ives prints and Hummel figurines.  And the topper:  Yes, you could buy a Christmas fruitcake shipped through the mail in 1983 just showing the more things change, the more they remain the same. I wonder if any of those fruitcakes are still being re-gifted?                

  

Canada, here we come!

It’s been like Christmas around here.  I shop almost exclusively on the computer.  First, my feet hurt so badly walking around on concrete to shop means a big time pain increase.  Second, I know my sizes and brands and materials as well as what styles look good on me.  Third, I always save money.  Therefore, it’s been a constant stream of stuff I need for the coming six months.  We aren’t going to have an ‘address’ to receive mail until September 1^st.  I don’t buy just clothes on-line.  I buy cosmetics, my probiotic, shoes, underwear, travel books, Drake’s shoes, embroidery kits, Sarah’s graduation gift, Jay’s graduation gift, wine, a purse, and an Elite cooler bag.

         That cooler bag is made in Dallas, and it’s the best cooler I’ve ever owned.  I got one when Sarah Lynn was born.  A gift from a friend to carry baby food between New Orleans and Houston. (Yes, I’ve owned it 30 years!)  It is soft sided, and it looks like a big tote bag.  With an ice block, or even just ice cubes dumped inside the bag, it keeps food cold for three days.  When the zipper broke about two years ago, I returned the bag, and they put in a new zipper for the cost of the postage – one way!  I decided for the upcoming trip, I’d buy another one because I’m going to try and carry more ‘food’ with me than I usually do when traveling. 

         My feet are really bad.  I’m having lots of pain which escalates when I’m ‘on’ them for long periods of time.  Well, that’s what touring and hiking is all about, so I’m expecting ice packs, a big martini, and my feet ‘up’ during evenings for a lot of this upcoming trip.  Drake will want to watch the Rangers, no matter where we are most nights, and we don’t like to eat a huge restaurant meal late anyway.  Gosh, are we old people or what?

         Anyway, the point is I’m planning on cooking for a few nights at the places where we are staying for 5 or 7 days.  I’ve been acquiring crock pot recipes which take 6 to 10 hours to cook.  (And, I don't appreciate all you cookinistas laughing at my crock pot plan.  I know who you are.)   Anyway, MY plan is to put something in the crock pot as I’m leaving the house for a day of sightseeing.  Even if we don’t eat it that night, if you have a soup or a chicken or a roast to work with, each one will be good for several types of quick meals.  Thus, the extra cooler since there’s a period where we are one day’s drive between multi-day stays, and I don’t want to keep replacing cold staples. 

         The planning on this trip has been very extensive.  We’ve done this enough now to know having what you want with you AND being able to put your hands on it immediately is crucial.  Usually, we just unload our entire cargo trailer the day we arrive at wherever we will be staying for a few months.  This time, we will be working mainly out of the trailer, and unloading as few items as possible when we are only staying for a few days or a week in a place. 

We are taking probably one-fourth the amount of stuff we usually travel with since all the places are 'furnished. The bikes are going to travel inside the trailer instead of on top of the car.  (Here we are at Craters of the Moon, with Drake taking a pic of the trailer with mounted bikes and me from the top of a lava mountain.  I graciously let him struggle to the top with the camera while I waited on ground as 'perspective'.)  It's much easier to decide to ‘ride’ on a whim if Drake isn't bench pressing them over his head twice every time we want to take a spin. 

(In the next picture we are being inspected by the army because the 1788 lighthouse we wanted to look at is now inside an army base in Virginia.  Had to prove we weren't geriatric terrorists.)

For the Canada trip, Drake is going to bungee the bikes one of each side INSIDE the trailer.

Additionally, he's rigged a clothes bar to hang our extra clothes inside garment bags.  We want to be able to get to the tool containers, the toiletry tub, the embroidery tub, the kitchen tub, the electronics tub, the spice box (a plastic shoe boxed size container with a handle on top), the bike bag, the ironing board and iron (which has its own train case), the ‘files’, the office/stationery tub, and the exercise bag all of which will be inside the trailer with the bikes and clothes.
 

I don’t expect to need my linens until Colorado.  Just in case, I’m packing a ‘mattress topper’ and some soft sheets – nothing worse than a really bad bed.  I also have an egg crate box of books and another one of rags.  You’d be surprised how often you need rags when you travel as well as a few other odds and ends – like my mega light floor lamp.  Drake, the packing genius, is going to have to work out a new packing strategy for maximum efficiency.

We have ‘tasks’ broken down between Drake and I as we get ready to head out of Arizona.  My responsibilities are to figure out WHAT we are taking – except for tools and electronics – and then get it efficiently packed.  I’m an expert at 14/18 gallon Rubbermaid tub packing.  I’ve already packed the non-necessities this past week.  Another one of my jobs is to dwindle the food, especially the cold food.  We call this eating down the fridge.  In less than all modesty, I’m pretty good at this.  Drake gets the ‘rig’ ready to go, and he also packs the stuff he uses on the road.  It all sounds so simple if you are organizational freaks. (Guilty as charged.)

Surprisingly, the tough pack are the clothes.  We contend with multiple seasons, and those ‘bridge’ seasons can sometimes be unseasonably cold.  In Fraser, Colorado, for instance, we could easily see an early snow.  It won’t last, but it will be cold while it does.  It can easily take half a day to figure out how to take as few clothes as possible while covering the bases.  PLUS, we have ‘graduation’ clothes this time – not as bad as ‘wedding’ clothes, but close. 

Then, there are the specialty items.  We are bringing lots of bottles of wine to share with our friends and family as we celebrate our way to Connecticut.  And, don’t forget the graduation gifts and cards which will be wrapped and ready for presentation.  There have also been all types of hoops to jump through to go out of the country - passport renewals, signing up for Medicare, getting 'vacation' supplies of medications, ferry reservations, and making a bazillion housing reservations as we trek across Canada.  I haven't even begun to talk about 'closing' the Arizona house - which actually seems simple after the organization to get ready to LEAVE.  It does take half a day, however.  

Is this all worth it?  Definitely.  I need to get out of the Sun City routine.  I need to get out of the desert because I miss green plants and large green trees, and I don't want to do 115 degrees.  My favorite thing about traveling is not just about seeing all the new stuff and meeting new people.   It is just as much about getting up to a unique day almost every day.  Every day is an adventure, well, not on the scale of canoeing the Amazon, but pretty adventurous all the same. I also guarantee that my blog will be reinvigorated.  This is going to be a great trip.  Get ready, Canada, here we come.