STOPPING BY THE OLD WATERING HOLE
Heavy rains came in the night dragging behind them a temporary but welcome short lived warm front. Pheebs and I almost needed a canoe to reach the Jeep and the rain just kept coming. right up to about 10 o’clock this morning
SCARED US UP A HERD OF WILD TURKEYS ON OUR WAY TO GODERICH EARLIER TODAY
A WET DAY FOR HARVESTING CORN
THESE HURON COUNTY LONGHORNS DIDN’T SEEM TO MIND THE WET WEATHER
IF THERE ARE VEHICLES OR PEOPLE IN ROTARY COVES’S DOG WALKING AREA THIS IS OUR SECONDARY OPTION FOR A LEG STRETCH NEAR THE BEACH STREET STATION RESTAURANT SEEN TO THE RIGHT
SPOTTED IN GODERICH’S SOUTH END THIS MORNING
MILD ENOUGH THIS MORNING TO LEAVE THE BRIDGE DOOR OPEN
THE ADRIATICBORG’S ESCAPE POD
No vehicles at the dog walking area and with a slight drizzle in the air I didn’t figure anyone would show up with their dogs so Pheebs and I hit the trail walking a quarter mile to the far end and back. The trail follows along the top of a bluff overlooking Lake Huron.
WITH MY WINTER COAT ON IT WAS NICE TO HAVE THE WINDOWS DOWN
Heading back out of the harbor I noticed the Adriaticborg was underway and in the process of backing up through the narrow channel alongside the Sifto Salt Mine. I had often wondered how big freighters that had come in bow first made their way back out to the lake and I was soon to find out how a tugboat assists in doing that.
BACKING UP VERY CAREFULLY
WONDER IF THAT’S THE CAPTAINS WIFE OUT THERE ON THE WING BRIDGE TELLING HIM ‘LOUD AND CLEAR’ HOW TO BACK UP THE BOAT:))
SO FAR SO GOOD
From the harbor area we drove up on top the bluff which was a short distance to the harbor lighthouse overlooking the harbor. From that vantage point I watched how the big freighter was able, with the help of a tug, to swing itself around in the outer harbor and point it’s bows for open water. Interesting and first time I saw that. Photos below may look a little misty and that’s because a drizzling fog had rolled ashore forcing me into the Jeep to take the photos.
GODERICH LIGHTHOUSE TOP RIGHT AND THE ADRIATICBORG BACKING OUT OF THE HARBOR CENTER LEFT
NOTICE HOW THE TUG IS PUSHING WITH IT’S STERN IN TURN SWINGING THE FREIGHTER’S STERN AROUND
WITH IT’S STERN SWUNG AROUND AND BOW NOW FACING THE OPEN WATERS OF THE LAKE THE TUG SWINGS AROUND TO NOW PUSH ON THE BOW
TUG BACKS INTO PLACE ALONGSIDE THE BOW
MOW LINED UP WITH IT’S BOW BETWEEN THE TWO BREAKWATERS IT’S' ALL AHEAD FULL AS THE ADRIATIC HEADS OUT INTO LAKE HURON
THE BIG FREIGHTER SOON DISAPPEARS INTO THE MISTS
BECAUSE THIS TUGBOAT REVERSED ALL THE WAY BACK INTO THE HARBOR IT MAKES ME WONDER IT IT MAY HAVE A FORWARD GEAR PROBLEM
Wasn’t much else going on so we decided to head for home. Somewhere along the way rains stopped and that was the end of them for the rest of the day. Not a lot of traffic on the roads so people must have stayed in this morning. After we got home I never went out of the house again. Felt cold and damp outside to me.
I HAD A FEW PHOTOS LEFT OVER FROM TUESDAY MORNING’S JEEP RIDE SO HERE THEY ARE
FOOLED YA WITH THAT UPSIDE DOWN REFLECTION PHOTO EH:))
ALWAYS A BUSY TIME OF YEAR FOR FARMERS
I think one of the advantages for RV Fulltimers is that when you make that commitment to sell your house and maybe all your stuff there basically is no turning around and going back. Your on your way and even if self doubt about what your doing creeps into your mind you push that aside and focus on the new lifestyle at hand. You pull out all the good thoughts, all the positives, and discard those bad negative thoughts. If the going gets rough you deal with it, you live with it, and you learn to cope and make the best of what you are doing. I often wonder where we would be now had we sold our house back in 2008 when we actually nearly did. There is no way of knowing of course but I think we probably would have made out Okay as Full Timers simply because after awhile we would have had nothing to compare it to and I think that is one of the problems of Snow Birding. If your RV is all you have then you have no choice but to adapt to your situation. A daily mobile life can quickly become very normal for many folks. If you have a house like we do or even a second house for a few years like we did in Arizona then comparing the creature comforts a house to an RV can easily lead to a conflicted mind. Here’s an example, we always thought having a base in Arizona would be perfect for us and for the most part it was. Our house in Congress Arizona was centrally located for lots of side trips in the winter all around the southwest. Well that was the plan but here’s what really happened. As any Snowbird knows the loading up and packing of an RV for a trip can be a real pain. And it always was. Normally this only happened twice a year with a long stretch in between loading and unloading. Loading and unloading for shorter trips were easier but turned out to be much more often. In short it required an effort we weren’t always ready to give. It was easier to not go anywhere. We got lazy I guess. Then when we did go somewhere like Sedona Arizona, California’s Mojave Desert, Borrego Springs or Yuma……we didn’t stay long. And why didn’t we stay long?? Because if it was too windy, too rainy, too hot, too cold, or whatever other paltry excuse we could come up with we knew we could be home to our Arizona digs in just a matter of hours. And that’s what happened. I remember going to Borrego Springs one time in our Class C Chevy Sunseeker just after we bought it. I think we were only there one or two nights at the most with the desert winds knocking us about. ‘That’s enough of this’ we said and toodily scoot off we went home. No not to Canada 6 days away but Congress Arizona 6 hours away. Went to Sedona one time and after four or five days said ‘the heck with this let’s go home where we have all our creature comforts and don’t have to be kept awake by flapping awnings and howling winds. Yes, we spoiled ourselves alright. Same thing with our house here near Bayfield. Had we not had this house to come home to each year we would have adapted to the Fulltiming lifestyle like so many others but knowing we had a home to come home to and especially the last 4 or 5 years we just couldn’t wait to get here each Spring. Not like in the first few years when I didn’t want to come home in the Spring at all and spent many hours thinking how we could stay in the Southwest forever. Yes there has been a lot of mind changes in these past dozen years alright but you know what…….if we hadn’t decided to adopt the RV Snow Birding lifestyle back in 2006 I just shudder to think of all the things we would have missed and I can’t even begin to imagine where we would even be now if we would have had to sit here in one location 365 days a year enduring all those horribly boring winter months. We had an opportunity presented to us in 06 and we grabbed onto the coattails of the RV Snow Bird lifestyle and ran with it. No regrets except to say I wished we could have started out at least 10 or 20 years before we did……………….
BRUNCH
WIRED
Kelly and I bought our first RV back in about 1997 or 98 and it……………well maybe I’ll save that story for another time, tomorrow night perhaps.
GROANER’S CORNER:(( What plants like Halloween the most? Bam-BOO!
What do birds say on Halloween? Twick or tweet
What do you get when you cross a werewolf and a vampire? A fur coat that fangs around your neck.
What would you find on a haunted beach? A sand-witch!
Why didn’t the skeleton like the Halloween candy? He didn’t have the stomach for it!
What’s worse than being a five-ton witch on Halloween? Being her broom!
Why do ghosts like to ride in elevators? It raises their spirits.
What do you get when you divide the circumference of a jack-o-lantern by its diameter? Pumpkin Pi.
What would you get if you crossed a vampire and a teacher? Lots of blood tests!
Why are vampires so easy to fool? Because they’re suckers.
What did the ghost say when the skeleton lied to him? I can see right through you.
-----------------------------------
Today's Halloween Specials: Ghoulash, scream beans, scalped potatoes, and Mummy's tomb-made booberry pie with I scream.
==============================
You've had a wonderful stretch, and shared it with millions!
ReplyDeleteI’m sure there will be a day when we are in your shoes, Al. I personally can walk into a big, beautiful home and feel claustrophobic, as the view from the windows never changes like t does in our RV. But time may change my feelings on that. There is a season for everything, that is for sure.
ReplyDeleteAnd the memories made are priceless. What's even better is that you have your wonderful blog that allows you to do every trip many times over!
ReplyDeleteI used to shake my head when we were prepping for our trip to MN from TX and somebody would say, "enjoy your vacation!" Literally moving from one home to another twice a year did not feel like a vacation. It was more like WORK! 'Course we did have good times while we were there......
That was some large calf having "brunch." And, I was thinking to email you about the upside down photo. Hard to believe it is a reflection.
Great photos - I'd never seen anything like the tug taking the big ship out of the harbor. I'd love to have watched it in person.
ReplyDeleteI only spent 2 years or so in an RV - it wasn't as much fun as I hoped it would be but without a partner I just wasn't happy with it. I had a dog or two, but you can't talk a lot of things over with a dog, and I got tired of doing all the decision making.
I’m glad you RV’d as long as you did or Joe and I wouldn’t had the opportunity to meet you, Kelly and Pheebs.
ReplyDeleteThoroughly enjoyed the ship/tug photos tonight, but the highlight for me were all the wonderful photos of the cows. Just love them!
ReplyDeleteRVing vs fixed housing is a tough comparison. Leaving financial comparison aside, the experience of each lifestyle varies based on your age, health, energy; population density and weather of current vs preferred locations; condition and spaciousness of your RV; tolerance for tight, small living arrangements as tradeoff for easily changing locations to enjoy better weather, more natural beauty, meet up with seasonal friends, or explore new places. Versus the many conveniences and wide spaces of stick-built living.
ReplyDeleteIn an RV, as a fulltimer, you are one accident away from ending up homeless. Yet, with increasingly unpredictable weather, many house-based folks are also one flood, hurricane, or fire away from the same fate.
The demands of RVing appear to keep aging seniors active and energized. Even when there are periods of mechanical failures, heavy traffic, terrible campgrounds, noisy neighbors, or unseasonable weather. In a house, too many slip into a sedentary state, enjoying their well-built coccoon, sitting in a chair pushing buttons, and eating. It takes effort to overcome boredom or a creeping torpor, as life slips away along with mobility, vigor, mood, and health.
Novelty and new experiences -- wanted or not -- activates a sense one is truly alive. A reason many house-based people take extended trips to family or foreign lands.
In an RV, unless you own deeded spots, you are often on the move, planning trips, choosing the next overnight, motoring to them, trying new markets and restaurants, and adapting to new situations -- good and bad. That unpredictability forces resiliency, keeping us from becoming sluggish.
But RVing can become too demanding. As the RV ages, repair costs mount, and worries outweigh what should be the joys of the trip. Upgrading to a younger, bigger or smaller RV is a major consideration requiring selection, haggling, customizing, and the outgo of $$$, with diminishing returns as one approaches an age when driving ability (reaction time, eyesight?) falters, putting you and others on the road at risk. Sometimes the decision to hang up the keys is a decision we put off to avoid discovering we have few alternative interests.
Private pilots, saillors, RVers, and other enthusiasts involved in equipment-heavy activities/lifestyles, all go through this tough decision as they age, personal situations change, or the excitement has faded.
The older I get, the more inconvenient I find travel dependent on staying in hotels. Hauling in bags and all the stuff an older person needs for personal comfort and maintenance, and always finding important things were left behind. And including a pet with car trips often means you're given the worst rooms. No thanks.
Look forward to reading as you and Kelly mull over options and test the waters of suspending snowbirding in 2018-19, and whether being available for more family get-togethers, and being close to your health providers, now plays a bigger role in your lives and decisionmaking.
Enjoyed the farm tractors, ship and tug and most of all the cows. Great photo with the gravity defying stacked rocks. It is 14 F outside and a cozy 70 F inside right now.
ReplyDeleteWho would have ever 'thunk' there were longhorns in Canada ... loved the ship photos. I have always liked tugboats.
ReplyDeleteA very good description of the rv lifestyle. We are glad that we went full-time back in 2006, no packing and unpacking of the rv. This lifestyle works for us and the changing views, and places to enjoy, being outside walking and the everyday fresh air and sunshine I believe keeps us healthier,
ReplyDeleteLike you, wished we had started sooner, and someday will have to hang up the keys, hopefully not for quite a few more years.
As a mostly full-timer for over 20 years I'm feeling just the opposite. Living in a house, even this small, seems more than I need. I miss living in the 5th-wheel, but then also do fine in the much smaller truckcamper. I like your foggy shots today.
ReplyDeleteI am guessing your tug has a multi directional drive that pivots in any direction it needs and the skipper is just as comfortable going backwards as forwards so just headed to the dock in whichever way he was facing.
ReplyDeleteWe bought our first RV in 1998. Colin is not much younger than you @ 68.
ReplyDelete