Uncategorized – The Wandering RVer

Getting High in the Granite State

I’ll start by saying there are lots of ways the title of this post can be taken and I want to clarify, I’m not talking about any illicit substances. Steve and I recently spent a month in New Hampshire mooch-docking at his brothers house. Mooch-docking is parking in someone’s driveway and plugging into their house power and water. This is our second time staying at Steve’s brother’s house and this year, he installed a 30 amp outlet for us.

Our first high was getting Waldo leveled. Generally we can do it using just the jacks, but, sometimes you need several 4×6’s and a step stool! Note the blocks of wood under Waldo’s front wheels and how high the step is.

We had several reasons for going to NH, but family and friends topped the list. Steve’s nephew was getting married. It was a small ceremony, in an open field, surrounded by loved ones. All the love and happy feelings floating around qualified as another kind of high!

Plus, it gave Steve and I a reason to dress up a bit…

Many afternoons were spent quietly sitting on the porch, watching all of the hummingbirds enjoying the summer…

Then there was the day I was sitting in Waldo, just goofing off when a bear walked through the yard…

Not a great picture, but I was shooting out the window!

We spent a wonderful day with the family in York Beach, Maine. It was amazing to me that 4 car loads of people all managed to arrive at the meeting place within half an hour of each other! Quite the feat since we were all coming from different towns in NH.

York Beach
“I can hear the ocean!!”
Ice cream run before we head back

Steve spent 3 1/2 weeks of the time we were in NH working for the towing company his brother works for. Near the end of his time there, he went of a road call involving an overturned cement truck…

One benefit of Steve working full-time is I had time to go kayaking with one of my best friends. She took me to an out of the way pond and we spent a glorious afternoon on the water!

The family got together on several occasions, laughter and fun prevailed…

Fun on the tractor
“It would be more fun if I drive!”
Family happiness!

On the morning we were leaving, we discovered Waldo had a flat tire. Luckily, his nephew was able to find the leaky valve stem and pump up the tire.

Since we had been mooch-docking for 36 nights, our black and grey tanks needed to be emptied, Phil was kind enough to dig up his septic tank to we wouldn’t have to slosh our way to the next campground!

And, I’ll end this post with my favorite sunset picture from our time in NH…

Up next – Kentucky Bound!

Happy Manatee Faces

One of my all time favorite things to do when I am in Crystal River is swim with the manatees.

These adorable creatures flock to warmer waters when the temperature in the Gulf of Mexico gets below 68°F. Despite the fact they can weigh in at over 1200 pounds, their stomach and intestines make up most of their mass. They actually have very little body fat for their size. Most of the time, they can be observed eating (10% of the body weight a day) or resting on the bottom. While resting, they only surface to breathe once every 15 minutes or so.

The first time I swam with the manatees was on a charter in King’s Bay. Setting out in the early morning hours, we were treated to a lovely sunrise…

Before dipping into the waters, we were given reminders of manatee etiquette. No chasing, no feeding, you may only touch a manatee if it comes close to you and then, only with one hand. As we floated, it didn’t take long for a juvenile manatee to come investigate…

I was amazed at it’s curiosity. It circled us and nudged in closer…

I happily watched as it fed on the grasses…

Before swimming off into the darkness. Back on the boat, we were treated to a glimpse of the mother and calf…

The next time I swam with them was in Three Sisters Springs. They didn’t seem quite as curious here and spent nearly all the time resting on the bottom…

Manatees have no natural enemies, except man. Every year, hundreds of manatees are injured or killed when their slow moving paths cross boats. You can see the propeller scars on this manatee…

While the manatees here weren’t as curious, some of the fish were…

Now, I’ve swam with them, kayaked with them and watched them from above. I never get tired of happy manatee faces!

HMMH!

Have you every swam with the manatees? What is the most unique creature you have encountered while swimming?

Exploring Big Cypress National Preserve, part 2

If you missed part 1, you can find it here. Big Cypress encompasses several different environments, and they each require a specific mode of transportation. Many places are accessible with your own vehicle, despite any warning signs you might see…

Many of the roads are hard packed sand and are easy to navigate…

They offer a stunning array of scenery and wildlife opportunities…

Other areas can only be reached via hiking trails. We started out on the Gator Hook Trail. At the start, it looked something like this…

With scenery like this…

Then it became a bit muddier…

As you can see, Steve is having second thoughts about this hike. And with good reason, the rest of the trail looked like this…

We hadn’t really planned for a wet hike, so we decided to head back and check out some of the other trails. One of the neat things about Big Cypress is they have several boardwalk hikes. Most are less than a mile and are wheelchair accessible. You can see almost all of the same scenery, but with dry feet.

Big Cypress -5232 — What do you think of this in black and white?

The boardwalk at the Kirby Storter Roadside Park has a chickee near the beginning of the trail…

As the boardwalk meanders through the forest/swamp, you can’t help but notice the changes in the landscape. Cypress knees begin cluttering the forest floor…

Most of the cypress trees were logged out during the late 1800’s. But every now and then, you can find one that has been around a while. I have no idea how old this tree is, but the plastic water bottle near the base of it gives something for scale. (There was actually very little litter in the preserve)

The boardwalk ends at a large viewing platform with several benches…

While Steve was talking with another visitor, I watched the anhinga looking for its lunch…

Another day, Steve and I hiked out to Deep Lake. Since we were there during the dry season, the path was pretty easy to walk. There were a few places where getting wet was the only option. At least we were prepared this time…

Deep Lake is a naturally occurring sinkhole lake and is over 90 feet deep.

Big Cypress-5844 — How many alligators do you see? Hint, there are more than 5

One of the benefits of hiking versus driving, is you can just stop and check things out. You will see things you would have otherwise missed. Like the neat pattern the fungus made on this tree…

Or the blooms of the bromeliads…

Or the lizards,

A strangle fig with its victim,

A squirrel hiding in a tree,

Or a liguus tree snail…

For me, kayaking is probably the next “slowest” way to take in the sights.

I imagine during the wet season, all of this is underwater.

Other ways to get into the “back country” are airboats…

And my personal favorite – swamp buggies…

There are lots of places you can take airboat or swamp buggy eco tours, but we opted not to on this trip. Maybe next time!

Until then…

We say “Thanks for coming along!” and we always love reading your comments!

Taking it all with us – Or Not!

Despite the fact I have never been over attached to ~~crap we’ve collected over the years~~ possessions, downsizing can be an emotional roller coaster! Lucky for us, we began the process several years ago (something else we learned from my parents – start early). We’ve had numerous yard sales over the years and more Craig’s List posting than I care to count but what about the truly personal items: the scrapbooks, historical photographs, hand written notes from loved ones? What do you do with those items?

Several weeks ago, an idea began to take shape. While it is not practical, weight wise, to take all those photo albums with us (and seriously who ever opens their photo albums and looks through them?), there isn’t any reason we can’t take the pictures. We do have one of those electronic picture frames where the images scroll by, but I wanted something more personal and functional. We have done very little in the way of making Waldo our own. It still has the curtains my mom bought and while they do the job, they aren’t exactly my style. What did I having lying around I could repurpose? I’ve always made my own curtains, I just can’t justify the expense of fancy store-bought ones. The only exception to that was the blackout curtains Steve bought several years ago (To be honest, Laura was visiting her parents when the curtains magically appeared – Steve) Well, I could cut them down to size and that would be functional and while the soft blue color does match our bedroom, it won’t make them personal. My plan was to use the blackout curtains as a liner. I wanted to do this as inexpensively as possible, so I used an old microfiber bed sheet I had lying around for the “front” of the curtain. I ordered dark fabric iron-on transfers and turned our favorite pictures into transfers. I took some time to size them, print them, cut them out and iron them on, but the result was exactly what I had hoped for…

I included pictures of our parents, our children through the years, our grandchildren and us. The blackout liner will be perfect when we finally get to “The Land of the Midnight Sun” aka Alaska. I hadn’t told Steve about my idea and had them folded up on the dining room table when he got home from the shop one night last week. I think I might have seen a tear in his eye when he looked at them. Now our favorite pictures will always be right where we can see them!

On another front, we are one step closer to being ready to put the house on the market. The new carpet was installed this week. Now all the flooring upstairs is new. Of course it wasn’t as easy as just getting new flooring, I had to finish all the painting before the installers arrived – no small task! But – IT’S DONE!! woohoo!

Out with the old…