Karma has found a boy friend here at Moose River RV Park. His name is Buddy (18 months old, neutered Catahoula Leopard). He’s a little heavier/stockier than her but about the same height and energy level. Since this park does NOT have a dog playground, Buddy and Karma must play with leashes on – which means the owners need to be agile and quick. Ruthi’s ok but Buddy’s owner is closer to his late eighties than her. She has to look out for all 3 of them.
As we have mentioned, Karma is very ball-focused. Well, Buddy has 2 toys he keeps in his yard area – a rubber bone and a tennis ball. When Karma goes over to Buddy’s space they play keep away with his toys. All Karma really wants is the ball and Buddy, rightly so, wants ALL of his toys for himself. So, Karma will purposely go for the rubber bone. Buddy leaves the ball or whatever he is doing and comes right over to get the bone. Karma acquiesces and then pounces on the ball. Buddy eventually realizes that Karma has the ball. So, of course he wants THAT now. He goes over to Karma and with a little more force than finesse he gets it back. And, the cycle repeats until Ruthi thinks they are fed up with each other’s antics and it’s time for Karma to go home. Karma is asked to drop the ball and leave it for Buddy and she does. Whew! All that “leave it” training comes in handy.
This was a great campground except for 2 things – the biggest problem was that the campground and most of St Johnsbury had little to no Verizon coverage. That caused the second issue – we did not have internet access. So, we used the campgrounds’ WIFI (1 bar - due to repairs that were needed). So, if you like being out of communications, i.e., in the country, this is the park for you. People in the office and other sites were great!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
St Johnsbury, VT
Once again we are on a railroad track edge. This time though the tracks do not look used at all. The park is a circle. Those on the outside seem to be permanent residents or at the least are for the whole season. The middle pull-through sites are for the short termers like us. It’s like we are on display for the outer circle.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
St Johnsbury, VT
FINALLY, we have gotten some sunshine. It got into the high 80’s and clear skies after mid-morning. We can finally dry out the truck bed and warm up. Don’t know if we have mentioned this before but we are coming across a lot of city names duplicated across states. Just and interesting OR boring fact – you choose.
We came across our second Stimulus project – road work again. New Hampshire and Vermont roads are pretty good. Maine’s were the worst of all of the states so far. We have gotten to pay tolls across New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire. We need to look into EZ-Pass to see if we can get that for all tolls across America. It would come in handy on the East coast and part of the mid-West.
FYI, Interstate 93 is down to 2 lanes up in the Franconia Notch Parkway – 10-15 miles. Good road just slow for those behind us.
We came across our second Stimulus project – road work again. New Hampshire and Vermont roads are pretty good. Maine’s were the worst of all of the states so far. We have gotten to pay tolls across New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire. We need to look into EZ-Pass to see if we can get that for all tolls across America. It would come in handy on the East coast and part of the mid-West.
FYI, Interstate 93 is down to 2 lanes up in the Franconia Notch Parkway – 10-15 miles. Good road just slow for those behind us.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Bridgeport, NH
This was a quick ride up from Damariscotta to this small but clean and neat RV campground. All of the sites were pull–through or pull-parallel. This is great for those of us not-fully-confident in our reverse capabilities. There was a long green section opposite our site and I was able to run Karma until the string leash became to entangled for more runs. Riding in the car all day, gives Karma an unusual amount of energy. When ever we can run her on drive days helps.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Damariscotta, ME
Rain, Rain, go away. The rain is very hard and LOUD! Being in the rig is nice and dry but makes it difficult to converse with each other over the racket of the rain hitting the roof. Forget about phone calls – it impossible to hear the other party.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Damariscotta, ME
Roadway signs provide for some amusement as we get lost here and there. Along with “Slow Children” there’s “Slow Village Area Ahead.” Some more retail store names –
Maine-ly Sewing
Women of Substance, Size 12 and Grander
Yum Mee Chinese Restaurant
Maine-ly Sewing
Women of Substance, Size 12 and Grander
Yum Mee Chinese Restaurant
Monday, June 15, 2009
Day 365 (Damariscotta, ME) End of Year 1
Whew, here we are 365 days / 1 year from our maiden voyage out of Anchorage. Our driving skills have greatly increased. We drive pretty much equally. We even were able to back into our spaces at the last 2 camp grounds (NY and MA). We had planned this lifestyle for 5 years and our very please with our decision.
Having been in Alaska for so long (37 years for Ruthi, 26 years for Boots and all of her life (2 ½ years) for Karma), this year has in some ways felt like we were in a foreign country. The scenery was ever changing and the weather just got better and better (hotter and hotter) until it began to rain. We met locals of every stripe and travelers from across America. Most of the other full-time RVers are more mature individuals either totally retired or like Ruthi still doing some business on the side. A lot of the campgrounds we have been to have permanent setups (park model, mobile home, or regular RV (A, C, B, Trailer and 5th Wheel)). We have noticed a number of families who are working in the neighborhood, living in the RV with kids, pets, et all.
The freedom of travelling here to there with only ourselves to satisfy was very exciting and liberating. Ruthi’s small contract was binding in some ways but nothing like a full-time job that needed careful attendance and attention each and every day. We tried to move on Tuesdays. We have determined that we are more “city” girls than ”country” and prefer campgrounds nearer malls, dog day care, movies, and Chinese, Thai, Mexican eateries.
Alaska and our stick-built house had fewer bugs to contend with – mainly we had spiders (Ruthi’s most favorite) and mosquitoes. While ants, cockroaches, beetles, etc. were in Alaska, we personally did not have problems with infestations. But we have discovered that ants come in all sizes, colors and create a number of different problems. FYI, there is a product out there (not GREEN though – we tried all of those to no avail) called “ant stakes” that has seemed to work on red crazies in California that just swarm with no focused direction, red fire ants that bite every flesh surface and are all over the ground in Alabama. The big black ones seem to send out scouts and killing the scouts (with medium sized books) stops further visitors along the East coast.
We still get an occasional bee or spider (which Boots sadly kills or captures for release outside). There is some type of large bee that looks like a bumble bee but has no stinger and seems to live in mud type homes like wasps. They are bothersome but don’t bite or sting. Then there are the mosquitoes – we had always thought Alaska’s+ were the biggest and worst. But alas, Maine has Alaska beat by a mile; which is about the size of the Maine mosquito wing span. Just kidding! But these mosquitoes are vicious and looking for any skin. As was said in an earlier, we have gotten bitten everywhere and anywhere.
Karma has never been a fan of bugs hovering around her body. She tries to catch them (bees being a really scary thing for us). One time she leaped directly up and spun around trying to outwit a bug. One good result of her bug focus is that she hunts them in the rig. If she can, she will catch and devour any bug in the house. Sometimes they are out of her reach and she will go into “point” so that Boots can capture and deal with the bug.
Overall, breaking down camp and setting up has gotten quicker but it still takes more effort than we expected. We are continually improving our processes to be as efficient as possible. We still need a permanent solution for the desk and table arrangement. We are looking for a cabinet to convert the table into a chopping block/breakfast bar that we can permanently connect to the floor of the main room slid-out. We want to build in the desk but still haven’t come up with the plans that will work.
We have learned that with a little conservation, our fresh water and associates waste tanks can last us about 7 days. Likewise as long as we don’t need the air conditioner and its’ sunny all day, our solar panels supply all of the power we need.
Once we have seen my family in Illinois at the end of summer, we are going to slow the pace of our travelling down. We plan to stay in places longer. Take a more leisurely approach to seeing the sights. We need to plan our winter locale and begin thinking about where to go for the Spring of 2010. Ruthi would like to do more dry camping and Boots would generally like to stay at least a month in the various places we want to truly check out. We are going back to San Diego and Austin for sure. Family stops in Quincy CA, Alabama, and Illinois will be repeated. And, we know we want to eventually do the coast of the East coast to include Delaware and Washington, DC.
Boots, as our trip and camping planner, spends a lot of time trying to get the best RV parks and price for our focused location. Sometimes that doesn’t always work out for the best. Check out our RV Park reviews.
One of the challenges of travelling anywhere is finding local restaurants, dog parks, used book stores, etc. So, we use the internet and our GPS to eventually find places but that doesn’t mean we don’t drive round and round trying to translate directions. Once in New York, we had an address for a dog park that had great reviews. We found the street that was 1 block long in the middle of a light industrial district – no dog park that we could discern. We finally got directions from a local dog day care office. The parks was down the 1 block road, left through the light industrial area and then right. At the end of that road was a nice small park. We went there only once.
Then there’s trying to decide if the restaurant will live up to the reviews. Generally speaking very few do. Taco Mio in Quartzsite, AZ is great! Mellow Mushroom for Pizza and Bruschetta is fantastic in Foley, AL. Pangaea provides real tasty vegetarian fare in Quincy, CA. All of the Shrimp Baskets and Mikey’s in LA (Lower Alabama) provide great grilled shrimp and good fried shrimp. So, we are left with the standard franchises – Red Lobster, Olive Garden, McDonalds (for Ruthi), etc. Or, Boots’ great home cooking!!!
Though 11 by 31 (with both slides out = 341sq. ft.) may sound too small for you, we are fine and really love the minimalist style to which we have become accustomed. Originally our closet, basement and under bed storage was pretty full leaving Alaska. We have over the past year managed to par down and better organize the closet and basement. We still need to do a full “empty and re-pack” of the stuff under the bed. And, with a truck bed cover we are able to better accommodate the outdoor things (broom, tripod, chairs, etc.).
One on-going challenge has been connectivity limitations on our phones and air cards (internet access). Boots’ laptop is much larger than Ruthi’s, as a result, has a larger antennae with better reception. Boots has had connectivity for 90-95% of the locations we have camped; Ruthi not so much. But we can always drive out to the closest village/town/city and do mass up/downloads. Our phones on the other hand, have occasionally (<5%) been so out of network range to be essentially unusable. So, Verizon still has some work to be done on there “Call you hear me now network.”
So in closing, we have travelled through or camped in 26 states in the last year: Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine. That doesn’t count the 2 Canadian providences – Yukon Territory and British Columbia. So, only 23 more states (we have seen Hawaii every January for the last 20+ years and RVing there is going to be difficult) and the District of Columbia before we can start over.
Having been in Alaska for so long (37 years for Ruthi, 26 years for Boots and all of her life (2 ½ years) for Karma), this year has in some ways felt like we were in a foreign country. The scenery was ever changing and the weather just got better and better (hotter and hotter) until it began to rain. We met locals of every stripe and travelers from across America. Most of the other full-time RVers are more mature individuals either totally retired or like Ruthi still doing some business on the side. A lot of the campgrounds we have been to have permanent setups (park model, mobile home, or regular RV (A, C, B, Trailer and 5th Wheel)). We have noticed a number of families who are working in the neighborhood, living in the RV with kids, pets, et all.
The freedom of travelling here to there with only ourselves to satisfy was very exciting and liberating. Ruthi’s small contract was binding in some ways but nothing like a full-time job that needed careful attendance and attention each and every day. We tried to move on Tuesdays. We have determined that we are more “city” girls than ”country” and prefer campgrounds nearer malls, dog day care, movies, and Chinese, Thai, Mexican eateries.
Alaska and our stick-built house had fewer bugs to contend with – mainly we had spiders (Ruthi’s most favorite) and mosquitoes. While ants, cockroaches, beetles, etc. were in Alaska, we personally did not have problems with infestations. But we have discovered that ants come in all sizes, colors and create a number of different problems. FYI, there is a product out there (not GREEN though – we tried all of those to no avail) called “ant stakes” that has seemed to work on red crazies in California that just swarm with no focused direction, red fire ants that bite every flesh surface and are all over the ground in Alabama. The big black ones seem to send out scouts and killing the scouts (with medium sized books) stops further visitors along the East coast.
We still get an occasional bee or spider (which Boots sadly kills or captures for release outside). There is some type of large bee that looks like a bumble bee but has no stinger and seems to live in mud type homes like wasps. They are bothersome but don’t bite or sting. Then there are the mosquitoes – we had always thought Alaska’s+ were the biggest and worst. But alas, Maine has Alaska beat by a mile; which is about the size of the Maine mosquito wing span. Just kidding! But these mosquitoes are vicious and looking for any skin. As was said in an earlier, we have gotten bitten everywhere and anywhere.
Karma has never been a fan of bugs hovering around her body. She tries to catch them (bees being a really scary thing for us). One time she leaped directly up and spun around trying to outwit a bug. One good result of her bug focus is that she hunts them in the rig. If she can, she will catch and devour any bug in the house. Sometimes they are out of her reach and she will go into “point” so that Boots can capture and deal with the bug.
Overall, breaking down camp and setting up has gotten quicker but it still takes more effort than we expected. We are continually improving our processes to be as efficient as possible. We still need a permanent solution for the desk and table arrangement. We are looking for a cabinet to convert the table into a chopping block/breakfast bar that we can permanently connect to the floor of the main room slid-out. We want to build in the desk but still haven’t come up with the plans that will work.
We have learned that with a little conservation, our fresh water and associates waste tanks can last us about 7 days. Likewise as long as we don’t need the air conditioner and its’ sunny all day, our solar panels supply all of the power we need.
Once we have seen my family in Illinois at the end of summer, we are going to slow the pace of our travelling down. We plan to stay in places longer. Take a more leisurely approach to seeing the sights. We need to plan our winter locale and begin thinking about where to go for the Spring of 2010. Ruthi would like to do more dry camping and Boots would generally like to stay at least a month in the various places we want to truly check out. We are going back to San Diego and Austin for sure. Family stops in Quincy CA, Alabama, and Illinois will be repeated. And, we know we want to eventually do the coast of the East coast to include Delaware and Washington, DC.
Boots, as our trip and camping planner, spends a lot of time trying to get the best RV parks and price for our focused location. Sometimes that doesn’t always work out for the best. Check out our RV Park reviews.
One of the challenges of travelling anywhere is finding local restaurants, dog parks, used book stores, etc. So, we use the internet and our GPS to eventually find places but that doesn’t mean we don’t drive round and round trying to translate directions. Once in New York, we had an address for a dog park that had great reviews. We found the street that was 1 block long in the middle of a light industrial district – no dog park that we could discern. We finally got directions from a local dog day care office. The parks was down the 1 block road, left through the light industrial area and then right. At the end of that road was a nice small park. We went there only once.
Then there’s trying to decide if the restaurant will live up to the reviews. Generally speaking very few do. Taco Mio in Quartzsite, AZ is great! Mellow Mushroom for Pizza and Bruschetta is fantastic in Foley, AL. Pangaea provides real tasty vegetarian fare in Quincy, CA. All of the Shrimp Baskets and Mikey’s in LA (Lower Alabama) provide great grilled shrimp and good fried shrimp. So, we are left with the standard franchises – Red Lobster, Olive Garden, McDonalds (for Ruthi), etc. Or, Boots’ great home cooking!!!
Though 11 by 31 (with both slides out = 341sq. ft.) may sound too small for you, we are fine and really love the minimalist style to which we have become accustomed. Originally our closet, basement and under bed storage was pretty full leaving Alaska. We have over the past year managed to par down and better organize the closet and basement. We still need to do a full “empty and re-pack” of the stuff under the bed. And, with a truck bed cover we are able to better accommodate the outdoor things (broom, tripod, chairs, etc.).
One on-going challenge has been connectivity limitations on our phones and air cards (internet access). Boots’ laptop is much larger than Ruthi’s, as a result, has a larger antennae with better reception. Boots has had connectivity for 90-95% of the locations we have camped; Ruthi not so much. But we can always drive out to the closest village/town/city and do mass up/downloads. Our phones on the other hand, have occasionally (<5%) been so out of network range to be essentially unusable. So, Verizon still has some work to be done on there “Call you hear me now network.”
So in closing, we have travelled through or camped in 26 states in the last year: Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine. That doesn’t count the 2 Canadian providences – Yukon Territory and British Columbia. So, only 23 more states (we have seen Hawaii every January for the last 20+ years and RVing there is going to be difficult) and the District of Columbia before we can start over.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Day 363 (Damariscotta, ME)
Karma and Ruthi were out on the sports field within the campground and found a frog or maybe a toad, not sure, that was as big as her fist (Ruthi’s that is). Luckily, Karma was so ball focused she missed it or she would probably have chased the hopper off into the wilderness.
We finally have some sun today and are drying out the back of the truck. This summer is just like it was back in Alaska last year. We have heard that this summer Alaska is getting all of the sun.
We finally have some sun today and are drying out the back of the truck. This summer is just like it was back in Alaska last year. We have heard that this summer Alaska is getting all of the sun.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Day 362 (Damariscotta, ME)
There is a great dog park along the river in Brunswick (only rule – pick up poop). Karma can run and run. Today she found the way down the boulders to the water’s edge and into the river she went. She’s still not swimming but she watches the bottom and so far has only gone over her head that time she tried to leap across the boat ramp at “the river” in Alabama. We met a young guy and his son and they were glad to finally see what a labradoodle looked like.
On the way there, we passed a ship yard where they are building new USN Destroyers. Today, they had taken one out for a sea worthiness test and were coming back to the yard as we were leaving the riverside park. It wasn’t as big as I expected but Boots thought maybe if it was closer I might think differently.
On the way there, we passed a ship yard where they are building new USN Destroyers. Today, they had taken one out for a sea worthiness test and were coming back to the yard as we were leaving the riverside park. It wasn’t as big as I expected but Boots thought maybe if it was closer I might think differently.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Day 360 (Damariscotta, ME)
This morning Ruthi took Karma for her morning business. By now, the bug repellant had dimmed and the mosquitoes were looking for a fresh victim. So hurrying Karma and swatting away, off they went. Upon their return, Ruthi discovered a big bite/welt on her butt. The @#$&^# mosquito had bitten through jeans shorts and underwear.We have had rain pretty much since we got to Texas. Alabama’s had bright flashes of lightening and loud thunder. Maine’s rain has large drops of rain pelting the roof and sides of the rig like rocks. Sometimes it’s so loud you can’t hear the radio or each other talk (sometimes a good thing).
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Day 359 (Damariscotta, ME)
Having seen every place Boots (with or without Susan and John) lived in the Boston area for 10 years, it was time to move further up the coast. We even found their base housing at Fort Devens. This was a real challenge and a lucky break as Fort Devens had been de-commissioned (in 1994??) and is now the village of Devens. The Massachusetts National Guard has some of the more military features in use. But at least the housing Boots and her family lived in remained.
Well, we passed through New Hampshire quickly. Like Maryland, we only covered about 10miles of New Hampshire before we arrive in Maine. So far, this seems to be the only state so far that has drivers consistently driving close to the speed limit – within 5 MPH in fact! How refreshing to not always see traffic pulling away from us.
The Maine mosquitoes are bigger than those in Alaska and voracious eaters. Being by the lake and small still water coves, they are breeding like crazy and looking for blood anywhere. As earlier reported, Ruthi is a bug attracter and needed to put bug spray/lotion on to keep any and all creatures (including humans as she smelled very potent). While we were getting camp set up Boots was their much appreciated victim.
Well, we passed through New Hampshire quickly. Like Maryland, we only covered about 10miles of New Hampshire before we arrive in Maine. So far, this seems to be the only state so far that has drivers consistently driving close to the speed limit – within 5 MPH in fact! How refreshing to not always see traffic pulling away from us.
The Maine mosquitoes are bigger than those in Alaska and voracious eaters. Being by the lake and small still water coves, they are breeding like crazy and looking for blood anywhere. As earlier reported, Ruthi is a bug attracter and needed to put bug spray/lotion on to keep any and all creatures (including humans as she smelled very potent). While we were getting camp set up Boots was their much appreciated victim.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Day 353 (Littleton, MA)
We have seen our first Stimulus-supported road work today on I95. Across the South and South East there are “Waffle Houses” on almost every corner. At some point coming up the coast the Waffle Houses gave way to “Dunkin Donuts” on every corner. Interesting how regional names / stores change as we tour America. Fred Meyers is owned by Kroger; so, state-side we try to shop at Krogers. We went to JC Penney store looking for more shorts. Basically, that’s what we wear all of the time. Yea!! Yea!! When we checked out the cashier requested our billing zip code number. So, we gave our Alaska zip code and her comment was “that’s a strange one.” Customer Service is no better here than elsewhere.
We have noticed in our travels various retail stores with interesting names. Unfortunately, we haven’t been very good at recording the most humorous ones, especially the tattoo parlors. So, now we are going to try to remember to blog them and maybe even remember some of the other ones we saw before today.
Cyclery - Bike Shop
High Rise Bread Company – Bakery
Taste Buds –Restaurant
We have noticed in our travels various retail stores with interesting names. Unfortunately, we haven’t been very good at recording the most humorous ones, especially the tattoo parlors. So, now we are going to try to remember to blog them and maybe even remember some of the other ones we saw before today.
Cyclery - Bike Shop
High Rise Bread Company – Bakery
Taste Buds –Restaurant
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Day 352 (Littleton, MA)
We drove to Cape Ann, ate in Gloucester, and ran Karma twice on the beaches. At the second beach, it was sunny and warm. After a few throws, Karma went into the Atlantic (now she has 2 oceans in her history – due to beach rules we weren’t able to get her to the Gulf of Mexico). She would drop her ball and wade around and around in circles. It looked like she was ready to poop in this ocean, too. But eventually, she’d bring the ball and come back for another toss.
Massachusetts has very liberal dog leash rules. Multiple parks are wide open in the early morning hours – do need proof of current rabies shot. During the week, there open from dawn to 1pm and on week-ends it’s dawn to 9am. There are rules about wet fields and when maintenance crews are on the scene. Otherwise, off leash is wide open in the designated parks. As far as the various beaches goes, none of the beaches we were on today were posted beyond “pick up poop.”
Massachusetts has very liberal dog leash rules. Multiple parks are wide open in the early morning hours – do need proof of current rabies shot. During the week, there open from dawn to 1pm and on week-ends it’s dawn to 9am. There are rules about wet fields and when maintenance crews are on the scene. Otherwise, off leash is wide open in the designated parks. As far as the various beaches goes, none of the beaches we were on today were posted beyond “pick up poop.”
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