We have had a wonderful week of family....First we drove to Logan's and Maureen's to celebrate the first night of Chanukah and also Logan's birthday. It was a wonderful evening with Brian's girlfriend, Katherine, also joining the five of us.....plus Logan's and Maureen's dog, Gus. Logan and Maureen prepared traditional latkes AND sweet potato latke's. Logan prepared a out-of-this-world brined chicken in wine sauce. Lots of laughter and yumminess. And Gus was great fun to watch as he played with his new toys.
Our second family event was that we had brunch with five of my cousins on Monday morning. Fred is the son of my father's cousin and we became acquainted with him and his wife, Lucinda, in the past year, through the efforts of Fred's geneology of my father's mother's family. We met their younger son, Leon, for the first time on Monday. Also joining us were newly discovered cousins, Abby and Ilyse. Abby is the grand-daughter of my great-grandfather's brother. They were in Boston for Abby to have a job interview. We had so much fun laughing and talking together. I am really thankful for Fred's effort to discover our family tree!!
And our third family event of the week was the Geoff and I drove up to Vermont to spend Christmas with his Mother who lives in an Assisted Living apartment in White River Junction. Logan and Brian drove up there, also, from Boston. We had a wondeful Christmas noon Dinner in the beautiful dining room at her residence. There was lots of joy and laughter.
And now we're back home. I work for two more evening shifts at the department store and then my retail career is over for this season. I hear that the day after Christmas is the worse day to work retail so tomorrow should be an interesting experience. :-/
Next week, we'll spend New Year's Eve at Gary's and Susan's, as we have for nearly all of the past 21 years.
Our next travel plans are to RV down to Florida for a month in ONLY TWO WEEKS!!!
There's photos of our RV in the snow and our family events on Geoff's flickr page - the link is to the left.
Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Ellyn's First Shift
I survived my first 5 1/2 hour shift at the big department store. Yes, I messed up the POS (cash register) many times but lucky fo me, it was easy to recover. Trickiest at the POS were the coupons which everybody was using. I never got to ask anybody if they wanted to open up a credit card because every customer used the store credit card.
Now the dirt....in my training, it was emphasized that a goal is to give the customers a great shopping experience. This turns out to be a difficult task. First, I'm working in a large department which is only staffed by me and, at times, a second person. And in addition to checking out customers, we have to empty the fitting room, put clothes back on the racks, and straighten out messed up clothing. It's tricky to put stuff on the racks because they are displayed by designer and there's a ton of designer nooks to search before find the home for each item. Second, a lot of things are going onto discount racks and we need to put each item on the correct discount rack. With all those tasks, it's pretty hard to great the customers to ask them what items I can help them find.
Then, there is the fitting room...I was pretty stunned how awful it looked - very dirty rug, old pealing paint, etc. It was quite a contrast to the name-branded sportswear we are selling. Do any of the store executives check out the fitting rooms?
As for me, I survived okay with only a 15 minute break. It is a long time to be on my feet flitting around putting things away but not a huge problem. The biggest problem was how warm it was - I'm tempted to bring in my thermometer as I bet it is nearly 80F. I'm certain people would buy more sweaters if it was cooler in there. :-)
As for my co-workers, they all seemed very intelligent and professional. I did find out that one of them has a day job, also. Uggh.
I work again tomorrow night and I don't find out the rest of my schedule until then.
Now the dirt....in my training, it was emphasized that a goal is to give the customers a great shopping experience. This turns out to be a difficult task. First, I'm working in a large department which is only staffed by me and, at times, a second person. And in addition to checking out customers, we have to empty the fitting room, put clothes back on the racks, and straighten out messed up clothing. It's tricky to put stuff on the racks because they are displayed by designer and there's a ton of designer nooks to search before find the home for each item. Second, a lot of things are going onto discount racks and we need to put each item on the correct discount rack. With all those tasks, it's pretty hard to great the customers to ask them what items I can help them find.
Then, there is the fitting room...I was pretty stunned how awful it looked - very dirty rug, old pealing paint, etc. It was quite a contrast to the name-branded sportswear we are selling. Do any of the store executives check out the fitting rooms?
As for me, I survived okay with only a 15 minute break. It is a long time to be on my feet flitting around putting things away but not a huge problem. The biggest problem was how warm it was - I'm tempted to bring in my thermometer as I bet it is nearly 80F. I'm certain people would buy more sweaters if it was cooler in there. :-)
As for my co-workers, they all seemed very intelligent and professional. I did find out that one of them has a day job, also. Uggh.
I work again tomorrow night and I don't find out the rest of my schedule until then.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Ellyn's Training
Yay! I passed my training for my seasonal department job. My assignment has been changed from petite to "better" sportswear. The training was all done by computer and a training POS (Point of Sale - what we used to call a Cash Register). I really like the thought that a major part of my job will be to give the customers a good shopping experience - which was a big emphasis of the training.
Much to my disappointment, we did not get trained on how to fold the clothes. I'll have to wait until Tuesday to find out my schedule. So, it looks like my seasonal job may only be for just over two weeks - at the most.
It's really interesting to think that I might have as much satisfaction (at least for a few weeks) in one of the lowest paying jobs as I did at my previous career. But I guess I already knew that it didn't take a big paycheck to get enjoyment and satisfaction from a job well done - I had already learned that from my volunteer work.
Much to my disappointment, we did not get trained on how to fold the clothes. I'll have to wait until Tuesday to find out my schedule. So, it looks like my seasonal job may only be for just over two weeks - at the most.
It's really interesting to think that I might have as much satisfaction (at least for a few weeks) in one of the lowest paying jobs as I did at my previous career. But I guess I already knew that it didn't take a big paycheck to get enjoyment and satisfaction from a job well done - I had already learned that from my volunteer work.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Newlywed Thanksgiving - 30 Years Ago
Thirty years ago, we were newlyweds and had just moved to Rochester, MN. The first big snow was Thanksgiving-eve, so we spent the day having fun in the snow and taking photos. After Geoff started the camera auto-timer, Ellyn gave him a bit of surprise and this memorable photo is the result: http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoff0522/180825324/in/set-72157594253501026/
Dead, Training & Florida
Three new tidbits from here....
1) Our attorney confirmed today that the deal with our buyers is DEAD as there is no way they can get a mortgage. Our realtor is holding an open house on Sunday.
2) I have my Department Store training on Saturday and it's supposed to take 6-8 hours. I wonder if they have scheduled more training time for learning how to run the cash register or how to fold the clothes. I think it will take me longer to learn the latter.
3) Our current decision is that we will travel to Florida for January - however, we have scaled down the plans to stay mostly at the beautiful but lower cost State Parks. This photo is an example of one of our planned destinations - Fort De Soto which is a county campground near Tampa.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Thanksgiving - Ingalls Style
We took a break from our home-selling saga to have a great Thanksgiving Week. After all, we do still have a lot to be thankful for.
The week started out with a day trip to visit Geoff's mom in VT. Her assisted living apartment is looking more and more like home. Mom now has more of her items from the Grand Rapids house thanks to Geoff's brother and his wife who traveled to GR to winterize the home. We're all now planning to get back there in July to empty it out so it can be sold.
Part Two of our Thanksgiving week was a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner at our friends' Marie's and Dave's home. There were 16 people and everything each person bought was delicious. The highlight was the perfect brined Turkey and the two stuffings that were each so yummy, it was hard to pick a favorite. We played the home party version of "What Do You Know?" which was a good hoot and then Marie and Dave sent us home with left-overs. YUM!
Part Three was our family Thanksgiving Weekend dinner at Logan's and Maureen's. Maureen's parents and sister were there as well as Brian and his girlfriend, Katherine. It was a great meal and especially great to catch up with Logan's "in-laws" as we hadn't seen them for a while plus it was a special treat to have Katherine join us for the first time. Of course, we finished the evening with a game - this time it was Taboo and the womens finished ahead of the men though we didn't make as much fuss about winning as we often do!
The weekend finished up with a Ingalls/Dubreuil trip to the Harvard Natural Science Museum on Sunday followed by a yummy Indian buffet. Then, Geoff and I went to our Storage Unit to sadly bring our exercise bike and a few other essentials back home as we are still here. The ride home was dark and rainy and there was tons of traffic on the Mass Pike - finally we got off it and made better time on the local roads until we got to I-84.
Now we're back in Danbury and looking for the silver lining of our home not selling.... we'll write about our success at that in a future post.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
"Home" Again
We had a great trip to Assateague (near Ocean City, MD) and then to Vienna, VA especially since much of the time was spent with Ellyn's sister and brother and their spouses. Geoff has posted some photos on flickr - the link is on the left side of this blog.
And now we have returned to our Danbury home. Unfortuntely, there is a chance that our sale is falling through since the buyers still do not have a loan commitment. It seems so 2008 that the buyer lost his job and now there's a delay in the loan. Uggh! There still is a chance that the sale could go through and just tonight we heard that our neighbors are fantasizing that they could buy our house and rent out their smaller house. So, maybe things will work out and we won't have to cancel our winter-in-the-south plans.
In the meantime, we're preparing the house to go back on the market by the end of this week However, we are in a strange living situation...we had already donated all our furniture before we head of the buyer's loan problems. The kitchen is empty, etc. For this week, we're still living in the RV but if we don't hear soon that the sale will go through, we'll move back into the house. Sometimes, I guess it's harder to reach our dreams than initially expected
And now we have returned to our Danbury home. Unfortuntely, there is a chance that our sale is falling through since the buyers still do not have a loan commitment. It seems so 2008 that the buyer lost his job and now there's a delay in the loan. Uggh! There still is a chance that the sale could go through and just tonight we heard that our neighbors are fantasizing that they could buy our house and rent out their smaller house. So, maybe things will work out and we won't have to cancel our winter-in-the-south plans.
In the meantime, we're preparing the house to go back on the market by the end of this week However, we are in a strange living situation...we had already donated all our furniture before we head of the buyer's loan problems. The kitchen is empty, etc. For this week, we're still living in the RV but if we don't hear soon that the sale will go through, we'll move back into the house. Sometimes, I guess it's harder to reach our dreams than initially expected
Monday, November 10, 2008
Assateague, Horses, Sisters and more....
Hi from Assateague National Seashore. We're here for four nights primarily to attend Ellyn's sister's Father-in-Law's 80th birthday party and to spend some time with Laura and Jay while they are here from California. A side benefit is that we have the opportunity to visit Ocean City, MD and nearby Assateague Island for the first time. The weather has been a bit chilly in the upper 50's but very sunny. Last night we walked 4 miles on the OC boardwalk with L&J. And today, we biked 8 miles around Assateague Island.
Assateague Island is best known for it's herds of wild horses. We've seen many of them grazing by the side of the road. They look pretty much like regular horses except that they are smaller than most horses I've seen. One fable about their origin is that they swam to the island from a shipwreck but it's well known that early Maryland settlers grazed their horses on the island to evade taxes and it's more likely that some stragglers were left behind. In either case, the herd has been here for more than 3 centuries which is amazing to me.
It turns out that the campgroun doesn't have any hook-ups so we're "dry" camping for the longest time, so far. The clean water and waste water tanks are great for this duration so there's no inconvenience from the lack of water&sewer hook-ups. However, the lack of electricity is a bit more hassle. We have a gasoline generator built into the RV but it's a bit noisy so most parks (including this one) limit its use to daytime hours. We have RV "house" batteries so lighting is no problem for a few hours from the battery. However, the TV and microwave require the generator. Speaking of TV, even in this location, we're getting great digital recetion for several channels - including some HD channels.
One more day here tomorrow - there's still lots to do on our To-Do list including some of the little hikes in the Seashore Park and a bke ride the Ocean City board. We're enjoying the quiet-ness of the off-season visit. Today, we shared a miles long beach only with two other humans, gulls and the plovers. We both decided that it's easy to get used to this retirement life.
Meanwhile, in case you hadn't heard, there's another delay in the sale of our house. The new date for the loan commitment is Wednesday. Can't wait for that to be done with. Our next destination is Ellyn's brother's home just outside Washington, DC - a 3 hr. drive from here.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Ellyn's GREAT Birthday Weekend
Wow!! I had a great b-day weekend. We heading up to Boston, Friday, after we got ourselves about 95% moved out of the Danbury house. Our first event of the weekend was Saul's Bar Mitzvah and we had a great time celebrating with the Jonas family and Saul's GrandMother who is a long time friend of mine from when she lived in Danbury...plus we went to Israel with them two years ago and the other trip members were also at the Bar Mitzvah so that was fun.
On Sunday, Logan and Brian joined us for a drive to see Geoff's mom in Vermont and we were joined by Geoff Brother, Steve, and Nephew Robert plus their wives. It was beautiful seeing the Vermont countryside and we also saw a spectacular fire that bellowed black smoke visible for miles. http://www.cvspectator.com/CV/story/110208-ef-wrj-5alarmfire It was a great afternoon with Geoff's Mom - much laugher!!
Then, yesterday, was actually my birthday. Geoff and I first visited with our special friend, Rabbi Gold, then we headed off to Boston. First stop was Sushi for lunch, then an afternoon at the Boston Science Museum, then a fun Cheesecake Factory Dinner with Brian and Logan and finally we had a late evening visit at the home of my cousins, Fred & Lucinda. In fact our RV is dry camped in Fred's business' parking lot, today.
Shortly, we're heading to our storage unit to organize it and pull out a few things we had put there.Then off to home to watch the election results and to finish emptying the house.
Upcoming dates: Head south on Thursday and Buyer's Loan Commitment date on Friday.
Don't forget to vote!
ellyn
On Sunday, Logan and Brian joined us for a drive to see Geoff's mom in Vermont and we were joined by Geoff Brother, Steve, and Nephew Robert plus their wives. It was beautiful seeing the Vermont countryside and we also saw a spectacular fire that bellowed black smoke visible for miles. http://www.cvspectator.com/CV/story/110208-ef-wrj-5alarmfire It was a great afternoon with Geoff's Mom - much laugher!!
Then, yesterday, was actually my birthday. Geoff and I first visited with our special friend, Rabbi Gold, then we headed off to Boston. First stop was Sushi for lunch, then an afternoon at the Boston Science Museum, then a fun Cheesecake Factory Dinner with Brian and Logan and finally we had a late evening visit at the home of my cousins, Fred & Lucinda. In fact our RV is dry camped in Fred's business' parking lot, today.
Shortly, we're heading to our storage unit to organize it and pull out a few things we had put there.Then off to home to watch the election results and to finish emptying the house.
Upcoming dates: Head south on Thursday and Buyer's Loan Commitment date on Friday.
Don't forget to vote!
ellyn
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Full-timers?
Here's a quick update....
Buyer lost his job
Buyer got new job
Buyers' mortgage application review needs verification of new job
New mortgage commitment date is 11/7
New closing date is 11/17
Bottom line is that 2008 is not a great year to be selling a home
BUT there's still a good chance our sale will go through.
Meanwhile,
We're now sleeping in the RV in our driveway because our other beds are all donated. Not sure we count as full-time RVers if we're parked in our home's driveway. :-/
We've donated all our furniture except our favorite chairs.
We're finishing up loading the RV with our stuff going to storage, today.
Tomorrow, we head to Boston until election day. We'll load the storage unit, visit Geoff's mother, and have a couple celebrations.
We'll come back to Danbury for a couple days next week then head to MD & VA to visit with my sister who will be visiting and my brother.
In mid-Nov, our travel direction will depend upon whether the house sale goes through.
In either case, we plan to be back in Danbury for Thanksgiving weekend.
By the way, we've already voted absentee so that's taken care of from our To Do list.
Buyer lost his job
Buyer got new job
Buyers' mortgage application review needs verification of new job
New mortgage commitment date is 11/7
New closing date is 11/17
Bottom line is that 2008 is not a great year to be selling a home
BUT there's still a good chance our sale will go through.
Meanwhile,
We're now sleeping in the RV in our driveway because our other beds are all donated. Not sure we count as full-time RVers if we're parked in our home's driveway. :-/
We've donated all our furniture except our favorite chairs.
We're finishing up loading the RV with our stuff going to storage, today.
Tomorrow, we head to Boston until election day. We'll load the storage unit, visit Geoff's mother, and have a couple celebrations.
We'll come back to Danbury for a couple days next week then head to MD & VA to visit with my sister who will be visiting and my brother.
In mid-Nov, our travel direction will depend upon whether the house sale goes through.
In either case, we plan to be back in Danbury for Thanksgiving weekend.
By the way, we've already voted absentee so that's taken care of from our To Do list.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Our last trip as part-timers?
Well, things are looking more and more like our house sale is going through. We've passed the inspection (with no fixes needed!) and passed the radon test. The buyers loan appraiser comes next week - no problem expected there since the house is selling at a low price. The contract for the sale is under review by the buyers - we expect them to sign it any day now. The closing continues to be scheduled for Oct. 31st. With the ongoing financial debacle, we continue to be extremely thankful that we have buyers!
We just returned from two days in the Boston area staying at Circle CG Farm Campground. It was a bit further from the synagogue than we had expected but otherwise was very nice. This morning we took a bike ride about a mile to a nearby craft store where I bought some scrapbook supplies and some fall decoration items (already on sale). We had a great Break Fast with my cousins, yesterday. And, when it was time to come home, we again were wishing that we could stay longer and it was fun to think that by November, we'll be staying in the RV indefinitely!!
As always, Geoff will be posting some photos - the link is on the left of this post.
We just returned from two days in the Boston area staying at Circle CG Farm Campground. It was a bit further from the synagogue than we had expected but otherwise was very nice. This morning we took a bike ride about a mile to a nearby craft store where I bought some scrapbook supplies and some fall decoration items (already on sale). We had a great Break Fast with my cousins, yesterday. And, when it was time to come home, we again were wishing that we could stay longer and it was fun to think that by November, we'll be staying in the RV indefinitely!!
As always, Geoff will be posting some photos - the link is on the left of this post.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Our Plans - Updated Thur Oct 30
Wow! We have signed an offer on our home. Assuming that this purchase goes forward, here's our plans for the near future (updated 10/30).....
October - Move out of the house
Oct 31 - Depart in our RV
Nov. 1 - Bar Mitzvah in Boston area
Nov 2 - Visit Geoff's mother with "kids"
Nov 3 - Ellyn's B-day celebration in Boston, visit science museum to see Brian's magnet collection on exhibit and out to dinner with Logan and Brian
Nov 4-5 - Finish move out of Danbury home. If sale falls through, I guess we'll move back in at some point.
Nov 7 - Attend Services at Har Sinai near Baltimore where our former Rabbi serves
Nov 7-9 - Stay near Ocean City, MD to celebrate Ellyn's brother-in-law's Father's 80th b-day with Ellyn's sister (etc)
Nov 10-15 - Park RV in front of Ellyn's brother's home in Vienna, VA to hang out with his family and Ellyn's sister's family
Nov 17 - Current date schedule for house closing. If house sale does not go through, we will return home.
Thanksgiving Weekend - Return to Danbury area for Thanksgiving Dinner with Ellyn's work friends and for Adult B'nai mitzvah of three of our friends plus belated Thanksgiving Dinner with Logan and his wife's family as well as Brian and his friend, Katherine.
After Thanksgiving - head south with December in Carolinas & Georgia
Jan 09 - Three weeks at Walt Disney World meeting up with friends part of that time
Feb 09 - Tampa RV Super Show and FMCA Rally, Travel around Florida
Mar 09 - Hoping for Passover with cousins in Houston and perhaps spending some days in the infield of a NASCAR race if we get a space in the lottery.
We are keeping our travel calendar on google - if you want access, please let us know.
And so our adventure begins...
October - Move out of the house
Oct 31 - Depart in our RV
Nov. 1 - Bar Mitzvah in Boston area
Nov 2 - Visit Geoff's mother with "kids"
Nov 3 - Ellyn's B-day celebration in Boston, visit science museum to see Brian's magnet collection on exhibit and out to dinner with Logan and Brian
Nov 4-5 - Finish move out of Danbury home. If sale falls through, I guess we'll move back in at some point.
Nov 7 - Attend Services at Har Sinai near Baltimore where our former Rabbi serves
Nov 7-9 - Stay near Ocean City, MD to celebrate Ellyn's brother-in-law's Father's 80th b-day with Ellyn's sister (etc)
Nov 10-15 - Park RV in front of Ellyn's brother's home in Vienna, VA to hang out with his family and Ellyn's sister's family
Nov 17 - Current date schedule for house closing. If house sale does not go through, we will return home.
Thanksgiving Weekend - Return to Danbury area for Thanksgiving Dinner with Ellyn's work friends and for Adult B'nai mitzvah of three of our friends plus belated Thanksgiving Dinner with Logan and his wife's family as well as Brian and his friend, Katherine.
After Thanksgiving - head south with December in Carolinas & Georgia
Jan 09 - Three weeks at Walt Disney World meeting up with friends part of that time
Feb 09 - Tampa RV Super Show and FMCA Rally, Travel around Florida
Mar 09 - Hoping for Passover with cousins in Houston and perhaps spending some days in the infield of a NASCAR race if we get a space in the lottery.
We are keeping our travel calendar on google - if you want access, please let us know.
And so our adventure begins...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Interview
In September, we met up with Ken and Martha Wiseman in Massachusetts. They are seasoned RV owners who have been traveling around for many years in various styles of RVs. They have been producing a monthly podcast on RVing for a few years now. When we started getting interested in RVing, we discovered their podcasts and listened to all of them. When we found out 
they were going to come up to New England to do some Fall leaf-peeping this year, we made plans to meet up with them. The timing was perfect, as we were planning to get the house on the market and go for a short vacation to unwind.
We met up in Bourne, MA, in a campground on the Cape Cod Canal. We toured on Cape Cod for a couple days and, before we moved on, Ken interviewed us for their October issue of the "RV Navigator". He sent us a c
opy of the edited interview which will be put into the entire podcast. You can listen to just the interview here, or go get the entire podcast from their website.
they were going to come up to New England to do some Fall leaf-peeping this year, we made plans to meet up with them. The timing was perfect, as we were planning to get the house on the market and go for a short vacation to unwind.We met up in Bourne, MA, in a campground on the Cape Cod Canal. We toured on Cape Cod for a couple days and, before we moved on, Ken interviewed us for their October issue of the "RV Navigator". He sent us a c
opy of the edited interview which will be put into the entire podcast. You can listen to just the interview here, or go get the entire podcast from their website.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Watching the Chase and Veg'ing
Today's our last day here in Rochester, NH. We went to the 100+ year hold Rochester Fair on Friday - there was lots of midway games, food, and rides but not much else. It's not nearly as interesting as the Duchess County or Bridgewater fairs.
We've really enjoyed being parked right on the lake and it's been a great lake for kayaking. In the summer, it must really be a bustling lake since there are Skeedo and Motorboats permitted but all those folks seemed to be done for the season so there's mostly been just kayakers on the lake. Geoff is posting photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/geoff0522/
As most of you know, Geoff is a big NASCAR fan so when we found out that the first NASCAR cup race of the final ten races (Chase for the Cup) would be only 30miles from our campground, he got a ticket. Luckily, the rain cleared in time for Geoff to watch the race and he had a great day. Meanwhile, ellyn just veg'd out at the campground. She tried to finish sewing the gift for Gus but her sewing machine bobbin isn't working correctly. But the rainy and gloomy day was perfect for watching the Sunday News Shows and Sappy Movies. Today we're back at the library then we'll kayak this afternoon. The weather is sunny, in the mid-70s but quite breezy from Ike's remnants. That should make some interesting kayaking.
Tomorrow, we're driving to see Geoff's Mom in her new (assisted living) apartment and we may head home tomorrow night or may spend the night on the way back.
We've really enjoyed being parked right on the lake and it's been a great lake for kayaking. In the summer, it must really be a bustling lake since there are Skeedo and Motorboats permitted but all those folks seemed to be done for the season so there's mostly been just kayakers on the lake. Geoff is posting photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/geoff0522/
As most of you know, Geoff is a big NASCAR fan so when we found out that the first NASCAR cup race of the final ten races (Chase for the Cup) would be only 30miles from our campground, he got a ticket. Luckily, the rain cleared in time for Geoff to watch the race and he had a great day. Meanwhile, ellyn just veg'd out at the campground. She tried to finish sewing the gift for Gus but her sewing machine bobbin isn't working correctly. But the rainy and gloomy day was perfect for watching the Sunday News Shows and Sappy Movies. Today we're back at the library then we'll kayak this afternoon. The weather is sunny, in the mid-70s but quite breezy from Ike's remnants. That should make some interesting kayaking.
Tomorrow, we're driving to see Geoff's Mom in her new (assisted living) apartment and we may head home tomorrow night or may spend the night on the way back.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Quiet in Rochester, NH
We are now in the midst of our first "one week in one place" on the shores of a small lake near Rochester, NH. We arrived during a rainy Tuesday evening and the weather is now a lot cooler than it had been a few days ago. Yesterday, I spent the day "veg'd" out - either watching TV, organizing a few things or napping. Geoff spent the day puttering around including getting out his old Radio Controlled (RC) car that. much to his delight, still works.
Geoff is really embracing the camping part of this experience - the mud, bugs and campfires - whereas I'm still not sure how those aspects of our travel fit into my view of RV living. I have more of a vision of the RV travels as a moving motel room.
One thing we both want to do is to have some "local" experiences in each of the places we visited. So, today we decided to have breakfast out...we drove around a bit trying to find a local place and then asked a guy on the street who pointed us towards "Froggies Breakfast Place" which was filled with frog collectables and a hearty breakfast menu. Another local experience is coming this weekend - the Rochester Fair.
We're now at the library using the free WiFi - a special treat for me since I always love spending time in libraries and spending more time in them is on my retirement "To Do" list.
This afternoon, we expect that we'll be going kayaking on the lake. It will be our first time to kayak right were we're staying without the need of mounting them on the car rack.
Geoff is posting photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/geoff0522/
Bye for now...
ellyn
Geoff is really embracing the camping part of this experience - the mud, bugs and campfires - whereas I'm still not sure how those aspects of our travel fit into my view of RV living. I have more of a vision of the RV travels as a moving motel room.
One thing we both want to do is to have some "local" experiences in each of the places we visited. So, today we decided to have breakfast out...we drove around a bit trying to find a local place and then asked a guy on the street who pointed us towards "Froggies Breakfast Place" which was filled with frog collectables and a hearty breakfast menu. Another local experience is coming this weekend - the Rochester Fair.
We're now at the library using the free WiFi - a special treat for me since I always love spending time in libraries and spending more time in them is on my retirement "To Do" list.
This afternoon, we expect that we'll be going kayaking on the lake. It will be our first time to kayak right were we're staying without the need of mounting them on the car rack.
Geoff is posting photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/geoff0522/
Bye for now...
ellyn
Monday, September 8, 2008
New Blog for our Travels
We've decided to use this somewhat dormant site for blogging our RV travels. Geoff posts the photos on flickr at this link: http://flickr.com/photos/geoff0522/
Here's a quick synopsis of this week:
Tuesday: House finally on the market and we arrived at Bourne Scenic Park campground.
Wednesday: Bike Ride to Woods Hole (and etc) with RVnavigators, Ken and Martha. Seafood for dinner.
Thursday: Cape Cod National Seashore Beach and Provincetown with Ken and Martha. Picnic lunch on beach and seafood for dinner.
Friday: Organize RV, buy groceries and supplies, nap, seafood for dinner
Saturday: Move to MA state park campground in Hingham, MA. Take out Asian food for dinner at Logan's and Maureen's with Brian and also to meet L&M's new dog, Gus. Hanna rainstorm milder than expected overnight.
Sunday: Walk 5K with Logan, Maureen, Brian and Katherine for Komen Race for Cure. Brunch at L & Ms - yummy quiches! Watched enough of Patriots game to see "the injury" which is now lead story in Boston. Explore bike & kayak destinations for today.
Today: 7 mile bike-ride near water, ice cream, internet surfing at library (now) and planning for quick kayak outing when we leave here as soon as I finish this.
House selling not going too fast yet - only one lookers so far. Ughh.
That gets you up to date with us. :-)
Here's a quick synopsis of this week:
Tuesday: House finally on the market and we arrived at Bourne Scenic Park campground.
Wednesday: Bike Ride to Woods Hole (and etc) with RVnavigators, Ken and Martha. Seafood for dinner.
Thursday: Cape Cod National Seashore Beach and Provincetown with Ken and Martha. Picnic lunch on beach and seafood for dinner.
Friday: Organize RV, buy groceries and supplies, nap, seafood for dinner
Saturday: Move to MA state park campground in Hingham, MA. Take out Asian food for dinner at Logan's and Maureen's with Brian and also to meet L&M's new dog, Gus. Hanna rainstorm milder than expected overnight.
Sunday: Walk 5K with Logan, Maureen, Brian and Katherine for Komen Race for Cure. Brunch at L & Ms - yummy quiches! Watched enough of Patriots game to see "the injury" which is now lead story in Boston. Explore bike & kayak destinations for today.
Today: 7 mile bike-ride near water, ice cream, internet surfing at library (now) and planning for quick kayak outing when we leave here as soon as I finish this.
House selling not going too fast yet - only one lookers so far. Ughh.
That gets you up to date with us. :-)
Saturday, March 29, 2008
A Big Step
We made a big step forward on our plans today when we finalized the sale of my car. When we bought my car new 4 years ago, I envisioned that I would own it way into my retirement so it's amusing to realize now how much our plans have changed from four years ago. It's in that time that the dream of our year RV-ing were conceived and now are becoming closer.
Also today, we sold about a dozen pieces of our stoneware dishes to a contact we first made online. This dish set is the set for which we registered 30 years ago when we first got engaged. So far, I've sold about half the set/accessories for about $150. I'm guessing that may already be more than the purchase price when we first bought them. How amazing that the dishes have ended up so timeless....even so, it will be fun to start out with a different set when we settle down from our travels.
As for this site, on Tuesday April 1st, I'll resume posting details of our courtship of 30 years ago as we lead up to our 30th anniversary on April 16th!
Also today, we sold about a dozen pieces of our stoneware dishes to a contact we first made online. This dish set is the set for which we registered 30 years ago when we first got engaged. So far, I've sold about half the set/accessories for about $150. I'm guessing that may already be more than the purchase price when we first bought them. How amazing that the dishes have ended up so timeless....even so, it will be fun to start out with a different set when we settle down from our travels.
As for this site, on Tuesday April 1st, I'll resume posting details of our courtship of 30 years ago as we lead up to our 30th anniversary on April 16th!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Continuing the Saga of our 30 years....
Well, life interrupted our telling of our 30 years ago courtship and now we're less than a month away from our 30th anniversary. In the meantime, we're both retired and in the process of selling our household so we can start RV-ing full-time. I've decided to interweave the two sagas together on this blog.
Here's today's update....
1) Still haven't sold my 2004 Accord which amazes me since it's a loaded car at a great price. Had some "lowballing" looki-loos come look at it today. Uggghh!
2) However, it looks like somebody is going to take our old bedroom set - the whole thing - via freecycle. This furniture orginated as the dark pine cannon waterbed that I bought in about '75. We used it as our bedroom set until we started our bedroom remodel 3 years ago so we got a lot of use and family time out of it over those 30 years. Now, it's out of date and we're happy to give it away.
3) I've got a few items on e-Bay - mostly things that I think would find a wider audience than we would come to a tag sale. My e-Bay seller name is ellynmae.
That's the update for today...
ellyn
Here's today's update....
1) Still haven't sold my 2004 Accord which amazes me since it's a loaded car at a great price. Had some "lowballing" looki-loos come look at it today. Uggghh!
2) However, it looks like somebody is going to take our old bedroom set - the whole thing - via freecycle. This furniture orginated as the dark pine cannon waterbed that I bought in about '75. We used it as our bedroom set until we started our bedroom remodel 3 years ago so we got a lot of use and family time out of it over those 30 years. Now, it's out of date and we're happy to give it away.
3) I've got a few items on e-Bay - mostly things that I think would find a wider audience than we would come to a tag sale. My e-Bay seller name is ellynmae.
That's the update for today...
ellyn
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