Wow I better write something here or the US summer will be over! We pretty much had our heads down for 2 months after we arrived in Vermont in mid-April from Argentina. After catching up with my parents over Easter baskets (not too common in other parts of the world), we took our pick up truck camper with an empty interior from last year out of storage and began to build it out in their driveway. It gave us a nice place to build being that it was early in the season and still pretty cold and also time to visit more with my parents over many meals and happy hours. Last year, we thought it made sense to have another RV here for visits back. This year, we felt differently about everything given the government and were wondering if we should even keep it. At first, it felt like we weren’t sure who we were building it for, but soon after Jon started cutting up all of the big pieces of wood into little pieces and the interior started to take shape, we knew we would want to keep it for a bit to enjoy it.
Over the weeks, with packages streaming in and us working as fast as we could to crank out all of the cabinetry, it began to feel a bit monotonous because there weren’t any breaks. We would much rather be out playing, living our usual routine of lots of exercise. Every time another cabinet was finished, we would adhesive it in, I could paint and/or varnish it, do the sealing and Jon could move on to constructing another one. My sister likes to call the Mercedes truck Mighty Mo, so this is Mini Mo as it has almost everything we have in the other one but in a smaller footprint. Seeing that progress kept us going. We appreciated all that my parents did to make us comfortable while putting up with our noisy power tools.
New England’s weather is challenging. It will not only sour your towels, but your mindset as well. It rained so much it became laughable (almost) which made it difficult to be running saws and trying to get paint to dry. But we did it anyway. And because we basically live outside, it made us feel really confined. But April, May and June showers bring flowers and it was interesting to watch spring unfold and it was almost like we could watch the growth over the course of a day. It was nice to finally be able to go shopping at the farm stand for plants together with my mom for Mother’s Day rather than always a gift certificate from a distance. And we planted the planters together too. As the leaves started to close everything in, and the shroud of clouds hovered above, I did get to thinking about how wide open spaces are nice!
Usually when I’m back inVermont I never see anyone from the old days but this time I saw 2 faces from long ago. We got some Mexican food at Gusanoz in Lebanon which my old friend Nick owns and he said lunch was on the house which was so generous. And then I met up with Becki one morning while riding my bike who I hadn’t seen since our university days. Actually, it was at the start of the semester back at UVM that Becki & I went to play volleyball outside the dorms that I met Jon for the first time. That was a lonngg time ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pics of either meet up.
We took a break for a few days to celebrate our 31 anniversary and headed to the Adirondacks to visit our friends Joe & Suzen. We’ve known Joe longer than we’ve been married even, so it seemed fine to celebrate together with a lasting friend. They invited us to stay in their rented house where they vacation a couple times a year to hike.They cooked us fantastic meals including a new BBQ technique Su-V which I wasn’t familiar with where the steaks turn out perfect every time. And they took us out for dinner on our anniversary which was sweet. We were supposed to be doing a lot of hiking but the weather was terrible. Joe is trying to complete the challenge to climb every 4K footer in the Adirondacks but this time he wasnt able to add to the total. We took a little hike to a fire tower on a particularly freezing cold day and it was good to get out between raindrops. We came back to VT over a couple more days to relax some and did some little walks in the Champlain Valley where everything was the brightest green. Then it was back to building.
We did the last couple of weeks of the build on our land in Bradford which reminded me of when we built our overland truck. It is a beautiful piece of land and the birds are incredible. Running keeps me sane and I ran every direction from the driveway whenever I could slip in a free moment. Everything is either straight up or straight down that’s for sure. While it is lovely, we decided that it will never be the right place for us so we listed our land for sale. Selling it will mean going through all of the boxes that we filled in 1997 when we moved onto our sailboat to take a year off to go cruising. We have never opened them since because we never moved back ashore. It has been a project we’ve been dreading doing, dissolving the time capsule as we call it, but it is time to get it off of our shoulders and be free of it.
At last, the bulk of the build came to a close and we could put the big tools away, all of the major systems were up & running. It was fun finally having hot water, the stove, fridge, heating system, lights, fans, shower, toilet, storage, sink, all of it ready for use. Of course we still need cushions, solar panels, etc and we’ve been adding artwork and more details along the way but it is fully liveable. And all of it so beautifully built. Jon has an artful precision at building given to him by his Dad and it shows every time he does something. While we were both absolutely dreading this project and didn’t enjoy doing it, we knew it was the only way we would have what we wanted in the end.
Ready to get moving, we said goodbye to my parents for now and headed off to the Catskills to visit our friends Rankin & Sandy. We met them crossing the Pacific in the Marquesas in French Polynesia and have been close friends since. They were so kind to us and we did so many neat things together. We shared great meals, Mexican dinner out, pancake breakfast at the fire station, a boat tour on the Hudson, maritime museum and best of all, a whole day visiting the national historic site of Franklin D Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. His old family mansion is beautifully preserved, the grounds are lovely, the Presidential Library, the first of its kind, was really interesting and informative and the whole day was very moving and well spent. You know, he succumbed to polio in his late 30’s and became paralyzed from it. He dragged himself up and down this driveway to try to rehab himself and gain the upper body strength he would need to be somewhat independent. He then came back from his dread diagnosis and incredible devastation with determination, good ideas, strength and perseverance and as President, he made substantial progress. The whole day was just one amazing story after another from that estate. And what a beautiful time of year to visit. What great company to share it with too.
We had big plans for this summer to buy a plane, get our pilot’s licenses and then start flying as another challenge, another way to explore. We had a hangar rented since January, an instructor, our medicals done and a potential plane that Jon had researched heavily and communicated a lot about with the seller. We were more than halfway through online ground school. Along the way, we definitely had become discouraged over what is happening in the US, the market all over the place, the sickening news day after day, etc but we were still onboard with our plan. But then the seller backed out when we were finally less than 250 miles away, coming to lay our eyes on the plane we’d been looking at in pictures & emails for months. He’s not quite ready to sell it. Well then that definitely required that the plan be put on hold as the most important aspect – the plane! wasn’t going to work out. We can’t start looking for a new one with the time we have left this visit. And we have some other ideas to contemplate as well.
I was thinking the other day, remember the facebook joke that was going around with the “new” pill “Fukitol”? Maybe after everything has been taken away and the rest of the world has left us in the dust, the powers that be will start distributing this pill for “free” to make everybody feel great again, even if it is a placebo. Because fake is real. It’s just nutty.
We started heading westward in a heat wave (now we know we need AC also) but it felt good to be moving toward the scenery we love. It starts in Colorado. We stopped at Cuyahoga NP in Ohio which was pretty for a city park and then kept moving on toward the Great Lakes. Then we got an offer on our land and signed a contract. Well that meant we needed to pick up the pace a bit. We headed to Rocky Mountain NP to spend a few days hiking and enjoy ourselves a bit in that crazy beautiful scenery. We both felt elated! Over 5 days we covered a ton of miles hiking and had perfect weather to do it in. Finally the air was dry and full of balsam smell. We were only in the park a few minutes before we got a glimpse of a moose, then we saw all kinds of elk, marmots that were too friendly, pikas, birds, deer and lots of people on the lower trails, not too many on the upper ones which are our favorites anyway. We didn’t have trouble getting campsites within the park either. So all in all a great success. Traveling in the US feels “soft”. It’s easy and you can find what you need nearly everywhere. The national parks are invaluable places to get lost in. But we really enjoy the far away places too. It’s an addiction to keep exploring and if it’s a little harder, well that’s how we roll best anyway.
We’re headed to visit my sister in Oregon and then we will fly back to Vermont for a short trip to clear off our land later this month. It is nice to be on the road again. We go back to Argentina in late summer to wrap up our time in South America. It’s time for a new continent.
