Chasing The Sun And Other Things

When we left our last blog post, we mentioned that we completed the first leg of our journey driving from mid-coast Maine to north central Massachusetts - specifically Jills' Moms' (Ida) house in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. While staying there, we figured out what we were still missing for supplies. It's amazing what you need when it comes down to living on the road. For example, we found we needed disposable bowls - we had the cereal, the milk, the spoons - but no bowls! So, we spent Monday morning (October 28th) picking up Styrofoam bowls, plus nail clippers, stamps, another battery for our main flashlight, and aspirin. We then drove from one big box store after another trying to find one last item in particular - a small, indoor propane heater. At the last store we visited, the knowledgeable associate told us what we were looking for was illegal to sell & purchase in Massachusetts.

Back at Mom's, we enjoyed homemade turkey soup and grilled tuna sandwiches. Then Jill & her Mom had a project to make - a hanging herb garden for the Nomad:
   1). Begin with a 3-tiered hanging basket
   2). Clean plastic to line the baskets with
   3). Get a small bag of Sphagnum peat moss
   4). Small cuttings of herbs you like - preferably already rooted.

Hang the planters over a suitable work space and line the baskets with the plastic. Next, fill them with the peat moss - not all the way to the top as you'll need room for the plant(s), its roots, and then to cover them with a little more moss.In my herb garden I have basil & onions in the top basket, marjoram & thyme in the middle basket, and parsley as well as mint in the bottom tier.

After that project was done, Mom attended to some other things on her daily to-do list, we went for our daily afternoon walk. We got picked up by a friend of Jill's who lived in the neighborhood that we were hoping to see before we left town on Tuesday. We ended up gallivanting around town - seeing what was new, what was still around, and what was gone. After catching up for over an hour, we were dropped off at another friends house for dinner. She made a tasty apple, chicken, and raisin salads. Her twin 8 year old children reminded us of our two oldest grand-kids, Tristan & Alyssa. My friends twins are great kids (and they're a riot), but we felt a pang of missing throughout the visit. Later on, we were back at Jills' Mom's house & chatted with her until we retired for the evening.

On Tuesday morning we were up by 6:30am. We are both getting used to sleeping in our RV and had a restful nights sleep. Dave organized things we had taken out and used during our visit, getting the Nomad back into ship-shape condition for traveling. Jill had breakfast with her Mom, showered, and got dressed into traveling clothes. Dave had a chance to eat, took some more pictures, and we shuffled our house plants back into the RV. Ida had to leave by 10am, so by 9:30am, we had the Nomad all warmed up, took some final family snapshots, and said our goodbyes.

We traversed over the rest of Ida's hill and down the other side into Ashburnham - getting used to the

Nomads every squeak, rumble and general rattling of our own stuff! We then landed onto smoother roads heading west on Route 2, out the Mohawk Trail, down Route 112 through the Berkshires, then into Great Barrington. We stopped at a still open state park by the Housatonic River. We had a great lunch, enjoyed some great late autumn scenery, and a stretch break.

We continued through the northwest corner of Connecticut through Canaan, which had numerous 200-500 acre horse farms - one right after the other. It was incredible. Shortly thereafter, we trekked into New York over the Hudson River. The sun was hanging low in the sky - add the view of the river as well as the Catskill mountains in the distance, it was a fantastic way to stop for the day. We found a 24 hour Wal-Mart and Campers World & parked for the night.

We awoke Wednesday morning to the resounding echos of locomotives rumbling past in the distance. It turns out that Kingston NY is still quite an active train town. From what we've been told by the locals, the noise & rumblings are much worse in town! Yikes! Back when we lived in Thomaston, Maine, a train engineer told us that it's the law where they have to use (blare) the train horns - two solid blasts at each intersection - so there were a succession of 10 blasts as the 5:58am engine came through! Good morning New York!!!

As we type this, we are having our morning coffee. We are thinking back as to why there was no Red Sox / Patriots paraphernalia - it was all New York Yankees / Giants stuff. Then we realized, "Hey - we're in New York now... oops!" As they say, "I guess we're not in Kansas anymore Toto..."

We got our morning walk in (had to do 2 laps around the parameter of a Super Wal-Mart due to morning rains), returned the indoor propane heater we had purchased (turned out the heater still needed ventilation, which meant we would have to open a window - kind of defeats the purpose of a heater), then to Starbucks for said coffee and free wi-fi. Getting from Wal-Mart to Starbucks was insane - much like man's lack of planning when it comes to suburban sprawl & big box expansion. Over, under, around, and through - behind mall buildings, around parking lots, and through numerous sets of lights - just to get to the other side of the mall we stayed at. What we do for coffee & free Internet!!

Time to finish up. Onward Nomads!
Until next time,
The Happy Campers,
Jill & Dave