Author: donhall930

                        If any of you have traveled to the coast of Maine, then you have an idea of what Cape Ann in Massachusetts is like. But it’s hours closer to the northern New Jersey area so, unlike Maine where, “Ya can’t get theah from heah”, Cape Ann is easily reached via I-95, and it is just forty-five minutes north of Boston. This makes it an ideal Day Trip if you’re spending some time in that incredible city.

 Or get a VRBO and spend your time right on the Cape.

                                    I promise that you won’t be disappointed!

                        We get up here once a year to visit my son Donny and his family, Hilary, Augustus, Adelaide, and Eleanor, their dog Mali, and about eight chickens who all have names, but for obvious reasons, they will go unlisted. Please don’t tell them.

                        For those of you that have joined us just recently, I will give you a brief primer on Cape Ann and its environs, just as a matter of reference (and so you can see how cool this place is!)

                        Cape Ann consists of four main towns which all have their own ‘downtown port’ aspect to them. These will also remind you of any famous New England local port complete with commercial lobster boats and gorgeous pleasure boats, most of which are moored to buoys in the harbor as the tide swing here is between nine and eleven feet, making marinas difficult to have on a practical level. These towns are Essex, Rockport (out on the tip), Gloucester (where the ill-fated Andrea Gail of The Perfect Storm fame sailed from) and Manchester-by-the-Sea, our town of choice as that’s where Donny and fam reside. (BTW, the movie, which was filmed here, has nothing to do with the town itself!)

                        Cape Ann is strewn with great restaurants, very interesting local museums, and crazy popular beaches which boast crystal-clear waters that are cold (!) but folks dive in any way!

                        Yesterday was spent on the water, courtesy of a new acquisition of the family, namely a sailboat. Eleanor, Adelaide, and Augustus have had summers full of sailing lessons ever since they arrived here. This will be their fourth summer here and yes; Sailing Lessons are on the itinerary. Even Donny and Hilary have been enrolled in adult classes, all with the idea of procuring their own sailboat, which will now come complete with an experienced crew!

                        The sailboat is a 32-foot Sabre (which is a tad larger than what may be considered a ‘beginner’ boat) but Donny had years of maritime experience as a kid at the Jersey shore where we always had a boat. So at least he knew the difference between Bow and Stern, and Port and Starboard! And his crew now has three years of sailing under their belts (or life vests!)

                        Getting one of those mooring Buoys in Manchester Harbor or Gloucester is rather difficult as there are a finite number allocated to those areas. That makes the Waiting List long.

Very long.

One of the ways to short-cut that list is to get on the shorter list of Magnolia Harbor. Magnolia is not as desirable for several reasons, it’s not as protected (Harbor is a misnomer here), there are no dedicated services that bring you out to and back from your mooring (you need to do that yourself) and the dock that you would go to to pick up your family and passengers is only available at high tide.

                                    But…. when you get on this list you get first pickings of moorings when one becomes available in Manchester. Even over someone who is on the Manchester list!

            So Don, why don’t people just get on that Magnolia list first?

            I’m glad you asked that Mr. Harbor Master!

Because…. if you are on the Magnolia list and procure a mooring there you must utilize it and put a boat there! You can’t just use it to fake your way into Manchester!

So off we went with the Zodiac inflatable lashed to the roof for the short drive to the Magnolia section of town where Donny put it in and rowed over to that dock to pick us up so we could get out to the boat.

                        Her name is Selkie, which is a mythical sea dwelling being with mainly Scottish and Irish origins. It has the ability to change from human to seal. The movie The Secret of Roan Inish is based on this legend. The movie is quite good.

                        Selkie proved to be an inviting companion for our several-hour foray along then rocky coast. The day was gorgeous, even the early foreboding clouds gave way to bright sunshine and gorgeous blue skies. This was only the family’s third (or so) outing on her, so lessons still needed to be learned, but the pupils were willing and at least experienced when knowing when a sail was properly trimmed, and the boat was being sailed correctly.

                        Paula and I wisely stayed out of the way.

            I did get a turn at the wheel. I’ve always wanted to pilot a sailboat with one of these large wheels (instead of a tiller) and a mainsail and genoa jib!

            I was not disappointed 😊

After our sail, we went to a nice place in Magnolia for lunch where the food was delicious and as you can see, the portions were sizeable!

An afternoon spent in the backyard relaxing eventually gave way to dinnertime and some neat ways to barbeque!

After that we wisely went back to our site at the Cape Ann Campsite as we were all tuckered out.

It’s a good thing that Paula was driving because I don’t think I even made it out of the driveway before I dozed off!

                        We took a quick trip to Greece yesterday.

                        Courtesy of Tommy (of Yetter’s Diner) and his family.

                        Ever since our one-day Port-of-Call visit to Monemvasia on the Cruise, we’ve wanted to go back, especially with Tommy’s family as we all know that visiting somewhere with the folks that live there, is the best way to experience a place.

                        Particularly one that has a potential language barrier.

                        “It’s all Greek to me…”  has never rung truer!

            Everyone we were introduced to was genuinely friendly and happy to meet us. It was really nice watching Tommy’s Mom and Dad (Roula and Spyro) laugh and have a good time with their old friends. We paid a visit to their hometown church, St. Andrews, it was a sight to behold, icons, beautifully situated on all of the walls and up inside the domed ceiling, were just gorgeous!

                                    And then there’s the food.

                                    And lots of it!

                                    There is nothing better than consuming a location’s ethnic specialties, made by the residents themselves, primarily for your (and their) enjoyment!  It was Friday night; the workweek was over, which means that the Mythos (a Greek beer) and the Ouzo were flowing freely! The music was lively and loud, and all were having a great time. Just watching everyone was enjoyment enough for us!  😊

                                    But alas, all good things must draw to a close and the day was over before we knew it. We can’t wait til we can return and enjoy this level of genuine hospitality again, which fortunately for us will be next year at the same time because that is when St. Andrews holds its annual Greek Festival!

                                    C’mon…. admit it!

I had you fooled for maybe just a second or two!

            I guess that my point is this, go find an ethnic festival, (they’re all around) and sample at least the foods.

Stay for the entertainment.

Watch the older folks, the ones who ‘remember’.

I promise that you will not be disappointed!

And then you can say…..

            “We went to Greece yesterday and…..”

This is really our first “Official Sojourn” after landing in New Jersey about two weeks ago, but we left our ‘House on Wheels’ back at Yetter’s Diner because we are fortunate to be the guests of Barb, one of Paula’s oldest (in the terms of longevity!) and dearest friends.

Barb lives directly on the eastern shore of Otsego Lake. This is significant as there are just three homes on the eastern (nine-mile) shore once you leave the little hamlet of Cooperstown. Three homes all snugged together on a parcel that defies a reasonable explanation of why they are here except that maybe back in the day someone knew someone and snagged this property. The entrance is steep, scary steep, like no one winters here cuz ya ain’t getting out if it snows deep.

And there are no sewers out this far….. and no septic systems either because of their proximity to the Lake, which is about as clear as it gets until maybe the Virgin Islands or someplace like that.

That means that…. Yup! You guessed it!

Pump/Holding Tanks!

It’s like having the motorhome here in a way except our tanks are about fifty gallons while Barb’s are several thousand!

This area of New York State is familiar to all of us in so many ways but until you delve into why it’s familiar you cannot make the connections.

The first is the name of the local municipality:

Cooperstown.

We all know that one!

Baseball’s Holy Grail is located here, The Baseball Hall of Fame is ensconced right in the center of town. Why here? Well… more on that later.

Second, we need to go back to Required Reading List in high school for this one, (and this never hit me until I figured out where I was…..) we’re smack-dab-in-the-middle-of the Last of the Mohican’s territory and the stomping grounds of Natty Bumpo or Leatherstocking, of the combined stories that make up the Leatherstocking Tales.

And we all know who wrote those stories back the early 1800’s…… James Fenimore Cooper….. as in Cooperstown!

Man, did I feel like an idiot for not making that connection!

So, Cooperstown has not one, but two (!) great reasons for visiting the area, not to mention the gorgeous countryside and the pristine lake.

            This area has it’s very own philanthropic well-to-do (that’s an understatement!) family that is the backbone of the region. The Clark family (who?) has called this area home since the early 1800’s when the family had a law practice located here. The Clarks acquired large tracts of land (about ten-thousand acres) that were formerly owned by James Fenimore Cooper, thus cementing the familial relationship to the area forever.

This is where it gets interesting as this Clark Family’s economic tendrils wove a web that was far-reaching, but at the same time, so local. I’ll just throw out a few aspects of this so we can “cut to the chase”.

Issac Singer (sewing machine, grandaddy Clark was a partner)

Abner Doubleday (baseball)

The Explorer’s Club (NYC, he built the original building)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art ( The Met – NYC)

The Modern Museum of Art (MoMA – NYC)

And many more! (just to name a few)

As you can see, the “Art” side of this family runs deep and that is reflected in the next enterprise that calls this area home and that is the Fenimore Art Museum nestled on the western shore of Otsego Lake. As with any type of organization, having an “Old Money” benefactor goes far especially when that Money acquired many a piece of collectible art along the way. The Fenimore’s collection is a wonderful example of this with many an American “Master” being represented, along with the requisite “Old World” Masters. You may recall (or you may have quietly dismissed 😊) our Art History lesson about the Hudson River School of the mid-1800’s that are housed in the Albany Institute of History and Art (see ‘Journey or Destination’ blog date 08/21/2021). Anyway, as you can imagine, there is something special about seeing revered artwork in the place that it originated, and that region is right here!

Let’s get back to the biggie around here and that has to be the Baseball Hall of Fame. I always wondered why it was located in Cooperstown, New York.

What was the relationship?

Did baseball start here?

Just wait… it gets better!

We’re going back to the Civil War and a very successful and likeable general by the name of Abner Doubleday, who had roots in this area. As baseball grew in popularity and teams became more and more “official” and rules and leagues were being formed, someone needed to know how and where the game started. We’re not going to delve deep into the resulting controversy of its origins but results of this erroneous claim made the local farmer’s field in Cooperstown the site of Abner Doubleday’s “first” game being played.

But…. enough damage and false information was perpetrated that eighty or so years later, when the town of Cooperstown was suffering deeply from the Great Depression and the demise of one of its best industries, the growing of hops for beer (Oh no! Prohibition!) one of the prominent locals, Stephen Carlton Clark (there’s that name again!) founded and paid for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. His goal was to bring tourists to his little hamlet and thus help the local economy. He was also a newspaper man, the owner of three Albany newspapers, including the Albany Evening Journal, hence the convenient tie-in with the Baseball Writers Association with the nomination and election of prospective members of the Hall of Fame.

I’d have to think that by any definition, he was very successful!

To this day, the Clark Family owns the Baseball Hall of Fame (not Major League Baseball) and his granddaughter, Jane Forbes Clark, is the current Chairperson. If you follow international Equestrian Events, you will recognize Janes name as she has been influential not only as a rider, but also with her position of leadership in the United States Olympic Equestrian Team organization.

Jane has continued to follow those philanthropic steps laid down by her forefathers and her generosity around here is well noted. When the hospital (which her family built) suffered a fire, she brought all of the patients over to the Otesaga Hotel (which her family started) and housed them until all was remedied. Jane is the last of that direct family although the family foundation is very well established to continue the work that they started those may years ago.

Sorry for the rambling, there are so many integrated storylines here that it is difficult to separate them as they are all related in some wonderful way! It’s way more fun to just come up here (only three hours from Sussex County!) spend a few days and find it all out for yourself!

                        So I wrote a book.

                        Let me clarify that.

                        I wrote about 21 stories that I’ve compiled into a book.

                        It’s a big book….. about 650 pages.

                        It was going to be titled: War and Peace

                        But someone’s already used that one, so I settled for:

A Collection of Short Stories for Young Bookworms.

The reason that you all are seeing this now is that I’d be a fool not to reach out to folks that I already have an acquaintance with. It’s like the guy who becomes an insurance salesman…. the first people he speaks to are his family and friends, who in turn refer him to what eventually becomes his extended business family, etc. etc. etc.

 Make no mistake here, this is a self-published project. Simon and Schuster did not compete with Random House for the honor of getting the publishing rights and in turn send me a hefty advance for my troubles. I used a wonderful indie-publishing outfit called BookBaby, which happens to be right here in New Jersey but may as well be in Timbuktu because everything is done on-line. They offer many tutorials to help authors write, organize, and promote their books. One of the first things that they recommend is to reach out on whatever social media platform that one may have and start there.

That would be here.

Now the backstory……

About ten years ago, my (at that time, seven-year-old) granddaughter Madeline, came to me with some questions about the Titanic. Mostly questions about a big diamond and Jack and Rose, but I was able to set records straight and answer her other questions as I’ve been a student of the Titanic for as long as I can remember.

An idea came to me to take Maddie, her brother Andy, and parents Heather and Jim, and insert them into a custom storyline with the Titanic as the focal point. This is similar to an old book series that I read as a kid called “We Were There at / with….” This series took a young girl and boy and inserted them into historical situations and told the story from their point of view. A classic example of Historical Fiction that was very successful in its quest to have young readers experience history from their points of view.

That story, Maddie makes a Friend, is about Maddie meeting and making a friend of Thomas Andrews, the designer of the Titanic whilst they were aboard. When you write about people that you know, you get to weave their personalities into the fabric of the story, which in turn makes that story just a little more special than just placing them there. That became my goal in this and all of the subsequent stories that followed.

After I wrote that story, I needed to write one about Andy. And then about Augustus, and his sisters, Adelaide, and Eleanor, and then my grand-cats, CubScout and LingLing (who you already know from Critter Sitting). This developed further when I added Nieces, Nephews, and Others into this family of stories. Not all are historical in nature, as matter of fact, most just revolve around those particular person’s interests. These range from princesses, unicorns, and orcas to Top Gun, big trucks, F-18’s, and furry animal families. I don’t make up the kid’s interests, they already have those. I just get to write a story about them and their particular fascinations.

            That’s how one gets to over twenty different stories just itching to be compiled into a book! This book is suitable for anyone that can read from youngster to adult, and the stories also lend themselves to being read to kids even before they learn how to read.

This is not just any book mind you…. this is a hard-bound, complete with dust jacket, real, no cheap imitations of, hefty tome of stories that are good for all to read. You need not be one of the subjects (as the stories stand well on their own) just as any story would with characters that have names attached. It’s just that these are a little more special to those that are the subjects.

            I need to go on about the dust jacket for a moment as this alone is a work of art, no pun whatsoever intended, it truly is. I commissioned Erin Brady who is an artist/website designer/graphic artist who designed our new website and menu at the Chatterbox. She is absolutely wonderful to work with. I asked her to come up with a hand drawn rendition of the subjects of the stories and incorporate them all into a book cover. She succeeded in doing so, way beyond my wildest dreams! She read each story and worked all of the subject matter into a seamless front and back of the cover and dust jacket. It is a sight to behold!

I elected to go the Hardbound, dust jacket route because if there is one central theme to my life, it is probably books. I have had a library in one form or another for as long as I can remember.

With mostly hard-bound books in my collection.

 If I came across a book that I liked in soft-back, I would scour the internet in order to find the oldest (First Edition!!!) version of that book, procure it, and add it to my Library.

            Hence my affliction of Hardbounditis.

            Thankfully there is no cure for this malady.

There is a cure, however, for my desire to propel this endeavor to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list and that’s where you all come in!

Well, not really as I don’t harbor any anticipation of that becoming a reality, but I’d be a fool not to admit that it is any author’s aspiration for that to occur!

But….. if you so desire, here is how you may procure a highly-prized First Edition of this relatively unknown Literary Masterpiece 😊

            First, I need to let you know that this is not an inexpensive book.

It is considered rather pricey at $48.00, but if you do the math, there are twenty-one stories inside which makes it just $2.28 per story! What a bargain! (FYI, I don’t set the price, it’s a formula based on size and binding)

            But wait!

If you order now I will add to your order a free Ginzu Kitchen Knife Collection and an additional one-hundred square feet of your choice of floor covering!

            Order now! Operators are standing by!

Ok, really, here is how you may order this book. It is obviously print-on-demand, as no one is inventorying it!

            And….. yes, there is a discount available for you and anyone that you care to forward this to (think friends and relatives that have kids, grandkids, etc. that you think may enjoy some fun stories)

This book does have an official ISBN # but you do not need it to place an order.

Go to:  www.bookbaby.com

Find their ‘Bookstore’ and enter my name (Don Hall) or the title, A Collection of Short Stories for Young Bookworms, and it will bring you to my “page”.

Order a book (or several!) use code Chatterbox to get $15.00 off of that $48.00 cost which brings it down to $33.00 or just $1.57 per story!

            If you do decide to purchase one, I would truly like to get your feedback on any aspect of the book. My personal email is in the front pages of the book, so there’s no secrets, but here it is again now for you, donhall930@gmail.com I welcome any comments or questions even before you may decide to procure one.

Thanks for reading this! (and hopefully the book!)

                        Unfortunately, I don’t have that much to report to you.

                        (Or any pretty photos to share, as this is a Boring Post)

As of the last post from Michigan, we decided to just high tail it back to Jersey and start are “Visitation Schedule” as the summer here will be just a little shorter in time than what we normally spend. As reported earlier, we will be vacating the East Coast by the beginning of August (rather than the beginning of September) so that we can get to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the mountains of Montana before the onset of their winter which seems like it starts in early September! Plus we’re pushing on to Oregon which takes us about as far west as we can go until the Optional Pontoons arrive from Amazon so we can take this thing to Hawaii!

We did not get to visit the scheduled stops on our Proposed Itinerary that lay between Michigan and New Jersey. That was a conscious decision to just get us back “Home” and see everyone, plus we need to have some Scheduled Maintenance done on Miss Biggie at our favorite Freightliner Service Center which (luckily) is about ten minutes from our parking spot at Yetter’s Diner.

This round of “Fixings” turned out to be a little more involved (read: expensive) than what we expected, but necessary it all was, so gotten it did get! Several oldish issues that we’ve had for awhile were finally figured out (like the big ‘CLUNK’ when the brakes were applied) so now we stop nicely and without that annoying sensation. That’s a good thing because at 28,000 pounds or so, stopping is mandatory. Add in a leaky crankcase gasket (not too bad at $48.00, but it takes two-plus hours to change it…. Ca-Ching!!! ) a gigantic air filter, ($150.00) and you can get an idea how this normal, scheduled maintenance of an oil change (usually about $650.00) turned into an over $2000.00 repair bill.

But we are not complaining!

To persectiveize our situation, we do not have the expenses of property taxes, utility bills, rent or mortgage, property maintenance, etc. I will admit that our Traveling Fuel tab is larger than most, but we get to have our home with us wherever we go! Just imagine if you wanted to take your home with you when you traveled….. just cutting all of your wires and getting the house jacked up and on a trailer would take forever! (Never mind the DOT permits needed to close the roads that you need to travel on!) So, we are definitely not complaining!

While we are here we will take advantage of one of the only spots in the country that specializes in RV exterior repair and bodywork. No, we do not need any dents fixed (we did that last year!) What we need done is strictly cosmetic in nature.

The Backstory:

Most of the Motorhomes that we pass are just gorgeously shiny things that whiz by in all of their glory. Only a small (very!) handful of these are lived in, or driven, Full Time. That means that they stay in the garage (yes, some, especially the really expensive ones are fitted into a giant indoor storage!) or safely in the driveway where chips and dents from rock-throwing roadway incidents cannot do any damage.

Hence the Motorhome Queen status of looking resplendent!

Ours, try as I might, gets it face blasted every time that we venture out. And we are now at the ten-year old mark which is the cut-off point for some campgrounds and our eligibility for entrance. This is an attempt to not have the Beverly Hillbillies chug their way into that respectable RV Resort and squat until the Law catches up with them. This “age requirement” can be exceptioned by pleading with the Resort Operators, usually with a photo proving that your ride is ‘worthy’ of admittance, albeit a tad older than the rules allow.

That’s just one part.

For me, it’s the embarrassment of not having that pristine, shiny, looking-like-new, gorgeous motorhome that everyone else seems to have!

The work that needs to be accomplished is something of a quandary because the initial intent of what we’re having done was to alleviate the need for the work that we’re having done!

Confused? Yup, me too!

If someone had done their homework they would have realized that the “Clear Protective Vinyl Applied Covering” on the front of the motorhome would eventually deteriorate.

And that it did!

Along with the fact that mold grows under this “clear” vinyl protection which makes it impossible to alleviate as you cannot get to it unless you remove it! So we’ve got these ugly blemishes all in the front that there isn’t a blessed thing I can do except take that vinyl covering off. This is where this RV specialist comes in. When I regaled them with my tale of woe, their quick response was, “Yea… we do that job all the time.”  That is reassuring on one level, but quite disturbing on another as apparently we are not the only ones experiencing this issue!

Just to put this into your perspective, this is the front of our house. Just imagine how you would feel if the front of your house had stains, peeling paint, and other unsightly blemishes on it!

Ok, I take back what I said before about property maintenance, I guess that this does fall under that category under these circumstances!

And…. I lied 😊

Here are a few representative photos of today’s dilemma!

Question:

What do Al Capone (the gangster) and Joe Louis (the boxer) have in common?

Answer:

There were times in their lives that they needed to be “on the lam” and recede from the public eye.

Well Don, that’s neither exciting nor unexpected, there are times when any of us would like to disappear for a while!

Yes, I know that. As a matter of fact, we have been accused recently of staying just one step ahead of the Chocolate Police as we are definitely guilty of running high-quality chocolate across state lines as of late. So we needed a quick “hideaway”, one large enough to conceal the motorhome for a few days until we cooled our heels while the Feds looked for us.

Yes Don, we’re quite sure that you are as guilty as sin, but you still haven’t answered your own question!

Ok… so we was talkin’ ta Darla and Sandra, ya know, from da World Cruise an we was lamentin’ ‘bout where we was gonna try an’ hide…. big rig an’ everythin’ when Darla says like…. “I know! My parents live in lower Michigan halfway between Detroit and Chicago an’ they got this farm ya see, real old place, big property, an’ there was a few times when Al Capone used it like a kinda halfway house cuz he was travelin ‘tween his ‘business’s’ in Detroit an’ Chicago……. and….. Joe Louis used it to stay in when he was trainin’ for some of his fights, his camp was just up the road!”

Perfect!

            So, here we are just off the State 60 which runs from Detroit to over by Chicago, on a quaint little farm, with the motorhome tucked away in the back, with Darla, Sandra, and Darla’s parent’s, Jack and Sharon.

It is typically, wonderfully, entirely, “Mid-West”.

That is about as high a complement that can be given to anyone in my opinion. The folks from the Mid-West have a beautiful lilt to their accented speaking and are probably the most genuine and friendly people on the planet.

We arrived here after two long days on the road from Durango and we don’t want to leave. Besides being welcomed with the proverbial “Open Arms” of Sharon and Jack, the area is so relaxing that staying here would be a tonic of sorts and definitely a welcome respite from the road.

Yesterday we ventured over the State Line, down into Indiana to a town named Shipshewana, a stronghold of both the Amish and Mennonite communities. We strolled from shop to shop, where items ranging from furniture to linens were on display. The one thing that you notice right away is that there is no ‘junk’ being sold here. Everything is of the highest quality and the distinct lack of “Imported” items was quite evident.

We acquired a few things including some chocolate 😊

Then we went to dinner at Das Dutchman Essenhaus, one of those gigantic “Family Style” restaurants that the Amish are so famous for. It was as wonderful as you may imagine and if you haven’t had the opportunity to experience this kind of hospitality you’ve been missing something! Here, or in Lancaster, Pennsylvania are the two locales that come to mind, so skedaddle over there and get some Fried Chicken!

                        And Pies!

                        Don’t forget the pies!

While we were making the  plans to visit Darla and Sandra, and before we arrived, we were told that we needed to be careful coming down the long driveway as a Killdeer couple had made their nest smack dab in the middle of the driveway.

Ouch!

Killdeers are mostly shore birds (there are a gazillion lakes around here) and as such, do not make nests in trees. Their eggs are brown spotty things that blend in nicely with, unfortunately, the gravel and dirt of this big, long driveway. When approached, one of them will fake a broken wing to try and draw you away from their nest with the thought that they themselves are easy prey! Bravo! Great performance!

I have no idea what they are going to do once they hatch!

We heard that the Chocolate Police had given up on finding us and turned their attention to chasing someone accused of palming off some milk chocolate for dark chocolate so now’s our chance to make a run for it!

For security purposes, we will not be disclosing our departure time or route as Al told us, “Yuz guys ‘ll be sorry!”

Now that the care of the Critters has been safely turned back over to Lorelyn and Travis it’s time to officially start our Annual Eastward Migration. Our Itinerary has been modified of late as an unexpected bit of niceness has been inserted into it.

Backstory….

Enter….. 1972 Graduation, Montville High School.

The chums had been together for years and back then it was not easy to stay connected as it is today. No emails, Face Book, Instagram, cell phones, etc.

There was only Snail Mail, and writing letters was a chore. Life and its facets got in the way; time passed…… I’m sure we all can relate.

Exit…… The Chums.

Fast Forward to numerous Re-Unions, sans the Chums. Try as she might, Paula could not locate her friend Sue. Sue had vacated the area and headed West, Colorado was rumored to be her new nesting spot, but the trail grew colder and colder as the years went by.

52 to be exact.

Lots of Gatherings were put on hold during the Covid Crisis and that classes 50^th Re-Union was one of them, until two years had passed, and something got organized. As the emails and texts flew back and forth around the country indicating who was, and was not, attending, Sue’s name popped up and Paula was able to secure the appropriate contact info.

A deep breath and a purposeful text later, the Chums had been re-united, the next step being a joyous phone call topped off by a planned visit as guess where we were?

Yup! Only seven hours south of where Sue and Rob live, just outside of Denver, and….. practically right on our way Eastward!

So, that’s where we are for a day  😊

The trip from Durango up to Denver can be made several different ways, head due east til you hit the I-25 North (too boring) or, up through all of the San Juans and Rockies (too stressful!) or, the Goldilocks Route, up through what we call the Big Pretty Valley (just right!).

I haven’t been on this route since Lorelyn and I used to travel this way when she went to law school in Boulder, and I would fly out to Denver, and we’d drive down to the Four-Corners area for an adventure.

It’s just as pretty as I remembered it!

The rest of the trip eastward depended on one significant factor.

Hot Water.

Our water heater had been acting strangely over the past week or so until it finally gave up and croaked. This is not your everyday go down the basement and work on the water heater scenario. This has the potential for being a disaster as one of the significant components of the water heater is located on the back side of it which can only be accessed by removing the entire vanity assembly in the back bathroom.

 It is a Major Job.

We had the problem sort of diagnosed in Durango, and parts were checked on, but could not arrive in time for our scheduled departure from that area. So…. “Hey Sue! I know you don’t know me from Adam, and you haven’t seen Paula in fifty-two years, but can we have some parts shipped to your place and we get them when we visit and do you mind if I work on the motorhome in your driveway while we’re there?”

“No problem, Don!”

Parts hastily ordered, Amazon responded, and when we arrived I let the two Chums get re-united while I attempted to fix our fritzified water heater starting with the valve assembly which was the key here. it was the “easy” part to install. If the “other” part was the offending member, then we would have bee-lined it back to New Jersey for more serious work.

But…… Yes!

A few connections, a few errant flames (hastily extinguished) and Ta-Daaa! We have Hot Water!

So, (hopefully!) without any further developments, we can proceed as planned and visit the proposed stops along the way.

You will be the first to know!

Oh, and not to leave you in suspense…. yes, the Kitchen Modification was completed, not without some angst, but that was short-lived! My ‘piece of cake’ description of this project to Paula, turned out to be a giant sheet cake worth of work, but hopefully worth it!

(Eventually)

Dateline: Durango, Colorado

                        The Goats are rambunctious, the Cats are cuddly, and the Chickens are kinda chickeny.

Oh….. and the Weather is typical Southwest Colorado, Ho-Hum Gorgeous, Bluebird Skies, and White Puffy Clouds.

We are here in Durango, Colorado farm-sitting for Lorelyn and Travis’s merry band of Critter-Cohorts whose main task in life is to try and extricate additional food and snacks from the New Feeders (us!)

Travis and Lorelyn are off to Germany and Austria on vacation. So, this starts our 2024 Mid-Year-Go-West-Before Traveling-East Sojourn. It is a two-day travel from our spot in Texas up to the Four Corners Region and after one full day of that we were still not out of Texas! My Mid-Atlantic up-bringing is always fascinated by that. No driving through a few states in a few hours around here!

We are here for the better part of two weeks which gives me an opportunity to do some work on the Motorhome. Major kitchen renovations are underway, and Jonathan and Drew from Property Brothers keep dropping in and whispering things like “Open Concept” and “Vaulted Ceiling” and before we left Texas, Chip and Joanna stopped by with Joanna mentioning “shiplap” for the walls, but all of these well-intentioned folks have obviously never lived in a motorhome!

Fortunately for us, we are situated only about twelve miles from Durango, so my local supply spot, Home Depot, is not too far away and that is good because I was there three times yesterday!

Here’s what, and (why) we’re doing.

In the motorhome we have a combination microwave and convection oven, which means that it’s a compromise.

            Which also means that it really doesn’t do anything really well, especially the convection oven part. We’ve (Paula) given up on trying to bake a cake, or roast anything of consequence as the unit falls far short of any sort of normal expectations. We looked at getting other combo units and just retrofitting them in, but they are all still compromises and the reviews were sufficiently mixed as to warrant a really good reason to just hop from the frying pan (which works great as we have a propane stove!) into the fryer, so to speak. So, the tape measure came out and the graph paper was employed along with mechanical pencils, compass and protractor, add in a small ruler, and Plans were fashioned for a completely new idea in the Motorhome Kitchen Design Concept arena.

We’re going to try a Ninja Foodi Digital Air-Fry Pro (which is really just a big fancy toaster oven) and a small free-standing microwave.

The reason that we need to be in one place for a while in order to attempt this project is illuminated by the fact that yesterday I went to Home Depot three times. We’ve all heard of that old adage, Measure Twice, Cut Once, and just so I’m sure of my procedures, I’ve modified that by measuring a hundred times, but somehow still needing to cut a thousand!

Oh well, someone has to keep these stores in business!

Anyway, when retro fitting, and with no real “plans” available for this project, going from concept to reality can be a tad challenging. It’s a good thing that Paula is as patient as she is with me, because she knows that when I tell her, “Don’t worry, it’s a piece of cake!” that the cake won’t be ready for quite a while. In fact, she has mentioned to me that my “piece of cake” is rapidity turning into a full-sized sheet cake. (As long as it’s chocolate…..)

As I write this early on Saturday morning, you should know that this project started last Monday, when Travis helped me extricate the stupid old unit (which did take the two of us as it was quite heavy), so I’ve been at it for a while, not fulltime mind you, there’re critters to tend, and other life-chores to take care of, so I’m not that bad…… hopefully it will be finished today, but that was the plan for yesterday too.

Photos enclosed, and I’ll wait to post this so that the Finished Project Photo can take its rightful place in the Motorhome Hall of Fame (Renovation Category)

(Project Note: It is now Sunday morning and my plan to show you the Finished Project went kerflooey. If I showed you a current photo, it would look much the same as the previous one. This after an almost full day of “Reto-Fitting” (but just two trips to Home Depot!) There were too many “bumps” along the way yesterday to list. But there’s still today(!) to make some headway on this project. The issue du jour was moving the power from one side to the other in an attempt not to have unsightly wires running amuck on the shelves. Today’s plan involves just one (hopefully) trip to Home Depot, they open at eight and I’ll be there waiting!)

(PS Note: The wind came up; the clouds threatened a shower, so I elected to work on the electrical wiring for the appliances inside instead of finishing the cabinetry. So, a Finished Photo will be had sometime in the future.)

When that’s all finished and the critters are sufficiently spoiled, we will leave here and continue eastward on our way back to New Jersey and the rest of the Summer Travel Itinerary, which I will give you brief(?) synopsis of, just so you know where you too will be travelling this season!

 -Just outside of Denver for an old high school chum of Paula’s

– Lower Michigan for a night with Sandra and Darla from the World Cruise at Darla’s parent’s farm.

– On to (depending on time, etc.) stops at Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio, Niagara Falls, Watkins Glen, Cooperstown, and finally back in our spot in Yetter’s Diner parking lot by sometime in the week before Memorial Day where we attend the Opening Day of the Pool Club that Matt, Paula’s son and his family belong to.

– A week later, we’re up in Manchester-by-the-Sea for my son Donny and his family, then back to Jersey for my granddaughters Ballet Recital, then up to Vermont for Paula’s sister Barb’s 80th birthday, then Maine for the 4th of July with Brian her son, then back to Vermont, then the Jersey Shore for a week with my sister, her family, and my daughter Heather and her family and eventually heading Westward by the first week in August. Stops to include the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with Darla and Sandra, Minneapolis with Claire, one of Paula’s high school friends, a week in Seeley Lake, Montana with Phillis and Steve, my partners from the Chatterbox, then down to Oregon for three separate visits, two with friends from the World Cruise, Sandi and Steve, & Brian and Kristine, and one with Liz (my old friend from Sysco) and Beth. On to Salt Lake City for a drive-by visit with one of the surgeons that Paula used to work for, then dropping into Utah where we hope to visit some of the National Parks that we’ve not been to yet, Canyonlands, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Capitol Reef before we make our way back here to Durango sometime in mid-September.

Where we will collapse and work on removing the calluses from our steering wheel-hands.

I’ll reserve the rest of the year’s itinerary for a post later on this year.

We know you like to travel as much as we do just by the comments that we get from all of you, and we love having you all along with us! So, fasten your seatbelts but at the same time get ready to jump out as there will be many stops along the way for photo-ops and snacks!

Here?

“Yup!”

You mean, right here?

“Yes sir!”

This actual spot?

(Sigh)

“Yes Don, right. here. in. that. bar.”

            Well, it was Paradise, and the Cheeseburger was really good.

            What makes it even better was the fact that back in the day, Jimmy Buffett was a frequent visitor to this Island. So, it was easy to see that this was the spot that inspired that song.

            We’re sitting on the patio of the Cabbage Key’s only business, the Island Inn Bar and Restaurant. This place screams that island lifestyle that Mr. Buffett was so enamored with. Yes, you can come here, but only by boat. Yes, you can stay here, but only in one of the Cottages that are for rent.

Yes……. you can do anything that you would do at any other resort!

Can I swim in the pool?

            Nope, don’t have one.

Can I play tennis or pickleball?

            Nope. No courts.

Can I get a massage?

            Sorry, nope to that too. No spa.

How about at least a nightclub? Is there one of those?

            That’s a big negatory there good buddy.

Sheesh! So, what is there to do around here?

            You can relax. You can let yourself succumb to that Island existence that Jimmy sang so longingly about. You can let this island transport you back to the mid 1940’s when this place was built, and savor that “Old Florida” lifestyle. It creeps up on you unsuspectingly and when it grabs you, you’re a goner. You’ve been infected and the only remedy is to come back for more.

As you may have surmised by now, we are in southern Florida, Fort Myers to be exact, where Sherry and Harold live. We met them on the World Cruise and have been close ever since. In fact, on this day last year we were in Barcelona having Paella and Sangria on the La Rambla with them. This year they surprised us with this day trip and now we’re having cheeseburgers, grilled Mahi sandwiches, and libations such as the “Cabbage Creeper” and Golden Margaritas on Cabbage Key!

            Why Cabbage Key?

            It’s because of all of the Cabbage Palm Trees that cover the island. The place has been around since the last ice age when a bunch of sand was pushed and deposited here. It’s been inhabited more or less for the last two thousand years, mostly less. That is until the early 1900’s when a series of owners decided that their vision of paradise was this somewhat small (100 acres) island off the southern coast of Florida. Its most famous neighbor is Sanibel Island, which is about an hour’s boat ride south of it. Remember, everything is by boat. There are no cars here. Hey, I didn’t even see a golf cart! That means that everything (food, beverages, sheets, paper towels, merch for the store, etc.) needs to come and go (garbage!) by boat. Some of the employees live on the Island and the rest commute…. by boat.

We arrived in our own chartered boat just in time for the restaurant to open at 11:30. Captain Steve said that if we didn’t get there before the Island Girl ferry deposited it’s complement of day visitors we’d be on the end of a long line of eager, hungry patrons. So, after a glorious boat ride out through Pine Island Sound, we were the first customers of the day. As quaint and original as the inside of this establishment is, there was no way to waste the weather that we were experiencing by sitting inside. The patio and its views of the bay and surrounding islands were the only way to go!

On our way back to the mainland Captain Steve brought us up to an area where manatees frequent, but due to an unusually low “low tide”, we couldn’t get in there. But miraculously several dolphins appeared and put on a show for us! If it had been planned, it could not have been any better!

Earlier, whilst still on the patio, our food arrived quite expeditiously as ours was the first order into the kitchen. Everyone enjoyed what they had ordered (Rueben and Mahi) but I could not imagine having any other item at a place that inspired such an iconic phrase, experience, and song as Cheeseburger in Paradise.

And when the gentleman who had the guitar around his neck, clicked on his amp, and opened with Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, I knew that I had made the right decision.

On our way back to Texas.

We decided to take a somewhat circuitous route and see some sights along then way. We wound our way up from I-10 in Las Cruces, New Mexico, our goal was White Sands National Park. The Park received the honor of being elevated from a National Monument to a National Park in 2019. It was established as a National Monument in 1933 by President Hoover. There are subtle differences between the two designations, not readily apparent to the casual tourist. They mainly have to do with what the emphasis is when promoting the Park, a Monument highlights the scenic, scientific, and educational interests and a Park furthers this by adding cultural and natural resources.

            There, now you know too!

After a five-plus hour drive from Tucson, we pulled into the town of Alamogordo on Thursday afternoon with the idea of spending Friday exploring White Sands and a few local attractions (if there was enough time).  

We checked out some local brochures and the like after we pitched our “tent” on Thursday afternoon. It is far more pleasurable to drive half of the day and stop rather than cramming full days together on a trip. Luckily, we have a somewhat open-ended arrival in Texas as long as we’re back in time for Paula’s next surgeon’s follow-up appointment on Tuesday.

As you can see by the accompanying photographs, on a scale of 1 to 10, the weather is a 15! Cool desert nights, running into warm sunny days, the temps hovering around 80 during the day with less then 20% relative humidity and the nighttime temps cascade down to around 40 after sunset.

We discovered that White Sands National Park is not one of our largest, but it is the largest (of only a handful on Earth) of surface gypsum locations in any quantity. The process of making all of this “sand” starts like everything else around here, with water.

                        And wind.

Apparently when the ancient seabed’s left behind deposits of Gypsum (hydrated calcium sulphate, Ca SO4. 2H2O to be specific😊) a common mineral formed mainly by the evaporation of seawater; they had no idea that someday they would be the genesis of a unique landscape!  Known from antiquity, its name comes from the Arabic jips, for “plaster,” then to the Greek gypsos, for chalk.

            Enter the water, dry, windy, cycles of the modern era and the transformation of the calcium sulphate, combined with the wind-driven effects of making these crystals crash into each other so much that they eventually grind their way down to “sand’ sized particles and….

Voila!

We get a National park!

And the Air Force gets a missile test range!

Yes… our National Park is completely surrounded by the White Sands Missile Test Range that is still active today. So much so that the local highway and the Park are subject to long-term closures (hours) when a test is imminent.

                        Can you imagine back East….

“Uhh, yea, I’m gonna be a little late for work today, there’s a rocket test going on and the road is closed.”

                        Nope, can’t imagine that.

            The white sand in White Sands at times towers up to sixty feet tall when the dunes get going. As you may imagine, the place is ever-changing as the winds whip the sand around and form these gigantic dunes. The Park Store sells plastic saucers for anyone to climb the dunes and sled their way down. Since this is a Park and recreation is part of a Park’s goals, (and no damage occurs when sledding down) this is a very popular activity.

            Us old folk did not participate.

            We also discovered that unless you were to go on an extended hike, this Park can be viewed in about an hour or so. Think about it… No trees, no streams, only an endless view of (gorgeous) sand dunes. We arrived when the Park opened at 7:00 AM, mainly because the light is much better at that time, shadows of the dunes and the little ripples in the sand were far more dramatic than in in the middle of the day with the sun way up high. This means we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Besides, the loop that you can drive is only a few miles in and out, so it doesn’t take a lot of time to explore.

We did not see much wildlife, as most of that remains hidden during the day. Deserts are fairly nocturnal in nature.

We did spot an Oryx.

A what?

Yup, these critters were “imported” from Africa many years ago by the military base hoping to have them around for “hunting”. Well, what they did not count on was the fact that the African Lion (big) can keep these guys’ population in check while our (little) Bobcats take one look them and decide that a rabbit is easier to catch!

            So now we’ve got thousands of these invasive guys roaming around.

                                    It’s now only a little after 9 o’clock in the morning and we need something else to do. We decided to visit Pistachio Land, a roadside operation whose reason for existence is that little delicious nut, the pistachio. Apparently, we are in the heart of the pistachio growing area. This family-run enterprise has its own groves of trees plus quite a few grape vines that produce several varieties of wine including a pistachio-infused one that was quite tasty!

And even though it was 5 o’clock somewhere, it was only 10 o’clock where we were!

A “tasting” was had.

We now have two bottles.

They also have their own ice cream, so we felt obligated to try (and consume) some of their pistachio ice cream. We nearly spoiled our lunch as a “small scoop” request does not seem to matter when ordering.

                        We did not complain.

                        We returned to the motorhome, and promptly fell asleep for a bit, then had lunch and ventured out to what was going to be that local “find” of the day. Being somewhat enthused about petroglyphs and pictographs left behind by the ancient civilizations that inhabited our western states, we chanced upon the Mother Lode of petroglyphs at a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) site about 30 miles north of where we were.

                    Named Three Rivers petroglyphs, this site has about 21,000(!) individual petroglyphs.

We lost count at over two hundred.

Here is our lesson for today… a petroglyph is created when someone takes a rock, chisel, or anything, and pecks away at a rock, leaving an indentation that is now there forever. This process becomes even more dramatic when the individual pecks away at a rock covered in “Desert Varnish” (that dark coloring) revealing a lighter color underneath for a nice contrast. Luckily for the Artist, Desert Varnish takes thousands and thousands of years to form so their artwork stays nice for a long time!

            These petroglyphs were fashioned by the Jornada Mogollon peoples who were contemporaries of our favorites, the Ancestral Puebloans. These petroglyphs are entirely different than those of the aforementioned folks which makes it even more interesting when comparing these older civilizations. Most of these are about a thousand years old.