Routines

Someone asked me if I missed my routines from home or has my van become my home.

We consider the van our home whenever we are parked for the night or when we are eating or making a meal inside. 

We both miss the routines from home in the sense that it shakes up your whole world when EVERYTHING is new except your partner and your dog. From my perspective, I don't miss it because it has given me the free time to pursue other interests. It has given Judy and me lots of time to talk and be together.
We have developed new routines for the road and our living situation. We have chosen to have a positive attitude about the experience. Things go wrong. Stuff  gets broken. I get sick. You are stuck in the worst campground ever that is really a gravel boatyard for $90 a night. You get hungry and lost. We laugh about it and make it part of the adventure.

I am sure that some of the experiences that seemed bad at the time will be the funniest when we think about them in the future.  Except that hospital thing.

Shelburne Museum, Ben and Jerry's

We went on The Ben and Jerry's Ice cream tour in Waterbury, Vermont. The Tour takes about a half an hour and you get a small sample of the flavor of the day. We tasted vanilla salted carmel swirl.

We then went on to The Shelburne Museum. It is a diverse and unconventional museum with collections of art, design and Americana. There were 28 buildings with various collections. My favorite thing was The Walter Wick Exhibit. They had some paintings by Monet, Manet, and Degas. They had some quilts,  a blacksmith shop, old model train collections, and much more. We spent all day there and did not see everything. It was well worth the time we spent there.

We are staying at The North Beach Campground in Burlington, Vermont for the night. The campsites are very close together and the pay showers took our money, but did not work. It is 8:48pm and the sun is setting turning the sky red, orange, and purple.

The pictures below of the rhinoceros sticking out of the house and the file cabinet totem pole were things we just saw driving down the road today. 

campground sunset

Rhinoceros sticking out of a house

file cabinet totem pole

Shelburne Museum pond

the B n J replica cross country RV

Maine to New Hampshire to Vermont

Last night we had dinner at The Chart Room with Carol and Judy from San Diego. Thanks to "The Anon  Travelers" for recommending it.

Today we left "The Anon Travelers" and Maine because the weather was bad.  It is fifty degrees with wind and heavy rain all day. It is hard to be prepared for all the weather extremes.

We are now parked in Berlin, Vermont at a Walmart. We haven't been able to stay at a Walmart for a while because it has been too hot. No worries about that here.

Judy ate lunch at a roadside bbq place. I am still having some digestion issues so I am trying to keep it simple. Thanks to Lyn for helping me understand GERD. I will be avoiding dairy and chocolate except if we visit Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream tomorrow. We stopped for a tour of the Cabot Creamery this afternoon. 

Judy bbq trailer for lunch

Auto transmission shop

roadside sculpture art 

Cabot Creamery, (unauthorized picture)

"Sand" Bar Harbor, Maine

We checked out the town of Bar Harbor today. A cruise ship came in so everything was crowded. We went out on the sand bar before low tide and came back after low tide. We drove the Acadia National Park drive loop. Acadia National Park became the first National Park east of the Mississippi, encompassing 40,000 acres of Maine's Atlantic Coast. It has granite cliffs, ocean beaches, glacier carved mountains and deep lakes.

Tide going out

Tide going out further

Tide all the way out, sand bar to the island

Bar Harbor, Maine

We are staying at Bar Harbor Campground. It is beautiful here. The campground is on a bluff overlooking the ocean. There are ocean breezes and it gets cool in the evenings. This is the first time I have worn long pants on this trip. We met up with "The Anon Travelers" again and we are actually staying in a campspot quite close to theirs. Judy and "The Anon Travelers" went for a bike ride today along the carriage roads in Acacia National Park. I went into town and ate lunch. They have lots of different kinds of seafood restaurants in town. Too bad I don't like seafood.

We met up with some friends, Judy W and Carol from San Diego Tuesday in Seabrook, New Hampshire. Judy W. grew up in this area around Boston. They were renting a house with some friends. We got to go inside their house and sit on the couch. It was so awesome after spending the last seven weeks in a campervan to sit in a living room on a sofa.

sunset at campground 

Carol and Judy

sunrise at campground 

Maine

We stayed at Salisbury Beach State Campground last night. We are gradually heading our way up the east coast. The days are getting longer. The sun rises tomorrow at 4:45AM and sets at 8:28PM. Today was mostly a driving day with some stops for pictures. We ate lunch at The Nubble Lighthouse.

Bar Harbor

The Coast  of Maine

Boston Harbor

Hingham Harbor

Near Bar Harbor, Maine

Provincetown

We had a fine day in Provincetown it was sunny and beautiful all day with temperatures in the 70’s. I really felt at home there because there were so many women that looked like me. It was similar to the feeling I get when I attend a gay pride parade only without the extreme behaviors and costumes. I felt safe and accepted, almost celebrated. Women were making eye contact with me smiling and nodding their heads. I loved it. So many women that looked like me, with short hair and comfortable clothes. And no fear of being called names; queer, tomboy, she-male, dyke, butch, or having to tell the clerk I am NOT a boy/man/sir. I have been “not passing” my whole life. I look like a freak dressed up for Halloween when I wear a dress. I think I will move to Provincetown for the summer.

Provincetown Harbor

Provincetown Bike Rental Company 

Ferry boat ride with daily commuters 

Provincetown Shop

Boston Harbor

Wahlburgers

Dinner with "The Anon Travelers".

Boston Lobster Roll

Today we took the Ferry from Hingham to Boston Long Wharf. It takes about forty minutes. We then booked a trolley tour around Boston for an hour. Pumpkin went with us and he is dead tired sleeping under the table on the way back to Hingham via ferry. We liked Boston and the cool air around the Harbor area was a welcome relief from the heat we have been experiencing. Judy ate a lobster roll for lunch. She said it was delicious. I am still in the soft food mode.

Wompatuck State Park

We are in Hingham, Massachusetts camping. What a difference a day makes. We are both very glad to be out of the city and back into nature. Today was probably the most frenetic day of driving I have experienced...ever. We drove from New Jersey across The Elevated Lincoln Tunnel and out of New York City. That was a harrowing experience. There was traffic, tolls, lane changes, narrow roads, low bridges, and pot holes to maneuver. We got on The Bridgeport Parkway which is for cars only because of low bridges. We almost took the top off of Monica before we could exit. We paid a $14 toll for Monica and "The Anon Travelers" had to pay $76 for "The Taj Ma Jal" for the same road.

We are in a nice, quiet, uncrowded campground for the night. We are planning on staying here three days.

The pictures are of our neighbors camping last night in the boat yard and of today's campsite.

Some New York, some New Jersey

Yesterday we spent the whole day in New York riding The Big, off and on, Bus Uptown and Downtown. It rained in the afternoon and I got soaked on the top of the bus, but I did not care. I had fun and I was screaming with delight when the wind and rain came up and soaked us. It was invigorating. We ate lunch at The Whole Foods Store in Uptown. We learned all kinds of things about New York, most of which I have forgotten. It was a nice break from so much walking.

Today we are staying in New Jersey at our campground, which is across the Hudson River from New York. We are not really in the campground that we paid for because the power was bad, so they put us in the boat yard next door. There is a lot of rusting junk located here associated with the boats. I would call it more like a wrecking yard for boats although unlike a wrecking yard for cars some of the boats are still in working order.

We have made friends with some of the iron workers on the other side of the fence from the boat yard where we are camping. This is where our power box and picnic table are located. The workers arrive at 7AM and wake us. They use our picnic table for their tools and drinks. Yesterday someone put a gate in the fence with a chain and lock. This morning it was unlocked and open. The workers said someone from our side unlocked it this morning. This is good news because we leave tomorrow and we can unhook ourselves instead of asking the iron workers to do it. A surprising thing about this campground is that it is very quiet at night.

We went urban biking to get groceries and sightsee here in New Jersey today. I have a cool folding bike I ride and Judy rides her Trek bike. We rode along the Hudson River and I took some pictures of New York from this side.

"The Anon Travelers" are on a tour of Ellis Island and are then going to get their bike rack replaced because it is broken.

I would not want to live in New York because it feels assaulting to me with all the activity, noise, and pollution. I'm not used to tuning it all out and being relaxed with it. It was much cleaner than I expected and the transportation system is first rate. The architecture and urban parks are beautiful. There are lots of things to do at all hours of the day and night. I know it holds a special beauty and pride for those who live there.

New York Architecture 

The Empire State Building

Across the Hudson River from New Jersey

The River Front Walk New Jersey 

graffiti New Jersey

my bike next to the locked gate, (look closely and you can see the blue power box next to the orange post. The picnic table is to the right of the power box under the bike seat).

More graffiti NJ

New York with a New Yorker

Our friend Carol is a native New Yorker and took us around the City today. We saw;  The Empire State Building, Times Square, Christopher Street, Stone Wall, Greenwich Village, Grand Central Station, The Whispering Gallery, The Smallest Piece of Real Estate, and Toys R Us. I am so tired from walking I can't even write anymore. Oh and it rained. And we rode the subway.

New York

We made it to New York. We are camping across the water in New Jersey a short ferry ride to New York. We are very excited to have made it this far.

Our camping spot is in a broken-down boat yard. We can see the other campers on the other side of the fence. Those spots are not much better than ours. They over-booked the campsites because they had some unexpected construction from the city. We originally had an okay place to park, but the electricity was reading reverse polarity on my surge device so we asked to be relocated. We have to run our electrical cord through the fence. There's more, but I'm tired and hot.

We rode the ferry into town and saw the 9/11 memorial. We could also see The Statue of Liberty. We ate dinner there and are now back at our van. I was going to say campspot, but we already covered that.

Everyone is crazy

Judy is out riding her bike with "T". I've been at the campground all day. I did the laundry, cleaned the camper, and went for a swim in the lake and the pool. 

This campground is located in a wooded area with dirt roads and campsites. It is hot, dusty, and the spaces are really close together. You can easily hear your neighbor.The couple across the way have been arguing and yelling at their kids all day. They brought their TV, radio, xbox, and play station with them. I know this because all these gadgets are located and operating outside their tent. They must have a thing for camp fires because they have had one going all day even though it is 90 degrees. It is nice to be among the trees and out of the city, but this is not what I had expected here at this "resort" campground. 

A school bus came in earlier full of boy scouts and went down to the lake. A police car came in later and blasted his/her siren and then went on down to the lake. A flatbed towtruck has now also gone down to the lake. 

The people in the campsite next to me have a thing for driving around in their cars somewhere every half hour or so. They captured a snake earlier after tormenting it. I don't know what they did with the snake, but they talked about releasing it in the wild. Funny thing is I thought the snake was in its wild. 

A swing set is located directly behind our campsite. Children have been cutting through our site and screaming on their way to the swing set. I like the sound of the children playing on the swing set. Now there are three teenaged boys swinging and swearing on the swing set. And of course, there are ants. EVERYWHERE. 

I know this all might sound crazy, but this is what happened today. I don't feel bad about it or mad about it. It is just what I observed today. All these things happen in a crowded campground. Everyone has their own idea of what camping is about. 

I realize that some people probably think I am crazy for traveling around the country in this small van with my wife and dog, and observing other campers all day in their campsites.

This is all okay with me and I feel good about it. I'm living my dream, although I could do without the ants.