Our bags are packed and we're ready to go...(sing along) we're leaving on a kayak, don't know when we'll be back again.
The last week has been hectic to say the least. Such a whirlwind of activity and saying good byes ...
Sewing drybags. Why does every journey start with a sewing project?
This one was complicated by not really knowing what size of bags were needed to fit what type of gear or food. I finally settled on 2 largish food bags, 6 medium bags, 1 rounded bottom bag and 2 small bags pictured here. I'm kind of proud that they turned out so well. And I think they're kind of cute with the ears created by squaring off the bottoms. And with heat fuseable pack fabric they were easy to make once I settled upon a pattern.
Moving one house into many activities (or more accurately uprooting one lifestyle and imposing another.) We moved things into piles for the 18 days before the paddle while we travel cross-country to Florida, the paddle, the hike (split in to what Fran takes in the RV and what Rod takes on the trail). Whew. It least we're not selling everything like we did on the world tour; we'll have a place to come back to that's filled with memories and too much stuff. We purchased last minute supplies and equipment. 3 new pairs of shoes for hiking the AT, a great laser flare and mouth horn for additional levels of safety, sea charts for places where we wanted more navigational detail, a solar panel system and oven for the RV.
Rod got busy on the RV. He and our son installed 2 solar panels and the supporting cables and equipment. That and the newly installed LED lights will keep the lights on with very little drain on the batteries. We had purchased the oven on craigslist - from Michigan. It arrived 4 days before our intended departure. They took out the perfectly good, existing cooktop and cut a larger hole of the cooktop/ range combination. I was very happy when they showed it to me at the end of the day. Perhaps the rolling bakery on the AT will become a reality.
Reinforcing the Greenland paddle. Rod loves the paddle that he carved last winter. In a practice session doing bracing on the Columbia, it cracked. He went back and forth in his mind - Greenland or Euro in Florida. He settled on Greenland and on reinforcing it with fiberglass. So much of the last week spent laying on fiberglass and trying to air out the house between layers. It was too cold outside for it to cure, so we both tried to cope with the fumes as we went about our other activities.
Closing down the garden. I had been keeping a community garden plot full of flowers, mostly dahlias. I spent an entire day cutting the perennials down to the ground and unearthing the compost bin so I could move it to the garage. When that was done, I called a friend to ask if she wanted the dahlias. She did, so I dug up all 24 of the very large tubers and loaded them into the car. When I left the only thing standing was the vine covered garden gate with it's welcome sign to greet next year's tenant.
Bad foot day. Yes, there is a price to pay for such gardening fun on uneven ground. The ankle and arch are not as strong as they were before the break of a few years back. We delayed our departure by a day while I did the couch routine: Rest Ice Compression Elevation.
One last meeting with Pat & Roger to finalize the itinerary. They will be meeting us in Cayo Costa State Park, an undeveloped island in the Charlotte Harbor area. It's only accessible by private boat or ferry. Pat has been dreaming of standing on that island for years - her dream will come true at long last! So we had many details to work out on the itinerary for the paddle through the Everglades and on to Key West. Our ideas are melding nicely and it feels like we will be great paddling partners with similar ideas on what to eat and where to sleep.
Thank yous are in order. To Ryan, for being the perfect son and doing so much to get us on our way...don't know how we could have done it with out you. RV solar, oven, inverter and hot water. Also for having a shop full of parts to give us to install everything. And for just worrying over every little detail with us. To Mel and Ryan - thanks in advance for driving the RV to Florida and meeting us in Key West. Yeah, you get a free vacation, but we also get an easy way to transport the boats on the car then send the car back to Oregon. To Ron - for printing massive amounts of charts on a laser printer. We'll be able to waterproof those so we can use them for navigation. Joe - for watching over our place and making sure that our water pipes don't leak down to the neighbors below. To Sue - for gathering our mail. To Metro - for helping us get off so many mail lists so that Sue doesn't have so much junk mail to collect. To Iva for being the best renter a person could want and a good friend as well. To all our OOPS buddies for helping us get the skills which prepared us for this preposterous journey.
There's not much I will miss in Portland for the next year or so. The traffic is awful and the life is fast paced. But I will miss our family, friends and "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me".
The last week has been hectic to say the least. Such a whirlwind of activity and saying good byes ...
Sewing drybags. Why does every journey start with a sewing project?
This one was complicated by not really knowing what size of bags were needed to fit what type of gear or food. I finally settled on 2 largish food bags, 6 medium bags, 1 rounded bottom bag and 2 small bags pictured here. I'm kind of proud that they turned out so well. And I think they're kind of cute with the ears created by squaring off the bottoms. And with heat fuseable pack fabric they were easy to make once I settled upon a pattern.
Moving one house into many activities (or more accurately uprooting one lifestyle and imposing another.) We moved things into piles for the 18 days before the paddle while we travel cross-country to Florida, the paddle, the hike (split in to what Fran takes in the RV and what Rod takes on the trail). Whew. It least we're not selling everything like we did on the world tour; we'll have a place to come back to that's filled with memories and too much stuff. We purchased last minute supplies and equipment. 3 new pairs of shoes for hiking the AT, a great laser flare and mouth horn for additional levels of safety, sea charts for places where we wanted more navigational detail, a solar panel system and oven for the RV.
Rod got busy on the RV. He and our son installed 2 solar panels and the supporting cables and equipment. That and the newly installed LED lights will keep the lights on with very little drain on the batteries. We had purchased the oven on craigslist - from Michigan. It arrived 4 days before our intended departure. They took out the perfectly good, existing cooktop and cut a larger hole of the cooktop/ range combination. I was very happy when they showed it to me at the end of the day. Perhaps the rolling bakery on the AT will become a reality.
Reinforcing the Greenland paddle. Rod loves the paddle that he carved last winter. In a practice session doing bracing on the Columbia, it cracked. He went back and forth in his mind - Greenland or Euro in Florida. He settled on Greenland and on reinforcing it with fiberglass. So much of the last week spent laying on fiberglass and trying to air out the house between layers. It was too cold outside for it to cure, so we both tried to cope with the fumes as we went about our other activities.
Closing down the garden. I had been keeping a community garden plot full of flowers, mostly dahlias. I spent an entire day cutting the perennials down to the ground and unearthing the compost bin so I could move it to the garage. When that was done, I called a friend to ask if she wanted the dahlias. She did, so I dug up all 24 of the very large tubers and loaded them into the car. When I left the only thing standing was the vine covered garden gate with it's welcome sign to greet next year's tenant.
Bad foot day. Yes, there is a price to pay for such gardening fun on uneven ground. The ankle and arch are not as strong as they were before the break of a few years back. We delayed our departure by a day while I did the couch routine: Rest Ice Compression Elevation.
One last meeting with Pat & Roger to finalize the itinerary. They will be meeting us in Cayo Costa State Park, an undeveloped island in the Charlotte Harbor area. It's only accessible by private boat or ferry. Pat has been dreaming of standing on that island for years - her dream will come true at long last! So we had many details to work out on the itinerary for the paddle through the Everglades and on to Key West. Our ideas are melding nicely and it feels like we will be great paddling partners with similar ideas on what to eat and where to sleep.
Thank yous are in order. To Ryan, for being the perfect son and doing so much to get us on our way...don't know how we could have done it with out you. RV solar, oven, inverter and hot water. Also for having a shop full of parts to give us to install everything. And for just worrying over every little detail with us. To Mel and Ryan - thanks in advance for driving the RV to Florida and meeting us in Key West. Yeah, you get a free vacation, but we also get an easy way to transport the boats on the car then send the car back to Oregon. To Ron - for printing massive amounts of charts on a laser printer. We'll be able to waterproof those so we can use them for navigation. Joe - for watching over our place and making sure that our water pipes don't leak down to the neighbors below. To Sue - for gathering our mail. To Metro - for helping us get off so many mail lists so that Sue doesn't have so much junk mail to collect. To Iva for being the best renter a person could want and a good friend as well. To all our OOPS buddies for helping us get the skills which prepared us for this preposterous journey.
There's not much I will miss in Portland for the next year or so. The traffic is awful and the life is fast paced. But I will miss our family, friends and "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me".
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