Lynne & Millie's T@Bventures

Off to Greener Pastures!

2011-06-07T17:50:00.002-05:00

A month ago, I posted T@Bitu for sale with the desire to not let her spend another lonely summer at the storage lot. I got a number of inquiries from far and wide-- one couple even drove all the way from Houston to come see her (they'd never seen a T@B before, and unfortunately realized it was not going to be the kind of trailer they'd be happy with-- they actually were looking for something SMALLER!).

This was also my first time posting something for sale to Craigslist. As expected, I did get a fair share of "spam" and fraudster kind of replies. Fortunately, I set up a new gmail account to handle all of that stuff, but some of them were pretty crazy--- one email told me they wished to pay my full asking price sight unseen-- all I had to do was send them my PayPal account information (yeah, right!). Another said my T@B looked perfect, but they had found this other one cheaper and gave me a hyperlink to click that then wanted my Craigslist login and password (uh huh, sure!). Yet another, inquired like a normal person, but then sent me a "form letter" kind of email with all sorts of grammatical errors and odd sentences (sort of like the old Nigerian bank account scam, so again, "no way, Jose' !").

About a week ago, mixed in with all these crazy inquiries was one from a very nice young couple from Wisconsin. They came down to see the T@B and ended up making an offer that same night. T@Bitu got everything she ever wanted in her new owners-- they love to camp, had been tent campers who were looking to upgrade and appreciate all the T@B's comfy features, and were excited at the prospect of longer cross-country trips. To top it off, they have a nice matching silver car to match the T@B's exterior, and also have a nice light brown dog about the same size as Millie who will be right at home with the T@B's tan interior!

Today, I gave the new owners a crash course in T@B operations, and then got T@Bitu hitched up to their shiney new hitch ball, and off she went to her loving new home! Happy camping to T@Bitu and her new owners for many years to come!

Meanwhile, I'm still planning to attend future T@B rallies with my remaining T@B trailer....and this one really IS a small T@B!

I'll probably just post future updates to my Winnie Views blog from here on out, so be sure to "Follow" me there to hear about my first "post T@B" T@B rally next month!

Lonesome T@B looking for a new home

2011-05-03T09:01:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone-- This is T@Bitu. Ever since Lynne bought that big white View motorhome two years ago, I've waited patiently at the storage lot with all the other lonely trailers for her to come hitch me up and take me places. But she only took me out once last year!

Well, Spring has now sprung again and I'm tired of waiting any longer! I want a new home with owners who will take me camping to see all the pretty places again. Can you please help me? Please!!!

I just got a whole bunch of new pictures taken of me this week. Lynne is including lots of my favorite things such as my matching silver T@B awning, Olympian Wave 3 heater, and more.

Me and my extra things are located in suburban Chicago. If you'd like to know more, contact Lynne via Comments below to come take a look at me!

Hot Bottoms!

2010-07-26T23:54:00.000-05:00

I hadn’t camped in (or even checked in on) the T@B in over 10 months, so as the summer rally approached, I looked forward to camping in the T@B again. It happily awaited me at the storage yard and looked like it had made it through the winter just fine. I hitched it up to the Subaru and brought it home to begin moving my favorite camping gear from the motorhome to the T@B.

The rally was being held at Sugar Bottom campground just north of Iowa City, IA. I decided at the last minute to go out a few days early and work from there as camp sites were only $16/night, and Millie and I were eager to be at a lake for a week.

The campground was lovely. Two of my other solo T@B friends, Kathy and Judi, decided to come out early as well, so we camped in a nice section overlooking the lake and had the area nearly completely to ourselves….well, except for a family of wild turkeys who would trot out of the woods every morning to go eat berries from the Mulberry tree.

Iowa had a ton of rain in June, so the Iowa river (that feeds the lake) was still at flood stage so the lake levels were raised up a few feet to take as much of the excess water as possible. This, unfortunately meant that the sandy beaches and nice boat launches were completely under water, but no big loss as the heat and humidity was absolutely stifling all week with heat indexes well into the upper 90s with minimal winds. So, no pleasant canoeing opportunities, but Millie found plenty of fine spots to swim and cool off.

On Friday, Kathy, Judi, and I hitched up our T@Bs and rolled them up the hill to the group camp where we were met by 7 other T@Bs for the summer “Bottoms Up” Rally. It was really fun seeing these cute little campers all parked in a circle, and many fellow campers came by to see the T@Bs up close and take pictures.

Friday night, Jim hooked up his large laptop to his clamshell T@B’s speaker system to play us a movie. Clamshells have their kitchen in the back of the trailer outside—this came in quite handy when Jim made us all JiffyPop popcorn, and even put it in little sacks like you get at real movie theaters! The evening’s movie, “She’s Out of Your League” was a goofy fun little flick that was enjoyed by all.

The rains held off until later that night, but when they arrived, they really arrived! Thunder, lightening, winds, and torrential rain, but our sturdy and well-insulated little campers made it through just fine (Not so much the case back home in Chicago where the same storm dumped 7” of rain that night!)

Saturday was cloudy much of the day, so we mostly stayed around camp and visited with fellow campers. We held our pot luck dinner that evening, and decided to gather around my “Fire Dancer” LP campfire at the picnic shelter rather than try a real wood fire in the group campfire pit (to avoid the heat and bugs!).

We had a spectacular sunset that night, so I grabbed a few fun “sunset T@B” shots:

Sunday was glorious weather—cooler, less humid, clear skies, and nice breezes. I found a nice “no-wake” section of Lake McBride a couple miles north of the campground that was perfect for canoeing, and there was also a nice boat ramp and dock there for Millie to swim from.

We reluctantly left to pack the T@B up and head back home. It was a great weekend of seeing dear old T@B friends and meeting new ones as well!

Killarney Wildlife

2009-09-13T23:05:00.000-05:00

One of the biggest thrills of this year's trip to Killarney, was the variety of wildlife that I was able to see up close--for the record, I saw 2 black bears, a red fox, a black snake, 4 beavers, and 2 loons. Well, of course, I didn't get pictures of all of them, but I did get a few....

On my Thursday mid-day canoe trip, I decided I wanted to go to the cove on George Lake that is lined with 2 large granite cliffs on it's sides and has a small wilderness lake right behind it (a small granite embankment separate the two lakes, so you can easily walk up to the little lake). I thought this would make the perfect spot for a picnic lunch.

As I paddled around the tall rock cliff to enter the cove, I discovered that someone else thought this place was a good lunch spot too....a big black bear!!! He was perched halfway up the rocky cliff eating his lunch and was only a few hundred feet away from me. We looked at each other for a few seconds in surprise, and he then continued to eat his lunch as I began to reach for my camera. He stayed up on the ledge another minute or so before deciding that I was taking far too many bad photos of him, so he decided to walk down to the shoreline. I kept my distance and stayed in the middle of the cove ("Bears can swim" I kept thinking to myself!). Fortunately, the bear didn't catch wind of the pepperoni and cheese slices I had in my lunch bag and decided he would rather retreat back to the rock cliffs and forest around the little wilderness lake than come swim out into the cove to steal my lunch.

I stayed in the cove a few more minutes to see if he (or any of his kinfolk) would return, and then decided to briefly park my canoe along the shore to quickly check out the wilderness lake (I wasn't going to be dumb enough to still eat my lunch there, but at least wanted to scope it out to see if any other animals were around). All was calm-- no more bears or other animals.

Amazing to wonder what would have happened had I come into the cove 10 minutes later, not seen the bear, and had set out to eat my lunch on that very rock the bear had just walked across! Wow.

Thankfully, what a thrill it was to share a few minutes in the wild with this beautiful creature in a calm and peaceful way.

After the bear encounter, I thought for sure that'd be the only memorable wildlife sighting of the whole trip, but the very next day, Millie and I decided to take a hike to a granite boulder trail near Georgian Bay on our way to the town of Killarney. Here's a pretty little shot of Millie on the trail:

As we were driving out of the trailhead parking lot, there sat another black bear eating berries along the side of the road. Millie took a good hard look at him and must have deducted that it was "the strangest looking big black dog" that she'd ever seen! This bear wasn't too fond of a Subaru less than a 100 feet in front of it, so it took off into the woods quickly before I could reach for the camera. Same scenario when we saw a red fox cross the road in the campground a few hours later--too quick for a photo opp.

On the water that night with my camera, I had a bit better luck with some of the other animals--

this pair of loons:

and this delightful beaver who let me get really close and take dozens of pictures of her before she decidededto swim away. What a treat!

Canoe Trip to Ontario - Killarney Provincial Park

2009-09-13T19:05:00.017-05:00

George Lake, Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario

I bought my first canoe in 2004 after attending the annual winter expo in Madison, Wisc (Canoecopia), seeing all the boats on display in the convention hall, and hearing a number of Canadian and US canoeists give some wonderfully inspirational slideshow presentations. One of the places mentioned often was Killarney Park in Ontario, so it was one of the first places I headed that summer.

That trip in '04 was magical but miserable too! It rained the whole week, was cold, and bugs were everywhere! To make matters worse, I was camping in a small tent and had only brought freeze-dried backpacker food to eat. I was also too fearful and inexperienced to try paddling anything but the one lake next to campground, but ah, what a lake it was! George Lake was the most amazing place I'd ever experienced---virtually wild except for the one campground, with amazing red, gray, and white granite rock cliffs rising straight out of the water-- many a few hundred feet high! And the water!!! Most mornings and evenings, it was perfectly still and provided mirror reflections of the rocks. This was no ordinary "state park"-- it was a revered and spiritual place: THE "Yosemite Valley" of all canoeing lakes on the continent!

As I looked through those old photos from the 2004 trip, I wondered if I'd get the same feeling on the second visit. This trip was certainly more comfortable than the last-- no rain, no bugs, no dreary tent or camp food. Even though I didn't get another one of those mystical foggy morning paddles that I got to experience on the first trip, I still felt every bit as awe-inspired of this place this second time around. Most of the park, the campground, and the small town of Killarney itself were preserved the same way as they'd been 5 years ago. I hope that it will stay this way for years and future generations to come.

Killarney is 5 hours north of Toronto and takes some dedicated effort to get to-- there's only 1 road in and out, and it's a 40-mile drive to/from the highway and gas stations. The little town of Killarney does offer a few conveniences (an awesome fish-and-chips stand, an old-fashioned general store, a marina, a few small lodges, and a small airstrip), but you mainly get your gas, food, and supplies before you get here.

Like Algonquin, this is a park with hundreds of lakes linked together by portages (well-worn trails that you carry your canoe and supplies from one lake to the other). But unlike Algonquin, Killarney's hills and mountains seem a bit bigger and have more exposed rock. One of my main goals for this trip was to get into some of the interior lakes and try a few of the portages myself.

Wednesday was in the 70's, partly cloudy, with calm winds-- a perfect day to leave Millie in the T@B and head out for a day-long trip into the park interior. I paddled down to the end of George Lake, and found a nice wood dock at the first portage point, a short 80-meter jaunt over to Freeland Lake. Here's the canoe all ready to go onto Freeland:

Freeland was a long, narrow shallow lake with lots of lily plants and relatively flat, forested shoreline (very different from George Lake's large granite cliffs and deep waters). After 2 hours of paddling these 2 lakes, I arrived at my first "real" portage-- a 400-meter trail that would lead me to Killarney Lake. This portage was a bit more difficult, as it followed next to a waterfall and was a modest uphill climb along a shaded trail of tree roots and granite rock slabs. I decided I had better do this portage in 2 trips-- one to carry my pack and paddles, and the other to carry my canoe. After navigating around most of the mud at the Freeland Lake access point, I made it up the trail to a drop-dead gorgeous entrance to Killarney Lake-- well worth all the effort to get there! Killarney had some similar features as George Lake, but was a bit larger and completely silent except for the crickets and other sounds of nature. After an hour of paddling (and still only seeing a small portion of this lake), I stopped into a quiet cove for lunch. Here was my view:

After lunch, the winds started to pick up and I knew my 3 hour paddle back to the T@B was going to take some effort. Fortunately the killer portage was a bit easier going back as the trail was now mainly downhill. I did the same approach as before-- carrying my stuff first, then returning to carry my canoe next. As I neared the end of the portage, with the canoe perched over my head and my arms and shoulders getting very tired and ready to drop the thing, out in front of me darts a foot-long black snake across the trail...YIKES! Note to self-- wear big tall hiking boots next time! Thankfully, the snake seemed more scared of me and didn't stop for a confrontation. But it certainly put a renewed spring to my final steps! A man watching me said he'd never seen anyone finish a portage quite as quickly as I did! The rest of the trip was indeed paddling into the wind, but at least had no further portaging along snake-infested trails!

I arrived back to camp to find Millie well-rested in the T@B and ready for her afternoon swim in George Lake.

On Thursday, I was still pretty sore from the long trip the day before, so I decided to just stay on George Lake and paddle to a quiet cove there for a lunchtime picnic. Here was my spot on George Lake (looks pretty similar to Killarney Lake with the white Le Cloche mountain range in the distance).

Here are a few additional scenes from George Lake:

On my final morning at Killarney, I did a morning hike around Proulx marsh and the cranberry bog just as the morning ground fog was lifting.

My final evening sunset paddle was a serene end to a terrific trip-- calm waters, warm weather, dry and bug-free. An added bonus for this week after Labor Day-- all the kids were back in school, so even the campground was just filled with older, quiet adults. I think I'll make September my preferred month for all my future Canadian canoe trips!

I really hated to leave Canada and return to the States. I don't know what it is, but everyone just seems friendlier up there and less stressed-out than in the States. Even the dogs seemed friendly-- Millie had no shortage of eager playmates at each afternoon swim!

An older couple who was camped next to me invited me over to their campfire each night and were delightful to talk to-- Jack and Dawn from west of Toronto. They camped in a Sportmobile and had driven it all over Canada and the U.S. (including a trip to the artic circle in the Northwest Territories!).

But alas, I had to head back to the hustle and bustle of the U.S. and turn the laptop and cell phone back on. One final stop to Tim Horton's to use up my remaining Toonies, and my immersion into all-things-Canadian was finished for another year. But I'll definitely be back!

Canoe Trip to Ontario - Algonquin Provincial Park

2009-09-09T18:35:00.004-05:00

Dawn, Lake of Two Rivers, Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario

I had been so busy this summer learning all the finer points to RV'ing with the new Winnebago, that I had neglected some of my other great summertime passions-- T@B camping, canoeing, and an annual trip to Canada. So, when I found some last-minute campsites available at the two prime canoeing parks in Ontario, I quickly reserved them and planned a week-long vacation.

I initially thought I'd leave early Friday evening and stop in Michigan for the night, but the last day of work before a vacation never goes as planned (nor does getting the camper packing finished on-time). So, I got Millie up at 4 a.m. on Saturday and we drove all the way to Algonquin in one lonnngggg day (750 miles in 16 hours). Luckily, I made it to the final town for gas and supplies (Huntsville, Ontario) just before the stores closed, and to my relief, I was not bothering any of the other campers with setting up my camp late at night as a roudy bunch of school kids and their intoxicated parents were making plenty of noise to cover for me (and fortunately, they called it a night about midnight just as I was ready to sleep).

Millie and I stayed at Canisbay campground, one of the many along the "Highway 60 corridor." Algonquin is really 2 different parks in one-- a populated corridor of campgrounds, lodges, cottages, and lakes that are easily accessible from the road; and the interior park of hundreds of additional lakes that are only accessible via multi-day backcountry canoe tripping. I opted for the comforts of the corridor park for this visit.

We had a large electric site at Canisbay so I decided to rig up the rope lights. Millie and I also enjoyed our nightly Firedancer campfire-- what a "must-have" camping item for campers like me who can't ever seem to keep a real campfire lit (and who don't want to mess with hauling/chopping wood around with them). When we later got to our non-electric site at Killarney Park, the Firedancer did double-duty at providing lighting for the inside of the trailer (so my battery power could be used solely on keeping the fridge running).

Our daily routine at Algonquin was to putz around camp in the morning or take a hike, then take Millie for a swim after lunch, and let her sleep and dry off in the car while I would go canoeing for a few hours. (A bit of history-- when Millie was a puppy, I had visions of her growing up into one of those great canoeing dogs that just sits quietly in the front of the canoe and enjoys the ride....but alas, she much preferred being in the water than on it inside some tippy boat).

Since I knew I'd be canoeing a lot of lakes at Killarney, I decided in Algonquin to take advantage of the Madawaska River that connects a number of the corridor lakes to each another. This section connected the very large Lake of Two Rivers to Pog Lake and featured a number of lily plants.

While most of the lakes in Algonquin prohibit motor boats, some of the larger corridor lakes allow them. These are also some of the lakes that still have "grandfathered-in" private lodges and cottages on them as well. As I paddled the connector between Rock and Whitefish lakes, I came across this classic old cottage that had a great dock to sit on-- pretty nice digs!

Pog Lake is a very popular campground and canoeing lake-- but fortunately, for me this day, the campground had just closed for the season, so the lake was completely mine to paddle!

On Tuesday after Labor Day, we left Algonquin for a pretty 4-hour drive over to Killarney Provincial Park along Georgian Bay. Our days in Algonquin had been warm and sunny with virtually no bugs. My only regret was not getting to see a moose (which apparently are all over the place here in the spring and fall). In fact, I didn't see much of any wildlife at this park-- they must all know better to stick to the vast interior sections of the park and leave the corridor to the wild humans.

Confession -- I've been leading a double life

2009-08-04T16:52:00.003-05:00

Well, it's time to finally come clean with a confession. For the past couple of months, my T@B camping has been minimal because I bought a new RV this spring. I love my T@B and the wonderful community of T@B owners, but a few events earlier this year moved me to buy a new RV much sooner than I would have ever planned to.

Earlier this year, after returning from the trip my mom and I took to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, my mom was hospitalized and nearly died from Legionnaire's Disease. She apparently had contracted it while on our trip and likely from one a shower facility at one of the campgrounds we had stayed at. Legionnaire's is a form of pneumonia that's contracted from breathing infected water vapor into the lungs. Most non-smokers don't get it because the cilea in their windpipe catches this and other bacterias and keeps it from reaching your lungs. But for smokers, it's a different story (which explains how my mom happened to get it, yet I did not).

Well, never in a million years would I have thought that taking a simple shower at a campground or hotel could be life-threatening, but it indeed can be just that. So, that experience got me re-thinking the idea of camping in a small T@B for long trips (and having to rely on commercial facilities for showering). But on the other hand, my long T@B trips, made me realize just how much I loved to be out on the road seeing new things and meeting new RV'ing friends. So, I knew I wanted to continue my periodic "full-timing" RV adventures and knew I would ultimately want a bigger RV to make those long extended road trips more comfortable for working and living.

Then, the recession kicked into high gear--- RV dealers began really cutting prices on their remaining inventory, the government offered a sales tax rebate on new RV purchases for this year only, manufacturers up'd their cash-back incentives, and by the grace of God, my job and company stock happened to be one of the lone bright spots of this economy. All the stars were now aligning to make this year the time to buy that new RV rather than waiting for retirement....so I did it.

In May, I found a still-new 2008 Winnebago View with all the features and colors I wanted at a great price. As my storage space is starting to fill up on this blog site, I've started a new travel blog called Winnie Views to record the trips I take with the new motorhome.

I've still got my T@B, but it's been taking a rest this summer at the storage yard while I learn all the finer points of driving and maintaining a 25-foot, 10,000 lb diesel-powered rig. Like my camping pal Terry says, "you can never have too many campers", so I guess my camping collection has officially begun!

International T@B Rally at Sunset Lakes

2009-07-19T17:47:00.006-05:00

Millie, Mom, and I just returned from the 3rd International T@B Rally out in the Quad Cities. About 44 trailers attended-- many folks I had already known from previous rallies, but I also got to meet some new folks too. I gave a seminar on various technologies for the road (portable TV, wifi, & cellular), and also took the group photo above. Others gave seminars on dutch oven cooking, T@B electrical systems, and various modifications made to their trailers. Each night we had great food and/or entertainment (one night even featured an outdoor movie of Lucy & Desi's "The Long Long Trailer" which was fun).

The rally was held at a pretty RV resort called Sunset Lakes-- which really lived up to it's name one night with this spectacular sunset--

Most of us got big shady sites along the lake which worked out great for me as I could launch my canoe right from my campsite and could paddle around to see the other T@Bs from the water.

Millie had a great time as well playing frisbee every morning in the dew-covered grass and going swimming every hot & humid afternoon to cool off. After a swim, she'd come in to lay down on her raised canvas bed to drip-dry-- what a perfect dog vacation!

Wakulla Springs

2009-02-28T23:54:00.000-06:00

For our final day in Florida, we decided to drive northeast of Carrabelle towards Tallahassee to a state park I had read about, Wakulla Springs. It was an old 1920's resort that sits on top of a large deep aquafer spring. The resort still has a working lodge and restaurant, along with large spanish moss trees and some interesting rhododendrons:

The big feature of the park are the boat tours you can take along the Wakulla river, and the glass-bottom boat tours you can take directly over the spring itself. We decided to take the latter tour and it was a blast. Before hitting the springs, I saw fish jumping out of the water, a heron drying it's wings, and even a large gator taking a mid-afternoon nap along the shore.

Pictures didn't do justice to the views out the glass-bottom boat of the springs. There were various kinds of catfish, garr, and trout swimming underneath us. Even a manitee had been spotted, but unfortunately, not during our cruise.

There's a ledge at the edge of the aquafer where water levels drop from about 14 feet to over 200 feet deep. The water can sometimes appear crystal clear (as it did for us), or can be cloudy and dark if there's been excessive rains and groundwater drainage. In 2007, they were only able to run the glass-bottom boats for 2 days the entire year because of this. So, we felt extremely lucky to see it! A great way to end our trip.
On Saturday, we began our journey back to Chicago leaving the the upper 70's Florida just as a storm was approaching. By the time we got to Nashville that night, a big snowstorm was hitting southern Tennessee and Alabama. We were lucky to leave when we did!

Carrabelle & the Forgotten Coast

2009-02-27T12:49:00.000-06:00

Our home for the week was a terrific RV park in Carrabelle, Florida right across the street from the beach. In fact, looking out the T@B windows you could see the Gulf and hear the waves. Mom, Millie, and I were all delighted!

They call this area of the Florida panhandle the "forgotten coast" because most of it lacks the big wide white sandy beaches and wall-to-wall condo buildings that are found in the Destin area (and in most coastal towns in Florida these days). But the "Forgotten" coast between Panama City and Tallahassee have virtually no large buildings or dense populations of tourists (or locals for that matter).

The neatest town along this stretch is Apalachiacola, the oyster capital of the world, and the original state capitol of Florida. It's a small historic town with cute little shops that are lit up with white christmas tree lights at night. We stumbled upon a terrific restaurant at the main intersection in town called The Seafood Grill. Wonderful oysters, crab cakes, shrimp, as well as some "to die for" desserts! Friendly service and great prices too. We liked it so much we ate there twice!

The best beach in the area is out along the longest barrier island called St. George. You drive out a long 3 or 4-mile bridge to get there, and a cute lighthouse welcomes your arrival to the island. There's a nice state park with camping at the very end of the island. I would have loved to stay there, but I needed to work a few days and needed the wi-fi and cell phone connectivity available in Carrabelle.

Our park was called Carrabelle RV Resort and had 1/2 the sites available for purchase or long-term rental, and the other 1/2 available for shorter-term stays. They had great facilities too-- a newer pool and bathhouse, nice clubhouse, etc. Many folks in the park were retiree snowbirds who come down year after year to enjoy this quiet peaceful place.

The park is across the street from the only large beach for a good 50 miles east of Apalachiacola. Fortunately, the state of Florida owns it and has a nice roadside picnic area there (so no big condos can ever block the view for RVers!).

Maybe this beach gets more crowded in later spring and summer, but while we were there (the last week of February), there was never more than 4 or 5 people on the beach at one time.... and it's a huge beach!

But the absolute best thing about this beach is that it's about the ONLY large beach in Florida that is dog-friendly (only Franklin and Gulf counties along the panhandle permit dogs on beaches--- all other Florida counties prohibit them).

Millie had not done any swimming since her visit to Maine in October, so she was eager to get in her daily afternoon swim time!

Our last full day in Carrabelle, Millie and I got up early to watch the sunrise. Each morning walk along the beach revealed different wildlife-- one day I watched a group of dolphins swim up and down right along the shoreline; another day, a blue heron walked along the waves in front of us. A fabulous, fabulous place to be a snowbird!

The best beach in America

2009-02-24T12:53:00.000-06:00

I think it was a Travel Channel show that ranked Destin, Florida as having the best beach in America. Not hard to see why! The sand is very soft, fine, and pure white, which also turns the water close to the shore a brilliant turquoise color and crystal clear.

Mom and I had bypassed Destin on our drive over from New Orleans to our week-long camping spot in Carabelle, but then made a day-trip to come back to Destin for lunch. We ate at this terrific seaside restaurant called the Crab Pot--

After lunch, we strolled the beach a bit to take in the sun, sights, and sounds. Only downside to this gorgeous beach is that no dogs are allowed (Millie was not too happy about having to stay in the car!).
On our drive over from New Orleans, we drove along the beachfront of Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi. They've got some excellent white sandy beaches there too, but sadly, this was an area that was hardest hit by Katrina in terms of physical damage. In the 15 or so miles we drove along the beach, the only buildings standing are brand new. The remaining 80% or so of the land are completely vacant lots with only their concrete foundations and large oak trees remaining. Mom said there used to be gorgeous, stately old mansions along this road in between all the typical hotels and tourist beach businesses. Now, it's completely gone.

On the bright side, once building continues a few more years, it will be a great sparkling new beach destination with new casinos, hotels, businesses, and homes. But as of right now, you'd better like waffles, because the only food you seem to be able to get along this stretch of road are from the 3 or 4 brand new Waffle House restaurants!

New Orleans Mardi Gras

2009-02-22T12:30:00.000-06:00

My T@B had been at the factory for 2 months this winter getting ceiling repair work done, so by the time I went to go pick it up, I was having some serious "winter snowbirding" temptations. A quick check of the weather forecast revealed that the Gulf coast would be warm and sunny the following week, and it just happened to be Mardi Gras weekend as well...thus, our first T@Bventure of 2009 was now a plan!

Mom, Millie, and I drove virtually non-stop all the way down to New Orleans to get there in time for some large parades on Saturday. We got one of the last sites available at the New Orleans KOA and were rested and ready to go on Saturday morning.

We got to Canal Street just before noon and claimed a few feet of open curb to sit and wait for the parades to begin. Mom played it pretty low key, just buying this smartly accented boah--

Others were quite another story! This gal was ready to party with her rubber boobs, boah, hat, and long tall drink--

Even the vendors & cops were in festive spirits as we waited for the parades to begin:

Finally, the wait was over and the first parade began, hosted by the Krewe of Iris. This parade featured a parade queen, marching bands, bagpipes, and a number of floats from various travel destinations from around the country. And of course, about a million beads thrown from those floats to the awaiting arms of thousands of parade watchers!

The next parade of the afternoon was by the Krewe of Tucks. This one was a bit wilder with floats that mocked FEMA, the crummy economy, Elvis, and the 70's. Along St. Charles Street, many locals brought their King Cakes, kegs of beer, and even their own step ladders to catch all the goodies raining down from the floats (ranging from necklaces, cups, frisbees, mini toilet plungers, and mini rubber bouncing balls).

Business is a bust for this street vendor. It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it!

The scene on Canal Street as floats go up and down both sides of this very large street.

After the parade, Mom & I started to try and head into the French Quarter from Canal Street, but the crowds were getting quite large by then (and our chances of finding a good place for dinner and being able to get back across the parade route to our parking garage were looking rather slim), so we decided to head back to the car and go to dinner away from downtown. We found a terrific seafood restaurant near the KOA to enjoy our gumbo and cajun-spiced catfish.

The next morning, we got up early to head back to the French Quarter for warm beignets at Cafe du Monde. The line was already pretty long at 8:00am-- 1/2 the folks were just waking up; the other 1/2 were still partying from the night before! The drive through the French Quarter was also quite an experience-- city street cleaners were out with high pressure washers literally hosing off Bourbon street to try and quickly remove the 6" layer of trash from the night before-- beer bottles, cups, mardi gras beads--- you name it! It must have been a pretty roudy night!

Millie's Holiday Greeting!

2008-12-19T21:29:00.008-06:00

May the holidays bring
as much gleeful delight
and joy to your heart
as....

finding your frisbee in the snow!

Wishing you many
cold-nose, tail-wagging, slobbery kisses
this holiday season!

Love, Millie

(and Lynne!)

Western Vermont

2008-10-15T22:20:00.001-05:00

Main Street, Bristol, VT

After a great weekend in Maine, it was now time to start making my way back home. I stopped for a few days in western Vermont to work and take in just a bit more fall color before heading back to the flatlands of Illinois.

Front Porches, Western Vermont

Country Store, Ripton, VT

Church, Western Vermont

I stayed at a lovely park near Bennington, called Pine Hollow Campground. Great wi-fi and cell coverage, quiet, peaceful, and absolutely gorgeous. A great end to a great vacation!

The best light and best lobster

2008-10-12T22:01:00.000-05:00

Dawn, Portland Head Light

Perhaps the most scenic lighthouse in Maine is the Portland Head Light just south of Portland. I was determined to photograph it in the best light I possibly could-- sunrise and sunset. The difference between good and great photographs are often attributed to "the light", and photographers know that the best light is usually at the very start and the very end of the day...in other words, the times that no normal tourists would be wanting to take the same picture!

I woke up at 4:30am and drove in total darkness for a half hour to arrive to Portland Head in time to capture the pre-dawn shot above, but the colors were spectacular!

Later that same day, I returned to the lighthouse for sunset photos. I started on a small rocky perch where a half-dozen other photographers had set up their tripods. It was a pretty standard shot, but nothing really spectacular.

I really wanted to include more rocks and long-exposure waves, so even though the sun was just about to set, I decided to continue down the walkway to a small passage where I could hike down to the beach. Here you can see a few of the photographers up on the bluff to the far right where I had just been:

This scene had better potential, so I stayed and waited for the light. The park closes as "sunset" and sure enough, at that time a voice began blaring over a distant loudspeaker that the park was now closed and to please leave. All the photographers up on the bluff started packing up and leaving, but I, like some demented rebel, stayed firmly planted on the beach still waiting for the glowing light that often comes about 10 minutes after sunset.

This night was a pretty hazy sunset, so it was starting to get pretty dark, and I was getting pretty nervous about the guard possibly locking the front gate and leaving me stranded on the beach, but just one more minute.... sure enough, just then, the full moon appeared from behind a cloud as the sunset afterglow appeared. I got my shot! And quickly high-tailed it back up to the car to head out. What a great day!!!

The next day, I returned just south of Portland Head to Cape Elizabeth, that has a terrific lobster shack with picnic tables right on the waterfront. The parking lot was packed and lunchtime line of people was long, but so worth the wait....a fresh lobster dinner for $20.

Cape Elizabeth Light

I decided to try my luck at the Cape Neddick Lighthouse near York for my next sunset shot. It was supposed to be best in late afternoon light, and I certainly was pleased...especially when the full moon began rising right behind the lighthouse!

As soon as the sun set on the lighthouse, I packed up and headed back to the car to let Millie out to walk around. Dumb move of course! Millie had barely walked around at all when I noticed the afterglow of the sunset starting to appear on the lighthouse. I barely got my tripod and camera set up again just in time to take this one last shot....and it was the best one of the night by far. Moral to the story is to always always always wait a few extra minutes after you think the light has gone (or in the morning, start shooting before the sun rises)!

Lighthouses and Lobster in Maine

2008-10-11T21:27:00.000-05:00

After a week of photographing cows and barns in Vermont, it was time for a change of scenery! Millie and I packed up the T@B and headed over to the southern Maine coast for Columbus Day weekend. It was a glorious weekend! Clear, sunny, and warm days with great sunrises and sunsets, lots of good lobster, and pretty lighthouses to photograph-- who could ask for more?

We set up base camp at a KOA just south of Portland and made day trips north and south along the coast. One of the prettiest areas was just north of Portland around the town of South Bristol, Maine. It had a harbor filled with lobster boats called Christmas Cove that was terrific to photograph:

After Christmas Cove, as I headed north towards the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, I came across this old graveyard with it's trees at peak foliage:

I arrived at Pemaquid Point Lighthouse around noon. Not an ideal time to photograph, especially when the other hundred tourists wanted to climb all over the rocks in front of my shot! But, it was a gorgeous day to enjoy the sun, so I just waited patiently for a few tourist-free pics:

On the way back to camp, I drove through a town that had decorated its sidewalks with "great pumpkin" art. This pair were my favorites!

While the foliage in parts of Vermont and New Hampshire had peaked by Columbus Day, colors were bursting and vivid along the southern Maine coast.

The most photographed farm in Vermont

2008-10-09T20:59:00.000-05:00

Mid-October is not only prime time for foliage tourists to visit Vermont, but it's also prime time for hoards of photographers to attend photo workshops in the area. The number one destination for all of those photo workshop photographers is Jenne Farm, located about 10 miles south of Woodstock.

The farm is so used to having photographers snap pictures from it's front meadow and long dirt drive, that the family has a small collection box posted near this famous scene for considerate photographers to leave a small donation.

I photographed Jenne Farm on two different mornings, and at both times was there with about 5 or 6 other photographers. Mind you, this was not prime sunrise time, but later in the morning after most serious photographers had gone! But, regardless of the time and light, it's a terrific scene well-worth photographing!

On my way back to Woodstock, this country store in South Woodstock just begged for a quick photograph. Sure wish our corner convenience stores at home had this much charm!

Woodstock and Pomfret

2008-10-08T20:19:00.000-05:00

Cloudland Road, Pomfret, VT

My favorite area was around the beautiful town of Woodstock. Surrounding the town were a number of beautiful farms and scenic dirt roads, particularly just north near the town of Pomfret (where Grandma Moses found a number of scenes for her paintings).

Thank goodness for GPS! I never would have found my way out of the maze of dirt roads in this area without it! My two absolute favorite drives were along Cloudland Road and Joe Ranger Road:

Morning along Joe Ranger Road

Welcome Committee, Pomfret Highlands Farm

Pomfret Highlands Farm, Cloudland Road

Farm along Cloudland Road, South Pomfret, VT

Farm along Cloudland Road

Joe Ranger Road

Old Kings Highway, South Pomfret, VT

Old Kings Highway Foliage

Nearly all buildings in the town of Woodstock are historically preserved and lovely. Here are just a few examples:

On Grafton Pond

2008-10-07T19:56:00.000-05:00

Not to be outdone in the "idyllic canoeing" category, New Hampshire has it's share of terrific paddling ponds. One afternoon, I drove down a couple of gravel roads to get to one such gem...Grafton Pond. There were a couple of houses at the put-in, but the rest of the lake was undeveloped and natural with a number of small islands to paddle around.

The foliage was gorgeous, and apart from seeing 3 other cars parked at the put-in (all Subarus!), there were no others around and I had the pond virtually all to myself.

This is what made hauling the canoe on the roof of my car for over 1000 miles all worth it... ah, tranquility!

Quechee Gorge & Dewey's Mill Pond

2008-10-06T21:18:00.000-05:00

Millie and I made the brief journey from Woodstock, NH to Woodstock, VT within a couple hours and set up camp at the KOA near White River Junction and the Quechee Gorge.

As we drove to the gorge for the first time, we saw Quechee's resident balloon taking off for an afternoon trip.A tall iron bridge spans the Quechee Gorge, and allows pedestrians to walk over it and take pictures of the gorge. Most tourist shots are taken in the middle of the day and look like this:
So, one morning just after sunrise, I decided to try photographing the gorge again. This time, the ground fog was just lifting to provide a more interesting image.

Upstream from the gorge, was a small dam that created a marvelous small lake called Dewey's Mill Pond, which was an idyllic canoeing opportunity one afternoon, made even better when the Quechee balloon reappeared over the horizon!

Vermont

2008-10-05T18:21:00.000-05:00

It was cloudy and rained much of the first week I was in Vermont (which was actually not so bad as I had to work anyway). But clouds and rain aren't always such a bad thing-- one evening, the sun managed to pop out briefly at sunset-- and this marvelous rainbow appeared!

Vermont State Capitol, Montpelier, VT

Vermont is perhaps the most historically preserved state in the country. They've had strict statewide laws on the books that prohibit new construction unless it can be proven not to cause any environmental impact whatsoever. As a result, buildings are maintained and renovated rather than demolished, and except for a few interstate exits and small sections in a few of the larger towns, there are no strip malls, no fast food drive-thrus, no big box retailers, or other trappings of modern day commerce found throughout much of America.

So, while some Vermonters have wished for more accessible modern conveniences, it is a photographer's and tourist's oasis from a sea of asphalt and homogenized retail chain stores.

Barns in central Vermont

Farmhouse in central Vermont

Another central Vermont farm

Covered bridge in Vermont

Old schoolhouse in central Vermont

Of course, the buildings aren't the only things that are well-preserved. Vermont's streams, ponds, and forests are also vibrant and clean. They have a saying that the Green Mountain state of Vermont was "Green before Green was cool"....how true!

One warm autumn afternoon, Millie just had to take a little dip in one of the cool, clear, roadside mountain streams. What a delight!

New Hampshire

2008-10-04T21:02:00.008-05:00

Church and Bridge, Stark, NH

Millie and I are in New England for 3 weeks enjoying what the locals say is the best foliage season in a number of years. We drove the Canadian route last weekend through Toronto and Montreal and arrived to our campground at St. Johnsbury, Vermont late Sunday night. I had to work during the week, so had chosen this campground because it offered wi-fi and was within my Verizon cellphone coverage range. Well...Verizon's map was a little off. No cell coverage at the campground at all. But a quick 1/2 mile drive up the hill to a scenic overlook did the trick. It felt kinda like the old "Green Acres" show when Oliver would have to climb the telephone pole to make a phone call. "Welcome to Vermont!" my work collegues from Burlington said when I told them of my connectivity challenges.

It rained all week, and I had a heavy workload, so didn't take many pictures. But, yesterday, the start of my vacation, the skies cleared. I decided to head to New Hampshire for the weekend. I set up base camp in Woodstock, NH in the center of the state, and drove a big loop including the Kancamagus Scenic Byway, the White Mountains Highway, and the Daniel Webster Highway.

Here are a few of my favorite shots:

Stream along the Kancamagus Highway

Roadside lake along the Kancamagus Highway

Blair Bridge

Church and Bridge, Stark, NH

Swiftwater Covered Bridge

Little White Church, Eaton, NH

Foliage near Mt. Washington

Farm near Littleton, NH

Madison Ribberfest & Southern Indiana

2008-08-17T13:09:00.010-05:00

I went down to southern Indiana this weekend to the Madison Ribberfest. What a great party! The festival featured about 50 or so competion BBQ'ers, some terrific blues bands, and a number of hot air balloons. The weather was excellent all weekend. I had first heard about the fest on the Teardrop trailer forum (they were doing a rally), but I decided to stay at Clifty Falls State Park that had hook-ups, rather than with the rest of the teardroppers at their park.

Here are a few shots at the festival:

At the end of the evening, the hot air balloons did a "balloon glow" from the Kentucky side of the river across from the festival. The reflections on the water were terrific, but pretty hard to photograph when this dark.

An added benefit was the full moon rising over the bridge between Madison and Kentucky.

The next morning, I got up early to catch the sunrise at the same spot. This time there was a barge coming through just as I got there. What luck!

I then headed to downtown Madison to photograph a few of the historic buildings. It's one of the largest and best-preserved concentrations of historical buildings I've seen in the Midwest (well over 300 of them).

On my way back to Chicago, I decided to drive only scenic 2-lane roads all the way home, so started out driving west and then north on highway 135 through Brown County Indiana. I came across a little crossroads called Story, Indiana with an old general store that was now a restaurant and inn. The "town" was so small, it took me a couple miles before I could turn the car and T@B around to head back to photograph it. But what a spectacular scene!

I had discovered this road sign on my way down to the Turkey Run T@B rally last spring but never had time to stop. So, this time I decided to make make a detour to drive my T@B through Tab, Indiana!

The town of Tab isn't nearly as cute as the trailer-- it was basically a grain elevator along the railroad tracks, with about 20 old rundown houses around it (likely for employees who used to work at the grain elevator). It's a 5 to 10 mile drive along gravel roads to get there, and not even big enough to post town welcome signs at it's borders. So, I shot the T@B next to Tab's grain elevator as the sun was setting, and made my way back to the main road to drive home.

While Madison and the Ohio River were quite beautiful, one thing that was not so picturesque were a number of coal-burning power plants that dotted it's banks with their large stack pipes billowing carbon into the air. There was a large plant right next to the state park and it really was sad to hike up to a beautiful scenic vista, only to see the large smoke stacks on the horizon.

Fortunately, on my drive home, I found a much prettier power generator to photograph-- a new wind power plant along the Indiana/Illinois border. I can't wait to see more of these graceful, clean, and quiet turbines dot our midwestern farm fields in the future....and replace those damn coal plants!

Lake Michigan camping - Part 2

2008-07-28T22:21:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, I lucked out again with last-minute availability at another popular beachfront park--this time on the Wisconsin side at Point Beach State Forest near Two Rivers just north of Manitowoc (where the ferry from Ludington arrives). Most campsites in this park were huge and quite private. There was also a large, sandy dog beach just south of the lighthouse right in the park (quite a few nice dog beaches on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan). Millie had a great time!

No 9:30pm sunsets on this side of the Lake, though. We had to wake up just after 5:00am to catch this beautiful sunrise:

We were less than an hour away from Door County, so on Saturday, I decided to drive up to Whitefish Dunes State Park to photograph it's spectacular rocky shoreline-- really quite unusual for Lake Michigan. I had no idea this kind of scenery could be found so close to home.

Thanks to Jeremy from the T@B forum for tipping me off to this great park!

Lake Michigan camping - Part 1

2008-07-21T10:55:00.000-05:00

I've been having nice luck lately in getting weekend camping reservations at some popular parks just a few days in advance (most likely, these were sites that had been reserved months ago but now being canceled at the last minute).

My first reservation bonanza was a weekend electric site at Ludington State Park along the western shore of Lake Michigan.

Western Michigan is an absolute delight in the summertime-- the lake is warm, miles of sandy beaches, great sunsets, and friendly small towns. Ludington is a vibrant small town with lots of downtown activity (thanks to the SS Badger car ferry that makes several trips a day over to Manitowac, Wisconsin) and a pretty park along the shoreline looking out onto a lighthouse (unfortunately, no sunset this night, so I took a shot of what little I could get!)

The state park is really nice with miles of sandy beaches, dunes, and hiking trails through forests, a 1-mile river section between the lake and the beach for peacefully floats, and a large lake with a canoe trail. I was eager to try out my new solo canoe, so opted to do the canoe trail one day. These were a few views from the water:

While it was a great park for me, Millie was not too thrilled with Michigan. Most of their shoreline is off limits to dogs. I was able to find one dog beach, however, at the Lake Michigan National Recreation Area just north of the state park. Millie had a blast at this long sandy beach, and climbing up and over the large sand dune to get there!

Homeward Bound

2008-06-16T23:45:00.002-05:00

After stopping at the Reno Subaru dealer to get fluids changed and tires rotated, Millie and I were ready to make our long trek east all the way home along I-80. Nevada and the salt plains of western Utah were desolate with the exception of road signs here and there warning drivers to not fall asleep at the wheel (guess that is, indeed, desolate!).

Five solid weeks of sightseeing and photography had finally taken their toll, and I barely took any pictures or made any further detours to see tourist attractions the whole way home!

One thing I did notice on this trip (that I'd been oblivious to in past trips out west) were the numbers of extremely long coal trains going to and from Wyoming. Wyoming is the nation's leading coal producer shipping 446 million tons of the stuff a year to our older coal-hungry power plants. Production comes from only 21 mines, and all but one of these are surface mining operations growing at a rate of 10% a year. At that pace, I wonder how long it will be before all of Wyoming's mountains are gone.
Fortunately, I did find some glimmers of hope during the trip, and found them, surprisingly, in Wyoming as well. The largest wind farm I spotted on the entire trip was one just outside of Laramie where there were over 200 turbines humming along at the top of a ridge. This was about the size of one I saw in southern California last year. Now if we could just start filling up some of the vast Midwest wheat and corn plains with some of these turbines, we might honestly have a chance at stopping some of those hundreds of coal trains going in and out of Wyoming each day!

As I got closer to home, I began hearing news reports of the extensive flooding in Iowa. Many roads in the eastern portion of the state were closed including a section of I-80 (forcing a 110-mile detour). As I got closer, road signs kept advising motorist that the detour would start in Des Moines, however, when I finally got to Des Moines, the last sign said I-80 was now open. Thinking it might be a fluke, I stopped in town for awhile to listen to the next newscast, where they did indeed confirm that I-80 was now open. So I was able to stay on course and get home a few hours sooner than planned. Here were a few shots of what I saw that night:

As the sun set for the last time of our 6-week 8,000-mile adventure, I pulled the camera out one more time to take a shot. What a beautiful, amazing, fun trip it had been....but Millie, the T@B, the Subaru, and I were now all completely exhausted and couldn't wait to get home and stay there for a while!

Lake Tahoe

2008-06-13T22:45:00.000-05:00

After leaving the Avenue of the Giants and the cool ocean breezes, the drive down into the Sacramento valley was long, hot, and mostly pretty dull with the exception of the golden covered hills I found just as the sun was setting:

My base camp home office for the week was an RV park in Truckee, CA conveniently located on I-80. Each night after work, I'd take the 30 minute drive south to Lake Tahoe to take a few shots at sunset. Parts of the lake are extremely deep (nearly 2000 feet) and cold. The waters along the deeper shorelines produce a wonderful emerald blue color while the sun is still high in the sky. But in the afterglow of sunset, when the sky glows with color, the still waters also begin to reflect those colors as well.

A spot well-known by nature photographers and locals, is hidden at the bottom of a cliff along the eastern Nevada shore just south of Sand Harbor called "Bonsai Rock". I finally located it on my 3rd night and found the unmarked trailhead to get down to the lake to take these shots. For a few of them, I had to stand calf-high in the lake, but boy was it fun!

For our final night in Truckee, Millie and I went up to the top of Donner Pass to hike a neat little trail through a few mountain streams and over large, smooth slabs and boulders of granite. There were even a few spots with snow still not melted (that Millie had a great time running through!).

We took the old Donner Pass Highway back down into Truckee, and spotted these rock climbers as well as other scenes. I can't imagine how the pioneers made it over this pass with their wagons on their way to strike it rich in California gold country 150 years ago (and obviously, some never did made it). A roadside memorial commemorates the infamous Donner Party's story of cannibalism for survival when they got stuck in these rocky hills during the winter of 1846-47.

California Redwoods

2008-06-08T22:43:00.000-05:00

After leaving Bandon, our next base camp was the California redwood coast near Crescent City and Redwoods National Park (which is actually a collection of California state parks that initially protected these wonderful trees). To get a sense of just how big these trees really are, I parked my Subaru next to one!

I planned my trip to occur just as the summer coastal foggy season was starting, but to also catch the last of the rhododendron blooms. I was hoping to get a shot of both together, but it was not to be. The fog rolled in briefly late one evening as I was walking Millie near the campground, but each day after that was sunny, dry and clear as a bell. Guess I should have spent this week in Oregon and the previous week in the Redwoods!

At least one benefit of the clear days were these crescent moonrise shots over the ocean south of Crescent City:

Crescent City itself isn't a particularly pretty town, but it does have this very neat lighthouse that sits on an island a few dozen feet offshore. You can walk to it at low tide, but I obviously arrived a bit too late! Since I was there during the photographically dreadful midday sun, I decided to put away my color point-and-shoot and pull out the infrared camera to make it more interesting:
Highway 191 takes you east of Crescent City on a twisty route through Jedediah Smith State Park
A very fun dirt road traverses the park called Howland Hill Road that takes you through some of the oldest redwood groves in the state (nope, trailers not allowed on this road, so the T@B had to stay home!)
As I headed back to my campsite that evening at dusk, driving along Highway 101, I saw something big and black leasurely crossing the road just in front of the car ahead of me...just a large black bear out for his evening stroll across 4 lanes of traffic! What a way to end the day!

My next California destination was Eureka, about 2 hours south of Crescent City, and getting there was most of the fun. Here was a quick stop along the scenic parkway in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park:

After getting the T@B parked at it's campsite, I headed back up to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove in Redwoods National Park. At the trailhead was a plaque and some photos of the day Richard Nixon and Lady Bird Johnson were there in 1969 when he dedicated the grove in her honor. Strange to think of walking in big-time politicians' footsteps along this trail (imagine if these grand old trees could talk!).

The most unusual redwood I saw on the trail, was this one. A huge section of the base of it's trunk had been completely burned out and hollowed...yet it continues to live on and thrive. Little wonder these trees have survived the last 1000 years. Lets hope they can survive the next 1000.
Eureka and the smaller town of Ferndale (about 10 miles south) have some remarkable examples of Victorian architecture (as well as a few nice art deco buildings as well):

After taking one last romp on the beach just north of Eureka, it was time for Millie and I to bid adieu to the Pacific and begin our journey east towards home. We drove one final, glorious scenic redwood drive along the famous "Avenue of the Giants" in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Southern Oregon Coast

2008-06-05T19:28:00.000-05:00

Another day, another boring old run along the beach with a stick! Here, we had stopped at the magnificent Cape Perpetua to view the tidepools at Neptune Beach:

A bit further south, north of Florence, was the magnificent Heceta Head Lighthouse. Even though it was pouring rain at the time, I wasn't about to pass it up! As a was photographing, I kept hearing barking sounds. It was the sounds of sea lions relaxing on the beach beneath the lookout point I was at. There are some caves along the coast here that they like to hang out in (there's even a tourist attraction that's built an elevator down into one of the cliffs so that you can observe the sea lions inside the cave).

My stop in Florence was just for lunch, but it was another place I would have loved to spend more time at. Just south of town were miles of sand dunes along the oceanfront-- hard to see in the pouring rain, but they were there!

My base camp for the southern coast was Bandon, and it was my favorite beach town in Oregon. The first evening sunset there continued to be a wash out, so I took some shots of the storm clouds over their lighthouse instead. The next night turned out to be better, with the sun finally coming out between the clouds before it set. Also interesting along the beach north of Bandon were some wild yellow lupines-- I'd seen purple lupines in the wild before, but not yellow ones!

South of Bandon, was the quiet little town of Port Orford with spectacular large surf hitting it's beach.

From Port Orford to the California border, the Oregon coastline becomes much larger and more wild. Going north to south seemed the perfect way to experience the Oregon coast, saving the best parts of it for last.

Central Oregon Coast

2008-06-01T22:28:00.000-05:00

Our next campground south was the KOA in Waldport, OR. It was a great location overlooking the Waldport bridge (above) and bay. Millie even got to soak in a few rays before the clouds returned that night.

The town of Newport had an even larger arched bridge with a picturesque fishing boat harbor. There was a long row of restaurants and shops along the harborfront that made us regret not having more time to spend there.

On our drive down from Tillamook to the ports, we had decided to leave Highway 101 to drive the Three Capes Scenic Drive (Cape Meares, Lookout, and Kiwanda). Cape Meares featured this very unusally Sitka spruce called Octopus Tree with 8 trees growing out of it's trunk. Other views from the drive are below. Of course, no ocean drive would be complete without a stop for Millie to swim and fetch sticks (this one was big!).

Cannon Beach & the northern Oregon coast

2008-05-31T23:42:00.000-05:00

Ah sweet happiness! After a few brief swims in the Sound and lakes up in Canada, Millie was finally back to one of her greatest life pleasures of running leash-free along a sunny, sandy Pacific Ocean beach fetching driftwood sticks! This beach was at the town of Seaside, OR which had a bustling downtown shopping/tourist area with a few art deco buildings and a nice boardwalk.

On our drive over to Cannon Beach from Portland, we stopped at a large "log cabin" restaurant, Camp 18, that appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. It turned out to be a pretty interesting place with lots of hand-carved wood, historic logging items, and excellent food! Here's a shot of their front doors (notice the handle made from an old hatchet!):

The town of Cannon Beach was pretty, but seemed a bit on the dull side due to their strict residential zoning restrictions (not even a gas station allowed in town!). One place we did like though, was Mo's Chowder overlooking the beach just south of Cannon rock. The beach was the perfect spot to photograph the next night when the sun peeked out from beneath the clouds for a few brief moments of our otherwise very cloudy, rainy week along the coast.

After a few days in Cannon Beach, we started heading south down the coast. Here was the coastline from just north of Manzanita:

The little beach town of Manzanita was a fun stop. They had some similar "weathered beach cottage" houses like Cannon Beach (this one even had Callas in the front yard!), and the downtown had some cute little shops including a doggie boutique where Millie got a number of interesting new goodies-- a traveling water bottle/dish combo, a frisbee that floats, and a new trendy looking collar and leash set.The next stop south was the dairy town of Tillamook with it's terrific Tillamook Cheese Factory & Ice Cream Shop. We stopped for a cone and to watch the factory workers "cut the cheese"!

Columbia River and Portland

2008-05-28T21:40:00.001-05:00

We spent our first full day in Oregon doing the scenic "Mt. Hood Loop" drive that starts in Portland, goes east along the historical Columbia River highway to Hood River, then goes south through the fruit orchards down to Mt. Hood, and then returns west back into Portland.

The day was mainly overcast only a few moments of sun (so no spectacular shots of the Gorge from Vista Point were to be had on this day), so I took a few shots from inside the art deco Vista House instead.

The Columbia River Gorge has 3 roads that follow it from east to west-- a 2-lane highway on the Washington side, I-84 on the Oregon side, and for 30 brief, spectacular miles, the original Columbia River highway (also on the Oregon side). It's narrow twisty road, with stone rails and bridges, travels midway up the bluffs and features stops at a half dozen gorgeous waterfalls. The longest and most spectacular example is Multnomah Falls, with it's stone bridge crossing halfway up the 620-foot falls. Mom and I ate lunch at the beautiful stone lodge at the base of the falls. Afterwards, I set out to take pictures of the Falls--- waiting, waiting, and waiting for other tourists to get off the bridge so I could get my shots!

On our way to Hood River, we stopped in the little town of Cascade Locks and I happened to spot some California poppies on a hillside that were in full bloom. In California, the poppies usually done blooming by early May, so I knew this would likely be the only place I'd see them this late in the year (so out came the photo gear again while Mom and Millie patiently waited in the car)!

Hood River was our next stop, the Windsurfing capital of the West Coast (and where my brother and all his surfing gear are headed to later this summer). You don't see many towns that have windsurfers on their road signs, but Hood River does!

The drive south to Mt. Hood was beautiful with many orchards, our first glimpse of Mt. Hood, and these lupine growing wild along the side of the road:
When we arrived to Mt. Hood, it was completely foggy at the base of the mountain. No chance of seeing the peak unless we drove up to it....so we did! As we got up to the historic Timberline Lodge, at 6000 feet, we finally were above the clouds and able to see some of the peak.

The rest of our week in Portland was cold, overcast, and rainy. I worked during the days from the hotel while Mom explored downtown Portland. We decided to splurge one night to eat at the landmark Jake's Famous Crawfish restaurant. Neither of us tried the crawfish (which actually looked quite amazing), but their desserts were "to die for" and service was superb.

We left Portland just before their annual Rose Festival was to start, so decided to take in their city Rose Garden instead--a delightful park!

Olympic Peninsula

2008-05-26T20:38:00.002-05:00

We stayed at a wonderful newer RV park in Sequim called Gilgal Oasis for Memorial Day weekend. There was a group campfire and S'mores night where we got to meet the hosts and other campers that was lots of fun. Many full-time RV'ers in big Class A's and 5th Wheels who marveled at how a mother and daughter with an 80 lb dog could fit into such a tiny camper (while we secretly wondered why they needed such big rigs!).

Sequim was a nice, clean little town who's recent building boom of new Home Depots, subdivisions, and the like seemed to be paused temporarily due to the mortgage credit crisis. I have no doubt it will be booming again soon.

While Mom explored Sequim and Port Townsend to the east, I headed west to the Hoh rainforest on the western side of the Olympic National Park. I had anticipated an overcast day with a bit of drizzle here and there (afterall, it IS a rainforest!), and the day certainly started out that way as I drove there. But once I arrived, skies had cleared and it was completely sunny. Great for casual tourists, but a real let down for photographers! Still, I tried to make the best of it. On the way to Hoh, I took a side trip along the Sol Duc river and was able to get this interesting shot. Once at Hoh, I decided to use my Infrared camera for most shots (as sunlit green foliage turns white in IR shots).

For our other full day on the peninsula, Mom and I explored the other areas of Olympic National Park-- the fabulous snow-capped mountain views at Hurricane Ridge (where there was still quite a bit of snow around the visitor's center), and the lovely Lake Crescent Lodge (that had the best ice cream of our entire trip-- a unique blueberry, lavender, and honey combo). Lake Crescent's serene, aqua waters were magnificent-- I could have stayed there for days!

As we left Sequim for our drive down south to Portland, we went to Port Townsend, WA to see some of the interesting homes and buildings Mom had discovered during her previous trip. The hilltop lighthouse below is actually a private home! The downtown buildings were delightfully preserved from the Victorian era, including the small tea room where we had noontime tea (served by a woman who had moved there from England). We had a terrific "Ploughman's Lunch" of fresh organic fruits, bread and cheese while overlooking the Sound, (where one lonely sailboat was anchored patiently awaiting it's owner's return).

After lunch, we headed south along the Hood Canal where we saw a nice display of "Roadside Rhodies" growing wild beneath the trees on the eastern edge of the national park.

Victoria

2008-05-23T21:07:00.003-05:00

If you ever get the chance to visit Victoria, be sure to reserve more than one day! We were here 2 1/2 days and still only saw maybe half of the area. Victoria was undoubtedly the prettiest city I've yet to see in North America. The downtown harbor area features a number of English-influenced buildings such as the Customs House above and the Empress Hotel and BC Parliament Building below:

There were also many blocks of cute little city cottages with beautiful "English cottage gardens" in their yards (filled with lots of blooming Rhododendrons and Azaleas).

In the suburban outskirts, Victoria felt heavily American-influenced with it's McDonalds, Safeway grocery stores, Shell gas stations, and American-styled suburban houses, but in the city center, Victoria was a great mix of British and native B.C. influences-- such as this Scottish Highlander bear greeting guests at a downtown hotel, the horse-drawn carriages, the native totems in Totem Park, and these fine chaps playing at the Royal Cricket Club:

There's a great drive along Dallas Road that takes you all along the southern and eastern shoreline going through a number of nice neighborhoods and parks with terrific waterfront views. At one stop, we were able to spot the ferry we'd be taking to Port Angeles (the M.V. Coho) as it headed out across the Straight of Juan de Fuca. Looking across the 30 mile Straight, was a great view of the Olympic mountains poking out above the fog clouds on the Washington side.

Another interesting sight along Dallas Road was a group of para-sailers happily crusing up and down the shoreline at about 40 feet above the ground

Heading back to the harbor, we stopped at Craigdarroch Castle that had been highly recommended by my stepsister Holley. Unfortunately, they were already closed for the evening. However, we did chat with their friendly security guard who even gave Millie a few milk bone treats to thank us for coming by.

The next day, it was time to pack up the T@B and head back to the U.S. again. We got down to the ferry docks with plenty of time to spare, so walked around the harbor area a bit and happened upon this delightful Ukulele Orchestra that played some great arrangements of Beattles and Beach Boys tunes. Lots of fun!

Finally, our ship came in...the M.V. Coho. This time they lined me and the T@B up separately from Mom and her car, but I was able to get on board and up to wave at her from the deck!

Millie anxiously awaiting another fun, lonely ride in the hull of the ferry. At least she had a little window light this time.

As we left the harbor, we were able to take some shots of the cute little "harbor taxis" that scurry across the harbor, as well as watch a number of seaplanes follow us out the harbor to take off behind us.

Out on the Straight, the clouds lifted a bit over the mountains around Vancouver and Whistler for this neat shot:

I had been warned that the Straight of Juan de Fuca could be quite daunting at times as it's the only spot in the whole Seattle/Vancouver/Victoria area that receives direct winds and waves from the Pacific. On our crossing, the winds were fortunately pretty calm. However, the ocean swells were a different story! The Coho rolled strongly from side to side as we approached Port Angeles, so we wisely stayed up on deck to avoid getting sea sick!

Finally we arrived in Port Angeles, WA to calm water, beautiful Olympic mountains, and this charming oil tanker:

The Butchart Gardens

2008-05-22T23:59:00.001-05:00

This was a very fun day! Both Mom and I were really looking forward to seeing the "world famous" Butchart Gardens. It was our main sight to see on the entire trip...and we weren't disappointed! The gardens are simply amazing. Literally millions of tulips of every color imaginable. It was DisneyWorld for garden lovers!

The first stop was a delightful brick entrance square that had a nice gift shop, restaurant, and other facilities.

Then, it was on to see the garden. Here was the first flower bed we saw:

We decided to buy the combination "garden and lunch" package. The dining room was housed in part of the Butcharts' old mansion and the waitress told us that the room we were seated in used to be Jenny Butchart's breakfast tea room. There were even flowers to match the wallpaper!

This is the exterior of the Butchart mansion where the dining room is housed.

After lunch, it was on to the gardens! First, a few more tulip beds to see:

Then, the famous "sunken garden". This picture doesn't begin to convey the scale and size of this garden! Jenny Butchart's husband was in the stone business in the nineteenth century, and this land was originally his stone quary. Once it had been exhausted and operations moved to another quary, Jenny decided to beautify it a bit so she wouldn't have to look at an ugly dug out stone quary in her backyard every day. Well, she got carried away a little with the beautification project!

This was the second quary behind the sunken garden. Again, the picture doesn't do justice to the scale and size of the fountain...it's huge! The fountain is a more recent addition and is computerized to do all kinds of different water patterns. We sat and watched it for quite a while.

The next garden paid hommage to the Pacific Northwest and it's people. Here's mom by one of their totems.

The next stop was the Japanese garden. Also quite beautiful:

The final stop was the Italian garden. It had a lovely courtyard with a gelato stand. Perfect, sweet end to a delightful tour.

Vancouver Island

2008-05-21T22:04:00.002-05:00

When planning our trip, I had thought spending the weekend in Vancouver and leaving for Vancouver Island on Monday would be less crowded on the ferry. But I didn't realize that this particular Monday was Victoria Day, and not just any Victoria Day, but the 150th anniversary of Victoria! Needless to say, the ferries were jammed going both ways! The only reservations we could get were for an 8:30am Monday morning crossing departing from Horseshoe Bay (about a 45 minute drive from the campground). Since we also needed to pack & hitch up the T@B, it was a very early wake-up!

I'd never taken a trailer on a ferry before and was not quite sure what to expect. But BC Ferries really knows their stuff. We arrived to the loading ramp with plenty of time to spare, and Mom's car was able to go right behind mine with the T@B.

Here is Millie awaiting her first ferry ride ever. Note the regal purple bandana in honor of Victoria Day!
All lined up waiting for the ferry. That's a full-sized semi truck next to me!

We lucked out and got aboard one of the brand new ferries in their system, the Coastal Renaissance which had been built in Germany and sailed over the high seas all the way to Vancouver. The ship's hull had plenty of roof clearance for semi trucks and the T@B....and was just about the last place I would have expected to see a couple of T@B gawkers, but there they were! Ooo-ing and ahh-ing over little T@Bitu.

Millie had to stay by herself in the car for the voyage, and she wasn't looking too excited about it:

The new ferry was very euro-chic on the inside. We first checked out the very large dining room that featured floor to ceiling windows all around for great views. They also had really good fresh-cooked meals onboard too. Mom and I had a great hot breakfast while watching for whales and sea lions out the windows (unfornately, didn't see any, but we did have some nice views of the sound and mountains).

Here's Mom strolling the decks taking pictures:

Even the bathrooms were nice!

After a calm, relaxing 90 minute crossing, we arrived at Departure Bay in Nanaimo. Millie did fine in the hull by herself, but once we hit shore, she really had to go! Fortunately, Nanaimo had a really nice harborside park. But all the clear skies, sunshine, and hot weather had now been replaced by the more typical overcast, drizzly, mid-50's days of the Pacific Northwest.

After exploring Nanaimo a bit, it was on to find our RV park. I was amazed to find that my Subaru's GPS navigation system worked on the Island, so getting to our destination was pretty easy. We planned to stay about mid-way up the Island on the eastern shore in the small resort village of Qualicum Beach. It was an absolutely delightful town with very friendly people. We stayed at an RV park that was right across the street from this nice bay:

Here was our campsite at Qualicum Bay RV Park. The super huge site was a welcome relief from the tiny, cramped site in Vancouver. It was an older park, but lovingly owned and maintained by a couple who were originally from Germany. We could have stayed there all summer!

We did have one near-disaster though. We had decided to do a day trip over to Tofino one day, and we arrived back to camp that evening to discover that strong wind gusts (and my T@B having a defective awning track that was not tight enough) had caused 3 legs of the screenroom to pull away from the T@B and flip upside down in front of it. When we drove up, the screenroom looked like a twisted, mangled mess and hopelessly ruined.

I was sick and couldn't even look at the screenroom, so started gathering up other items while Mom looked it over. A few minutes later she said "you know, this might be o.k. All the legs still look o.k., there are no tears in the fabric, and the roof frame looks good." I was absolutely shocked, but indeed she was right! After a few minutes of carefully untwisting and righting it, the screenroom looked as good as new! Once we reattached it to the T@B's awning track, I took a wedge and mallet to hammer the track closed a bit more so it'd hold the screenroom better, and we had no further problems with it after that. What a relief!

Our daytrip over to Tofino had been a fun adventure. There's only one 2-lane road that traverses across the island from east to west (the Pacific Rim Highway). It's only about a 100 mile drive between Qualicum and Tofino, but it still took us over 3 hours to get there due to all the twists and turns.

As we drove through the little town of Coombs, we saw an adorable new palomino colt at a small horse farm with the memorable name of "Money Pit Meadows." It reminded us of friends from home, Mona & Bill, who have had quite a time fixing up their own little "money pit meadows" horse barn and house.

After leaving Port Alberni, it was near total wilderness all the rest of the way to Tofino-- beautiful tree-covered mountains with clouds hugging their tops, and a number of waterfalls and lakes.

Tofino itself was another interesting study of contrasts. It's a small fishing village that is the only road-accessible town on the whole west coast of the island. It has the Pacific Ocean on it's western shores and Clayoquot Sound on it's northern and eastern shores. Here's the fishing harbor on the Clayoquot side. There are a number of tiny islands in the sound that are popular kayaking destinations, and it's also a great place to kayak among the whales (we didn't see any though).

Tofino put itself "on the map" by catering to the wealthy spa-chic crowd as a place they could get away from the hustle, bustle urban life to enjoy the wilderness. It's pretty comical to watch the townspeople and tourists interact in the small downtown area. The townspeople are all fishermen, native Indians, and hippie kayaker dudes; while the tourists all seem to be wealthy, younger, urban hipsters. Quite a combination!

We ate lunch at one of the spa-chic high-end restaurants in town that featured a large lodge-style fireplace and leather sofas, ultra-swank bathrooms with toilet paper holders that had small LCD televisions built into them, and a trendy urban-inspired menu. There were only 2 other diners in the place by the time we arrived in mid-afternoon, and amazingly, they had driven all the way to Tofino from Chicago as well!

After lunch, we headed south to the Pacific Rim National Park and Long Beach along the Pacific ocean. An absolutely gorgeous beach:

On the way home, what day would not be complete for Millie without finding a little place to take a dip! Millie enjoyed her swim in this small lake in the middle of nowhere.

The next day, it was time to leave Qualicum and head south back through Nanaimo to Victoria. Nanaimo has a decidedly American feel to it with all of it's modern shopping conveniences of Wal-Mart, Home Depot and the like. Millie was running low on her favorite doggie treats, but not to fear, Nanaimo had a Petsmart and she was thrilled to be able to do a little shopping and collect a few more milkbone treats at the check-out counter!

Between Nanaimo and Victoria are a few smaller villages. One, called Cowichan Bay, had been highly recommended to us by a lady in Qualicum, so we made it our lunch stop. We had some great fish and chips for lunch, and then took some pictures along the harborfront:

Vancouver

2008-05-18T20:03:00.004-05:00

After La Conner, we had planned to spend more time exploring the Skagit valley, but it was so hot (and we were also there in between tulip and iris/lavender seasons when the fields were pretty empty), so we decided to just drive straight to Vancouver. Canada certainly must be cooler!

We set up base camp at about the only RV park in Vancouver-- Burnaby Carabou RV Park. It was a super clean park with all the amenities, but the layout was a bit odd. Sites were very shallow and no tow vehicles were allowed to be parked at the site (they needed to be parked in 2 large parking lots at the entrance to the park). Sites were sardine can sized, but at least they had nice privacy hedges between them. Here's little T@Bitu with our PahaQue Screenroom attached.
Motorhome Row at Burnaby Caribou RV Park:

The next day we set out to see the sights of Vancouver. It's a very interesting and paradoxical city. Like many Canadian cities, the wilderness is not far from the city center-- you can drive over a bridge to the north and be right back in bear country again. But unlike other cities up north, Vancouver likely has the most-diverse population and most number of immigrants hailing from China, Korea, India, and other southeast Asia countries. Even Vancouver's radio stations are interesting-- there are the typical CBC English and French stations mixed in with Chinese and Korean stations!

So, understandably, Vancouver's Chinatown is large and prominent in the downtown area (rivaling and possibly surpassing San Francisco or New York's Chinatowns). This is out in front of the 2nd-floor restaurant we stopped at for lunch which had terrific Dim Sum with lots of fresh shrimp and crab.

After lunch, we headed to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden a lovely walled classical Chinese garden in the heart of Chinatown. If it weren't for the tall, modern apartment towers in the background, you'd think you had been transported back in time a few hundred years.

After our trip to Chinatown, it was Miller TIme!!! (or more correctly, Millie's play time). It was a warm and sunny Sunday when we were there and so the whole city of Vancouver seemed to be hitting the beaches and parks for some fun in the sun. Just west of downtown is a long public beach that stretches for a couple of miles. At the far end of it is a beach area just for dogs! There were lots of other retrievers and setters fetching balls and sticks and getting wet:

Millie had a great time fetching her stick as well. This was the first time she's ever shared her water park with a mega cargo ship, though!Our evening restaurants around the RV park in Burnaby were hit-and-miss. They only seemed to have Korean restaurants, or a few American fast-food places. But there was one sit-down restaurant that looked promising, and it certainly was! It was a White Spot, part of a small chain of eateries in B.C. that are kind of like an upscale Appleby's with much better food. If you're ever in BC or Alberta, give them a try!

The second night we just wanted something small & fast so decided to just run to KFC for some chicken. Well, McDonalds and most of the other fast-food chains might be exactly the same in Canada as they are in the U.S., but not KFC. Their coleslaw was some kind of entirely different creation (and aweful)! Oh well, we should have known. Canadians are not as fond of fast-food places as we Americans are. In fact, they have a popular t-shirt that I've seen in many towns up there from BC to Alberta to Ontario that has an illustration of a bear chasing a stick-figure man through a campsite. The caption reads "Canadian Fast Food". So, best to skip the American fast-food chains and enjoy the fresh Canadian restaurants instead.

Whidbey Island

2008-05-16T14:00:00.000-05:00

When I was first reading through travel books and websites on the Pacific Northwest and planning our itinerary, I had planned to go from Seattle straight to Vancouver. Fortunately, my T@Bber friend from Seattle, Terry, gave me some expert advice and strongly suggested a stop at Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island.

The picture above doesn't do justice to the tall iron bridge that link Fidalgo and Whidbey islands together, or the jaw-dropping scenery surrounding the area. It was clear and sunny the days we were there, and our campsite was large and surrounded by old growth trees. The park itself was also terrific with hiking through forests, beaches along the Sound and underneath the bridge, and a large lake for kayaking and fishing.

The only thing the websites didn't mention was that the park is a few miles north of an active Naval Air Station! On Thursday, when we first got there, our peaceful, serene evening was postponed a few minutes for all the super-loud fighter jets to take off (shook the trailer even!). Fortunately, they stopped flying on Friday when all the weekend visitors began arriving.

Whidbey Island is the second longest island in the U.S. (following Long Island, NY) at about 50 miles long or so. On Friday, we decided to drive and see as much of it as we could. Since we were there in mid-May (prime rhododendron blooming time), we made a stop to Meerkirk Rhododendron Garden, which claims to have more variety of rhodies than any other garden in the U.S. Here is the delightful English stone welcome center along with some of the beautiful plants we saw.

We stopped for lunch in the delightful town of Coupeville, which sits on the south bank of Penn Cove and has a number of little shops and galleries filling the historic fishing village buildings along it's main drag. We had lunch at a restaurant that had big picture windows overlooking the harbor, and were greeted by a pair of sea gulls posing for us on the perch outside the windows.

On Saturday, we made one final stop as we left the islands and returned to the mainland-- the delightful little town of La Conner with it's arts and crafts shops and riverfront. It was unusually warm the day we were there (90 degrees), so we didn't stay long as Millie had to stay in the car while we walked the town.

I laughed when I first read the "Severe Weather Advisory" for the Seattle area that weekend-- it said "Severe Weather Alert. Weekend temperatures will be in the upper 80's and sunny". That's a typical nice summer day in Chicago, but in Seattle it was considered severe weather because not that many people have air conditioning. Later, as we listened to the news that weekend, there were reports of the heat causing the Cascade snow pack to melt too quickly creating high, fast-moving water along some of the mountain streams and rivers, so I guess they weren't kidding about 80's and sunny being severe for the area. We were glad to be headed north to Canada that weekend.

Kubota Japanese Garden

2008-05-14T23:18:00.000-05:00

When I attended a photo workshop a few months ago, the speaker was from Seattle and said that Kubota Japanese garden (owned and maintained by the city) was a great place to visit and photograph. He was right! This was our first taste of an elaborate pacific northwest garden with it's Rhodies in full bloom and it was spectacular!

Pike Place Market & Pioneer Square

2008-05-13T23:04:00.001-05:00

One evening, Mom & I did up the tourist sights in downtown Seattle -- Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. It was a great time to go! Parking around the market is typically pretty scarce or requires that you walk up flights of stairs to get to it, but arriving just before closing time, we were able to get a spot right next to the market and get lots of nice shots of the produce and fish without having to contend with hoards of other shoppers.

The market is quite large-- half of it is indoors and the other half is outdoors along the streets.

Mom posing for the "typical Seattle tourist" shot--

The pig in front of Pike Place Fish Market Co. welcoming shoppers to the market.

Pike Place Fish Company are the zany fish-throwing folks who inspired the book "Fish."
Finally, some more random shots of the market--

After the market, we headed over to Pioneer Square with it's giant totem, and one of the oldest and most architecturally interesting neighborhoods in the city.

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Seattle

2008-05-12T22:58:00.000-05:00

Seattle at last! It was great to be in the same place for more than one night! While I worked during the day from the T@B, Mom would go out scouting sights for us to see that evening.

On the first night, we decided to go out sightseeing before we'd done any research on good places to go for dinner. By the time we had seen the sights and were ready for dinner, the only non-fastfood place we could find was a Chinese Buffet in Kent. It had a big huge banner sign above the door that said "Voted one of the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants". When we walked in and looked around, everyone in there was either anglo or hispanic-- very few asians. Note to self--- if an ethnic restaurant needs a giant sign over the door to attract customers, and then has no customers of it's stated ethnicity eating there....turn around and RUN out the door! This place was gawd awful. The "Top 100" contest apparently must have only had 100 entries, and this place was #100!

Fortunately, it was our only really bad meal on the entire trip. A few nights later, we had a fantastic seafood dinner at place called Salty's in Redondo Beach. We got a table overlooking a nice sunset on Puget Sound and had some terrific, fresh wild salmon, clam chowder, and wine. Sure made up for the Chinese Buffet experience!

Meanwhile, Millie was having her own fun. Mom had stumbled across a great 40 acre off-leash dog park up on a ridge overlooking the valley and the Cascades. After almost a week of being stuffed into the little back seat of the Subaru, Millie was absolutely thrilled to be out running through tall cool green grass catching her favorite orange Frisbee.... and to get a nice big bowl of water afterwards...the big dog smile says it all!

Washington

2008-05-11T23:08:00.001-05:00

Our final day of trans-continental traveling took us through the state of Washington. Mom has a habit of needing to stop at every Visitor's Center when we first cross into a new state. Most are pretty ho-hum potty stops (to Millie, at least), but the eastern Washington visitor's center near Spokane was much different--- they had a large dog park right next door! So, Millie got a special treat for having to been cooped up in the back seat of the Subaru for 2000 miles. Here, Millie found a stick and was playing "keep away" from the other hounds chasing her.

I didn't have great expectations about the city of Spokane, but it actually turned out to be a rather neat town (at least, the downtown area that we saw). I was fascinated by the roaring rapids that run right through town--

and their pretty clock tower:

The trip through eastern Washington was unusual. Couer d'Alene and Spokane are quite hilly and still near the mountains with lots of evergreens, but very soon after leaving Spokane, the terrain becomes rolling prairie similar to the vast green Flint Hills of southeastern Kansas. The rolling wheat fields then became a high desert plateau near George, Washington (yes, they even have a bust of their presidential namesake as you come into town!). After crossing the Columbia River, you then start moving into the Cascades and more familiar mountains and evergreens that one would expect to see in Washington.

One of the neatest little towns in the Cascades was Roslyn, the town where the TV show Northern Exposure was filmed. Here's it's main street, the Brick tavern, and the Roslyn Cafe sign

After leaving Roslyn, we were just one potty stop away from our final destination, and this one was a doozy-- all the way up at the top of the Snoqualmie Pass which still had snow piled a dozen or so feet high! Millie had lots of fun trying to find a good place to squat!

Finally, we arrived at our new home for the week-- the KOA in Kent, WA. While the sites were a bit small, the park was very well-maintained and spotless. It was also in a nice green valley that had a bird sanctuary next door and grazing horses down the street. This, just 10 miles from Sea-Tac airport!

Montana and Idaho

2008-05-10T23:55:00.000-05:00

After leaving Medora, we drove to Billings and stayed at the same hotel we did last summer. I remember that hotel well as it was where I got the call that my first T@B had been destroyed while being transported home. Well, this year, we were there in much happier spirits! We found our favorite Montana gourmet pizza chain (Mackenzie River Pizza), and enjoyed some good Montana-brewed beers along with them.

The next day's drive was the longest of the trip, Billings to Coeur d'Alene, but it was a gorgeous trip! We first stopped at Livingston, which has a really nice Main Street:

Next stop was Bozeman, where we had a nice walk up and down their Main street and saw the rotating horse in front of the Army-Navy store:

Coeur d'Alene had pretty blossoming trees along it's main drag-
And this very interesting "house boat" on the lake (not quite sure if it was being transported somewhere or if the owner really indeed built a house on a barge!).

North Dakota

2008-05-09T22:51:00.000-05:00

Before this trip, I'd seen 46 of the 50 States. By the end of the trip, I'd add 2 more to that list-- North Dakota and Oregon. North Dakota was fairly uneventful for most of the state until we reached the western side where they have a stretch of badlands similar to those in South Dakota but not quite as impressive. The scene above is from Teddy Roosevelt National Park.

Near the park, is an adorable little town called Medora which is definitely worth a stop. One of the gift shop ladies told Mom that they don't get into full tourist mode until after Memorial Day (which explained the "ghost town" kind of feel the day we were there). But she did recommend a nice little family-run diner for lunch that had real home-cooked meals. It was a great change of pace from the typical chain restaurants we'd been eating at thus far on the trip.

Here are a few shots of Medora:

Westward Ho! The voyage begins

2008-05-08T23:32:00.000-05:00

Here's the departing shot of Tabitu and the BluRu ready to leave on our 6 week adventure to the Pacific Northwest. Millie and I left after work and drove in a blinding thunderstorm through Wisconsin, but we made it to the hotel just fine to meet up with my mom Sue.

She drove her own car because she will only be with Millie and me for part of the trip before she leaves to attend a wedding in Las Vegas, but after our last trip together last summer, we also thought it might be wise to travel with 2 tow vehicles this time....just in case!

Only downside to towing a trailer is the lousy gas mileage. Here we are in Fargo, ND filling up right across the street from the Space Aliens Bar & Grill.

Turkey Run T@B Rally

2008-04-28T17:10:00.004-05:00

Millie and I spent the weekend at Turkey Run State Park in Parke County, Indiana (the "covered bridge capital of the world") co-hosting the Midwest Spring T@B rally. We had over 40 people attending in 18 T@Bs, 1 T@DA, and 1 Class C motorhome (T@B wannabies!).

It was great to meet new friends and see old ones again from the Minden and Starved Rock rallies, and great to see my fellow co-hostesses, Judi Ryan and Ella Brown. All the rally pics are posted at this Shutterfly site.

The weather was mostly cooperative-- it rained briefly on Thursday night, and then on Friday night, the big thunderstorm managed to wait until we had enjoyed the campfire a bit before it blew in.

Saturday was sunny and a great day for a morning canoe trip along Sugar Creek beneath a couple covered bridges:

A great time was had by all!

Radio & Television

2008-04-23T18:39:00.000-05:00

My first T@B came with a car stereo and 2 rear speakers, which was great but a bit more sound than I really wanted when camping. It also took up more room. So this time a round, I chose this small weather/fm/am/TV band radio. It even comes with a built-in hand crank should it's internal batteries go dead.

Rather than haul a heavy TV around, my laptop does double duty. I bought a Hauppauge HDTV tuner on a small USB stick that turned my laptop into an HDTV for less than $100! To get the best reception possible, I decided on an outdoor antenna that many on the T@B forum had recommended-- the Wingard Hideaway.

I didn't want to mount it permanently to the side of the T@B (drill holes in my T@B? no way!), so I adopted one of the other forum member's idea of using heavy-duty suction cups from Harbor Freight and then just attaching the antenna to the suction cups via small bungee cords. The coax cable attaches to the bottom of the Hideaway and then just feeds right through the window to my laptop sitting on the counter.

When ready to break camp, I just pull down the Hideaway (it works like an umbrella), remove the suction cups, and then store it on the floor of the T@B (it fits perfectly).

Battery Recharging Alternative

2008-04-22T15:38:00.000-05:00

When I first got my T@B, I struggled trying to decide on the best solution to recharging the battery (which usually lasts about 2 days) when dry camping. Getting a small gas-powered generator was the most obvious choice, but I really didn't want to deal with hauling a filled gas can around or the mess of changing oil, etc (not to mention the mood-killer of listening and smelling a gas engine running when trying to enjoy the great outdoors).

So the more eco-friendly choice was to get a solar panel. It's certainly on my list one day, however, dry camping in the Northwoods doesn't always guarantee sufficient sunshine--- what would I do if I needed to recharge my battery on a cloudy day?

Well leave it to one of my fellow ingenious T@B buddies, Jay, to come up with a brilliantly simple alternative solution (and another T@B buddy, Jeremy, to perfect the idea even further). Jay and his wife often like to go sightseeing once they've set up camp, so Jay's idea was to bring a 2nd battery along and hook it up to his truck's 7-pin connector so that while they were out driving around, the spare battery would be getting charged up.

But that was only half of the brilliant solution! When they returned to camp, rather than have to fool with unhooking the T@B's battery and swapping it with the spare, Jay realized he could simply connect the spare battery to the T@B using the T@B's 7-pin connector cable.

Jeremy took this idea one step further and installed a "car-end" 7-pin connector directly into the spare's battery box so that you wouldn't even need to swap out a "car end" connector when attaching to the T@B for a "trailer end" connector when recharging the battery from the tow vehicle.

I wasn't quite as handy as Jeremy, so I just created a car-end connector cable to always keep attached to the spare battery. The battery, by the way, is an AGM self-contained model so that it's safe to carry around in the back of my enclosed station wagon.

Here are the components:

1. Make a cable with 2 "trailer end" 7-pin connectors. Inside the black cable cover are (2) 12 gauge wires to connect the 12v power and ground connections of the 7-pin.

2. Make a cable with 1 "car end" 7-pin connector (also used two 12 gauge wires to connect the 12v power and ground connections).

3. Connect the "car end" cable to the spare battery. In this setup, you can now connect it to the T@B's 7-pin connector cable to provide 12 volt power to the T@B.

4. Use the "trailer to trailer" cable to recharge the battery (My tow vehicle's 7-pin connector is on a cable itself that I can keep completely inside the car when not towing).

Better safe than sorry

2008-04-21T22:34:00.001-05:00

I read a story last year about a lady out in California who had her T@B stolen from a gated storage yard in a nicer community. The cuteness factor combined with the ease of hitching it up and carrying it away were all causes to it being targeted by the thieves.

So, many of us T@B owners now take a few added steps to deter would-be thieves. These solutions won't prevent a determined criminal, but will certainly make the T@B more of a hassle to steal than other nearby trailers.

The first solution is a 2 5/16" Gorilla Guard coupler lock. The T@B comes with a small coupler lock already, but it's not solid as a Gorilla Guard.
The next solution is a hitch lock. This combined with the T@B's coupler lock ensure that your T@B can't easily be unhitched and stolen while you're at a roadside restaurant for lunch.

On a related topic of safety, many of us augment the rear of the T@B with extra center reflectors or light strips since the standard T@B tail lights are so tiny. Hopefully it can prevent a weary interstate trucker from plowing into the back of my T@B because they didn't see the lights on my trailer.

Alternative to an LP Furnace

2008-04-21T00:01:00.006-05:00

T@Bs are small trailers, so full-sized home appliances, or even full-sized RV appliances are usually too big and waste too much precious storage space in the T@B. The LP furnace that is an optional accessory for the T@B is one such "space-waster". In the clamshell or L models, the furnace takes up minimal space because it's a straight shot from the external air supply/vent to the front of the unit. But on the queen bed model T@Bs, the front of the furnace is actually beneath one of the rear seats, so the factory must install extra vent tubes to route the air and exhaust out properly. These tubes take up most of one side of the under-seat rear storage, and even 1/3rd of the other rear seat storage as well. That's a ton of storage space to give up!

My first T@B didn't come with an LP furnace, so I was forced to improvise. What I discovered was that I actually liked the alternatives better than the real thing! And, I certainly liked having all that rear seat storage fully available.

When I am at a campground with electric hook-ups, I use a $30 oscillating ceramic heater that I purchased from Home Depot. It's small, lightweight, quiet, and heats the T@B very quickly. It also has a built-in thermostat and adjustable fan speeds. A great deal!

When I'm away from electric and dry camping ("boondocking"), I use an Olympian Wave 3 catalytic heater. It runs off of LP gas, is TOTALLY silent, and unlike the LP furnace, does not require any battery power to run. It's also very small and lightweight and uses less LP gas than the furnace.

In my first T@B, I installed a brass T-connector on the gas line outside coming from the LP tank and then ran an LP hose up through the front window to connect to the Olympian heater (which sat on the front kitchen countertop). While this required no major modifications to the T@B, it required that the heater be placed at a higher level than was best (heat rises). So, in the new T@B, I had my dealer install the T connector underneath the stove on the inside of the T@B. I also got a quick connect fitting so that I would not need to use wrenches to attach and disconnect the hose to the heater each time.

When not in use, the hose and quick connect wraps nicely into the under-stove cabinet.

When I want to hook up the Olympian, I just unwrap the hose and connect it. I can place the heater on the floor if I keep the couch in "couch mode", or else place it on a table or on top of the stove itself if I extend the bed out fully.

Little stuff

2008-04-20T15:41:00.001-05:00

Here are a few odds and ends that make life more comfortable with the T@B.

First, these simple stainless steel over-the-door hooks from Bed, Bath & Beyond are terrific for use for hanging coats, towels, toiletry bags, pot holders and other items. They're less than $5 each and well worth it!

The T@B has a limited amount of cargo capacity, so while you physically might be able to load up the trailer with tons of stuff, the frame itself is not rated to carry that much weight. So, as a consequence, you need to always be looking for the lightest weight solutions for every item you carry in the T@B. I bought a set of lightweight Bugaboo cooking pots and Lexan unbreakable plastic dishware from REI. The mesh storage bags also make them easy to store.

The pots use a removable grip handle and the skillets do double duty as lids to the larger pots.

Interiors of the pots are all Teflon coated.

The Lexan dishes and cups are stored inside it's own salad bowl and meat platter.

The kit also includes 4 cups, plates, and bowls.This space-saving folding lug wrench is great and easily opens to a full sized version.

Finally, to avoid buying/transporting lots of those 1 lb propane bottles, I bought this LP hose which connects a large propane cylinder to outdoor LP appliances (such as my LP Grill).

Let there be light

2008-04-19T18:37:00.000-05:00

Millie was quite excited to finally try out the new Firedancer LP gas firepit after it'd been sitting in the box for months waiting for winter to finally end. The Firedancer is great for folks like me who are terrible fire builders and/or don't like to haul wood around or put lots of excess smoke into the air. It creates a modest amount of heat and is fast and easy to turn on and off.

At last Fall's T@B rally at Starved Rock, we had a gift exchange of "great T@B camping items for under $5 bucks", and I received this terrific flat nightlight that emits a nice green glowing light from Dennis & Darlene. It's super handy to have in a pitch black T@B at night!

Another T@B friend, Terry, gave a great idea of using solar landscaping lights as supplemental evening lighting instead of sucking up battery power using the T@B's incandescent porch light. I found a pair of stainless steel "torch" patio lights at Wal-Mart for $20 and thought they'd be perfect for the T@B. They're small and easy to store, and can also be easily carried as a mini lantern, or used inside for extra "free" lighting. I love them!

Finally, one other way to minimize the use of the power-sucking T@B lights when dry camping is to use LED lights instead. I found this under-cabinet strip light at Camping World and it provides great additional lighting.

Preparing for our next big adventure

2008-04-06T22:30:00.006-05:00

Well, if Mom, Millie and I didn't have enough of an adventure last summer in the Rockies (coming home car-less and T@B-less), we're planning to tempt the Gods again and take another big adventure this year too! We're planning to do the Pacific Northwest in May and June.

To get T@Bitu a bit more comfortable and functional for the trip, I've been making a few modifications lately--

First, I moved the spare tire from underneath the T@B (impossible to access) to a tongue-mounted carrier (slightly easier access).

Next, I removed the heavy, large folding T@B table, and replaced it with a lightweight, small TV tray for daytime use, and some wooden "bed slats" for nighttime use to support the queen bed. Not only are the bed slats about 25 lbs lighter than the T@B table, they also allow more open space beneath the slats to store extra cargo. This is by far, the best $20 mod you can ever make to your T@B! Thanks to California Al from the Yahoo T@B Owners' Forum for the suggestion!

Next, I reinstalled the screen door from my old T@B into this one. However, rather than installing it the same way the factory does (where it opens towards the couch), I removed and reversed the snap tabs so that the door now opens towards the fridge for a bit less claustrophobic feel when you enter and exit the T@B.

Finally, to make our 6,000 mile trip as smooth as possible, I bought a pair of shocks from Jeremy on the Yahoo T@B Owners' Forum and had my dealer install them for me. The T@B now tows more quietly and smoothly-- what a nice ride!

T@Bless No More!

2007-11-18T19:41:00.000-06:00

I picked up my replacement T@B yesterday from Vacationland RV (Big Rock, IL). It's the second T@B and third camper I've bought from them in three years, and I also have stored my campers on their lot during the winter, so we know each other pretty well now. They're a terrific dealer with excellent service and low prices.

While I waited for them to install a hitch on my blue Subaru, I looked at their new T@DA trailer (the "bigger" version of the T@B). It was about the same as the one I had seen at the Minden rally last summer. It was a nice trailer, especially for a couple with a child, but a bit excessive for my needs. I was still glad a chose to get another T@B.

Here are a few more pictures of my T@B's homecoming... the interior is a golden tan color with brown accents (matches Millie's fur quite nicely!). I really LOVE the new stove and sink. Both have flush-mounted black tempered glass covers, and the stove now has an auto-ignition so you don't need to fool with matches or a lighter. So good to be a T@Bber again!!!

Midwest T@B Rally at Starved Rock

2007-10-15T12:21:00.000-05:00

Judi, a retired teacher from the Iowa Quad Cities, was one of the original people to buy a T@B when they first came out in 2004. She previously had a VW Camper Van and loved how much the T@B's interior reminded her of that. When we first met out at the Minden Rally, we both were amazed at how many other Midwest T@B owners we met, so we both commented that we should do a Midwest rally in the Fall.

We finally got serious about rally plans in late August. Judi suggested Starved Rock State Park in Illinois as it was about 1/2 way between both our homes and would also be fairly easy for others to get to being right off of I-80. So, we agreed on a weekend in mid-October and posted the rally information to the Yahoo T@B forum.

For the first week or so, no one signed up. We both started to think we'd be the only ones there! But, soon enough, folks started signing up--- so many, that we feared we might not find sites for every one. It all worked out in the end and the weekend was a delightful time for the 12 T@Bs, 1 Tent, and 24 T@Bbers who attended!

Starved Rock Lodge was having their Oktoberfest, so we planned our first night's dinner there...

The next night we had the traditional rally activities of a T@B Tour (where even some non-T@B folks from the campground came to take the tour!), followed by an enormous pot luck dinner, gift exchange, and campfire. Here are Millie and I showing off our tent during the tour (more rally pics are posted on the Shutterfly T@B Rally site)...

All and all, it was a terrific time with folks of all ages attending from as far away as Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. We all vowed to meet up again in the Spring for our next rally....so now it's just a matter of Judi and I finding a place, setting a date, and getting it all planned out again!

Bit by bit...putting it together

2007-09-04T20:50:00.000-05:00

One would think that after my hellish vacation experiences with my first Subaru, that I'd be looking for new cars the minute I came home. Well... Jody, the Subaru customer service manager who I'd been talking to daily during my car problems out West, also anticipated this. The day after I got home, she called to say "I'm guessing that you might not ever want to see that black Subaru again. Am I right?" Of course she was!

So, she pulled a few more strings at Subaru headquarters in New Jersey (where she works), and put me in touch with another dealer in Chicago who was tasked with getting me a replacement car. I told him I was flexible on the options and almost any color...except for black! Within a couple weeks, he found me a beautiful blue and silver Outback.

One night, I decided to make a formal portrait of Mom, Millie, and I in front of the new car to print and send to Jody at Subaru as a thank you for all the hard work she did on our behalf.

So now with the car problem solved, and a beautiful Labor Day weekend on the horizon, I was starting to go through serious camping withdrawls! I had gone out to my T@B dealer hoping I might be happy with buying one of their models off the lot, but none of them were quite right, so I ended up placing a special order for a new one....and would only need to wait about 12 weeks for delivery!

To make the wait more bearable, I decided to do two things: 1. Buy a tent so I could still do a little bit of camping this season, and 2. Plan to co-host a T@B Rally with a T@B friend I had met out at Minden. I figured if I couldn't have a T@B myself for a while, the next best thing would be to hang out around them and their owners for a weekend.

I decided to go with an LL Bean tent that matched my new blue car. Millie and I took it out to White Pines State Park for Labor Day weekend to christen it. Tent camping again was fun, but I had forgotten what a chore it was to pack and unpack all the camping gear into the back trunk (with the T@B "always packed", I had only needed to hitch it up and go). But it was sure better than not getting to be outdoors at all!

Mt. Rushmore

2007-07-29T19:10:00.000-05:00

After getting the dreadful news about our T@B, we decided we needed to try and make the most of our last couple of days of our vacation. We decided to go home by way of Mt. Rushmore and South Dakota, ironically, driving right past where Dave's accident had occurred on I-90 the day before (but not realizing it at the time).

We spent the night in Rapid City, SD along with about a million other tourists and then visited Mt. Rushmore the next morning (being followed by those million other tourists again!). I had never been to the Black Hills before, and apart from the tourist trap stuff, really liked the area and hope to get back there some day.

While in the area, we also visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield (where we saw this cute foal resting beneath it's mama).

We also drove through the Badlands National Park, which was quite spectacular and reminiscent of Utah and other far off southwestern locales.

And what trip to the Badlands would be complete without a stop to the infamous Wall Drug Store. Here's Mom posing at one of the tourist photo opp spots.

One final hurrah of tourist-mania was to drive past the Mitchell, South Dakota Corn Palace (with front walls featuring real corn!).

The rest of the trip home was dull and uneventful....except for the look on my next door neighbor's face when, after a month on the road, I drove a big brown Chevy Impala into the driveway. "Where's your camper & your new car?" he asked. "LONG Story," I replied!