A busy September leads into October

Marilyn, Rich and Us

Time continues to fly by. Summer seems to be a distant recollection of recent past. We're busy planning for the next leg of our journeys, which will start on October 19. We leave then for Massachusetts to visit the Ipswich clan one more time, then on to Connecticut where Consuelo is taking classes at "Stitches" through the weekend. Then we'll start our southern slide, with arrival at Jekyll Island to start November 1.

Runaway boat

Ready for some zip line, while Consuelo hides in the car

August had us busy with visitors. Paul's family visited early, then Liam and Amelia stayed on until Thursday, when we brought them down to Ipswich and stayed for an evening concert at the Crane Estate there. The next week, we tripped over to New Harbor, the next Maine point, and had lunch there with friends Clive and Sandy Henery who we see at Jekyll. The following day, we had a fine visit from my cousin Marilyn and Rich who stayed a couple of wonderful days with us. Marilyn delighted me by giving me our grandmother's camera which she has had in her possession forever. I was thrilled to add it to my small camera collection.

Pensive Porter

A day later, TJ, Luna and Porter arrived for a week long visit. Soon after they arrived, we got a call that our pontoon had broken away from its mooring and was high and dry on the shore in Hatchet Cove. We secured it for the night, then floated it off on the next high tide, and moored it somewhat better. No harm done.
We did some boating on a very foggy day, which made for an interesting tour.
One day TJ and the kids tried out the zip line at Monkey C Monkey Do. We tripped down to Pemaquid on a sunny day and enjoyed the rocks and the scenery. We played games and read books. We were sorry to see them leave.
We caught our breath for a few days, then Deb and John Wilkinson arrived for their 3rd annual visit. John and I moved the back door to make space in the kitchen for the refrigerator, then we waited out hurricane Irene as it plodded it's way through New England. Aside from losing power for a couple hours, it was a non-event here.

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse

Moved the back door

The rest of New England was harder hit by the hurricane, and a few days after the Wilkinsons left, the Red Cross called and asked us to deploy to Southbridge, MA, where they had set up headquarters for all 6 states. Vermont saw the greatest damage, but each NE state had relief efforts. After a week there, and as things were starting to wind down, we were redeployed to Hazleton, PA, where Irene's impact was capped by TS Lee, which pushed the Susquehanna River over its levees in several towns. This became the largest relief operation ever in the Northeast for the Red Cross, with nearly 100 ERVs out feeding and 900 volunteers helping out. We spent 2 weeks there, finally returning home on 9/26. As with most Red Cross deployments, we got the crud, appearing as a cold which lingers still.

Parked with Red Cross in PA

I was pleased to find out that Escapees Magazine had honored me with the cover photograph in the Sept/Oct issue, which included an article that I wrote about Jekyll. I have to set a new, higher goal for my photographic efforts now.

August!

My, the summer is traveling by fast. Projects, visitors, the boat, the garden, grandkids, events, art shows, all keeping us busy this year.Lots more to go before we shift gears, pack into out motorhome and travel south.
My garden is a bit smaller than last year, I skipped broccoli and carrots and have fewer tomatoes and cabbages. New this year are cucumbers, black beans, peppers and winter squash. The Maine spring was cold and wet in May, slowing everything down. My seedlings didn't do well, so mostly I have plants that I bought. One exception is the heirloom tomatoes from seeds that I saved from last year. They sprouted very slowly, but are coming along fine now. We've only harvested summer squash, green and yellow so far. Slugs are getting to the cabbage again.

Garden visitor

I've had some success with writing for publication. Escapees Magazine has published 2 articles so far. They are publishing another in September, this a feature article running 5 pages with 11 photos about Jekyll Island. They have another in the queu for next year, and one just submitted. I've also had a press release and a short feature in the coastal magazines here in Maine. I'm working on a feature on Mid-Coast Maine, but it's going slow, as the content is difficult to narrow.

Our table at Friendship Day

I've had a little success with photography. My Friendship Maine book has gone through 3 printings and one revision, and I need to order a 4th printing now (I print 10 copies at a time). We had a table on July 30 at Friendship Day, the local summer weekend celebration, where we sold books, posters, note cards and Consuelo sold slippers. We did pretty well I think. The next day was "Art in the Big Tent", again here in Friendship, where I had framed and matted prints. No sales... I think I was priced too high, and/or the traffic wasn't right. I'm not completely turned off, but less enthusiastic about art sales. Meanwhile, we've got a bunch of nice framed prints to put up in our house here.

Friendship Sloops racing in Rockland Harbor

Friendship Sloop Hegira rounding Owls Head Light

I did get myself over to the Friendship Sloop regatta in Rockland to take some pictures. The stance of the event organizers is to take "crew" on boards for sailing as space permits. I got onto one of the boats, but there was no space in the boats racing that day. Instead, on a day with 98 degree temperatures in Rockland, my captain decided to cruise out to one of the islands which had a protected anchoring area and a small beach. He had his son, daughter in law and two grand kids on board, plus anothe pair of "crew" from Illinois. The breeze was light, so we motored out and back. I did catch some nice shots, but I'd like to be in the race next year.
My grand kids Liam and Amelia, ages 10 and 6, spent a few days with us this last week. We had water balloon fights, tripped to Camden, went to the "beach", did some dog walking, watched TV, read books. Consuelo tried to teach them knitting with some small success. We enjoyed their company, but probably needed to be more active. The other grandkids with their dad will be here next weekend for a week's visit.
Our house is getting little new work this year. We spent our budget on a new roof this spring, so major renovations will have to wait until the future. We have some maintenance and repair items yet to finish before we leave for southern climes. We'd like to tear down the kitchen ceiling and put in a "cathedral" type affair with proper venting and vent fan for the stove. It will be a messy job as we have to remove the cellulose insulation above the ceiling tiles which are barely hanging in there right now. Another project is to remove a window in the end of the kitchen and install a pantry to store all manner of things which have no good home now.
We've had a couple visitors from among our Jekyll Island friends so far this year, with others yet to arrive. Sandy and Clive Henery called yesterday, and they are in Freeport now. We'll be having lunch with them on Wednesday. Jim and Linda Strid stopped in for a few days. And Bob and Nancy Hoffman stayed a couple days with us in their motor home while on their way to Acadia. The three of us ferried out to Monhegan Island for a hot walk taking lots of pictures.
Later today I am taking pictures of the "Chowder Cup" sailboat race here. Our pontoon will be on hand to rescue and of the sailors who might get into trouble during the Class C segment of the race. Class C is the smaller boats who will race around the small islands in the inner bay, while the larger boats will sail out around farther marks. Should be fun.
Monday we'll be taking a walking tour of Davis Point, one of the other summer ghettos here in Friendship. In preparation for this, one of the owners of a house that will be open there on Monday asked me to restore an old hand assembled photo taken out their back door many years ago. It was an interesting challenge and you can read about it on my photo blog.

Out with the Red Cross Again

The tornadoes in Western Massachusetts did a lot of damage. We notified the Red Cross that I was ready to travel immediately after the event, but they did not have an opening for me until yesterday. Within an hour I was packed and on my way to Springfield. I expect to be here 2 weeks this time, and I'll most likely be doing the same things as my last outings, working in headquarters on staffing. I don't have info on the size of the operation yet. I do know that there is one large shelter open, and several mobile feeding trucks are out working the community.

I am staying in West Springfield, in a hotel that is in the backyard of where I lived for 3 years. My former efficiency apartment building us now a Friendly's, and that's not all that's changed over here.

Summer Arrives Soon, but first...

We've had a coldish wettish May here in Friendship. I've tried to get some vegetables started for the garden, but they have declined until very recently. I did gte some tomato seeds planted before we left Jekyll, btought them up here, and tended them in at night and out during the day, except for that one noght I forgot to get them in and they froze. Likewise a basil plant I picked up along the way. Only the rosemary survived that night, because rosemary is a perennial.

Around the first of June, the weather started looking better. That is, we had some days in the 60s. Until today. This morning it got up to 80 degrees, and like most parts of the country, a hot day is being capped off with thundershowers this evening. We've missed all the tornado activity here, thank goodness.

Since June 1st, I've planted onions, tomatoes, cabbage and marigolds that I bought, winter and summer squash, pumpkins in the garden. I have pepper seeds and more tomatoes, lettuce and basil starting on the deck. The peppers have been reluctant to appear, but I think they're beginning to peek out.

We've also done a lot of work on the landscape garden next to the addition we put on. We got some hostas from Paul and Maria, monk's hood, bleeding heart, and daisies from a neighbor up here. I bought some ragged petunias from Home Depot on sale, and I think most of those will survive. The hostas and astilbe that we planted last year had to survive being run over by our roofers, but they appear willing to go on. We put landscape fabric down there and added mulch, and have edged it with rocks that were dug up while planting the foundation posts for the deck. Yesterday, I planted nasturtiums and the lase of the onions out off the deck.

Since I planted, rain has been nil, until right now. We're getting a good soaking... hopefully not so much that things wash away!

The GW Bridge in a motor home

Our travels this spring took us from Jekyll Island, Georgia to Friendship, Maine, a distance of about 1500 miles. We stopped for fuel twice, once in South Carolina and again in southern New Jersey, and spent about $625 for diesel. We had about 1/3 tank to start, and ended up with about the same.

The only serious difficulty we had was entering the George Washington Bridge from New Jersey on Interstate 95. The signage was a bit confusing to me, and I'll explain.

Care must be taken when traveling around NY city in a large motorhome. There are a number of old "parkways" which are restricted for cars only. One reason for this is that they have many bridges which have low clearances that would impede our travel. Another is that they want to restrict commercial traffic to roads designed for heavy trucks.

The obvious route for us to take out of NY City would have been the Henry Hudson Parkway, but we could not travel on that. To avoid going way out of our way, we needed to connect to Interstate 87 immediately after crossing the George Washington Bridge. All of the signs in New Jersey stated that traffic bound for I87 needed to cross on the lower level. Other signs indicated that all trucks MUST cross on the upper level. There was no indication that trucks could access I87 via the upper level. Nor was there any indication that RVs must follow the truck routes, and in most cases, private vehicles like us are permitted where trucks are denied. With the information I had, my choice was to make sure I got on I87, so I chose the lower level.

When we pulled up the the toll booth, the very nice lady there told us that we were on the wrong level. She carefully explained that we would have to pull aside just beyond the toll booth and wait for an officer to escort us to the upper level. Oh, and pay your $32 toll here, and show them the receipt at the other toll booth.

We pulled aside and waited about 20 minutes for an officer to arrive. He told us to follow him, and we would go up a ramp that was marked "DO NOT ENTER". Which we did. That took us back onto the streets around the bridge, and we arrive at the upper level tool booths in a few minutes. A mildly confused warily eyed our receipt, and passed us through.

Getting on I87 after the bridge was no big deal, as long as we stayed in the right lane. Traffic was heavy but moving, and we got off without incident. An hour later we were parked iin a campsite north of the city, and the grand-kids arrive an hour after that.

A little knowledge is wonderful.In this case, the restriction that forced us to the lower level was because we were carrying propane, a hazardous material not permitted on the lower level. Signs that reflected that would have helped immeasurably.  

Jump into spring

Sunset on St. George Island
Oh, my, dear readers. I've been away for a long time. Sorry about that. We started this blog to document our travels, and we have not been traveling. Incentive dissolved.
In twenty five words or less, we left Maine in October, visited family and friends, did a little touring, went to Louisiana for RV repairs, schlepped over to Jekyll for the winter. OK, twenty six words.
The RV repairs had to do with our main slide, which wasn't working. We went to Dick Albritton's fine Alfa repair shop in LA for an upgrade to the motor, one better designed for the weight of the huge slide. So far, all that is working fine.

Foggy Jekyll Campground

We stopped in Roanoke, VA and Asheville, NC on the way down. We did a little touring in both places, going to the Blue Ridge trail and Biltmore Estate, and a nice downtown market in Roanoke.
We stopped at Summerdale, AL and St. George State Park in the Florida Panhandle on our way back east. Checked out the Gulf coast (post oil spill) in AL and wondeful deserted beaches in FL.
We arrived on Jekyll on Nov 28, just after Thanksgiving.
One of our goals was to share our knowledge here with those who were willing. Consuelo developed a beginner's and intermediate knitting classes. I put together a photography workshop and held 2 full 4 week sessions in January and February. We discovered that there was little structure to such activities, so we worked to develop some infrastructure. Part of that included creating a new blog for the winter group (jekyllwinter.blogspot.com), an online calendar, and developing policies that worked. There is now a working group designed to empower activities duing the winter season.

Alligator warming on the golf course

The photography was good this winter. Given that I'm just as inclined to put my feet up and watch TV as the next guy, instead of going out to find creative scenes to capture with my camera, but I got out enough. I continued to expand my skills both with the camera and with the software, in part by taking a class at the Jekyll Art Center. 90% of the class was reinforcement, 10% an expansion of my skills. I was disappointed that the class did not include creative feedback as promised. The culmination of all this was the Jekyll Arts Festival, a juried competition. This meant buying frames and mounting photos, always a challenge for me. Given their guidelines, I entered as an intermediate, and won two seconds, a third and an honorable mention. I've been informed that my time as an intermediate is over, I'll be in the advanced group next year. Harder, perhaps, but better.
To sell photos, I created 13" X 19" posters and sold a bunch, note cards, and I was requested to do portrait photo shoots. I also found a little work as a "Photoshop Expert" for a local photographer during the Christmas season.
We renewed old friendships and made new ones here during the winter. By February, I got out the golf clubs and did weekly rounds with the guys. Consuelo went to lunch with a bunch of other ladies a few times, and we had our share of dinners out.

Sunset over the fishing pier

Jekyll is partly under construction, as the old convention center has been demolished, and a new on under contruction. Huge tents have been placed in the historic district as a temporary convention facility. During November and December, 20th Century Fox tied up parts of the island making a movie. A huge chink of beach is still fenced in as restoration work continues where the movie set was located.
Now it's April, nearly all of our winter friends have gone home, replaced by snowbirds stopping on their way north and locals getting out of the Georgia winter for the first camp out of the season. We'll be here until 4/18, when we'll wing our way north.