Category Archives: Friends

August Cabin Update

August 2, 2022 exploRVistas 30 Comments

August 2, 2022 – Leelanau County, MI – Written by Jim

It’s been over a month since we last wrote; it’s time for an update! You may recall that Jodee and Bill had come for a visit on their tour of Michigan. At the time, we were in the process of finishing the large deck. Their fluffy dog Tessa took one look at our project and had her say:

After they departed, we finished the deck.

Two decks done, one to go! We are saving our entryway for last. Once we were at this point, we went to our storage room and picked up our deck furniture, our TV and any kitchen boxes we could identify.

It sure is nice to have this furniture back with us!

The next project on the list was the master bathroom. We started this year with painted walls and cement board in the shower area.

We did manage to waterproof the cement board and put down the sheet vinyl flooring this spring, but that was about it.

This was my third tile job in the cabin and easily my most challenging. We were happy with how it came out. A week and a half after I started, the bathroom was nearly complete:

All we need to do is have the shower door installed, put up the towel bars, install the entry and closet doors and the trim. On to the next project: the fireplace!

We started by installing the mantle. We then laid out the stones on a cardboard template:

The handmade tiles are a nod to my grandparent’s home in Detroit, which my grandpa had covered with Pewabic tile. These tiles are made not too far from us in Alden, Michigan by a man who worked for Pewabic. The pink one is a robin, the green one is a maple leaf (both of which we have on our property) and the large blue one in a vineyard with the words “Leelanau Peninsula” on it. Once again, masonry work is something I had never tried, so a lot of YouTube videos were watched, along with some helpful consultations with Jim Nelson…who recently tackled this type of work himself with his wife Barb and friend Kevin.

Less than a week later, it was done. We were glad to see that we measured the TV niche correctly to accept our TV! Time to move on to the next project: flooring.

We are using vinyl plank, which is really nice to work with.

I saw this rolling knee pad being used on HGTV’s Hometown. It sure made this job a lot easier! While I was doing this room…

…Diana was sanding and painting the door trim in the master bedroom. She will be painting the 16 foot baseboard trim next, which she will do in the barn. It’s amazing how much trim goes into a structure of this size!

I am currently halfway through the flooring. I finished the entry closets and the laundry area yesterday.

This is the hatch to our crawl space in the closed position…

…and in the open position. A special thanks to Rod and Mary for the idea of the wall latch to hold the lid up, along with the recommendation of the SmartCore Ultra flooring from Lowe’s. To complete this hatch, we are going to add a grab bar on the left wall, a gas strut on the right and (eventually) a more permanent ladder to the space below. A note on the white baseboard: Our windows were ordered with jambs wide enough for our 2 x 6 walls, but the manufacturer mistakenly made them with jambs for 2 x 4 walls. Rather than send the windows back last year, I had them send me the correct jambs along with compensation for my time installing them. I salvaged the old jambs, turning them into closet baseboard. That kept them out of the landfill and saved us a few bucks in the process!

While it seems like our summer has been all work, we have played a bit too! We’ve had visits from Lane & Patti, John & Julie and our neighbors Gary & Linda, who brought us some cherries from their orchard! We also have made it to Music in the Park in Northport each Friday evening.

This past Friday was The Fabulous Horndogs, a band that got back together after a 12 year hiatus. We knew we were in for a treat when we saw the crowd size. They were indeed fabulous!

Stay tuned as we work to finish up the doors and trim, along with our entry deck. That one involves stone pillars, so my masonry tools aren’t quite done yet. Until next time, safe and happy travels to all!

Astronomy and Space, Florida, Friends

Autumn in Florida

December 15, 2021 exploRVistas 15 Comments

Melbourne Beach, FL – December 14, 2021 – Written by Jim

Rockets, sunshine and a new Costco…oh my! What more could two people want?

Our fall in Brevard County, Florida has been a combination of walks on the beach, launches from Cape Canaveral, sprucing up our lot at the park and buttoning up paperwork from our summer construction project. We’ve had 4 launches since we got here, three of which we watched from our beach.

First up was a SpaceX Falcon 9 daytime launch of Crew 3. When there are humans on board, we all tend to hold our breath a bit. This is a composite streak shot I took on my iPhone of that mission. This type of photography really works well on the night launches, as you will see on my next photos.

Next up was a SpaceX Falcon 9 night launch.

This mission carried over 50 Starlink satellites into orbit There is a lot going on in this composite, which I will try to explain. The brightest streak is the first stage rising from Cape Canaveral, which ends near the top of the arc. That is MECO, or main engine cutoff. There is a slight gap before the second stage lights and the arc continues. While it appears that the rocket is falling at that point, it is actually continuing to rise over the curve of the globe. Note that I was able to get the entire arc into the frame, as the rocket was flying northeast, which is away from us. The squiggly line to the left is an airplane, as is the swooping line to the right. Both were flying towards us and stayed well outside the restricted airspace. The jumble of light at the bottom of the photo is a group of four people sitting on the beach with flashlights and phones and the couple on the shoreline is Bill and Erin, neighbors of ours from the park.

Next up was an Atlas V launch by United Launch Alliance.

That rocket had 5 solid rocket boosters, which really made it jump off the pad. It flew straight east, which made it impossible to catch it all on my iPhone, even at wide-angle. We watched this flight with friends Becky, Joe and Lynette at 5 in the morning. Shortly after this was taken, we could see the 5 solid boosters fall away, twinkling as they fell towards the ocean. After that, we were treated to a rare spectacle:

This is a photo (not a composite) of the second stage heading over the horizon. It is the yellowish dot near the ocean. Above it is the exhaust plume being lit up by the sunrise. While the sky remains dark for us at 5:15 AM, that rocket is high enough and far enough east to see the rising sun. What a treat that was! Two days after that, there was another Falcon 9 launch that we missed, as it was at 1 AM. Becky, Joe and Lynette saw it, but we couldn’t drag ourselves out of bed. 🙂 We have many more launches coming up, including one from a new company on the Space Coast called Astra. Their first two launches were from Alaska, of all places. NASA is planning on launching their first SLS moon rocket in the spring, so that will hopefully happen while we are here. We also received news that SpaceX is building launch facilities at the cape for Starship, their gigantic rocket that performs a belly flop on its way back down from space.

They are currently conducting those test launches from Texas. Starship will be taller than a Saturn V moon rocket and will be the most powerful launch vehicle ever built. Exciting times around here, for sure.

News closer to home is that we finally have a working refrigerator in the RV! Our previous gas/electric fridge stopped working on electric about a month after the warranty expired, early last year. The service technician we purchased it from came several times last winter, but was never able to resolve the issue. We attempted to get another gas/electric this past summer from Camping World, but twice it arrived damaged. We finally had them refund our money. When we got to Florida, our friends Brenda and Jim told us that their new fifth wheel came with a 12 volt refrigerator. We had never heard of this type, so we looked them up online. It uses a small compressor, similar to a house fridge. The bonus is that it doesn’t have the large absorption unit on the back, so there are 2 more cubic feet of space inside the unit. It keeps things nice and cold, too! Many thanks to our friend Mark for helping us install it.

Back in Michigan, our cabin is online and letting us know that all is well. We have a wifi thermostat that lets us know what the furnace is doing, along with the current inside and outside temperature. Our wall of windows has been a boon when the sun is out, as the temperature in the house climbs above the set point of the thermostat. Free heat is a good thing! We also have a monitor on the propane tanks, so we know how much we have left. The electric cooperative even has an app that shows us our hourly usage. We’ve been pleased with how efficient the cabin has been so far.

Along with our security system, our friends Lane and Patti are keeping an eye on things up there, as are our neighbors on both sides of us. Hopefully these two will be able to bring their fifth wheel south one of these days and hang out in the sun with us. We sure do miss them!

Another fun thing for us is that our barn now has a Menards SKU number, meaning you can go online, get the plans and build one for yourself!

When we designed it, we used their planner…so the design becomes their property. They did ask if they could use it in their ads, so they must really like it! They also have the materials package listed separately on a different page. Search “Valley Garage” on the Menards.com website.

And there is nothing quite like celebrating the holidays on the Space Coast! We kicked off the season on Thanksgiving by celebrating at Jerry and Linda’s place with several other friends. We also went with friends Bonnie and Fred to check out the lights at Wickham Park.

The display is normally a drive through event, but they open it up to walkers one weekend a season. It is huge! Sure is great to see these two again!

Speaking of decorations:

We are all decked out for another holiday season!

We even got the truck into the act this time. 🙂

And last but not least, we have a new Costco on the Space Coast!

Now…if only we could find room in the fifth wheel for this. 🙂

That’s about it for now. Stay tuned for more launches and other Florida fun before we head back north to resume our building project. Until next time, safe and happy travels to all!

Friends, Leelanau, Michigan

A Friendly Push

October 8, 2021 exploRVistas 19 Comments

October 8, 2021 – Leelanau County, MI – Written by Jim

“Pushhhhh.”

That was Diana’s dad’s response back in the 1980’s when she asked him how he was able to find the energy to totally renovate a house in the evening, all while working during the day as a superintendent for a commercial construction firm.

At the time, he was overseeing the renovation of the concrete topping at Buick City, working twelve hours a day and being on call the other twelve. That job was a monumental task in its own right, let alone throwing a home remodel into the mix. Diana and I have thought of Bud’s statement many times this summer, as we’ve had to push ourselves a bit to get our cabin building project to where it needed to be by season’s end. As the days slipped by on the calendar, it seemed at times that we had a bit more on our plate than we could chew.

Enter the friendly push.

Every one of our friends who has stopped by this summer has added to our project in some way, whether it be through moral support or by picking up a tool and digging in. These past few weeks have been a flurry of activity, fueled by the “pushhhhh” of our friends.

One of the deadlines we had to meet was finishing up the mechanical work this year. That involved all heating and venting work, including the ductwork from the microwave oven to the outside. In order to complete that, the microwave had to be installed above the range. I called my friend John who was there in a flash to help me with that project. Of course, I failed to get a photo. But…

…John’s wife Julie was able to photobomb her own photo when she shot this image of our friends Cindy and Jessica, who had stopped by to check out our progress. Julie is in the reflection in the door glass. Cindy and Jessica are neighbors in Kalamazoo, and John, Cindy, Diana and I all lived in the same dorm in college.

A week or so later, our friends Jim and Barb went way out of their way to lend a hand with our build. You may recall that we had stopped at their place in South Dakota to help them with their barndominium in 2019. Details of that project can be seen HERE. This trip, the two of them had been fishing and hunting north of Lake Superior and drove several hundred miles out of their way to lend us a hand.

We started out our long weekend by showing them the local sights. From there, we plotted our course to complete some key projects. First up was emptying the contents of our local storage room, as we had stashed many of our supplies there over the summer. We filled our 16 foot cargo trailer twice, so this was no small feat.

Next up was digging a trench across our driveway for a service conduit.

While I had loosened the soil with a metal tube chained to my tractor, Jim did the lion’s share of the digging. No better way to get to know Leelanau than to dig into it’s rocky soil! Once that was complete, Jim helped me add a support beam to the deck in the above photo that has the tools leaning against it.

We finished up by adding some diagonal braces to the main deck, which took out the sway at the outer reaches of it. When we were all done, Jim pulled out his drone and took some aerial photos for us. Here is one that shows our hideaway really well:

That was a huge weekend. We can’t thank them enough for their help!

The next big events to happen were the electrician and the HVAC tradesmen finishing their work.

It’s exciting to have power and heat! Those were followed by the electrical and mechanical final inspections, both of which were approved.

We also had a visit from our friends Becky and Joe!

They were on a journey from their home in Montana to our park in Florida. We hung out at our place for a bit before going to dinner at one of our favorite places, Hop Lot. It was great to see them!

Now we are on a push to finish a few things before we head south for the winter.

We have been able to complete more of the cabinet work this week. This won’t be totally finished before we leave, but it will be closer than this.

We also moved our appliances inside from the barn. We want to test them out and make sure they work while they are in the same year that we purchased them. That refrigerator was a tight fit!

We have a few more things we want to accomplish before we leave for Florida, so be sure to stay tuned for that. Until next time, safe and happy travels to all!

Family, Friends, Leelanau, Michigan

Autumn Maples in All of Their Splendor

October 25, 2020 exploRVistas 31 Comments

September-October 2020 – Leelanau County, Michigan.

Written by Jim

Knowing we had a lot of things to do to wrap up our summer in Leelanau, we set a mid-October departure date. Not only would that allow us the time to finish up our projects, but it would provide us the treat of seeing our trees in all of their autumn splendor. Hopefully we wouldn’t push it too far to where we had to descend our steep driveway in the snow!

One of our projects was to take down four dead trees that could have posed a problem over the winter. The last thing we wanted was to arrive in the spring to a tree across the driveway.

We will have plenty of campfire wood next year!

Diana built a compost bin and has been filling it for the last month or so.

We should end up with some good mulch from this!

We also found time for friends and family. Lane & Patti and Rod & Mary joined us for happy hour, and Diana’s cousin Debbie came up for a weekend. Diana’s cousin Jerry has visited three times over the summer and cousin Reed visited twice. Our friend Tim also visited while he was in the area on vacation from California. We failed to get photos every time!

Also, our friends Terry and Diane came up from Grand Rapids and were our inaugural RV guests for a night! We had a great visit with them.

One of the interesting discoveries on our property was an old split rail and barbed wire fence that runs ten feet inside the west property line. We did some research and found out who owned the property in 1870…the earliest we could find. That family continued to keep the property into the 1970’s, making it a centennial farm. There were two other owners between them and us.

The fence is much older than 1970, and we have made contact with the family who originally owned it. More on that in another post. We are most interested with who may have put up the fence and also who planted the apple trees. A few of those are still producing fruit, despite their advanced age.

Most of the fence had fallen down, so we are installing metal posts on the hidden side to keep it off the ground so it won’t rot as fast. It’s not intended to act as a barrier; it’s more for asthetics and history.

It wasn’t long and Leelanau’s leaves started changing color.

We were hearing from the locals that it was the prettiest fall they had seen in a long time.

The trees were ablaze with autumn hues

Scenes like this, no matter which direction we looked!

Even the sky got in on the action. 🙂

A caramel apple, cinnamon donut and some hot apple cider would complete this scene.

Here is the view looking down our road towards Grand Traverse Bay. The bay can be seen in the distance, along with the bay’s eastern shore near the tip of Torch Lake. A mere 15 miles as the crow flies; it takes an hour to drive the 46 miles around the bottom of the bay to get there.

And with that, we bid adieu to Leelanau for the winter! Our cottage is staked out, plans are drawn and we hope to start our build in the spring. We are currently in Alabama, and we are headed to warmer latitudes to sink our toes into the sand…and to check out some cool rocket launches to share with you. Until then, safe and happy travels to all!

Family, Friends, Michigan

Goals Set and Goals Achieved

September 1, 2020 exploRVistas 39 Comments

September 1, 2020 – Leelanau County, Michigan

When we left Florida this spring, we had a set of goals in place to install our utilities and build our barn on our property in Michigan. With the onset of COVID-19, we figured that we might have to scale those goals back a bit. Well, here we are at the beginning of September with all of our plans completed and more. It has been a great summer for us, despite the pandemic!

We last left you with siding on west side and back of the barn. Since then, we’ve finished the east side, then moved the scaffolding around the front.

The peak was a real trick to reach. Good thing we had the extension levelers for the bottom!

Here I am with the last piece of shake siding.

It was tippy-toes to get that up there!

Before long, we had all of the siding complete! Coach lights and gutters put the finishing touches on the exterior…

…while lights finished off the interior. That officially wrapped up our goals for the summer! We didn’t stop there though. I added a workbench inside the barn and then focused on finishing our shed that I rushed to build last summer.

I tacked on the batten strips, painted it and then roofed it to match the barn.

Another project we had was to cut up all the logs from the trees we had cut down along the driveway. We gave the wood to Lane and Patti, as they had helped us out earlier by supplying us with water the first month we were here.

Lane and I had a couple days of cutting.

We ended up with three loads like this. Diana and I saved two nice logs and took them to the sawmill near us to make into some pieces for the cottage. More on that in a future post.

While Lane and I were doing that, Diana had noticed that a bush she had trimmed earlier had sprouted a bunch of new shoots. Looking it up, she discovered that it was Autumn Olive, a highly invasive plant that takes over the forest edges. Turns out that it was a suggested planting for erosion control in the mid 20th century…until it started taking over everything. Diana went on a mission to rid our property of it.

Here she is, loppers in hand! Per the NW Michigan Invasive Species Network and her own research, she is cutting them and chemically treating the cut stems.

We pile them up and chain them to the bucket of the tractor…

…and stack them on our burn pile.

We will wait until there are no leaves on the trees to torch this…preferably on a rainy day. We still have a lot more to add to this pile.

We are also trying to grow grass in several places. That means spreading topsoil, seeding and putting straw on top.

It’s nice having a car hauler for a trailer, as I can drive right up the ramps and scoop off the dirt with the tractor.

Here I am spreading it out before seeding it. While I am doing that, Diana has been planting Daylilies that Mary gave us and Iris that Lane and Patti gave us.

Here are the Daylilies…

…and here she is planting the Iris.

So as you can see, we’ve accomplished a lot this summer! It hasn’t been all work though. We’ve had several physically distanced get-togethers with several friends and family, along with a day of kayaking at Sleeping Bear Dunes. We even got to meet our great nephew for the first time!

Miles is wearing a little outfit we got him at RonJon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach. Becky and Dan couldn’t be happier, and Charlie even approves. 🙂

As we reflect on the summer, we look back to a photo Lane and Patti sent us the week before we arrived on May 2nd:

Our place was nothing but our little shed and a building site in need of leveling. Compare that to this photo I took today from the same place, a mere four months later:

We are thrilled with where we ended up. Hopefully our cottage build next summer goes as smoothly as this year’s barn build did. 🙂

Be sure to stay tuned for our next post, as we wrap up our summer here in Leelanau. Until then, safe and happy travels to all!

Friends, Michigan, Museums, National Parks

Planes, Boats, Automobiles and Music

July 27, 2019 exploRVistas 21 Comments

Leelanau and Benzie Counties, MI – July 19-25, 2019

Keep on movin’…

If there is one statement that can describe our last week, the aforementioned line would be it. Finishing up our shift at Sleeping Bear Dunes last Friday, we hightailed it up to Northport, Michigan to see a musical duo named Mulebone.

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We had listened to this Brooklyn, NY based pair back in 2017 and couldn’t wait to see them again. The music they play can best be described as ‘roots blues’, if you can imagine such a thing. Their hit Keep on Movin’ provided a theme for our week to come. We met up with our friends Rod, Mary, Lane, Patti, JoAnn, Paul and Skip, along with several other acquaintances. A great evening, indeed!

Saturday morning found me opening the Cannery boat museum, while Diana was off to the Visitor Center to answer questions for the park’s guests. While I was vacuuming, I heard a roar much louder than the Dyson I was dragging behind me.

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Four A-10 Warthogs buzzed Glen Haven, doing a wing wag as they passed. I managed to get a photo of the last one as it flew by. Later that day, we had a torrential downpour that lasted a good portion of the afternoon. A couple on their bikes holed up in the building with me while the rain fell. The noise level on the roof was deafening! So much for any chance at the lake levels going down. 🙂

That night, Diana and I headed back to Northport to see one of our favorite bands, The Accidentals.

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Taking their name from the accidental musical note, Katie Larsen and Savannah Buist met by chance in a high school orchestra class. Joined later by Michael Dause, this trio turns out some very innovative music. They were recently signed by Sony Masterworks and are fresh off a tour of the United Kingdom. We’ve seen them numerous times; the most recent being last year with our friends Jodee and Bill. Unfortunately, the word ‘accidental’ reared its ugly side on Sunday as the group left Traverse City:

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Someone ran a stop sign and t-boned their van. Luckily, everyone….and most of the equipment…is ok. Sad to say that Katie’s carbon fiber cello took a direct blow and will never play their hit Michigan and Again again. Instruments can be replaced though, as can vehicles. They are already back on the road and their music lives on.

Keep on movin’…

Our Sunday was a bit better than theirs. We drove south into Benzie County and visited Point Betsie Lighthouse.

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This gem was built in 1858. The grounds consist of a combined lighthouse/keeper’s quarters, fog signal building, oil house and a separate lifesaving museum/gift shop.

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The museum had several pieces of authentic lifesaving equipment, including this time clock the shore patrol would’ve carried on their nightly rounds.

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The idea was that they would walk to a post several miles down the beach and insert the key that was attached to it. That proved to their station’s keeper that they walked the entire distance.

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I found this photo interesting in that it shows the lighthouse depot at the foot of Mt. Elliott Street in Detroit, which still exists. My great-grandfather and his crew departed from that very same dock on the USLHS Amaranth in 1892 to build Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse. The depot is about 1 mile from where he lived at the time.

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The museum also had this display that showed how to balance containers on a ship. Being the hands-on guy I am, I picked up one of the blocks, which in turn caused the boat to roll over and dump the entire cargo. Diana proceeded to reload the blocks on the deck and send the boat on its way. 🙂

Once we finished up at the museum and fog signal building, we headed into the lighthouse.

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The view to the north from the tower shows the entrance to the Manitou Passage. The beach patrol from the adjacent lifesaving station would’ve walked north several miles each night to the key on a post. The men at the Sleeping Bear station would walk south to the same post. We’ve made it our goal to attend the lighthouses’ bicentennial in 2058. We will be 100 at the time.

Keep on movin’…

Monday found us on a morning hike before our shift in Glen Haven.

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Our purpose was to test out our new double-collapsible trekking poles that we are taking to the UK in September. We like them so far. The trail we chose for our hike was Alligator Hill up to Islands Overlook; an easy three mile round trip.

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This is Sleeping Bear Point from that viewpoint. The black roof of the Cannery and the flagpole at the lifesaving station can be seen in the photo.

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This is the vista looking north. South Fox Island is to the left and Pyramid Point is to the right. Truly a spectacular view.

Tuesday saw me complete a project I’d been wanting to do since we purchased Hank the Deuce:

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This tonneau cover is specially designed to work in conjunction with my behind-the-cab toolbox. It rolls up tight against the box when I’m hauling the fifth wheel. It will keep the hitch and the other goodies we carry back there out of the weather.

Keep on movin’…

To wrap up the week, we met up with our friends Paul and Sheryl. We’ve known each other since our college days at Western Michigan University.

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We met for dinner at Cherry Republic on Wednesday and took in the Empire Bluffs trail on Thursday morning. It was good to see them again! We followed that up with another shift at the Cannery and on to the next week at Sleeping Bear. Keep on movin’!

Stay tuned for our next Saturday morning post as we look for more of northern Michigan’s gems. Until then, safe and happy travels to all!

California, Family, Friends

Now That We’re East…Let’s Go West!

July 13, 2019 exploRVistas 18 Comments

Southern California – July 5-8, 2019

No sooner did we settle into our spot at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan, than we flew back out of Traverse City to San Diego, California. This trip was made to celebrate Diana’s uncle and step-aunt’s 90th birthdays. We had seen them back in 2017 and really wanted to be there to celebrate with them. Don’s children, Barry and Sandy, made plans for a grand birthday party to ensure the day would be extra special.

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Walking into the terminal in San Diego, a replica of the Spirit of St. Louis hung from the ceiling. Ryan Airlines in San Diego built the original version for Charles Lindbergh, in which he was the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean nonstop in 1927.

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The airport also has this sculpture in their rental car center called Hive. If you look closely, you will notice that it is comprised of 2200 Ford F-150 rear view mirrors. Not to worry…Ford owners know that once you hit the gas, these are not needed. 🙂

Our base of operations was this cool little Airbnb in Temecula.

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This gem is hosted by Naomi and is called the Olive Tree Cottage. We highly recommend it, if you find yourself in the area. Also, note the SUV. Since Hertz was out of Fords, we grabbed this Buick from the Gold lineup, in honor of Uncle Bob. You may recall that he and his wife Marion passed within the last year. He spent his entire career at Buick in Flint. This Encore was a fun little ride, but it couldn’t hold a candle to our Escape.

And here is a fun little slo-mo I took of the hummingbirds playing by the feeder on the porch:

It’s amazing to watch how they use their tails to keep still.

Friday afternoon we met up with Diana’s cousins Debbie (who flew in from Michigan), Barry, and his wife Dawn. We had a great time exploring Temecula. After a long day of flying and visiting, we settled in back at the cottage for the evening. Diana heard the closet door rhythmically rattle and thought ghost??? It couldn’t be…this place is too new. I was sitting on the edge of the bed taking my shoes off and noticed the entire bed moving. Was I still on the plane? No, it was the Ridgecrest 7.1 earthquake, nearly 150 miles away from us! No damage in Temecula…only a gentle rocking back and forth. It took awhile for the chains on the ceiling fan to stop swaying. 🙂

The next day was the party, which was held in Escondido. Around 120 relatives and friends were there to celebrate with Don and Barb, and it couldn’t have been more perfect.

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This is Barb and Don with Sandy and Barry behind them.

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Here is Diana with her cousin Wyatt. His twin brother Wesley was there also, so it was good they had name tags. 🙂

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And here is Diana with her cousins Debbie (Marion & Bob’s daughter), Evie (Ken & Margery’s daughter), Sandy (Lucille & Don’s daughter) and close family friend Jan.

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Don addressed the gathering, starting with “I’d like to say a couple of words. Thank you.” He and Barb were highly appreciative of the outpouring of love that was sent their way.

The next day, several of us met for lunch and then went to Barry and Dawn’s place in Sun City for the afternoon. It was a nice wrap up to a great weekend. We flew home on Monday, passing several of the sites we had seen on our trip west earlier this year.

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Here is the western edge of the Grand Canyon. The thing I find amazing about this photo is the fact you can make out the curvature of the earth at 36,000 feet!

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Here are the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. We didn’t have the time to visit them, but we were in the vicinity.

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And here is Bryce Canyon from the west side. Rainbow Point is to the right and Sunrise Point and Sunset Point are to the left. We even flew directly over Jim and Barb’s bardominium in South Dakota. 🙂

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It certainly was a great weekend in Southern California. We are so glad we were able to celebrate with this charming pair. 🙂 We will see them at their 95th!

Next up: We reunite with friends in Leelanau, and find new adventures in Northern Michigan. All this while preparing for our trip to the UK in September. That will be here before you know it. Look for that in our next Saturday morning post. Until then, safe and happy travels to all!

Friends, Fulltime RVing, South Dakota

Now That’s a Wrap!

June 22, 2019 exploRVistas 13 Comments

June 6-10, 2019 – Black Hills of South Dakota

A few years back, our friends Jim and Barb bought some property in South Dakota to use as a home base. They have been full-time RVers since March of 2014, having hit the road the same month I retired. You may recall when we visited them in September of 2017 on our way back to Michigan from Oregon. Back then, they were busy installing fence posts, purchasing a shed and making plans to build a place to store their RV and hang their hats while in the area. By no means did they want to come off the road completely, but the addition of the property looked like it would put them in the part-time RVers category.

Since our last visit, this dynamic duo has been busy! With the guidance of their friend Kevin (a custom home builder who is building his own place not far from them), they have started construction on their little shack in the woods. 2018 saw them starting construction by excavating and pouring a cement foundation. This year they have roughed their abode in, pretty much by themselves. As fellow RVing friends have passed through their area, they’ve jumped in to lend a hand…as was the case with us a few weeks ago.

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Little shack in the woods???? That’s big enough to quite literally store both of our fifth wheels!

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This structure is known as a barndominium. The one end is a two RV garage, while the other end sports a two bedroom home. Having watched this building emerge over the past year on their blog, we were eager to detour north to join in the fun. Barb needed a little help putting up the house wrap, so she enlisted the help of her hubby and I to get the job done.

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A few hours later, we had the lower course wrapped. We even had enough energy left to put in the kitchen and bathroom windows.

Afterwards, we went for a drive to check out Kevin and Cheryl’s place. Along the way, we saw a fair amount of wildlife.

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We also saw this unusual cloud formation. It looked as if the thunderhead was on fire!

The next day, Barb fired up the skid steer and had Jim and I up on the platform while she drove us around the house.

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Literally.

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She was careful not to drop us, which we were grateful for. Diana provided ground support, along with photographing and videoing the event for posterity.

Here is a little video that shows off her dexterity with a skid steer:

A few hours later, we had the upper section complete.

Now that’s a wrap!

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That evening brought us another beautiful sky. Not a bad place to hang your hat, for sure. Having rolled out multiple rolls of house wrap while Jim stapled, my arms were rubber. We decided to take the next day off.

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For Diana and I, that became a drive through the Black Hills. We checked on the progress at the Crazy Horse monument. Slowly but surely, the workers here are getting things done.

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We also drove the Needles Highway. From that road, we caught several glimpses of Mount Rushmore. We’ve visited that monument several times over the years, so we skipped it this time around.

That evening, we hung out in Jim and Barb’s new living room for happy hour.

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That included a nightly appearance of a herd of mule deer. Jim and Barb look forward to being able to sit on their sofa at night and see this crew out their slider. Best I could tell, the deer were marveling at our progress!

The last day saw Jim and I on the platform installing windows, including two huge trapezoids on the front of the home.

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We ran into an issue with heavy staples protruding out of the bottom of the first one, so Barb climbed out of the cab of the skid steer, scrambled up the scaffolding on the inside of the house, balanced herself on the rough opening and pulled the staples. All this while the helpless males stood and watched.

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One window after another, Barb guided us as we wrestled the windows into place. We did eight upper windows that day!

That evening, Diana got one more photo of a very satisfied Barb, her sidekick, Daisy, and Dakota looking on from the back.

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Jim and Barb are an amazing team, and will soon have built a beautiful home in the Black Hills. It was a pure joy to be able to stop by and help them out.

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The sky even gave us a standing ovation. 🙂

Next up: We head east through South Dakota to see some familiar places. Along the way, we find a few surprises, so be sure to stay tuned for that in our next Saturday morning post. Until then, safe and happy travels to all!

Friends, Fulltime RVing, National Monuments, National Parks, Utah

Heading to Bryce Canyon

May 25, 2019 exploRVistas 34 Comments

After establishing in Torrey that we weren’t going to be taking Route 12 to go to our next destination at Bryce Canyon, we selected a series of roads that ran west of the Grand Staircase instead. The first north/south portion of this journey took us along Utah Route 62.

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This road runs a little over 40 miles down a wide valley until it joins up with US-89. We literally saw only two other vehicles over that distance…both heading in the opposite direction. I couldn’t help but think of the 1960’s TV series, The Big Valley as I motored along. It was a scene that spoke to the vastness of this part of the country. It was also noticed while we were planning this route that the Mormon pioneers laid out their towns in the same way. Known as the Plat of Zion, each village uses a grid system with a north/south Main Street and an east/west Center Street. The town of Loa is a prime example of this.

The streets are wide and the blocks are large. The streets use the same numbering system, based off of the ones in Salt Lake City, which begin at Temple Square. For instance, E 200 S Street is the second street south of Center, on the east side of Main. There are four 1-1/4 acre parcels within each block. The original settlers would determine what parcel they would receive by lottery. It made it pretty simple for us when navigating these communities, once we realized they were all laid out the same.

Once on US-89, we broke up the trip by stopping at the town of Circleville. This little burg was the childhood home of the legendary bank robber and outlaw, Butch Cassidy.

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The log cabin he grew up in still stands along the highway. There are several interpretive panels that tell a bit about him and his time on this small ranch.

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I found this video camera amusing, in that banks use these now to thwart robberies. Maybe Butch would’ve had second thoughts on his career choice, had this monitor been here a century earlier. 🙂

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This was our view out the rear window of our fifth wheel in Circleville. Utah certainly received its share of snow this past winter!

From there, we headed into the mountains to Bryce Canyon National Park. Once set up at Bryce Canyon Pines RV Park, we made a quick trip to the Visitor Center to grab our Junior Ranger books. We were alerted to the fact that they were difficult by Ranger Keith, with him quipping that they were PhD level. He wasn’t kidding. It was probably the second most difficult program, coming in just behind John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon. Not wanting to wait any longer, we buzzed out to Sunrise Point for a peek at the hoodoos that this park is famous for.

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Photos of them would have to wait, as my camera trained on a herd of mule deer descending into the formations. This trio leading the pack were alerted to something in their path.

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Turns out it was a line of horses and mules coming up the trail. There was a bit of excitement when this lead horse spotted the deer, but the experienced rider quickly regained control of his stead.

That evening, we attended a program called Things That Go Bump in the Night, led by the same Ranger Keith who gave us out Junior Ranger books. It was at that event where we met a longtime friend for the first time. How is that possible? We will tell you in a bit. The program itself was fantastic, reminding us of the wonderful programs that Ranger Mariah would present while we worked with her in Prineville, Oregon.

The next day found us heading back into the park to see the hoodoos.

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What a gorgeous place! Bryce is technically not a canyon, as it is not carved by a river. It is rather a series of amphitheaters that look east over the Colorado Plateau. These formations are at the top of the Grand Staircase, which steps down all the way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

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Our visit that day saw a mixture of sun and clouds, with brief periods of snow. Rainbow Point, the highest point on the Scenic Drive, tops out at 9115 feet. I actually had issues with the altitude in this park, as I was finding it difficult to catch my breath.

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This massive anvil cloud rose near the town of Escalante in the distance. We revisited there during our visit to Bryce to become Junior Rangers at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It’s to be noted that we got their well before closing time this go-around. 🙂

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The stunning scenery at Bryce, such as Natural Bridge, produce an interesting phenomenon:

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The hoards of tourists witness most of it through a viewfinder.

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No one is immune to it…not even yours truly. 😉

As you can see in this last photo, there seems to be a bit more snow than in the previous Bryce images. That is because we awoke one morning to the following scene:

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Yikes! These sea-level Floridians aren’t used to dealing with this! Knowing it would likely soon melt, we headed into the park to take in the view.

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The sprinkling of white on the top of each spire added depth to them, bringing definition to the scene before us.

Due to the strong winds, cold temperatures and snow that we had while we were there, our hiking was limited for this visit. We did take one short and easy walk out to Mossy Cave, one of the wettest spots in the park.

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Yessir….its a cave with moss in it!

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Along the trail, this pretty waterfall appears to be the idyllic natural scene. It is anything but. Carved out by Mormon pioneers with picks and shovels over a century ago, this river is part of a canal known as the Tropic Ditch. Since it was completed in 1892, the creek has provided the communities of Tropic and Cannonville a near steady flow of irrigation water.

Returning to our reference to a longtime friend that we mentioned earlier in the post. At the evening program on Tuesday, we met Gaelyn from Geogypsy in person for the very first time. We have followed each others blogs for a long time, with Diana discovering her journal in early 2014. On Friday evening, we met for dinner.

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Gaelyn is a veteran NPS Ranger, having begun her career with the U.S. Department of Interior at Mount St. Helens in the mid 1990’s. She is the person who inspired us to seek out the Junior Ranger programs at the parks we visit. With our constant commenting back and forth on our blogs, our conversation over dinner was as natural as the outdoors we all three love so much. It was truly a joy to finally get to meet her in person.

Oh, and that PhD Junior Ranger badge?

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We got ’em! Definitely worth the effort. 🙂

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Bryce Canyon National Park is surely on our ‘return to’ list. We thoroughly enjoyed our introduction to this scenic Utah beauty.

Next up: we head southwest to the westernmost point of this trip, Zion National Park. Along the way, we find a little gem of a park that most people pass by on their way there. We also spend the day with friends we last connected with in South Carolina. Stay tuned for all of that in our next post. Until then, safe and happy travels to all!

Florida, Friends

Hanging Out on the Space Coast

January 24, 2019 exploRVistas 11 Comments

Hmmmm….where have Jim and Diana been? No, we haven’t been eaten by sharks or drifted northeast on the Gulf Stream with the sea turtles. It’s January, which means it is time to catch up on our annual chores and to plan our travels for the year ahead. We’ve also been hanging out with our friends here in Melbourne Beach, which is always fun. 🙂 The only thing that has been missing is the parade of rockets flying by from Cape Canaveral, as a slew of missions have been pushed into February. So, without further adieu…

On New Years Day, the Melbourne Beach Historical Society held a walking tour of the town’s historic district. Fred, Bonnie, Diana and I tagged along, as we all wanted to know more about the area’s past. While the area is rich with history, our presenter failed to deliver the story in the riveting manner it deserved. We also picked up on the fact that impartiality was not his forte. He is handing over the reigns to a new historian next year, so we will be sure to check that presentation out.

And remember Cuki the sailboat? Hurricane Irma ripped her loose from her mooring in Key West and sent her on a 350 mile journey to our beach back in 2017. Time, vandals, and the ocean had not been kind to her, with her masts and fittings disappearing in that period.

With the ship being buried in sand to its’ inland gunwale, the decision was made to haul it away in a couple of refuse roll-offs. It was a mess, to say the least.

Speaking of fiberglass; our rig was ready for it’s annual wax job.

Look at that shine! I can’t say enough about that three-part Meguiar’s restoration system I use.

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We get it through Amazon, but I’m pretty sure West Marine carries it also. We also want to give a shout out to whoever manufactured the decals for our 2007 Colorado fifth wheel. Twelve years of sitting outside and they look practically new. They are proof that it IS possible to make decals that stay put and look good.

While I was waxing, Diana was deep into her genealogy. We both signed up for Ancestry DNA when the kits were on sale on Black Friday. She has been building her family tree, which has been very fun! I am starting my tree this weekend, as I delayed the start to allow time to finish my UPS job and the annual rig maintenance. We have to say that Ancestry.com is very good at what they do, and they have been very helpful to Diana on her journey to discover her family’s origins. The amount of information contained in their database is mind boggling. We’ve also become huge fans of the PBS show Finding Your Roots, which is hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Check your local listings and give it a look. It is fascinating!

We also have an update on the powered parachute pilot who got tangled in the utility lines near us. Dima had been in an induced coma since the middle of November until recently, while the doctors in Orlando worked to repair his broken spine and graft his burns. It was a tough few months.

Needless to say, we were thrilled to see this photo that his wife Katya posted the other day. 🙂 He is one lucky man.

Midway through my waxing duties, Jerry and Ron invited me to tag along on a trip to the Mecum Auction in Kissimmee.

We went on a Tuesday, which was not an active auction day. That meant there were less crowds!

Here is a predecessor to my truck, Henry. Those front fenders are wide enough to land a plane on!

And here is a salmon Edsel convertible. Diana’s Escape, Edsel 2, would be proud.

While the auction was mostly cars…close to three thousand of them… there were a few boats sprinkled in.

This Gar Wood boat was built in Detroit.

My paternal grandfather had a boat similar to this. Top speed on this beauty was in excess of 70 miles an hour!

If there is one car that has consistently taken my breath away, it is a Candy Apple Red 1969 Boss Mustang. My dad once acted as an agent for a guy who wanted his sold. Mom wasn’t too thrilled when Dad took her to church in it one Sunday…although I detected a twinkle in his eye. 🙂

Looks like the value of these things have gone up a bit. Talk about taking your breath away! We all agreed that we’ve never seen so many near-perfect cars in one place, and the three of us have seen our share of vehicles in our time. The cool thing about the auction is that you are allowed to sit in most of the vehicles. Being able to do that brought back a lot of memories for us.

January has seen a group of us checking out the local music venues.

Here is Libby, Linda, Jerry, Nancy, Ron and us at Summer Crush Winery in Fort Pierce a few weeks ago. The venue was hosting a Corvette show, so us guys got another dose of nice cars. 🙂

So until next time…

we will be watching the sunsets…

and the moonrises. We’ll be back with an update on our 2019 travel plans in early February, as we should have everything in place by then. It is going to be an exciting year, to say the least! Until then, safe and happy travels to all!

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