Twin Peaks Tree

A very old tree stands "next to" the Twin Peaks in Tahoe.

Over a Big Hurdle

This past weekend saw us put a big hurdle behind us — several large pieces of furniture slated for donation were picked up and almost everything we plan to store while we’re on the road was moved to the unit we rented in early August (post here).

Mui picked up the U-Haul truck Thursday afternoon. It was a day earlier than we planned, but finding convenient street parking for a 26-foot (8 m) truck (plus the loading ramp) isn’t easy in our subdivision. So, when we saw that the space near the front entrance was empty, we decided to take advantage of it.

Thursday, the truck and driver report for duty!
The 26-footer is more than we need, but this way we won’t have to stack things high.

On Friday, we moved some of the things that were on the first floor of the duplex down to the truck ourselves. In particular, Mui wanted to have the donation items in the truck so that he could put them curbside first thing Saturday morning for pick up by the Salvation Army.

Bundled up against cold temps, we move some of the stuff to the truck on Friday.

Having majorly downsized when we sold the townhouse last year, we had a lot less to sort through for the move to the storage unit. But we still had some heavy pieces that needed to be brought down from the second floor of the condo. Neither one of us wanted to deal with maneuvering those things down the narrow staircase, so we hired a couple of professional movers to deal with this phase of the move on Saturday. Between the two of them, the guys had everything in the truck by 2:00p. Salvation Army showed up at about the same time to pick up the donation pile. By 2:30p we were done for the day.

the movers load the truck with storage stuff and the donations get picked up on Saturday.

A chilly Sunday morning found us on the road at 6:30a. There was hardly any traffic en route — most people were probably taking advantage of the extra hour of sleep from the overnight fallback from daylight saving time to standard time. With our speed averaging 45-55 mph, we made the 96 mile (154 km) drive to Winchester in two hours. As expected, there was no one else at the storage facility, so we pulled right up to the hangar door and started unloading the truck.

That our ground-floor unit is the first one down the hallway made our job that much easier. Keeping track of what went where on a quick and dirty site plan, we made sure that the things we don’t anticipate needing until we get off the road were placed in the back. A couple of breaks to replenish our energy with healthy snacks, and by 12:30p the truck was empty. Wow! Only four hours to do something that I thought was going to take us all day! I guess Mui and I make a good moving team after all ;-)

Moving stuff into the storage unit goes much faster than I anticipate.

For those who commented on my footwear when I was carrying some small items into
the storage unit back in August (post here; scroll down for picture), I’ll have you
know that when there’s serious work to be done, I do dress appropriately ;-)

Tailgating in the sunshine is fine for a short break, but for our longer lunch break,
we move into the truck’s cab where it’s warmer.

A job well done!
We’re keeping clothes that we will need for non-Phaeton travels in the white cabinets.
There’s still plenty of room in the unit for anything else that needs to be put into
storage before we get on the road in December — like our TV!

We were back on the road by 12:45p. Without our stuff to weigh down the truck, the ride home was a little less smooth, but we did gain speed and made it back in 1½ hours instead of the two hours it took us to get to Winchester.

With the storage move completed, Mui’s a happy camper.

Just as we were parking the truck where we’d been told to leave it, the manager of the U-Haul store drove by. Seeing us, he stopped to collect the keys and accompany Mui to the office to complete the paperwork. Since we were only an hour past the Sunday drop off deadline, not only did he not charge us the additional day’s rental, but he gave us a hefty discount on the per mile rate. Why? Out of the goodness of his heart, I guess. It’s what Mui calls the brotherhood discount … treat people right and with respect regardless of their race or religion, and you will receive the rewards ten fold.

Mr Dinosaur wants to know: “Where will U go Next?”
Isn’t that the eternal question of all fulltime RV’ers?

The condo sure feels desolate now that all the stuff that made it a home has been taken to storage. But we don’t mind — not only has the place always been a temporary residence for us, the nearly blank slate is a sign that we’re on track for our early December departure from the area.

Next up is the Phaeton. The plan is to take advantage of the upcoming long weekend to organize/inventory what we have in the coach. That done, we will transfer anything else from the condo that we want to take on the road with us.

Continue to wish us luck; it’s working!

You know you're addicted to cycling when...

This afternoon I spent an inordinate amount of time getting an old bike, otherwise known as The Black Magic to regular readers of this page (both of you) back on the road. The details of the repair are unimportant and really unspectacular (and probably would have been concluded much quicker but for an unexpected hitch). The point is, this bike is being "pensioned off" tomorrow when my new MTB arrives, but I'm so desperate for a ride tomorrow, and The Blue Flame is still having rear tyre problems (that will be fixed tomorrow as well), so once again, I am dragging out The Black Magic for one final hurrah. It just seemed like a lot of work to go to for one ride, and at just 100km, it's not even a long one.
Picture above from Mt Nimmel this morning.

I Took Tomatoes to Church and Came Home with Lilies

Church Plant Sale

I went to a plant sale today, it was being held in a tiny village just a couple of miles from us. This is an annual event which helps to generate much needed income for the Fabric Fund of St Andrew's Church.

Tomato plants

We always go along and purchase plants, books and cakes but this year we decided to donate a few plants... some very healthy tomato plants - grown from seeds which a very dear friend sent to me.





This quiet little village holds some wonderful secrets, which I have posted about here. It also has some really nice old houses.



Some are hidden behind high hedges, some are right on the street.



It is a green and leafy village, a quiet village, set in deepest Lincolnshire. It hosts some very surprising guests. Stars, old and new, from the world of music.

Borrowed image - mine are just about to flower!

I found some pots of lily-of-the valley on offer at the plant sale - of course I bought them! They will also go into the Owl Wood, where I hope they will spread and multiply. I guess that wonderful little lily-of-the-valley fairy was in attendance again!

Images of the flood

According to the data over at Statcounter.com, a few people have visited this page looking for some pictures from the flood damage of last weekend. I've been hampered in uploading these, first by a camera failure, followed by the purchase and set up of a new computer. Memory cards, on the other hand, seem to be remarkably resilient. Consequently, I've been able to save the images from last Saturday's ride.
In other news, Mark from Epic Cycles got in touch with me via email regarding the Zefal pump I purchased there that didn't work, and offered to replace it. We're all quick to complain when we think customer service has been poor, so I'd like to take the opportunity to give some credit where it's due on this occasion. We can only wish this sort of thing happened more often.

Nikau Palms

Nikau Palms native to New Zealand but growing in Balboa Park.

Result!

It's exam results day in Scotland. 160,000 students receive their Advanced Highers, Highers, Intermediate, Standard Grade and Access results in the post today. These are the major school exams, used among other things for university entry.
Some 30,000 received their results by text yesterday, in error. The results are meant to come out on the same day by text, email and post, but those who had signed up to the text service were surprised to find a message with their results beeping on their phones yesterday afternoon. Cue much media sound and fury, even though the results themselves were accurate and no applicants were disadvanted in their university application by the phased release, because the universities already had all the results.
Among the early batch was my daughter, who received her Highers results. Below is a close-up of her certificate which arrived today. The Highers she sat this year are the first five in the list, and there then follow last year's results for the remaining eight grades.

Needless to say she's delighted, and so are we. Next up for her last year at school, Advanced Highers in History, Modern Studies and Music.

Re-Purposing a Sink Plunger as a Sewer Hose O-Ring

Sea Mist RV Park — NAS Oceana, Dam Neck Annex — Virginia Beach, Virginia

We have mostly been busy with ‘stuff’ at home since arriving in Virginia Beach five days ago. A few quiet beach walks is all that we’ve done to break the daily routine of reading, and doing errands, and working on chores.

Nothing exciting to write about, so I thought I would use one of Mui’s handyman projects to remind everyone that we’re still out here in blogland. It’s a simple project, but one that I especially appreciate since it closes off one more access point for mice (and snakes … shudder) to get into the coach.

The sewer hose comes into the bay through an opening in the center of the wet-tub. When the hose is not connected, there is a twist-lid that seals the hole. When the hose is connected, however, there is a large gap around it that is an open invitation to critters.

There are lots of critters out there that can easily come through the gap around the sewer hose.

There are some commercial solutions out there, but Mui felt that a simple rubber o-ring around the hose would work just as well. After scouring Home Depot and Lowe’s — two of his favorite playgrounds — he decided that a sink plunger would do the trick.

[Since some of you eagle-eyes out there will spot the faked-out photos, I’ll admit now that Mui did this little project a while ago. He did it behind my back to surprise me, so I asked him to run through the steps after the fact so I could take photographs for the blog.]

Left: First step, purchase a sink plunger that is the size of the hole in the wetbay tub.
Right: Remove the handle from the rubber cup.

Using a utility knife, cut off and remove the top of the rubber cup.

With the utility knife, slit the remaining portion of the rubber cup so that it can be
slid around the sewer hose.

Voilà! The o-ring goes around the sewer hose and the gap is sealed.

Mui could have done a snug fit around the hose, but opted to leave a gap and fill it in with copper wool. By doing so, any water trickles from the fresh water connection will drain out of the tub rather than pool inside. It is a wetbay after all ;-)

My Way of Seeing the World

Yesterday I mentioned reading the book Traveling Light by Deborah DeWit Marchant and that our photographs are very similar. Here's what she says about what motivates her photography, "I sought the familiar in confined spaces: the sky reflected in a window or the shadow of a tree on a sun-painted wall. I tried to connect with some sort of common
human experience. It wasn't the fantastic or the awesome that we shared, it was the simple daily things. The sights on my everyday paths were a deeper source of beauty than any extraordinary place. Soon, everywhere I looked some proof of humanity's moment in eternity captured me. A doorway, a cluttered shed, a rundown porch."
I've always been enamored with trying to capture small pieces of daily life. These are the cumulative pieces of our existence. I'm also reading The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. She says there are two different ways people look at life; one if seeing the big picture, and the other is noticing the small details. I'm definitely in the later group, so I guess that's why I take photos of bits and pieces. Above are a few examples of what I mean.

Welford - Sibbertoft - Welford

Barry led this walk, with me and Gordon. Almost 10 and a half miles, and the weather was fine, though blustery, and quite cold in the wind.


We parked near the school in Welford, on West St, and walked through Butchers Close to the High Street, past a couple of ex-pubs, and the Old Post Office, then turned left, past a development of new houses ( from barns) and across some fields, following a path, which joined the Jurassic Way, and funnelled us between hedges briefly. We followed the Jurassic Way through some fine scenery, across a tiny river - the infant Avon, of Stratford fame - and up past Sulby Lodge Farm, home of Shep the dog. Soon afterwards we met the Naseby Road, turned left and after Grange Lodge turned right along the path beside Welford Reservoir, then across the weir which divides it from Sulby Reservoir.

a kestrel

A robin watches as we wander by

The path left the water and went nor'nor'east, through a field showing plenty of evidence (humps and bumps and hollows) of the old mediaeval village of Old Sulby.

Part of Old Sulby, with the northern arm of Sulby reservoir in the background

The path crossed a track and then another field. Just after some buildings on the right the Jurassic Way turns east. We continued along as far as Sibbertoft, where we turned right and walked along the road which skirts the southern edge of the village, ignoring all turnings to the left, and turned right at a green where three roads converge. At a right-angle bend to the left, our path turned off to the right. There was a fair amount of walking through fields here, some of them muddy - the path was generally easy to follow, in a more or less south-westerly direction, cutting diagonally across the fields.

We were aiming for the small piece of woodland at the end of the reservoir's eastern arm. Through the wood, the path proved to be very muddy and wet, but at the other side we came out on to a decent track. It leads from Oak Tree Farm - which isn't on the map. The track leads up hill gently, and we had a snack break when we reached the gate by the Naseby road. A good choice - sheltered from the wind.





Across the road is the site of Sulby Abbey, founded in c.1155, occupying a considerable area, and frequently visited by Edward II. According to this site, the monks were not always perfectly behaved, and there are details of some of the punishments they were given.

In 1538, Thomas Cromwell was informed that'the papistical den of idle and utterly unlearned beasts at Soulbie' had beenbroken up.





Next downhill a bit, and over the mighty Avon again, then upwards and onwards to the A 5199. We seemed to be approaching the A14, closer and closer, noisier - but a few hundred yards short, we turn west and parallel to it, then meet the minor road which crosses it. We turn our backs on the big road, and after less than half a mile, past Welford Lodge Farm, we turn left again and head across country towards Hemplow Lodge Farm. This is a popular child-care nursery, if the traffic along the lane is anything to go by. There's a manicured lawn and mini-lake here, and the path could do with clearer signs.

We turned sharp right, and straight along the lane, past a house named the Hemplow Arms, straight on at the crossroads, and into Welford along West End.

Hora pars vitae - each hour is a part of life