Our anniversary!
Today, 42 years ago, I married my wonderful wife. Still hitched and still going strong! We’ve sadly lost a few folks in this picture over the years. UDDUP, Deb Davis!
Quilting, camp-style
Deb is working on a quilt while we’re in Maine. This is what her setup looks like, plus laying things out on the bed.
Ktaadn Woods and Waters
On a whim, while out and about, we drove the loop trail through the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. Native spelling is Ktaadn. About 35 miles of gravel road in an area next to Baxter State Park, where we will go eventually. Good thing rental cars are infinitely capable! Couldn’t see much of the mountain (the viewing area is closed for reconstruction), but we sure saw lots of woods!
Heading back to Maine!
Deb got another assignment at the Health Access Network in Lincoln, so we’re heading back in a few days. We’ll take the motorhome this time, as it is summer and we’ll return before temperatures drop in autumn. Toddling up over the July 4th weekend, which made reservations difficult.
A nice weekend in Boston
For the weekend of Debbi’s birthday, we trekked three hours down to Boston and stayed a couple of nights in the Hilton Park Plaza. This hotel is right around the corner from the Boston Common and the Public Gardens. It’s also in the heart of Boston’s theater district.
We lazed around for a couple of days, eating seafood at an Italian restaurant and the Boston institution, Legal Seafood. (“If it isn’t fresh, it isn’t Legal!“)
Saturday, we walked to the North End and enjoyed window shopping and people watching. Deb bought a wonderful hat at Salmagundi’s, where Jim had one of his Stetsons re-blocked. We browsed through a couple of used book shops, buying for Deb an out-of-print knitting book she’s been wanting since the 1990s. We ate chowder at an Irish pub, enjoying the atmosphere.
Sunday, we drove around Somerville (where we lived in the 80s) and Cambridge, just to see how much the area has changed in 40 years. Lots, was our conclusion. Had great Indian food at a local restaurant, then headed home.
We stopped in Westbrook, Maine, and visited Tess’s Designer Yarns. The shop is in the old Dana Warp mill on the falls of the Presumpscot River and has been there since 1866. Deb found a few skeins she couldn’t live without.
Overall, a relaxing weekend. We are five weeks from the completion of this assignment, coasting downhill. Be home soon!
We’re back in Maine
Maine during the winter? Yes, this assignment came with a mental health check! We’re in Augusta until April, during which Deb is working at a clinic a few miles away in Gardiner. We’re checking out the local haunts and brew pubs. We plan to be home during the summer, except for a few weeks away.
We’re home!
I’m missing a blog post on our time in Port St Joe, where we visited with relatives and ate a lot of seafood. We stayed four days, then headed home. Port St Joe and Apalachicola are neat places, nearly devoid of the tourist-ness of places like Clearwater. We’d come back to both.
We drove one day to just south of Macon GA, then another day to just south of Columbia SC. From there, we drove home by way of Charlotte NC. Arrived about 3pm on 11/30. Begin the unloading!
Shopping!
Today was a rest day, and we’re in Houston, so we went shopping!
We had lunch at Sal y Pimiento, a restaurant heavily influenced by Uruguayan cuisine. Great ceviche, pollo aguacate and churrasquita de puerco. Their wine shelves were dominated by wines made with the Tarrant grape, brought to Uruguay by Basque settlers. We drank water, not the Tarrant. Too much to eat, so leftovers will be dinner!
Then we went to the Tecovas store, selling boots designed in Austin and handmade in León, Mexico. Last year, we bought Lucchese boots; this year Tecovas. Deb bought boots of brown leather and Jim some with the vamp made of caiman skin. Alligators are endangered, so no email, please. We’ll be practicing our boot-scooting on every dance floor.
Walking back to the truck, we encountered a Sur la Table store, where we got a great pan for the Goose and a microplane for parmesan.
A couple of other stops for electrical butt connectors and a parts retriever, then back to camp.
It’s good to be handy
After our trip to Tombstone today, I had unexpected repairs to make on the Goose. I found water has dripped into a cargo compartment onto a GFCI outlet, which explains why the GFCI breaker has been popping (I think). The outlet is underneath where the kitchen sink is, so I looked under the sink (think circus contortions) for leaks. No leaks where the power goes through the floor, but found that some of the sink piping was leaking because it was incorrectly sized and installed.
Off to Ace Hardware for plumbing bits, then repair the sink (more contortions). Debbi helped by holding the piping while I sawed it to length, then I set it in place. I’ll have to get on the roof to see if a clogged gutter is letting air conditioning condensate drip down the side of the Goose and into the cargo compartment. Oh well, back to dumping black and gray tanks, which was interrupted by the GFCI thing.
While using the macerator to pump the tanks, I noticed a connector smoking. Turned off the pump and prepared to replace the connector. However, I could not find any indication of which fuse controls the macerator. Plan B was to have Debbi watch me while I pierced the wiring on either side of the connector with the pins of my electrical meter to ensure there was no power in the wire. That worked. No power in the wire, and the macerator power switch was not leaking current.
I then spliced in a jumper to replace the melted connector. Think circus contortions again in the compartment where the macerator lives. Oh, and I’m doing this in the dark, so Debbi is holding a flashlight for me. One of the butt connectors failed the pull test, twice. Finally got a good connection and pumped the tanks with no smoke. Yay! Tape the butt connectors (more contortions) and clean up.
So, blessings. This all happened in a place where plumbing bits can be obtained (Benson AZ), I didn’t get electrocuted, and I fixed the problems. It’s good to be handy.
Tombstone
We went to Tombstone today, a silver mining town where in the 1880s occurred the gunfight at the OK corral. Today, it’s a tourist town, with fees for nearly everything. We walked the streets, briefly visited the Boot Hill graveyard and toured the Courthouse history museum. Fun day!
