Chapter 1
It’s been a very very busy summer with moving into a new
house and selling Salish Aire. The
beginning of the summer can be reviewed in our last post at Our Salish Aire . We have now settled in a bit to our new house
and as I write this are heading through the North Dakota oil fields on highway
2 towing our new-to-us boat back to our home in Lacey where it will reside in a
side yard next to the Airstream.
Lives of everyone around the globe still are being affected
by the Delta variant of the Covid 19 virus (Covid V2 as I refer to it). It’s so very frustrating for us as those who
have been vaccinated may get the infected with the Delta variant we will
typically be asymptomatic or have a mild response whereas the unvaccinated are
needing hospitalization and dying in droves while still contending that they
are safer not getting the vaccine (the vaccine has proven very safe after
millions of doses have been given and is widely available in the USA). The power of misinformation is simply
amazing. I add this note so that readers in the future will understand that
events that should have been simple such as our daughter’s family visit was a
big deal as it involved waiting for the US<>Canadian border to open and
multiple tests to prove they were virus free both coming south and going
north.
With that thought perhaps its best to continue with our daughter’s family visit. An aside to further show the disruption of normal supply chains and life in general is the story of our minivan. We decided to look into renting a car or minivan once Erin firmed up the date they would fly from Toronto to Seattle as our truck only holds 5 passengers and with her family we would need space for 7. We expected this would be a relatively inexpensive proposition but quickly learned that the rental car market had gone a bit wonky. During Covid V1 so many folks had avoided travel that the rental companies found themselves with a huge overstock of vehicles so they sold off much of their fleets. Once V1 settled down people started to return to normal and there was a lot of pent up demand for things with computer chips (everything from phones to cars) and travel. Well cars were in short supply as the supplies of computer chips from China have been disrupted so the rental companies could not quickly replenish their fleets and folks wanted to rent them so supply and demand directed the prices dramatically upward. We looked at the potential price and decided it might be more cost effective to buy a used minivan so to make a long story short we purchased a Honda Odyssey with 175,000 miles on it. It’s in relatively good shape but does need minor repair so after a 7 year hiatus I am back to climbing under cars. We have about $4200 invested and our basic plan is to resell it after Erin’s family visits again for the winter holidays but we may decide we are a 2 car family again as it is handy to have around.
Erin had booked her flight direct from Toronto to Seattle via Air Canada rather than her usual routing of having her in-laws drive the family across the border to Buffalo New York and then flying via Southwest Airlines to Seattle. It ended up that the ticket on Air Canada was cheaper and while her family has US passports and thus can drive across the border that the border was still closed to Canadians traveling south for pleasure so she would need to pay to park her car in Buffalo for 3 weeks if she came that way. By flying out of Toronto her in-laws (who only have Canadian passports) could drive her to the airport where there is a US customs facility that would clear their passports and Covid vaccination and tests status then they would land in Seattle and be ready to go. I watched them on FlightTracker and laughed when I realized that Toronto is at virtually the same latitude at Seattle so almost all of their flight was over US territory. We picked them up with no problem at the Seattle airport in the minivan (even Jarvis was able to ride along) and introduced them to our house in Lacey about 90 minutes later.
While they were in Washington Erin’s family visited with
family, attended my niece’s wedding with us, and visited with friends. One of their friends offered that if her
family would do a test stay at their new vacation rental property which turned
out to be a huge mansion on 20 acres.
Our grandkids had a great time swimming in the indoor pool and watching
a black bear eat pears off the tree in the back yard. While they were with us our son brought his
new daughter up and Erin’s family got to meet her for the first time which is
again what happens when a child is born during a pandemic and movement is
restricted.
We did take Henri and Valerie to Mt. Rainier to go camping
which was a big deal for me since I haven’t camped up there for a number of
years. Valerie was content for the first
day but the rainy second day took some of her enthusiasm away. Henri was totally enthralled with the scenery
and kept asking if we could walk up further on the trails.
After 3 weeks they had managed to arrange for free Covid
tests that were acceptable to the Canadian government and after being proven
free of infection they flew home back to Ontario.
Other events of the summer included a record heat wave with Seattle reaching 107 degrees F for the first time in recorded history.
Etienne, our oldest grandchild graduated (with honors and a big scholarship!) this summer. It was hard to talk him into having photos taken without his mask as he felt that avoiding contracting Covid 19 had been a defining part of his high school years.
A really pitsy job we needed to do on the house was renew the crawlspace. This involved removing damaged insulation, removing rodent droppings, removing deteriorated plastic ground barrier, putting in a new 6 mil plastic barrier and putting up new insulation. We were really pleased with ourselves that we completed this job before Erin arrived.
It didn’t take too many photos of our friends boating in Mexico and Alaska before we started feeling pretty landlocked without a boat. (OK, we were drooling with envy!) While we were house hunting we looked for a place that included space enough to park the Airstream and a potential trailered boat so we would be ready if we chose to break down and purchase something that would float.
Our goal was to get a boat that would be very fuel
efficient, was sea worthy enough for the Inside Passage, could be lived on for
2 – 3 months and could be easily trailered behind our current truck. These requirements quickly narrowed the field
to a boat with an 8’6” beam (the maximum allowed on highways without a special
use permit), a displacement hull (for maximum fuel efficiency), preferably an
inboard diesel engine, and a cabin with a heater. Many years ago we had looked into Albin 25
boats made in Sweden during the 1970’s and 80’s but had decided that they were
too slow for us while we could only go boating when we had time off from work. Since we no longer have to rush from place to
place and are used to traveling at 6-7 knots Clarice thought we should
reconsider them. We joined the Albin
online groups and quickly realized that while owners loved the boats they
didn’t come on the market often. The
first Albin we found for sale was a 27 ft model with a 9’ 6” beam that wasn’t
too far away near Portland Oregon. We
went and looked at it including a ride on it on the Willamette River and very
seriously considered buying it except it didn’t fit our desire to have a
highway legal boat and we were very concerned about our ability to tow it long
distances if we wanted to go to Mexico or the Mississippi River. Before we
walked away from it we had a chance to tour an Albin 25 that wasn’t far from
our home. After that tour we recognized
that the smaller version was really what we wanted so we notified the owner of
the 27’ boat we would not be buying it.
We did find a similar boat that looked like a real
possibility located in Wisconsin. There
was a high enough chance that we would buy it that we drove back to view it
camping in the back of the truck on the way which is a bit cozy as the truck
has a 5’ 6” bed and I am 5’ 8” tall. We
did have a good adventure with the exception of the night in Eastern Montana
when we awoke to Jarvis snapping at mosquitoes which is when we discovered that
the screen on one of the canopy windows had popped loose in one corner. We
were impressed with the condition of the boat that hadn’t moved from a barn for
10 years where the current owner parked it and realized he wasn’t a
sailor. On second look we realized it
was more of a sailboat than a trawler with a deep enough keel that ramp
launching it would be a major chore. In
other words it wasn’t the boat for us.
This excursion took place about 2 weeks before Erin’s family were slated
to arrive. On the way home we decided
that perhaps getting a boat at this time was just not meant to be and we should
cool our jets for a while – until we got home and I heard about an Albin that
was available in Michigan.
We phoned the owner and confirmed that the boat was what we
were looking for. He had purchased it 10 months prior and hauled it home from
Maine but his mother’s illness made it clear that it would only continue to sit
in his barn if he didn’t resell it. We
decided that with some airline ticket credits we had sitting from before Covid
V1 we could afford to go look at it and get back home before Erin’s family
arrived. We arranged with the owner that
if we decided to buy it we would hand him a check and he would have the titles
of the boat and trailer ready to sign over and he would store the boat until we
could drive back once Erin’s family left.
We spent one night in Owosoo Michigan and made the deal after viewing
the boat. So that’s where we are now having driven back across the country to
Michigan sleeping in the back of the truck, picking up the boat and trailer and
after doing some quick trailer repairs while visiting my extended family, we
are driving west across Montana using the boat as a camper along the way.
There has also been tragedy along the way. Our son and his family were planning to
travel to Hawaii for a long planned vacation. They were planning to take their
nanny and her husband with them both so they could have couple time without the
baby and because the couple had become part of their extended family. When the couple didn’t show for the planned
joint ride to the airport Bryan worked to track them down and learned that they
had both been stabbed repeatedly in bed in the early morning hours. Travis died
at the scene and Jamilyn is recovering at home after being hospitalized with 19
stab wounds. At this writing no details about the attacker have been released
but it must be a very evil person to have attacked with such violence.
There is also fear but joy for the moment that will be celebrated. Our dear friends from Mexico who also hail from Western Washington and most recently Olympia learned that despite a life as a non-smoker and marathon runner she has developed stage 4 lung cancer at age 42. She learned this while working as a nurse to rebuild their sailing kitty while her husband and two daughters (ages 10 and 12) were waiting for her return in LaPaz Mexico. The joyful moment is that she has responded to a miracle drug (as a cancer nurse of long ago I have NEVER used this term before!) that is targeted at her very specific, random, genetic mutation and her tumor has shrunk by 80% in just over a month with minimal side effects. With help from friends and strangers via a GoFundMe account they were able to have their home (boat) shipped into the Salish Sea and it is now moored in Olympia. To see the family playing catch in our back yard the day before we headed back to Michigan was wonderful. The fear remains in that the expectation is that at some unknown date the mutation will mutate again and the tumor will grow again but in the mean time she and her family (and friends) are celebrating every living moment she has. (She writes her story quite poignantly in their blog at SailingXpression).
To change the mood a bit we both realized something the other day. On September 11th a few years ago we were crossing the country with a boat we had purchased in Florida along with a truck to pull it. We were in the center of the country trying to figure out why the flags were at half mast when someone pointed out the date. We looked at each other and I formally gave Clarice the boat for her wedding anniversary present and she formally gave me the truck for my present. So here we are a week before our 45th wedding anniversary and towing another boat across the country. I did order Clarice an anniversary present that only she would get excited about; a composting toilet for the boat! (I can hear the stunned silence from the folks who don’t know Clarice well and the laughter and “yup that’s her” from the folks that do.)
So we are in the process of our 4th crossing
between Olympia Washington to the Midwest by land and while that may seem like
quite a chore it is also a chance for discovery. We purposefully seldom plan where we will end
the day’s driving so that we can give ourselves permission to stop early if we
need rest or press on if we really want to get somewhere. There is always the chance that this practice
will lead to camping in a rest area or store parking lot but the reality is
that we seem to always find someplace interesting if we start looking about 2
hours before we need to stop. We have
taken advantage of one favorite stop along the way for 3 of the crossings as
our good friends Frank and Jan own a B&B in Spokane and always seem to have
an empty bed and good company when we are passing their way.
Once we picked up the boat we started back from Eastern Michigan to Western Michigan where most of my extended family live just south of the Mackinac Bridge; yes I am a troll from under the bridge as one of my Yooper students used to remind me frequently. We did have a bit of a problem along the way as we had confirmed that the trailer brakes would activate but we didn’t confirm they would release – they wouldn’t so 45 miles into our crossing of the state we pulled into a lovely campground with all grass on Michigan sand sites. Since there were few other campers it seemed like a good place to troubleshoot the brake issue except that Michigan sand won’t support a trailer jack even if it has a block under it. After working for some time we were able to get a tire back on that we had removed between jack failures. We went to bed frustrated but woke up with new ideas. I asked the campground management if I could move the trailer to a concrete pad and they very nicely offered their shop floor. In the shop I decided that the parts I had were not going to work so I deactivated the brakes and we drove very carefully across the rest of the very flat state until we arrived at my aunt’s house. Along the way we ordered new parts from etrailer.com (I mention them by name because the parts arrived a day earlier than expected which really helped!) The parts were installed and tested on Wednesday and we had lunch with my cousins on Thursday and left in time to get across The Bridge and find a campsite on the Upper Peninsula before the Labor Day rush.
Perhaps a good ending is to tell about Jarvis, our great hunting dog, arriving at tonight’s campsite. We are pulled off the road in a game preserve area (“boondocking” in camping parlance) along a tributary of the Missouri River. Driving in we noted a sign that the field was prime pheasant habitat and Clarice joked that she wasn’t planning to catch a pheasant for dinner. I replied that perhaps Jarvis would catch one. We got to the site and within minutes Jarvis the hunter had found a fully cooked hotdog and was gulping it down. I doubt that he will ever go hungry between his “I’m so hungry” look whenever someone is eating to his ultrasensitive nose, he will find something.
