Airstream In cold weather!

Yes it's much much cooler in the northern Florida panhandle! We had a delightful sweaty 85F in Key West last week and tonight we have 30F in Destin! Got two heating systems running - the Airstream has a propane furnace which we pay for the propane and also we connected up an electric space heater with its own thermostat hanging in the middle of the van and plugged that into the campsite electric system so that's covered in our $40 night fee. Spent the last 24 hours figuring out many electrical problems and replaced main power cable to hook up, replaced breakers and added redundant systems to bypass the Airstream sophisticated built in electrical system so we can survive a cold night in comfort! Learning to adapt as failures occur all around.... AC and heat pump were already dead and will be fixed under warranty when we return to VA later in the month, fridge is oscillating up and down wildly but we have it tamed now by adding additional clip on fan to cool the evaporation coils.... then the power system developed all kinds of issues and we bought a 100 ft cable to borrow from neighbor power supply which just kept us going overnight last night except the rain and moisture kept tripping out GFI breakers. Must have stopped at 5 or more stores yesterday and today to find all the parts! Tonight (so far!) all systems are running perfectly!

All part of the rich life experience so you are better prepared for the next crisis ! A Honda generator might be on the horizon!

Airstream Can Opener 2016

Three interviews on local TV station WJHG about the CanOpener rallye at Topsail Hill State Preserve

Continually recording statistics

The Laramie has so many displays of many functions including multiple trip logs, fluid temperatures throughout the engine, transmission and exhaust systems, fuel and oil filter life, tire pressures, trailer electric brake settings, fuel economy, more info than you ever wanted to know!

Banyan tree in Key West

Beautiful Banyan tree on Duval Street in Key West frames the Main Street entrance and reigns over the entire front of this classic Keys house!

A useful reminder

Leaving Key West this morning the camp site has some useful reminders! Not sure about the prioritization!

Pontoon cruise in the Keys

Took an afternoon pontoon boat rental - 22ft and 60hp outboard - around Key West and north up the coast to the Boca Chica beach. Two hundred yards offshore there are many sandy underwater shoals which you can anchor on and swim in perfectly clear and warm water, and stand up in four feet of water. Boat anchored up and down are in the party mood with music and laughter!

Southernmost KOA camp

Unintentionally checking off the KOA sites at the furthest cardinal points here in "as far south as you can go" Key West, in September we stopped at Bar Harbor, Maine, the furthest east in the USA. Onwards north to Alaska and west to California!

Perfecting the Grill !

Much experimentation with our portable grills and we do love our FireSense earthenware grill - we load up with lump charcoal to get it going and then part way through the warm up we add mesquite wood blocks so that it becomes a wood fired grill... then at the highest heat with the embers glowing bright within an inch of the grid we place seasoned Grouper or Snapper until it's slightly browned and crisped on the exterior while the inside is moist and tender - about two minutes per side. Fish fillets are best prepped into 2 to 3 inch servings about an inch thick, salt and pepper and a light spray of olive oil. Great with fish tacos or as main entrée!

Planning for next year!

Touring all the RV sites in Key West we checked out Geiger Key and indeed we found an idyllic spot with its own Tiki hut on the waterfront which we reserved for a week in January 2017. Certainly beats our current mangrove site! Being in an open spot that has the prevalent SE breeze coming straight in is perfect! Note another Airstream almost like ours is on the site this week!

26 years later....

After exchanging Christmas cards religiously for 25 years we decided today to actually stop and visit Sally Sange in Cape Canaveral! Sally mother of Noah and Kate at Aylett Country Day School was our parent pal for many years and our children Noah and Ben were best friends - we engineered many weekend camping expeditions which may have been the model for the TV survivors series. Wonderful to catch up with Sally after her OBGYN career and friend Michael who works at the space center building the next generation U.S. space launch vehicles.

Beauty and the Brute

All we ever desperately need is a shot of water and electricity by RV site hookups which inside the "Beauty" silver box are miraculously converted to an espresso coffee! Enough to get you moving each morning after a humid overnight in the tranquil south Georgian low country forest! All the thirsty Brute needs is a large serving of diesel fuel to satisfy his appetite! The Brute can even accelerate impressively with tow up from 70 mph if called upon providing lashing of fuel are administered!

The Brute Awakens

After 4,000 miles and four trips the Beast finally had to admit it could not handle hills let alone mountains! Enter the Brute, a 400 hp and 800 lb torque RAM diesel with a 6.7 liter Cummins 4x4 - that should fix the problem!

Cruising day!

Left the Airstream at Hatteras and took the Tahoe over to Ocracoke, checked out the three camp sites for future trips, had a food truck lunch at Eduardo's (#1 Trip Advisor), walked the beach for an hour, enjoyed the wilderness and avoided the many flooded areas and highways. Nothing like a free 45 minute gentle ferry ride their and back again on a bright calm sunny day before 100 mph Joaquin arrives!

We had a baby!

Funny how our New York neighbors at Frisco Woods have a 15 foot Airstream called a Bambi - it looks like mother and baby! Quite honestly I don't know how I would manage in a 15 ft camper trailer!! It would be ugly!

Cape Hatteras campground

Cape Hatteras campground has become a lake after a deluge of rain for the last 10 days it has been evacuated and closed! Tried to check it out today for future visit reference!

Hatteras light relocated

Interesting visit to the lighthouse and the engineering story of its move 1/2 mile inland away from the receding coastline! Unbelievable you could lift up a structure of this size without fracturing or other damage!

The Atlantic Ocean

A vigorous storm blowing towards the beach causes foam and froth from the waves to be blown high up the shore. The sandpipers are having a wonderful time in the surf.

Lunar eclipse at Hatteras

Fast scudding clouds fleetingly blocked the view of the moon but around 10:20 pm the sky was relatively clear to observe the moon being incrementally then totally obscured by the earth - certainly a rare set of circumstances.

Ocean Waves NC

OBX Hatteras ocean side park with access to the beach through the dunes, a few pine trees and lots of vigorous winds this week at 20 to 30 knots.... Delayed arrival due to heavy rains and high winds. Route 12 is closed for flooding and sand drift further down towards Ocracoke.

A ban on damp towels!

Unilateral Declaration of Independence from damp towels! Installed an electric towel warmer replacing the simple towel rail... works only on shorepower and that's most of the time!! It's an indulgence... what can I say!

Trip completed!

Miles total: 3,150
Longest day: 825 miles
Baddeck NS: 8 days / 540 miles
Cornwall PEI: 7 days / 250 miles
Bar Harbor ME: 5 days / 200 miles
Lobsters consumed: 17

Some habits last longer than others...

Fifty six years ago I went boarding school in the UK at King Edward's School Witley and became #26 - everything I owned had that number imprinted on it! One of many habits I picked up was Marmite on hot toast! A schoolboy off the menu supplementary indulgence! Till this very day I still indulge in my quick version of breakfast! Before leaving home base I bake two loaves using the Sullivan Street Bakery recipe, slice them and freeze it ready to be transferred to the Flying Cloud freezer - voila! You can't find bread like this on the road so bring it along!

Ready for the Road...

Onwards and upwards we are all hooked up and ready for the next stage from Canada to the US and back to Canada. The only way apart from two small rickety ferries is to re-enter the US at Calais, go east and cross back to Campobello Island at Lubec. It seems that US Customs and Border Protection are more interested in seizing unlabeled avocados and lemons rather than preventing 10 to 20 million illegals entering the country! Canada on the other hand is fiercely questioning the amount of alcohol on board and interrogating you on your inventory of firearms and mace. The total Tahoe and Airstream rig is 44 feet long and requires a detailed checklist of some 30 item by item review before departure making sure all systems are secure, switched off, switched on, dumped, tightened, stored away, locked up, retracted, plugged in, air pressure range, torque check and for the most part protected against the rough ride in the back. Most traveling days run anywhere from 150 to 300 miles but the haul back to Virginia may exceed 800 miles interrupted only by some quick snack and shut eye in a truck stop or rest area. Distinct advantage: you have your very own bathroom and cooking facilities anywhere you go!

Mandatory Cadillac Mountain visit

No we did not hike up the 1600 ft mountain, we drove up! Beautiful forest drive at a silent 20 mph with windows wide open and the smell of marine air tinged with occasional coniferous scents! A commanding viewpoint to check out all the cardinal points of Mount Desert Island. Note to self - avoid tourist spots when there is a cruise ship in harbor - especially one full of Deutschlanders!

Jordan Pond Trail

After a splendid lunch washed down with a Pilsner light beer at Jordan Pond House and waited on by exemplary Polish exchange students we set off along the Jordan Pond lakeside trail for a swift four mile hike to the north end of the lake and turned around at the suspension bridge and hiked back building a nice sweat cooled by the brisk ocean breeze off the water!

West Quoddy Lighthouse, Campobello

This quaint and photogenic lighthouse attraction probably would not exist in the litigious United States! Three dangerous rusty ladders, scramble across seaweed encrusted rocks, precipices without barriers, swift tidal currents can leave you stranded, near vertical ladders in lighthouses! But this is Canada and common sense of the visitor governs what he attempts to do and it is deemed that the visitor is more than capable of making his own judgement that they know they have reached the limit of their human capabilities! Don't do this visit if you have vertigo, balance issues, don't feel comfortable on a ladder or scared of heights. Cost of the trip to the lighthouse $5 each. Cost to tour the lighthouse $10 each. Allow a couple of hours. Check tide tables very carefully as the lighthouse is not accessible four hours either side of high water. If you get stuck on the lighthouse island or the intermediate island you could have to wait eight hours before tides recede from the bars between the islands. The volunteers in the lighthouse are just wonderful and so excited at their $1 acquisition of this abandoned lighthouse which they have put their heart and soul into restoring - a brilliant job! 

Joys of camping!

What a miraculous piece of adaptive engineering the Airstream has become. This year's 2015 model has for the first time built in ductwork between the inner and outer shell allowing for a sophisticated distributed climate control system. A special design six mode thermostat allows for electric heat pump heating and air conditioning cooling modes, an automatic mode, propane fueled furnace heating when no electricity is available and fan only air circulation. Hot water is either heated by electric or by propane and for the "I need a hot shower now" mode fast response you can select both! Likewise fridge/freezer runs on electric or propane and switches between the two automatically. I have had the breaker pop when we had microwave,  computers and iPads on charge, fridge/freezer, toaster and espresso machine all going at once.... oh the joys of camping! - but we have come quite a long way since that ex-army tent with groundsheet in the 60's!

FDR Summer Cottage

Defies the term cottage with 34 rooms! FDR spent almost all his formative childhood summers here with family and friends; unfortunately politics and contracting polio at 38 made visiting very difficult subsequently. A really special place overlooking the Bay of Fundy and Eastport away from the hot and humid summers on the East Coast....

Tea with Eleanor

Picture window view from the dining room at the Hubbard Cottage in the compound of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt summer home on Campobello Island. Splendid one hour English tea with Carolyn and Violet who entertained and informed us about the life of Eleanor Roosevelt and all her achievements!

Bedroom in the Forest

Early morning sun breaks through the pine and spruce forest canopy and sends light beams into our bedroom - all you have to do is open the curtains, grab a cup of coffee, enjoy the tranquil view and relax this morning!

Mulholland Point Lighthouse

Skipped dessert, paid the Fireside Restaurant bill and hoofed it speedily down to the lighthouse to watch sunset! The stretch of waters is about 300ft wide between Campobello Island, Canada and Lubec, Maine and a torrent of an outgoing ebb tide was sluicing through the gap probably 8 to 10 knots. We watched the 30+ seals in the stream picking off dinner as they maintained their position in the swift stream and just opened their jaws to repeatedly catch the fishy catch of the day!

Motor homes!

It's hard to grasp the relative size of some of these RV's - here we are parked back to back with a huge motor home that dwarfs our little 25ft Airstream! At Saint John, New Brunswick.

Dinner tonight...

Steaks grilled over the Japanese "Fire Sense" charcoal grill and then use the remaining embers for a couple of peaches with cream for dessert!

Greenwich Dunes trail..

You can't ask for a better two hour trail hike and get as much diverse environment! Estuary hugging paths across open wild flower fields, blue spruce, silver birch, balsam laurel forest paths, floating boardwalk bridge across a half mile inland lake with bullrushes and wildlife, next trek across the coastal dunes, and then arrive at the beautiful gulf of St Lawrence north beach with crashing waves. To the west you can see the parabolic moving dunes that shift gradually cross the landscape over time! Just one of the best walks on PEI.

Moules Mariniere

Two pounds of mussels from North Rustico - start with quarter bar of butter and sauté a finely chopped large shallot till transparent, add dry white wine an bring to simmer, throw in mussels and cook in a closed saucepan till they open - fortunately we have a glass lid so you can watch! Decant mussels to a eating bowl, add a large dose of cream to the sauce, reduce a bit, and pour over the mussels....

Oh those sunflowers!!!

Lobster traps 101

Larger than our Chesapeake Bay crab pots they likewise have two trap chambers - entry chamber and bait on right side that can be entered from both sided through trap funnels, internal funnel leading to left chamber with two small rectangular culling cutouts to allow juveniles to escape! Weighted with poured concrete or slabs on the base, they are very heavy and usually operate in much deeper waters, the lobsterman have hydraulic winches to harvest and haul the pots. A short legal lobster season means that live lobsters are caught then warehoused in dark tanks until ready for market. If not cared for properly they rapidly lose weight and profit margin declines!!