Hurricane!!!

Posted on May 31, 2021 by zanedriver under Adventures, Destinations, Emergency Preparation, Hurricanes, Weather

There were two things Wendy and I were concerned about when we moved to Naples, Florida. First, could we stand the heat and humidity in the summer? Well, we discovered that we absolutely love the summers here.

Second, what to do about hurricanes? Well, we’ve learned a lot in this first year (And we have much yet to learn.). In addition to installing hurricane windows, we created a written plan for this year. Perhaps the most important part of this plan is the Go, No-Go Decision. So without further ado, here is the Smith Hurricane Plan 2021.

Smith Hurricane Plan 2021

Go, No-Go Decision

We make reservations (somewhere) if there is a forecast for a:
- Cat 3 hurricane within 4 days
- Cat 4 hurricane within 5 days
- Cat 5 hurricane within 6 days
Make reservations immediately — for departure at least 3 days before the hurricane.
Note: hurricanes can be huge. Monster winds can be very far away from the eye. So error on the side of caution. If it’s in your general direction and it’s forecast as a level 3 or higher, exit stage right!

Stay at Home Plan (for Cat. 1 or 2)

Shop for last minute items T-4 days
Notify family and ministers T-3 days
Fill ice blocks and put in freezer T-3 days
Fill water barrier in lanai on T-1 day
Fill bathtub T-1 day
Close hurricane shutters and lock hurricane windows T-6 hours

Escape Plan – By Car (Cat. 3, 4 or 5)

Destination: Appalachian mountains (N. GA, NC, TN) – VRBO $1100/week. Leave 4 days before.
- Close hurricane shutters & lock windows
- Notify family & ministers T-3 days
- Things to Bring:
  - Bug-out Bag (red & white in kitchen bottom shelf)
  - Prescriptions
  - Ditty Bag (master closet shelf)
  - Doc In A Box
  - 5-Gallon Gas Cans

Escape Plan – By Air

Close hurricane shutters & lock hurricane windows
Notify family & ministers T-3 days
Leave car in garage, use shuttle or UBER to airport
Bring Prescriptions
Bring Ditty Bags (master closet shelf)

Exit Airports
- RSW (Ft. Myers) is preferred.

FLL (Ft. Lauderdale)
MIA (Miami)
TPA (Tampa)

Air Destinations (vacation spots):

Detroit (DTW) $150 Round trip. Overnight @ Jeff & Kerry’s, then drive to Mackinac City ($154/night plus rental car). 4 hour drive.
Atlanta (ATL), then drive to VRBO in Appalachians.
Boston (), then drive to Camden, ME
Seattle $550. VRBO on Olympic Peninsula (Sequim)$200/night plus car rental
Denver $500. VRBO in Black Hawk ($1500/week) plus car rental

Tools & Equipment

MyRadar App
Storm Radar App
WINK FM & Weatherband Radio
Collier County / Naples Weather Alert System
Bug Out Bag
Katadyne Gravity Water Filter
Portable Solar Cell Phone Charger

Hurricane Season Checklist (Activate each May)

Fill 5-Gallon gas cans and add stabilizer
Bug-out bag checked and ready (72-hour kit +)
Stay at home supplies checked
- Propane canisters
- Propane stove
- Lighter
- Katadyne gravity water filter
- Emergency supplies
- Food storage

Things to Do or Purchase

Research shuttle services to various airports. How likely can they be relied upon at T-3 days until the hurricane?
Money ($20 bills)
Bug Out Checklist (clothes, etc.)
Remote thermometer for fridge and freezer
Gas in 5-Gallon cans with stabil
Solar Powered Emergency Lights

Designed for:

Retired couple
6th floor condo with hurricane-rated windows and shutters. Located 3/4 miles from Gulf of Mexico
Prepared with freeze-dried food storage, portable propane stove, Katadyne water filter, etc.

Well, that’s the plan so far. Please leave your questions, comments and suggestions.

Stay safe out there! ~ Clay

Winter Cottage by the Sea

Posted on March 16, 2019 by zanedriver under Adventures, Frugality, Retirement, Winter Cottage

Our 2018 Travels – From one end to the other.

We’re not done wandering yet. Not by a long shot. But, for a number of reasons (which I may get to eventually in another post), it’s time for us to select a winter quarters. Having spent the past few years wintering in the desert southwest, this year we headed to Florida to see what that was all about.

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I was somewhat familiar with Florida, having spent several months in pilot training near Miami, flew multiple times in the big air show at Lakeland, and visited numerous times for spring break as a kid, not to mention many vacations at the beach as an adult. One of my favorite areas is Destin, in the panhandle, with it’s amazing white sand beaches.

But much of Florida is overwhelmed by traffic and people in the winter. Where could we find a quiet haven, near the ocean, that we could afford? Oh, I know. Let’s look in one of the wealthiest cities in the United States. What?

Is this Florida, or Italy?

Our exploration took us south along the west coast of Florida. We considered Clearwater, Sarasota, Venice, Fort Myers, Estero …… And when the road ended, we found ourselves in Naples.

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This city of 20,000 is a place you have to aim at to get to. It’s not on the way to anywhere. This is the end of the road, unless you want to turn east on I-75 and spend a couple hours crossing Alligator Alley to Miami. If you go any further west or south of Naples you’ll get your feet wet in the Gulf of Mexico.

Naples on map

Naples, because of it’s unique location, is a quiet place. There is zero road noise at our little cottage. It is abundant with nature, and we’re close enough to the ocean that we’ll get a sea breeze most days.

So how can two homeless paupers such as us afford to buy property in Naples, one of the wealthiest cities on the planet? Well, first, let me be clear. As with most things in our marriage, I come up with the strategic plan, the big picture. But Wendy does the real work – all the tactical analysis and research.

Wendy is amazing and relentless. She found this place. Basically, I told her, “Yea, sure, if you can find a place that costs next to nothing and can decrease our living expenses, that is by the ocean — I’m in. Just make sure it has palm trees.”

Don’t ever give Wendy an impossible challenge unless you’re ready to commit. The greater the challenge, the happier she’ll be. Here’s what she found:

NLYH Sign

NLYH Pic

NLYH Pool View

NLYH Street View

(Here’s the website: Naples Land Yacht Harbor)

So let me skip to the important part, and then we can fill in the other non-essentials. Here’s the amazing thing. Because we live in (and are shareholders of) Naples Land Yacht Harbor, for $30/month we can have a boat slip a short walk from our cottage that gives us access to the intercostal waterway and the Gulf of Mexico. Endless exploration! $30/month? Uh oh. Looks like there’s going to be another boat in our future.

You have to understand. I don’t think like normal people. I don’t see a home as an investment. I see it as a necessary expense. So long as it places me where I want to be, is safe, and doesn’t require much time or money in maintenance, that’s all I require.

Story time! Thirty years ago, when Wendy and I moved to Indiana so she could attend medical school, I looked for a house near my new employer, USA Group. I told the realtor to give me a printout of the home listings in the area (Noblesville, IN). Then I started at the very bottom of the listing from the cheapest houses with the intention of working my way up the list. And what did I find at the very bottom? The listing said,

$59,000 Three bedroom one bathroom, blah, blah, blah …. next to a grass runway.

Bingo! Perfect. The cheapest house … ON A GRASS RUNWAY! I drove by and all I could see was that beautiful runway with airplanes parked here and there. Shangri-La! I also noticed that the roof looked okay on the little house. Good enough.

Aerial View – 14810 Promise Road at Bottom Left next to green runway!

Living in that house was one of the happiest times of our life. Wendy was able to pursue her goal, I got my pilots license and started building an airplane, and the kids had acres and acres of lawn to play in — just keep an eye out for airplanes landing.

That’s how I look for property. Find the cheapest thing available that meets the need. And pay with cash if you can. Any extra money spent on the house is money that can’t be used to explore the world and have interesting experiences.

Okay, back to the here and now: our little cottage by the sea. Nothing fancy. It is a 50 year old mobile home, one of 352 located in Naples Land Yacht Harbor (NLYH). It’s an antique. Who buys this stuff?!?! We do!

This particular unit has an updated kitchen and bathrooms, and new roof, plywood flooring covered in tile, A/C, and windows.

Although it is tiny at 820 square feet, consider that for the past 4 years of full-time travel in our RV we’ve been living happily in 400 square feet. For us, this summer cottage is spacious with more than twice our usual living space.

It comes fully furnished, including dishes, linens, washer/dryer and a workshop loaded with tools.

So what do we plan to do if a hurricane wipes it out? Actually, the eye of Hurricane Irma came right through Naples Land Yacht Harbor September 10, 2017.

Of the 352 units in NLYH, 13 had to be condemned. Many others needed one type of repair or another. But these old mobile homes did amazingly well. They’re all anchored to the ground with special straps. Damage typically comes from flying debris. But if another hurricane comes barreling through and you’re not so lucky, you just scrape off what’s left and put a new, 1300 square foot Jacobsen manufactured home on the site. As you drive through NLYH, you see a sprinkling of the 13 new homes that replaced those that did not survive Irma.

But why an old mobile home? Aren’t there better options? After all, Florida is loaded with retirement condos, apartments, houses and newer park model/manufactured home options.

We want a permanent place here in Southern Florida. We’ve looked at and considered purchasing:

RV pads. Each RV community we looked at had a great social atmosphere with pickle ball and all kinds of gatherings. However, the cost would be twice as much for a bare cement pad as we paid for our 2 bedroon, 2 bath cottage (plus we would pay $1,000/yr property tax). We don’t pay property tax on our mobile home because the property is permanently leased to us.
Condos. These cost 3-4 times as much as our home with the same HOA fee/month that we are paying at the cottage, plus $1,500/yr property tax. And although these have a community pool, they have no social gathering programs. And you actually have less privacy with shared walls and the possibility of noisy, smoking neighbors. No ambiance.
Other mobile home parks. The typical park with 30-40 yr old mobile homes has smaller lots and less green space and costs twice what we paid. If they have water access to the Gulf of Mexico with boat slips, they cost 3-4 times more.

Naples Land Yacht Harbor is a high quality 55+ community that we think we will greatly enjoy for six months each winter. It feels like a throwback to old Florida, where 1 mile from the cottage, we can bike by the fancy Naples shops and restaurants on our way to a free day at the beach.

Check out the NLYH website to learn more. We would love to have you as a neighbor!

You just can’t live any cheaper than this. And did I mention that you can have a boat slip for $30/month? Yea, I think I did.

We have a whole new world to explore — this time in a boat. Something to look forward to in the next several winters.

But first a summer mission this year and then 6 months in Europe next year. But we’ll get to that later. Isn’t life grand?

– Clay

Retirement 3.0

Posted on March 19, 2018 by zanedriver under Adventures, Education, Learning, Study, Financial Independence, Retirement, Surgeon

I haven’t personally contributed to the blog lately– Clay has done all the heavy lifting. He does such a good job with painting word pictures. Yay, Clay! But I have a great excuse:

I am too busy reading novels.

On my floaty thingy.

In an 80 degree pool.

Being truly and completely retired now (which is supposed to mean there are more hours in the day), I’m back on the blog road again. This time, giving my impressions of Retirement 3.0 (as in 3 months since my official last day of work).

On our motorhome bookshelf, sits “The Escape Plan” binder. Its maroon cover is faded from years of fondling, perusing, journaling and researching.

Not everyone has an escape plan in life. That big red ejector seat button riiigggghhhhttt under their finger (“Don’t pusha da button!!!” as our son Jesse used to say, after he willfully pushed the elevator Emergency Stop button and the ear-splitting klaxon of alarms scared the soup out of him).

We like pushing da button.

And we were feeling the urge to un-merge from our current lifestyle and change things up dramatically.

Clay and I would look each other in the eyes after a particularly trying day, week or month and desperately say,

“You and Me . . . right?”

Since the answer was always a heartfelt resounding, “Yes!” then it didn’t really matter what storm or life quake was currently happening.

Our mantra became (because we were thinking of moving to a Spanish speaking country such as Uruguay or Ecuador), “Vayamos, muy muy legos, sin los pantalones.” Loosely translated: “Let’s go far, far away, without long pants” (nice weather all the time, wearing shorts and flip flops).

The true germination of this wild idea came in March of 2012, on a piece of lined notebook paper, “The Start of It All”.

Our original questions was, “What do we actually want to do when we retire?”

I adore, love, can’t get enough of world travel. Packing for a plane trip makes me grin. Having a passport gives me wings. Settling into a cruise ship melts my bones. Being somewhere I’ve never seen before makes my pulse quicken (in a good way– not like an anxiety attack). Picking up phrases in another language is a game for me (Please. Thank you. No thank you. Don’t touch me. Left, Right. I don’t speak your language. Do you speak English? Where is the toilet?). Learning about other cultures and art from a knowledgable native tour guide is like taking a mini-college course and I suck it up like chocolate milk.

Clay also likes to travel, but really loves being in any allergy-free season/zone so he can be completely engaged in what’s going on around him.

I have spent the past 27 years of my life studying to become a physician, going through residency, solo surgical practice and temporary medical assignments on the road. It’s who I am and what I do. A few years ago, Clay asked me, “I know you are ready to retire, but what are you going to do with yourself to keep fresh, alive, fulfilled and entertained when you’re no longer wrapped up in life as a doctor?”

“You mean, after I sleep for 6 months?”

“Of course.”

“I will be a writer!” The idea popped into my brain as a full-fledged Aha! moment. I have children’s book ideas, young adult fiction, medical memoirs and this blog. Our daughter Caroline introduced us to Scrivener (www.literatureandlatte/scrivener) a word processing program for authors that organizes writing of any sort and gets it ready for publication. Thanks, Caroline!

And Clay will continue to do what he has been doing: thoroughly enjoying doing investment research analysis. When he’s not writing his thoughts down or studying astronomy, astrophysics and history.

So we’ve pushed da button. And virtually every day since, we have a moment when we look at each other and just giggle with delight at our new-found freedom. We’re flapping our arms and flying away!!!!

-Wendy

Time to Bolt!

Posted on April 4, 2017 by zanedriver under Adventures, Motorcoach, Newell, On the Road, Troubleshooting

Our coach is an amazing creature which provides us with mega comfort. No matter where we explore in the U.S., we always come home to our comfy pillow and pick up where we left off in our novel or watch something on one of our satellite TVs. No more hotels for us. We LOVE this lifestyle and we love our coach.

The sleeping quarters of our comfy little castle.

But when our coach has a hiccup, solving the problem can be a real adventure. Anyone who has a coach knows that there is always a list of things to be looked at or repaired. Early on, most of our issues were “How in the world does this widget work?”

Let’s face it, this is a complex machine. A house that rolls down the bumpy road. Someone once said that if 80% of the stuff works 80% of the time, be happy. That’s the approach we take. We fix what we can and live with things that aren’t perfect until we get back to the factory for maintenance once a year. But sometimes something really important requires that you change your plans and get it fixed — stat!

Uh Oh. Big Problem!

In February we had such an issue. Our furnace went out. Not good when you’re wintering in the Pacific Northwest! Our furnace is an Aquahot system. The Aquahot circulates hot liquid to provide:

heat to each of five zones (front, middle, bedroom, bathroom and basement of the coach)
Engine pre-heat
Continuous hot water for ultra-hot, endless showers

The Aquahot can use either electricity (from our generator or a 50-amp service pole) or diesel (from our 238 gallon fuel tank), or both to heat the water. It’s a complex, whiz-bang system that we absolutely love. But after 12 years, she had sprung a leak and the Aquahot factory told me — “gotta replace it.”

We can stand in our shower all day long with our endless hot water and de-stress from our stressless life.

So we patched her up as best we could and headed to the factory to have the furnace replaced. One thing we have come to realize is that, although it is never convenient to go to the Newell factory in Miami, Oklahoma, it’s where she was born. And those folks are the only ones on God’s green earth who really know how to fix her and provide the right maintenance. Since Newell only makes 24 custom coaches each year, no other maintenance shop has seen enough of them to really know what they’re doing. And the longer a shop takes to figure out this beast, the more we pay for their service. It seems that anything we have ever had done to our coach by someone other than Newell, had to be undone and redone by the Newell factory. And the factory hourly rate is lower than most other service shops we’ve been to. So I think we have finally learned our lesson. We go to the factory. It’s cheaper. They provide better customer service, and they’re much faster because they know what they’re doing.

Time to haul rear!

Up until now, we’ve not had a reason to drive hard. We typically get on the road by 10am and off by 3pm, with a lunch in between. Why hurry? But in this case, who wants to lally-gag across Wyoming in the wintertime? It was darn cold and we had furnace issues. So we covered 2,400 miles in four days. We can really haul when we need to! Hurry to the Factory

It was actually a fun trip. Quite an adventure. Our big concern was Wyoming, land of the big winds and snow. And, true to form, we had to stop in western Wyoming for the night at a truck stop (Little America) because I-80 was closed across Wyoming. First thing in the morning I checked and I-80 was open again, so off we rolled, passing trucks that had skidded off the road from the prior storm.

Driving all day is really pleasant as we roll along and listen to our books on tape (We borrow audiobooks from all the libraries we belong to in Maine, Florida, and Washington.). Each morning we were up with the sunrise and we would find a place to stay the night before the sun set at a casino, Walmart, rest area or a truck stop.

Newell Factory.

We actually enjoy our visits to the Newell factory. They must have close to 30 service bays. It’s quite a site to see 20 or 30 of these big beasts lined up in the service bays.

As a Newell owner, you are free to walk around the service bay, climb in your coach while they work, watch them work on your coach, ask questions, and inspect what they do as they work. After three years of owning our coach, we now know these Newell technicians. And they know us and the coach. They even remember the first owner of the coach (We are the second owners.). Our electrician helped build our coach 13 years ago. The technicians are the best Newell has, having worked in the factory for a decade or two before they are hand-selected to work in the service area. I think they must select them not only for their technical knowledge, but also for their ability to work well with customers. Amazing customer service!

Factory Tour.

Newell recently completed construction on a new factory, which replaces the old one. So we got a tour of the new factory. It’s mind-bending to see a coach go from the early stages of creation, to the ugly guts-hanging-out almost-done stage, to the finished gleaming product.

You’re looking at the south end of a north-bound Newell in an early stage of production.

This is the — guts hanging out ugly stage. Left front view.

Almost ready for paint. Still a homely beast.

There’s a newborn getting her final touches.

The list price on a 2017 Newell is just shy of $2 million (and they always sell for list here). Wendy and I just smile at each other when we consider that we get the same level of service for our 2004 coach as the owner of a $2 million dollar 2017 coach. Sweet deal!

Everything works now!

We arrived at the factory with our gripe list. We always keep a list of issues so we don’t forget anything at our annual factory visit. Topping our list was to replace our Aquahot. Here’s our newly installed Aquahot.

The Aquahot 675D. Our endless hot showers make us happy, happy, happy!

The Aquahot gets neatly tucked away behind these two stainless steel doors.

Everything disappears, neat and tidy behind the basement door.

This adventuring thing is not for the faint of heart. It can lighten your pocket book in a big hurry. There is a reason we call her Zane. Because you have to be “in Zane” to roll down the road in this castle on wheels. But we are happy and off on new adventures, nice and snugly-warm as we see new wonders from our coach.

Weekend in Seattle

Posted on January 30, 2017 by zanedriver under Adventures, Destinations, Great Places, Motorcoach, Surgeon, The Great Loop, US Power Squadron

We were planning on spending the weekend in Seattle anyway, so when the furnace blew up (Don’t worry, I like to say systems “blow up” when they stop functioning and have to be replaced. If something really does blow up, I’ll let you know.) we figured, we can either hang around the AquaHot service center in Centralia, WA and fret about the thousands of dollars it will cost us to replace our hydronic heating system, or we can go to the Seattle Boat Show and pretend we can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a boat.

So we left our coach in the capable hands of the Brazel’s RV Performance Center and got a great deal on a VRBO (Vacation Rental by Owner) apartment in Seattle for the weekend.

Seattle is such a cool place. A city surrounded by water with snow-capped mountains in the background. And it’s a city famous for airplanes, with the historic Boeing factory.

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A Connie welcomes us to the museum.

So our first stop on Friday morning was to once again visit the Boeing Museum of Flight. This may be one of the three best flight museums in the world.

Our tour guide, Bart, began our day with the fascinating story of the Wright Flyer.

A cornucopia of historic airplanes.

The SR-71 surrounded by a gaggle.

The pointy end of the Concorde.

They have airplanes and excellent displays for WWI on one floor, WWII on another, and an outdoor pavilion with a Concorde, a vintage Air Force One, a 747 and the new Dreamliner, each of which you can stroll through. I had my pedometer going and we logged 3 miles Friday morning.

But if you really want to log some miles, go to a boat show. After lunch, we headed to Century Link Field Event Center for the Seattle Boat Show.

Boats, boats everywhere!

What’s up with our interest in boats? Well, Wendy and I love to explore. And we love to experience things from a new perspective (i.e., airplanes, motorhomes, and …. boats). There are three areas of the country that interest us that can only be truly appreciated from a boat. So let me tell you about them.

There are thousands of amazing scenes along the inner passageway of Western Canada.

Juan De Fuca Straits to Alaska via the Inner Passage. This area is vast, with lots of islands and is relatively protected from the wide open sea. Wendy and I have seen some of the wonders of these waters from the cockpit of my airplane and from an Alaska cruise liner. But we have only touched the surface. Since we’ve been in Sequim, WA we have become friends with many people who cruise their boats up into these amazing waters during six months between April and October and we think it would be way cool to do the same.

The Great Loop.

The Great Loop. Each year, hundreds of boaters travel the great loop, which circles from the Florida keys up through the intercostal waterway along the east coast, stopping at all the major cities and seeing things like the Statue of Liberty from the water, then inland through the Erie Canal to the Great Lakes, then down the Mississippi and down the western coast of Florida. So we’re thinking this would be a fascinating challenge and would give us a whole new perspective. 5500 miles of perspective.

A beautiful playground.

Caribbean. For our 25th anniversary (11 years ago) I took Wendy on our first cruise in the Caribbean. Boy was that habit forming! We’ve been anywhere a cruise ship would take us in that area, including the Panama Canal, Costa Rica, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico and all the islands in between. If we were to buy a boat to do the Great Loop, we would most likely want to motor on over to the Bahamas, since they are nearby. Of all the places around the world we have snorkeled, the Exuma Cays were the best.

The only questions are: can our energy level and our pocketbook keep up with our ambition? Hmmmm, we shall see.

Anyway, we had a great time at the boat show. You can’t imagine how much research Wendy does before going to something like a boat show. We have read at least a dozen books and mined Internet websites on boats and boating with the idea in mind that we might buy one to fulfill one of the above mentioned objectives. So when we got to the show, we had a good idea of what we were looking for.

Aspen Power Catamaran. We’re done with hoisting sail, so we were looking for a power boat. After a lengthy conversation with Nick Graf at Aspen discussing his fathers’s boat design, we spent the rest of the day looking at displays and boats (7 miles on the pedometer).

40-foot Aspen C120 (Catamaran)

The next morning was Saturday and at the invitation of Larry Graf (designer and builder of the Aspen), we met him and his son at the boat dock and took a two hour cruise in Larry’s 40-foot powered cat design. What a great opportunity for Wendy and me to spend time on the designer’s boat with him. His enthusiasm was infectious, and with good reason. We love great designs and this one, with it’s asymmetrical proa hull design, silky smooth handling and awesome fuel ecomony was a complete winner.

Beautiful cockpit displays.

Wendy and I had lots of fun putting this amazing boat through her paces.

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And the scenery was awesome as we boated past quaint and colorful floating homes and watched lenticular clouds form over Mt. Rainier.

After visiting the Museum of History and Industry (these Seattlites are an innovative bunch: Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, Costco, Nordstrum, Cinnabon, Eddie Bauer, Red Robin and Starbucks all started here), we capped the day off by walking the piers and having fish and chips at Ivar’s Acres of Clams. Our top floor apartment on the hill looks out over bustling beautiful sparkling city as day turns to night.

We love Seattle.

Tomorrow, we plan to go through the Boeing airplane factory tour in Everett, north of Seattle and then take two ferries back to the Olympic Peninsula by way of Whidbey Island. When you live by a HUGE ocean sound, there are two choices to get places: drive umpteen hours out of your way around the shoreline or suck it up and pay for ferries to hop through islands. Ferries are more fun.

The next couple of weeks should be interesting. Our motor coach will be in the shop for 7 to 10 days while the AquaHot factory custom builds a new unit and ships it to Centralia, WA (2.5 hrs from Sequim) where it will be installed into our coach. So we will be staying at a VRBO house in Port Angeles where Wendy will do a short stent of work (5 days over a 2 week period) to fill in for a vacationing ENT doctor.

And… we will continue taking our US Power Squadron Marine Electronics and Marine Weather courses with some great instructors.

We try to stay flexible and wing it as necessary. Life is good.

Clay

What a Year it Was! (2016)

Posted on January 22, 2017 by zanedriver under Adventures, Destinations, Family, Missionary Work, Mormon Trail, On the Road, Temporary Work, Trekking, Volunteering, Wild Camping

Life on the road means moving from place to place when the mood suits, the weather changes or job opportunities arise.

Auburn/Lewiston Maine (Jan-April)

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We started out 2016 by flying from Tucson, Arizona to live in Auburn, Maine for 4 months and work in Lewiston, right across the river. The weather in January through April was just as you would expect; cold, icy, snowy and wintery. Twenty-foot piles of snow in every parking lot. But you can stand on your head for 18 weeks. It was a fun adventure.

Valentine’s Day was memorable, as we drove to our favorite seaside town (Camden, Maine) for a weekend trip. It just so happened that a storm dumped 14 inches of snow centered just on Camden that weekend. Snow piled up on the dormer window sills of our lovely boutique hotel. We ate a magnificent lobster tasting menu with a decadent dessert and sat by the fireplace and read books. Ahhh.

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I worked at Central Maine Medical Center in the ENT department with some fine people, who made getting to know the system (including multiple electronic medical record programs) much more enjoyable. They were gracious enough to want me to stay. How nice is that?

Clay worked on investments and did day trips with the young full-time missionaries.

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And he was my driver in the bitter weather for midnight on-calls to the emergency room. That meant the world to me.

Tucson, Arizona to Provo, Utah (April)

Clay left Maine 3 weeks ahead of me to pick up Zane (the motorhome) from her indoor RV daycare center. (The report is she got along well with others and learned to color inside the lines.) He checked out her systems (after a 4 month rest, sometimes RVs get persnickety) as he drove through Arizona and Utah, meandering around Sedona, Zion’s and Bryce Canyon National Parks.

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Wendy finally arrived in Utah the last Saturday in April. We had lovely visits with our nieces Morgan Webb (with Dennis and little sweet Parker Eliza) and Kirsten Walton. opflrt-z-hhy9xx2gnpw-8abkf2pljiga-rgib-7fp0px92ib

After one day’s rest for Wendy, it was time to get busy again.

Missionary Training Center, Provo, Utah (May)

We entered the peaceful, busy, happy place called the MTC (Missionary Training Center) on Monday, May 2– ready to start our mission.

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Here we are all polished up for the MTC.

After 10 days of training, and some fine visits by church authorities from Salt Lake City, we headed back on the road to our mission.

Wyoming Mormon Trail Mission, Devil’s Gate, Wyoming (May-October)

Knowing that your mission is in the middle of nowhere and actually experiencing it are two different things. h_1cd9mfeuoylldatlxfsejdriiczx5kgza4wg8-yfmpx92ib

Even Verizon cell phones and data don’t work on the high desert surrounded by mountains on all sides. Trying to convince Verizon of such a fact is another story. So, we got a local cell phone with data and went with that.

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Our spot at Missionary Village

You know you are on a Wyoming Mormon Trail Mission when….

Morning report includes, “We found the mama cow and calf up by Devil’s Gate, but we also saw mountain lion sign. So, if you are sending visitors up into the canyon, just tell them to …. be careful.”
There are TWO dead rattlesnakes in the mission kitchen refrigerator.
Your husband tells you he is going out for fast food drive through (Yay!!), and comes home with roadkill (Ewww).
A gallon of milk costs $13.50 because the nearest grocery store is 60 miles away in Casper and it takes 5 gallons of gas to get there and back.
A hot date is a trip to the Muddy Gap gas station 4 miles away for a fountain drink, bag of chips and a hot dog off the roller grill.
You are not able to donate blood, because it contains 25% DEET.
The mission ‘car ‘ is a 4×4 half ton pickup truck, or a dozer, backhoe, asphalt roller, rover or honey wagon (to pump out the pit toilets at the end of trekking season).
Duties as assigned on the mission include driving up into the Green Mountains (elevation 8800 feet) to cut 90 pine trees to make fence poles. Or asphalting the roads. Or bottle-feeding orphan calves.
You feel the spirits of those pioneers who died there and more often than not tears choke your throat as you share their journal entries. And it is almost impossible to sing “Hallowed Ground” or “The Fire of the Covenant” all the way through for the same reasons.
When being nearly the youngest in the group of 120 missionaries means nothing, as these Canadian, Utah, Arizona and Idaho farmers in their late 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s run circles around you each and every day. And then it’s time to square dance.
When high school age kids come in 1856 pioneer dress to trek over hot, dusty trails to re-enact pioneer experiences. And they enjoy it as their hearts and lives are changed.
Your nearest non-missionary neighbors are the herd of pronghorn antelope with their new babies that graze on your little patch of green lawn. The jackrabbit that greets you from under your RV. The lonely call of the coyotes in the pre-dawn hours. The tiny red foxes that skitter across the road. The mule deer herds. We won’t say any more about the gopher snakes or rattlesnakes. Or the mice invasions.

We lived in a lovely bubble of service, taking care of 17,500 trekkers and 26,000 others in the visitor’s centers, museums and 1872 era buildings and served with some of the finest missionaries on the planet. If you want an amazing working mission for 6 months in your RV, this is for you!

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On the historic Mormon Trail with our teenaged trekkers.

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Sequim, Washington (Nov – Dec)

From Wyoming we headed northwest, hoping to get through the mountain passes before it snowed. Why would we go to the top left corner of the U.S. of A. for the winter? What are we thinking?

When you spend your summer and fall in the hot, bone dry, constantly windy (I did say WINDY didn’t I?), always sunny high elevations of central Wyoming, the cool, wet, cloudy days of the Northwest are welcome relief. Ahhhh.

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We spend our days biking, walking on the Olympic Discovery Trail, beach-combing along the Juan de Fuca Straits, watching container ships come in from Asia, reading in the library, writing and studying all kinds of things.

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Look at the root system of this giant that washed up on the beach!

Wendy attends plays, musicals and ballet while Clay doesn’t have to. Happy me, happy him.

Taking the ferry over to Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada is a treat, as is exploring Seattle (2 hrs away) and Vancouver, BC (the major Canadian city on the mainland).

The US Power Squadron has also become a focus, as we made friends with people with boats (this place is an amazing boating area) and we will explore the world of trawlers and other types of power boats as we take courses in Marine Electronics and Marine Weather as members of the Power Squadron this winter.

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Uh oh. They’re looking at boats. That could be expensive.

The large boat shows in Seattle and Tacoma are on the calendar. Don’t know if we will ever get a boat to use up here or around the Great Loop back East, but knowledge is never wasted and we are always up for new adventures.

Still need to catch some Dungeness crab.

After Sequim

Around April 2017 we will probably start moseying down the coasts of Washington and Oregon on our way to Eureka, California, where Wendy has her next ENT surgeon’s assignment from June-December.

Life is never dull, as we look out our motorhome window at the snow-capped Olympic Mountains and majestic fir trees. It is wonderful.

2016 was a year full of adventure.

Wendy

To the Blue Hole!

Posted on November 5, 2016 by zanedriver under Adventures, Destinations, On the Road, Wild Camping

We last left you in Hell’s Canyon (border of Washington and Idaho), where we took a serious jet boat ride through the level 4 rapids of the Snake River.

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Miss the rocks, please.

There were times when the nose of the boat was completely submerged, and I wish that I had a picture of that for you, ’cause it was cool! But at those moments I was hanging on for dear life. So this picture will have to do — just imagine the bow submerged and water pouring in through the top of the windows.

Richland, Washington

Our next stop was at a Walmart parking lot in Richland, Washington. Waaa? Walmart? It’s one of our favorite places to “camp” when we’re on the road between major stops. We had no major plans for Richland, so we used one of our travel apps, http://www.allstays.com, to find a place to stay. Here’s what we get:

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Click on the icon for all the details.

Next we use the satellite view to pick our parking spot.

As we looked at the satellite view, we noticed a movie theater across the street, several nice restaurants, and …(drum roll) …… a Krispy Kreme donut shop!!! So we called Walmart, got permission to stay the night, and celebrated halloween in style with dinner, a movie and DONUTS.

Were we concerned about security — especially on halloween night? Well, we’re always cautious. But ………. Walmart has these.

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There’s not a square inch at Walmart parking lots that’s not monitored. We sleep snug as bugs at Walmarts. And we thank them by giving them our business. Aaannnnddd it was free. RV parks have been costing around $35 per night. More money for donuts.

Next morning we fired up the big diesel and rolled just a couple of miles to the Richland Temple and spent several hours enjoying the peace and serenity you can only find in a Mormon temple. For us, these temples are a haven where we can escape the cares of the world.

Richland Temple

In the afternoon we travelled on toward our destination — the Blue Hole (a.k.a., Sequim, Washington).

There were beautiful crops in the fields- trees bursting with red apples and grape vineyards in their fall foliage between Richland and Yakima.

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Our overnight rest stop was in the parking lot of the Muckleshoot Casino– free parking and a nice dinner.

Casino parking in Auburn– also very safe- lots of security men and cameras

It was raining, as per usual, on the Olympic Peninsula as we approached Sequim.

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Hmm. This would be a good test to see if the Blue Hole was real. Would it be raining in Sequim?

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And then, as we got on the Northern Olympic peninsula, magic happened. Just like in the story books (or satellite weather books). The rain just stopped and the sun came out.

Even a rainbow. Welcome to the Peninsula.

We arrived in Sequim, in awe at the Blue Hole that was directly over the city. Yep, it is real. An area of good weather surrounded by clouds and rain.

Our Blue Hole

We set up our motorhome at Gilgal Oasis RV Park in downtown Sequim. It is a clean, well-kept teensy place with beautiful landscaping. Absolutely fine for our needs- with a view of the fog-shrouded snow-capped Olympic mountain range from our windows.

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Of course, the first thing we did was go exploring to find the Straits leading to the ocean.

It’s the start of a new adventure. Stay tuned!

-Clay

Sequim Bay- clear blue skies

Americana Emersion

Posted on October 30, 2016 by zanedriver under Adventures, Destinations, Family, Motorcoach, Uncategorized, Wild Camping

Jackson, Wyoming

Ahh, we are drinking deeply in Americana this week as we meander along the Oregon Trail on our way to the Northwest.

Can’t seem to get enough of the famous pioneer trails! Oregon Trail, Baker City, Oregon.

We are camped at Mountain View RV in Baker City, OR. This town is ready for Halloween! The city streets are decorated with hay bundles and scarecrows. The gold and orange leaves are falling in the neatly manicured old neighborhoods where, in just 24 hours, children will giggle with the thrill of knocking on doors and asking for treats. What fun!

As I sit here writing, I can hear the distant train whistle. The other day, we had lunch at a prototypical diner, Inland Cafe. Wow! Step back in time! We had the sweetest waitress, a magnificent turkey dinner and a take-home cinnamon roll that melted all the way down. All for $22. Don’t you love a diner where the town folks come in to talk about whatever comes to mind?

We just returned from attending the local LDS church, which you can see from our motorhome window. One couple knew us because they had just been through the Martin’s Cove trek leader training program we helped lead in Wyoming. We love to attend church each Sunday everywhere we go. The Baker City 1st ward congregation is chuck full of children. These parents are doing an excellent job of raising their young ones. It gives us hope for the future. We enjoyed the Sunday School interactions. Where else can you get this kind of wisdom and good feelings even though we have never met these people before? The church, it’s teachings and programs are the same all over the world.

Before we were full-time travelers, it was hard to tell the difference in our lives from one week to the next. But now —- stuff is happening!

We started the week Monday morning by reeling in the electrical cord and leaving our 6-month home at Missionary Village near Devil’s Gate, Wyoming. Our mission responsibilities there had ended. But we couldn’t get out of the campground because some rogue missionaries (Elder Crist — repent!) had blocked the gate with detour signs.

Road crew was busy preventing our departure

Even the wood-working team got in on the shenanigans!

It was bittersweet to leave that place that stores so many memories for us now.

The weather was favorable, so we chose to head west via Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We followed the Wind River Mountains northwest. There was some snow at Togwotee Pass, but the roads were dry. Pine trees! Tetons! Snake River! After 6 months in the dry, sage-covered sand, we were ready to drink in the cool mountain scenery.

After window shopping and dinner in Jackson, we found a wide spot in the road and slept soundly that night.

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I don’t know many places that sell genuine triceratops fossils other than Jackson. At $300,000 it was a bargain! But, since it wouldn’t fit in the motorhome…

Although we considered a jaunt up to Yellowstone, all the animals Wendy wanted to see (moose and bear) are in winter disappearance mode and it was a rainy,cloudy day so we decided to continue on west instead.

Next stop: Uncle Earl and Aunt Sandy White’s place.

You should see their garden in the summer- I’m coming back for the strawberries and raspberries.

Wendy has some amazing relatives. They live on the Snake River in a little Idaho town called Heyburn. Here they have a small farm (White Cloud Ranch) where they raise a bobcat, cheetohs (exotic house cats), dogs, fancy chickens (Silkies, Frizzles), quail and peacocks.

We gathered multiple kinds of delicious fresh apples off the trees and took home a carton of multi-colored exotic chicken eggs.

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White Cloud Ranch is a treasure trove of fascinating hobbies and we’re always welcomed with great food (including purple fried breakfast potatoes, Sandy’s eggs, home canned pears and grape juice) and loving kindness. We so loved the peaceful, fall scene looking out over the Snake River as the roosters crowed, chickens clucked and the peacocks strutted.

If you ever need any down-home therapy, head for the White Cloud Ranch! Having family is a wonderful thing.

The next morning we rolled on to Boise, Idaho. This was my first time visiting the city and I must say, I was surprised and impressed. The economy is healthy and it’s a beautiful place with nice weather. They call it the Banana Belt as it remains relatively temperate in the winter. So for those of you who would like to live out west, Boise should be on your possible’s list.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon and tracked down our friends, Chuck and Tonya King from our college days at Brigham Young University 33 years ago.

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We raised our first babies together at the Provo laundromat and thrift stores. They’ve been hard to catch up with over the years as they were living Hong Kong and Mexico City. We had a delightful dinner with them and reminisced and caught up on children’s lives and future plans.

Next day we visited Great-Uncle Cecil and Aunt Elsie Grow (Wendy’s relatives on her mother’s side). It just happened to be Uncle Cecil’s 89th birthday.

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These people are endless! They’re fit! And they were so kind to us. We also spent time with Orri Grow (Grant’s son) and his daughter Natalie, who were visiting their grandparents. Wendy had fun quizzing Cecil and Elsie about their genealogy.

Wendy has fond memories of spending time in their home as a child and hanging out with their sons Craig and Grant.

Cecil and Elsie have served five missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We hope to have that much energy to continue serving over the coming decades.

Missionary plaques for Riverton California, Mongolia, Kenya, Nauvoo Illinois, Monterey Mexico

Friday was another 130 mile drive to Baker City, Oregon. (You will notice we don’t go far each day. What’s the rush? The joy is in the journey.) Saturday we were able to grab the last jet boat of the season with 15 delightful German high schoolers to go down the Snake River through Hell’s Canyon.

Hell’s Canyon, Oregon- deepest canyon in North America at 7900 feet.

The canyon is formed by the meeting of two techtonic plates and not from the river carving its way into the earth.

We boated through level 4 rapids down the Snake and had lunch on the grounds of a remote, off the grid cabin at Sheep Creek. A bald eagle soared past us as we returned upriver. It was a wild ride intermixed with peaceful scenery.

And here we sit comfortably in our home on a Sunday afternoon. One of the best things about this lifestyle is we can travel without pushing hard to get somewhere. Plus, we’re never exhausted and rarely uncomfortable — because we bring our home with us including our couch, recliner and the most comfortable bed we’ve ever owned. (We also like the dishwasher, washer and dryer.)

Anyway, that’s what we did at our house this week. It was a great time full of new insights, scenery and ideas. How much fun!

-Clay

The Blue Hole

Posted on October 23, 2016 by zanedriver under Adventures, Destinations, On the Road

Look up! That’s what we pilots call a sucker hole. Hope this one turns out OK.

We’re headed for the Blue Hole! (Yes, I’ve been known to fly my airplane up through holes in the clouds to get on top and fly in the clear air above. But that’s not what I’m talking about.)

The Blue Hole I’m referring to is a rain shadow on the Olympic Peninsula. The Olympic Mountains block all the heavy rain that soaks the Seattle area and keeps a little town by the name of Sequim (pronounced Skwim) dry and basking in blue skies during the winter. (So we’re hoping this Blue Hole isn’t a sucker hole.)

Here’s the science

Sequim, Washington is also strategically placed for ferry rides across Puget Sound and the Strait of San Juan de Fuca to such fun destinations as Vancouver Island in Canada, Seattle, and any number of unique islands in the strait. Plus there are all kinds of hiking and biking trails on the Olympic Peninsula, walks on the beach, and the opportunity to watch the huge container ships coming in from Asia.

Rainfall: Sequim-15 inches, Seattle- 38 inches, Olympic National Park- 200 inches.

Who would have thought we would be headed for the northwest corner of the United States for the winter? But after six months spent outdoors every day in the sun of Wyoming, we’re ready for pine trees and a cold weather port.

Our next great adventure! We get a happy little tickle in our tummies when we plot out a course like this.

We expect to leave Wyoming on October 24th and head northwest 1,242 miles. stats-to-sequim We calculate this will take at least 21 driving hours and around $500 in diesel fuel. How many days will we be on the road? Who knows. If it were earlier in the season we would go by way of Jackson, WY and climb up into the mountains through Idaho. But this late in the season we’ll probably stick to the interstates and hope to avoid winter weather. Plus there are people on our route that we would like to visit. So this journey could take us a while.

The way we travel, we typically start to roll at 9am and come to a stop no later than 3pm. We like the no stress approach. So this trip could take a week or two — or three. Suffice it to say, we should arrive in Sequim, Washington before Thanksgiving.

Do you have any suggestions for places we might explore on our route?

-Clay

Oh the Adventures! Part Two

Posted on October 10, 2016 by zanedriver under Adventures, Missionary Work, Mormon Trail, Teaching Youth, Volunteering

Service Opportunities

There is never a dull moment on the Wyoming Mormon Trail Mission. When we are not serving at the Visitor’s Center, leading tours of the historic Sun Ranch buildings, trekking with groups through Martin’s Cove or re-enacting stories from the lives of the pioneers, we get to do other interesting assignments.

Welcome Post

As you approach the homestead, you see the welcome post greeters, a day long assignment to get visitors and hundreds of trekkers where they need to go. Trek groups come from states such as California, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Montana and Wyoming.

Chinese tour buses traveling around the United States purposefully stop at our site on the way to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota because we have super clean restrooms. They walk through the visitor’s center and snap a ton of pictures, especially if a missionary is wrangling a snake off the lawn.

Welcome Post can be relaxing, with enough time to read a book, or it can be very busy. On the last day of trekking in September, we counted 450 visitors in 120 vehicles. During the height of the summer trek season, the numbers soar.

Handcart Parking

We really do park handcarts as the trekkers come from the homestead part way along their journey into Martin’s Cove. There were about 600 trekkers pulling 45 carts in 3 groups while we were hosting one day. Parking can get tight!

Using colored flags to distinguish between the treks, Base (which acts like an air traffic controller) knows where each group is at all times as we take our trek groups from place to place. Constant radio communication with base keeps each trek group from running into each other so that each can have a great experience.

The trekkers are then ready to quietly walk up into Martin’s Cove for more spiritual experiences.

Dan Jones Amphitheater

Cherry Creek Campground Hosting

That’s a supply shed behind the host cabin, not an outhouse

When trekkers get off the buses, they load handcarts with 5 gallon buckets containing their personal belongings and walk 3 miles from the homestead to Cherry Creek Campground, where a missionary couple greets them, directs traffic and gets all the different groups and their myriad of support vehicles situated for the night.

After dinner, the groups learn square dancing (with missionary assistance) and have fireside talks as the sun sets. After doing ‘Oh Johhny Oh’ square dancing, the tune sticks in your head all night long as you try to sleep.

Trekkers water-coloring pictures of handcart pioneers and their rescuers.

It’s a long, hot, windy time during that week of campground hosting, but it’s also fun mingling with sweet and enthusiastic young trekkers.

Medical Advisor/Emergency Preparedness Advisor

Everyone has skills and talents they use to the fullest on this mission. Ours happen to be medical doctor for the mission and emergency plan creator.

Since we are 50-70 miles from the nearest medical facilities, being able to triage a problem before it gets worse is a great way to serve. I diagnosed everything from infected Russian Olive tree thorns, severe positional vertigo, TMJ, chest pain requiring 3 cardiac stents, torn knee ligaments, corneal flash burns from welding, to a bad case of shingles.

Independence Rock Volunteers for Wyoming State Parks

Six miles from the homestead, heading east on the highway to Casper, is Independence Rock, the pioneer register of the trail, where travelers carved their names on the granite monolith.

We serve as volunteers for the State and tell people about the rock and encourage them to check out Martin’s Cove as well. We also get to climb the rock!

Independence Rock partly got its name because if your pioneer group got there by Independence Day, July 4th, you were almost guaranteed to get across the Rocky Mountains before the snows came.

The Martin Handcart Company arrived at Independence Rock around November 2, 1856 and had to trudge through deep snow and a fierce cold wind.

Wyoming State Highway Volunteers

As part of our volunteer hours, we pick up trash along the highway several times a year. There’s some interesting stuff out there, folks.

Cleaning up the highway in front of Rattlesnake Pass- where all 500,000 pioneers traveling on the 4 historic trails came through on their way out west between 1843 and 1969.

School Groups

The missionary sisters dress in full pioneer outfits, complete with bonnets, aprons and bloomers, and take the Wyoming 4th grade school children on tours of the homestead ranch, visitor’s center and let them pull handcarts.

It is a favorite field trip for the kids and we enjoy it too, as they are encouraged to call us ‘Grandma’. Many kids have gone home and insisted their entire families come back to see this place, sometimes that same afternoon.

Pioneer Grandmas: front row L to R: Sisters Chandler, Bushman, Turpin, Maxfield. Back row L to R: Smith and Shugart

Stay tuned at this same bat time, same bat channel for more to come in Part Three!

-Wendy

Going In Zane

After Years of Travel Adventures – Retired in Naples, Florida.

Category Archives: Adventures

Hurricane!!!

Smith Hurricane Plan 2021

Go, No-Go Decision

Stay at Home Plan (for Cat. 1 or 2)

Escape Plan – By Car (Cat. 3, 4 or 5)

Escape Plan – By Air

Tools & Equipment

Hurricane Season Checklist (Activate each May)

Things to Do or Purchase

Designed for:

Winter Cottage by the Sea

Retirement 3.0

Time to Bolt!

Weekend in Seattle

What a Year it Was! (2016)

To the Blue Hole!

Americana Emersion

The Blue Hole

Oh the Adventures! Part Two