Canada + U.S. In A Deep Freeze

Even European News agencies have been picking up on it: Most of Canada and the continental United States are in a deep freeze stretching from the very far north of the continent to as far south as  Florida and the southern most tip of Texas. The temperatures shown here are for Florida’s Panhandle but are not going to be much different farther south in the state. While we are having “balmy” 32F on Tuesday, Chicago,IL just got famous by having lower temperatures than Siberia. While most of Canada is experiencing these frigid temps every winter, the southern states of the U.S. are feeling this kind of weather is going to have a huge impact on their daily lives. Some schools have decided to stay closed even though that makes me wonder how students would be holding up in say Winnipeg, Manitoba where winter temps are down to –40F every year. Ok, let’s switch to more pleasant things. Yesterday evening we got an unexpected call on SKYPE. It was my long-time friend’s wife, Renate. Hermann and Renate are living in northern Australia near the city of Darwin. However, the call did not come from there. Nope, it was coming from a hotel in the city of Huey, Vietnam, where Renate had positioned herself on a balcony overlooking the tropical city. Hermann and his wife are currently on a backpack trip through Vietnam. They use trains for transportation and we were told that they would take a 12hr. train ride back to the city of Hanoi the day after. What an undertaking! Hermann and I go back a long time to 1975, when we attended the same technical college course in the city of Flensburg, Schleswig Holstein. We graduated at the same time and while I was heading to Norway, Hermann and Renate emigrated to Australia. After some time in the south of the country they did a long dusty move through the Australian Outback to the Northern Territory, where they regularly “enjoy” temperatures from 80 to 95F (28-35C) In that area the temps are coming with an extremely high humidity, and all I can say it would be hard to live there for me. We hope that we will soon hear more of the couple as they have another 7 days before heading back to their home in Australia. Yesterday we did some more exploring in our neighbourhood. We tried to find a place for a longer hike, but found this type of prohibitive sign. It can be found in front of every little public road branching off Hwy 20. At the shoreline of the Bayou we found this sign, which sure would prevent ME from going for a swim there.   We also went to the Rocky Bayou State Park to get our holding tanks emptied. It’s a 12-mile drive. The park is very beautiful and offers nice camping facilities. 2 hosts are making sure the place stays neat and tidy. It also offers several hiking trails.   Thanks for dropping by!

A Mostly Sunny Day And We Moved The Rig

Even though it was quite chilly but by 8am it was sunny and looked to turn into a promising day here in northern Florida. Today’s agenda included to order 2 new tires from Goodyear, get a few groceries, fill up a propane tank and move the rig to a different spot on the property.                                                      Pansies are still blooming Shortly before noon we headed out to Niceville, a small township along Hwy20 just a few miles west of us. First thing was finding the Goodyear tire place to order 2 new trailer tires. Turned out they had 5 tires in stock. It did not surprise me that the 2 Goodyear tires were about a 100 bucks more than the previous tires we got. A reader let us know that Goodyear is the only tire still made in the good old U.S.A. Let’s hope for a long life of those. I had one wheel with us today and they promised to have it ready by Monday, when I will bring the other along.          Typical price of gas around here Next stop was Wally World – well first we tried FOOD WORLD, Wally World’s neighbour, but a lady there told us that the store closed 6 months earlier. Yet another typical case of Wally World killing off competitors! Dealing with the propane guy Being done with the groceries we went to the propane place. Our 30-pounder was filled for a little above $26 bucks which is almost the double of what we paid in Yuma,AZ last year. Oh well…it’s Florida! Since we had Molly with us we wanted to find a place to walk her in some natural area. That, however, was impossible as we were met with NO PETS signs again. So we went home, had lunch and took Molly for a walk in a forest area near by. Unfortunately, that little muddy dirt road ended in a place so littered with garbage, that we were afraid some drunken hooligans could come riding by any time soon. So we left.          Oops..not only beards are growing fast here but  Magnolia trees are really getting huge The last task of the day was moving our rig up the property. Our hosts are expecting another camper on Monday and for that the driveway had to be accessible. Since we can’t get around the tightly curved driveway (our rig is too long) we had to back it up, then turn it backwards under some huge live oaks. We found out that one branch was hanging too low, so Pete got his reciprocal saw and I went up the camper roof to cut off the branch in bits and pieces.                                                                             Cutting off a low hanging branch  When this last task of the day was accomplished it was time to relax with a coffee. Later we turned on the TV and watched ZORRO’s MARK. Apparently the movie was too gruesome for Bea to watch as she covered her eyes with her hands. :-))                                                     Bea grueling about Zorro… Tomorrow we are heading out to the Rocky Bayou State Park as it is time to empty the holding tanks. Thanks for visiting again!

Beautiful… But Oh So Cold!

The temperatures started dropping yesterday evening. They went from around 52F to just above 32F and when morning came, a brisk northerly wind had sprung up  causing a wind chill way below freezing. The skies had cleared and a bright sun shone across the bay. Humidity had gone to almost nothing and the air was so clear that we could make out details on the barrier peninsula a couple of miles away.  For the morning walk with Molly I bundled up like I had done the last days at home on Campobello Island.   I waited in the longest until I started what I had thought to do – putting the new spare tire on the trailer. Next week I will have to go and buy 2 more new tires for the drivers side. The ones this trailer came with are worn down after one year only. At around 2pm our hosts took us out on a sightseeing tour to the powder beaches of the barrier peninsula. The city of Destin is a famous summer resort for the rich and mighty. To make sure they feel welcome and right at home all the known brands and fashion shops have established themselves out there. But I also saw one of the biggest Wally Worlds I have ever seen. It sure is a place we feel like strangers in – not our cup of tea at all. It’s just too artificial for us, yet sure worth to see for a country boy like me. When we got back home the sun was about to set and Bea grabbed the NIKON and ran down to the water. She sure got a couple of nice shots.   Thanks for dropping by!

The 2013 American-Traveler Picture Review

And here it is: A few of our best shots in 2013!     Roosevelt Lake, Arizona Mesquite Tree in bloom                                         Spring colors in New Mexico   At Roper Lake State Park                        Through the desert   Desert Camping, Holtville, CA                Herring Cove Beach, Campobello Island     Fishing Vessels at North Harbour Mulholland Lighthouse               Sunset on Campobello    Asters                                                        Apple Tree in bloom                                 Old Fisherman’s abode    West Quoddy Lighthouse, Lubec, ME           Summer morning, Herring Cove   A summer day on Campobello               South Coast Campobello   Waters Edge, Lubec, ME                         Cloudy Sunset, Campobello                       ,