Post # 80: Some statistics

Audible sigh.

Well, people, this is it.  Number 80!  I like that I can end on a round number of posts.  To sum up, here are some more numbers, big and small, from our trip:

• 2,184 hours (87 days) spent in each other's company (yes, really)
• 228 hours of driving
• 352,000 steps of hiking (each)
• 10,000 miles traveled.  We drove 9,802 miles and as my father pointed out, when you add in all the hiking we did that easily takes us up to 10,000.   
• 44 hiking/kayaking adventures
• 38 different camping places (including Walmart parking lots)
• 20+ quarts of sprouts sprouted
• 1.43 kilowatt hours collected by our solar panels
• 33 pounds lost: Nils 18, Lisa 15 (I gained a few back but am determined to lose about 15 more)
• 19 states passed through

We visited the following State/National Parks/Monuments/Recreation Areas in this order (prepare yourselves, it's a long list):

1. Mt. Gilead State Park (OH)
2. Badlands National Park (SD)
3. Custer State Park--Sylvan Lake (SD)
4. Angostura State Recreation Area (SD)
5. Mt. Rushmore National Memorial (SD)
6. Crazy Horse Memorial (SD)
7. Big Horn National Forest (WY)
8. Buffalo Bill Reservoir State Park (WY)
9. Big Horn Canyon National Recreation Area (WY/MT)
10. Yellowstone National Park (WY)
11. Grand Teton National Park (WY)
12. Bridger-Teton National Forest (WY)
13. Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area (UT/WY)
14. Capitol Reef National Park (UT)
15. Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument (UT)
16. Bryce Canyon National Park (UT)
17. Zion National Park (UT)
18. Grand Canyon National Park (AZ)
19. Red Rock District, Coconino National Forest (AZ)
20. Petrified Forest National Park (AZ)
21. Painted Desert National Park (AZ)
22. Canyon de Chelly National Monument (AZ)
23. Four Corners Monument (AZ)
24. Mesa Verde National Park (AZ)
25. BLM Canyon Rim Recreation Area (UT)
26. Arches National Park (UT)
27. Canyonland National Park (UT)
28. Colorado Monument National Park (CO)
29. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (CO)
30. Rifle Gap State Park (CO)
31. Rocky Mountain National Park (CO)
32. Cody Park, City of North Platte (NE)

Wow!  What a gift to have been able to spend pretty much as much time as we wanted to in each of these places.  We definitely want to revisit Utah---the national parks there, collectively, were our favorites.   I want to spend more time in Sedona, checking out the Vortexes.  And we never got to explore New Mexico....we'll go back West again someday.  

For those of you who only look at the pictures (!) Sally C suggested that I post some of the inside of the RV (since not all of you have had a tour in person), so here they are:

The view as you walk in the front door....Nils's comfy chair (with ottoman) and the loveseat

Closeup of the loveseat....I made the star quilt and the celtic knot pillows.

Here is my little kitchen:

As you can see, it's just to the right as you come inside the front door.  That little flip-up counter down right in the picture was the extent of my cutting/work space.  I like a challenge!

And here's our "dining area" with tv/entertainment center.  Bedroom is in the wayback (it looks better with linens on, but they were in the washing machine at the time).  Bathroom door is on the right)

So--now you've had a tour of our little house on wheels.  We're already dreaming about a not-bigger- but-better next RV.

I've really enjoyed blogging---thanks for checking in.   Keep in touch! 

XOXOXO Lisa and Nils
(lahbel@deerfield.edu)

Home again.....and a request (see below)

Sunday, October 21

Well, I have been the queen of procrastination, haven't I?   Guess I didn't really want this trip to end, and making the last posts just feels a little too final.  Even now, it's hard to let go and say "yes, I'm really done".  It's strange how quickly we've gotten used to being very insulated from the outside world....temps that were too cold for comfortable RV life are barely noticeable now that we're home.  And we're not around those amazing mountains and canyons for daily hikes anymore.    On the plus side, we LOVE sleeping again in our wonderful bed.  And it's great to see our children and our friends again.

So, here are some pictures from our neighborhood.  Fall colors this year are beautiful but not spectacular...summer was too hot and dry, I guess.  There's a lot of yellow, orange, rust and brown, almost no bright red.

In our front yard

Tons of pumpkins

Aren't the giant pumpkins amazing?!  The Lowe family has put on a similar display in their front yard every Fall for the last 5 or 6 years.  If the biggest one was hollowed out, I think that I could fit inside it.

There will be one more post....but before I say goodby for good, I have a request.  Some of you I know already (because you've emailed me and mentioned the blog), but many of you I've never even met.  Would you please send me an email and introduce yourselves?  And now that you've seen the pictures and read the descriptions, where would YOU like to visit someday?  My email is lahbel@deerfield.edu.  I've love to hear from you.

Our Last Day on the Road--Part II

Still Saturday, 10/13


I realized as we were leaving Rochester that we had no pictures of us driving in the truck.  So here's Captain Nils at the wheel:

World's best driver

And here I am, on the computer.  Nils took this one while he was driving, for goodness' sake (which is probably against some law or other).

Lisa answering email in the car

Nils threw caution to the wind and drove almost 70mph most of the time---we just wanted to be done with all this driving.  The scenery was lovely---colorful foliage and I saw about 4 V-formations of geese in the sky (right up there with twisty trees as one of my favorite things).   We had a total of 5 1/2 hours to drive and we had daylight for a little over half of it.  Had to stop twice for gas, which got more and more expensive as we headed east, it seemed.

coming into the front door

By a little after 9pm we pulled into Wells Street....it was pitch dark out, so we couldn't really see the beauties of Deerfield....we did, however, soon appreciate the beautiful cleanliness of our house.  Erika and Lucy had driven down from VT last weekend and dusted and cleaned everything for us.  What a treat!  Unloading the RV and putting everything away was a big job already, to not have to clean months worth of dust bunnies was fantastic.  Muchas Gracias, Tusend Tack, Vielen Dank, Merci Beaucoup.   We brought in the bare essentials (toiletries, bed pillows and alcohol), turned up the heat everywhere and bemusedly asked each other, "where's the light switch?  Which drawer does this spoon go into?  How do I turn on the garbage disposal?"  It felt very strange.  It took a little while to get the hang of everything after so long away.    Ah! The bliss of long hot showers!  Getting into our incredibly comfortable king-sized bed!  Feeling truly warm enough for the first time in about 10 days!  Lovely.

Not to worry, I'm not quite done yet with the blog....

Our last day on the road--Part I

Saturday, 10/13

Well, our wishes regarding the temperatures last night were NOT to be granted.  The sky was utterly clear all night and the day dawned sunny and crisp and utterly frigid....as cold as we've ever experienced while RV-ing.  Not one cloud to help insulate us from the low temperatures.   Just so you know, it was never that cold inSIDE the RV.  It stayed 60 or above, thanks to our trusty little space heater.  But--it was really, REALLY cold outside.   Poor Nils didn't sleep at all well, he kept getting up to run more warm water from the various faucets to forestall possible freezing.     It was definitely time to be on our way home before we burst some pipes or tanks or whatever.

Nils scratched the temp into the frost on the windshield--you can see the frost on the grass, too.

28 degrees, can you believe it?!  We couldn't.  It was too cold for me to think about showering (even though we DID have hot water, once we unscrewed the frozen water filter off of the end of the outside hose!)--just dressed (warmly) and got the RV ready to pull in the slide-out and hitch it up for the last time.  Especially because of parents weekend, we knew that we wouldn't be able to find a big enough parking space for it on campus, but fortunately there was a peripheral parking lot with shuttle bus service to within short walking distance of the SigEp (short for Sigma Phi Epsilon, FYI) house.  We went with Bjorn to a coffee shop around 10am and by noon we were at the house again, getting ready for the Open House/BBQ.

Without us I don't think there would have been a BBQ, at least not anywhere close to on time!

Grillmeister Nils

Action shot!  Joined by Matt Skurnick's dad, who pitched right in and did a ton of work too

We helped to set up tables, put the food out in an artful way (something I love to do), arrange chairs and then run around like crazies re-filling bowls of chips and macaroni salad, finishing cooking the hotdogs on the stove, and the like.

See the big curved sectionals facing the fireplace/tv?

Bjorn was his usual eloquent self, addressing the mix of parents, brothers and SigEp alums (including the founding president of the chapter who graduated almost 30 years ago).  He was totally verklemmt by the end and had a few of us in tears as well, talking about how much this extended family meant to him.    It was very sweet.

President Bjorn addressing the crowd of alumns, parents and current SigEp brothers

Then he handed things over to Nils who made the pitch for some parental donations to the moving-into-the-SigEp-house fund.

Nils makes the pitch to parents asking them to contribute toward moving-related expenses

They've raised $1200 so far!  Which means they can buy some large plastic bowls, serving platters, a bigger grill and a heavy-duty metal spatula, to name just a few things I wish we'd had available on Saturday.

At around 2:30pm we said our good-bys and hurried to the shuttle stop to wait for our ride back to the RV.  Soon we would be on the final leg of our trip back home......

Smeliora! Rochester, day 2

Friday, 10/12

We're here for Homecoming/Parent's weekend at U of Rochester, which they call Meliora Weekend...."Meliora" in Latin means "ever better", and it's the motto of the school.  Nils coined the variation "Smeliora" just to be funny (after all, he IS the mature one in the family), and apparently is the only person who's ever thought of this (Bjorn's friends are all simultaneously delighted and bummed that they didn't think of it already themselves).

On the program for today was lunch with Bjorn's good friend Matt Skurnick along with his parents and two adorable grandmothers, all from NYC.  It was great to finally meet them!  Bjorn unfortunately had a TEST at 2pm, followed by a homework assignment deadline of 5pm for one of his engineering classes.  Needless to say, we didn't see him all afternoon.   We bought some party supplies (for tomorrow) at Wegman's (fantastic supermarket chain in Rochester) and worked on warming ourselves up--found a sunny parking spot for the truck and took a little nap.

We returned to the SigEp house around 5 and met more of Bjorn's brothers in the process.  I really do feel a) like a VIP and b) as though I've gained many sons in the last 24 hours.  All I have to do when I meet any young man in the SigEp house, is to say, "I'm Bjorn's mom" and I get an enormous smile, a long hug and immediate offers of assistance.  It's pretty sweet.

Arturo and Bjorn, being silly

When Bjorn finished his school work we headed over to Arturo's house for a little SigEp family party.   We met Arturo's mom and step dad--Mary and Bob--for the first time and it was as if we've known them forever.   The other invitees had dinner reservations to go to--but we already had a big lunch, so we just stayed, ate the delicious appetizers that Mary and Bob set out and had a great time.  The conversation waxed quite philosophical and hysterically funny as well, of course--fueled by most excellent chocolate chip cookies baked by Arturo's sister Penelope.  Nils orchestrated some group "action" shots:

Bjorn, Arturo, Nils, Mary and Bob....happy!

...sad

...and oh so surprised.

And now---on our way to the campground (with Lisa as designated driver) for one last night in the RV.  It's not supposed to go below 32 degrees.  We shall see.....

In Rochester

Thursday, 10/11

It's a sunny, crisp morning...we left Canton at around 8:30am.  Odometer check: 91,771 miles, which means that we've traveled 9,036 miles so far on this trip.  Nils was amazed.  A lot of those miles were, fortunately, without the trailer hitched up!!  We were at our campsite by 2pm (in LeRoy, NY, about 20 mins drive from campus) and met up with Bjorn in his "new" fraternity house by 3pm.  The house is big and in a gorgeous location (within view of the Genesee River, very centrally located on the campus).  They have two gigantic semi-circular sectional couches (that look an awful lot like leather) which look normal-sized in their very big living room.  They also have a pool table, an industrial kitchen (quite understocked in the utensil and plate depts!) and a great big porch off of the living room. Bjorn even cleaned up his bedroom before we got there.   We picked up Lindsay (Bjorn's lovely girlfriend) a little later and then went out for early dinner at the Han Noodle Bar, one of our favorite places to eat in Rochester.  Took along Sake and wine and it was a real party.

At the Han Noodle bar with Bjorn and Lindsay

Then, off to our cold campsite....it's supposed to not quite freeze, and we're very happy about that.

enjoying Canton

Tues/Weds, 10/9-10


On Tuesday, we did errands (like get another Lube-oil-filter on the truck), visited my old library in North Canton (I used to walk to that library to get my allotted two books, and then would have read one of them already by the time I got home) to use the internet there.  At 5pm  we met Erik and Jan (Nils's brother and sister-in-law) for dinner at a really nice new Asian bistro in downtown Canton.  It was lovely to see them and have a chance to visit.

On Wednesday, Nils and I HAD to get some exercise....we checked out the trail by Martindale Park and had a great hike there.  No mountains, but a lot of beautiful trees and a vineyard.  We came home for delicious Inga-made food and then the three of us went out for a walk together.   Inga showed us the Hoover Park trail which immediately went into the woods and was very beautiful.

Tomorrow we leave for Rochester.....

Inga and Lisa on the trail...

....and crossing a bridge