Friday June 10th 2016

The seasons haven’t unscrambled yet. It is still very fall like, although it was a little warmer today. When I walked by the swimming pool it looked very lonely. No one was using it in the late afternoon. Tomorrow is forecast to be warmer, so it should get some use.

Campground pool.

Traffic out on the highway was very heavy both this morning and afternoon. The presence of RVs, boats and cars with bicycle racks indicated it was a get away day. I was expecting to find the campground full when I got back. I was surprised to find lots of sites empty around me.

On my evening walk around the campground, I found that the empty sites near mine are some of the only ones not occupied. I’m not sure if these are held for travelers or if they are reserved by a group traveling together. I don’t see anything wrong with the sites. Two are pull thru sites and the others are good size back in sites.

During my walk I saw a couple of RVs from California and one from Montana. These represent the longest distance traveled assuming they really are based in those states. Montana is one of the states that some full time RVers try to take advantage of by setting up an LLC to own their equipment. This creates some tax advantages, but creates a few other legal problems.

Most of the weekend campers are from Massachusetts or the neighboring states. They are mostly families with young kids. The pool, a bunch of arcade machines and a playground are the family attractions. I visited many similar campgrounds as a kid.

While I’ve been writing this blog entry, one of the sites near me has been taken. I guess time will tell if they get occupied this weekend.

Thursday June 9th 2016

Did I miss summer? It was a beautiful fall day. The wind was blowing strong and the temperature never got much above the low 60s. I like this weather, but prefer it to be in late September and October.

It was a good productive day at the house. I got a little more brush cut and picked up outside. Inside, I found another shoe box of old bank statements that needed shredding. I have the habit of storing them in their original envelop all ordered by month. The original goal was to keep them for a few years to make sure I didn’t need them before destroying the records. Well, some of the ones I shredded today were from the 1980s. Today’s paperless statements have value. I just need to finish signing up for the service.

Back at the campground, things are a little slower tonight. Not as many travelers have arrived. It might be because the campground has no water service. Early this morning a water main in the town broke. Currently no estimate is available for the return of water service. It hasn’t impacted me yet. I always keep my water tank about quarter full. That amount will allow me to flush the toilet keep clean for a day or two. I can’t imagine the outage lasting that long.

Huge Fireplace with a good size fire.

This evening I had a campfire for a little while. It wasn’t so much for ambiance as it was for a purpose. The fire provided a little warmth and it consumed some of the scrape lumber from the house. This campsite has a huge fireplace made of boulders dug up when they built the campground. My fire looks tiny in the big fireplace. I still have enough wood for another fire or two while I’m here.

Wednesday June 8th 2016

Today was a cool day that started out sunny and ended with a brief storm or two. My commute from here is only about 35 minutes; much better than the 1.5 to 2 hours of the previous couple of parks. Knowing it was so much closer made my day start slower. I dragged my feet getting on the road. I don’t plan to do that tomorrow, but …

This campground has nice size sites cut into a rocky pine forest. The interior roads are narrow, but serviceable by rigs much bigger than mine. The people who escort new arrivals to their sites know exactly how to bring the big rigs in from the right direction to make parking as easy as possible. The pine trees make make the campground dark and quiet. The sun only filters through the trees. The sounds generated in the campground don’t carry a great distance. About the only load noise is the train whistle on the commuter rail train out of Boston.

This is primarily a travelers campground. People stop in for a night or a few days to visit the area attractions. This is one of the only campgrounds near the Lexington and Concord areas. The campground has information for visitors to that National Historic Site as well as detailed directions on how to catch the commuter rail into Boston.

Campground starting to fill up in the evening.

In the late afternoon to early evening RVs of all sizes and types arrive at in the campground. Many of these will leave early the next morning to continue on their way. On my walk through the campground this evening, I saw rigs from as far away as California and Manitoba Canada. Most of the others were from eastern states and Canadian provinces, but there were a couple from the mid west states of Illinois and Ohio. Both last night and tonight the campground was about three quarters full. I would guess that it will be much busier over the weekend.

Tuesday June 7th 2016

I woke to rain this morning. It is not the thing you want hear on the roof on a travel day. Luckily it stopped by the time I finished brewing the coffee. The only down side was everything outside was wet.

Checkout time was 2PM at the campground, so I took my time and allowed things to dry out some. Packing up in the humidity was not fun. I didn’t get a head start yesterday so I had a lot to do after 2 weeks in one place. Things like emptying the sink of dirty dishes and putting any appliances I’ve gotten out away are usually done the day before a travel day. This time I was a slacker.

About 12:30 I had the camper out of the site and ready to connect the car up to the motorhome. It takes concentration to make sure it is done correctly. The car’s transmission needs to be exercised in a specific order to get it lubricated correctly for travel and hooking up the auxiliary brake has its own sequence. The last step before departure was to stop at the campground dump station to empty the holding tanks of two weeks worth of waste. It was around 1PM when I got going.

The actual travel was not difficult. I’ve been traveling the same road for the last 2 weeks as I commute to the house. It was about 60 miles to the Minuteman Campground in Littleton. There was one construction zone that required single lane travel with one wheel almost off the left side of the road, but I managed. I got checked in and escorted to my site.

Site 40 at the Boston Minuteman Campground.

Getting setup in the humidity was as little fun as the packing. I needed to back in to a narrow site. I stop and get out and check things over several times before I’m lined up for a straight backup. I doubt if I’ll ever fully trust the backup camera and the mirrors. Sometimes someone else tries to help, but I still get out and look a few times. Today I didn’t have any help nor any audience.

The site I have is reasonably level and near the front of the campground. I have just enough room in front of the RV for the car. I’ve got everything setup, but haven’t put out the awning as rain and wind are predicted.  I can’t get a clear shot through the trees for the satellite TV  but can get the Boston Channels over the air or use the campgrounds cable hookup.  The trees are a good trade off.

Monday June 6th 2016

Yesterday’s rain is long gone. It was a warm and sunny day with highs in the low 80s. Traffic cooperated today. There was not a lot of congestion on the roads either heading for the house or returning this evening.

I am paying the price for being lazy yesterday. Not doing anything meant I didn’t need to sleep so I was awake half the night. This morning I didn’t want to do anything but sleep. I pushed to get going by 8AM, but some how I found myself taking long breaks during the day. I got a few things accomplished but should have accomplished more.

Today is my last day at this campground. Tomorrow I will be moving to the Minuteman campground in Littleton, Ma. It is much closer to the house which should allow me to get things moving. The travel time from my current location has been a complication, but I’ve enjoyed my stay here. The neighbors and management have been friendly. I may come back here after the Fourth of July.

Four goslings (one is sitting in the middle) with Mom and Dad.

One of the geese families paid a farewell visit this evening. It is amazing how big the goslings have gotten in the last two weeks. These guys should be able to fly soon. It has been fun watching for their visits.

I’ll take my time packing up in the morning and get started on the move around noon.  Hopefully, that will allow me to relocate before the forecast heavy thunderstorms get here.

Sunday June 5th 2016

Rain was the operative word today. I woke up this morning to the sound of rain on the roof and have been serenaded by the sound most of the day.

The people leaving the campground today got out early. Many of them were gone by the time I got up at 9AM. I didn’t rush this morning choosing instead to roll over and go back to sleep. Travel to the house in New Hampshire and back in these conditions didn’t pass the common sense test. It has been very quiet here all day.

I haven’t left the motorhome all day. I did get dressed and open all the blinds, but there really wasn’t a need. I never went outside. It was dark and gloomy most of the day.

Watching television and surfing the internet to develop plans for the next few months was the order of business for the day. I did bake a package of muffins to go with my morning coffee and cook some spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner so I wouldn’t starve, but it wasn’t a day with much to comment on.

This evening the rain reached its peak when a line of strong showers, wind and a little lightening went through. It was bad enough about 8PM that the satellite television went out for a while. That was traumatic. I had to turn the radio on for noise to offset the roar of rain on the roof.

Saturday June 4th 2016

I stayed at the campground today. It was a nice day with high temperatures close to 80 degrees. I did a lot of nothing. The highlight of the day was a walk around the campground. An exercise that was complete in less than 15 minutes even with dropping the trash in the dumpster.

Mystery Orange Bush.

One of the things I saw on my walk was a brilliant orange bush. It looks similar to what an azalea would look like in orange. It’s a beautiful bush whatever it is. I haven’t been able to find anything that looks similar on the internet and so far no one I’ve asked knows. Plenty of shrubs turn orange in the fall, but very few start the season orange.

Family of two young goslings.

Family of four older goslings. I think this was a group of five goslings a week and a half ago.

Between watching TV, reading and surfing the internet I’ve been watching the river for may friends the geese. It turns out that there are 3 or 4 different families of geese. Each family has a different number of goslings. They also differ in the age/size of the goslings. What that means is that the number of goslings lost by the various families is much less than I feared.

Tomorrow is forecast to be very rainy. I don’t know if I’ll work at the house or hibernate. There are a few things I can get done on the computer, like travel planning and reservations.

Friday June 3rd 2016

Today was a routine day with a few variations thrown in for good measure. The weather wasn’t the best, but so far I haven’t been rained on. Showers have been forecast during the overnight hours.

The end of the week traffic was a problem. This morning it was a little heavier than normal and this evening was mess. The traffic backed up at every significant intersection on the highway. On the single lane roads there was always a slow driver at the front of a long line of cars. There are just to many cars for the capacity of the roads. We all need to develop more patience because it’s only going to get worst.

I found a couple more Lady Slipper wild flowers in my yard. They were hiding under scrub oak bushes that I’ve been cutting out. One of them had already started to turn to seed. The other was just a little smaller than the one I found earlier in the week.

Another Lady Slipper discovered in the yard.

Back at the campground this evening a few more RVs had arrived for the weekend. It is not surprising, but it is not as full as last weekend. The middle of the field is empty. No camping groups are here this weekend.

Growing up, my parents belong to a camping group that always had the biggest camp out of the year on the weekend after Memorial day. They even had a couple camp outs at this campground. I’m surprised that some group isn’t here this weekend.

Tomorrow will be an off day from the house work. I’m going to stay at the campground and get some things done around my RV home.

Thursday June 2nd 2016

Mother nature was demonstrating her ability to be different this morning. I left a sunny and cool campground heading east toward a wall of clouds. After about 50 miles I drove under those clouds for the reminder of my journey. It took a couple of hours before the sunny weather caught up with me.

On the return trip west the clouds seem to be chasing me. It was warm and sunny all the way home, but the clouds moved in shortly after I got to the RV. This is a New England spring condition with the cool ocean having an influence on the weather near the coast. I’m not sure where the rain forecast for tomorrow is going to fall. It may be another coastal thing.

One of today’s tasks was starting to dispose of about 6 years worth of loose change. The floor of my bed room closet contained several jars and coffee cans of change. I took some of it to the Coinstar machine at the local supper market to convert it to Amazon gift cards. The banks keep changing there rules with respect to coins so as long as I’m happy with a gift card rather than cash I use the Coinstar machines. If you get gift cards there is no surcharge.

This particular Coinstar machine had a problem with dimes. For some reason it kept rejecting most of the dimes I put into the machine. Even with a couple of dollars worth of dimes rejected I came away with an Amazon gift card for $130 and change. I’ve still got more coins to convert. I’ll try a different machine next time.

Wednesday June 1st 2016

Traveling to the house was a bit of a challenge this morning. I choose to cut cross country rather than staying on the highways so I could stop at Walmart for cleaning supplies. I got slowed by the cleanup after an accident.

This resulted in a 15 to 20 minute adventure. Once the traffic funneled into a single line it was detoured up a narrow road. Just passed a sign that read “Dead End” we turned right into an office building parking lot, then snaked around parked cars and the building. After exiting the parking lot on the opposite side, the traffic flowed down another narrow drive to the a main road and back to the original road. This is one of the more elaborate detours I’ve come across. I’m glad I wasn’t driving the motorhome.

That was the most adventurous part of the day. I made a little progress at the house, but still haven’t hit my stride of productivity. It better happen soon or I’ll never get it on the market. This whole thing is more psychological than I would have thought. There is emotion, fear and good old procrastination involved. I’ll get there but …

The family of geese. There are only 3 goslings with this pair.

Back at the RV this evening, I had another visit from the geese family. If this is the same family I’ve been seeing, they are down to 3 goslings. I’m not sure what the threat or event is that is causing them to loose goslings, but there were 5 when I got here and only 3 now. The other family with 2 smaller goslings still has 2. Isn’t survival of the fittest and the food chain grand?

So ends the highlights of my day. It has been difficult coming up with something to write about this evening. As I’ve said a couple of times, this blog is my record of events, my soapbox, and my water cooler conversation substitute. I never said it would always be a page turner.