Sunday May 1st 2016

The weekend is over and all the weekend residents have gone home. The only sound in the campground is caused by the rain. Outside you here the rain coming through the trees. Inside the RV the tap tap bonk bonk bing bong of the rain on the roof is a constant reminder of the inclement weather.

Rain falling into the Cape Cod canal at high tide. Notice how still the current is just before it reverses direction.

Looking around I can see that many of my neighbors made progress in setting up their seasonal sites. There are more platforms with chairs and tables in place. A few sites now have small zippered canvas shelters setup to serve as sheds. I wonder how many weekends they will continue to add to their sites before they start taking things home to prepare for having everything off the site by the end of October. It seems like a vicious cycle.

As I write this blog entry the radio scanner is on to the canal control radio frequencies. Several ships and tugs have called in for clearance. The rain is keeping me from going out to see what’s going through the canal. I’m still working on fully kicking my cold so I don’t want to get soaked.

My cold is down to an occasional cough in the morning and evening. The stuffy runny nose part has been gone for sometime now. Its been a few years since I had a cold so I’m not complaining … much.

The forecast for the week is not good. Rain is likely most days and the temperature is supposed to be below normal. I keep wishing I was still further south, but I have things that I need to get done up here. The weather won’t help expedite those tasks. That’s just another excuse. I’m full of those. Hopefully, I’ll soon reach critical mass and start making rapid progress.

Saturday April 30th 2016

Today was a day to enjoy the campground and the canal. The temperature got up to the low 50s, but the wind off the water was strong. If not for the full sun all day it would have been miserable, but once you found a spot in the sun out of the wind it was quiet comfortable.

Fuel barge with its tug pushing in the slot. A second tug follows for backup.

Closeup of the fuel barge with the tug in the slot.

I walked the canal service road and sat along the canal watching the action in the water. The bicycle remains at the site waiting for the wind to be less of an issue. I got a couple of miles of walking in over several outings. Each walk wasn’t very long in distance but with the long pauses on a bench or a fence to watch the action they consumed the day.

Small boat that looks top heavy. It is short in length but tall out of the water.

East bound boat.

Sailboat in rough water caused by the wind and the wake of a passing boat.

Fishing boat heading east

There was more than a little action for an April weekend. I’ve included pictures of several of the sights. Two of the more noteworthy occurrences were the passage of a fuel barge with accompanying tugs and a small boat boarding by the Coast Guard.

Fuel barges are common in the canal. In the last few years they always have an additional tug boat accompanying the main tug during the passage through the canal. This is a response to an oil spill a few years back. The theory is that the security tug would be able to help if the wind or current caused problems.

Coast Guard boat moving east in the canal.

Coast Guard boat standing by as two guardsmen are on board the pleasure boat.

As far as the Coast Guard boarding a boat, I’ve never seen that before. Seeing Coast Guard is not unusual, they have a base at the east end of the canal. Why they boarded the pleasure/fishing boat is not clear. It may have been because of speed in the canal or possible just a standard safety inspection. Perhaps a safety inspection because of unsafe operation i.e. speed.

Hawk in a pine tree.

Hawk flying away to another tree.

During one of my pauses to watch the boats, I had a visit from a hawk. One large hawk of unknown variety landed in a tree behind me. I caught a couple of pictures including one as it flew away.

In the campground the seasonal campers are setting up their sites. They rake up the leaves and pine needles then bring in wood platforms to be covered with carpeting. They stack fire wood into large piles and position chairs around the fire rings meticulously. All for the weekends between now and the end of October. I’m sure many of them will be here more, but there are very few that will be here all the time. In October they take it all apart and crate it home or to a storage yard. As much as I like this campground, I wouldn’t want to be a seasonal resident.

Friday April 29th 2016

In this life style it is not always easy to know the day of the week. Even if I didn’t know that today was Friday, there are a number of clues.

The traffic coming back to the Cape was terrible. Cars with sporting equipment like bikes, kayaks and boats were mixed with the everyday commuter traffic. The flow of cars slowed to a crawl at every major intersection. To many drivers are not in the correct lane to exit or don’t know how to merge as they enter the traffic flow. Once one car puts its barks on all the following cars react in kind. It easily added a half hour to the travel time.

In the campground the population has gone from next to nobody to a growing community level. I’m sure more people will arrive Saturday morning. I now have neighbors on three sides and the air is full of the smells of campfires.

Small boat in the canal

In the canal there are more small boats and fewer commercial ships. From past experience, I expect the commercial traffic will return on Sunday night. Tugboat operators seem to take the weekend off like many workers.

The empty campground and the populated campground both have their attractions. Sleeping late in the morning is easier in the empty campground, while security in the populated campground is better. I tend to wonder about every slow moving car in the empty campground even though there is a manned gate at the entrance. Similarly, as I walk through the empty campground anyone who is here, seems to watch me closely. Careful or paranoid, you tell me.

Thursday April 28th 2016

Today’s recreation was walking on the Cape Cod Canal service road. I thought about riding my bicycle, but the temperature and wind shot that idea down. It only got to the low 50s with a strong penetrating wind. The chill would often penetrate three layers of clothing.

Canadian Geese in the marsh

Gull on a rock

Sail boat coming under the rail road bridge. Massachusetts Maritime Academy in the background

My first excursion of the day was the longest. About 10am I walked from the campground to the railroad bridge a little over a mile and half away. I took pictures of anything that moved not human. Some of those pictures are included in this blog post.

Close up of the sailboat as it passes

Another Gull holding court on a rock in the canal

After lunch I went on another shorter walk in the opposite direction. I followed the service road about a half mile to the end of the campground. I came back through the campground to avoid the wind. The campground has a lot of RVs on sites, but very few people. By Saturday most of these rigs will be full of people for the weekend.

Seagull about to land in the water

Catamaran style boat in the canal. Bourne bridge in the background.

The third walk of the day was after supper. It was the shortest walk. I went along the canal service road to the opposite end of the campground from the earlier walk and did a loop back to my site. My site is about mid way along the expanse of the campground on the canal.

A gathering of birds

I haven’t seen any large commercial traffic in the canal since Tuesday, the day I arrived. I’ve set up the scanner to listen to the radio traffic between the ships and Canal Control. You can usually only hear the canal control dispatcher side of the conversation, but it gives you an idea when something is going through the canal. As I write this entry there are a couple of towed barges on the way into the canal. I don’t think I’ll go out in the dark and watch them pass. There will be others during my stay.

Wednesday April 27th 2016

The thing that I like best about this campground is the easy access to the Cape Cod Canal service road. My camp site is about 200 feet from one of the sets of stairs down to the service road. If I want to ride my bicycle on the service road it’s only a short ride through the campground to access the service road with the bike.

This evening, before the sun fully set, I took a short walk along the canal. It was short because of the cold wind blowing along the canal. I was rewarded for my effort by a fishing boat going by during my walk. The boats that go through the canal are one of the better forms of entertainment. You can see most any type of marine vessel in the canal from small pleasure craft to big tankers. By far the most common form of commercial traffic is tug and barge combinations.

Fishing boat about to pass under the Bourne bridge over the Cape Cod Canal.

It seems like the bigger the ship the quieter it goes by. The big cargo ships and tankers seem to just glide down the canal. The fishing boats have noisy diesel engines that make you think it is something much bigger. Perhaps the noisiest things in the canal are the tugs pushing fully loaded barges against the current.

The train on the other side of the canal has all of the shipping traffic beat for noise. Between its engine, clacking wheels on the rails and horn for each crossing it can not be ignored. This time of year it does not go by often. Later in the year an excursion train uses the tacks several times a day.

Tomorrow I’ll take a longer walk on the canal service road or maybe a bicycle ride. Depending on the weather and wind direction, I might even do both.

Tuesday April 26th 2016

It was a rainy travel day. I only had about 100 miles to travel, but it would all be in the rain. Since I couldn’t check in until after 1pm, I took my time getting ready for travel this morning. Unfortunately, that put my travel time right into the worst of the rain storm.

The excitement of the travel day was enhanced my a minor incident. When I stopped at the toll both on the Mass Pike to pick up my travel tickets the window wouldn’t close. I continued along in the rain with the window open to the rest area about 2 miles away. Surprisingly the rain was not coming in the open window.

This is not the first time this problem occurred. Last November on my first travel day heading south I had a similar problem. That time I pulled into a shopping area and worked the switch on the power window up and down while holding the trim away from the glass to get the window to close. This time I was not so lucky.

For about 20 minutes in the rest area I tried similar techniques without success. The window binds when it is at the bottom stop. Since I had traveled a couple of miles without getting rain in the window, I decided to continue on with the window open. I put my hooded sweatshirt and hooded rain jacket on to ward off the chill and rain if it decided to come in and headed on.

As I traveled I planned how I was going to take the panel of the door to get to the motor and mechanisms. Occasionally, I’d play with the switch to see if the bouncing and flexing of travel on the highway had freed up the window. Somewhere after I had paid the toll and was heading down Interstate 495, the window slowly closed when I pushed the switch. I was out of trouble and cab of the RV was starting to warm up.

Tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike when you are towing a car are interesting. They give you two toll tickets. One for the Motorhome and one for the car. The Motorhome gets charged as a two axle dual wheeled truck and the car as such. If they gave you one ticket for the total of 4 axles the toll would be significantly higher. It’s amazing they do something right for the consumer.

Site B-9 at Bourne Scenic Park. All of the long term units around me are vacant today, so it is very quiet.

When I checked in the rain was starting to let up. I have site B-9 for the next three weeks. This is a campground that I really enjoy right on the Cape Cod canal. I’ll be able to watch the shipping in the canal and walk/ride the service road on the side of the canal.

Monday April 25th 2016

Today wasn’t a very interesting day and consequently neither will this blog post. I worked on various little things at the house. No real measurable progress was achieved.

It was a cloudy day with a high temperature around 60. This is the normal high for this time of year in Southern New England. If I wasn’t anxious to get moving with things up here, I would have been wise to stay south in the mid Atlantic area for another month. Maybe then I wouldn’t have caught this cold and definitely wouldn’t be running the heat to stay warm.

Tomorrow is predicted to be a rainy day with high temperatures in the 40s. I am planning on moving my RV home tomorrow. I won’t be moving a long distance so the bad weather shouldn’t be a big problem, just a small annoyance.

Ducks at the pond getting ready for the rainy day.

The ducks in the pond are getting ready for the rainy day. I’ve been watching them every evening. This is the first night I’ve seen any on the beach. Usually they are on the back side of the pond or way down the far end. Tonight a few were down the far end, but three were on the beach.

Sunday April 24th 2016

What a difference a day makes. When I departed the campground this morning my RV home was squeezed in between two fifth wheel trailers. When I returned tonight all of the weekend campers were gone. I was the only RV in the center drive through sites. The semi permanent units around the perimeter were the only sign of life at the campground.

View from the door of my RV home after all the weekend campers departed.

The whole campground has quieted down from the weekend activity and even from the activity in the evenings last week. I attribute that to the end of the local school vacation week. Campground use very clearly tracks with the school year. The quiet is interrupted by an occasional barking dog so there are still people here, but the high pitched voices of kids at play has gone away.

I only have a couple of more nights booked here before I move on. I would like to move to the Cape Cod canal. Tomorrow I’ll make a call or two and try to secure a site. I don’t anticipate any issues before the memorial day weekend, but there is always the possibility of some special event I don’t know about. Many of the inland campgrounds haven’t opened for the season yet.

The cold I caught with my return to the north continues to zap my energy and ambition. The congestion part of the cold is under control, but I run of steam quickly when I start to do anything very physical. It may be slowing the task of getting the house ready for market or maybe I’d find another excuse. I tend to drag my feet then suddenly jump into high speed. We’ll see.

Saturday April 23rd 2016

Tonight’s blog post will be a bit of a rant so I apologize up front. The target of my frustration tonight is primarily the management of this campground although the guy in the 5th wheel trailer next door gets his share too.

As I mentioned in Tuesday nights blog entry the site I am on is setup with shared utilities. This configuration means that the line of campers will be alternating back to back followed by front to front. Each successive site is entered from the opposite direction. It is often called buddy sites since the area between the front to front campers becomes shared space.

Campground use this design to minimize costs. They only have to have one set of utility boxes and water connections for every two campers. It also produces a higher density of camp sites thus greater revenue potential. It’s not the best setup but I can live with it if the campground lives up to its side of the bargain.

The campground needs to make sure the sites are used correctly. As a minimum they need to make sure the camper checking in understands how to get to the site correctly and what is expected of them. The best option would be if the camper is lead to the site by campground personnel who assist the camper into the site. Having someone lead you to your site is very common and this park seems to have enough employees floating around to implement the practice.

When I checked in I was told what type of site I was getting. The map I was provided also shows the direction needed to approach and use each site. If my new neighbors were told or not I don’t know. I also don’t know if they have enough camping experience to understand what these sites are all about.

Last night shortly after the first set of thunderstorms went through a 5th wheel trailer pulled into the site next to me the wrong way. Their drivers side was within a couple of feet of my passenger side. The driver was smart enough to know that he couldn’t open his slide out rooms where he was so he started “loudly talking” at his wife about the bad site. From my position in my RV less than 10 feet from them it was clear that he was not a happy camper. If the campground had sent someone to show him to his site he wouldn’t have been in this position.

A couple of minutes into his discussion with his wife someone in another camper that was traveling with him pointed out the error of his ways with respect to how he parked in the site. Now you’d think he would pull out go around the loop and enter the site correctly, but not this guy.

How not to park a fifth wheel trailer in a shared hookup site. Not the 18 inch separation between the slides. The trailer on the next site to the right is equally confused, but it doesn’t have slide out rooms nor does its neighbor further to the right. 

He pulled forward and backed up several times to move away from my unit another 3 feet until he could open his slides. He wasn’t listening to the directions his wife was providing to move over more. There is now about 18 inches between his living room slide out and my bedroom slide out. Another 4 feet or so that should be between our units as shared space is on his curb side for him alone to use.  He’s oblivious to what a selfish SOB he is.

I will survive. This is about the amount of space between rigs you get at an RV rally. They’re only here for the weekend and I’m not here during the day. I’m keeping the shades in my bathroom and bedroom closed so I can successfully ignore them. The weather is not warm enough that I need to sit outside or have the windows open.

My rant in the form of a suggestion will be shared with the campground management, if I can ever find them. The basic point is that one short escort to the site would have prevented this weekend drama from happening. I probably won’t be back to this campground and I’m pretty sure my neighbor won’t be back. Weekend campers who arrive after a full day of work don’t need to be presented with confusing camp sites and parking requirements beyond their comprehension.

Friday April 22nd 2016

Today was an odd day weather wise. The sun never really came out of the clouds but it did warm up into the mid 70s well above the seasonal average. It showered off an on during the day and ended with a thunderstorm or two.

My cold is under better control today. This is probably thanks to drugs, but I hope it’s on its way out. It is definitely a drag on my energy and ambition.

Curious Turkey in the yard.

I was back at the house working on the huge list of things that need to be done before it is out of my life. I haven’t made a lot of progress so far. I’m just putting one foot in front of the other and pushing forward.

I had an avian visitor while I was there. A wild turkey came across the road and stood in the front yard considering where to go. With only a brief look at the house it headed off into the woods. This brief visit got me thinking about how much greater my awareness of the wildlife around me has become.

I am not sure if this increased awareness is because of my exposure to new areas that have more eye catching wildlife to get my attention or if the amount of wildlife in proximity to civilization has increased. It is probably a combination of both. The first 20 or so years that I lived in my house I didn’t see much wildlife beyond a robin or maybe as exotic as a woodchuck. In the last few years I’ve seen a gang of turkeys and a few deer. Is this proof of an increase in the wildlife population or something else?

This winter in Florida there were Sand Hill Cranes that frequented the RV park. Judging by the fact that there are street signs in many neighborhoods to warn you about the birds I guess they are not that unusual. I also saw many birds of prey in the sky in various areas of the state. They seem to be more common in Florida than the northeast, or is that my awareness talking?

I am not really considering the wildlife that I go out of my way to find. There are plenty of opportunities for that in Florida, but I’m not sure what I’d be making an excursion to find in the northeast. In Florida I went looking for manatees and alligators not for bear or panther. I have gone looking for moose in northern New Hampshire and Vermont, but only as far as I could drive not on foot.

After writing the previous few hundred words, I have come to the conclusion that nothing substantive has changed but my time and willingness to observe. I’m spending more time looking.