Through all my years of living in Manhattan, it always amazed me how the seasons were dictated by holiday weekends. Memorial Day marked the beginning of summer, and once Labor Day rolled around, the shorts and sandals were put away regardless of weather, lest you be mistaken for a tourist. It was back to “serious casual” clothing in the Financial District. No more Continue reading
The three-day Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival concludes on Sunday afternoon with a grand finale in an event known as the “Sail By.” For three hours from 2:00pm to 5:00pm, it’s a mass exodus of the sailing fleet as 300+ boats congregate in Port Townsend Bay for a festive informal parade.
In doing some research prior to the festival start, I somehow landed on the website for the Sound Experience, an environmental education and sail training program on Puget Sound aboard the historic schooner, the Adventuress. Sound Experience is a non-profit whose mission is “to educate, inspire, and empower an inclusive community to make a difference for the future of our marine environment.” The Adventuress was offering a three hour passenger sail during the Sail By, and it was listed as one of the best vantage points for viewing this end of festival celebration. And so I splurged. Continue reading
I spread out the three day seminar program from the Wooden Boat Festival to plan my weekend with low expectations. Not being exactly skilled in working with my hands, I didn’t have much interest in learning laminating techniques or tying thump mats, though some of the tech sessions like Maintenance of a Diesel Engine could have transferred over to RVing. Still, I anticipated that most of my time at the festival would be spent outdoors, going from boat to boat Continue reading
I’m not sure where my fascination with wooden boats comes from…a most unlikely passion for a person raised on a land-locked farm in Central Texas for the first third of my life.
My first introduction to sailing came in an attempt to make the PE requirement at the University of Texas more palatable. Bobbing around on the Colorado River in a twelve foot Laser while the instructor screamed at me through a megaphone from a rowboat, it’s a wonder I ever set foot on a boat again. Continue reading
We interrupt this blogcast from the Port Townsend 40th Annual Boat Festival for a quick music break.
If you are not familiar with Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” do yourself a favor and click on the link or go to Youtube and have a listen to one of the best “feel good” tracks of all time, while you enjoy this slide show of the Harvest Moon, straight from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Continue reading
Now within striking distance of Port Townsend, my “pinnacle of summer,” I needed a place to hole up for the Labor Day weekend before I and a few thousand of my like-minded friends descend upon the small town for the 40th Annual Wooden Boat Festival. The Evergreen SKP park in Chimacum, Washington seemed like a convenient place to ride out the holiday weekend, particularly with their $5 per night dry camping lot. Continue reading
So what if the mountains are calling but you can’t see them? Would you still go?
That’s the question I asked myself sitting in the dry camping spot, 50 miles down a lone road from the Johnston Ridge Observatory overlooking the socked-in gray wall of clouds that lie between me and Mt St Helens. “If I can’t see the volcano, is it worth the 100 mile drive?” Continue reading
There are many things I enjoy about blog writing. First and foremost, it helps me relive the experiences through writing and photography. It helps jog my memory of the many wonders I have had the privilege to see, touch, taste, and smell. And it’s a great way to meet people, having led me to 75% of my current RVing community.
But of my 484 posts here, none have been so fun as my Astoria post from 2014. I had never had a blog post go “viral” before, but suddenly I started getting comments from people I didn’t know. Someone posted a link to a local Facebook page, and many Astorians came calling to offer more suggestions. It was so much fun to have them validate that I had captured the essence of a town for which their affection was so palpable. For this reason among many, Astoria will always have a special place in my personal history book.
Not only did I want to show Don Astoria, but given how much I enjoyed it last time, it was a “non-negotiable” stop on my return trip to the PNW. Continue reading
During my 2014 tour through the Pacific Northwest, I must have thought a thousand times, “Oh, Don would LOVE this place!” Some of our greatest outdoor adventures have been trips we have taken together, from my Dad’s cross country road trips from Texas to Knotts Berry Farm as kids, to tent camping in the wilds of Alaska. We even rented a nine-speed manual gear shift RV with a steering wheel on the “wrong side” to tour Continue reading
Back in early 2011 when I first informed my friends and family that I was considering full timing in an RV once my Atlanta house sold, most expressed shock while others dismissed in disbelief. All except for my brother Don. Having been an RV owner himself for many years, his only “shock” was why it took me so long to finally come around to his way of thinking. 😉 Shortly after my declaration of intent, Don sent me a link Continue reading