Mortaine’s Blog

We’re here in the Adirondacks, in upstate New York, near Warrensburg, with limited Internet and cell phone reception. This is part of the band of greenery that stretches across the northern states– the same terrain and pine trees you see in Wisconsin, Michigan, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Also, very similar bugs. Mostly mosquitoes. We have discovered that the mosquitoes can get into the RV through some vent or something, and they do so in the evening, which is kind of not cool. Knowing me, I will have 30 mosquito bites by the time the week is out.

Our plans have changed somewhat. Previously, I’d wanted to spend the whole summer flitting over Montreal and Quebec, then down into Maine before heading southward for the winter. Now, we may curtail those plans and take a weekend trip to Montreal, then spend some time in Niagara Falls before heading south and west for the winter. We will be flying out to Portland, Oregon for my birthday and a friend’s wedding, so we’ll need to finalize our plans before then. Part of the complications are that my grandmother is, frankly, not long for this world, and I would like to be able to attend her funeral.

The cat is now so finicky he will only eat baby food, but at least he ate his breakfast of puree’d turkey. This is temporary; there are vitamins cats need to have, and which are not present in baby food, so he must wean back to cat food soon. I’m just starting to worry because, even though he acts perfectly fine, I can feel his bones and I don’t like it one bit. Tomorrow, I will make an appointment for him to see a vet. He’s due for his shots anyway.

Before we left New Jersey/Philadelphia, we stopped at the Battleship New Jersey, which has been retired to Camden, NJ. We went on a tour focusing on the guns, and had a great time, and learned a lot. Some of what we learned was family history; John’s father served on the New Jersey, and John himself went on a “tiger cruise” down the West Coast when he was a teenager.

One of the things I found really cool about the New Jersey was the fancywork, which is all over the ship. This is specialized knotwork which was passed down from shipman to shipman, and which could not be demanded of the crew– it could only be requested or offered. A ship with no fancywork is a ship with an unhappy crew.

The travel media is very excited about “staycations” these days. Airlines and destinations are their advertisers, so perhaps they’re getting new ad campaigns for staycation services? Otherwise, you can bet they’ll be back to pitching how great it is to spend Christmas in Buenos Aires in a few months. Anyway, the idea behind a staycation is that you take the week off of work, but you… stay home. With your family, friends, kids, dog, neighbors…. etc.

Anyone who has ever been laid off of work for a week knows what a ridiculous idea this is: you’re home, broke, and bored. Here’s how I imagine a typical staycation going: you set up the pool in the backyard for the kids, pull out a lawn chair and the margarita mix. By 10 AM, you’ve had four phone calls– three of them are work “emergencies,” and one of them is your neighbor asking if, since you’re home and all, you wouldn’t mind picking up her kids from daycare and watching them till she gets home at 5. The margaritas turn sour in your mouth and you go into the kitchen to pour it out. While there, you realize the remains of the nice dinner you made for your family last night is still sitting on the plates in the sink, and you spend the next hour and a half washing dishes and cleaning up. At the end of which, the kids run through the house, dripping wet, screaming for peanut butter sandwiches and a side order of marshmallows. You suddenly realize that there’s a reason you work full-time, and it’s only partly so you can afford a roof over your head.

The main reason touted for staycations is to save money, of course. This is because we are all broke. We are broke from spending more at the pumps, more at the grocery store, and more on our IRS forms (do not be fooled by the rebate check– that was your money to start with, and the government made interest on it before returning it to you!) We’re broke from having our home values plummet, stranding our empty houses on the market for a whole year and hemorrhaging money. And yet, the financial impact of the staycation? Since you’re already at home and don’t have anything new to entertain you, you’ll go shopping. Unlike when you travel, though, you don’t have a limit to how much stuff you can buy or bring home, so the next thing you know, there are piles of lumber from Home Depot in your driveway, five bathing suits “motivating” you in the closet, and four video games to distract the kids, now that the neighbor’s 4 year old barfed in the pool after daycare and ruined the fun for everybody.

For the green staycationer, you can fool yourself into thinking the staycation is a great way to save fuel, and maybe it is. All I know is that you’d probably save more energy and have a great time if you spent your week bicycling through French vineyards or on a beach within walking distance to a hotel.

Employers love the staycation, because there’s a good chance they can bother you if you’re at home, whereas if you’re on a beach in Jamaica, you can reasonably get away with ignoring the phone and pretending you just didn’t hear it. If employers really wanted you to save money and gas, they would let you telecommute 4 or 5 days a week. My commute used to be almost an hour each way. Having an extra 8 hours of daylight every week would have been like a vacation all its own. Most working women say that they would take a pay cut if it meant they could have 2 hours in the afternoon once a week, without kids, to run errands.

In the RV, we think often about the concept of being at home, work, or on vacation when all three can take place in the exact same place. Since we’ve regained the commute hours, we both get to pursue personal projects a lot more. My conclusion is that your environment does have to change to give you a real “get out of your head” kind of vacation. For us, that means either leaving the rig, or taking it somewhere too remote for Internet and cell phone service. Otherwise, being in touch means work or other commitments can and will interrupt. It’s not that we mind that much– when you have more time for leisure (no commute) and a lifestyle that lends itself to not being bored by your surroundings, the need for a “real” vacation lessens, and you can get away with a short jaunt here or there.

I’m sure a lot of my readers will disagree with a lot of this, but then, a lot of my readers are very resourceful people for whom boredom is never a problem, and home is an ongoing source of amusement, energization, and spiritual awakening. These folks have my envy, because the majority of us have a really hard time getting away from it all without getting away from ourselves.

Yesterday, I drove around the little towns outside of Boston (and not far from Norwood, where my grandmother lives), in search of yarn shops. I mainly found myself lost, many times, on country-sized roads cutting through green neighborhoods with a decidedly small town air.

And then, I got to Walpole. Bordering Norwood on Highway 1, Walpole is another one of these “est. before 1776″ types of small New England towns. It’s only 20 minutes outside of Boston, but the contrast between big city and small town couldn’t be more dramatic. This is a pretty town, with lots of greenery and big, old, single family homes. As I drove through the neighborhoods, I saw many weekend gardeners out, enjoying the sunshine and putting in this year’s morning glories and zucchini plants.

Walpole has its first deed in the 1640’s, with a mine claim. It later hosted a sawmill, and formally separated as a township from nearby Dedham in 1722. The town history is a rich tapestry of community organizations springing up in response to its growth, and new buildings (or restoring old ones) to accommodate students, infrastructure, and civic bodies. The town elections are held in early June, and signs outside the police station proclaim that “It is your civic duty to VOTE!”

I arrived just before noon and parked a few blocks away from my destination, planning to walk. As I approached, I saw the sidewalks lined with people, holding balloons, their hands poised to wave.

“My goodness,” I thought. “All these people out to welcome me? What a friendly town!”

Alas, I was disabused of this notion when I asked someone what the hubbub was about. Yesterday was Walpole Day, a kind of founders day/community celebration, to commemorate Walpole…. being Walpole.

The parade kicked off at 12:05, and was inaugurated by the fire trucks, sirens blaring as they rolled up the street.

Sports are definitely in high profile in Walpole, and were well represented with school teams, cheerleaders, swimmers, dance groups, and martial arts schools.

Early in the parade, the young Walpole Lacrosse players showed their stuff by running the parade route. I thought this was very ambitious, since no other youth group ran the parade. Not even the two runners clubs.

A variety of vehicles drove the route as well, from the old military Jeeps:

To the even older horse-drawn carriages:

Parade participants threw candy to the kids on the sidelines, politicians walked the route or handed out balloons, and the event ended with a big party and fair down the street behind the bank.

Grandma tells me that Norwood Day is in October. I may have to swing back down, just to see!

Weather hindered our plans in D.C., but we did get out and do stuff a few days. We went to the Navy Memorial (in the rain) and museum. On a sunnier day, we did the mall and monument walk:

We visited the WWII memorial, which was pretty cool, but John felt it lacked sufficient recognition of the rest of the Allies:

We went to my favorite place:

As it turns out, my uncle lives across the street from the National Zoo. On another rainy day, we visited the animals:

And then, a few days later, I went to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, which was awesome and had lots of spinners. And I got to meet in person the founders of Ravelry

Casey and Jess, founders of Ravelry…. and me!

And at night, after I was exhausted and overstimulated from a day of petting wool and gawping at handknits, I went to their awesome party, and ran into friends I’ve made as far away as Kansas City. A couple days later, we were back on the road:

We did a 2-day sprint from Washington to Boston:

Spent the night in New York, just north of the border. Then it was back on the road through Albany and across to:

(Notice how there are progressively more bugs on the windshield as we go from Penn to NY to Mass…. we had the RV washed the day before we left.)

Since arriving on Wednesday, we’ve seen my grandmother, uncle, aunt, and our friends Ken and Jill. We haven’t done much sight-seeing yet, but that’s largely because we’ve been working and visiting and now getting ready for John’s trip back to California. He flies out tomorrow, leaving me with no TV (too much tree cover), a lot of yarn, and the Internet.

I swear, I will try not to get into too much trouble. Really!

When last we left the intrepid adventurers, they were in Jacksonville, Florida, having stayed an extra week to take care of cat problems. Alladin is doing better now.

We moved on to Savannah, Georgia, birthplace of Juliette Low, founder of the Girl Scouts.

Savannah is a beautiful city with lots of Old in it.

We visited Juliette Low’s birthplace, but photography is not permitted inside. So you’ll have to make do with this photo:

We went letterboxing in a busy square:

And then we drove onward. (I missed the state signs for Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina). We had three days of driving last week– too much!

On Friday, we woke up at Americamps RV Park, next to Lake Gaston near Virginia’s southern border. It was a very pretty park, but we couldn’t stay. Not enough clear sky to use the Internet, and our cell phones were out of range. Since it was a work day, this was frustrating– I really needed to get some work done! We continued northward.

We spent what felt like four hours in Washington DC’s traffic to get to the complete opposite side of DC from where we entered the Beltway. Cherry Hill RV Park in College Park Maryland is, according to my mom, the only RV park in the area that can accommodate big RVs, and searching Woodall’s and other guides confirms this. Which makes sense– the park has been in the family for 80 years. It’s a good park, though– there are lots of amenities, two swimming pools, and on-site cafe, and a bus stop to take you direct to the Metro when you want to go into the Capitol.

We’re here for 2 weeks. John is going Jeeping next weekend with a friend. We’re going to visit my uncle, who lives in Washington. We wanted to go out Saturday, but we were both pretty tired from the drive, so we delayed to Sunday. All our sight-seeing plans were changed on Sunday morning, which was stormy all day, as was Monday. We still went into DC, but we got soaked through and a little cranky. Also, Washington does not wake up very early on Sundays, a fact that I had remembered, but John didn’t really believe until we got to the museums and they were all closed until 11 AM.

Things I want to visit while we’re here:

• The Library of Congress
• The Textile Museum
• The Smithsonian Museum of American Indians
• The World War II memorial (and surrounding favorites Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, etc.)
• The National Zoo