02/22/2011, Baltimore, MD
Well, here we are in Baltimore - today we saw green grass along the sides of the roads in New York State but apparently there was a dumping of snow here in Baltimore yesterday. We saw what I think are tulip leaves peaking out of the snow here by the hotel - hence, the picture with the previous post.
I have had it brought home to me that, when dirtbound, I am built for living in only a small city - at one point today when we counted there were 14 lanes of zooming traffic, 7 each way; my stomach was in knots and I wasn't even the one that was driving!
There are some of the images from our photo shoot on Sunday with Kelly Lawson available via my Facebook page and I used one as the picture for this post - in it you will see el Capitan, me, Karter, KT, and Kevin. I must say that Kelly is a most gifted and patient photographer and I am impressed with her ability to take group shots and achieve a result with no blinking and grimacing subjects. Check out her website at lawsonphotography.ca She also writes a great blog that can be found at blog.lawsonphotography.ca - I can't wait to see the rest of the shots.
After spending the weekend with KT, her partner, Kevin, and his three year old son I remain very impressed with how KT has taken to her current life - she has a very busy professional career as the HR Manager for Revolution Strategy in Saint John, she is non-stop as a parent-volunteer at the Touchstone Independent School, she keeps the household running and has met head-on and embraced the challenges of raising a very active three year old. I just hope that she finds some time for herself in the middle of all of that activity. We are glad that KT has found such a nice young man in Kevin who treats her well.
I am looking forward to getting things sorted out on the boat - I hate this limbo part - neither a CLOD (cruiser living on the dirt) nor a Cruiser. Travelling in a jam-packed car pulling a heavy trailer is not my idea of a good time. The enforced sitting, however, has allowed my knees to recover a bit from the punishment meted out during the last three days in Halifax. Yes, I did spend the lion's share of our time in Halifax standing and working for 7-8 hours per day, 5 and sometimes 6 days per week but that did not train me for two day's worth of carrying things down the stairs, and the day of bending and kneeling required for the apartment cleaning - only carrying the light stuff, mind you, but my knees looked like amorphous blobs by the time we set off for Saint John last Friday - kind of like the huge knots that aged trees get - yuck - so attractive a picture I paint. We do have to get all of that stuff out of the car and trailer and on the boat but that will not be as big a job - multiple trips with a cart and down the dock and handed down onto the boat is a lot different than down three flights of stairs.
Cheers, and talk to you again soon when we will be bobbing alongside the dock at the Deltaville Yachting Centre - oops I should spell it as "Center" considering we are not in Canada anymore!
| On the hard 2010-2011 |
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02/22/2011, Baltimore MD
We woke up early and were off by 07h30, pounding down the highway heading for Baltimore. Well, we pounded better than I planned as we arrived at 16h00 and were in our room and here I am blogging at 16h30. We (and by that I mean me) only made one wrong turn, well, two if you count missing the turn to the ticket turnstiles on the NJ turnpike and having to pay the price at the other end $23 vs $9, which depleted our available cash.
Since we have the car until I drive it back we have decided to wait until we had moved onto Nelleke and gotten rid of the trailer before heading to the Customs Houuse to get our cruising permit sorted out. I didn't like the idea of trying to manoeuvre about downtown Baltimore with the heavy UHaul dragging behind us. Plus I'd like to get rid of the trailer asap to save a few dollars.
We have also asked the staff at Deltaville to launch Nelleke whenever it is convenient to them, even if we aren't there yet. Hopefully that will occur and she will be waiting for us when we arrive. That will make a lot of difference in loading the trailer's worth of stuff aboard. We can just pass it over the rail rather than climb up a ladder.
| On the hard 2010-2011 |
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02/21/2011, Lexington Mass
Holy mackerel!
This was a long day but we didn't make any more than 750 kilometers.
The fun started within an hour of our departure when the instrument panel on the car suddenly blanked out. No speedometer, no temperature, no fuel, what fun! It was just a fuse but of course it was one that we didn't have so it was off to the hardware store. The second ad entire was at the border whenever the US Customs agent didn't like it when I suggested that when he opened the trailer that he might want to watch his toes as the load may have shifted. He then went on about how we were trying to sneak into the country with all our belongings etc etc and then he told us to go to another crossing.
I mean really! What is the point of a Nexus card if these guys are such little dictators. I had to remind myself that the Canadian guard pulled everything out of the truck when we came north last spring so maybe it's something in the recruiting process.
Then we got our US phone. The number is 540-808-8365 by the way. Please update your records.
Then we had the rest of he day to get to Lexington and check into the Comfort Inn.
Tomorrow we will be off early and try to see how far we can get.
Tally ho!
| On the hard 2010-2011 |
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