Rediscovering my youth, and lack thereof

One of the smartest things I've done so far on this trip is stop at the Eddie Bauer outlet to buy a raincoat. Of course it would have been smarter if I had worn a sweatshirt underneath it today while riding my scooter home in the rain, instead of just a long sleeved shirt. But that shirt was still dry when I got home even though my pants were wet from just above the knees down. The second smartest thing I did was pack the hot chocolate and butterscotch cream. I definitely needed to warm up when I got back.

But today I sure did feel like a kid again. I rode my scooter quite a bit - to go to Curves in Lewiston this morning and to go to Fort Niagara Park in Youngstown this afternoon. The sun was shining bright when I left for the park and I spent some time sitting and watching the sun shine on Lake Ontario. It was such a beautiful shade of blue, and incredibly calm. There was one lone sailboat and a couple of power boats, and far out I could see a ship. But other than that it was just miles and miles of blue.

Of course, at Fort Niagara I was reminded of my lack of youth. My ankle, that I wrenched in a hole in a parking lot a couple of days ago, didn't like all the uneven walks and floors in those 300 year old buildings. And of course there was a group of high school kids there on a trip that made me definitely feel my age! But heck, I was riding a scooter home! Yes, I am still a kid.... even when I ride in the rain!

An Excellent Day

This was an excellent day! Despite the predictions of a rainy weekend here in the Falls area, I awoke to beautiful sunshine. So I changed my plans for the day. When I was thinking it would be overcast and rainy, my plans were to spend the day doing a lot of settling in, errand running, and resting. The tour was going to wait for tomorrow which was supposed to be better.

However, I decided to do the grand tour this morning while the sun shone. While waiting, I got to know some of my campground neighbors, Bill & Donna, who were also waiting for the tour. They're from Texas, and were incredibly helpful with some advice. And it didn't stop there.

Our tour was meant to be a four to four and a half hour tour. Sheri, our guide, was feeling no rush though. Since it's the off-season, she extended our tour and added in some nice extras. We ended up spending 6 hours seeing the sites. Our group was excellent also, with people from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Maryland and Germany. We had some good conversations along the way, and the weather was perfect.

I was in awe of the power of that water, both in the Falls themselves, but also the rapids leading up to them. We saw it from all angles, including underneath with our ride on the Maid in the Mist. Absolutely amazing experience! I would gladly take another day like this anytime.

When we got back to our campground - about 2 hours later than I expected - Bill & Donna helped me get my scooter off the carrier and then to open up all the awnings on my Beast. This was something I hadn't attempted before by myself, so I had no idea what kind of shape they'd be in. Thankfully they're all in good condition, and I'm now a little more practiced at all things RV. Bill & Donna even went to the campstore to check on whether there were any awning poles to be used for opening and closing. They not only had one, they had an extra one that someone had left behind, and the campground owners gave it to me. Hey, free is always good!

Life is good!

Long couple of days

Wow! Am I behind in writing here. I know it's only been 2 days, but they've been very full days - heavy on the driving and not so much about Sabbath rest. I wanted to get east as quickly as possible though. Indiana didn't hold great excitement for me, so that was a 'drive through' state, although I did stay overnight at a very cool campground in Angola. It was one of those kind of pleasant surprises that waits for you over the next hill. When I checked in, my thoughts were "hey, I'm tired of driving and it's a place to spend the night." Then I went for a walk to explore after setting up, and headed toward "Hogback Lake" which was on the grounds. Yeah, probably a lake like the man-made one in Iowa that I checked out during my internship year. That one was a pond in a field. I figured this would be about the same.

But I literally went over a hill and found a surprisingly cool rest of the campground. There were hundreds of campers set up as seasonal sites with landscaping and decks and satellite dishes. It was a small town with all the amenities like pavilions and playgrounds and fishing ponds. When I got to the lake, it actually was a lake! Even had a beach and a couple of docks.

So that was my nice surprise in Indiana. Yesterday then my plan was to do the 4 hour drive from Angola to a campground just north of Cleveland, with a brief stop to visit my first church in Norwalk. Yah, right. Ohio was filled with road construction. Even the alternate routes I took thinking I could avoid the turnpike construction were dotted with lane closures and torn up roads. So much for a relaxing 4 or 5 hour travel day. It turned out to be more like 6 or 7 and my legs were just tense from all the braking and slowing down half of the drive.

Thankfully I was at the coolest campground yet in Geneva, OH. It was huge, and spread throughout a wooded area along the Grand River, and they had 4 small lakes on the grounds too. I worked out the tension in my legs by taking a walk about the grounds, and didn't even cover half of it with my half hour walk. I would definitely re-visit that campground again, with some time built in for exploring the area's many wineries and antique shops. :-)

Today I got to Niagara Falls - actually just north in Lewiston. I'm planning 3 days here to visit all the area sites, while still having time to finally do some more sabbatical work of reading and writing. Since they're predicting 10 days of rain in this region, looks like I may get a lot of sabbatical work done, and not so much exploring. Although I did stop at the outlet mall on the way here to buy an Eddie Bauer raincoat so I could still get out on the scooter....

Morning Person???

Is it possible? Could I be a morning person in disguise? Or is this sabbatical transforming me into one? Can't be. It must just be a delusion. But I am discovering the joy of quiet time and getting my mind focused in the morning. For one thing DO NOT turn on the tv first thing. Anything that happened in the news overnight can wait a little while longer to be heard. Another thing, just enjoy my cats on my lap. Heck, even Moses is becoming a lap cat on this trip. That's pretty amazing too. The only thing is, my lap isn't big enough. Only one fits on it at a time, and if it's Max, just barely one!

But today, I discovered, or maybe REdiscovered, something that I need to do even more in the morning. I wrote my morning pages - a practice that is encouraged (noooo - required) for the creativity course in The Artist's Way, which I'm trying to use as the impetus for my sabbatical work. It's a writing practice that we used often in my college freshman English class - stream of consciousness writing. In the practice of morning pages, first thing you do in the morning is write 3 pages of whatever needs to be cleared from your mind. With my overactive mind, perhaps I should write 5. But what was interesting is that my writing turned into prayer. Guess that's what I need most in these mornings to quiet my racing mind. And maybe I will yet become a morning person.

Of course it helps to be in a quiet campground, watching the sun climb slowly in the sky & listening to the birds..... could I do this every day? I wish!

This is what it's about

Today has been a very good day. Staying put was a good idea, because it's helping me to get into true sabbatical mode. I worked out this morning, ate a healthy lunch (very unusual for me) and then spent some time this afternoon doing some sabbatical reading (The Artist's Way) and watching my cats sleep while feeling a nice breeze blow through the Beast. I guess the travel has worn them out a bit too. This is the kind of day I've been needing, and am looking forward to for many weeks to come. Tomorrow I see if I can make it to a nice Lake Erie campground.

On our way rejoicing

I guess it's time for me to finally get some news on this blog. We actually got going on Saturday - pulled out of our courtyard at 3:30 in the afternoon. So it was only about 3 hours later than I wanted to get going, but oh well. Some things take longer to get ready than I anticipate. I didn't want to go very far the first day anyway, because I wanted to break the boys in slowly.

They've adjusted way faster this time than last summer. Max was out and about and up on the seats while we were traveling the very first day. Moses stayed under the seat on Saturday but was back to his wandering soul on Sunday. It's funny how he doesn't do much but sleep at home, but here in the Beast he's all over the place. So far he hasn't let me sleep through a night yet either - wanting to be affectionate and getting attention. Max, on the other hand, has been sleeping most of the trip so far. Of course they're both zonked out now as I write.

I'm taking our start slowly as we get going. The first day we only went a few hours to western Illinois so I could avoid Chicago. Yesterday we traveled east, and are now south of Chicago on I-80. I've discovered that I'm taking longer to adjust this time than the boys. My plan had been to go further yesterday, but 3-4 hours of driving the Beast is about all I want to do right now. Today we're actually going to stay put too, so I can start to do some real sabbatical things. I want to really rest for the first time - no packing, cleaning, sorting, or planning. Just being. I like just being. Yesterday was the first day I didn't just feel exhausted, so today I'm hoping to start feeling energized.

I think I may even get out on the Vino to go find a Curves and work out today. Then it will be back to my home sweet mobile home to do some reading/writing or whatever I am so motivated to do. Tomorrow we begin more of the journey - hopefully hitting the Great Lakes route, so I can do some "water reflecting."