RV
Ramblin’….Masterson’s Land Cruising “Voyages”
As we have been traveling the world since our retirements
(Bob in 2002 and Linda in 2005) we have gotten into the habit of sending our
friends and family travel updates, first on our 47 foot Beneteau sailboat for 5
years in the Caribbean, and then on various land and sailing trips. We now have quite a few people who have
requested these updates and have suggested we do a blog.
Background:
After we finished sailing in 2010, we bought and completely
remodeled a beautiful home on the Intracoastal Waterway in St. Augustine
FL. In 2014, we decided to sell it and
rent for a year to explore other locations and lifestyles. After Linda finished teaching
“entrepreneurship” at Flagler College in December 2014 (she was at the C-level
in 4 startups and Chairman and CEO of the last company), we spent almost 3
months traveling to and examining the possibility of becoming expats in Costa
Rica, Panama, and Ecuador. When we
returned to the US in April 2015, we decided to become part-time expats in
Panama and spend 2-3 months each winter as Panama “residents” (resident visa,
not citizens). Bob could not convince
Linda to go sailboat cruising again so we decided to go “land” cruising instead. We purchased a class A motorhome and plan to spend
9 months of the year traveling the US and 2-3 months in Panama (not in
the motorhome). Sailboat cruising was
something that Bob had always wanted to do, but RVing had always been on
Linda’s list, sooooo, here we go on our 3 year plan.
Within 3 months of returning from our trip, we found an RV/motorhome
that met most of our requirements (Class A 2010 36’ Tiffin Allegro Open Road
diesel pusher). It has more room in it
than our 47 foot sailboat (no sails, fenders, ropes and lines, lifeboat, dingy,
watermaker, wind and water equipment, charts, multiple anchors, etc) and even
room for a small “wine cellar”. Interestingly,
many of the self support systems we used on the cruising sailboat are also in
the RV. These included house battery
systems, inverters and control systems, generator, propane systems for
refrigeration and heat, and black and grey wastewater management. We do have a few new items to worry about
such as tire wear and pressure, finding a flat spot to set up the coach, and advance
campground reservations at popular locations – still easier than anchoring.
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| Our new Home - 36' foot 2010 Tiffin Allegro Open Road RED |
Starting the Land
Cruising “Voyage”
On July 2, we pulled out of our St. Augustine campground and
headed north. Because we had gotten such
a late start on our trip, we headed directly north as quickly as possible. Our goal this year is to go north to Nova
Scotia and Cape Breton Island, and then along the St. Lawrence Seaway to
Thousand Islands and Niagara Falls, and then through the upper Michigan
Peninsula and Wisconsin along the great lakes, and finally to the thousand
lakes area of Minnesota. By then it will
be mid-Sept and getting cold. We will
start to head south through the central states down to the Gulf of Mexico. From there we will visit family and friends
for the holidays, including spending December in St Augustine. After our winter trip to Panama, 2016 will be
out first trip our west.
Our first stops north were to visit friends. We spent a whole week in Jim Thorpe, Penn
(the Pocono`s) with our friends Ruth and John Sweigart. We left the RV at John and Ruth’s and made a car
trip from Penn to Port Jefferson, Long Island, NY (no one in their right mind
would take an RV through New York City) to spend a few days with Jackie and
Bruce Gernaey. We then spent a couple of days in Harrisville Rhode Island with
our friends Jean and Denny Creapeau. We
had a great time visiting with long-time friends that we hadn’t seen in a long
time. It is remarkable how you don’t see
someone for years, and it is like you saw them yesterday….these are truly good
friends.
Our first “camping” stop was on Cape Cod. Bob had worked on the cape when he worked for
NOAA in the late 70s and Linda had been there in the winter when she went to
college in the late 70s. It had certainly
changed some since the last time either one of us had been there. Since we booked our campground so late, we
were only able to secure a reservation far west on the peninsula near the Cape
Cod Canal, so visiting almost everything was a long drive. Provincetown was 2 hours away, but it is also
the heart of Cape Cod National Seashore. The weather was typical for the summer….foggy
in the morning and then clearing; in the early morning it was so foggy we
couldn’t even see the sea from the visitor center.
Provincetown is now a very LGBT-friendly town. We had a great meals,
walked around the town with plenty of boutiques (especially really nice male
clothing stores), and great restaurants and art galleries. One of our favorite artists, Ann Packard,
has her main gallery there, but we got to her Gallery too late to see any of
her new work. (Of course we have NO room for anything other than absolute
essentials on the RV). We really enjoyed
our visit to the Old Harbor Life Saving Station which had been moved to
Provincetown from Chatham Beach; the heroic efforts of the station crew to save
people from shipwrecks is an awesome history.
We took our bikes on the ferry and spent a day on Martha’s Vineyard
and riding our bikes around the island (the fare for a car was $90 one way). We enjoyed two of the towns on the island but
we spent most of our day in Oak Bluffs.
It is architecturally interesting in that it has over 300 colorful “Gingerbread” cottages, mostly in the area
that was originally a Methodist summer tabernacle and camp, founded in
1850. It reminded both Bob and Linda of
Ocean Grove NJ, which Linda lived near and Bob knew from his visits to his
first wife’s grandparent’s home. There was an antique carousel where you could
take a ring each time you went around.
It was so old, the horses didn’t even move up and down. All the rings are steel except for one
“brass” ring that gives the winner a free ride.
Linda remembers doing that as a kid in Asbury Park, just north of Ocean
Grove.
Our final day on Cape Cod was focused on the Chatham
area. The best part of the visit was the
Marconi Maritime Museum. It showed the
rich history of wireless communications on Cape Cod, and Chatham’s top-secret
role in defeating the Germans during World War II. The
museum saluted Chatham Radio's crucial top-secret role during World War II. The
Navy’s "Station C” located marauding German U-Boats and intercepted their
Enigma-encrypted radio messages, which was a key to winning The Battle of the
Atlantic. A display featured both a real
German Enigma-cypher machine and an electronic Enigma simulator, which allowed
you to encrypt and decipher your own messages. The Enigma was a central figure
in last year’s Oscar-nominated The Imitation Game.
Other interactive exhibits, including learning Morse code and tracing a
ship-to-shore telegram through all of its steps, filled the museum, which
traces 100 years of wireless communications.
Bob really enjoyed this museum; he is a novice in using his new Ham
Radio equipment.
We lost two days of our planned Cape Cod visit. Regrettably, Linda’s sister, Lori Scharnagl,
lost her husband in an unexpected, massive heart attack. We ended up driving back to NJ to be there
for Lori during the memorial and funeral services. We both loved Bud dearly and will miss him
terribly.
From Cape Cod we are now headed north to the coast of Maine
prior crossing the border into Canada. Canada is a real stickler about
everything when crossing by plane; this should be an “interesting”
experience. We are offloading our usual
supply of wine before we cross the border and will pick it up on the way back;
we don’t want to have to pay duties on cases of wine.
We’ll keep you updated on our land “voyages” in Maine and
Canada and beyond.
Linda and Bob Masterson
