A short rundown of the past six weeks...

We started out on the shores of beautiful Moon Lake, near St. Germain, Wisconsin, with our friends Skip and Terri, at the home of Terri's parents.  Washing Minnesota dust off our camper, breakfast on the back veranda of Skip and Terri's motor home, and best of all, Skip and I singing our own version of Jimmie Rodgers' "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" dedicated to Terri's mom and dad, the story of their life, with a final verse written by the four of us.

Tank got to run and swim with the two resident golden retrievers and loved this stint at Camp Bow Wow!

Then down to Fort Atkinson, where Karen had lived for 30 years, staying with her son Kiley and his bride of a month, the lovely Stephanie Ann Kracht Kilkenny.  Lots of giggles and stories with Robert and Mary, Kevin and Deborah, Kevin and John, and of course the Merry Carpesters.  I got to play music with Robert and Mark as well...

Stephanie Kilkenny with two of her favorite
 people, Evan and Kenna

A quick overnight visit to Ginny and Don, longtime friends who live in Oconomowoc, WI.  Well, it was supposed to only be overnight, but stretched to 2 days because it was so much fun!  Ginny had recently retired from teaching as well, and we compared our feelings.  She is a little younger than me and was feeling a little guilty (but she's a Catholic and entitled to those feelings I guess!).  I am just grateful!  Ginny also turned us on to the idea of the I-Pass, which will save us almost half off the tolls as we head to New England.  Many thanks, good friends!

Then off to the East Coast!  Three days of hard driving, especially the absolutely NUTS warp-speed nightmare of traveling through Chicago, semis buffeting us from all sides.  I am learning to drive with soft hands, and let the camper/camper find its own way...  hmmm.  Also, at the advice of Lisa of Keepers RV, we have tightened the sway bar a little more to reduce fish-tailing by the R-pod.

We spent the first night in a Wal-Mart parking lot somewhere in Ohio.  Interesting.  Free.  The second night in a small beautiful campground at the top of a winding gravel road somewhere in PA.  A nice campfire, a glass or two of wine, and a sigh of relief.  I think we have more or less finally, left Stuff behind, although the small adjustments here and there will be a part of life for a while...

Mary and Larry at the "Chateau",
a little dive bar near their house.

Boston Larry and Mary's place!  A great First Landing Site...  Live music in the basement, great food and company.  Our own room, which was probably big enough to fit two R-Pods!  A new battery for the Safari so it will reliably start, and a well-deserved oil change.  A visit to Kimball Farm, with bumper boats, a driving range, live music, and Batting Cages!  And of course the Chateau!  Lots of fun, with the promise of a return visit later this month!






Three days in transit camping in New Hampshire, taking the time to further deal with stuff (a lower case s finally).  The final day was a 24-hour soaking rain.  As it let up, we headed into the nearby small town for dinner.
We asked the waitress if they had live music.  She said that as a matter of fact they  had an open mic starting in about a half hour!  We finished our dinner, went out to the van to get my guitar and music, and came back in to talk to Dan, who was hosting the O.M.  Karen and I played four songs and had a great time!!

Then a few days in Burlington, Vermont with Brian and Suzy.

Feel the "Bern" in Vermont!

 Meeting Karen's brother Mark and his wife at a wowza restaurant, Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia, an awesome hot tub soaking, more sweet music, driving through the Notch, stories from the Old Days,  and fixing an electric short caused by a disconnected sink drainpipe in the camper!

From there we drove to Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor, Maine.  Lovely weather and intense fall colors, including two shades of deep red that I don't think the Midwest has!  We spent one afternoon walking around Bar Harbor, and Tank happily let people pay homage to his Greatness.
 What a beautiful dog, can I pet him?  We had to leave ours behind in the kennel...   or we used to have a golden, but had to put him down two years ago.  I have one photo of Tank, with at least 8 hands petting him at once!

In Acadia I came across a piece of park history called the "Rusticators."  These were wealthy people from Boston and New York who came to the area to commune with nature.  One of the main Rusticators was the wealthy John D. Rockefeller.  He laid out and paid to have carriage roads built in the lands that would become Acadia.  Karen and I spent two afternoons riding our bikes on these gorgeous carriage roads through the woods and around lakes.  I was struck by a rich man paying to have these roads constructed for the good of all.  As opposed to the current discussion about the "One Percent." Feel the Bern!!

Then down to Karen's younger brother, Eric and his partner Francine, in western Massachusetts.  We caught them performing at FodFest, a tribute to murdered journalist Daniel Pearl.  For me a flashback to the old power to the people hippie days.  Amazingly healthy breakfasts and some musical connections.  Watching in amazement as Eric showed us how to access some great music and technology on his computer.

Then down to Mark and Lydia's, just outside Millbrook, NY.  Park the camper by the barn and plug it in.  More good food and company, highlighted by watching the Democratic debate at the home of friends.   Swimming in their newly constructed pond, walking into town to have a sandwich at the crossroads deli, learning about the basics of a winter garden, and an awesome bike ride through hill and dale.  Doing laundry and repacking the camper again.  Rest and relaxation.  Getting a packet of forwarded mail.  Thanks, Marybeth!

That's a very brief resume of our trip so far...  more later.  J

Retirement - The Big Partee!

10/16/15     Jim's Post (con't.)

....Back again. As I was saying in the last post....BIG PARTEEE! It was amazing....over 100 people showed up! Karen was trying to keep it a surprise, but the cat was let out of the bag by a friend in Amboy. What was kept a surprise is that my "Grandma Rocker's" bandmates from grade school, both my daughters from opposite ends of the country, my cousin Andy from Phoenix, my sister Mel and her partner Rick and friends from college all came that day and for the weekend. So a great time all in all, to mark my transition into the next phase of my Life.

So August 21 came, the day to be out of 405 South Street West, Amboy.  I was late for the closing because I was getting a load of clothes out of the drier!  Took a final shower, almost forgot my hairbrush on the kitchen counter!  Oh yeah, the dog!! (Yes, here are the keys to your new home, and the dog's name is Tank...)  Ok, come on, Tankie, hop in the car!

So, the first day of the New Reality.  You could open the door to our R-pod camper, but literally could not set foot in it because it was crammed full of Stuff!  So we stayed that first night at the home of dear friends Tim and Kristi Krengel, off-loading computer components and music amplifiers as well.

Then into the next phase, which seemed remarkably like the past two months.  Stuff!  We now had a storage area in Amboy, a car, a van (1999 GMC Safari), the camper and temporarily, half of our two-car garage at South St. West.  It was like the old shell game... put the box under this shell and shuffle them around.  Where is it?  This shell?  Nope, that's two dressers.  This other shell?  Nope that's a kayak!  Well, you get the picture.

Moving mattresses hillbilly style!

Even in the middle of this two-week period leading up to our eventual departure from Minnesota, it was comical.  Going to town?  Take stuff out of the car so Tank our golden retriever can come with.  Put the stuff in the camper.  Go to town, come back.  Take the stuff out of the camper and put it back in the car.  Gradually we whittle down the Stuff, some being discarded but most going into storage.

14'x17' storage space, piled nearly
 to the ceiling!

Our storage space in Amboy is part of an old automobile showroom.  We rented a 14 by 17 space and believe me it is full!  Of Stuff!  As an example we have a dresser and a dining room table together as a base.  Then two box springs and two double bed mattresses on top of that.  Like the cherry perched on top of the whipped cream is our deck table, upside down, legs in the air.  Our friend and co-conspirator Gary Mau proposed perching our bright red kayak on the legs of the deck table like some kind of crazy hood ornament!

Jim Jam Band with a couple of fans!

We had a last Jim Jam gig at the Firemen's Dance in Amboy on September 14, and then headed off to northern Wisconsin.  Tank offered the title "Traveling with Humans" but was outvoted.

So to get back to my first words...  acorns.  Traveling like this makes you much more aware of your natural surroundings.  Most of us spend most of our days inside, insulated to a large extent from what Mother Nature is carrying out.  Anyway it is now Autumn.  Nights are getting cooler, days are getting shorter, leaves turning colors, and...   acorns falling.  Our camper is parked under an oak tree and I know now why the season is called Fall!  "The acorns are falling!"  Boink boink!

Lura Lake - Our First Home on the Road

So now, back to the beginnings...

Skip and Mary

Robert Preston, Terri Platner and Mary Preston in the background

Our friend Patti Urich came to visit us at our
temporary home on Lura Lake

We closed on selling the sweet little Amboy house on August 21, after months of weeding through stuff and filling our storage space, and officially moved into the R-pod (purchased at Keepers RV just outside Mankato).  The first two weeks were spent at Daly Park and Lura Lake, just outside Amboy.
















This was written at that time...

9/5/15

"The acorns are falling, the acorns are falling!"  It's not Chicken Little, but it was our reality last night at Daly Park, our current home and jumping off point for the Grand Tour of 2015-16.

The overriding reality of the last 2 months has been stuff.  Make that the reality of the last 2 years...  Karen sold her house in Fort Atkinson, WI a year ago, a large 2-story home with full basement and attic, 411 Main St.  She had lived there for 33 years and raised 2 kids (Kiley and Laura) there.  Stuff!

Then she had moved into my little 1400 square foot home in Amboy.  Realigning and merging stuff!

Then we began talking about what we were going to do to mark my retirement in June of 2015 after 40 years of teaching...  at first we talked of going to Puerto Rico and renting a house in Old San Juan for a month.  Would have been fun, but...     and gradually the plan for this trip began to take shape.

We put the house up for sale in February, and it sold in June, with a closing date in August.  Why the gap?  Stuff, of course!

So I graduated from my profession (which I loved by the way!  More on that later, I'm sure) on June 1.  Karen threw a smashing big Retirement Party for me to mark the transition!  What a shindig!!  It ended up being a four-day extravaganza, with some folks coming early and some staying late.  One of the highlights being a back-porch reunion of Grandma's Rockers, my high school band.  We started playing together when we were about 11 years old.  Lots of fun!!

Just a small sampling of the 102 friends and family who attended. Our friends Robert and Mary from Fort Atkinson, who BTW, introduced us, came to visit us for the retirement part in their "Hippie Bus."

Anyway back to the tale.  Big Party!!  Par-Tay!!! More later...

The Beginning of Our Journey

RETIRED!

I used to be a Teacher but now I have no class!

"Big Grey and 3 Peas in a Pod"