Twelve Feet, Six Continents, One Year

Early in our relationship, Elise taught me a phrase that I still think is peculiar to the Pacific Northwest: "The mountains are out." She would say this to me after flying from our home in Boston to see friends or family in Seattle and the approach to SeaTac had yielded spectacular views of Ranier and others. For me - at the time, a lifetime east coaster - this phrase didn't make any sense. The mountains are just there and they always seem to be beckoning to me to pull my car to the side of the road and just walking up them, something you can't do on Jefferson, Hood, Adams or St. Helens. Well, you could (we have relatives who do, regularly) but 10,000' feet is quite different than 3,000! But now we are in Shenendoah National Park in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. Have you ever seen a geological map of the United States? This part of the country looks insane. Like pouring several dollops of oil paint in a line on a canvas and then smearing them sort o...

Monday morning started off really well. A few minutes before 9 it looked like we were going to be on the road to Pennsylvania and happily settled in at our cousin's house well before dinner. At 9 it was apparent that the slide - the one that was stuck IN a few weeks ago - was stuck OUT. This is not only deeply annoying, it means that we wouldn't be driving anywhere anytime soon. I don't wish to belabor this point. Partly because I don't want you, dear reader, to endure this. Mostly, though, I don't want to think about it any more. In short, a mobile tech showed up and cranked it in manually; we spent much of the driving on the phone tracking down RV repair places and parts; we arrived at 10pm; we were at a repair place at 8:30 the next morning. To the good, our 48 hour visit with cousins was doubled. This means twice as many evening conversations on a comfy living room sofa. This means twice as much time for our four kids and their two cousins. To the bad, we...

(I'll add more pictures once our internet improves) Until a few weeks ago, I didn’t know that the National Park Service has something called the Junior Ranger Program. Now I’m an expert. Now Henry and Lily have taken the “JR Oath” to protect the natural and cultural resources of our parks. Now Henry and Lily have badges/patches from two parks (Acadia and Minuteman). So buckle, up folks, here’s a little story. At the park’s visitor center, a young person can present themself and receive a Junior Ranger “program,” which is a little like a scavenger hunt. Today, in Minuteman National Historic Park (outside Boston), the requirements for earning a badge included three site-specific worksheets and two “extra” activities. The first site was a no-brainer, since the visitor center where we started was an eligible site. The kids devoured the exhibits and then sat through a half-hour movie in the center’s theater in order to gather their data. One question stumped me: it wasn’t Paul ...

About 3,600 miles after leaving Portland, we arrived in Portland. If you don't know the story of the "Portland Penny," a coin toss between Asa Lovejoy (of Boston, Massachusetts) and Francis Pettygrove (of Portland, Maine) gave the win to Pettygrove and his hometown's name to Stumptown. We left Acadia after a lovely long weekend. My final act was to jump into the frigid Atlantic Ocean. On our way out of town, Lily and Henry received their first patch/badge from the National Park Junior Ranger Program. They worked hard for it during our driving tour of the park yesterday and they were very proud to get their just reward. Then down the coast we drove, first to Camden for lunch. I don't know when or where Camden entered our imagination but for as long as I can remember, Camden has personified the Maine of Elise's fantasy. When she dreams of perpetual sweater weather, it's in Camden. When she considers a daily Lobster habit, it's in Camden. I got a ho...

Sorry, folks, there will be no pictures with this entry. It's Sunday morning at the cabin/cottage we've rented on Mount Desert Island on the coast of Maine and Ali, recently age 6, interprets her Aunt Suzanne's declaration of, "I'm going to go take a shower" as an invitation. A while later, after Suzanne has stopped laughing and regained the ability to breathe, she recounts this little gem. This nugget. This brilliant little vignette that perfectly illustrates not only Ali's total lack of boundaries but her totally-unbiased inquisitive personality and view of the world. This is also fair warning to everybody else who might ever express an intent to shower in Ali's vicinity. According to Suzanne, Ali spent the shower taking full inventory of her (Suzanne's) body parts. In particular, Ali was confused why Suzanne didn't have a lateral scar on her lower abdomen as Elise does (as the reward for having three c-sections while delivering Lily ...

This is not an exciting post about RV (mis)adventures or exciting/fun/exotic activities. It's a journal entry about being a homeschool teacher. Today (Sunday, 9/1), we manufactured an hour of peace and quiet so that I could teach an inaugural phonics lesson for Ali and Cate. We've picked a curriculum called Explode the Code, significantly because it provides an online teaching option. Amidst the chaos of the last week, we also failed to get our devices online in a reliable way to do teaching. Awesome. So here's what it takes. Henry went off kayaking with his aunt and uncle. Elise took Lily and cousin Claire to go shopping in town. I put cartoons on the TV. It took me the first half-hour episode to get the classroom set up, including getting the laptop on a steady and strong wifi signal (required personal hotspot). Then I got Cate into the "classroom" while Ali watched a second episode before they switched. During "class," I was often frustrated. Du...

Welcome to the northeastern-most corner of our RV adventure. On the afternoon of Friday, August 30th, we reached Acadia. This involved much less traffic than I expected, especially as we drove north from Boston on Labor Day weekend. Life was still exciting, though, as we navigated the RV through tiny Maine villages and up to our oceanside rental house.   We are joined for this weekend by Uncle Alex (Elise's brother), Aunt Suzanne and Cousin Claire. WE celebrated being together by going for a hike near Long Pond. We had about two miles of "moderate" hiking to an elevation of about 650 feet and then about three miles, mostly along the lakeshore. It was very photogenic. Jon, Claire, Lily, Alex, Cate, Elise, Suzanne, Ali and Henry in front of Long Pond at the start of our hike. All smiles! The troop  Lily and her lipstick rock One of the coolest trail signs I've ever seen. Appearing soon in a Patagonia catalog Cate was very specific abou...