Meet Lucy!

OK, it's finally time to introduce you to our new traveling companion. You've gotten a few sneak peeks, but now I'll show you the whole thing.

We went into the Call of the Wild RV dealership in Oxford, Maine about 10 days ago. We'd been researching travel trailers and talking to dozens of fellow campers throughout our journey. We'd spent hours online and on the phone. We thought we knew what we wanted: a hybrid trailer that was hard side in the middle and had tent ends like our pop-up. We were very happy with the quality of our Amish-made Jayco pop-up, so we chose this dealer because they had the model and size Jayco hybrid we were interested in looking at, and because they were pretty much on our intended route. Naturally, when we arrived, the model we wanted had been sold the day before. We looked at a couple other hybrids but didn't see exactly what we were looking for. Since we were already there, we decided to look inside a couple of full hard side Ultralight travel trailers, and we ended up loving the KZ 23' Vision. KZ is also a family-owned Amish business with wonderful attention to detail, superb quality, and a very comprehensive warranty. It didn't take us long to change our minds!

Here's Curt whipping out the Visa card for the deposit...just before signing on the dotted line!

Because it was approaching Labor Day weekend, it took almost a week for all the details to be ironed out. So we moseyed around Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts (the previous blog posts covered all that). Ross and Lorna, Curt's brother and sister-in-law, were gracious enough to allow us to empty our pop-up and place all our STUFF on their garage floor while we made the transfer. We showed back up at the RV dealer last Wednesday with our pop-up cleaned out and ready to trade in. Justin, one of the techs, gave us the tour of our new trailer and checked us out on all the features and systems. 

We pulled our new trailer alongside our pop-up and transferred our last few belongings...

Said good-bye to our trusty pop-up, now totally empty and looking a little forlorn. . .

. . .and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening happily moving some of our things into the new trailer. It was such fun...we felt like newlyweds with our first apartment!

That evening we camped right at the RV dealership. They recommend that new RV owners do that if they have the time, and try to use pretty much everything that night, so if there are any questions or problems they can be addressed by their staff first thing in the morning before driving the trailer away. What a great idea! We did have a few questions the next morning, and we got the answers right away.

Then a stop to their parts and accessories store to make sure we had everything we needed...

. . .and we were off! Since my cousin Kim lives close to where we bought the trailer, we visited her and her husband Brad for two days before returning to Ross and Lorna's in Massachusetts. We've been here 3 days now, finding places for all the stuff we brought from Texas. Ross and Lorna are about to be able to reclaim their garage! We've been sleeping in the new trailer at night instead of the guest room... And we're getting used to how everything works. It's SO much more spacious and comfortable than the pop-up! 

Here are some photos of how things are starting to shape up:

From the doorway looking left into the living room. The floor mat we brought along fits perfectly! On the left you can see a tall cabinet which is our pantry...and then the fridge & freezer beyond.

Here's the living room/kitchen combo.

Two sofas! The one on the left is just like the sofa you might have in your living room...SO much more comfortable than the pop-up's dinette benches. And since we both love to sit and read (or knit) in the evenings, that's such a welcome change for us! The one on the right is ALMOST as comfortable, and it converts into a bed. We like the table...long and skinny so it doesn't take up all our floor space. It doubles as extra kitchen counter space as well. The floor space is increased by a slide-out section where the right-hand sofa is.

Since Curt is the primary dishwasher, he's delighted with the double sink. Above it and to the right is a flat-screen TV. Though we've never been TV-watchers much, we do enjoy movies from time to time...and there's a DVD player connected. It's also a CD player and radio, and a plug-in for iPods, so we can enjoy LOTS of great music. Indoor and outdoor speakers as well. 

My favorite features are the refrigerator and freezer. I no longer have to get on my knees and duck my head into the tiny little fridge box on the floor. And we can have ice water with our own ice cubes! Wow, what a treat! Three burners on the stove are a definite upgrade from the two we had before, and now I even have a small oven for roasted vegetables and baked goods. I can't wait to use that! A microwave above completes the kitchen. What luxury!

Now here's something totally new for us...a bathroom! No more stumbling through a campground in the middle of the night!

And our very own shower! There's also an outdoor shower on the back side of the trailer.

Looking to the right from the doorway is the bedroom with a queen bed and a small wardrobe closet on each side of it. We've been able to take our clothes which have been hanging in the back seat of the pick-up and put them in our bedroom. What a novel concept. And we're still flaunting our Texas loyalty!

Here's another great space, which we know we'll use a lot: the electric awning is 18' wode, and it even has a string of LED lights already attached underneath to help us enjoy our outdoor evenings longer. In fact, all the lights in the trailer are LED, so that makes reading an absolute pleasure, rather than the struggle we had with the dim lights in the pop-up.

This shot of the back side of the trailer shows the slide. Just that small amount of space makes so much difference in the feel of comfort and roominess!

So there you have it! We traveled in the pop-up for almost 90 days. Now Lucy is almost totally packed and ready to give us 90 more....plus a lot more than that, we hope! Why the name Lucy? Well, our motto for our trip is "On the Loose," so Lucy just seems like a fitting name for our new home.

Curt's sister Patty said, "Everytime I see the name "Vision" on your photos, it reminds me of the hymn, Be Thou My Vision."   Perfect. That's always been Curt's favorite hymn, so we've decided that's the theme song for our new home. Thank you, Patty!

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;   

Naught be all else to me save that Thou art;

Thou my best thought, by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Visiting Family in New Hampshire

I'm blogging a little out of order tonight. I want to get our new camper set up just a little more and catch a couple more photos in daylight before I officially introduce her to you. So I'll tell you about our last couple of days visiting my cousin Kim and her husband, Brad, before blogging about picking up the camper, which actually happened previously.

Kim's mom, Sally, and my Dad, George Talley, were siblings and best friends throughout their lives. (Aunt Sally's real name was Melba, but very early on she insisted everyone call her Sally, because she loved the rhyme with her last name...and she wasn't fond of the name Melba at all.) Because Kim and her sister Candi grew up in Oklahoma and my brothers and I grew up all up and down the East coast, we didn't see each other often as children. I really only remember seeing Kim two times (though I'm sure there were more visits when we were lots younger)...once when she came to visit our family in Fairfax, Virginia when I was in high school and she was in college, and another brief visit when I was home from college and she and Brad, expecting their first child very soon, stopped by for a visit. 

We reconnected 3 months ago at my dad's funeral at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., and we realized that we'd been missing a wonderful family bond. So at their gracious invitation, Curt and I wanted to be sure we visited Kim and Brad on this trip. I'm SO glad we did!

Henniker, New Hampshire is a beautiful small, historic New England town. Kim and Brad live right in town, adjacent to the elementary school. It's such a delight to hear the squeals and happy shouts of children on the playground during the day. Their home is amazing. First built in 1839, with a barn built right on the side of it, it has undergone many changes through the years. Brad, an architect, researched it and has restored it beautifully, bringing back many of the original features and uncovering some real treasures in the process.

View from the front

From the back, where you can see the attached red barn. The elementary school where Kim and Brad's grandson, Ryder attends is behind me as I'm taking this photo.

View from the upper barn door across the back lawn toward the school.

This newel post was originally in our grandmother's house in Lawton, Oklahoma. Brad was able to salvage it for use with their banister. It's gorgeous, and provides such a sense of family history and character.

Working on the house, Brad also uncovered the original brick chimney which rises from the basement to the third floor. He had to patch and repair it in places, but it's difficult to tell.

Here's part of the chimney that was hidden in a bedroom closet. Brad moved the closet over to expose this bit of history.

Another view of the rear of the house and barn, showing the beautiful rock garden. The upper part of the barn that juts out was originally an outhouse, accessible from the house without having to go out in the New Hampshire cold! And the owners kept a horse in a stall right next to the outhouse (yes, way up there!) to keep it warm in winter.

Some close ups of the rock garden textures are below.

Kim shared with me so much information about our family that I never knew. It was such a wonderful opportunity to connect with my roots! The first night when I went to bed, I opened up the old Bible on the bookshelf next to my bed. It was my grandmother's Bible, presented to her by her mother when she received her Masters Degree in 1945! I never knew that! How many women sought that level of education during WWII? While my Dad, the youngest child, was fighting in Normandy, his mother was attending graduate school. How amazing is that?

When I asked Kim about it the next morning, she told me that our grandmother, Pearl Talley (whom we called "Mom-mom"), then went onto Columbia University and did all her coursework for a doctoral degree in education, lacking only her dissertation. Not only that, one year she was Teacher of the Year for either the City of El Paso or the entire State of Texas...Kim can't remember which. Wow! I knew as a child that Mom-mom had been a teacher, but I had no idea of the extent of her dedication.

Brad and Kim took us on wonderful drives around Henniker, seeing some of the amazing scenery in the rural areas around it. Here are a few shots you may enjoy:

A one-room schoolhouse, similar to the one our children attended for ,a few years in Montana:

This covered bridge is just beyond the school behind Brad and Kim's house. We were able to walk to it.

On the way back to the house, Curt moved a few rocks for Brad, while I couldn't resist a turn on the school swingset.

And Kim, being the good and loyal cousin that she is, shared two of her favorite haunts with me: the Quilted Threads Quilt Shop....

. . . And the Fiber Studio, complete with a terrific selection of spinning wheels:

Brad, Kim and their son Andy, below. I wasn't able to see their daughter, Whitney, this week because she was training for a Half Iron Man race (a grueling triathlon event that combines 50-mile bike ride, 1.2 mile swim and a 13 mile run. Amazing!) The event, which is called the Pumpkin Man, will be in Maine tomorrow. Good luck, Whitney!

Here's a shot of Curt with Brad, Kim and Andy with our new home in the background, taken from the sun porch of their 175-year-old house. Quite the juxtaposition of old and new!!!

it was hard this morning, leaving my long-lost and newly-found cousin...but I KNOW we won't let 45 years go by agaiin without seeing each other! (Notwithstanding the fact that neither of us will live that long!)

Thank you, Kim and Brad, for your generous hospitality and for a wonderful reunion. Can't wait to get together again...SOON!

Catching Up...Center Harbor, New Hampshire

Sorry I've been silent for so long...we've been so busy visiting family (on both sides) and getting our new camper squared away, that I've barely had time to get to my iPad. I've been taking photos all along, though, and now I'll try to catch you up a bit on our activities.

Before I get to describing the camper, I want to briefly revisit last Sunday, August 31, in Center Harbor, New Hampshire. We left our campsite a half-hour away in Chocorua, N.H. (Site of our last  3 nights in the pop-up) to go to church. We attended the historical Center Harbor Congregational Church, overlooking beautiful Lake Winnepesaukee. (I think I spelled it right this time, after a couple of botched attempts in previous posts. I love Wikipedia; it helps keep me accurate!) 

 

The service was lovely, the congregation friendly, and the pastor's sermon really touched Curt and me. It gave both of us plenty to chew on and think about this whole week. 

The church is 175 years old, as you can see on the banner in this photo.

 

For someone who has lived most of the last 40 years in the western States, where everything is relatively young, it boggles my mind to worship in a church that's been around since LONG before the Civil War!

Since it's pretty much the Shirer tradition to close out any gathering (we don't consciously try to do that...we just enjoy conversations with other people so much that it just sort of happens that way...time and again!), I had a chance to catch this photo of Curt and Pastor Nancy as the last ones out the door.

We had a terrific lunch in a local cafe, and then I simply had to follow Patty's advice. Remember Patty, Curt's sister, from the Shirer family reunion on July 4th? (Center, photo below)

A couple weeks ago, when Patty, who understands and sympathizes with my addictions for all things fiber-related, heard we were going to be in this area, she told me I MUST visit two renowned shops in Center Harbor: Keepsake Quilting and Patternworks. Well, one must keep family members happy, you know. 

Keepsake Quilting was the first stop. That's the biggest quilt shop I've ever been in, and I've been in a LOT of them! If I had my sewing machine with me on this trip, I would have really been in trouble there. As it was, I greatly enjoyed browsing but managed to escape unscathed. 

Not so in Patternworks, a beautiful yarn store with an equally impressive inventory. I had to limit my browsing to one corner of the shop, or I might have been there for weeks!

Fortunately, I knew Curt was ensconced with a book on the wide veranda connecting these two shops, where they place comfortable Adirondack chairs for the DPH's (Dear Patient Husbands) to wait while their wives spend the family grocery budget and half of next month's mortgage on the goods inside.

I emerged victorious an hour later with my plunder and took it straight to the minivan. As I was stashing it behind the front seat before hunting for Curt, I noticed that the inside of the van contained things that didn't look familiar to me. I cracked up laughing when I realized that my minivan is safely tucked in Will and Dorothy Schmidt's garage in Kerrville, Texas. I almost donated my new purchases to some unsuspecting (and almost-lucky) woman who was still shopping in Patternworks!

Still laughing, I safely stowed it in our pick-up (no mistaking that one, with a year's worth of supplies inside!) and set off to retrieve Curt. I found him sitting in a line-up of four DPH's, all laughing, joking and enjoying good male camaraderie. 

As we left, I said to the other gentlemen, "Thank you for entertaining my husband." One of them said, "Oh, no, it was exactly the opposite!" Somehow, I'm not surprised.

Monday (Labor Day) we left New Hampshire and headed again for Ross and Lorna's house (Curt's brother and sister-in-law) in Massachusetts. Prevailing upon family, we spent the next 2 days unloading the pop-up and sprucing it up, inside and out, for the return trip to Maine to trade it in on our new 23' travel trailer. We left an impressive pile of stuff on Ross and Lorna's garage floor as we headed off for a few days. We kept enough of our belongings with us to give us a good start on "moving in" to the new trailer. And now we're visiting my cousin Kim and her husband Brad in Henniker, New Hampshire. I'll write about that visit very soon, as well as introduce you to our new home on wheels. But right now I'm the last one up on Saturday morning...so I need to get up and out of bed. Curt and I will pack up our things and head back to Ross and Lorna's today, so they can have their garage back. Stay tuned!