Archive for ‘November, 2011’

Hittin’ the road

The morning was beautiful and colorful as Bear had a run around while I hooked up the Jeep.

We rolled out about 11:30…an hour later than I hoped but I did not rush the departure chores or saying good bye to Mr. Bob.

Mr. Bear took his Captain duties seriously and we arrived Missoula on time to visit with friends who are here for the Winter.

First day out – wonderful! It is good to be on the road.

Bear is doing very well and seems comfortable with the travelling routine. We are seeing more dogs than our normal routine so I have high hopes that we will make some progress with socialization…especially as “Grandma and Grandpa” have 3 dogs and a cat…hoo boy :)!

Ready to roll

Project deadline met at 12:30 p.m.

Motorhome de-winterized and loaded by 4:30 p.m.

Departure planned for 10:30 ish a.m. tomorrow morning with a short day to Missoula, 120 miles. Missoula is my usual first night stop which allows for a mid-morning roll out, a stop at the Polson Safeway and an easy drive/early park and setup so Bear and I can get our “sea legs”.

I’m pooped…the work, the back and forthing to the motorhome, a day that turned warm and blustery…it is 7:00 p.m. and I’m done.

Time for lights out and a good night’s sleep.

Next post hopefully from the road :)!

Mr. Beam

Mr. Beam is the manufacturer of various kinds of lights…mostly motion sensor kind of lights.

I recently purchased a couple or several…for the driveway…for Hailley…or maybe for me.

They are powered by batteries.

After testing with the “stakes” they come with and thinking about snow… I decided to mount them midway up a few trees. I had some roofing material so made them them their own roofs :)!

We’ll see how they hold up.

But, so far, I am sold! They are inexpensive, easy to mount, they work!

Meanwhile…

Bob and Bear progress….

Some d’accord!!!… there is tail wagging out of the range of photo.

And sometimes some nose touching…

When we return…maybe….!

But meantime…Bob is not in favor of all of the commotion that is involved in leave-taking…

Catching up the week

Wednesday, November 16…it looked like this and as I walked the loop, I thought to myself: “This is the absolute perfect amount of snow for the week before Thanksgiving…just enough to have that holiday feeling and not so much as to make it hard to get around”.

Later that afternoon, an email from a friend alerted me to a storm forecast for the weekend. It wasn’t so much for a lot of snow as it was for very cold temperatures and strong wind with blowing snow.

Huh… I decided in about 5 minutes of dithering to winterize the motorhome. It burns through a $60 tank of propane in 4-5 days when it starts staying below 20. While I grumbled a bit, it does not take long and it removed the tasks of monitoring (worrying) and runs for propane refills. I will de-winterize the first night out or maybe even the night before I leave weather permitting.

And although I had to unload all the freezable stuff, I use those recyclable psuedo fabric grocery bags that I have a plethora of, making it easy to unload and reload. Stowing things away, I can do first night out. With the short days and long nights and me not being a night driver, I will have plenty of evening downtime and will take at least 4 1/2 days for the 1260 mile trip to my folks.

In the process of unloading and checking all compartments, I found a quantity of stuff that doesn’t need to be aboard at all – obsolete electronics, Bob supplies (he’s staying home with his new gal-pal, Hailley)…. SO, a little de-cluttering done as well :)!

That done, it was back to work as there is a Tuesday project deadline.

So…Thursday afternoon it looked like this…

And then it changed to freezing rain…pretty, but I was glad that I didn’t have to go anywhere which is one of the reasons I can enjoy Winter so very much.

The forecast nailed it – not a lot of new snow but it got very cold and very windy and very wintry and I was very glad I was not trying to babysit the motorhome through a frigid cold spell. I promised her that I would fire things up shortly and we would be off for adventure soon.

Bear is absolutely loving the cold. His short stint of laying in the yard has regressed to being constantly in motion. There are perimeters to patrol, squirrels to chase, deer to sniff out…maybe the elk herd have passed through in the night or the local raccoon. Bear is on top of it all.

That was our week…that and getting the house and Bob ready to leave in Hailley’s care. A full week, a bit more jam-packed than is my wont, but all is in good shape. Currently the weather looks good for either a Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning departure – Adventure calls!

A pretty good impression of Winter

I’m just inside from a last outing with Bear…8:46 p.m. The sky was mostly clear and the stars plentiful. It was 28F but did not feel bad as I stood and watched Bear make his rounds.

The kettle is on for my cup of “Get some zzz’s” tea and as soon as I publish and power down, I’m off to bed after a good day of work and play.

There were several short squalls with heavy snow and biting wind throughout the day.

I needed to get the motorhome to town for propane. It would not go one more night without a fill. About 11:30, the sun came out and the dusting of snow from the morning squalls melted.

Bear and I went quickly to Bigfork, filled the beast and returned. I was walking to the house when I noticed the sky had darkened and the wind was coming up.

The best squall yet started fast and furious and kept up for 20 minutes.

Suddenly it didn’t look like Fall anymore.

It left about an inch of snow that stayed despite a feeble attempt at some late afternoon sunshine.

A pretty good impression of Winter.