Month: December 2009

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The Night Is Young…

And it is cold.

I’m pretty sure that it’s not quite as cold as it was in Prince George in October, but I’ve got the electric heat running, so that could skew my numbers a tad. Like that night, the furnace is no luxury!

The forecast has worsened, not improved, with the low tonight dipping to minus nine. We are approaching scary number territory! If that happens, I will, of course, move to the house; no sense being super uncomfortable for nothing. But so long as we don’t hit minus eleven, I prefer to bundle up and sleep in my own bed.

I actually pulled out my long winter coat, something I didn’t do last year. The wind coming in from the ocean can be quite brutal at times, so I’ll appreciate being covered down to my ankles with a warm coat and having a (faux) fur-lined hood for my five minute walk to work.

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Travels Without Miranda, #8: Tybee Island, Georgia

I finally made it to Savannah in the spring of 2008, six months before I left Ottawa with Miranda. This harried road trip featuring bad motels and restaurant food convinced me that there had to be a better way to travel.

After spending a sticky day exploring Savannah’s historic district, I decided that the next day should be spent visiting the environs, my expedition culminating at Tybee Island, Savannah’s ocean playground.

It was the first week of April and still bitter cold back home, but on Tybee the sun was shining and it was hot. The Atlantic ocean beckoned me and I heeded its call, wading in carefully, then plunging in head first when I discovered, to my delight, that the water was warm!

Tybee Island lighthouse

Tybee Island lighthouse

view of Tybee beach from the top of the lighthouse

view of Tybee beach from the top of the lighthouse

Swimming opened up my appetite and I went off in search of lunch, finding it at a shack-type restaurant right on the beach called the North Beach Grill. I decided to take a chance on it since it was packed. It was a fantastic experience; a cruddy little restaurant open to sea breezes, salt shakers rusty from the sea air, rum flowing liberally, and Caribbean-style music booming from speakers. I ordered ‘grilled shrimp’ which was nothing like what I expected. I got whole shrimp, still in the shell with the legs on ’em, swimming in a cajunny-style sauce with a helping of freshly cut fries. It was one of the most undignified, delicious, and fun meals of my life. It took forever to peel those suckers using my fingers! It was there that I realised that coastal Georgia is a world unto itself where sweet tea runs freely, huge mountains of sweet shrimp big as a thumb cost less than a burger, and the people know how to take the time to breathe and enjoy a moment. It’s not paradise, but came pretty close to that for a sun and warmth-starved gal who had just fled winter!

That day in the water reminded me that when I am drained, water can renew me. I remembered this my first day in Edmonton.

(As a side note, that night I received an email that changed my life forever. But that’s another story, part of which you read whenever you visit this blog.)

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Travels Without Miranda, #7: Chicago’s Navy Pier, Illinois

Chicago is one of my favourite cities. It is vibrant, clean, friendly, and approachable. I’ve been there twice, spending a week in 1999 and stopping over on my Great Lakes adventure in 2005 to return to Navy Pier. I also went through O’Hare on my way to Colorado in 1996, but I’m not sure that counts. 🙂

Until I visited Chicago in 1999 I considered myself to be a country gal with little use for cities, finding them to be ugly. Vacations were meant to be spent in aesthetically pleasing places; I had only come to Chicago to visit a friend, otherwise I would have spent my travel dollars on a great camping excursion instead.

My week in Chicago changed my opinion of cities in general and Americans specifically. Until Chicago, I thought all American cities were like filthy New York City and all Americans like its rude residents. I still had a lot to learn about not making sweeping generalizations about places and people.

One of my last stops during that 1999 trip was Navy Pier, a tourist trap jutting out into Lake Michigan that is filled with souvenir shops and over priced food. It’s one of my favourite places in the United States. 🙂

I walked down one side of the Pier that day and up the other, stopping in my tracks as I did so to take in the sight of Chicago. It awed me. Glimmering obsidian sky scrapers shimmered against a perfect blue sky, their reflections bouncing off the turquoise waters of Lake Michigan. I was looking at a downtown traffic snarl at the same time as I watched volleyballers frolic on a sandy beach. Cities can be beautiful, I thought with awe.

(I went through a long spell of traveling without a camera)

(I went through a long spell of traveling without a camera)

Six years later, I decided to return to that spot on the Pier and it was as though time had stood still. Chicago was exactly as I remembered her to be and while a stay over wasn’t on the plate for this trip, I was reassured that my memories hadn’t been romanticized over the passage of time.

Chicago taught me that cities can be beautiful, a lesson that I clung to as I so desperately worked to fall in love with Vancouver.

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Safety Complacency

I usually feel very safe in my RV, whether I’m parked in a campground, a Walmart, or a turnout. If I’m overnighting in an urban area, I choose a spot with a couple of exits and good light. If I’m in the boonies, I try to stay out of the sightline of passing vehicles. I’ve only had one scare that taught me to keep my cellphone handy and charged at all times, otherwise I’ve been very lucky so far as intruders go.

Nick and Terry Russell weren’t so lucky the other night. You can read about their terrifying encounter with an armed intruder at the Gypsy Journal blog.

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My Naïveté Continues

Why do I believe people who tell me “Oh, winters around here aren’t so bad, we never go below minus five” especially if these people haven’t been home in the winter for several years?! ( 😀 )

This is the forecast for the next week:

BRR

BRR

I know the drill:

-fill up the fresh water tank

-put away the sewer and water hoses

-fill the auxiliary propane tank

-take out the sleeping bag and a tuque

The upshot of this forecast is that it’s supposed to be sunny. Hopefully, it will change for the better. At least, the numbers aren’t scary.

It’s apparently plus three right now, but I find that hard to believe seeing as it is nippy in here. I’ve been keeping the thermostat at 16 degrees since we’ve had a few nights below zero, but the furnace has yet to kick on. The radiant heaters are doing a very good job. I just wish that there was a way to heat the toilet room that did not involve leaving its door wide open. There is nothing like smacking your face on a solid wood door to wake you up first thing in the morning… not even a cold toilet seat. 😀

Meanwhile, Dawson’s highs for the next week are in the high negative twenties. Sort of puts things into perspective. 🙂 Funny thing is that the Dawson I know is searingly hot, so have a hard time imagining being cold there!