IVECO...

 This beauty has been roaming around Central Newfoundland lately. I just grabbed some photos of it for fun...

Trailer Trash

With a 16 foot camper, space is always at a premium and it takes effort to "travel light" as it were. Sometimes, it's nice to carry extra stuff. The "Westy" can swallow lots of gear, but organizing it can be a challenge. This past year, I decided to cobble together some sort of  chuck-box kitchen trailer. I started with an aluminum trailer "kit" from Costco:

After assembling that, I built a box of sorts, and added some drawers, a stove/oven, side boxes, rack, solar panel, batteries, propane, water etc. The maiden voyage looked like this:

It could use some tweaking, but so far so good...the kitchen portion seems to be working out the best so far.

Future plans are to make the front half a little more accessible, and perhaps some larger wheels/tires.

Side note: It also works well with my ARB Side Tent/Room:

Atlantic Bubble, a 2020 vacation after all.

 With all of the provincial border lockdowns, I didn't think a trip to Newfoundland was going to happen. The Atlantic Bubble however, made travel from NS to NL a simple undertaking. Yippee, another Syncro journey.

Actually, to make things more flexible, we traveled in 2 vehicles. That way, separate agendas could be realized...ha !! We did meet up enroute for roadside coffees etc.

We spent about 3 weeks visiting, camping, and even drove to St. John's for a detour, something we don't often do.

All in all it was a nice trip, lots of family visits, too much food, the usual you know. :)

Happily, we had no problems with vehicles, reservations, weather, delays, etc. all in all a great time !

2020-What a ride so far

Who saw this coming? Definitely not me. Fortunately, the lock-down didn't hamstring us too much. I'm not really a Prepper, but I didn't have to exactly run out in a panic and buy toilet paper either.
Due to the pandemic, the last few months have been subdued to say the least. A quick recap:
By mid-March, things were grinding to a halt. NHL was suspended, along with mostly everything else. I had enrolled in a night class in Welding to pass some winter time, but that got suspended half way through. A state of emergency was invoked and we all stayed home and baked bread. Our youngest was in Iceland, but managed to make it home just as things got bad. As spring emerged, I tried to putter and be at least somewhat productive. John Prine died, and Easter was upon us. Church was transformed to an online experience, and I even resorted to jigsaw puzzles. I got some projects completed, but it was not a real easy spring. As the weather improved, so did the mood. Lock-downs were relaxed, and BBQs and yard work helped normalize things. Then, I had a Birthday, followed by Father's Day. The associated celebrations and sunshine surely helped. Now that summer is here, let's hope for the best. I'll end off with a few random photos...

Winter "Retreat"

My first winter "retired" is going ok, but admittedly lacking a bit in sunshine and motivation. February looks to be a better month than January. I did get out to the yearly men's retreat at Bayside Camp, and that helped. Other than that, it's been a little bit melancholy. Here's a few pics from the retreat:

Bayside February 2020

Belated Happy New Year

Well, hello, and welcome to 2020. I'm hoping for a good winter, one where I can be a bit more mobile and less sedentary, whatever that means. So far, it's been a mixed bag. On the plus side, I did squeeze in a couple of skates at the Oval:

Also, we has a nice cold snap and a respectable 30+cm of the white fluffy stuff. Enough to put my new plow through its first real workout...it was stellar:

Sadly, it was all short-lived as a rainy mild spell quickly destroyed all of the tranquil beauty and returned us to a "Blah" reality:

Other setbacks so far include a gross head-cold and a bad back. I'm working through it and still hoping for a better second half to January.

Also, this marks my almost 5 months since retiring. So far, things are going pretty good...

2019 is almost gone...

Generally, my number of blog posts has been decreasing yearly. If not for this post, 2019 would have none. A sign of the times I suppose. The various social media platforms have proven to be more effective and more fun than a traditional old Blog. Many folk use these to direct people to their blog, but I haven't bothered. Nevertheless, an update here might be in order:

I did indeed retire as planned last summer. So far that has had mixed results. The first 4 months were a true bliss. It was summer so with the usual camping, travel, etc it was simply like an extended holiday. As winter approached though, things became a little challenging. After 30 years of routine, it hits home that it's over. Emotions run the entire gamut, and adjustments have to be made. Somehow, the new-found freedom must be combined with a measure of routine and even discipline, or else the risk of melancholy is real...working through that now, thankfully with more wins than losses.

Travel Team  :)

Into the fall and winter, the sheer volume of the outstanding chores was and still is overwhelming. I no longer had the "I have to go to work" scapegoat to fall back on, so it was time to produce. This has been a considerable failing but recovery and success await (he said positively). Before I knew it, Christmas was here, and along with it, it's close companion winter. It seems we've survived Christmas, and have the deck stacked in our favor for winter generally. Tools are in place for the major challenges; cold and snow among the largest.
Let's see how it goes...

an attempt at winter frolic