t's 10pm and raining outside. But I am cozily cocooned inside my tent with my dogs so I really don't care. The setting is almost a duplicate of last evening except for three things. First, its raining. Second, the wine tonight is a 2009 California Cabernet Sauvignon (187 ml). And third, there is a tornado warning or maybe just damn high winds in effect right now. Isn't that just dandy. Here I am, camped amidst some of the nicest, tallest trees one could hope to be camped under, and high winds are coming. Just to be safe, I prepared the Defender for a quick exit if need be because my better judgment tells me that staying under these big trees would not be a good idea. Fortunately, the Defender, with its industrial strength roll bar cage and stainless steel roof rack is as safe a place to be as any. We'll see. As I wrote earlier, I knew more surprises were in order for me, but this is one I would not have expected this far north.
Tornadoes aside, here are some thoughts on the day.
We made our planned destination, Wells State Park near Sturbridge, Mass., 258 miles. It took us longer than expected because I stopped for a while at my hometown of Cornwall, New York. When we pulled up to a local cafe, all heads turned at the sight of the Defender fully loaded, including with two big german shepherds. Maybe they thought Preteaus was coming home. (He is from Cornwall.) Tomorrow, if the winds don't interrupt our plans, we will drive the 294 miles to Peaks Kenny State Park in Maine. If I have to take refuge in the Defender tonight, I may not get enough sleep to make the drive, not to mention what my tent and other gear will look like. I'll be optimistic, though.
Click on the below link to view a photo of Cornwall in the distance, behind the tree in the cent of the photo. Only after I took this photo did I realize I was standing at the exact spot where Lashanda Armstrong drove her vehicle with her three kids in it into the Hudson in April of this year.
click here
Leben and Erde have been in their element on this trip, and we are only two days into it. I have not seen Leben's spirit so high since before his injury last year. Even Erde's spirit has soared, and it has always been pretty high. Every time they emerge from the car there are new smells and sights to greet them. I fear that soon, if they emerge from the car at the same stop as before, their spirits will drop. And I am elated that I found significant ways to improve their comfort in the Defender.
Unfortunately, I cannot report good news about the Defender. The overheating problem actually worsened today, and twice the temp gauge rose to just before the red zone. It always seems to start when i ca, climbing some hill, and then the gauge fails to return to normal on its own when the climb is over. Once, I got back on the road quickly and the gauge dropped to about 70 percent of the way to red. Then, just up the road, I pulled over, stopped the car, shut off the engine, and turned it back on immediately, and the gauge never rose beyond normal (47 percent) for the remainder of the trip. This, plus the tests the Land Rover people did,tell me it is clearly a gauge issue, and not a real overheating. It also tells me how I can manage the situation. If I don't like the temperature reading,all I need to do is repeat my above procedure. Were that all of life's problems were so easily solved. I think tomorrow I shall order a new temperature gauge switch and maybe thermostat housing from Rovers North and have it sipped to the FedEx operations center in Bangor Maine, which i will pass by, just to be safe,
I got into the routine of this trip faster than normal. Of course, I had my dress rehearsal two weeks ago and two weeks of extra preparation to help me along. The key to these trips is to get into that routine as fast as possible. Living in essentially in 60 square feet of space for two months with two dogs demands a routine, and an efficient one at that. All throughout the day I am constantly making notes on how to improve things as we move along. The routine is fairly pedestrian. The only thing requiring imagination is picking the night's destination. Morning routine, on the road during the day, night routine, sleep. That's it. Even the meals are essentially the same. Day in and day out. But I guess this mimics life.
Going back to the rain, we hit it for the first time today while crossing the Hudson River at Newburgh and it followed us all the way here, often hard at times. Fortunately, I did no have to set up the tent in the rain, but If I had to, no big deal. The good part about the rain is being in the tent while it is raining. .I can only think of a few more pleasant things in life that beat that. The sound of the rain drops on the tent provide a good backdrop to the sounds of nature and, for the moment, Leben's snoring.
Also starting at Newburgh, I could not believe the traffic we encountered for just about the rest of the trip. On a Sunday at that. When we crossed over the Mass turnpike the traffic was backed up as far as the eye could see. I was told this was normal and what I should expect today when I shave to get on it. This confirms my suspicion that there are way too many people in this world. Or maybe it's just that Romney spect too much of his time on health care reform when governor here.
If the 3G connection is working well here, I may upload a few photos below later.
Ed
P.S. If this blog reads like a journal, that's what it is supposed to be.
P.S. Monday morning amendment. No tornado last night. No high winds either. In fact, not a leaf rustled all night. That's the first time in memory that I recall the weather service being wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment