The Orb

I'm back on the road now after spending almost 4 weeks visiting my best friends at their house in Missouri.  They are overseas working in China and only get back a few times a year.  When they do there's lots of projects and fun to had.  It was good for me to be in one place for awhile and their place is my "home base" while I'm out traveling.  It has been a good transition into what seems like a new period in my journey.  The first four months was about visiting home, friends and family and touring around New England.  I've crossed over 10,000 miles of driving!  The next few months I'm planning on less traveling and more just taking it easy and heading south for the winter for warmer weather.  Looking for places to stay put a little longer.  I still want to make it out to the Florida Keys.  Not to many mountains to climb in Florida but lots of beaches and water.

Here is what I was up to for the last few weeks (best told in pictures):

Their place has been named Camp Engelwood.  It's like being at summer camp for adults:  wine tasting, archery, target shooting, paddle boarding, construction projects, cooking.

Home Base: Spaceship Orb.  This is the new deck (600 sq ft) we built in the spring.  On this trip we installed the aluminum and steel cable railing.

And of course what deck wouldn't be complete without a couple of adirondack chairs.  These are a couple I built from Norm Abrams (New Yankee Workshop) plans out of cedar.  Unfinished here but I covered them with spar varnish and they will last a long time.  It is the most comfortable adirondack chair.

Mike took his mother and sister in law on a surprise helicopter tour over the lake and dome. 

Here is the view from the copter.  (I'm standing on the wall to the upper left.)

Most evening spent relaxing, eating and drinking.  A view of the Mars wall.

What camp would be without a nature trail.  I started clearing a path through their woods and started the hiking / mountain biking / running loop around the property.

Another project was cleaning up the beach and boat dock area.  Looks a lot better now.  I also built the picnic table (my own design.)

This was my big project for the trip.  Mike has always wanted a way to access the upper area to the lower area and with the new deck it made it even more so.  This is a planning photo from the spring.

Finished stairs.  The first three rock steps (coming down) where from a pile of rocks left on site by the original owner.  The steps are composite decking similar to the main deck.

A view from the top.

Kind of puts it all together.  The deck, new railing, adirondack chairs and the new stairs.

The dart board has been there but I installed a new spot light.  Lots of fun games to be had.

Got a few motorcycle rides in.

And a few morning bicycle rides.

We had an early Thanksgiving feast and I made a pumpkin pie (from scratch).