The End and A Beginning. Summer in Seattle

As it worked out I returned to Seattle for the summer of 2013.  It was a fitting journey and an end to the trip.  I'm sure it won't be an end to my travels.

I had posted the above picture of the memorial at Fisherman's Terminal in Ballard taken in December 2012 and mentioned how grey it was.

To right a wrong is is the same place on a glorious Seattle summer day!

Here are the overall (rounded off) numbers:

Trip  ( May 2012 - July 2013)

Miles driven: 30,000

Gallons of gas: 3511

States: 42 
(6 states I've been to before but not on this trip Louisiana, California, Oregon,Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada)
(2 states I've yet to visit Wisconsin and Michigan)

Months away: 14

Campsites: 100

Days worked: 6 (as a PA)

Days missing work: 0

Time under water: 9 hours 36 minutes

Times crossed the continental divide:  4

Road kill: 0
Bugs killed on the wind shield:  2,000,000 (I actually counted a few times and multiplied up)

Total $ spent: $50,000

Cost of gas: $15,000

Propane: $500

Food / Dining: $10,000

RV parts/repair:  $8,000

Camping fees: $4,000

Health insurance:  $3,000

Cell phone / Internet : $1,500

Other travel:  $2,500

Everything else: $3,500

Time

10,000 hours (418 days)
600 hours driving
3,500 hours sleeping
1,250 hours eating
50 hours working
600 hours on ADL's
4,000 HOURS HAVING FUN!

A few more photos:

Columbia River, Eastern Washington

Snoqualmie Pass May 21, 2012 heading east on the first day.

Snoqualmie Pass heading west return trip July 2013.

After driving 2000 miles from Missouri the first traffic jam I hit was I-90 through Mercer Island.

A nice day at Golden Gardens Park.

My house in Ballard of 15 years as I left it.

This is what they did.  (Notice the big red building in the back yard? )

I had fun living out my "This Old House" dream and saving a 112 year old original Seattle house.  It was in good enough shape when I left that they could't knock it down.  But there was enough room in the back yard to build.  Seattle's plan to slow urban sprawl by increasing the density in the city.

Road Warriors.

Not really in trouble.  Just having fun with the Sheriff.

Snoqualmie Falls.

So many beautiful places to see.  Denny Creek.

Sun setting over Seattle and my time there.

Rail Trail Tunnel under Snoqualmie Pass.

There is a light an the end of the tunnel ;-)

Sights along I-94

My return journey continues along I-94 (and I-90) as I make my way back to Seattle.  It's been easy driving on the freeway, the roads have been in good shape and it's been nice weather.  With the things I noticed I'm not sure if it's a reflection of my state of mind or lack of noticeable things in these states.  Like most things it's probably a mixture of both.

THE "Wood Chipper" from the movie Fargo.  I wanted to put my Five Fingers shoe on the foot but I didn't think they'd like me messing with it.

I was surprised that while there was lots of open space in North Dakota it wasn't all the same.  Say like Nebraska or Kansas.

Some hills and grassland in ND.

Painted Canyon Overlook Teddy Roosevelt National Park ND

A truck load of Bee hives going down the freeway.

After being on the farm in Missouri I noticed farm "stuff".  This is a fence "H" brace I built.  But now I'm always checking out the fences along the road.

It was nice to see that the grass along the road isn't just mowed down.  It's cut and used as hay.

This is the headwater/start of the Missouri river.  Three river forks (Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin) come together and the Missouri begins.  The travels of Lewis and Clark have been a recurring theme as I traveled around. 

 All journeys have a beginning and an end.

RV Birth. Canned Meat. Retail Overlode

The beginning of the return has started towards the end.  Yesterday I left Missouri and aimed towards Seattle.  As I had come east on I-90 I decided to head west on I-94 (and go north to get out of the heat).  I made my way up through Iowa and into Minnesota.  When I looked up the camp ground it mentioned some near by attractions.

The first was Winnebago Industries factory!  I had looked it up before but forgot it was here.  The factory started and is still in Forest City, Iowa.  In 1986 this is the place my RV was born!  It felt like coming home again after 26 years.  In 1986 I was still in college and had just bought my first new car.  It was a Toyota 4-Runner and I kept it for 20 years and put enough miles on it to drive to the moon (230,000)

A 1967 Motorhome.  Looks a lot like mine.

The factory tour was interesting.  It covers a huge area with many buildings.  There are about 2400 employees (down from over 4000 a few years ago).  Winnebago makes most all of its own parts.  From the pillows and covers to metal frames and plastic formed body parts and wood cabinets (most all from raw materials).  They buy the chassis from different manufactures but do all the motorhome assembly.  They take about 6-10 weeks from start to finish to put together the 3000 parts.

The man who made Winnebago it's name.  He had his customers figured out.

This is the inside of a new RV.  Bigger then apartments I've had.

I stopped at a Jiffy Lube the other day for an oil change.  There were a couple of younger guys helping with the service.  One told me the brake lights on the top back of the RV didn't work.  I don't think they'd seen a vehicle without a center break light.  Those were just running lights.  The other kid tried to start the RV after they finished.  It kept turning over and the older guy finally yelled at him to step on the gas.  I don't think he had every started a car with a carburetor instead of electronic fuel injection.  Another thing I noticed was that my RV model is a "Chieftain". Winnebago is from the local indians and in 1986 it was still okay to use indian names.  I guess I'm getting old along with the RV.


The next big attraction was the SPAM museum!  Hormel Foods, the maker of spam started in Austin, Minnesota.  Here's what I learnd.  Spam is pork, ham, salt, water,modified potato starch, sugar and sodium nitrite.  It's all mixed up raw and put in the can.  It's sealed under a vacuum and then cooked in the can.  They have 11 varities now.  At the two plants in the US they can produce 44,000 cans an hour.  The process 19,000 hogs a day.  It take 45 miles of labels to cover a days production.  So far they have made 8.6 billion cans of Spam.

Who's the SPAM?

Where SPAM comes from on the pig.

SPAM delivery guy.

I will have to say it made me think about processed food after coming off the farm.  On the farm all the meat is from animals with names raised on site.  One pig one bacon.  Who knows how many different pigs are in one can of Spam.

On a slightly different note I listened to a radio program during the drive.  It was talking about the german scientist Haber who invented the process to "fix" nitrogen from the air for fertilizer.  Before this all the fertilized came from natural sources like manure and guano.  One disturbing thing was that they have estimated that 50% of the nitrogen in our bodies is from man made fertilizer.


The last stop for the day was the Mall of America.  It's the second largest retail space in the county with 530 shops.  It is over 4,000,000 square feet with an amusement park in the middle complete with a roller coaster and aquarium.  It employees 12,000 people with 40 million visitors annually.  The mall would cover two 40 acre farms.  It could hold 7 Yankee stadiums.

The park in the center of the mall.

It's hard to tell from the photo but that's a two story Lego transformer and 1/2 size helicopter.  All made of Legos.

I didn't buy anything.

June by the Numbers

This is Walter. He was rescued from a Walmart parking lot. Seems he came shopping underneath someone's car and made a break for it. He now lives on the farm. 

June brought a quick trip to the east coast. I made a quick road trip to New York for my mothers 75th birthday party. She was surprised and happy to see me. Family and friends came and it was a nice little reunion. 

Along the way I stopped in Ohio and dropped off the rocks I picked up in Utah. I won't make it to see them planted in Key Largo but I do hope to get down there to see them in the water. 

Time on the farm has been a rewarding, challenging, eventful experience.  I'm taking a break and heading back to Seattle.  Time to work, build up the savings account and catch up with Seattle. 

With the miles driven this month I have now done enough in one year to drive around the earth!

June:

Miles Driven: 2579

Gallons of gas: 367

Cost of Gas: $1377

Camping Fees: $170

Food: $135

Rocks: 1000 lbs delivered to Ohio!

Trip to Date ( May - June)

Miles driven: 25,914

Gallons of gas: 3511

Cost of gas: $13,434

Camping fees: $4,140

States: 39

Days worked: 6 (as a PA)

Days missing work: 0

Time under water: 9 hours 36 minutes

Times crossed the continental divide:  3

earth circumstance: 24,901 miles

May by the Numbers

When I was recently traveling out west I came across an old Indian Site. I may have mentioned this before but one of the trail side signs talked about "Persistance Place".  A location that the people would return to frequently or occupy regularly. It was usually a location that had many of the resources that met their needs. It would seem I've found some persistance here on the farm and no need to move around this month. 

May:

Miles Driven: 0

Gallons of gas: 0

Cost of Gas: $0

Camping Fees: $0

Food: $184

Rocks: A whole lot picked out of the garden.

Trip to Date ( May - May)

Miles driven: 22,011

Gallons of gas: 2,935

Cost of gas: $11,313

Camping fees: $3,912

States: 38 

Days worked: 6 (as a PA)

Days missing work: 0

Time under water: 9 hours 36 minutes

Times across the continental divide:  3

Always some interesting clouds and weather. The farm is on a hill facing SW and oncoming storms. While its relatively hilly it's not to far to Oklahoma, Nebraska and tornado ally so lots of thunder storms rolling through. 

Bee Time

The other day we were out working in the garden and I looked over to the horses and saw a large swam of insects. Turns out it wasn't just any insects but a swam of honey bees from the hive in the garden. We had added another box to the hive only last week and had noticed there were tons of bees crowded in the box. Seems in the spring time with a healthy thriving colony they are increase in numbers, run out of room, and so start making new queens. The old queen takes off with a bunch of the bees to start a new hive. The swam is the bees way to find a new home. They moved in cloud of buzzing for about 20 minutes and started settling on a branch about 50' up in a tree. The queen picks a spot to camp out with the group while the scout bees go and look for a new home. After consulting with the family bee keeper and some books/internet we decided to try and "capture" the swam and make a new hive.

A little hard to see but the bees are starting to form a mass.

 There was a new box ready to go from a colony that hadn't survive last years drought. One problem was how to get them out of the tree? To high to reach with a ladder. So by standing on top of the horse trailer and multiple attempts with the brick tied to the end of a rope (and tried the arrow on a string trick) we got a line over the branch they had lighted on. The mass of bees was about as big as a good size watermelon. The tree wouldn't bend enough to bring them closer to the ground so I shook the branch enough to get them to take flight again.

That's a lot of bees flying around!

One good thing is the bees are not aggressive when they are swarming even though they look and sound intimidating. Off they went again in a cloud of buzz. This time they stopped in a different smaller tree closer to the ground.

If the swam had happened while we were on a different part of the farm or a day when everyone was gone they would have taken off and no one would have known. Looking at the original hive there were still lots of bees left and ones in the swam wouldn't have been missed.

A comb from the original hive after the swarm.

In the new tree they were now almost accessible from a ladder but to far out on a branch. I cut the limbs out from below them and with an extension ladder could reach the one they were on. I got a rope up and over a higher brach and tied it to the bee limb. With one person on the ground holding tension on the rope and another with a box below the bees I slowly cut through the branch. As is started to give way tension on the rope controlled the branch and slowly lowered it to the waiting contained below. A quick cut of the small branch they hung on and we had them contained.

Just about captured!

The mass of bees surrounding their queen stayed mostly intact with only a few flying around. Spraying the bees with sugar water kept them happy and branch and all they went into the waiting new hive.  The new hive box which had a pollen patty and more sugar water to help entice them to make this their new home.

First Swarm in it's new home.

10 days later the new colony has stayed put and seems to be doing fine.

Then yesterday the original hive swarmed again!  Still mostly taken as a sign of a healthy colony the "Afterswarm" is usually a smaller mass of bees accompanied by one or more new virgin queens also looking to start a new hive.  Luckily this time they stopped on a low hanging branch next to an open space in the yard. In about an hour we had them captured and in box. Time will tell if they like it and stay. It was still amazing to see it again.

The Afterswarm

Bee note:  When the bees are swarming they are reported to be the most docile.  The are full of food and with no hive to protect they are not aggressive (even after I shook them out of a tree).  Over the years I had become more allergic after having been stung a few times.  I have an EpiPen just in case.  But no one was stung during the captures.

A Year Later

A year ago today (May 21, 2012) is the day I left Seattle and started this journey. Many things occurred that led up to that day and the opportunity for it to happen.  Some good things and some not so good things.  I still feel lucky to have the chance to be out here traveling. Before I left I said I could be gone three months to three years.  The first months went fast and now looking back so did the first year.  I didn't have a hugh agenda but I did accomplish some goals. I wanted some time off. Check. I wanted to  go out to Cape Cod. Check.  I wanted to kayak on the coast of Maine and see the Florida Keys. Check and Check. I wanted to live in a RV.  Check.  Many unplanned and unforeseen adventures had in-between.  I am a little poorer in cash but far richer in memories and experience.

I spent the day going through all the pictures I've taken.  If I had to pick one that sums up the year it's from being on the rock farm in Key Largo.  By random connections of time, location and people I ended up carrying buckets of rocks along the ocean floor 4 miles out to sea and 3500 miles from Seattle.  You just never know where life will take you.

 Of the places I've visited near the top goes to hiking the Knife Edge on Mt. Katahdin (the end of the Appalachian Trail in Maine).  It was one of the most amazing, strenuous, rewarding hikes/climbs I've done.  Nothing focuses your attention like 2000 feet of exposure.

A very close second goes to Angels Landing in Zion National Park.  An awe inspiring place.

  The RV feels like home and home is where I park it. I have almost everything I need in 160 sq ft of space.  There is something about being able to move one's home around on the road.  Others that have done this before me have said you'll know when it's time to get off the road.  I'm going with the saying."  Everything will be okay in the end.  If it's not okay, it's not the end."