So you think RVing is all fun and good times?

 Verde Valley Fairgrounds, Cottonwood, AZ - 2-9 to 2-16-2026

Where we have been since the last post.

I was grousing the other day about old age and not being able to do as much as I used to. EJ, the more insightful half of this traveling duo, mulled this over for a bit. She told me to stop feeling sorry for myself and started naming all of the repairs I had made on Miss Mosey since we left our Florida hideaway in July of 2025.

Grudgingly, I had to admit, well yes, there was still some ability left in this old body and agreed that I can still do "stuff". I may have even puffed out my chest a little bit.

So usually the repair planning begins with "I'll just hire someone to fix that". But as most of you handy people know, very few shops will make repairs that meet your standards. Sure they fix stuff, but something doesn't get cleaned up the way I like or they didn't fix it they way I would have. So, as hard as it is, I just have to look the other way and just be glad that it got fixed.

After mulling a project over for several days or a week, I begin to think I may as well do it myself because a) the repair shop is too far away, b) it'll be too expensive and c) Gabby doesn't like strangers in her house (Miss Mosey).

Now most of you think that Miss Mosey is a pristine "home on wheels" that never needs any repairs. As pretty as she is we are diligent about making sure is well taken care of. Having said that, she is approaching her 15th birthday, and just like us humans, stuff starts needing to be replaced and cosmetic issues need to be handled to keep her in like new condition.

So here is the list of things done for Miss Mosey that EJ compiled as I was feeling sorry for myself.

1) A new alternator.

2) A  new ventilation fan.

3) A new ice maker.

4) Fixed a bad connection in the solar system.

5) A new bathroom faucet. Gabby approved.

6) New caulk around backsplash for bathroom sink.

7) New window awning strap.

8) Reattach a wood strip next to a cabinet.

9) Replace a bushing for the entry steps.

10) New bathroom window screen.

11) New pair of 50 pound 900 CCA engine batteries.

So EJ convinced me that I wasn't quite to the old and decrepit stage, yet. But, as you can see, life on the road isn't all fun and good times. There's work that has to be done too.

Obligatory cat picture follows...

Reflections on a rainy day...

Plomosa Road, Quartzsite Arizona - 11-18 to 11-23

Over the last year or so, a lot of our conversations start like this. "Where do you want to go next?" " I don't know, how about you?" "I don't know either, I pretty comfortable right here." "Me too."

We've been doing the RV thing pretty consistently since 2010. Our initial forays lasting 6 to 9 months a year and now we are fulltiming.   Before that we camped in tents, had several VW campers and even a Roadtrek Class B.

Back when I was working for the city of Jacksonville, I would save up my vacation so EJ and I could spend 3 weeks in the Florida Keys at Christmas time. We used to go to Gieger Key Marina when it was still a fish camp.

While in the Keys we would visit Key West. Back then Mallory's Dock was a wooden dock (now it's a giant concrete stucture) and cruise ships were not allowed to remain at the dock. They had to sail off so all us poor folk could watch the sun set and maybe see the green flash.

We've been to Yosemite, Yellowstone, Cedar Breaks, Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, Rocky Mountain, Smokey Mountain and many more National Parks.  We've visited 9 Canadian Provinces and have been to Alaska 3 times (Chartered a yacht once and drove twice).

We have visited most of the United States and seen the highlights of most of those states including our nation's capitol.

Having said all that, we are thankful we were able to visit so many wonderful places when we did. These places have now been "discovered" and are overrun with tourists. You want to take a hike at Zion? Stand in line. Want to see Old Faithful erupt? Join the masses. Want to visit Arches NP? Buy an entry ticket.

When we visited these places, none of this was necessary. Heck, you didn't even need a reservation to camp. Now, we no longer have any desire to visit any of these locations listed above (except maybe Alaska, leaving the door open on that one) because of the crowds. They have become so popular that there is no longer any peace and serenity to be had. Everywhere you go, you have to contend with all the tourists.

So our focus has changed. We try to find the 'off the beaten path' places. 

The common theme in the above pictures? Not another soul in sight. This is what we look for. Peace, quiet and God's nature. No crowds.

To continue on with the thought in the original paragraph, we have seen so much of our country (and Canada too), that it doesn't leave us with any place we feel we really must go. So we pick an area of the country and just go exploring. You never know what you may find. We find we go back to quite a few of the places we have already visited, because they are comforting to us. 

At this stage in our lives tranquility, a good view and few close friends are all we need.

Obligatory cat picture follows...

Newfoundland to FnEJ's Hideaway

North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Branford, FL-Sept 2, 2024 to Sept 22, 2024

Our trip to Newfoundland ended all to soon (because we were enjoying our stay so much), but health issues compelled us to depart as quickly as possible. Escaping Newfoundland was complicated by the fact that for a 36 foot motorhome, the only way off the island is by ferry.  And at this time of year available space on the ferry was virtually nonexistent.  

We were having such a good time that we originally extended our stay by two weeks. Then after the health issues arose, we attempted to get a reservation on the ferry so we could depart as soon as possible. Well, that wasn't gonna happen. So, from August 16 to Sept 1, we were stuck on the island.

But, not accept defeat and just hole up somewhere, we decided to avail ourselves of the Canadian Health System. That was a real experience. The Canadians have no concept of private insurance or self pay. If you don't have a Canadian Health Card, you are out of luck. No clinic (their version of our Doc in the Box) or doctor will even talk to you. We finally discovered that if you go to the Emergency Room at the hospital instead of trying to see the appropriate doctor, you can get treated. They will accept cash payment.

Once we got that all squared away, we still had to wait for September 1 to arrive so we could get back to the USA and begin our journey back to Florida to see our doctor.

Poor EJ experienced rapid onset vitritis, which is inflammation of the vitreous jelly in the eyeball.  This causes pain, blurry vision and extreme sensitivity to light. Doctors have no idea what causes it, or more accurately, it could caused by hundreds of different things of which they have no way of pinpointing the actual source. But they do know how to fix it. Prednisone eye drops reduces the inflammation and eventually stops it. And it could come back in the future. But now we know how to treat it.

So suffice it to stay, the last month of our Great 2024 Adventure was not a lot of fun for EJ.

For the folks who were wondering at our rapid pace (for us) to get back to Florida, that's why.

Obligatory cat picture follows:

Let's Just Call It Atmospheric Mist?

 St. Mary's First Falls Park - July 13 to 19, 2024

The foggiest place in Canada is Argentia. For the last week, well 6 days really, we have been located 32 miles from there as the crow flies. Why are we here? The reason is, so far this year, St. Vincent's Beach which is about 20 minutes from our camp site, has been the hot spot for whale watching. To give you a feel for our current location, below is a map of Newfoundland where the red icon (mark) shows our location.

This next picture is an enlargement of the Avalon Peninsula, which is the focus of this weeks exploration.

The first day we arrived we saw a little fog in the distance, behind Miss Mosey. It's nothing to worry about, right? Without the fog you can see houses on the other side of the inlet. That didn't happen very often.

So the next day, we pack our picnic lunch, wine, and beach chairs and head St. Vincent's Beach to go whale hunting. The day was overcast, but otherwise quite pleasant. What makes this location so special is that the water gets real deep just off shore, allowing the whales to get very close to you.

The whales were having a great time feeding on Capelin. Think of Capelin as sardines on steroids. The whales love them. And if the Capelin get close to shore the Newfoundlanders scoop them up by the bucketful as they consider them to be a great delicacy. 

We are so glad we got to see the whales playing that day because the weather gods had other plans. Over the next few days this is what we got to see.

And yeah, that's a big Class "C" we're following. You can almost see it!

In spite of the fog we continued to whale hunt. Ever hopeful the sun would conquer the fog, we would visit the beach. You could hear the eerie sounds of the the whales blowing as they surfaced, their nebulous forms like apparitions in the mist. No good for pictures but fun none the less. Using my 3 or 4 generations old Samsung phone I attempted to video Ganets (kinda like seagulls only bigger) diving headfirst into the water to catch those delicious Capelins. 

Obligatory cat picture follows....

Headed off to bed with her blanket.

Vikings

 Pistolet Bay Provincial Park - June 4 to June 14, 2024

I think most of us were taught in grade school that "In fourteen hundred and ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue" and discovered America. Since that time there have been plenty of archeological finds proving the Vikings were here long before Columbus. They just didn't stick around. One of the sites proving the Vikings were here first is L'Ance aux Meadows, which is about a 30 minute drive from where we are parked.

As part of our preparations to visit L'Ance aux Meadows we check cruisemapper.com. Yep, no cruise ships due at any of the local ports, we are good to go! I wish I could find a similar web site for tour busses. I don't begrudge any of the folks that choose to travel this way, it's just that they overwhelm whatever they visit. How can you enjoy a site when there are 50 to several hundred other people jockeying for position to see whatever there is to see. It's just best to avoid them if you can. That way you can stop and embrace the essence of the location. 

L'Ance aux Meadows is where the Vikings, or Norsemen, established a settlement in about 1000 AD. Archeologists say that this was not a permanent settlement but was sporadically occupied between a period of 20 and a 100 years. Remains of the village suggest that this was used as a boat repairing facility and a staging area for explorations that ranged further inland and further south.

Our excursion to the Viking settlement began with a slight diversion. We are always on the lookout for a good boondocking site. We found a gravel road that went around a corner hiding what lay beyond and piquing our interest. Hoping it might be a good site to camp, we went to investigate, and found our second fox. As usual, we were both so stunned by the appearance of a fox headed straight for us, that neither of us thought to take a picture until it was headed away.

We finally arrived at the Viking site where EJ is greeted by the inhabitants.

On the walkway to the Viking structures we passed through this. It is an artists vision representing the meeting of two worlds. Beats me how they get that out of it. If you squint really really hard the object on the left might represent a Viking sail. The object on the right, I got no clue! And in the middle, "Oh look, another iceberg!".

Eventually we arrive at the Viking village. There is a long house, a blacksmith shop and several others.

And it's not crowded. Just the way we like it.

Of course on the way out, we had to find a geocache and ended up here.

And to close out our adventure, the fog starts to roll in. That happens a lot up here.

Obligatory cat picture follows...

Bergs

 Pistolet Bay Provincial Park (CG) - June 4 to June 14, 2024

We are about as far north as you can get on the island of Newfoundland. Oh sure, there's the Quirpon Lighthouse Inn with it's lighthouse next door, which is even further north, but Miss Mosey doesn't float or fly and those are the only two ways to get there.

In spite of all the assurances we have gotten, we have discovered that boondocking spots for bigger RVs are very limited. We've searched and scouted and found some that were in beautiful locations, but access was by a big drop off, or skinny little 2 track paths. So the next best thing was this Provincial Park. No hookups, but there is water available and there is a dump station for taking care of business.

The drawback to the Park is that it is down about 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) of patch work road. Repairs on top of repairs along with the occasional whoop de do (sudden dip) that will surprise you if you're not paying attention. It appears that rather repave roads, they just patch over and over again. Don't get me wrong, we are thankful for what pavement there is. And so is Miss Mosey.

Back a couple of months ago we were debating on whether to go to the St. Johns area which is where in years past most of the iceberg activity seems to have taken place or to travel to Saint Anthony which is lesser known and not as well traveled. St. Johns is a very touristy spot with an international airport and lots of accommodations and attractions for those tourists. Saint Anthony, on the other hand, is harder to get to, requires a long drive, and has few accommodations and fewer restaurants.

To our readers who know our dislike for crowds, it should come as no surprise that we chose Saint Anthony. And it is a good thing we did. This year the winds and currents have conspired to give the greater northern peninsula area near Saint Anthony an abundance of icebergs while sending hardly any to the St. Johns area. Lady Luck was definitely smiling upon us. This is simply a sample of what we saw.

 It seemed as though almost everywhere we looked, there was an iceberg. And according to the latest iceberg map, there is another big batch headed our way. Excuse us while we pat ourselves on the back. Just joking, but since we don't really have a schedule we extended our stay here to catch all the bergs we can.

Obligatory cat picture follows...