Upon arriving at my friend Carol's house in West Lafayette, Indiana, Doug went out to the car to bring in a few things. I stopped my conversation with Carol to call out, "Remember to be careful! Don't forget the hummingbird!" Carol had a puzzled expression on her face. I told her that our aging Prius had a new problem. When you pull up on the back hatch, part if it wants to come off in your hand, only being held on by the wires. I have put a sticker of a hummingbird to remind us to press the button and lift gently when we see the hummingbird, and then lift the hatch from the bottom. The sticker was to remind us to not do any more harm to our poor car.
When we left on our trip after retiring from our "jobs" on April 22nd, 2013, it was to be a two week trip. We packed for 2 or 3 weeks: for our pills, (since we're over 60), and for warm weather since we were just heading south, in California.
In order to take this trip, the first thing to do was to get a new air conditioner. It stopped working last winter, and it was an expensive job. We put it off till now, when it was really needed. It had come down to: take this trip by flying to a destination and then renting a car, or buying a NEW Prius, or fixing the air conditioner. In the interest of being frugal with our limited retirement income, the latter was chosen. Our Prius had transported us through several trips, some camping and some not. We voted to extend its life. It turns out that the air conditioner hadn't died of natural causes, but with an injury (probably from a rock), and it had a huge hole..... so it wasn't it's fault.
We had our sleeping bags cleaned at a drycleaner, and bought a new 39" wide futon that fit perfectly as our bed, tossed out expired camp supplies and refurbished them.
From the beginning, my husband Doug loved the new car because it had the potential of being a camper. The year before, the '03, which I had promoted to him, didn't have that feature. But, what do you know! The 2004 had a larger capacity, to have a 6' 5" sleeping area. Since Doug is 6'3", it works out. One just has to get over the enclosed coffin-like feeling. (Only kidding.)
My joke about us, is that in the morning, our fellow campers, seeing us stick our legs out the side and slither out of our Prius "RV", think that the Prius is giving birth!
The first leg of our journey was to Morro Bay and the big Morro Rock, a place that Doug has been attracted to for the last few years. It seemed like a good start to our retirement trip. We camped near the shore of Morro Bay, and were entertained by a lovely great blue heron that posed for us in our campsite. Excited about a new journey, we planned our two week vacation to Palm Springs, Vegas and maybe the Grand Canyon. We took a tour of Hoover Dam, but couldn't go to the Grand Canyon via the north rim since it was closed, so we continued on to Zion National Park, where we camped for only $11.00 a night on the senior pass, for four nights. We saw the sights, but were invaded by sneaky caterpillars in our campsite. They showed up in the strangest places!
Then we went on to Monument and Arches Park
This time, instead of using paper maps as in the past, we relied on our iPhones for directions. We brought an atlas that we got for free from AAA for the bigger picture, but we've found that if we want to find the directions to our next destination, we just go to the map icon on our phone. All we have to do is, put in the desired destination.... say we'd like to know the route from our current address, and we see the little blue ball that is our car on one of three possible routes that we can choose from. We usually choose number one, and then press "start" and it gives us directions in green signs like you see on the freeway.
Another thing we check on the iPhone is the weather. We found an app on the iPhone called "My Radar", that makes Doug, our "navigator extraordinaire", a meteorologist..... even MORE extraordinary! He plans our trip according to altitude, length, and climate. Thus, instead of visiting the northern rim of the Grand Canyon, which we found was closed, he had the idea to extend our trip to visit his old friend from high school, Phil, who lives in Colorado. We found that Phil and Karen were home, so we did.
That's why our two week trip was extended. We had to navigate the altitude though. Doug started to feel altitude sickness part way up the mountains, and told me we should turn around because he thought he was "blacking out". Startled, I backtracked, while he looked some things up on Google, about altitude sickness. It was said that a person suffering from altitude sickness should drink plenty of water, not alcohol, and that for a man, Viagra would help with symptoms. Doug called his friend, a medical doctor to confirm this, who said that he had prescribed that pill to many people who were climbing in the Himalayas! It was true.
Doug had one pill left, and measured out each mountain peak's altitude at it's pass via iPhone. We cautiously went forward, avoiding any high pass, with much joking going on.... Finally arriving at our friend's home in Boulder, all intact, we both had a good sleep.
We stayed with our friends, visiting, cooking and eating together, and taking the time to do laundry. I got a pedicure, Doug got to golf with his friend, and we pampered the Prius by getting it new tires.
It seems it was time to leave, but it didn't seem like it was time to go home. Doug said "I wonder if your friend Carol from high school is home in Indiana?" She was. .....and furthermore she and her husband were happy to have us stay with them even though we had been there only six months before.
Soon after we left Colorado, the back hatch of the Prius started having it's problems. The other remedy was a piece of blue duct tape, to hold the piece on to the car. This also reminded me of my husband's daughter speaking derogatorily about his remedy of the new wooden bumper he had put on a family car.... The crowning touch, is that Doug had an idea at our campground in New Jersey and ended up drilling a hole through the car part, screwing the part on, and deleting the use of tape. It actually works pretty well, and we don't have to buy a new, expensive part. It's not quite as bad as a wooden bumper.
So far the car has gotten us over 6000 miles. We've meandered around, from Indiana, to Flint, Michigan to see Doug's family home once more, camping in Canada, and then to Niagara Falls, ..... to New Hampshire, to eat lobsters with Doug's brother-in-law, Steve, to Brooklyn to visit my kids, Jennie and Lucas, (the car got it's first ticket in Brooklyn for parking).... to Boston to see an old friend, to Maryland to stay with other relatives.... All along, we were led by the maps on our phone, and also the Yelp app, that told us where to find a restaurant, a pedicure, or an oil change.... the Hotels.com app that found us an hotel for when it was either too hot or raining, Reservations America app that found us a campsite, while we paid all our bills on Bank of America's online site, We even found a Catholic church to go to every Sunday on Masstimes.org!
Each time we need to find an hotel, we find a reasonably priced one on the Hotels.com mobile site. We read all the reviews of the less expensive ones, and if they say "Horrible!" or " smelly" or "noisy and dirty", we go on to the next one. Not too picky generally, (I'm usually pleased if the maid has folded the washcloths into a fan, and made the end of the toilet paper into a point). We do have some standards. It turns out that if you make your reservations from the phone app, there are many discounts. Tonight we're staying in Middletown, R.I., near Newport for $69., including breakfast and internet! We will have to camp soon, though, to keep on budget!
All the way while driving, we've used a little contraption that my daughter gave us that plugs into the "cigarette lighter". and plays iTunes or Pandora Radio from our phones on the car's speakers. Between Indiana and New Hampshire, we listened to Beatles and Creedence Clearwater, and between New York and Connecticut we figured out there was a comedy channel on Pandora. Amazing what you can get for free!
What a different world it is... even since we first got our Prius in 2004! We still sleep in it. That's the good thing! We still camp in our car.... and people are still surprised....but we love it, and it's still cozy. Today it got an oil change in Connecticut. Much deserved.
The thing is, we get around in it by satellite gps now. .... not so much by the maps. They always know where we are. We could be out in the boonies, and want to know where the nearest gas station is, and we can see on the map on our phone.... our little blue dot will travel on the route and guide us to that station! The only thing is.....our GPS system doesn't have an English woman's accent. Doug is our GPS, along with the phone. Every so often, though, he has to say "recalculating".
When we left on our trip after retiring from our "jobs" on April 22nd, 2013, it was to be a two week trip. We packed for 2 or 3 weeks: for our pills, (since we're over 60), and for warm weather since we were just heading south, in California.
In order to take this trip, the first thing to do was to get a new air conditioner. It stopped working last winter, and it was an expensive job. We put it off till now, when it was really needed. It had come down to: take this trip by flying to a destination and then renting a car, or buying a NEW Prius, or fixing the air conditioner. In the interest of being frugal with our limited retirement income, the latter was chosen. Our Prius had transported us through several trips, some camping and some not. We voted to extend its life. It turns out that the air conditioner hadn't died of natural causes, but with an injury (probably from a rock), and it had a huge hole..... so it wasn't it's fault.
We had our sleeping bags cleaned at a drycleaner, and bought a new 39" wide futon that fit perfectly as our bed, tossed out expired camp supplies and refurbished them.
From the beginning, my husband Doug loved the new car because it had the potential of being a camper. The year before, the '03, which I had promoted to him, didn't have that feature. But, what do you know! The 2004 had a larger capacity, to have a 6' 5" sleeping area. Since Doug is 6'3", it works out. One just has to get over the enclosed coffin-like feeling. (Only kidding.)
My joke about us, is that in the morning, our fellow campers, seeing us stick our legs out the side and slither out of our Prius "RV", think that the Prius is giving birth!
The first leg of our journey was to Morro Bay and the big Morro Rock, a place that Doug has been attracted to for the last few years. It seemed like a good start to our retirement trip. We camped near the shore of Morro Bay, and were entertained by a lovely great blue heron that posed for us in our campsite. Excited about a new journey, we planned our two week vacation to Palm Springs, Vegas and maybe the Grand Canyon. We took a tour of Hoover Dam, but couldn't go to the Grand Canyon via the north rim since it was closed, so we continued on to Zion National Park, where we camped for only $11.00 a night on the senior pass, for four nights. We saw the sights, but were invaded by sneaky caterpillars in our campsite. They showed up in the strangest places!
Then we went on to Monument and Arches Park
This time, instead of using paper maps as in the past, we relied on our iPhones for directions. We brought an atlas that we got for free from AAA for the bigger picture, but we've found that if we want to find the directions to our next destination, we just go to the map icon on our phone. All we have to do is, put in the desired destination.... say we'd like to know the route from our current address, and we see the little blue ball that is our car on one of three possible routes that we can choose from. We usually choose number one, and then press "start" and it gives us directions in green signs like you see on the freeway.
Another thing we check on the iPhone is the weather. We found an app on the iPhone called "My Radar", that makes Doug, our "navigator extraordinaire", a meteorologist..... even MORE extraordinary! He plans our trip according to altitude, length, and climate. Thus, instead of visiting the northern rim of the Grand Canyon, which we found was closed, he had the idea to extend our trip to visit his old friend from high school, Phil, who lives in Colorado. We found that Phil and Karen were home, so we did.
That's why our two week trip was extended. We had to navigate the altitude though. Doug started to feel altitude sickness part way up the mountains, and told me we should turn around because he thought he was "blacking out". Startled, I backtracked, while he looked some things up on Google, about altitude sickness. It was said that a person suffering from altitude sickness should drink plenty of water, not alcohol, and that for a man, Viagra would help with symptoms. Doug called his friend, a medical doctor to confirm this, who said that he had prescribed that pill to many people who were climbing in the Himalayas! It was true.
Doug had one pill left, and measured out each mountain peak's altitude at it's pass via iPhone. We cautiously went forward, avoiding any high pass, with much joking going on.... Finally arriving at our friend's home in Boulder, all intact, we both had a good sleep.
We stayed with our friends, visiting, cooking and eating together, and taking the time to do laundry. I got a pedicure, Doug got to golf with his friend, and we pampered the Prius by getting it new tires.
It seems it was time to leave, but it didn't seem like it was time to go home. Doug said "I wonder if your friend Carol from high school is home in Indiana?" She was. .....and furthermore she and her husband were happy to have us stay with them even though we had been there only six months before.
Soon after we left Colorado, the back hatch of the Prius started having it's problems. The other remedy was a piece of blue duct tape, to hold the piece on to the car. This also reminded me of my husband's daughter speaking derogatorily about his remedy of the new wooden bumper he had put on a family car.... The crowning touch, is that Doug had an idea at our campground in New Jersey and ended up drilling a hole through the car part, screwing the part on, and deleting the use of tape. It actually works pretty well, and we don't have to buy a new, expensive part. It's not quite as bad as a wooden bumper.
So far the car has gotten us over 6000 miles. We've meandered around, from Indiana, to Flint, Michigan to see Doug's family home once more, camping in Canada, and then to Niagara Falls, ..... to New Hampshire, to eat lobsters with Doug's brother-in-law, Steve, to Brooklyn to visit my kids, Jennie and Lucas, (the car got it's first ticket in Brooklyn for parking).... to Boston to see an old friend, to Maryland to stay with other relatives.... All along, we were led by the maps on our phone, and also the Yelp app, that told us where to find a restaurant, a pedicure, or an oil change.... the Hotels.com app that found us an hotel for when it was either too hot or raining, Reservations America app that found us a campsite, while we paid all our bills on Bank of America's online site, We even found a Catholic church to go to every Sunday on Masstimes.org!
Each time we need to find an hotel, we find a reasonably priced one on the Hotels.com mobile site. We read all the reviews of the less expensive ones, and if they say "Horrible!" or " smelly" or "noisy and dirty", we go on to the next one. Not too picky generally, (I'm usually pleased if the maid has folded the washcloths into a fan, and made the end of the toilet paper into a point). We do have some standards. It turns out that if you make your reservations from the phone app, there are many discounts. Tonight we're staying in Middletown, R.I., near Newport for $69., including breakfast and internet! We will have to camp soon, though, to keep on budget!
All the way while driving, we've used a little contraption that my daughter gave us that plugs into the "cigarette lighter". and plays iTunes or Pandora Radio from our phones on the car's speakers. Between Indiana and New Hampshire, we listened to Beatles and Creedence Clearwater, and between New York and Connecticut we figured out there was a comedy channel on Pandora. Amazing what you can get for free!
What a different world it is... even since we first got our Prius in 2004! We still sleep in it. That's the good thing! We still camp in our car.... and people are still surprised....but we love it, and it's still cozy. Today it got an oil change in Connecticut. Much deserved.
The thing is, we get around in it by satellite gps now. .... not so much by the maps. They always know where we are. We could be out in the boonies, and want to know where the nearest gas station is, and we can see on the map on our phone.... our little blue dot will travel on the route and guide us to that station! The only thing is.....our GPS system doesn't have an English woman's accent. Doug is our GPS, along with the phone. Every so often, though, he has to say "recalculating".
Hey Pat . . . you are a regular travelogue and a bit of comedian to boot!! Again . . . your narrative is superb. And I'm pleased to hear how your stories get so many reads. I'm leaving my self on a 6 week road trip on Wed 3 July as I love traveling America just like you.
ReplyDeleteGary . . . Fort Myers