The Summer ""Lily Pad" is open!

We had the opportunity to get a deck at the summer campsite. This is a 30 foot travel trailer which we call "the cabin."  It's on a partially shaded site at a nice pond. G likes to call it "one of our lily pads."  Will we be at this site in a few years? Probably, but we do have the option of moving it to another locale if we choose.

Today I finished putting the deck together, got the stairs in and also the new firepit. We're ready for summer!

I'm mentioned in other posts that our approach to "full timing" is a modified one. We use the Roadtrek to go to National Parks and to see things all over the U.S. With the Roadtrek 210P we can go just about everywhere a car can go.  Think of it as a portable motel room.

But living full time in a 21 ft Class B can be a challenge. We've done it for up to 110 days when the weather was dry and comfortable.   We've done shorter winter treks and camping in the winter can be challenging. I've posted about that before.  We'd like to use this lily pad to explore more of MI, the Upper Peninsula. I'd also like to go back to Quetico.

One of our neighbors, the piney squirrel. He or she is back too:

Evening at the lakeshore. We walked to the lake from our cabin. A few tried to fly kites yesterday evening, but it was too calm (that is a kite to the right of the tree, at the water line):

We spotted a heron in a nearby tree:

The barn swallows are nesting. This one took a brief rest. Pregnant?:

Currently it is very quiet at the lakefront. This will soon change:

Original material:  https://roadtrek210.blogspot.com/

A Piney Squirrel Neighbor

Our summer location has had a bumper crop of pine cones this year. With them came a piney squirrel. That little critter would sit high in the tree and cut loose green pine cones. At about 6am each morning we'd be greeted with a constant "thump, thump, thump" as the squirrel jumped from branch to branch cutting lose pine cones. There was also the occasional "thwack" as a cone hit the AC.

I'd go up on the roof and clear off the sticky cones, loaded with pine sap. The trees are finally barren of green cones and the sap is reduced.  The pace of cone dropping has moderated, but I've got quite a few piles on the ground.

I've added a few photos and a short video. That squirrel can strip a cone in 30 seconds or less. Thanks to his activities, we also have quite a few black capped chickadees and other birds hanging around, picking through the leftovers.

The "roof" is not that of the Roadtrek, thank heaven. It is a travel trailer on our summer "base camp" in Michigan. That base will shortly be shut down and we'll be Roadtrekking toward the southwest. Any plans for FL and the Florida Keys are now on hold pending the outcome of the recovery after this year's hurricane season.

Our longest trek to date. Almost 6,000 miles

We are almost "full timers" but we cheat because we have a 5th wheel in Tucson and a 30 ft. TT in Michigan. Our Roadtrek 210P is our exploration vehicle.

We left for the west in November and returned at the end of April. Our most recent trek of 5+ months has ended. Total actual miles 5,948. Planned distance 5,671. The other miles were side trips, miscellaneous excursions, maintenance (changed the engine oil in Tucson, replaced the coach batteries (at 4.5 years), etc.). We stayed at multiple locations ranging from Tucson, AZ to Fredericksburg, TX to Baton Rouge, LA  and continuing to the west coast of Florida and then to the Florida Keys. Some stops were much longer than others. I prefer to spend at least two nights in each location, but we sometimes spend only one if we are going for distance.

Once we find a great locale we may stay for weeks, or months.

Some days we may only travel a couple of hundred miles. On others we may go as far as 713 miles, which was the maximum distance on one day for this trek. We simply wanted to get from point A to point B.

The trip was not without a few mishaps. No real issues with the 210P, but people sometimes break.

We are "almost" full timers; we could have delayed our "return" by three days and gone directly to our summer site in Michigan. But we didn't. Instead we went to "home base #1" No issues of any significance with our 2013 210P on this trek, but I did take the opportunity to replace the coach batteries which were nearing 5 years of age and not able to provide the desired capacity.

Current odometer mileage 25,698.

The above is a mileage history for one period for this trek. The data is from my Verizon Hum, which monitors the vehicle vitals via the OBD port as well as GPS. In general, I guess the data is accurate. I assume the high speed was achieved going downhill because I generally drive the speed limit. For much of the interstate travel that was posted at 70 MPH, but there were segments posted at 75, 80 and 85. My preference is speed limit to 5 MPH under if conditions are good. However, it seems that more than a few travellers prefer 5  to 10 MPH over the posted speed limit. Traveling on four lane interstates can get interesting (two lanes each direction). One can stay in the right lane and attempt to dodge those entering who apparently don't understand how to merge, or one can move to the second lane and be pushed down the road. However, the further west we go the easier it gets, until one hits CA that is, Then all bets are off.

Here is a longer term history summary for this trek:

We had a great time. But we did have a few advantages. For one, we have an automobile stored in AZ. That allows us to do a lot of local AZ travel without using the Roadtrek 210P, which is our major trekking vehicle.

For another, we have positioned a 5th wheel and a travel trailer at two locations which permits us to use these as "home bases" and to put our feet up in more comfort (more than the 700 cubic feet of the Roadtrek) and for longer periods of time. However, we have lived in the 210P for up to about 100 continuous days. I've made 20+ modifications to tailor it to our lifestyle.

Here's our AZ abode; 1-1/2 baths, 5 slides and more than enough room for a "home base." And it has an outdoor cookstation. However, we do take cast iron and in induction burner with us in the Roadtrek. We like to cook.

During this trek, I was able to bake my special recipe of cinnamon buns. We gave most away. I was pleased by the results of this 1/2 batch. No complaints by anyone.

There were the desert scenes, the sunrises, the sunsets and the rainbows:

We experienced wonderful Florida sunrises and sunsets, as well as low and high tides.

and Texas wildflowers as well as the desert bloom.

We experienced mermaids

And we ate extremely well. Most of or meals we prepared.

Ad, or course there were the people we met on our journey.

And there was the wildlife, or "not so wild" life. Some creatures large, and some small.

We stayed at a variety of campgrounds and resorts and even boondocked.

And of course there was laundry to do at a variety of facilities.