Blog 7 – We can taste the freedom.

June 30, 2015 – Finally our first night truly out in the woods, after a nice drive up higher and higher in the mountains, our adventures are beginning.

After awakening at Walmart (a reminder, Walmart allows people to park over night and sleep in their vehicle) after our last night in the area near where we were living, we were off. Seeing less and less buildings and more and more trees, it was fabulous. Going by GPS, and getting somewhat close to where we were heading, we were steered off main roads and onto dirt/gravel roads. We thought it was setting us in the wrong direction, but we got to the destination eventually.

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/leonardharrison/

What a great place to spend the first night away from home – wait a second – we have our home with us.

Of course, there is no wifi or phone service way out in this area, being way up in the mountains. What I do is write these words in Word, then copy and paste them to get them to you. Do you remember the old days before cell and wifi? Hard to remember for me.

Last night, after a nice salad and organic chili, we explored the area. As I wrote before, I very much like nature and the out-of-doors. You will read more and more about our time(s) exploring nature. No wild animals (darn) this time, but some splendid nature areas.

Right now it is 3:30am the next morning. I do not sleep that much and feel better with less sleep. Tina is breathing her sleep sounds, comfortably asleep. We sleep quite contentedly in this van/home of ours. We awoke to rain, a gentle pleasant rain, very nice.

The campground had showers in the restrooms, so we did.

We were going to go bike riding this morning (yes, I have bicycles on a rack on the back of the van), with the rain we cancelled that idea. In this new life we can go where we want to, when we want to. There will be future times to ride.

(Have to take a break to write this right now. Tina is presently driving, good be able to type while she drives. But, what I want to write about is something different. We just past some road construction and there was a group of workers just standing around talking; seems that I see this often. When I am working on something, and/or, getting paid for something, I put in full effort to accomplish.​)​

Sorry to see when people are standing around not getting things done.

Come to think of it, some people work so hard for a whole year (often at a job they do not like), to be able to spend a week out camping like we are doing right now. As I wrote before, this traveling life-style does not cost us very much. We were able to arrange our finances to be able to live like this. Sad when I see people in a job they hate, living a life that they do not want; I hate to see lives wasted. I believe we can all find a life that will bring up fulfillment.

For myself, I want to add to the world in a good way.

I wrote before in a previous blog about the absence of people smiling and/or saying hi. But, right now we are working our computers at a McDonalds in Wellsboro, PA; we are finding that most everyone is friendly and communicating in a welcoming manner.

Nice change to see.

Seems to me, sometimes, an entire area might contain friendly/welcoming people, while another might have grumpy/self-contained people. Not sure what might make an entire region either way, but I have found that. People in the San Diego area smile and are friendlier than the east coast of the US, where New Zealand has people who are highly friendly and considerate.

After my last post my friend Barry wrote about using the word, “you”, too much in my writing. I do see his point, but I do not like to write with the words “me” or “I”. He let me see that it is my blog and I am writing about “me”, so I must. You will pick out and pick up on the motivation included, I believe.

A writing teacher had told him about this thing with writing with the word, “you”, Barry told me. He also said the teacher told him to stay away from using the word, “but”. I learned about this some time ago. When you use the word, “but”, you are suggesting that all the things you said directly before that point are meaningless and/or, you were lying.

Here is Barry (he’s the taller of the two) >>>>> http://www.ted.com/talks/the_raspyni_brothers_juggle_and_jest?language=en

I remember Mr. Muradian well, my fifth grade teacher at Ocean Beach Elementary in San Diego. In fact, he is the only teacher I remember picking up things directly from; he taught with so much passion. He told us to not use the word, “it”, that you can always find a more descriptive way to explain something.

This same teacher taught us to never start a correspondence with the word, “I”. This is kept in mind for all of my communication since then. I have tried to use my mind more to write better.

The real key to brilliant writing is to be a good editor. Review, review, review. Then write and rewrite.

In fact, if you have any suggestions in improving my writing, please let me know.

And, if you are receiving these words via email or on Facebook, you can always go here to read past blog writings:
https://kitsummers.com/blog/

​I​f you are not on my list and see this by Facebook, I would love you put you on my direct email list to get these writings. Send me an email to kitsummers@gmail.com and I will add you.

Next, off to the Finger Lakes in the great state of New York. You will be hearing details upcoming. And, we just passed into New York on Highway 15, here we are.

On the way north we went to http://www.cmog.org/, a fascinating place. When I think about going to museums, I often think, “how boring”, I will just look at pictures on the internet.” This place held demonstrations and had many ancient glass works, quite enthralling, I must say. After some hours there, it was off again on the road.

One thing before going on with this, as we were walking back to the van after the museum, I got a strange feeling. Usually I am thinking ahead on things and going back to the car I might be thinking, “What will I work on or do after I get home?” Well, we were walking to our home (on wheels), so, I just thought it peculiar.

8:22pm on July 1, 2015, just pulled into Watkins Glen in NY and into a Walmart for sleepy time. A beautiful area this is, you should see it. But, much nicer last light when we slept in the forest under the trees, but I have to remember, when we sleep our eyes are closed anyway, so it really doesn’t matter where we get our shut-eye.

Rain is on the way.

We were planning to go into Watkins Glen State Park for a long hike in the mountains, yet, storm clouds are coming in. So, we went for a short bike ride and ate nuts while out.

Yes, two nuts eating nuts. Actually, read this article about nuts I came upon today, they are great for us. >>> http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-food-that-cuts-your-risk-of-premature-death-by-20-percent.html

Now it is Thursday, July 02, 2015 at 5am. In Walmart writing to you while Tina gets some more shut-eye. I do enjoy this writing and explaining our doings to you, it seems to bring it more solid in my own mind. Have you read my posts I wrote while in Australia and New Zealand? Go to kitsummers.com/blog to read, I believe you will enjoy reading the words.

This morning we went to http://nysparks.com/parks/142/details.aspx, it was marvelous. Here is a short video of the many waterfalls:

Watkins Glen, a fabulous place.

We were there early, no one around, very nice. Taking a bus to the top, we walked the paved trail to the bottom. With my balance issues, muscle problems and vision difficulties I was a chore to navigate the way at times. I remember when I was young at the jetties at Ocean Beach in San Diego; I would nimbly run across the tops of boulders with ease—full speed—not anymore!
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What a special day this is. For the afternoon we left Watkins Glen and headed north to Geneva on the other end of Seneca Lake. Once there, we did a wine tasting at clrwine.com.com, where, after sampling various wines, we bought a bottle and finished it (I do have to say, I only had two glasses, Tina was a happy lady by the end.) Also, we brought high class crackers, a smooth cheese, grapes and salami to eat—splendid, yes.
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Tina mentioned heading back to Watkins Glen, but I said, “We’ve done that, let’s find new experiences.” That’s the thing, like I wrote before, the more “experiences” you can have in life, the bigger your life can be. So, get out there, make things happen to bring on experiences.

So, we headed up to the other end of the lake, slept over night in the parking lot of Wegman’s under some nice trees. Awoke to a clear sky, it has been cloudy and rainy for so long, a good change. Webman’s has free wifi, so here I am.

Spent some hour’s online working on things while there. When I go into a place to use their free wifi, I also plug in for electric; works out well.

We are at Seneca Lake State Park, where we made a breakfast of little red onions, onions, parsley, and some good spices. Turned out exquisite, very tasty.

Now we are just relaxing at this nice lake setting, Tina is getting some sun, and, I guess you know what I am doing?

This park has grass everywhere, with a crew to keep it cut and nice. Parks are place for lawns, but, so we over do it?
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The US has this allure of having grass at every location possible. Everyone, it seems, who owns a home “has” to have a nice big lawn. I do understand when you have kids who play on the green blades, but it seems that people over do it. I have been seeing these humongous spreads of lawn—to me—what a waste.

This land could be used in many other ways. In the last house I owned I had a big garden, which fed us well. Why don’t people plant gardens instead of grass? It seems to take the same effort, but the rewards are nourishment for your body.

What I especially like is a house that has natural vegetation with all local plants growing all around it, without a lawn. And, of course, a garden growing eatable plants is part of. This looks so much nicer to me than this huge lawn.

Most people who mow let the cuttings lay on top of the lawn. Eventually the blades break down and feed the lawn. So, is a lawn carnivorous in eating itself?

Right now it is the next morning, July 4, 2015, at 6:33am. What an afternoon and evening we had last night, now, let me recall (memory, memory, oh boy.)

After our nice breakfast yesterday of potatoes and onions, we spent time in that park doing various tasks including improvements to our home (the van.) I juggled,

Tina napped some, a relaxing day.

In the afternoon we were off to Belhurst castle. This was some rich person’s home that was converted into a restaurant and wine tasting place; quite nice. Take a look: http://www.belhurst.com/. We sat with Anne and Terry, who we met there. They have been to Belhurst numerous times. We made new friends! Which we will do throughout our travels.

Off to The Crows Nest Marina for a marvelous dinner>>> http://www.thecrowsnestrestaurant.com/ordereze/default.aspx>>>this lifestyle is very comfortable.
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Being July third, it was fireworks tonight. We decided to take a cruise that goes out of http://www.stiverssenecamarine.com/ to see the show. Joining 60 others and riding out on a calm lake, we rode out and dropped anchor to wait on the start of the fireworks for over an hour. This boat was older and not very classy. And, the captain of the boat had driven out too far​ from the fireworks show​ to see a good light show.

We were quite disappointed.

But, we did sleep the night parked at the docks. In fact, if you opened the back doors of the van you would step off into the w​​ater. A very quiet and comfortable night.
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We have been gone for less than a week, yet it feels like months away.

Write to you soon again>>>>>>>>Kit​