Sewing Nomad

Hello! My turn to write something. I’ll see what I can do…

We left Quebec on the 20th, headed for Wisconsin by the northern route, the better to avoid Toronto and Chicago. Travel went well. Wallydocked at a Walmart in Pembroke, ON.

Left the joys of Walmart behind the next day and continued on. We had decided to make a detour to Mackinac Island for a day. While searching for a campground, we found that the surrounding area in summer is apparently packed with rvs. We did find a potential spot at a casino nearby. The RV hookups were away from the main lot and full but a few would be vacated by the next day. So we boondocked in a remote parking area for the night. After parking, took a gander across the big bridge. Pretty cool.

Next day, we impatiently waited for noon to arrive, the check in time for an RV hookup.

After the others waiting for a spot began to move at 11:45, we made our move as well. After eating some lunch and securing the camper, we moseyed over to the ferry launch for Mackinac. As it turns out, jet boat/ferrys are enjoyable to ride.

On Mackinac, we got some bikes and rode around, seeing the sights and sharing them with a cruise ship full of people. After riding for a while, we returned the bikes and meandered through the shops. (Side note: While going down hills is not a good time to discover your bike brakes do not have sufficient stopping power. This cost us a sandal and some brief panic.) Getting peopled out, we managed to find a small patch of grass available in a park and relaxed in the shade. With the call of hunger growing stronger, we sought out Mighty Mac’s Hamburgers. After a fish sandwich, we caught a boat back. Good times!

Sunday morning we stowed our things, hitched up the camper, emptied tanks, and hit the road. Our route to Barron took us along the shore of Lake Michigan while we listened in to Roxton. It made for a lovely backdrop to a good sermon.

We arrived at a hotel in Baron, which happened to have a set of full RV hookups out back, around evening time. We set up and prepared for a week of work. But all was not as it seemed….

(To be continued…)

• The chainsaw welcoming committee at folks – with Thierry in the pickup and Arnaud standing in the pickup bed with a chainsaw, they came zooming down the driveway to meet us in the pouring rain, cutting down any branches that were hanging too low for the camper…
• Poutine @ Chez Ben. If you know, you know. It was delicious, and so was the dark chocolate dipped ice cream come. Jesse says his magic potion was pretty good too…
• Getting to spend some time with my family. Definitely a highlight. Also the little nephew… Louis is rather adorable.
• Picking haskaps at Hugues + Amy’s field. And snacking on the fresh berries. Delicious!
• Coaticook ice cream. Here I am mentioning ice cream again. It really is so good though!
• Arriving in Montreal for the CPS reunion in the middle of a big thunderstorm. Memorable.
• Watching the firework show from the Quai in old Montreal
• Visiting Welcome Hall with the CPS crew
• Riding the metro again. Also, the 3 day metro pass that went through the wash and still worked!
• Revisiting favourite restaurants from Jesse’s unit days. We may have had poutine again… And Pacini’s bread bar was enjoyed by all…
• Bad luck with buses. When you wait an hour for a bus, and end up having to walk anyway…
• Metro singing and supper at the unit house
• Bagel shops
• Chinatown for bubble tea
• Markets – Cheeses, breads, fresh fruits + veggies and so much more. The backpack was well filled by the time we left.
• Church in Montreal Sunday morning. The building was well filled, if not a little overfull!
• Late night conversations
• CE in Roxton + snack afterwards. Again, the building was well filled. It was lovely to see home folk again.
• Servicing a few sewing machines in Roxton Falls
• Supper with Stew + Viv, and a walk to the cabin out back
• Fish tacos at Pat + Vanessa’s – quartet singing afterwards

July 5th – After a look at our remaining “good” tires and upon some consultation, we decide to replace all 4 tires, since they are fairly old and seem to be retreads, and we are not overly confident they won’t shred on us as well…

Jesse replaces the tires himself, as the mechanic/tire shop doesn’t have an adequate lift for trailers. We eventually get back on the road.

Partway through the day, we start to notice a fairly serious coolant leak going on. If we turn the vehicle off, it drains most of the coolant, so we leave it running as much as possible when we stop. The issue – a water pump leak, I’m told.

Our goal had been to get to Bridgewater by tonight, but with pickup and camper issues delaying us, we are behind schedule. We end up boondocking at a Cabela’s near Boston for night.

July 6th – A bit of a later start today. By this point, Jesse is falling behind with bookwork for Quilter’s Trunk (his family’s sewing machine + quilting store back in Liberty), so he worked on that for a while before we left in the morning. After a few hours of driving, we stop at a Starbucks and Jesse tackles some more bookwork, while I take Siegfried on a walk. Siggy has been traveling remarkably well. He loves riding in the pickup and I think he’s starting to realize the camper is now home.

As I sit outside with Siegfried, waiting on Jesse, I find myself wishing for a little more shade and a stronger breeze… For those who may think that north = cold, I’d like to inform you that unless you consider 95° to be cold, it is most definitely not cold here in Maine!

We arrive at our destination by evening, greeted by Galen + Annie and baby Blake. It’s good to be off the road!

The next couple of days are spent mostly at school, where we are set up to service sewing machines. Jesse will be writing a post about our set up at some point, so I won’t expound on that right now.

A few highlights of our time in Maine –

An evening spent out by the lake with the cousins, complete with a pleasant walk and a boat ride at sunset.

An enjoyable afternoon spent at a disc golf course.

Sunday evening spent around the table at Galen’s, snacking and playing board games. And in my case, holding the small one, who is fast asleep…

On Monday morning, we’re off again…. Next stop, Québec.

p.s. I do realize this is being posted a whole month late. And I do have excuses, if you want to hear them… one of them being that we have been sick the last couple of weeks. We are on the mend now, and I will be putting forth an effort to get you all caught up on our travels!

I’ve been a little slow with getting this update out, but here goes.

Back to July 4th, 2023 – the day dawns bright and early, and we rise to tackle the last of the packing + preparations. The day of departure has come, and we are still slightly surprised this is actually happening…

Austin + Kaylynn and Kynlee arrive around 9 o’clock with a delicious breakfast, which we eat on the front porch. Before leaving, we quickly sneak over to Honeysuckle Café yet, to wish Elise (my boss) a good summer and grab some iced drinks for the road.

11:59 a.m. – we roll out the driveway, headed north. Our first destination: Bridgewater, Maine. The first few hours of travel are fairly uneventful, although our stops take us a little longer than planned.

6 o’clock – all is not well… We had been merrily driving down I-79 in West Virginia, when Jesse happened to see rubber flying off one of the camper tires. We pull off to the side of the road. A shredded tire it is… What do we do now? We do have a spare, but do we have what we need to change it?

The next few hours are rather stressful. With the help of a kind stranger who lends us a tire iron ( no, we did not have one that worked with the camper tires… we do now.) we do eventually get the spare on, and limp along another 30 miles or so. Around 8:30, we park for night. Our backyard: Walmart.

I must say, the skoolie that was parked not too far from us was rather intriguing to me. It looked a little uninhabited at first glance, with the stacks of pizza boxes and other junk on the dash, and the wire crates that could be seen through the windows. Appearances can be deceiving… The next morning, we woke up to the sounds of roosters crowing. Needless to say, I was a little confused at first, as that’s not exactly a common Walmart parking lot noise. When I emerged from the camper with Siegfried to take him on a morning stroll, a big German Shepherd poked his head out of one of the skoolie’s windows and barked at us. He was immediately scolded by a voice from inside. Never know what you’ll see in the Walmart parking lot, eh?