Blazing Saddles: Plan B

When we left you last, I hinted about a change in plans for the remainder of our trip. As we wrapped up our stay in Vermont and were looking for a campground in southern New York state we found that most of the campgrounds were closing up for the winter as it was now mid-October. The ones that were open were rather pricey with nightly costs running the $80 and up. As we sat over lunch one day I brought up the fact that we didn't have to continue doing the same thing for our entire trip. This is our trip and plans can be as fluid as we like. The RVing was great for the first 6 months but "the bloom was off the rose" as they say and we were both ready to settle down for a bit and not be constantly searching for new accommodations and things to occupy ourselves.

As a result, we commenced on Plan B. This entails renting a house near my family in northern NJ and staying until the end of December. After that, we will arrange for another 2-month home rental somewhere farther south [perhaps one of the Carolinas on the beach] where we will post up until the end of February. At this point, we plan to head back north to welcome the new grandchild in NYC and from there head back to our home in Pagosa Springs. Neither one of us was particularly excited about the southern leg of the RV trip and we will be experiencing new things for a somewhat extended time. We are happy about the decision. We are also selling the RV as we planned on doing that after the trip anyway [too big for normal camping] so if anybody is interested...

We kicked off Plan B by phoning my brother Dan and his wife Debbie with a plea to hang out at their house until we procured a place to stay. Not many would be so gracious as to answer 'yes' to a request to:

Stay in their house
Park a 26' RV in the driveway
Bring along a dog who is obsessively interested in their cats

All this while they are in the middle of selling a business, building a new house in N. Carolina and kicking off their own Plan B for life. We can't thank them enough and promise those pesky pet stains will, probably, wash right out of that carpet.

Of course, any new plan brings with it a new set of challenges. We now had to find a place to live that was:

Available for only 2-months
Furnished
Allows dogs
'Affordable' [definitely a relative scale on this one]

After an arduous search we came upon a great rental on Green Pond, NJ. The lake is known as the cleanest lake in the state and it certainly looks it. They are understandably very proud of their lake and require that any boats on the lake don't get used in other bodies of water. The community is very small and very close, friendly, quiet and safe. The house is nice but not fancy and other than a few drawbacks will serve us nicely for the next couple months. While the house has 3 bedrooms the master suite is accessed via a rather tight spiral staircase [better leave that last glass of wine in the fridge] which Kasha refuses to attempt [this is a good thing]. The bathroom has been recently remodeled and is beautiful with a large soaking tub and large walk-in shower. An unfortunate feature is the hi-tech toilet. This thing, apparently, does just about anything you want a toilet to do and probably a few things you'd rather leave undone. I don't really know cos' I'm a bit intimidated by it and there is no instruction manual. I'm just afraid that I'll go in there for a 2am pee and be asked to set up a user-name and password. At which point I'll have re-group and try to negotiate those damn stairs.

Side note. The property taxes are so high in NJ that, according to the property manager, there is a very nice house on the other end of the lake whose property taxes are $50,00 a year! I don't think we'll be moving here.

So far, we've been busy setting up our new digs, doing some nice hikes and bike rides, connecting with old friends and visiting family. I had a great fishing trip with my brother and brother-in-law to my nephew's place in Cape Cod. As salt-water fisherman, they thought the fishing was just so-so as we boated 'only' about 80 fish over the 2 days and reached our 'keeper' limit both days. Any one of those fish were bigger than most anything I catch on my fly rod in CO. Kelly and I have totally become spoiled by all the fresh fish we've had lately and may never eat a fish in CO again.

We also got to attend a baby shower for our new grandson [due in January] at Hannah and Myung's spectacular Brooklyn apartment. It was great fun and we all went over in a very expensive Uber that was worth every penny to avoid driving into NYC.

We'll keep you updated on Jersey happenings and future plans.

Blackfish dinner