Who Are Wilbur and Charlotte Anyway Part 2

On March 14th of this year we put our home of 28 years up for sale with Beth Tyler of Long and Foster in Annapolis.

1953 Rancher. About as American as you can get.

Beth Tyler

After a lot of back and forth and comparables analysis, we agreed upon a listing price and our bottom line. It was only March and I was prepared to wait it out until we got our bottom line. I was working part time and enjoying it. My paycheck was going in the savings account. We planned to continue to make value-enhancing improvements to the house. If it took six months to sell, WTH.

Beth, who definitely knows her business, told us that was not going to happen and that we had better be prepared for it. She was right and we weren't -- prepared. There were 6 showings the first day and  13 showings that first weekend. That's the good news. On the down side, each time Fran got a text or email notification of a showing she had to corral the cats into the laundry room and pack up the dog and go somewhere for the two hour showing window. Annapolis is not Paris. The number of places you can go with a dog if it is raining begin with Home Depot and end with Pet Smart. I was working and as useful as......

By the seventh day we had had 24 showings and a lot of positive feedback. It finally began to sink in that the house was going to sell and the most we could hope for was 60 days to settlement. In as little as 60 days we would be homeless. In addition, our plan to get up from the settlement table and go buy a motor home with some of the proceeds, move right in and drive off was unmasked for what it was:  a really unfeasible, downright stupid idea.

Well, what about selling and renting the house back from the new owners or renting an apartment temporarily until we found and outfitted our motorhome. Either of those solutions tended to encourage procrastination. Hitting the road meant divesting ourselves of 98% of our stuff. That process seemed to naturally fall into the period from contract of sale to closing. Sell the house; sell the stuff; get the money and go. But in what?

I had spent a lot of time looking online at Airstreams.We even made a trip up to Lakewood, NJ to  look at them. Beautiful they are.

Practical for us, with 2 cats and a dog, they weren't. The animals couldn't ride in the trailer and we certainly didn't want them with us in the tow vehicle.

Thursday, March 21 was a clear, sunny day. Two showings were scheduled: 10-12 and 1-3. I was off work. So we decided to ride out to the Happy Traveler's RV lot in the median of Route 3 in Gambrills. Just inside the door we were met by a fellow who introduced himself as Steve Shapiro of Chesaco RV. He had just bought Happy Travelers and was there with the accountant integrating the new operation with his other two "stores".

Shapiro immediately reminded me of the best salesman I had ever met. Roy Schachte,  "that's SCHACK--TEE". Thirty years ago Roy and I sold sailboats out of a shack on Route 50. Roy had the worst toupe imaginable and he wore it as a trademark. He were pointy black street shoes in a sailboat operation. He drove a yellow Cadillac Eldorado convertible. The sheriff often came with a warrant for alimony non-payment and Roy spent a lot of time down at Fran O'brien's bar. He had fallen far in the world but he hadn't lost the magic touch. Invariably, the customer would ask Roy what kind of boat he had. "Boat! I hate boats. I wouldn't give you a dime for a dozen of them." Shortly thereafter he would look right at the wife and tell her to go out to the car and get the checkbook. More often than not, she would. In his heyday, Roy must have been Hell on wheels selling for Playtex and Maidenform, both of whom paid him a lot of money. And I'm sure he reaped all of the ancillary benefits.

Roy drove one of these

Shapiro led us to his office and I proceeded to tell him what we wanted to do; how big vehicle we wanted. how much we wanted to spend. Well, I told him. Fran didn't say anything. After I finished, he said that if we went that route it would be a major mistake. We wouldn't last a year in a vehicle as small and old and uncomfortable as my proposed size and budget would allow.

Ok. So how big should it be and how much will it cost?

Thirty feet and at least $50,000.

Ok. What have you got to show us?

Nothing. (Long Pause). Well, let me call my other stores and see if anything came in last weekend.

The call:

You did.  What year? 2008! What's the mileage? Less than 10, 000! What's the condition? In the wrapper! OK. I'm going to send Dave and Fran Feldman up to take a look at it. (Hangs up) They took in trade a 2008 Lexington with very low mileage and "in the wrapper" condition. Go take a look at it. It's only 40 minutes away.

How much is it?

Just go take a look at it.

So we went home, had a bite to eat and evacuated the house again for the 1 o'clock showing. We drove up to Joppatown. There, staged front and center on the lot, was the Lexington, door open and slide out. No, it wasn't love at first site. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but anyone who maintains that RVs, Motor Homes, Fifth Wheels  or travel trailers (with a few exceptions) are beautiful is one blind SOB. Hulking, looming, gargantuan, ungainly, boxy, yes. Beautiful? Maybe in Indiana where most of them are made. Rob, the salesman, took us through the Lexington. It had a walk-around bed, a must have. Equally as important, it didn't have my grandmother's era oak cabinetry, her floral patterned, overstuffed sofa or shag carpet running up the walls and across the ceiling.

In retrospect, our first meeting with Wilbur-to-be reminds me of the New Yorker cartoon wherein two middle age people are standing at the alter and each says to the other, "You'll do." Within an hour  we had agreed to buy the Lexington. Rob want $55k. We told him his owner said not to pay more than $50K. Fran wrote Rob a deposit check for $1,000 with the sale contingent on his obtaining financing  for us for the purchase. We shook hands on the deal and started the drive home. Before we left the RV lot, Fran got a call from Beth Tyler. One contract on the house was coming over the fax machine as she spoke and another contract was to follow. Could we meet her in two hours at her office? Don't you just love it when a well-made plan comes together?

By 7 that evening we had made a counter-offer for our home and by 9 it was accepted. Then the ambivalence about the Lexington began to set in. We went online and researched the "com parables." Fran confirmed that we got a good deal. (It got even better as we eventually found additional unlisted options.) But was the Lexington the right motorhome? We went back and forth. Finally it was Make it; make it your own; and stick by it decision time. If Rob could find some outfit to finance the Lexington, it was meant to be.

We didn't hear anything from Rob on Friday or over the weekend. On Monday Rob called to say that The Fly-By-Night credit union of Frederick, Maryland would finance the purchase. The only condition was that we pick the motor home up by Thursday. Done!

In the drivers seat with Rob next to me

Getting the Lexington home and into the driveway is a story for another post. Suffice it for now that Wilbur drives just like a car. A very big, very heavy, very awkward car whose sashaying ass-end will take out a gas pump in a New York minute.

The Lex in the driveway. Better, is the driveway

Over the next few weeks I got to know the Lexington. No matter how many people, the house inspector, the appraiser, the mailman, the surveyor, etc., paid the rig compliments,  I just couldn't see it. At best, the Lexington was a pig with lipstick; a pig among pigs. A special pig. 

Voila, as the French would say. Wilbur. Some Pig.

And, of course:

Wilbur and Charlotte

And that, boys and girls, is how s 2008 Lexington 300GTS became Wilbur and a 1994 Toyota became Charlotte. And, I hope, they will live happily ever after, at least for a while.

How Do We Make Coffee? Inquiring People Want To Know

The AeroPress

Fran's brother, Richard, turned us onto the AeroPress coffee maker when we parked Wilbur and Charlotte overnight in his driveway in very rural Connecticut . We were on our way to Prince Edward Island. 

Wilbur In Ballouville, CT

Now,  Richard is.....um.....deliberate. He has one cup of coffee a day, late in the afternoon. And it has to be a very good cup of coffee. So he thoroughly researched coffee brewing technology and settled on the AeroPress. The water is to be 175 degree F. Stir for 10 seconds. Steep.....At first I though it a bit OCD until, (1) I tasted the coffee and, (2) I watched the YouTube videos and read the comments. There are seven pages of videos. 

After several weeks of suffering through Starbucks VIA instant coffee (terrible) Fran broke down and bought an AeroPress at Samuel's Coffee House in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. It was a good purchase.

Samuel's Coffee House, Summerside, PEI

AeroPress  on the top shelf of Samuel's

The AeroPress makes a very good 2 cups of coffee at a time. And Fran and I each have one and only one cup per day. It is unbreakable. It takes up very little space. It is easy to use and very quick and easy to clean. Perhaps most gratifying of all, the AeroPress was invented by Alan Adler,  the founder of Aerobie High Performance Sport Toys.

Alan Adler

 He is, IMHO, the Ron Popeil of the tech age.

 And to be compared to the inventor of the Ronco Pocket Fisherman is high praise indeed.

From The "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" File.

The Ho Hum Motel with locations in South Burlington and on the Williston Road to underwhelm you.

The Do or Dye Hair Salon. Apparently, in Vermont,  gray hair and a bad hair day are capital crimes.

The Ready Funeral Home. Even if you're not, they are.

The Tie-By-Night Fly Company

Wilbur was here and almost stayed forever. Button Bay, VT

Strong like ox. Smart like truck.
When Wilbur got stuck in the mud in Button Bay, VT. a whole bunch of other campers came to look and a few to help get him out. (Most anything out of the ordinary is entertainment in a campground. I spent much of an afternoon watching a storage shed get unloaded and leveled up.) One big, brawny fellow came over carrying a plastic box of steel chain.  He put the box of chains down,  flexed his biceps and said, "Strong like ox." Then he pointed to his head and said, "Smart like truck." 

Junk and Disorderly -collectables

Who are Wilbur and Charlotte, anyway? Part 1

Wilbur and Charlotte All Hitched Up and Ready to Go. May 21,  2013

Well....Wilbur is a 32.08 feet long, 10' 5" high, 94.5"wide, 14,050 pound 2008 Forest River Lexington 300 GTS, Class B+ motorhome. (That's a mouthful!) She was built by marginally skilled workers in the Forest River plant in Elkhart, Indiana. (Useless fact:  Warren Buffett owns Forest River).  Fortunately,  most of her important components like the fans, air conditioner, appliances, etc...were designed and built by other, more skilled and conscientious workers elsewhere. One of those important components is the chassis upon which Wilbur sits. That is a Ford E-Series Super Duty Class C Motorhome Chassis with a 305 horsepower Triton V-10, 10 cylinder gasoline engine developing 420 lb.-ft of torque at 4200 RPM through a Torque-shift 5 speed Automatic Overdrive transmission. (Another mouthful!)  Torque is what takes the cap off your beer bottle. Got all that? Now go scrape the grease from under your finger nails.

On a good day, at sea level, on a flat road and with very judicious application of the accelerator, Wilbur will get 10 miles to the gallon. Wilbur has a 55 gallon gas tank. You do the math.

Charlotte, on the other hand, is a 14'4" long, 53.5" high, 66.3" wide, 2315 pound 1994 Toyota Corolla built in Canada. She has a 105 horsepower gasoline engine and develops 100 lb.-ft. of torque at 4800 RPM through a 5 speed manual transmission.  Charlotte has a 13.2 gallon gas tank which I have never emptied because after 320 miles I get scared and stop for gas. Usually I end up needing 10 gallons to top off.  Again with the math.

Charlotte is approaching 200,000 miles and has been paid for for most of the second 100,000. Wilbur has just 10,000 miles and a mortgage.

Wilbur and Charlotte are also the main characters in E.B. White's children's novel, Charlotte's Web.  Wilbur is a prize-quality pig who has learned what the fate of all pigs ultimately is, prized or not.

Wilbur

Wilbur relates his pending problem to Charlotte, a barn spider.

Charlotte

Charlotte devises and executes, with the help of the other barn yard animals, an ingenious plan to save Wilbur.  For those of you surviving a deprived childhood, I won't spoil the story.

It is very fitting that the Corolla should be named Charlotte after White's heroine. Charlotte makes our adventure possible. Up in Prince Edward Island we drove Wilbur, perhaps, a total of 200 miles.  At $5.90 per gallon of gas (US equivalent) (More math!).... well, touring in Wilbur is not a practical alternative. For three weeks we based Wilbur  at Summerside in the west of PEI and then drove the 100 miles to Brudenell in the east.  Charlotte, on the other hand, logged more than 1200 miles helping us explore the length and breadth of the island.

Charlotte almost didn't get to come along. Her driver's side door handle was broken. You had to reach through the window to let yourself out. She was missing hub caps. Her clear coat was gone in places. (Still is.) She made a racket whenever you turned her wheel too far right or left. Her seats were frayed or torn. Cosmetically, she was a mess.

When I suggested using the Corolla as a Toad or Dinghy, Fran thought, understandably,  I was now crazy to go along with my foolhardy and cheap. Fran suggested that we leave the assessment of  the Corolla's suitability to our mechanic of long tenure, Andy Peters. I also promised not to say a word to Andy. She could do all the talking and explaining re: what we had in mind. She did and we left the car with Andy.

Later that day Andy called back. The Corolla was basically sound. She needed new motor mounts. The tie-rod ends were dry rotted and needed replaced. She could use a new radiator. Ironically, the most expensive repair would be the door handle. Since we had recently replaced the spark plugs and wires, had the brakes redone and the timing belt replaced, $1250 would, in Andy's opinion, make the Toyota road-ready.  Fran, who has lived through, sometimes just barely, most of my cockamamie schemes, found $1250 a compelling counter-argument to the 10 grand she was budgeting for a late-model Honda CRV. I bought and installed hubcaps (Pep Boys, $29.95) and seat covers (Walmart, 29.95) as a part of my agreement with Fran and the 1994 Toyota Corolla was re-christened Charlotte.

Charlotte Relaxing In the Shade in Vermont

I certainly mean no disparagement in calling Wilbur, Wilbur, after a pig.

Wilbur in our former driveway

Wilbur at of first stop, Corderus State Park, Hanover PA

Wilbur at Corderus awning out

Though he is gluttonous regarding gas at a current $3.789 a gallon up here in Vermont he is also:

He is the father/mother ship.

Floor plan of Wilbur

He is the life-support system.........

Chill out, dude.

Some of us cats are napping

And don't even think about publishing this picture....

Whatever.... He is home. In an all-too-real sense Wilbur chose us as much, if not more, than we chose him. He was the first and only motorhome we seriously looked at. An hour after meeting Wilbur, we gave the salesman a deposit contingent on financing. We left the RV dealer thinking, "Not a chance." Soon, we figured, we would have no home, no address, no jobs....so, no way.

Next time: How Wilbur came to be Wilbur and a photo spread of our home, assuming we can get him cleaned up. See you then.

Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada - The Perfect, Gentle Island

Where In The World Is Prince Edward Island?

This lovely island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (the world's largest estuary) is snuggly tucked between  New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Until the mid-nineties PEI was an island accessible only by ferry. In 1997, after much contentious debate, the 8 mile long Confederation Bridge was built. At the time it was stipulated that the Ferry and bridge tariffs would remain competitive. So, it cost almost C$60 to bring Wilbur and Charlotte on and off the island by boat or bridge. We opted for bridge.

The Edward of Prince Edward is the son of Charlotte, wife of George III of blue piss and American Revolution fame. The capital of PEI is Charlottetown. PEI is Canada's smallest province in land mass (Delaware-sized) and population, with only about 140,000 people.

The per capital income is about $34,000. Again and again we heard from older folks about how their children have moved out west to Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia for the much higher wages available from the extraction industries. But we were also told that these folks, having made their money, eventually would come back to PEI.

The most memorable example was a retired couple we talked with of an evening in Linkletter outside Summerside on the western end of the island. They, themselves, had gone west and spent 17 years in the wilds of the Yukon in a company-built gold mining town; he as a heavy equipment mechanic and she as a nurse. (Her stories of gold panners living for years in isolated cabins with walls lined with million of dollars in gold nuggets stored in jelly jars are for another post.) On retiring they came back to their 45 acres in the center of the island.

The Four Regions of This Beautiful Island

The island is 140 miles long and from 4 to 40 miles wide. No point of the island is more than 10 miles from the sea by way of a bay or estuary. And the highest point  is only 466 feet above sea level. The interior of the island is pastoral, gently rolling hills. These geographic and topographic features make touring PEI an endless joy. Each time you crest one of the gentle hills another breathtaking vista unfolds down a farming or river valley to the sea. And the light, oh the light. The greens of the fields, the gold of the hay, the blue of the water and the rust red of the soil are supersaturated by the light through the clean, clear air.

The road system makes touring PEI in manageable stages a breeze. Route 2 is the main route across the middle of the length of the island.  There are 4 Scenic Coastal Drives around the entire perimeter.They are very well marked. A multitude of narrow paved, gravel and dirt roads weave between the main route and the scenic drives. From our base in the west and then the east we would shoot up a secondary road to the scenic drive. We would follow the coast (going down every road that had the word "wharf" in the name, to hear Fran tell it) for several hours. Then, when we felt we had best get back, we would shoot back down a secondary road to Route 2 and be home in well less than an hour.

The Points East Coastal Drive

The PEI Provincial Park system is a jewel. We stayed in Linkletter near Summerside in the west and Brudenell River near Montague in the east. We passed through 3 other parks. They are all beautifully maintained with 3 way (electric,water, and sewer), 2 way (electric and water), unserviced and tent sites. The park rangers we interacted with were as helpful as they can be.

PEI Provincial Parks

Brudenell River  Where We Camped for 8 Days

After 3 weeks touring the west and central parts of PEI from Summerside, we moved over to Brudenell Provincial Park to explore the Points East Coastal region. Judge for yourself from these pictures. Not bad for 15 bucks a person a night --if you could stand it for a month in order to get the extended stay discount.

Sunrise on The Brudenell From Wilbur

Sunset on The Brudenell From Our Bedroom in Wilbur

Brudenell Point--First French Settlement But Not For Long

Looking Toward The Mouth Of The Brudenell (Panorama)

George From Quebec

A few days before we were scheduled to leave Brudenell River I noticed a fellow headed down to the river with his bucket and shovel. I eagerly followed and found him digging clams in the mud flats exposed by the receding tide. Not only were there innumerable clams judging from the piss spouts preceding out footfalls, but the entire river bed was solid mussels, bank to bank. As he dug and filled his bucket he identified for me the soft shells, cherrystones, razor and bar clams. He pried off a half dozen oysters from the rocks for his wife, who, he said had become addicted to them. A commercial clammer was working nearby. He told us where the larger clams lived and that so long as we stayed under the daily limit of 900 we were legal. With the bucket full of clams, mussels and oysters we headed back to our sites. 

Strangely enough, it turns out that the etiquette seems to be that you introduce yourself only after you have a fair amount of time being and talking with someone. This has held true since we first came on the road. It is almost as if your name and handshake are gifts not to be squandered on the unworthy. Standing by his trailer, he said he was George from Quebec and his wife is Micheline. We agreed to meet the following day to fill two buckets this time, mine and his.

Mussel Harvesting in The Brudenell

Pick The Best Leave The Rest

Shallots, A Little White Wine and a Good Loaf--Dinner

Micheline gave me a recipe for chowder

The rest of the clam broth is in Wilbur's freezer.

As Wesley, the park attendent, would say, "We had some fun. A-ye?"

There's Something About Burlington and Bicycles

Bicycles are ubiquitous in Burlington. Believe me. Big signs proclaim that bicycles are entitled to an entire lane, even on a busy two lane road, if there is no separate bike lane. All of Vermont is a biker's haven and heaven. There are probably more miles of bike path in Vermont than road since every road, save the two Interstates, is a bike route and there are a number of dedicated bike paths.

And, in our limited experience, a Motorhome, RV, Popup or even tenter without a bicycle per person is like a s'more without marshmallows.

So, after rationalizing all the reasons why Fran and I needed bikes and ignoring the fact that neither of us has been on a bike for more than thirty years, I decided we needed bikes. So onto the web I went. A lo and behold....

The Old Spokes Home Bicycle Shop and Museum on S. Winooski in Burlington. 

New Bicycles and Antiques in The Old Spokes Home

The first floor of the shop is dedicated to new bikes ($4000 anyone?), accessories and an extensive bicycle repair and rehabilitation facility. The second floor is literally stacked to the rafters with new and reconditioned used bikes.

The Used Bike Loft of the Old Spokes Home

One end of the building is a bicycle museum tracing the history and development of the bicycle.

The Bicycle Museum In The Old Spokes Home

More museum

We put ourselves in the capable hands of Brendan who had Fran on a spiffy, new, powder blue Jamis Hudson, size small, in relatively short order. I started out on a used, more-than-slightly battered three speed, almost like the one I got for my 10th birthday. Then, after donning the obligatory backward pointy helmets, we were directed by Brendan around the corner and up the hill to a couple of very quiet side streets between two cemeteries.

You may never forget how to ride a bike but you do forget how you weaved and wobbled learning. And if nobody is there to yell, "Use the brake!" your crotch can take quite a beating.

After a turn around the block Fran was no longer skeptical, only slightly dubious but willing to make the commitment. She advised me that she thought the price for my used, beat-up piece of junk was outrageous. So I ended up with a brand new 7 Speed Biria in classic black to go with Fran's 7 speed Jamis Hudson Sport.

A $1000 later we went back to Wilbur and North Beach Campground to await the delivery of our bicycles. It just doesn't seem right to call a $500 bicycle a bike. My first 3 speed English racer that I got for my 10th birthday cost $59 assembled. But that was then....

Shortly after 5, a very old Econoline van pulled up next to Wilbur. Brendan and the Old Spokes owner unloaded our bikes and check our fit on them. When we told the owner that we were full-timers in Wilbur, he recounted that he and his wife had gone around the world by bicycle for 2 1/2 years thirty years ago. They had budgeted $2500 a year each. That was then...

Fern (Right) and Templeton

And, of course, we need a place for Roscoe.