Freedom in a Can: Adventures with Hamlet

Hutch’s folks have had a sailboat ever since he was a kid; the first was a 14-foot sloop on which they all learned to sail.   Frodo, as he was known, broke free from his mooring one night in a bad storm simultaneously ending his career as a sailor, but starting a new one as beach erosion control.   The second was a 25-foot sloop, Free Energy, who had a memorable moment in heavy seas with Shari, Hutch, Mom & Dad, where both the engine failed and the rudder broke free within minutes of each other – having to be rescued by a passing boat.   The latest and greatest of these boats is the 30-foot sloop, also named Free Energy.   My she’s yar, and as of yet she’s not had any issues like her predecessors.     We’ve been up frequently enough to get a few overnight and day sails on this boat, but we’ve not had the chance or time during July and August in our previous lives to take a week or two to get a bigger sail under our belts.   So this was long overdue.     Pops is a great skippe

Along the windswept shores and crystal blue waters of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, we sit here writing amongst hundreds of tiny “fairy flies” who float around our camp dancing and carrying on like guests at a cocktail party, only sped up by 4 times.  We call these little suckers fairies because they hover as much as fly and their abdomen is covered with 2 while fluffy chaps which flair off making it look like they are wearing some sort of fairy gown.  We reckon that these guys are in NC too, and we think they are probably considered to be some sort of aphid.  How's that for scientific? These fairies help stage the scene where we sit.  The sun shines through the trees, with bright autumn leaves in their time prior to falling, scatter the ground with a painted light.  Color bursts through the canopy in a way that makes one think, “Hell yeah, I could do this every day…”  The ground is dry, sandy, and covered with pine needles which makes it both aromatic and crunch

Like true rambling souls, we took a major “detour” in order to take Hamlet to Cortland, OH (where he was manufactured in 1957) so we could take a picture of him in front of the “Welcome to Cortland” chamber of commerce sign.  As Shari stood in the street ready to shoot, Hutch slowly maneuvered the camper into the shot.  Once, twice, three times around the block, we finally got the shot we were after…or at least close enough.  We are certain that many passersby’s wondered what the heck we were up to at 10pm on a Thursday night, but Shari jumped back in and we drove away before anyone asked.  Next time we head through northeastern Ohio, we’d like to stop at a diner and ask some local old timers if they know anything about the Sportcraft Camper Manufacturing Company that was in operation from 1955-1959. Instead of staying at the nearby Mosquito Lake State Park (we wonder if you get a complimentary bottle of deet when you check in?), we pushed on toward Cleveland and eventually o

Like an old dog who needs to make at least 3 circles before he lays down, Hutch kept “fussing” with everything in/around the camper for the first 24 hours of camping at the New River Gorge, before finally settling down and letting the pace of the river seep into his bones.  Living on the side of a river bank for a couple of days is a blessing.  The life of the river rolls by as you measure your days in visits to the water, meals made by its banks and the little expeditionary successes of a “new” camper set up.  Here’s some lessons learned from our days spent resting by the river: The rain tarp collects water as well as it keeps it off our heads, failure to plan for drainage will result in a broken pole.  No harm, another one is on its way already.  Thanks Diamond Brand! Shari’s new bike has evened the playing field and now Hutch is keeping up with her instead of the other way around. Despite the fact that Verizon Wireless claims to be the largest cell phone carrier on the

September 3rd, 2012 We slept in the trailer last night just because we could, and it felt right.  Acting like kids who had just been told that in the morning a trip to Disney World was on the schedule, we woke up ready to go.   September 3 rd was the launch date we’d set up months before, our 12 wedding anniversary, and the 2 days after HC Beerfest  gave us enough time to recover and finish last-minute details.  When originally scheduled our date of departure seemed a far-off abstraction as we stared down the barrel of to-do list after to-do list.  But if we weren’t ready by today, we were never going to be.   Of course, that eagerness always leads to underestimating the time it takes to do things.  Final cleaning of the cabin, packing up the truck bed with its allotment of gear, transferring the last bit of kitchen, food, clothing into its new home inside Hamlet, and loading the boats onto the rack seemed like it would only take until about noon and we could be on our wa