I thought it was time to start talking "spring". So many of us have been blasted with snow in the last couple of months/days/hours...I thought it would do us good to talk about what we'll be doing when the warm weather finally hits! We bought a new fifth wheel in November (crazy time to buy, because all we've been able to do since we got it is look at the pictures ! We need to buy a bigger tow vehicle to pull this thing, so for now we've parked it at a campground about 1 hour from home. We'll use it as a seasonal for this summer and hopefully be able to start travelling again next year. This will be different for us because we usually put quite a few miles on our RV every year - last year it was a two week trip from Ontario to Florida in the spring, and then a two week trip to Maine and other parts of Ontario. Oh well, at least we'll still be camping, and I can't wait until we can spend our first night in our new second home. What are some of your plans for the summer?
Campinggirl, You are right about spring being just around the corner, we had the first daytime high above freezing since the middle of January her in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. The snow on the trailer started to melt and I started to make plans for the spring. Maybe Charleston and Beaufort, SC, Tuskegee and Huntsville, AL and then along the Blue Ridge Parkway back home. In the meantime there is still lots of xcountry skiing to be done and I also want to try snowshoeing this winter. This is really the best time of winter for me, and let's not forget the sugaring off...
Campingirl, I would love to think that spring will be here promptly, but I know that we can have freezing temps until mid-May. The general rule around here is not to plant anything until Mother's Day. Hopefully we will have lots of warm days between now and then. The forecast is for snow tomorrow and the weatherman said the other day that his prediction is that we would see at least 12 more inches before the "end of winter". As for our plans, we are going to take an RV trip along the Oregon coast in the summer - we were originally going to go the last week of June and the first week of July but I think we are going to change it to August. That will probably be our only RV trek this season - Greg will be taking a week off when our friends from TX come out to visit - the guys will take the ATV's to the mountains some days and also will ride motorcycles some days while the girls shop. We will be meeting them in Galveston in the fall and taking a cruise to the caribbean. We will also take a week in the summer and go to Oklahoma to visit family. Well, you asked about plans - that is pretty much it!!! Wprigge...I don't want to appear stupid but have to ask - what is "sugaring off"?
Cheryl, There are no stupid questions, just stupid answers. (Well, most of the time!) Sugaring off is tapping the maple trees, meaning making a small hole in them, putting a spigot in the hole and collecting the maple sap, formerly done with buckets and now being done with plastic pipes. When it's freezing overnight and above freezing during daytime the sweet sap comes up into the trees. The sap is then boiled to get the right concentration of sugar, generally you need between 20 to 40 parts of sap to make one part of maple syrup. The farmers are just now preparing their season. Of course there is the special meal that you get in the sugar shacks, (places in the woods where the syrup is produced), omlette, pancake, beans, pea-soup, loads of desserts, everything generously ladled with maple syrup. (No, not the pea-soup) Basically, it is a big feast where you don't count calories and you ignore the existence of colesterol. After you can stroll through the sugar bush (our local name for maple groves) or you can get a ride in a horse-drawn sleigh. Often extended families of 30 to 50 people come together for a day of fun. Gee, just writing about it makes me hungry, and I haven't gotten rid of the unwanted pounds from Christmas yet!
wprigge that sounds like something that would be fun to attend. I would assume that you live somewhere around Vermont or in New England. When my friends and I get together for a feast like that we always pray the calories and fat away before indulging. While it doesn't appear it has truly worked yet, we believe in keeping the faith!!!
Cheryl, You are right on two counts: Sugaring off parties are a lot of fun, especially with my wife's family. They are a typical traditional French-Canadian family of 9 brothers and sisters. You are also right about my geographical area. I live about 30 miles north-east of Lake Champlain and 50 miles east of Montreal in the Province of Quebec. So, next time you have pancakes use 100% pure maple syrup, preferably from Quebec.
SPRING !!! I think that was before January 15th, here in the Northeast. You talk about a screwed up winter, spring temperatures and weather before Jan 15th, and now winter in it's full fury. BUT, spring is coming, the sun is higher in the sky, if you can see it with all the clouds & snow, and the temps are rising slow but sure. The snow is melting, and the wood stove is not requiring all that much fuel. Yes, I guess spring is around the corner, six more weeks will make a big difference. We start planning for our next years camping season when we put our motor home into winter storage. Gives you something to do through the winter, plus gives one something to look forward to in the spring. Of course one has the RV shows from late winter to early spring to look forward to. Just this last week I work a four day RV show with our local Holiday Rambler dealer, that was held in a local shopping mall. Was quite an experience, to say the least. Sugaring is big business in the northeastern states, namely; New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Next month, a local sugar farm, will have a pancake w/sausage all you can eat breakfast, of course, with local maple syrup. Yum-yum !
We have our longest trip we have ever taken planned for this summer. We are spending 4 weeks in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. I agree with an earlier post that the winter is a good time to plan for upcoming trips and have thoroughly enjoyed planning this trip. But, unlike some of you that live in cold weather states, here in Georgia we continued to use the 5th wheel all winter and didn't have to fully winterize it this year. I hope everyone has a great spring, summer, and fall camping season.
Thanks for the reminder of the maple sugar bushes, wprigge - we try to get out to at least one pancake breakfast during march break - Yummy! I wonder how the weird winter will affect it this year. We are under a winter weather warning right now - freezing rain turning to snow. The roads have been very nasty the last week or so - lots of ice. Although I enjoy the extremes of our 4 seasons and love the snow (to a point!), I wouldn't mind being in your shoes right now, Mastercraft. As I mentioned in my eariler post, we headed south with our trailer last April and had a fabulous time - if we had a tow vehicle now I'm sure I'd be pestering my hubby to go again during March break. Now that our oldest is in high school it's harder to take him out of school for any length of time!
Count down to spring ???? With the weather that has gone through upstate New York for the last two days, it surely looks like December, in fact we were wishing everyone at our club meeting yesterday "Merry Christmas". Makes one wonder !
I hate to read about all that snow and white stuff. We have been on the road about one month now. Last week down in Big Bend Nat. Park it was 85 deg's with Blue skies. Nice to stay around I-10 or south of that. Spring will get here soon.
QUOTE(Butch @ Apr 16 2007, 12:24 PM) [snapback]6822[/snapback] Count down to spring ???? With the weather that has gone through upstate New York for the last two days, it surely looks like December, in fact we were wishing everyone at our club meeting yesterday "Merry Christmas". Makes one wonder ! Butch, please don't tell us you are getting ready to put the tree and all the decorations back up!!! Hmmmm, your wife could use that to get a "Christmas" present though - I may just have to try that one!
I'm still counting, although according to my calendar, it's "officially" been here for over a month! We had a green Christmas and a "white Easter" (not something I want to dream about!). It wasn't just a few flakes in the air, but actually on the ground for several days - we're supposed to get more again tomorrow. However - come Saturday it is supposed to be 18 celcius (I'm not sure what that is in farenheit, but I saw that Orlando was only 23 celcius yesterday). I'm still counting down the days when the campground our trailer is at opens - even if I have turn on the furnace!
