mOOners in Mexico

by Ken

Today was a good day.  Our High School is presently going through its WASC accreditation self study and I'm a Focus Leader for the group charged with looking at culture and support.  Really exciting stuff, don't you think?  Well, I'm mostly excited because I completed my write-up of the synthesized information discussed in the Focus Group. What a great feeling to be through with that!

So, Kris and I rewarded ourselves with a drive down to Lake Camanche where we have our Capri-26 sailboat, "full mOOn".  The real reason we went down to the boat  was because  we've had quite a bit of rain lately and  it needed to be checked for  leaking.  It's not good to get a bunch of moisture in the boat.  We  headed down late this afternoon,  hoping to spend a little time on the boat, followed by a visit to one of our favorite restaurants down by the lake (La Bella Rosa).   All went well down at the boat.  It looked just  as beautiful as ever and only had some minor leaking, apparently at a stanchion on the starboard side. When we get a little better weather, we'll remove, caulk, and replace the stanchion. 

After relaxing awhile on our little "cabin" away from home, we headed up the hill to La Bella Rosa, a restaurant of Italian cuisine.  Everything on their menu is delicious, making it difficult to decide what to order.  Both of us are watching what we eat and being very careful– except tonight.  Not here!  Kris ordered the Chicken fettucine with chicken breast.  I ordered the Scampi Linquine, which has a sauce to die for. Stuffed to the gills, we both brought some home for lunch tomorrow.

Although we are liquidating our other sailboats, a Santana 20, and a Banshee dinghy, we are probably going to keep the Capri.  We love it. We've done a lot of upgrading, and really enjoy having the kids and grandkids on board for dining and saiing.

"full mOOn" in the slip at Lake Camanche with Ken aboard

the cabin of  "full mOOn" 

Ken installing the spinnaker track on the 32 ft. mast of "full mOOn"

More to come later on this beautiful boat.

mOOners 

by Ken

Today we are going to the funeral services of another of our colleagues.  A young vibrant teacher, at thirty-five years of age, passed away from heart complications while waiting for a heart transplant.  None was available.  He left a wife and two young boys, age 9 and 7 – so sad.  Just before the school year started we lost a 42 year old teacher from cancer who valiantly fought for several years in a losing battle.  We seem to lose the best.  We have seen many friends, lately, become seriously ill, and I guess this has a lot to do with our decision to retire a few years prior to our original plan.  We figure we'll make it work no matter what our situation may be. Comparatively, though, our situation is good as we have reasonably good health and a compassion to seek adventure.  We're going to go and live the rest of our lives to the fullest, as the toss of the dice is so unpredictable.

mOOners 

by Ken

It seems reasonable that we should outline the subjects that will be discussed in the years to come within this blog. So, we (Ken, Kris, & Duffie) sat down and talked about it (Duffie is our Westie, or West Highland White Terrier). Here are a couple of pictures of Duffie:

Duffie relaxing on a river in Northern California

Duffie, making sure he misses nothing from our Bigfoot camper window

So here is an outline of subjects that you can look forward to as we prepare for our adventure:

Bigfoot Camper & Systems

    Electrical

        Solar Converter

        Kyocera Photovoltaic Panels 

        Prosine Sine Wave Inverter

        12 Volt System

        120 Volt System

        Converter

        Propane Generator

    Communications

       Dustyfoot Satellite Dish

       Computer (Laptop)

       Electronics

       E-mail

       Skype

    Storage

    Living in a Camper

Family

Friends

Travel & Mexico

Mexico & Culture

Past Travels

Planning

Itinerary

Spanish

   Books

   Cd's

   Online

   Practice

Health & Fitness

   Diet & Food

   Exercise

   Walking

   Recreation

Community Service

Photography

   Digital Video

   Digital Stills

Music

   Guitar

Construction & Remodeling

Travel Preparation

Liquidation

Simplification

Retirement

Sailing

    Racing

    Cruising

    Equipment

    Folsom Lake Yacht Club

Education

Duffie

    West Highland White Terriers

Picture Gallery

WOW!  WHERE TO BEGIN! 

mOOners 

by Ken

This is our first blog posting for family, friends and others interested in the daily events associated with preparing for our retirement and subsequent departure for Mexico. Retirement comes in June, 2007. Departure comes in July, 2007. Most of the early posts will be about the development of this blog, and the many, many preparations that must be made prior to our leaving.

We plan to travel to various areas of Mexico with our Bigfoot Camper, experiencing the culture, learning the language, and meeting new friends.  As you can see, there is lots of work to be accomplished just learning the capabilities of this blog. We will be adding the various elements as we can.

Here's a picture of our rig in Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico, during the summer of 2005:

Notice the satellite dish between the camper and truck, which provides our internet connection while on the road. The truck is a 2003 Ford F-350, One ton dually, 4-wheel drive, Powerstroke V8 diesel, XLT Super Duty.  It has been equipped with air bags to beef up the suspension.  We originally had a 3/4 ton Dodge, 4-wheel drive with airbags which worked ok, but the load was way over GVW limits.  When the camper is fully loaded, even the Ford pushes the limit on GVW.  It's my belief that most camper rigs you see on the road are over their GVW.

Hope you continue reading our posts!! 

mOOners