Why the trip?

Last summer my good friend Steve and I went to Maine to attend classes at The Wooden Boat School which is in Brooklin, Maine.  We initially planned to take a couple of weeks, and to travel to Maine by train.  In the interest of time, we decided instead to fly.  Once we got to Maine, we toured from Portland to Brooklin and back again, with stops along the way.  Included among our stops were a tour of the Maine Maritime Museum,  and a somewhat disappointing trolley tour of the Bath Iron Works, both in Bath, ME.  Walking around downtown Bath, I fell in love with Maine all over again.

I first went to Maine was when I was very young, in the late 40's.  It was before my sisters were born, and I must have been about five years old.  Evidently Dad found an advertisement for a farmhouse in Damariscotta, between Bath and Rockland.  We piled into the car and drove through the night from our home in New Jersey.  In those days we didn't have the interstate highway system we have now, so that was quite a drive.  I still remember driving on roads that were being built.  I also remember staying in a white-painted inn near the ocean, and a tremendous thunderstorm.  Other than that, I don't remember much about it.  Evidently Mom and Dad decided that they were not ready to pick and move to Maine.  Gee.  Imagine what a place like that could be worth now. 

Anyway, my next trip to Maine was perhaps 14 or 15 years later when I went to Rockland on my Youngster (sophomore) Midshipman summer cruise compliments of the US Naval Academy.  I have some memories of that which I won't publicly share, but I do remember the lobster boil we had on the fantail of the USS John R. Pierce (DD-753). 

Two years later I went to Maine again on my First Class (senior) Midshipman cruise.  This time I was on a submarine, the USS Grouper, (AGSS-214) and we went to Bar Harbor.  Lots of fun on that one.  I remember that a Navy destroyer also visited Bar Harbor at the same time.  I remember that we were there in celebration of Navy Day, and I believe that a senior member of the Navy League, who lived in a huge house on a hill in Bar Harbor, had made it happen.   I also remember that we submariners looked down our noses at the destroyermen.  I had no way of knowing at that time that a year later I would also be a destroyerman when I graduated from the Academy.

I went to Maine one more time with the Navy.  I don't remember the year, but I was the Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) Officer on the USS Samuel B. Roberts (DD-823) and we went to the Bath Iron Works shipyard to have our sonar dome replaced. 

Since then, Linda and I have attended the Wooden Boat School several times, she taking painting courses, and me building model boats.  Someday I'd love to go back and build a real boat, but that's not a very useful skill for somebody who lives in the WNC mountains.

As I said, last summer I fell in love with Maine all over again, and when Steve and I were in Bath, I decided that I was going to spend this summer there.  My plan was to find a place to rent for the summer and then use that as a base to tour around the state.

Last December I got an email from the Center For Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport.  Several years earlier I had signed up with the school for a week-long woodcarving course with the English master woodcarver, Chris Pye, who teaches there occasionally.  I canceled out when Linda started getting ill.  However, I am on their mailing list forever after.

So, I received this email, and I discovered that they offer a "Twelve-week Furniture Intensive" course.  Then I noted that there was a session to be held beginning in June.  It was exactly what I wanted.  They only take 12 students at a time, so I immediately called and discovered that the course beginning in June was already filled.  They put me on a waiting list.  Several weeks later I got a call to tell me that a place had opened up if I wanted it.  Duh!  I sent off my deposit, arranged for a place to stay, and then started the countdown.

It  amazes me that in spite of having almost six months to prepare, and no matter how many lists and plans I've made, there are still some things that I just won't get done before I leave.  Other stuff keeps taking up my time.  But, I'll be leaving soon for what turns out to be my birthday present to me.

I'm also looking at this as somewhat of a transition point for me.  Linda passed away almost two years ago, and no matter what kind of a face I put on it, I have been grieving since then.  It isn't so intense as it was, but it has still been there.  I watched the video on the school site (watch the video) and was struck by the comments of a former student during the last minute or so of the video.  His experience of being able to completely let go of his regular life, and immerse himself in woodworking, is exactly what I am looking for.  I'm hoping to come home at the end of the course with a new attitude and outlook (and, some new skills, too).

So, I'm going to do my best to keep up with this blog, if for no other reason than to keep a record for myself.  But maybe somebody else might find it interesting.

My APRS track for today (May 27, 2015)

I'm getting ready for my summer vacation trip, and I'll be taking an Amateur Radio (Ham radio) transceiver along to keep me company on the trip.

One of the things I can do with this radio is transmit my position periodically.  I wanted to see what the track looked like from the http://aprs.fi website. The system we use is called APRS, which is an abbreviation for Automatic Packet Reporting System (or, Automatic position reporting system; the original author of the concept doesn't like that)  Hams use it to inform other hams where they are. When my radio receives a signal from another ham who is on APRS, it displays information such as how far away from me he is, in what direction, and any messages he may have embedded in his transmission.  The embedded messages might be what frequency he is listening on.

Generous folks have put up devices known as iGates.  These receive the APRS signals and retransmit  them on the Internet.  Then, several websites take that information, compile it in databases, and display it on tracking maps.  An example of the track for my vehicle today is shown here clipped from the website http://www.aprs.fi

My ham radio callsign is NØSYS, (The second character is a zero) and for my truck I add -9 as my primary mobile station. The track is the light blue line.  You see my truck at the last position near Zirconia on the bottom of the map.

You can see on this plot that I went up I-26 to Arden to go to a restaurant, then to Harbor Freight, and then back home.  Then I went on another trip to NW Hendersonville, and returned via Howard Gap Road.

The track might lead you to believe that I also went through Hendersonville or somehow jumped from Zirconia to Naples.  That's a problem with APRS.  If nobody receives your signal and transfers it to the Internet, through an iGate, then the software just fills in the blanks as best it can.  Actually, on all of my trips, I used Route I26 almost exclusively, except for the Howard Gap segment.

For those interested in the detailed information about my radio and setup:   I'm using a Yaesu FTM-400DM with an external Globalsat BR-355 GPS (the GPS built into the radio works, but is slow to lock up, probably because it doesn't have a good view of the sky) 

My plan is to post either screen captures of the track, such as this one, or else links to the actual track for aprs.fi.  The problem with the latter plan is that the tracks don't last forever on the aprs.fi website.