Fish On and Other Stuff

November 17 – December 14, 2015

Did someone say rain? We arrived on Thanksgiving and got to enjoy a few days of sun, but that didn’t last long.

The next couple of weeks we had drenching rainstorms and winds, so we kept ourselves entertained getting out when it stopped and looking around the Fort Pierce and Vero Beach area. We are trying to see if we might want to make this the winter get away spot for SIT in the future.

We have had some nicer weather the past couple of weeks including record breaking heat. Oh and that pesky thing called humidity. That is a bit different for us so you look for shade and enjoy the breeze. Hanging out by the water does help.

We played 9 holes of golf on a course that is not too far from where we are staying. I didn’t take any pictures this round but don’t worry, we will be playing more golf.

We took one fishing charter as we are trying to learn the good fishing spots in the intercoastal water way. We had a great time and caught more fish we couldn’t keep than we could, but the ones we could keep taste wonderful. We will head out again with Dustin our guide.

Dustin our Guide

 
Tory's Big Fish 16.5 "

Sheephead

Our Catch

We are trying to learn the water a bit in order to take our fishing kayaks out. Hopefully we can have success fishing from them. For me my goal will be to not fall out when I cast!

Izzy is having fun since Steve can give her a run most days from the RV park. The RV park doesn’t have amenities but is in a good location for walking and heading to the waterfront.

Steve and Izzy will go to the fishing pier most mornings and check out the action. He is getting excited about trying to fish from there as he is custom making a fishing cart that will carry the gear, ice chest, and bait. We will hopefully try it out soon. Us westerners need a bit of acclimation before we spend 8 hours out there.

Making Rod Holders

Project Steve

We decided to stay here as we were going to be helping at the KOA as camp hosts. Unfortunately the owner hired another couple in September so we aren’t working for them right now. I don’t think we mind too much, since this gives us our freedom each day. We may end up helping in the near future, but won’t crush us if we don’t. I think Izzy probably likes that best too.

I will give you another report in a couple of weeks. Maybe I will have some pictures of Manatees and dolphins that hang out in the river close to the RV park.

Also, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope you are able to spend it with either family or friends or both!

SIT Cruising Again

November 16 – 26, 2015

Well, it has been awhile since The Life and Times of SIT was established, but guess what we are at it again.

We loaded up the fifth wheel and hit the road on Monday, November 16. We were heading to the Florida coast for a few months to see what life might be like on the Atlantic for longer than a couple of weeks at a time.

We took a different route to head east than our previous journey and it was nice to see new country. We traveled through Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and were only a few miles from Four Corners, but we decided to keep on driving.

Fall Colors Still

We hit one new state from when we did our two year trip. Oklahoma hosted SIT for a night. The part we traveled through was actually quite pretty. We did encounter wind, but heck we had wind pretty much from when we left home.

Oh Boy!

We were targeting to be in Milton Florida on Sunday the 22^nd to drop some things off for some friends and see John and Mary Ann, however Big Red decided it wanted a break. We ended up broken down on the highway about 30 miles southeast of Hattiesburg Mississippi on a Sunday. Funny, how breaking down on a Sunday, at the beginning of a holiday week can definitely change the dynamics.

The good news is that we were able to get towed eventually back to Hattiesburg and get the truck fixed on Monday. The challenge was finding a way to tow the trailer since any of the tow companies we called couldn’t tow both. Luckily one of the RV parks in town had someone willing to come get Steve and the Trailer. Izzy and I headed into town first with the truck and hung out at the RV park we were getting the trailer towed too. Well long story short we ended up at a different RV park, but got to eat dinner before midnight!

 

Are We There Yet?

We enjoyed a short visit with John and Mary Ann and we hit the road Thanksgiving morning. We targeted to get to Fort Pierce Florida around 4:00 in the afternoon however we had another hick-up that day. Needless to say, we learned the mileage limitation of the truck, and we had leftover chili I made for our Thanksgiving dinner.  So Thanksgiving was a bit different for us this year, but the main thing is we made it safe and sound and are very thankful for everything and all of you.

I will be sharing what we are up to throughout the winter so be sure and check back!

Wind and Wave Action

October 2015

We hadn’t really gotten out and traveled since we returned from our adventure and knew we wanted to explore Brookings Oregon so we loaded up the poles, golf clubs, and Izzy and took off for 10 days.

The RV park was across the street from the harbor and a great area to take Izzy for a walk. There was a fishing pier near-by which peaked Steve’s interest.

Our View

A Pet For Izzy Maybe

I was excited about meeting up with my college girlfriend, Edi, again as she and her husband, Mike, and their dog Luna were coming down to hang out with us for a few days. Oh I was pretty excited to check out the sites too!

Luna Izzy's New Friend

We had fun exploring the coast around Brookings and the dogs enjoyed some free time on the beach. We spent a day working our way up the coast and even had decent weather. The views were amazing and the beach was fun to walk along although we didn’t find much for tide-pools.

Enjoying the Hike

Peaking Through

 A Tad Rocky

 Arch Rock

 Mike and Edi

 Mike and Steve Hanging Out

 Posing

 Beauty

Such a View

Steve decided fishing for salmon in this spot wasn’t going to pan out. We did get a golf game in after Mike and Edi headed down to California.

A Gorgeous Course

Not Too Worried About Getting Hit by a Golf Ball

Since fishing was still on the agenda, we headed out of Brookings and went to Winchester Bay for a few days. We were close to here once before when we went to Florence.

Our RV Spot Mate

Steve talked to the people fishing right at the RV park as they were having some success in catching salmon. The hard part is you need the right pole especially casting into what seemed like 100 mile winds! Needless to say, the challenge was there and the fish decided they didn’t like Steve’s hook. Oh well, he tried!

A Bit Windy

No Bites Yet

We headed home a different route and spent a night in Sisters Oregon. The RV park was quite large, and Izzy had a blast hanging out by a pond as well as keeping an eye on the wildlife. I think they were keeping an eye on her mostly.

 His Home

Keeping an Eye Out

We had a nice trip and really enjoyed spending time with Edi and Mike. I know Izzy had fun too as she has a new buddy. We’re pretty sure we will meet them again on the road!

SIT Becomes SKIT for A While!

April-July 2015

If you recall from my last post SIT stopped off in southern California to visit family and friends on our way home.

When we left we picked up a hitch-hiker. Well not really as we wanted Kevin to come with us. He was heading to Oregon the first of June and we decided we could put him to work helping us fix up one of our properties we decided to sell.

So Steve, Kevin, Izzy and Tory arrived back home and started to get busy at our Alder Street property. We weren’t able to really get going on it until the first of May so we had time to do some playing. Our friends, Tom and Becky, are our next door neighbors and wouldn’t you know it, they have birthdays in May. So does Kevin.

We were able to celebrate a couple of times to recognize their achievements in life. Tom’s was first so Kevin and I decided to go find him the perfect gift.

Try Them On!

Look Becky I Got A Cape!

Becky and Kevin

Having Too Much Fun?

Who's Having A Party?

We had a good time while we could, then the hard work began. We gutted the master bathroom and closet at the house and Kevin and Steve put up new walls, and rebuilt the closet and expanded the bath. I failed to take before pictures but the remodel turned out great.

The house also has two fireplaces so we stripped the fronts off and hearths and master Kevin tiled them for us. They turned out well, and we painted the entire inside of the house.

 Family Room Fireplace Before Kevin

After Kevin

Living Room Fireplace Before Kevin

Refreshed

We tackled the kitchen as well and removed all the cupboard doors and painted them and the cabinet fronts. Steve and Kevin went into demo mode there too and took out the pantry closet and shrunk the water heater section so a peninsula could be added with some additional cupboard space. Plus we made it so you could sit four people around. Some updated lighting, and a sliding glass door to the outside finished it off. Oh we did have all new counter tops and back splash installed as well. We were pretty pleased with the end result.

Kevin and Tory

As if building new walls, putting in a sliding glass door, and making a tiny bathroom bigger, wasn’t enough, Steve wanted to put in a deck. The deck was going to connect the family room to the kitchen. So Izzy got to finally help us since the backyard was her domain.

Izzy Making Sure The Hole Is Good

The Deck Connects

The Kitchen Door

The end product was awesome and added outdoor living space for the new owners.

Kevin got to escape the labor camp on June 4^th as I drove him to Portland to start school. I also got a break from painting for a couple of days, but Steve and I still had quite a bit of work left to do. Luckily we saw the light at the end of the aches and pains and listed the house on July 2^nd. Yippee! And even better we sold the house in two weeks!

When we first got home we talked about flipping houses for something fun to do! Well, I am pretty sure you can guess where that thought went after sweating for a little more than two months. Fishing and golfing were calling!

Our next adventure was heading to the Oregon coast so if you hang on long enough you can read about that too!

Two Years and Twenty-Seven Days

The Life and Times of Sit started on March 6^th, 2013 when we left our home at 12:00 PM. I hadn’t started the travel blog, nor had I come up with the title, but I did start keeping track of our travel statistics.

When we left home we had 25,978 miles on “Big Red” and had owned our fifth-wheel trailer for just about 13 months. We were pretty good in condensing our clothes and items we wanted to have with us as we left our 2300 square foot home for our new home on wheels. We also made sure we had all of Izzy’s toys and bed.

 

As we began our journey we did head to southern California which was the furthest southwestern point. I decided to do this final post from the four corners of our adventure rather than trying to capture all that we saw, did, and enjoyed in one posting.

Joshua Tree National Park was a first for Izzy and me. Steve had been there when he was young but didn’t quite remember all of it.

 

 

 

 

The most northwestern point on our journey was Port Hardy British Columbia which is on Vancouver Island. We enjoyed the beauty, people, climate, fishing, and golfing while we were there as well as our time in the other parts of BC.

 

 

The most northeastern point happened to be in Canada as well and was Cape Breton Nova Scotia. The coastline there is quite different than the coast line in BC. The beauty was spectacular although the fishing wasn’t quite as plentiful. We certainly can’t complain about the crab feed we had as we ate them fresh off the boat. Well we ate them on a boat too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The furthest southeastern point on our trip was Key West, although we only visited it a couple of days. Our primary spot for the Florida Keys was Marathon Florida. There we enjoyed meeting some great people, playing golf, fishing, and having fun with Izzy! We also celebrated Christmas 2014 there with 75 degree weather. Pretty much sums up our entire trip well not really, but one of the goals was to avoid cold weather and really hot weather. Not a bad goal to have if you can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Our life for two years and twenty-seven days allowed us to travel 49,110 miles, stay in 122 towns/cities (some twice), see 34 states, spend a week on a houseboat, and visit four Canadian Provinces. To put the distance in perspective we could have traveled around the world twice. Maybe we will do that next!

 

We truly enjoyed our time on the road and many people have asked us, what was your favorite place, which is a challenge for us to answer. Canada and the United States have so many wonderful places to see as well as a tremendous amount of history to learn. Our best advice is if you have the desire to travel around and see the country just go for it!