An icy world / Wildlife & Writing/ A video for all of YOU / RV Travel Blog / RV Travel VLOG

The icy mornings slowly melted away, turning into beautiful days. We walked to a county park, as seen in our video below. The sandy ground, the blue sky, the variations of wild palms growing on either side was an enticing walk. The white path we were on signaled that there had to be water ahead, and boy were we surprised when we arrived at the end. Watch the video and be blown away by the sounds, the sites, some narration by me, and how beautiful solitude can sometimes be. Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for watching! https://youtu.be/nywtH7JUIlQ

Race with the Devil / Price Gouging / Satanic Cults? / RV Blog / RV Travel Life

We've been packing, we've been diligently picking off our "to-do" lists, and we are about ready. We never feel extremely prepared for a trip for the winter, probably because this is only our second year, and like every bird we get better prepared each time. I was shopping today, getting enough to freeze and to have for a long trip so that we can avoid shopping every couple days. The only place with this trip we really want to, but don't want to stop, are gas stations. Gas stations hurt, the pocket book, but that comes with the territory of having our house on wheels and the traveling adventure.

With that being said we will avoid prices like the price featured in the picture below, and we will be smart with the stops we have to make. There is a place in the Blue Ridge Mountains that we want to stop, it was rumored that, in the '80's, there were Satanic groups and ceremonies taking place in a certain locale. I don't believe that a bit, but will at least make an attempt to get there. The whole scene reminds me of that movie "Race with the Devil" starring Peter Fonda from 1975. I can't wait to find a nearby campground, hopefully not filled with a satanic cult and fantasize about the horror that may or may not be.

We do have one more stop on our wish list, but I won't go into great detail with this one. I think both places I have on our list of "to-see" will add to the adventure and be less prone to attract crowds, so I think we'll enjoy the ambience, or lack thereof. It may be a few days that I write, so be patient with me, hopefully we haven't been tormented and chased after as a sacrifice, I'm sure if that is the case, I'll get some footage or great pictures to share.  Have a safe and happy holiday. We will see YOU, and write to YOU, soon!

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The Path of Travel / RV Blog / RV Life

Whether it is a small weekend trip, a jaunt through the thumb of Michigan, travel never ceases to stir something inside Maria and me. Packing, ensuring everything that can be packed is stuffed into the Mothership, is a team effort between us. Maria makes lists for shopping, packs the bags, and I load them into the motorhome prior to lift off. Now this year, as we prepare to be snow birds, once again, things are a little off. We're leaving earlier. Holidays have changed. Our adult children are making their own decisions that we concur with, to stay hunkered down at their own residences and we ours. It's a little uncanny, a little less traditional, yes. Not to mention a little sad, because we love to see our adult children and love their visits with us. We're not paranoid, but all of us want to be as safe as we can be to help each other. That's the way we've always been as a family.

Thank goodness for video chatting, which we will be sure to do.

Travel, though, is different this time with Covid-19 an ever present topic of conversation. So we have been preparing throughout the summer. We've been stocking up on those things that people like to horde in times like these. We're different, we didn't wait until the month of November and do it all at once. We have plenty of toilet paper, FACE MASKS (so that we're not spreading our own germs), plenty of bottled water, and plenty of hand sanitizer, anti-bacterial wipes, etc. We also have a plan. We won't be stopping by super spreader events, or places that are packed with people. The campgrounds we do find and make a decision to stop at we will pay over the phone, or at a website to avoid contact. When we camp we will be using our own shower, our own bed, preparing our own food. We will not walk around to socialize with people, and this, my friends, is not like us! We love people's stories, but this year are pressing the pause button. 

We will still sight see, I have a small itinerary for our trip, so we will not let any of you down on our youtube channel, if you haven't subscribed to yet, you should. We will visit places that are a little less traditional, so all our subscribers can look forward to that!  Know that we're thinking of all of you in these weird times, that we are continuing to travel with safety first and foremost, and that I will still attempt my hand at entertaining all of you at Dark Nest Travels!

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Monster on the Sidelines / Inspired / Preparation

I'm inspired as I count down the days before we leave the great state of Michigan and head toward warmer climates. The temperatures have been dropping, and I've heard through the grapevine that the temps in November are supposed to be a chilly conundrum. For the sake of my family and friends I hope not. I've got a lot of prep to do, a lot of transition to accomplish as we prepare Dark Nest, as we get organized and ready for our upcoming "Snow-Bird" trip. There is a certain mental preparation for the upcoming trip south. I have vaguely mapped out a route we plan on taking, but I don't want to elaborate due to our youtube channel, Dark Nest Travels, and don't want to spoil future videos.

I will say that Maria and I will not miss the chilly arms of winter which awaits like a monster on the sidelines. The month of October brings out the monsters, but not quite like the monster that winter is. October brings us colors, partially bare trees, the beginning of a crunchy forest floor, and the smell of autumn. I love the scents, warm coffee smells different, the scent of fallen apples rotting into the ground, the scent of a last cut on the yard are all nostalgic. The winding down of yet another summer and the life we've created in these weird, uncertain times is coming to fruition. Going south this year, this winter, is questionable to some, but we don't refrain from going. I would rather be isolated, staring at the sunny days, palm trees, and birds of the south, than to stare at the gray sky, and brown grass out the windows of our Nest. It sounds so much better, doesn't it?

When we arrive to our destination in Florida, and after a long journey on in the RV, a new life awaits us. I plan on writing more, be sure to check some of those out here and at Tim Eagle's Portal , and getting into a healthier routine with my daily life, i.e. eating better, loosing weight and focusing on more writing, it's in me to give to all of you, so I must create and give. I hope time don't slip through my fingertips and that I can follow through with my goals going forward.  Thanks for stopping by this time around, and thanks so much for reading a blog, I know it's been awhile. Stay tuned to our videos here: Dark Nest Travels and come back as often as you can when I stop procrastinating and write to you. I'm going to leave one of my favorite Airstream pictures that I think displays autumn the way it should be viewed. Enjoy!

Ghosts, Minnie Quay, Ora Labora

It was a sunny spring morning and we were taking off on an adventure to a couple “haunted” cemeteries. The first stop was the breezy shores of Lake Huron to swing by Minnie Quay’s pink tombstone in Forester. We were in for a surprise because of all the coins on top of the grave and some of the disrespectful litter strewn about. I walked around filming some of the headstones and realized, off in the distance I heard a whispering beckon it was a female's voice. The voice shrouded me, chilled me, and I ambled toward it. Maria was walking with Cocoa, through the many headstones, admiring some of the arcane inscriptions and detail and I was pulled toward the icy shoreline with video rolling. Before I made it to the damp sandy shore the female whispering faded and I looked to an old building nearby, two buzzards perched on top of an old shack, resting from a busy day of feasting on carrion and they followed my moves with beady untrusting eyes. Dead leafless ash trees shrouded the old shack and the birds eyed me further. I was startled as the whispering voice I could only identify as Quay’s continued to lure me to the icy waters. I walked, filming, startled by how hypnotized I became. I heard Maria call out my name in the backdrop but my head wanted me to venture onward toward the voice. The voice a beautiful song, elegantly dancing through the small breeze, mixed with the calm sounds of water lapping the sand, my feet were sinking into the shore and my legs felt the pains of freezing water that had soaked my pants. I backed up, but the voice, Quay’s, sang to me, luring me to join her. I broke from the voice, almost instantly forgetting what had happened and walked through the ancient tombstones and to the comforts of our car, joining Maria and Cocoa.

Our next stop was nestled among oak trees and old dead leaves crackling underfoot. It was the Old Bay Port Cemetery, otherwise known as “Ora Labora” (Pray and Work). It was an old eighteen hundreds cemetery nestled on a hill, neglected, worn and sitting in a dark wood. It was peaceful and serene as we drove slowly down the old Sand Road and made our way to the literal “dead end”. Maria took Cocoa for a walk through the cemetery and I filmed. There was an odd presence of energy as we strolled through many of the old German Colonist’s final resting places. The colonists had settled in the area and were wiped out by illness. It was a sad reality that all the hard work ended in death and finality. It created a true sense that maybe our life, as well as the life of many others as banal as it may seem, is still life and energy and ends in death, or was it a reminder that we should grasp life each and every day because ultimately we live to die? Questions I’m sure that surface the older we get.

You can view the most recent video of both of these cemeteries on our newest Dark Nest Travels video here:Ghost & Goblins Episode at Dark Nest Travels on youTube thanks so much for coming back and journeying through this thing we call life. I appreciate each and every one of you! Thanks for reading!

I Can't Exist Without You

I knew my clickbait title, may attract some of you. I'm talking about that travel bug that is itching me. We are planning a trip somewhere, which, if you've been following my Dark Nest Travels videos you would have been given three hints and may have figured it out. The past day has been full of that fluffy stuff that carries topics on your newsfeed, carry's memes in shape of ludicrous "hell freezing over" scenarios, but in me, there's an itch get the heck on the road.

Planning a trip is a tricky one, especially with projects for The Mothership just on the horizon, sometime in Spring. We are excited to get planning and are just waiting details, i.e, a date so we can put our plans in motion. But there are a few details, other than the realism that where we are going isn't "R.V. Friendly" (damn another hint)and will be renting a vehicle for the trip. The bug still persists on creating that scratch on our backs because travel is extremely intriguing and going someplace that we may have never planned in our past, has come to the forefront and we are ready to begin.

The first thing I like to do for a trip, whether it's planned or a last minute ditch effort to escape the confines of Dark Nest, yes it's a great place, but escaping it's small square footage is often necessary to live and to itch that scratch. I like do download all the maps required, and since we're not taking the motorhome, can use my Google Maps, which is the best map program used to this day. If there were a stand alone GPS unit that had Google Maps on it, I would own one. I don't like using the phone app when travelling with a motorhome, because sometimes the coverage that we carry doesn't allow for it, even downloading "offline" maps will not do the trick. So on this trip, I will take the time and download an "offline" version of my maps just in case there are spotty coverage.

The next thing we like to do, is figure out the gas expense. Most of you know how to do that by taking the miles of your trip and dividing those miles per gallon and you will get will get an accurate amount of fuel used.Take those gallons and multiply them by the average cost of fuel to get the amount.

Now I've just got the total cost of fuel for the trip, and the co-ordinates. We're almost there. I then plan where we're going to stay. With a motorhome, travel trailer, or fifth wheel, your place to stay is behind you, quite literally, the sheets clean the bedroom beckoning a weary soul tired from the road. Traveling with a rental vehicle your place to stay is ahead of you. I don't read too many reviews, but do love pictures, so I'll probably take the trips time into consideration, whether we need to stop the night before arriving to the destination or will we just drive straight through and stop at a room researched, which a lot of pictures, before the point of interest.

I can't exist without you,  a trip, whether it's a quick road trip, a jaunt across the states, somewhere, we can't exist without scratching that itch that has developed, especially with the impending news of cold, ice, below freezing wind chills and another potential Snowpocalypse. On that note, I hoped I helped some of you travellers that want to get out and explore, if not, there's other avenues to research, Google is a big place!

Thanks for reading, and if you're still interested in those hints of our travels, sometime in April, be sure to get over to Dark Nest Travels on youTube and check out the videos! Be sure to subscribe, we need viewers like you. Talk to you soon.

Dutch Waffles, A Family SECRET---and CAKE!

Maria and I have loved tradition, raising our seven children required many traditions, including but not limited to, flapjack Friday's, movie nights (Netflix and Rentals), camping, travel, and last, but not least, Dutch Waffles. 

I was introduced to Dutch Waffles back in the mid nineties. Maria's mom, respectfully known as, Oma, loved to create these heavy, sugary cakes around the Christmas Holiday. I remember distinctly the year that we started this tradition with Oma. That year she had gone through a triple heart bypass and Maria worried for her mother's state of mind and brought up the fact that we could make waffles to help cheer her up. Now in my head I had the vision of a breakfast "Belgian" waffle, loaded with butter and maple syrup with the potential of a side of sausage. To my surprise, this Dutch delicacy was the furthest thing from that, in both taste and texture.

We first received a list of ingredients, scrawled on a  piece of paper in Oma's handwriting mixed with both Dutch and English words. We purchased everything on the list, Maria, being the translator of it. Oma, waited patiently at home. When we arrived, paper bags loaded and heavy with the "secret" ingredients, Oma rummaged through the bags, ensuring that everything was accurate. Success, we got her approval. 

Oma, a usually quiet and reserved woman, began pointing out directions. I scurried through the house, following Maria's lead, because it was new and I was being let in on this secret that no one, but Oma, and now, me and Maria, had been keen on. To this day, I believe Maria, me, and now my own children know the recipe, no one else paid attention, we win.

The heavy waffle iron looked like a piece of equipment that belonged in an industrial kitchen. I schlepped it out to the table, ran a heavy extension cord, and the process began. I have always been obsessed with food, and was so intrigued as Oma gave me direction on mixing the ingredients, blending them together and watching her pour in some of the liquid required for the mix. I then blended it further "for consistency" Oma said, and watched as she stuck a finger in the ingredients and said that the mix was ready. Maria was at the table, her sister, to her right, who also had a part, waiting patiently for her task at hand.

The waffle iron was steaming, the red light went off as it reached temperature and Oma took her seat at the left side of Maria, watching and giving her input. Maria sprayed the iron, poured in the first scoop of Dutch waffle mix and the tradition had begun, years and years of tradition. Maria's sister cut the extra from the edges, cutting them in half, and Oma placed them in containers. Dutch waffles are best eaten chilled, not warm, and with butter on each cake. The butter brings out each delicious bite. Some Dutch people like a chocolate or fruit sprinkle, known as Hagelslag, on top of the buttery layer.

Oma let me in on another secret, using the same ingredients of the Dutch Waffle, it was a cake, loaded with sugary goodness, enough to put a non-diabetic into a diabetic coma if moderation wasn't heeded. We made that cake one year with Oma, it had to be at least eight layers tall (the taller the cake the more success), mocha frosting, an apricot center between each layer, and sprinkled with Dutch Hagelslag. This was Oma's last time ever making the cake prior to her death in October 2002. 

When Oma passed, it took a year from her passing and much sadness, to begin our own family tradition with the Dutch Waffle Recipe, which I made a promise to her not to share with anyone. It was an homage to Oma's legacy of Christmas tradition, and Maria and I felt it necessary to share with our own children. This was a tradition that we have done off and on for years, and although I don't have a picture of the waffles after the creation, we recreated the Dutch Cake and I found an archived photo of the cake in its glory. The picture below was only seven layers, we dared not add more!

A future Dark Nest Travels video will feature these Dutch Waffles , brought back full circle as our adult children come over on Christmas Eve and share in their Oma's Dutch Tradition.

We miss you Oma, this year's Dutch Waffle creation is for YOU!