Our Story

Welcome to our site! We are Joanne & Steve. After 20+ years working for a city school department and police department, we sold almost everything, bought an RV, and started living on the road with our three children. Joanne homeschools and works online.
What we have chosen is to live life as unencumbered as we possibly can and to spend time with our family, for our family, and as a family.
This website is a record of our travels. But, we also hope to educate, entertain, and inform others about RVing, roadschooling, and the great places we visit in this country.


Friday, September 24, 2010

Cute and fluffy

In August of this year, our sweet Chumsley finally passed away.  He was our second born for 14 and a half years.  We really wanted the kids to be able to enjoy having a dog again as we travel, but, of course, the living space being what it will be, we needed to think about a pup that would fit.

Meet Maxwell...


Maxwell is a Shih-Poo; half shitzu and half poodle.  We bought him this week from a couple in Fall River, thanks to Steve's brother and sister-in-law.  He's perfect; cute, small, hypo-allergenic, and his name was Max!  (Ian wanted to name Brendan Max before he was born.)  Sometimes things just work out.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

It's time to be Fresh!

I have a quest to eat more healthy foods...for myself and my family.  So, for lunch today, may I present...Veggie Pizza....



Ingredients:

 Tandoori Fabulous Flats
fresh asparagus
fresh tomato from the garden
fresh tomato sauce made from our tomatoes
fresh garlic
fresh broccoli
fresh grated parmesan cheese
fresh oregano and thyme from the garden
fresh ground salt & pepper
evoo



I sauteed all of the veggies in evoo and the herbs for 5 minutes or so, 
then baked it all at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes.  





Yum.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Eagle vs Earl

So, the first major hurricane of the season is bearing down upon Rhode Island.  It started as a category 4 and at the present time, I believe, is a category 3.  Should be all of 2 by the time it hits us.  Meteorologists are predicting it will travel just south east of Nantucket, so only the coastal towns and cities will really feel the affect.  However, I am still a tad bit concerned that the pine trees standing just feet from the camper may come crashing down on her.

Where do they come up with these names anyway?  Earl?  

Steve and I were married during Bertha.  

According to http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/basics.shtml...


Hurricane Names

When the the winds from these storms reach 39 mph (34 kts), the cyclones are given names. Years ago, an international committee developed names for Atlantic cyclones (
The History of Naming Hurricanes). In 1979 a six year rotating list of Atlantic storm names was adopted — alternating between male and female hurricane names. Storm names are used to facilitate geographic referencing, for warning services, for legal issues, and to reduce confusion when two or more tropical cyclones occur at the same time. Through a vote of the World Meteorological Organization Region IV Subcommittee, Atlantic cyclone names are retired usually when hurricanes result in substantial damage or death or for other special circumstances. The names assigned for the next several seasons are shown below.



Names for Atlantic Basin Tropical Cyclones

2010
Alex
Bonnie
Colin
Danielle
Earl
Fiona
Gaston
Hermine
Igor
Julia
Karl
Lisa
Matthew
Nicole
Otto
Paula
Richard
Shary
Tomas
Virginie
Walter
2011
Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Don
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harvey
Irene
Jose
Katia
Lee
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Philippe
Rina
Sean
Tammy
Vince
Whitney
2012
Alberto
Beryl
Chris
Debby
Ernesto
Florence
Gordon
Helene
Isaac
Joyce
Kirk
Leslie
Michael
Nadine
Oscar
Patty
Rafael
Sandy
Tony
Valerie
William
2013
Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dorian
Erin
Fernand
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Nestor
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy
2014
Arthur
Bertha
Cristobal
Dolly
Edouard
Fay
Gonzalo
Hanna
Isaias
Josephine
Kyle
Laura
Marco
Nana
Omar
Paulette
Rene
Sally
Teddy
Vicky
Wilfred
2015
Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wand


So Fiona is next. 

  or not...   


Hurricane Earl to Prevent Hurricane Fiona?
Hurricanes draw their strength from warm ocean waters, and Earl is expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it churns northward, because northern Atlantic waters are unusually warm this year. The same factors pushing and powering Hurricane Earl are expected to remain in place for days, so tropical storm Fiona is likely to stay offshore of the U.S. But Fiona is unlikely to grow into Hurricane Fiona, Blackwell said, because winds from the more powerful Hurricane Earl will probably disrupt the new storm.  If Fiona gets too close to Earl, he said, "Earl might eat it."  

Sounds just like what an Ogre would do.