Settling back down for the winter

Back in to town living

It’s been 4 weeks since we got home to San Diego.

Figuring the house out again..what where and how “deeply'“ we want to settle in! We emptied the storage unit pretty much on the first week as it saved us money and it was good to have our own stuff in the house. Got rid of more “stuff” while carrying it all in, and made plans how we are going to organize “storage” for next April departure. It’s getting hard to get rid of more things after we have vetted it all through already twice… starting to get down to sentimental “stuff” and things that we can not replace even if we want to! Ian likes his things and is getting pretty “lazy” to make any decisions of making any of his things “disappear”, so I have had to stop throwing my belongings out as he seems to keep all his!!! ha ha

compromises … compromises!!!

Oh’ so much stuff

.. UGH… so we will suck it down in April and get SMALL storage for our trip in 2026. It will be mainly for clothes and few items that do not like big temperature changes or humidity and rest will be ether gone or stored together with my car!!

The great thing in all this is that one realizes how little we need in all seriousness. We are two people..why do we have dozens of glasses, plates, cooking tools, cutting boards, towels, sheets, blankets, dog toys, t shirts, caps etc. etc. etc. that we did not miss once on our 8 months trip this year. Yes we do have one or maybe two people staying with us over the years at the house but… come on.. why do we have 10 towels????

AND IF YOU HAVE NOT REALIZED YET.. NO ONE WANTS YOUR “SHIT”!!!! it’s not like… “well when we get over our traveling bug and settle down I need 10 towels again!!!!” ha

Can not wait to see Newfy in Newfoundland

We did decide months ago that we are leaving for an other trip in April 2026 and the destination will be Newfoundland for the summer 2026…so after 48h at home I bought ferry tickets from Bar Harbor, Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia because to get to Newfoundland you need to take a ferry from Sydney that is located in north east end of the peninsula of Nova Scotia. We are going to explore the west coast of NS this time as last summer we did not have time cause winter was coming and we wanted to see PEI as well. So we missed eating the World famous scallops in Digby and the amazing hikes Scots Bay etc. We are very excited to do retake of Nova Scotia 2026.

Taking the big ferry from NS to NL Canada

I mean I saved $400 on the ferry tickets when I bought them end of November… he he… and in all seriousness it cuts out 2 days of driving for us in Maine and New Brunswick CA, on roads that we have driven twice already and will again on our way back from Newfoundland. We will arrive to NS 1st of June then cruise around NS for few weeks and sail to Newfoundland around mid June.

We are going to do our 2026 adventure with the same set up as we did 2025. Our 24ft Mercedes/Forest River is so perfect for us and Newfoundland will be more accessible if we have a small rig… we think!?! Ian will be driving the Van and tow his A-Class catamaran until St.Louis IL where he has Nationals beginning of May 2026. I will be driving the truck and have the kids with me… so we can do hikes enroute when we are moving the show to new place. Ian is going to leave the boat to IL and we will continue with the Van and the truck from there on.

One thing that we learned 2025 is that we really need a car besides the Van. We did travel with out the truck our last 3 months on the road this year and learned that having a car as well as the van it really simplifies the daily planning and you will see 90% more of the area where you are. Some people rent a car when they arrive to a campground and solve the problem that way but we did not find that attractive as it does add extra cost and more planning where we are camping out cause of picking up the car and returning it. Specially during the summer in more remote places or like in Maine (tons of tourists) it’s expensive to rent a car, if you find one available!

The Kids

The first night we got home and were ready to go to bed Kaya and Rhona headed to the Van to go to sleep after evening pee… hmmm must have been a good trip as they wanted to continue.. he he!

We all got back on track in few days, few beach visits that Rhona kinda found boring first as there was nothing to hunt but got the “beach idea of running out of control” after few visits.

Happy New Year to you my friends…I will be back with a new blog posts in April …

New Year New Tricks