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YouTube Videos, Abigail the Puppy, an Aliner Travel Trailer, & Garden Fiascos

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Posted on May 31, 2021 by Mary Ames Mitchell

Hey all

It’s the last day of May. I love June. It’s my birthday month. When I was in elementary school, I felt short changed because my friends and their families had left town for summer vacations by the time my birthday rolled around. This year, I will share my 70th, my daughter’s 40th, and my grandson’s 7th in a family-only Big Birthday Bash in my backyard. Festivities will include Pin-the-Tail-on-The-Donkey and an obstacle course, take-out Central American food from my favorite taqueria, Picante, and balloons.

Here in California, we are already nervous about the upcoming fire season. When will it start, whose house will get hit this year, and how long will we have smokey air? A news article in the SF Chronicle said that we’ve already had more fires this year than last year by this time. The big fires started in August last year. They used to start in October. Everywhere I go, lakes and rivers are at a low mark. Fingers crossed.

YouTube Videos

While locked down this last year, I spent a lot of time creating YouTube videos. Just a reminder. I have two YouTube channels.

Mary Ames Mitchell (where I post stuff about my writing, genealogical research, and anything else non-RV related)
Rambling in Ramsey (where I post stuff about traveling in my Ram Promaster City that I usually have set up as a campervan)

Most of the time I spent researching and producing a five-part series about my great-great grandparents Charles & Fanny Ames, 19th Century Human Rights Activists in honor of the 100-year anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment. My target audience was my family (fellow descendants of Charles Gordon Ames). But some of my Christian Science friends have been interested, too, because Charles was the minister across town in Boston while Mary Baker Eddy was founding her church on Mass Ave.

Curiosity motivated me to find out more about the women’s rights movement, which, I soon learned, was interconnected with the abolition movement. And in Boston, the same people who led those movements were mostly Unitarians. Another thing I learned was that back then, the people who were part of the Second Great Awakening (who opposed Unitarianism and Universalism) were as skeptical of science as their descendant Born Again Christians are today. Sorry if that remark offends some of you, but this is my blog and I get to insert my opinion. I tried to keep my opinions out of my videos, however, and state only facts and real-life events.

Abigail, My Corgi Puppy

Since November, I’ve spent a lot of the time trying to train Abby. We graduated from the Marin Humane Society’s Family Dog 2 class last week. FD3 starts the second week in June. Abby is very smart. She can do ‘hoop’ and stay on a mat for five minutes, if she wants to, or if the treat is something really, really yummy. She caught the frisbee in the air three times in a row yesterday afternoon. She is also a huge thief. I can’t set my coffee down, let along a plate of nuts or crackers. And she’s bossy, which is causing stress for 17-year-old Annie. So, I separate them a lot. Thank goodness for crates and tie-downs. Don’t worry. They both get plenty of attention.

My New Travel Trailer

There is no way to cook in a small van like mine with a bouncy puppy. I nearly blew myself up trying it with my propane stove. So, I’ve added a travel trailer to my camping program. In the video, I give you a quick tour of the interior.

My Garden

I thought I was being so smart purchasing a little greenhouse shelf and starting seeds early. I worked all winter building my compost pile. But something isn’t working. These vegetables were planted months ago. Similar plants in my neighbor’s garden are four times the size. However, the artichokes are doing great. I made artichoke carbonara last night. Yummy.

And I have plenty of salad. Lettuce, arugula, and spinach thrive in this tower. A few tomato plant seeds must have made it through the winter in the compost bin because I had five growing in the tower that I didn’t plant. They are now in the raised bed.

Speaking of which, does anyone know what to do with all these pill bugs? I read that they are good for compost, so I scoop then up by the handful and throw them into my compost bin. But nothing likes to grow in this raised bed.

That is all for now. I hope everyone has fun summer plans to look forward to. Stay safe and healthy.

January 2021 Update

Featured

Posted on January 17, 2021 by Mary Ames Mitchell

Mary Mitchell with corgis Annie and Abigail — Abigail and Annie were not being cooperative for this photo session.

Hey there friends out on the internet. How were your holidays? I hope everyone has remained healthy, that you are managing financially, and that you are able to see your loved ones.

All’s well here. As you can see, Annie and I have a new puppy. I was searching for a dog to adopt on Craig’s List and happened on a Corgi puppy. Our whole household is getting out more. No more sitting in front of the computer for hours for me. Sometimes Annie is very happy for the company and sometimes not.

Abigail and Annie on the floor in my studio. — Annie likes it best when Abigail is contained.

Abigail and Annie guarding the garden against squirrels.

Both dogs still fit on my chair during coffee time in the morning.

We’ve taken one day-trip together. You might have seen the above YouTube video about it.

Making YouTube videos has been my Stay-at-home thing. I run two channels. One is for my RV stuff called Rambling in Ramsey. I posted this video a vew months ago about converting my Ram ProMaster City into a camperfan without building anything or making permanent changes to the van.

I haven’t taken any overnight trips in a while because of the pandemic. Sadly, that means I haven’t seen my family in Southern California for a while. Real bummer. But the grandson who lives near me in Marin County loves toodling around town in Ramsey. Our favorite haunts are still the Railroad Station and the Dump.

I also have a YouTube channel by my author name, Mary Ames Mitchell. I post stuff about my books and genealogy research on that one. At the beginning of 2020, I created a series of videos about book formatting. You can access them from the tab above “Self-Publishing Guides.” But I need to redo them using a more updated verrsion of Microsoft Word.

My current project is a video about human rights. For several months, I’ve been working on a video about my great-great grandparents Charles and Fanny Ames. They were human rights activists in the 1800s. Originally, I only intended to compile the historical research that I had in my possession so that the rest of my family could access it. But as I gathered letters and notes, I wanted to know more details.

Researching through Charles and Fanny’s eyes, I’ve learned how interconnected the abolition and women’s rights movements were, how the Unitarians were involved, and what exactly heppened between 1833 (the founding of the American Abolition Society) and 1920 (the ratification of the 19th amendment). It’s amazing how many parallels I’ve found to what is going on today with human rights on all fronts (race, sex, and religion). Now I know how the term liberal came about.

I’ll let you know when I finish. Meanwhile, stay safe and be kind to each other.

Fire Update, Kitchen Garden, My Books, Bullies

Posted on August 24, 2020 by Mary Ames Mitchell

Hey ya’ll

The latest on the fires here in Northern California

So far, my hometown, San Rafael, has only smokey skies, no fires. This is how it looked yesterday as I drove south from a Costco run.

Currently, the fires are north of me

and south of me.

My kitchen garden

On a cheerier note, my kitchen garden is doing great. I have a tower full of fresh lettuce, arugula, & sage. My basil died, I don’t know why.

I have zucchini, beans, cauliflower, and tomatoes in this skinny planter. And I got one more tiny artichoke.

I’m growing two kinds of kale, swiss chard, and green onions in my new raised planter. My creaky knees don’t like kneeling to harvest from the skinny planter, hence this tall one.

My books

Since we are supposed to stay indoors, and with all this time I’ve had being home, I’ve worked on my book marketing. My fiirst step was updating this website. (I got rid of my old website when GoDaddy tripled the price on me.)

You can view the ‘My Books’ page by clicking the above image or by clicking the ‘My Books’ tab on the navigation bar above.

Bullies

Lastly, I hope everyone is ready for a verbally abusive temper tantrum that will last four days on national television. One of the biggest lies we heard as kids was “words will never hurt you.” That is SO NOT TRUE. Verbal abuse is extremely hurtful. When my mom and my first husband didn’t get what they wanted from me, they told me I was stupid and selfish. Even though I’ve spent decades trying to prove they were wrong, it still hurts. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris know the barrage is coming, but it will be hurtful nonetheless. God bless them, and god bless you.

Preparing for Fire Evacuation

Featured

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Mary Ames Mitchell

It is only the middle of August and California is already burning. I’ve packed my Promaster City campervan, which is also my regular car, for a quick escape. At night I pack up my computer and hard drives containing all my work and place them by the door. Anything else that I don’t want to keep in the van all the time, like valuables, family papers, and my clothes, I place by the door, too. As my very first boss, Rudy Medina, told me, “Stay flexible.”

Also, stay safe everybody, and healthy.

Layout Plans for Converting a ProMaster© City Cargo Van to a Mini-Campervan

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Mary Ames Mitchell

Hi again,

In response to my last blog about my new campervan, Ramsey Jr, I received requests for specifics for the furniture I used and where I purchased it. Here is a list. I am also inserting my detailed plans and elevations to show you where I placed everything so far.

Note that I am 5′-7.” I barely fit lengthwise in the cargo section when the back seat is tumbled forward. If you are taller, you will need to purchase a cargo van without the back seat. Also, I have included things like lots of water bottles in preparation for boondocking for 7 days in one stretch.

This photo from the Ram ProMaster website shows how the van looks with the seats in place. This is how I need the van to be when I am hauling grandchildren around. Since the main purpose of this van is to visit my grandchildren 400 miles away, this was an important feature for me.

The rest of the drawings illustrate how the furniture is arranged when the back seat is tumbled forward and I am actually camping. The layout allows for a nice open space in the middle, which I really like. It reminds me of the layout for VW Campers, just a wee bit smaller. The ceiling is high enough to walk around in the space hunched over.

For the shelf, I used the IKEA Pinnig ‘bench with shoe storage.’ See my note about installing the middle shelf upside down to give the shelf a lip that holds in drawers/boxes.

As you can see from the next elevation, I can sit on the folded mattress, which serves as a ‘couch.’ The sleeping bag is converted to a back cushion for the ‘couch.’

Here is the listing for the table that I have. I bought it for my Class B. I love it because it can be a coffee table or a dining table, and there are no cross-bars, allowing my knees to fit under the table easily. But the price has gone up considerably on new ones. Sorry about that. Look up Beckworth & Co. They may make a less expensive version now.

Last but not least, something that is very important to us old folks. I double up the plastic bags and bring along a container of hamster shavings to sprinkle on top. The shavings prevent bad smells. During the day, the toilet becomes another convenient surface to place things at a workable height. I know, it sounds gross to use your toilet as a work surface but really….

This last photo, which was in my last post, shows you where I place the canvas bags filled with my clothes. I use a bungee cord to attach them to hooks on the seat belts. A black-out curtain hangs across the front area from a tension rod so that you can’t see in from the front windows.

Meet Ramsey Junior

Posted on December 17, 2019 by Mary Ames Mitchell

I haven’t posted for a while because my van life has been in transition. I traded Ramsey, my fully-stocked 21-foot Class B that got 14 miles per gallon, for a small cargo van that fits in my garage and (supposedly) gets 28 miles per gallon on the open road.

I made the decision to make the swap after taking a trip around the Northwest last August. As you can see from this map, I visited many National Park sites. What a treat that was!

But on my way home I was wishing I didn’t burn so much fossil fuel while enjoying the scenery. I was coveting smaller vans. Driving Ramsey around for two years taught me what I need and what I don’t.

I never used Ramsey’s shower.
I only need one burner on the stove.
I don’t need a generator and air conditioner.
I don’t need a sink and complicated plumbing.
It is just as easy to use a bucket as it is to use the toilet that requires black tanks.
Since I have a wonderful home where I can entertain, I don’t need my RV to be a place to cook elaborate meals. Besides, one of the fun things about traveling is trying out local restaurants.
I don’t need a whale beached on my driveway when I’m not using it. It blocked access to my garage.

I suddenly knew I was done with my Class B, even though the PleasureWay Lexor is an absolutely beautiful mini-RV.

Fortunately, a cute couple in Oregon was ready to start where I’d left off and purchased Ramsey from me. I put 2/3 of the cash back in the bank and used the rest to purchase Ramsey Junior, a ProMaster City cargo van – the passenger wagon version.

I did a lot of planning before making that purchase.

I took all the items that I had had in Ramsey that I thought I would need in a small campervan and placed them in a pile in the middle of my garage.
I put the smallest items in 11″ x 17″ plastic tubs that I could stack.
I obtained measurements for self-inflating mattresses from the Internet.
I got measurements for the cargo spaces in Ram ProMasters, Ford Transits, and Nissan cargo vans.
I marked the spaces out in my garage and made mock-ups of how everything would be placed in that space.
I measured myself sitting to see how high a chair could be and not cause my head to bump the ceiling.
I drew plans using Adobe Illustrator.
I test drove the ProMaster and the Transit and lay down in the backs of both to see how well I fit.

I took a few practice trips in my much-more-cramped BMW X1. That helped me eliminate more stuff I didn’t need. I watched countless videos about van conversions to see what other people found important. (It is amazing how some couples actually live full time in tiny vans. One couple packs a water heater and a stove in the ProMaster City!) I do not live full time in my van, and I place elbow room high on my priority list.

My goal is to be able to live off the grid for a week at one time. I’ve made the decision to stay with a cooler instead of a 12-volt fridge, which would need some sort of power. I can charge my phone, my computer, and my LED lantern while driving. But what if I am in one place for a week? Do I need to buy one of those self-contained batteries, like the Jackery, and a solar panel? I’m still working that out.

Meanwhile, here is a video showing Ramsey Junior so far. I have taken several weekend trips in him and been very comfortable. Let me know your thoughts.

Santa Barbara, Rincon, Santa Paula, the Sisters on the Fly

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Mary Ames Mitchell

God, I love my state. I count my blessings every time I drive south along Highway 101 to Santa Barbara. One thing I was struck by this time, that I hadn’t noticed before, is how many Camino Real bells there are between King City and San Luis Obispo — one every five minutes or so. Does that mean there were once that many here at the northern end of the Royal Road between San Francisco and Sonoma?

Let’s hope the ignorant general public continues to ignore them.

After leaving super early on a Wednesday, so I could clear the South Bay before rush hour, I made it to Santa Barbara by 2:00ish. I visited two places. The first was a retirement village named Samarkand after the hotel of that name that my great-grandmother Mary Hopkins established in the building that her son, my maternal grandfather, Prynce Hopkins, had built in Persian style for the Montesorri-like school he founded in 1913 called Boyland. (Long sentence, sorry. Sometimes it is difficult trying to be factually and historically correct.)

The blue urns, now planters, are remnants from the hotel. My great-grandmother probably imported them from the Middle-East where they were created to store olive oil. See the koi pond at the left? Grandpa built that for the school. Here is a photo from the history exhibit the complex displays. My aunt Jennifer Hopkins provided the old photo for the exhibit.

The round pool beyond the koi pond was a swimming pool for the school children. It was shaped like a globe to help teach the children geography.

The second place I visited was the Santa Barbara History Museum.

Even though I have been visiting Santa Barbara since I was in my Mommy’s belly (to visit her father [d. 1970] and grandmother Mary [d. 1955]), I had never been to the museum — at least that I remember. Here are some of the highlights for me.

First, I noticed upon entering the museum that the stone with the brass plaque to the left of the door is exactly like the gravestone for my great-grandfather Charles Harris Hopkins’ in the nearby Santa Barbara Cemetery (the photo below).

Next, it was fun to see photos of Santa Barbara back when my great-grandparents moved there. They built their home on the corner of Pedregosa and Garden Streets back in 1897. Their son, Grandpa, who would have been twelve in 1897, later wrote about the horse-drawn trollies running down State Street. He mentioned that sometimes the trolly drivers waited outside a store for a rider to do her shopping, then continued on after she reboarded.

I also liked seeing this old embroidered silk shawl. I have one just like it that used to belong to my great-grandmother Mary. Maybe she used to wear it for the annual Santa Barbara Fiesta?

I spent the night at the Rincon Parkway Campground, a strip of parking spaces along the highway between the ocean and the cliffs.

Next morning I headed to Santa Paula for a Sisters on the Fly weekend event. The Sisters on the Fly is a group of about 14,000 women around the US and Europe who like to camp and have fun. They have four rules for joining their events. 1) No men. 2) No children. 3) Be nice. 4) Have fun. The fun activitiy planned for this weekend was paddling kayaks along the coast of Anacapa Island.

That was Friday. On Saturday, we hung about the KOA campground, did some crafts, got to know each other over coffee, and then, following Sisters on the Fly tradition, toured the women’s camper trailers, or, as in my case, campervans. I only filmed the fun vintage trailers.

On Sunday, before heading to Pasadena to visit my grandchildren, I took advantage of Family Day in Santa Paula. All the museums were open for free. There is an Agricultural Museum,

an oil industry museum,

and two art museums. The drive from Santa Paula to Pasadena through orange and avocado groves was very pretty, but the weather was cloudy. So I’m not going to include my photos.

That’s it for now.

Snow on the Napa Hills

Posted on February 16, 2019 by Mary Ames Mitchell

While I was on my USA Swing last August and September, the door of my fridge broke off. The top hinge, which is a plastic tube molded into the door, cracked off. My good friend Kevin did a temporary repair while I was staying with him and Shelly in Memphis. Eventually, that broke off too. Getting things repaired on RVs is not an easy task. The nearest RV Repair shops to Marin are in Petaluma, Napa, and Sacramento—all at least 45 minutes away and all have at least 2-week back-ups. My dealer in Sacramento has a 3-month backup waiting period. And, it turned out, the repair places in Petaluma won’t service Dometic products. “They don’t pay us back,” one said.

But I did find Dan Shavlick’s RV Repair in Napa (45 minutes with no traffic). His wife/office assistant Jodi made me an appointment for 2 weeks later. I needed to be there at 8:30 am since there is a line-up waiting at the door when it opens.

I took this little video of the winter wine country scenery on my way. It is unusual to see snow on the hills surrounding the Sonoma and Napa County valleys.

Map of Route from Marin County to Napa Valley

My route from Marin County to Napa Valley.

Dan took photos of my broken hinge and will get back to me when Dometic sends him a new door. Fingers crossed that will be within the next month. Meanwhile, I am using a small Igloo Playmate Ice Box.

Happy New Year 2019

Posted on January 15, 2019 by Mary Ames Mitchell

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season. I spent Christmas with my son and his family in the Bay Area, then headed south to Pasadena for a few days to open more presents with my daughter, her husband, and their two energetic sons. From there I drove to the California desert to explore a part of my state that was too hot to be in when I drove through last September. Here is the link to my YouTube video.

By the way, for those of you didn’t get the memo, I set up a new YouTube channel so that I could have one for my personal/writing vlogs and another for my RV travel vlogs. This video is on the “Rambling in Ramsey” channel. The other channel is simply called “Mary Ames Mitchell.”

If you don’t feel like watching a video, here are the pretty pictures. The first two are of North Shore on the Salton Sea. I wish you could hear the seagulls.

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I think this next one is of Slab City. I didn’t realize I missed that eccentric town until it was too late to backtrack.

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I spent the night boondocking at a BLM (Bureau of Land Management, i.e. free) camping area called American Mine Road.

yumatripmap

Then drove around Yuma, Arizona the next morning. I also bought gas there. Gas in Arizona is a dollar cheaper per gallon than in California.

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From Yuma, I cruised through sand dunes swarming with zooming dune buggies. It looked like fun.

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Then through the Anza-Borrego Desert.

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And through Julian, elevation 4000 feet (so check out the snow). There was no place to park, so I couldn’t pull in and walk around as I had planned.

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I spent the night at the Vail Lake RV Resort in Temecula. Very nice.

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Here is the view from my van the next morning.

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A lovely, peaceful place to enjoy a cup of coffee. Annie liked it too.

Last Leg of the Henry Knox Trail

Posted on November 27, 2018 by Mary Ames Mitchell

Hi. I hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving. Lucky me, I got to be with all three of my grandsons and their families. Meanwhile, I was able to finish this video compilation of my trip in September 2018 through southern Massachusetts following the Henry Knox Trail (West Springfield to Cambridge). I also visited some amazing libraries. I sorta screwed up on my video labeling. This is Part 2 of following the trail but actually, Part 4 of my series on being in New England doing Henry Knox related things.

As I noted in the comments section on YouTube:

For a copy of my sing-along children’s history book about the trail, Henry’s Big Kaboom, go to the Fort Ticonderoga Museum Store at http://www.fortticonderoga.org and click the ‘shop’ tab. You can also order it on Amazon. You can view the animated video (same title – Henry’s Big Kaboom) on YouTube.

To view my video about following the first part of the Henry Knox Trail go to https://youtu.be/aD9fu4BeTzI.

For a written guide (pdf) to following the Henry Knox Trail, check out the Hudson River Valley Foundation website at http://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/themes/knoxtrail.html. They updated the guide a year ago.

That’s it for now. Keep on Rambling.