New Zealand trip prep ; weekend at Orat’s

(posted from home)
(This post covers 1 - 31 December, 2012)

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Monday, 31 December -

Today was a frustrating one--- for booze-buying. I started off with a simple errand of paying the rent at our storage unit. That’s kind-of on the way to the state store so I thought I’d run over there for some year-end booze. But it wasn’t open until 1100 today so I was a half-hour early.
I may as well go on to Starbucks and then hit the state store on the way back. An hour later I was back only to find the line so long it would take an hour to get to the till.
I had other business up north and there’s another state store there so I went on to Wal-mart and then that state store. Same thing--- a line to the back of the store then the whole way to the front door.
I went on home and got on the web for a few hours, then returned an hour before closing and ‘only’ had a 20-minute line-wait but my preferred libation was out of stock.
On the other hand, I saw the Southern Comfort Pepper was drastically marked down. I had been wanting to try it but thought it too expensive. It turns out to be very, very good!
We spent a quiet evening and witnessed the New Year in before going to bed.

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Sunday, 30 December -

This morning I took yet another cold motorcycle ride down to Starbucks for a coffee and power-walking bagel, then walked for two hours at Rocky Ridge park.

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Saturday, 29 December -

The UPS man brought my pump-assisted gasoline siphon kit today. I assembled it but it’s snowy today and too sloppy to go out to test it.
I researched our first-night’s room in New Zealand and vacuumed the house today, then in mid-afternoon I went out to push the snow off the driveway for an hour.
That evening we watched ‘The Closer’, season 7, disc 2.

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Friday, 28 December -

After a morning on the web, I rode the F650GS in to Starbucks on this 35-degree day. I’m ready for the Concours to be done. It’s at Cycle Tech having an oil leak fixed and new tires spun on. It’s much better for winter riding given its large fairing and the heat coming off the engine. In August that heat off the Concours’ engine is almost too much to bear but in winter it buffers the cold at the legs.
I rode on over to Rudy Park after my coffee and walked the 5K cross-country course. I listened to my iPod for a bit but it soon quit; I had failed to charge it after my last time out.
That evening we watched the last two episodes of ‘The Art of Flight: The Series’ and a half-hour or so of the1970s motorcycle adventure, ‘Cycles South’. What a trip!

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Thursday, 27 December -

Today I finalized the insurance for the motorcycles and ATV and paid the bill. I also paid car insurance and then caught up the online blog post.
UPS brought the replacement CD player for Dad today so I’ll plan a trip up there soon.
That evening we watched ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest’, the last of ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ trilogy. This one was dubbed in English and the dubbing was very, very good.

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Wednesday, 26 December -

Today I called Maypo at work and chatted about how Christmas had gone at their house for an hour or so. Labashi and I then drove into York (in a snowstorm!) to have Thai food for lunch. We ate at ‘Esaan’, where I had their splendorific Pad Panang. Wow, is that good.
Back home I did an hour’s worth of research on snow tires. The answer is Blizzaks. But a set plus wheels would cost me close to $800. That just seems like a heck of a price to pay for all the more snow we get and the hassle of changing and storing them.
That evening we watched three more episodes of ‘The Art of Flight:The Series” on Netflix.

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Tuesday, 25 December -

It’s Christmas!
We spent the morning on the web and then joined Mom and Dad for Christmas meatloaf in their apartment.
That evening we watched ‘The Art of Flight: The Series’, a TV series following a team of snowboarders in pursuit of the ultimate snowboarding film. Their footage is absolutely incredible.

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Monday, 24 December -

Today I blundered onto information about a sinus-wash kit. I’m convinced my months-long sickness problem last year had its origins in a sinus infection. This year I want to try to stay ahead of that.
I found I could buy the kit at a Walgreens or CVS so drove up to a new one that recently opened near Fishing Creek exit.
I gave it a try and have to report it’s an odd thing to intentionally squirt water up your nose. Plain water burns like hell but adding a packet of salt (provided in the kit) and heating it up for 25 seconds in the microwave does it.
On our last grocery trip we bought some ginger tea. I tried that today too. It’s spicy and needs just a hint of sweetener added.
I also spent a few hours researching and ordering a pump-assisted siphon, an ethanol tester, and a battery-operated gasoline pump. These are needed for my plan to rid small engines of ethanol-blend gasoline.
That evening we watched ‘Juri Dreams of Sushi’, a documentary about an 85-year-old sushi chef in Tokoyo. His restaurant is ery much in demand even though he serves $350-a-plate meals which last only 15-20 minutes. Good one.
research sinus wash and buy kit, try it. Try ginger tea.

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Sunday, 23 December -

After a morning on the web I took a very cold and windy ride on the F650GS to Rudy Park for a walk. I bundled up well and walked for an hour. I had thought I’d ride on in to Starbucks but that was enough. I was getting stiff after the walk so called it a day.
That evening we watched 20-or-so YouTube clips about New Zealand.

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Saturday, 22 December -

Today I continued web research on New Zealand, mostly on camping information. I see the Department of Conservation has a list of campsite locations with GPS coordinates but the coordinates are in a New Zealand-specific datum. That led me on a long path. I learned the GPS I was intending to use doesn’t support the datum-change to the New Zealand format (or any changes, for that matter) and then I searched for and tried several coordinates-conversion calculators. That eventually kind-of worked but was too much hassle. I eventually found an iPad app which has the DOC campsites on an on-screen map. It reportedly had the GPS positions but it took me a while to find them. It turns out the GPS locations are only shown when the iPad doesn’t have a connection. When you have a connection to the web you can simply follow the map as you go. But when you don’t have a connection, you can get the GPS location from the static map and key it in to a GPS to get there. And those coordinates are in the familiar WGS-84 datum. Yay!

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Friday, 21 December -

Again with the 0400-wakeup today. I fell back asleep after 0700 but this is just going to keep happening if I don’t get back to a regular sleep pattern.
Later on I called my insurance agent to get a quote for adding my motorcycles to my ATV policy. When I bought the ATV January my motorcycle-insurance company gave me a horrible quote-- something like $400 for the ATV alone. I called my home-and-car insurance company and they quoted the same coverage at $75 (really???). The motorcycle rate had been a competitive one but for some reason they don’t like ATVs or have very different risk models. In any case, that drove me to find I could add the bikes to the ATV policy and get better coverage (higher liability and better road-service terms) while cutting cost by $125.
That afternoon I picked up the ATV from the shop and again hit the nearby Starbucks. I finally had the chance to show Carly our photos of our Botswana trip. I also learned she has just recently sponsored an Ethiopian child. She volunteers over there several times a year through a local church.
That evening we watched two episodes of ‘Gold Rush’.

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Thursday, 20 December -

I slept badly last night, waking at 0400 and not being able to get back to sleep. I’m sure the problem is my messed-up sleep pattern. I arose at 0700 to start my day but then got light-headed and went back to lie down for an hour.
I had a dental cap insertion today in Mechanicsburg, then I came home and took the ATV down to York for it’s appointment for a recall. Honda tells me they had problems with inadequate welds on suspension parts and not to use it until I get the free replacement done.
After dropping off the ATV I drove to the nearby Starbucks before heading home.

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Wednesday, 19 December -

Today I pulled the trigger on flights and a camper-van. I also looked for a B&B or motel for our first and last nights but didn’t see anything I liked.
I also had to deal with credit-card rejects on the camper-van. I forgot to tell our bank we’d be traveling so they rejected the bookings based on the origin of the transaction.
That evening we watched four episodes of ‘Modern Family’.

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Tuesday, 18 December -

I did some more New Zealand flights research today and then we made an off-the-cuff trip down to REI in Timonium. Labashi wanted full-zip rainpants for the trip and tried on the ones I use for motorcycling. But those didn’t seem quite right so I proposed we see what REI has. She found a very comfortable pair and also a much-better fitting raincoat made out of a new and softer type of nylon.
That evening we called Labashi’s brother who lives in the DC area about our trip plans. They drop us off at the airport and park our car at their home, then pick us up on our return. We have a nice visit on either side of the trip and don’t have to pay for long-term parking.
That evening we watched the last episode of ‘Wallandar’, series 3 and the watched some YouTube clips of New Zealand, mostly earthquake-damage footage from Christchurch.

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Monday, 17 December -

I continued working on New Zealand flights and made a final try to locate a 4x4 camper. I’ve found the ‘Bushcamper’, which is a high-top Land Rover trooper but it’s both old and not certified as self-contained. What, exactly, would be the point of working back a 4x4 track to a remote area only to have to leave early because you don’t have a self-containment certificate?
I wrote a response email to the outfitter for the Hi-Ace before we went off to have supper with Mom and Dad.
That evening we watched ‘In A Better World’, a very interesting Danish movie.

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Sunday, 16 December -

This morning we watched ‘Sunday Morning’ on TV, then Labashi went shopping for boots.
I took my Sunday Starbucks ride on this cloudy, 50-degree day.
That evening we watched the movie ‘The Lady’, about Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi. Good one!

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Saturday, 15 December -

Today I wrote a letter to the camper-van outfitter we’re hoping to use in New Zealand.
I then rode the motorcycle over to Rudy Park for an hour’s walk.
That evening we had the quote from the outfitter and we looked at YouTub videos of tours of the van, a Toyota Hi-Ace.

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Friday, 14 December -

I continued working on New Zealand flights, trying to figure out how to get a good deal. An article in the Huffington Post says the best time to buy an international flight ticket is exactly 34 days before the flight. But I’m not sure we should wait that long.
I’ve been using Kayak and Hipmunk and several other flight-finders but Air New Zealand always beats their best. Still, it’s a consistent difference so I can keep an eye on day-to-day changes with them.
That afternoon I walked at Rudy Park with Labashi. We walked to the far end of the rail-trail segment and back to the dog-run parking lot in an hour and a half.
That evening it was 3 eps of ‘The Closer’.

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Thursday, 13 December -

This morning I drove Labashi’s car up to a dentist appointment then to Mom and Dad’s apartment. They must have had a power surge or something. One of the phones had lost its speaker (important for Dad), the phone recorder wouldn’t accept messages, and the CD player wouldn’t play.
I drove to Best Buy and bought a set of cordless phones and looked at CD players, then came back and installed the phones and customized them. I’ll buy a CD player online.
That evening we watched ‘How to Draw a Bunny’, a documentary about Warhol-era artist Ray Johnson. We also watched a ‘Closer’ ep.

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Wednesday, 12 December -


More New Zealand flight research today. I also researched phones and downloaded an update to our Lonely Planet tour guide. The update is due to the Christchurch earthquake which destroyed downtown Christchurch.
That afternoon I rode in to Starbucks then to Pep Boys to pick up a replacement gas cap for the Miata. But upon my return I installed the gas cap and it interferes with the gas-compartment lid. Now I can’t get the compartment open. I don’t have enough hands and Labashi is away today. I’ll need her to work the lever inside the car while I push down on the door to release pressure on the locking pin.
That evening we watched two episodes of the last season of ‘The Closer’. Quality is suffering this season.

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Tuesday, 11 December-

Today I got back to researching New Zealand flights and planning our first couple of days there.
That afternoon I rode the GS to Rudy Park for a 50-minute walk on the 5K cross-country course.
That evening we stepped out to see a flyover of the International Space Station. I get alerts from NASA’s Spot The Station message system for these. This one was fairly short and it appeared we had too much cloud cover but clouds opened up in that quadrant of the sky just a few minutes ahead of the pass. Cool!
I had also seen news about the Toutatis asteroid pass and signed on to slooh.com for the first time. This remote-control space camera website is very interesting. I watched several of their recorded programs and the live broadcast of the Toutatis pass.

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Monday, 10 December -

Labashi and I had breakfast with Orat and then spent an hour or two working with his new laptop and Windows 8. It took us all a while to decide Windows 8 isn’t a complete and utter disaster. We just had to learn a new interface.
We started home late morning and reached the Lamb’s Creek area outside of Mansfield (PA) by noon. We had a quick lunch in the van and walked for an hour at this Army Corps of Engineers site. Hunters were in the woods nearby so we didn’t stray near them.
Back home that evening we watched the last ‘The Good Wife’ disc of the season.

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Sunday, 9 December-

Orat made us all sausage gravy and biscuits this morning and then we had a day with the kids running about while we talked. I took the three little ones for a short walk on this cold, windy day, then we piled into Mocha Joe to explore the van and tell stories and play. The older one (she’s about to become a ‘two-digit midget’) sang a Christmas song (over and over and over!). The youngest (four, I think) wanted to know what everything in the van is for and how it works. The middle one, a 7-year-old boy was like a barely-contained cyclone. In other words, we had a GREAT time!
That evening we went back over to my nephew’s home for a delicious pasta dinner. The meatballs up there are to-die-for delicious.

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Saturday, 8 December -

Today we drove to Orat’s house in the Rochester, NY suburbs. The drive up was uneventful and a pleasant one. We stopped at Starbucks at Williamsport for a quick break, then at the Wal-mart in Mansfield so I could buy a slingshot (our local Wal-marts didn’t have them in stock).
We had dinner at my nephew’s house and gave the kids their Christmas presents. Labashi has made it a yearly habit to buy them tree ornaments somehow related to our travels as well as books or, this year, a documentary on bugs called ‘Microcosmos’.

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Friday, 7 December -


I again spent most of the day researching New Zealand. I had originally hoped to find a four-wheel drive camper but gave that up. I don’t like the layout. The bed is in the raised-roof section of the camper and would require us to awkwardly climb up and down in a narrow space. Also, the stove isn’t usable in windy, rainy, or buggy weather and has to be assembled (connected to the gas supply) for each use and then dis-assembled for storage. No thanks!
We also spent some time prepping for a trip this weekend.

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Thursday, 6 December -

Today was another New Zealand research day. I’ve been spending an incredble amount of time on camper-van alternatives but also feel I’ve learned a lot from various outfitter sites and traveler blogs.
I’ve also spent day after day on flight-finder sites. One thing I learned from that is I can get a better price from Air New Zealand than any of the discount sites... but only by $20 a ticket or so.

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Wednesday, 5 December

I spent much of the day doing research on a camper-van for our New Zealand trip.
I also spent an annoyingly-long time finding Xenon bulbs for the fixtures in our bathrooms. I’m amazed at the variety of bulbs and today learned that lighting vendors are quick to substitute halogen bulbs for xenon bulbs. But my fixtures specifically say they are not built for the hotter-burning halogen bulbs.
I contacted the factory tech support person for the fixtures to get the right ordering numbers and even then had problems getting the right ones. I finally found the replacement bulbs for the upstairs bath but they didn’t have bulbs for the downstairs bath. On a whim I asked the girl to search for the manufacturer’s SKU rather than the bulb type and voila! They’re on the way.

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Tuesday, 4 December -

Holy Global Warming! It’s 70 degrees today!

After my morning web-patrol I called Cycle Tech and asked if I could bring the GS over for a while-you-wait inspection. The bike passed without problems but the rear brakes are getting low and will need to be replaced in a month or two. I have a bit over 8000 miles on this one. I bought it in early summer 2010. The Concours is here at the shop awaiting parts to fix an oil leak from the bevel gear area.
That afternoon Labashi and I took a few minutes to get our flu shots at the doctor’s office.
I rode the GS into Starbucks for a break and finished reading the novel ‘Zeitoun’.

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Monday, 3 December -

Today I finally got around to starting to implement what I call my fuel-management plan. I used a siphon to drain the generator of its gas, drained the carb, and ran it dry, then packed it away. I also siphoned the ATV gas tank dry and ran it for something like a half hour without it shutting down. I turned off the fuel shutoff and it STILL ran another half hour without shutting down. I’m not sure what’s going on there.
The other part of the gasoline management plan involves switching around gas cans and transferring fuel. Any E10 gas will be kept temporarily in a can but only for very short term. I want to try to keep that can empty by dumping it into the van’s extra-large tank to mix with fresh E10. I marked three cans for this purpose and will add wired tags with fill dates.
From now on the generator and mowers will run only E0 gas. I can get it from a station not too far away. That gas will be treated with Sta-bil each time I fill the can. Given the relatively few fillings a year, that shouldn’t be difficult.
The motorcycles and ATV are a bit tougher in one sense, easier in another. I probably can’t depend on finding E0 gas when traveling and don’t think I need to. In general, I can use up the gas quickly enough on the motorcycles. Having said that, I made the mistake of allowing gas to get old in the Concours and paid the price--- an expensive carb service just to get it running again. I can do better simply by making a run to the E0 station part of my regular Starbucks run.
For the ATV, though, I’ve got to be vigilant. I can run through a few tankfuls of gas on a trip and it wouldn’t seem to matter that it’s E10. But I need to get that last fill-up out before parking the ATV trailer for a few months between trips. I guess one way of doing that would be to simply carry along more gas cans and try to do the E0-only thing. Surely I wouldn’t need more than, say, 15 gallons for a trip.
That evening we watched more ‘Rainshadow’.

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Sunday, 2 December -

This morning I did my regular Sunday web patrol with an eye on CBS’ Sunday Morning. I hadn’t slept well at all and had spent a few hours reading the novel ‘Zeitoun’.
That afternoon Labashi and I drove to Rudy Park and walked for an hour and a half, mostly on the new trail connector.
That evening we watched an episode of ‘The Good Wife’ and one of ‘Rainshadow’.

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Saturday, 1 December -

Today I felt guilty about still having Maypo’s power washer here and not using it. When we visited at Thanksgiving he had asked about it. Since we don’t have any upcoming appointments down there, I decided I’d run it back to him.
I loaded it into Labashi’s car, plugged my earbuds into the iPod and headed for Cburg.
The power washer was a bit unbalanced and I noticed as I’d take a turn it would lay down, then rock back up. I didn’t think much about it when it didn’t come back up after I drove through a series of turns as I neared Chambersburg. But as I unloaded the power washer at Maypo’s house, I smelled gasoline. It wasn’t very strong but definitely there.
After I chatted with Mrs. Maypo a bit (Maypo was working somewhere), I returned to the car and noticed the smell was much stronger. It turns out gasoline had been leaking out onto several cloth shopping bags Labashi had on the trunk floor. There wasn’t much gas--- only a wet spot about six inches around-- but it was now becoming quite a strong smell. I threw the shopping bags into an outdoor trash can where they’ll have time to dry out and headed home. At Shippensburg I stopped at the Lowe’s and bought three replacement bags.
That evening we watched ‘The Good Wife’ episodes.

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