Old Friends Month

They say, “You can’t make old friends” but I found out you can rediscover them. We made friends with Beth and Ted in 1989 when I forced Lori to leave friends and family for the sake of career to live in Mechanicburg, PA. Soon after moving in, we became close friends with Beth and Ted saving the marriage or at least making things much easier. Over 10 years ago, we lost touch until this February when we went to Maui adding to our second summer.

Ted and Beth spent 6 months a year in Maui for the past 20 years, own a home there and are no longer haoles. They like living there but not constantly hosting visitors which can easily happen. Suddenly your third cousin expects a place to stay and someone to show them around after you first and second cousins have just left. As friends they haven’t seen on over 10 years, we could have been that kind of visitor. So we weren’t and as I mentioned above you can rediscover old friends.

As the days progressed we did more and more together. We came out of hibernation and were once again old close friends. Lori and I stayed at the beach a few blocks away and planned activities which Beth or Ted either joined or switched to something better. We kayaked, hiked, swam, snorkeled, golfed, whale watched and happy houred the days away with great conversation and laughter. We enjoyed it so much it is not only a do again but a do again in 2024. Below is a slide showing a bit of it.

Earlier in February, I met with some old friends, my fraternity brothers of 40 years, and I have stayed in touch with them. However, old friends like these you have stay in touch with the right amount or your life will go sideways. We rented a house in Naples, FL played golf for a few days and laughed till we our sides hurt. As we are now wiser, there are few pictures. Here is all of them.

Old friends are the best and spending time with them doing cool things is a top notch way to spend your time. We ended February still on the beach in Hawaii and more to be done.

Second Summer

When you are old and in decline, time becomes very finite. I tend to think in terms of how many more summers I have left to wade a stream and hike a mountain. It’s a finite number that seems way too low. Lori and I have found we can get a second summer by heading south. The southern hemisphere has summer when it is winter in the northern. Lori and I went to Chilean Patagonia in January of 2022 and New Zealand in 2023.

In 1990, Lori and I went to the North Island for a week in Auckland and Rotorua enjoying it immensely. So this past January, we went to the South Island for 16 hours of day light and shirt sleeve weather to be outside and active. Our good friends Pete and Susan joined us for the full trip. Shelby and Jack joined us for a week after attending a wedding in Sydney.

We thoroughly enjoyed the South Island and will be back in 2025. If you are looking for fine dining, world class architecture, art museums or a sophisticated urban environment don’t go. Also there is no Serengeti or Yellowstone with outstanding land wildlife viewing. However, if you are looking for great outdoor activities in a stunning landscape don’t miss it. They also have a solid wine country and lots of sheep. Below is a slide show of some Queenstown based activities.

In addition to Queenstown we stayed in Frans Joseph, Hokitika, Nelson, Kai Kura and Christchurch for a total of three weeks before heading home. Epic, awesome, etc. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Of note is that all these activities were, on time, professionally guided, well equipped and otherwise squared away. We always felt in the know when embarking. Lori and I are really looking forward to our next second summer down under.

Timing

Well three weeks after son Chris got engaged to Sophie, Son Jack got engaged to Shelby. My wife, Lori, said, ” I hope they’re talking to each other about this so their weddings don’t overlap. They then both said we are planning to wed next fall. Weird timing!

After extensive travel all year it was nice to be home for December. Our children, their fiancés and friends all made it back for the holidays. Lori’s family joined us as well and we had several gatherings. Also, we slid out to Philadelphia to have Goose Day with my brother’s family and my mom. It was a great holiday connecting with family.

Finally we had a celebration of life for my dad who passed in August. Lots of family and friends had a happy warm get together at Dad’s old club which was fitting given his love of golf. It was the first time in a long time my whole family and my brother’s whole family got together. Just a great way to end the year.

Unexpected Expansion

At 27, I married and was warmly received by my wife’s local, highly connected and kind family. Coming from a small dispersed family it was a happy expansion and a new unexpected experience.

Thirty four years later, my wife, daughter and I went to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving to meet my son and his new fiancé, Sophie. Sophie’s family was getting together and it was an opportunity to meet her parents. Unexpectedly, it turned into a wonderful expansion of family. To have this after so many years was really great. I hadn’t thought about it until it happened creating a happy surprise.

Aunt Harriet, 91, hosted a feast for forty of multiple generations of siblings and cousins. We were greeted warmly and everyone made it a point to introduce themselves and welcome us. A personal highlight was spending some time with Mendel, a holocaust survivor who still bore the numerical tattoo on her wrist. It was a marvelous evening filled with laughter. Subsequently, Sophie’s parents rolled out the red carpet showing us LA and hosting a personal dinner in their home. We left feeling connected and looking forward to the next time we got together. A few pictures of our trip below.

Earlier in the month we had another happy expansion. Our other son and his girlfriend invited us to vacation with them in the Canary Islands. So we said yes and went. I figure hanging on to family is just as important. When your children, who are off being independent ask you to join, it’s important to be with them. The Canaries were good not great so probably not looking to go back. We also stopped in Birmingham, England on the way home to spend a little more time with them.

It was a fantastic November, because of the family we have and new family we will have. A marvelous turn of events we wouldn’t have expected in October.

Shakedown

I felt cool telling people I was shaking down my R1T with a trip to Minnesota. Even though, deep down, I knew they weren’t impressed or really even cared. And when I say shake down it doesn’t mean to rob or con. It means testing systems, properly equipping and setting up, and learning how to operate.

So I chose an over night trip to Lanesboro, MN to fish the driftless area, a 6 hour drive. I learned to do a high speed charging pit stop in Madison, WI and an overnight slow charge at a Lanesboro public charger. I felt range anxiety and learned about losing range by driving 80 mph. I was missing a tool to set up my rod racks to hold fishing rods. I learned and tested settings for mud and rocks and sand. I worked with entertainment, navigation, and storage. All systems are operational. My range anxiety is slightly diminished. And I am more confident in taking the R1T on a longer trip.

By the way, the trip was pretty good as well. Lanesboro is a cool town and the fishing is pretty good as well, wild brown trout in beautiful spring creeks.

Got to do a lot of other fun stuff in October. Slide show below.

Getting a new complicated thing then shaking it down is very satisfying. After spending to acquire the investment feels worthwhile post shakedown, unless it doesn’t. Luckily the R1T post shake down is a significant improvement over the Ridgeline is almost every way.

We are what we chose to be – Graham Brown

September 2022

If you want and introduction on me go to RidgelineTour.com and you can read who I am and what I am doing.

After driving my beloved Honda Ridgeline pick-up for 105,000 miles on many fantastic adventures, I switched to a Rivian RIT electric pick-up. I was on the waiting list for 3 years and made the choice for many reasons.

1. I believe humankind needs to change from being extractive to being sustainable for our children’s sake.
2. The performance of electric cars is just that electric.
3. The features of the R1T suit my current and imagined lifestyle even better than the excellent Ridgeline.

September in America is one of the best. Most of the country has awesome weather and available activities. Living near Chicago, it’s one of the best months for golf, biking, barbecuing, kayaking. In Montana the fishing, hiking etc. is fantastic. Northern California is losing its morning marine layer making very pleasant. In the east humidity is abating but warm days and wonderful nights abound. These days the south stays a little too hot to be a good option.

So do I leave friends and family in Chicago or stay. Well a little of both.

Home and Montana served well.

There is lots of advice regarding choice like “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” or “Do the right thing not the easy thing”. As an older conservative person I like the safe incremental approach. Given where I am how can make life a little better. Burning down and starting anew is too bold for me. As I have said, a pick up can become like a cowboy’s horse and leaving the Ridgeline seemed like a big step even though it was incremental.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

The R1TTour.com blog is my creative outlet and a way to share. My R1T is my pick up truck and a symbol of the liberty I have enjoyed for the past five years and plan to enjoy going forward.