SCHOONER

We’ve been on the road now for 3 weeks, always with someplace to be every night. Some people like structure, schedules and itineraries and sometimes I wish I fit that profile. But in truth, it wears me out. All it takes is one hick up and it’s back to the drawing board. I’ve been told that you can skip a day and move on with the plan. But skipping the 500 miles you were going to put down that day leaves you a long way from the bed you had reserved. I normally carry my bed with me in the back of my truck. When the sun goes down, there you are. It works and I like it. But we, (she is a true road warrior like me) we have a schedule, bumpy at best, only a few calendar/course corrections and here we are. 

The Affordable Travel Club is a network of seniors who are willing to provide a fellow traveler with a bed for the night, breakfast and share hospitality that is the driving force of the organization. I’ve belonged to AFT for about a decade and never had a bad experience, either as a host or as a guest. There is no formal pricing, only a tradition for gratitude to match the hospitality. At some time before or after the guest moves along, the host finds a $20 bill on a night stand or coffee table as a heartfelt thank you. We’ve stayed with ATC members as we have been able and they are certainly good company, friends for the most part that who you would have missed otherwise. 

It’s early (still dark outside) and we are staying with a Pakistani family in their cheap motel, not far from Gatlinburg, TN. This is all about renting a bed and bath. I’m sure they are nice people but playing cards or sharing common interests just don’t fit the profile. If there is no ATC member nearby, at the end of the day one does what they must. Later, when we get daylight, Great Smoky Mt. National Park is our plan for the day. Then there are distant relatives (hers, not mine) waiting for us in NW Georgia. It has the same feeling as ATC even though they do have a common history. 

Our primary reason for the road trip was to adventure on a tall, sailing ship, a schooner. We did that right off, out of Rockland, Maine. The American Eagle is a 90’ schooner or 119’ with the bow sprit. Built in 1930, it is the last schooner/fishing trawler built in Gloucester, MA. They fished the Atlantic, caught lots of fish and in 1983 was a salvage project; either spend a ton of money or a rebuild or cast it off to the scrapyard. The refit was complete, new, redesigned everything; moving and redesigning the galley, new masts, new bones, new deck, converting the hold to living and sleeping quarters with toilet (head) accommodations and other amenities I won’t elaborate on here. 

Since 1985 ‘Eagle’ has been giving tourists a taste of the salt water experience, up and down the Maine coast. With 26 passengers and a crew of 6, we spent 6 nights and 5 days dodging in and out of islands in the Gulf of Maine, going ashore in villages and lobster bakes on isolated beaches, and it was all good. One night there were 13 schooners anchored in the harbor of a small town that featured a sailing school for wooden boats, all with a full complement of passengers. They were celebrating the tradition of wooden sailing ships and we were part of the show (the boats that is) and we (the passengers) were allowed to spend money at the festival that was in progress. 

This road trip with its best feature early leaves us nibbling at bait as we make our way back to New Orleans. Acadia Nat’l Park with its rugged Maine coast was great and today will feature Great Smoky Nat’l Park. This life is pretty good. Being old has its draw backs but travel is the upside.