Blue View – Top Ten Reasons to Use Trekking Poles

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Blue View – Top Ten Reasons to Use Trekking Poles

On one of our hikes a few months ago, someone had left a nice walking stick at the trailhead that was fashioned from a piece of green willow, presumably for the next hiker to use. Marcie picked it up and used it during the day's hike. She liked having it so much, in fact, that she kept it. Unfortunately, it didn't fare well as it dried out, so we decided to get a set of trekking poles.

After hiking with them for quite a few miles, we’ve found them to be quite useful - despite my initial reservations. Here is our list of the top ten uses we’ve found for trekking poles.

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Blue View - Our Camping Pet Peeves

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Blue View - Our Camping Pet Peeves

Traveling around in a van has a lot of similarities with sailing. One of them is settling into an anchorage/campground for the evening - or a few days. Often, we end up parking in somewhat close proximity to other sailboats/campers/RVs, and it's nice when everyone is at least a little considerate of the others parked nearby. We've found, however, that whether it be an anchorage or a campground, there are at least a few who have no clue about about proper etiquette. I think it’s only right that I devote a little space to the annoyances of camping. So here are our ten top pet peeves of camping.

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Blue View – Comparing the Cost of Owning a Van vs Owning a Boat, Part 2

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Blue View – Comparing the Cost of Owning a Van vs Owning a Boat, Part 2

Now that Blue has been part of the family for a year now, I thought it would be a good time to take a reckoning of what he's cost us, and compare that to the cost of owning Nine of Cups. Last week in Part 1, I tallied all the fixed costs – those dollars that don't change much whether Blue is sitting in the driveway or carrying us across the country. This week, I'll total up the operating expenses. These are the costs like fuel and maintenance that do vary more or less directly with the amount of driving we do.

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