Life as a Lifeboat Museum Host

Port Orford Lifeboat Museum

We are starting our final week at the Port Orford Lifeboat Museum and have fallen into a routine, but one quite different from when we are home.  The spouse is fishing, or talking fishing, or fiddling with his fishing stuff every day.  He has finally cracked the code for catching surf perch and will show anyone who expresses any interest the pictures of his dead fish on his iPhone   We "work" four days a week, Thursday through Sunday.  I've been at the museum today for four hours and we've had four visitors...and made $3.00 in donations and $5.00 in dogtag sales.  I've caught up on email and Facebook since we don't have wifi at our campsite.  The "job" gives us plenty of time to feed our cyber addiction.

We took a road trip to California to see the redwoods on our time off.  They are beautiful, as is the scenery along the coastline, but the best part of the trip was staying one night in a hotel and taking a shower in a full sized shower.  I could actually raised my arms above my head to wash my hair without having to tuck in my elbows.  We're getting along fine in our 5th wheel trailer; it seems spacious after our motorhome, but I do miss having a bathroom I can turn around in.

Last weekend Indians gathered at the park where we are camped to bless the site and launch new cedar canoes.  They have a salmon feed every year at the park that was once a Native American campsite.  They drummed and chanted around a fire.  I was reminded again that I had stepped out of my routine. 

This volunteer assignment is like putting our life on hold.  All our regular chores and responsibilities are set aside.  We have no routine to follow.  We didn't forward our mail.  Most of our bills are paid automatically...and those that aren't will just have to wait until we get home.  We're in suspended animation.  We're forced to shop and eat in new places.  There is nothing familiar here.  On our trip to California we stopped at Taco Bell for lunch...I hate to admit that I felt at home.  For creatures of habit, this adventure is a challenge, one that we are enjoying but, nevertheless, a challenge.

As I paddled my kayak on the lake yesterday I was smiling.  I could hear the ocean waves breaking on the shore just over the dune.  I paddled along a patch of reeds close to shore and made eye contact with an egret.  He watched me as I silently floated by.  I am an intruder in this place, but the locals don't seem to mind my incursion into their territory.