A to Z Challenge 2016: U is for Unexpected Benefits

Unexpected Benefits

Our month at Sunset Bay State Park ends this week.  We have enjoyed our time here and hope we will be invited back.  After volunteering last year at Port Orford's Lifeboat Museum, we happily learned to live with less and coexist in a small space.  We worked together and lived together.  It was a lot of togetherness!  We learned to take time alone and the benefits of silence.

Our experience at Sunset Bay has been much the same, and we've learned some new lessons.  The spouse was worried about being away from home for two months.  We brought my car in addition to the pickup that pulls the trailer, just in case he needed to return home for something.  Perhaps just having the option to "run home" (an 8-hour trip) eased his mind.  He recently said, "I thought I would need to go home to check on things, but now that I'm here, I don't need to."  This morning he's off collecting shrimp for fish bait and having some alone time.  I enjoy having Stanley (our trailer) to myself.  It's a lot easier to tidy up without having to climb over the spouse.

We spend time outdoors, mostly sitting in our campsite reading.  Although, we both are walking more and riding our bikes.  We've learned that we need more than reading to pass our time camping.  Most of the other hosts have taken up hobbies that are travel-friendly.  Our new friends, Chuck and Jane, can be seen almost every day sitting at the table in front of their trailer working on their projects.  Chuck whittles wood he finds around the camp and Jane makes rag rugs and placemats on a small loom.  Before we leave she's going to give me a lesson.  I made a quick run into North Bend to visit the craft store and picked up a few supplies to get me started on my artistic endeavors.  I'm not sharing yet.  So far I've made prototypes...the nice way of saying I'm still experimenting.  If you are the recipient of one of my new masterpieces, just smile and say "Thank you!"  You can laugh later and I'll join in when I get over my fear of trying new things!

Have a great day.  It is good to be retired!