At dinner, as the early evening light faded on our outside table last night, we were thinking how this anchorage with a porch doesn’t require many of the things that past winter’s coves have required. We don’t need to consider an anchor watch during squalls, we don’t have to raise the dinghy each night, no need to check the batteries to see if we need to run the engine to charge, making or collecting water, worry about dragging, or hope we can get a signal for packet email.

Like cruising, we’ll be in this spot for 90 days, we have to motor to town each day for provisions, each time we go to town we see something new and interesting, the foods are diverse and delicious, we exchange money at the local bank, look forward to email and news from friends and home, hanging out we learn about the people and community, even pick up a little of the language and customs, and best of all consider how lucky we are to be able to experience different cultures: some familiar, like the Tesco Shopping Center or the urban traffic, while others are more foreign, such as the neighborhood outdoor markets, family one-pot restaurants and cycling thru empty roads of rural rubber plantations.

Traveling, anchoring (such as it is), helps us better appreciate our culture, rule of law, privileged affluence compared to many in the world, and especially our home in Durango. It’s easy to think “they” could do things better, like palletize loads of sacks and boxes rather than hump each load on their backs from truck to truck or truck to loading dock, choose a better government (no, wait, we can all do better at that). Or not litter, or not drive on the wrong side of the road, or use a backhoe rather than 15 guys in a ditch, or…. or…. But sometimes we need to remember that the slower, harder and maybe idiotic way might actually make sense, providing more jobs like loaders, street sweepers and narcissistic faux-megalomaniac leaders.

We’ve come to enjoy some of the Activities of Daily Living (ADL’s) that our winter travels require. Hand washing your clothes daily, going shopping for food each day (no stove and tiny refrigerator), sweeping the leaves from the porches, sampling various Thai dishes, missing the news-cycles, visiting the banana lady, or buying a 20-liter water jug every few days. This slower, seemingly less “productive” pace, gives pause for more interactions and thought. Like “how many summers do we have left?”, or how long is four years, really?

Time goes real fast and is easy to forget. Having reached 70, that thought has brought on more concern for our twilight time table. It’s hit me harder than Stanna, since my folks never reached 80. And considering just how fast the last 10, 15 or even 20 years have gone, how should these next “summers” be spent? Some may remember that almost 10 years ago we were floating in our own aquarium diving for dollars.

In case you’re hoping for a revelation, “get your hopes up,” as cousin John taught us. There is currently no plan, not an inkling. Hope you’ll help figure this out with us. Not to mention hoping someone else figures out their plan and lets us in on it, too.

Trang’s latitude is just about equal to the southern-most tip of Panama and far closer to the equatorial latitude than the North Island of New Zealand.  Singapore, about 500+ miles to our south, is almost on the Equator. So in “cruising terms” this is the most tropical we’ve spent our snowbird winters. And of course we’re warm, plenty warm: 88° as I type with a high of 91° today.

Thailand, being a geological delta, is prone to flooding and this year was no exception.  The first Spring we tried to leave Trang, our train had to turn back due to flooding, and this year the trains couldn’t get south once again due to flooding.  Lucky for us we’d made flight reservations.  Our favorite home here in Trang had water up 20″ inside the buildings just after we left the first year.  Since then they’ve dug two large retention ponds which may have kept the waters from reaching our doorsteps this year.

We keep four bikes here, left with friends, and every year we have to retrieve them and figure out what may or may not have gone bad in our absence.  This year was no exception, flat or punctured tires is normal, but this year the Trek road bike with the most miles seems to have five broken spokes due to rusting. Plus, once we got the spare wheels on it seems that the “used” Craigslist shifters I brought last years didn’t want to downshift. By mid-week and lots of trips to various bike shops (pictured is a father and son shop), I’ve got a new set of Shimano Sora shifters installed for $79 (less than I paid for the used ones last year).  I’m aware Sora is inferior to Dura-Ace (which they don’t make in 9 speed anymore) but they work really well and are superior to what I had.

Not having ridden more than a spin bike for the last eight months (okay, two couple-hour Mtn bike rides), it has been a challenge getting back on the roads.  Fortunately the Fahsong guys I ride with early in the morning don’t speak much English so I can’t make any excuses.  And they don’t worry about “drops” so you’d best keep up.

My latest tech toy gives me a fun readout and lets me know why I can be “guilt-free” by 8 AM.  Seeing that Calorie count makes it hard to avoid the ice cream, but I need to shed the kilos I gained eating trail food, first.  Hope this looks healthy enough.

Durango has only had one small snow storm this winter, but the cold temps have come as expected.  A couple mornings going to the gym the temps were in the low teens.  Purgatory, our local ski area, opened before Thanksgiving to skiing and mountain biking.  The former was marginal and the latter was very cold.  There’s almost no snow in town and streets are dry.  We’ve managed a few hikes in the low 30’s but it’s cold on the hands.

One of our final preparations for leaving was a unexpected iatrogenic boiler/hot water/furnace repair that took a day to restore hot water and five days to get the hydronic heat flowing again. No photos of us sitting at the kitchen counter in parkas unfortunately. This buck was not inhibited by our repairs in the boiler room under the condo, in fact the town is full of these guys hanging out for winter.

In the spirit of promoting lightweight travel here’s a series of photos for my snowbird adventure in Thailand.  21 pounds plus the clothes on my back. 8 of those pounds are bike components, such as saddle, 2 sets of pedals, pump, tools, lights and spares, packed into the Revelate seat pack.

We’ve got bikes and helmets left with friends in Thailand so lately there has not been a bike box to transport.

Electronics is the next burden to bare, but the only problem with that weight is forgetting something that you might need. Taking a look at the past year’s photo sure helps remembering. iPad, iPhone and MacBook aren’t shown.

And everyone is always curious about clothing for 3 or 4 months.  Traveling to warmer climes makes those choice much easier, the only difference being a lot of bike-specific wear. The third column is all for cycling, the rest is simple.