{"id":1237,"date":"2021-05-20T01:14:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T09:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=1237"},"modified":"2021-05-19T20:17:53","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T04:17:53","slug":"shakedown-cruise-and-writing-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2021\/05\/20\/shakedown-cruise-and-writing-retreat\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakedown Cruise and Writing Retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve headed back to my favorite part of Cape Cod for Writing Retreats, this time as my first expedition in the Mothership! Here I am taking command, ready to leave, having worked the dock crew\u2019s fingers to the bone getting everything ready.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17121\" src=\"https:\/\/www.starrigger.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Jeff-prepares-to-take-command-of-Mothership_sm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A few minutes after this is taken, I hit the spacelanes, full of confidence.<\/p>\n<p>You know, everything looks different from the bridge of this ship. I like this perspective. My, aren\u2019t those F-150 pickups the most adorable little cub trucks? <em>Wait<\/em>\u2014is that a Ranger like mine, or a toy truck? Must be a toy. <em>My<\/em> Ranger isn\u2019t <em>that<\/em> little.<\/p>\n<p>The confidence takes a hit an hour in, when I make a stop and discover what I forgot to pack: my wallet. Drivers license. Money. Credit cards. <em>Nooooo!<\/em> Grumbling, cursing, 180 turn. Back home for the wallet. Then back onto the spacelanes, somewhat deflated. The more so when the Check Engine light comes on. Gritting my teeth, I forge ahead. Real spacemen don\u2019t stop for no stinking Check Engine lights! Would Neil Armstrong have stopped? Hell no!<\/p>\n<p>(Okay, I eventually stop and scan the code. Non-mission-critical. Steady on course, Mr. Sulu.)<\/p>\n<p>I arrive and set up in the dark. Why does this always happen? Connect water\u2014check. Connect power\u2014check. Remove bike from bed in back and lock it to the picnic table\u2014check. Check that we\u2019re level. <em>Oh no.<\/em> The site isn\u2019t level. I jockey back and forth in vain. I wonder if this is why there\u2019s a bag in the back marked \u201cLevelers\u201d full of oversized Lego pieces. I wonder what to do with them, hoping it doesn\u2019t involve jacks. The internet comes to my rescue. It doesn\u2019t involve jacks, but we\u2019re not done setting up yet. It\u2019s gonna be a long first night. Well, at least the wifi router in the cabin connects to the campsite wifi without trouble. (Yet&#8230;heh-heh.) Things will look better in the morning. Repeat after me.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the Mothership in daylight. Things do look better.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17119\" src=\"https:\/\/www.starrigger.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Mothership-at-campground-in-Bourne-MA_sm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And here\u2019s what you do with those oversized Lego pieces. You drive up onto them.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17120\" src=\"https:\/\/www.starrigger.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Mothership-and-levelers.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2080\" height=\"1560\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s what you do to reward yourself. The campground is literally right next to the bike path.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17126\" src=\"https:\/\/www.starrigger.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bourne-Bridge-and-Bike_sm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The learning curve has begun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve headed back to my favorite part of Cape Cod for Writing Retreats, this time as my first expedition in the Mothership! Here I am taking command, ready to leave, having worked the dock crew\u2019s fingers to the bone getting everything ready. A few minutes after this is taken, I hit the spacelanes, full of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-experiences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1238,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions\/1238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}