Wandering Rose

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

~ Bilbo Baggins in The Fellowship of the Ring    

This afternoon I discovered Gypsy Rose and Kevin Rose while noodling around the web looking at "tiny houses". I have a secret fascination with these downsized domestic phenomena, but don't tell my bride! She's keen on the idea of simple living, but the tiny house would definetely alarm her. So for now, I just oggle micro-homes online the ways others surf porn. Furtively...

I read post after post on Rose's blog about building and living in a miniature portable house named Gypsy Rose. My intrigue springs from the same basic urge that I have to eventually livaboard a sailing vessel. For long stretches of time. Another concept that strikes horror into the heart of my bride. And, uncanny as it may sound, Rose spends a little over half of his year living on a handsome sailboat. Too strange? The best is yet to come.

Rose spends April until November living on his sailboat, Raven, not in some farflung locale but right here on Lake Champlain! In essence, this cool cat is a North Country neighbor. Gypsy Rose is tucked into a bucolic orchard in Tunbridge, Vermont, and Raven -- based out of the Burlington area --  has probably sailed in front of my home (or my boat) multiple times. Uncanny for sure.

A sailing livaboard who built his own tiny house and wanders my own environs... How long before our paths cross? And an appetite for Bilbo Baggins? A friend of a friend is a friend of mine!