There are times when I am writing the blog that I just don't know where and how to add some things. They don't follow the story line or I just forget to add them in, but they are still sitting there in my head and make me smile, or give me pause from time to time. I thought I might share a few of these snippets here and now.
1. Valentines Day - On this last trip we left early on Valentines Day morning. Up at 4:30ish and out the door around 6:00ish. As usual we had a lot of things to do that would fill that final few minutes and as always it was a hectic morning. Carol had a Valentine waiting for me on the kitchen table and as we poured our coffee she asked me to open it. I did, and as usual she had written some very appropriate sentiments - this would be our 51st Valentines Day together. However the card was a Birthday card not a Valentines card..a birthday card! My birthday is in April. I guess she just liked the picture on the front (two doggies) and failed completely to read the inside. We had a good laugh, and it still comes up in conversation from time to time. Of course I was accused of not having a card for her, however, several days before I got her a card, wrote my own version of nice sentiments and hid it in the RV where she discovered it as we headed out... all is right with the world.
2. Weather - We expected bad weather and traffic as our route took us through New York City, across the George Washington Bridge. It turned out to be the easiest trip through the city in years.. go figure, and we had no bad weather at all, and absolutely no traffic on the George Washington Bridge.
4. Route 95 - We ofter wonder why some parts of the highway are concrete and some parts asphalt. The concrete sections sure make a lot of noise, and are bumpy too.
5. Bike ride incident. The dumpster in the RV park where we would take our trash was a couple hundred yards away. It was a five minute walk at best, but getting there by bicycle was much easier and quicker. I had a pretty good sized load of trash and a camp chair that was broken. I hooked them over the handlebars and started off. Now the incline to the trash was so slight that you could hardly call it an incline, but I was struggling. I was really feeling old and very out of shape today (a lot of self pity) as I was just chugging 'up the hill' and was suddenly concerned about my health. I then realized that I had hooked the trash over the break lever and was riding with the front brake fully engaged.. I got my health back very quickly when I unhooked the bag from the lever.
6. The propane incident. A few days after we arrived at the RV park in Florida our propane stopped working. We couldn't cook in the Doodle any more. I suspected the propane regulator as I was told at a rally a couple of years that regulators are notorious for failing and that I should carry a spare. I have a spare in the tool box. I crawled up under the van and realized that I could not do this with the tools and knowledge I have. I called a mobile rv repair guy who said he could come out next Tuesday. We agreed on 10:30. That night in bed (where I do my best thinking) I realized that on the trip down we had likely used up a lot of propane and maybe we were just out. I know I had filled it days before we left but we had dry camped a couple of nights in cold weather and run the furnace, cookies and ran the fridge on propane so maybe we were just empty. Fortunately the rv park sells propane. When they filled the tank. it tool less than one gallon. However when he vented the tank there was a large whoosh of air before the propane vented. I am guessing that when the tank was filled before we left the propane guy did not purge the tank. The problem was solved and I canceled the repair guy. Live and learn.
Right in front of us, every time
7 & 8 Dog poop - I could go on about this subject but will just make a couple of observations here. We used to live in the country and all our dogs used to run free and did what they had to do in the woods somewhere. We never had any dog poop in the yard. We now live by new rules and carry ultra thin biodegradable bags with us all the time, just to pick up Harpers poop. Everyone who owns a dog carries bags it seems. So the two observations are this. As you may know we love to hike in the woods - long hikes, deep woods. We are forever finding bags of poop left along the trail. Who would bag their dogs poop and then leave it in the woods in a plastic bag? Or hung in a tree? Or stuck in a bush or left on a rock? Idiots. . . We have seen this just about everywhere we have hike - all across the country. The other observation made on this trip was made when we were at the dog beach, and we all loved the dog beach. It seemed as though every dog, or at least the majority seemed to want to poop directly in front of us... just our luck I guess.
9. Masks - People in Florida just don't want to wear their masks. . . .
10. Well decorated - I don't comment enough on how nicely decorated Carol keeps the Doodle. We always have fresh flowers and she keeps everything looking so very nice, thanks Carol, you make me look less of a slob.
11. Another sign - On the return trip home we spotted a sign, somewhere near Washington, DC that said "DUI Enforcement Area" I guess if you went somewhere else you can drive as drunk as you want. Or maybe you are required to be impaired in this area. I am glad we made it through OK.
12. Elon Musk was messing with us - Finally I have to comment on a major disappointment of the trip. The campground we were at is about 25 miles south of the Kennedy Space Center. A SpaceX launch was scheduled for Sunday evening at 8:36 on a Falcon 9 carrying 60 Starlink satellites. The launch would be visible from the RV park. Everyone was excited. We planned a Mediterranean dinner with Tom and Debbie as a pre-launch socially aware gathering, and to our surprise it seemed as though the entire rv park crown was gather on the little knoll to watch the launch. We had a great dinner, I had the launch countdown going on my phone, my son and grandson were watching virtually and the launch was cancelled at the one minute mark...groan grrrrr...rescheduled for the next evening, canceled, then the next evening, canceled and then of course it was time for us to head north...Elon was messing with us. . .
The launch happened the day after we left. . .