A Week with Friends and Family

Saturday, Aug 14-Friday, Aug 20, 2021 After we left Oak Island, we spent a lovely week visiting "at home" with various friends and family. As I wrote in my previous blog, we did a major shuffle of our belongings from house to Jeep to RV when we left our beach house. Then we drove down to Myrtle Beach, where our friends Howie and Lois have an oceanfront condo. We shlepped our two coolers up in the elevator to the 5th floor, where we filled up their refrigerator with leftovers from the beach and our RV foodstuffs. Then the four of us, somehow tired after our lovely beach vacation, just chilled out, reading on the balcony and napping. We had a totally delicious steak and salad dinner with a view of the ocean, and did absolutely nothing until we went to bed. Sunday was similar, but we did go swimming in the ocean. The water was a little bit cooler than it had been at Oak Island, but that may have been due to the rain which fell the afternoon before. Dinner this time was out on the balcony--pasta and scallops, YUM! And after dinner, we watched the movie Yesterday. All in all the two days were completely lovely. Although of course we adored spending a week with our kids and grandchildren, there's something very nice about just hanging out with old friends. Monday morning, we all packed up yet again. Joe and I planned to drive back to Oak Island again to pick up the RV, and then head for the mountains. But after some discussion, we decided that we would not try to get there that night. We knew from experience that our destination was pitch black at night, and we didn't think we'd get there before the sun went down. After looking at various routes, we decided that we'd simply go to Howie and Lois's house in Greensboro for the night to break up the drive, thereby extending our vacation with them. So saying "See you later!", Joe and I headed back to the RV. Our departure from the storage yard was delayed by the electrical connections between the Jeep and the RV. Both vehicles were fine, but the hookups were not working. Joe ended up spending almost 90 minutes completely rewiring the lights, getting soaked to the skin in a sudden torrential downpour of a rain shower. Once he was done, he changed his clothes and we left, without bothering to get lunch, despite the fact that it was now after noon. We drove for a while, and then I wanted to pull over for some lunch at a fast food place (I knew Joe was exhausted and I didn't want to take the time to make lunch and then clean up). We found a Hardee's with a large parking lot, but when Joe went in, they said it was "drive through only." We obviously couldn't drive through in the RV, so we left without eating. In the end, we never DID eat lunch. We did, however, miss our exit, and somehow we turned a 4 hour drive into a 6.5 hour drive. Not only that, but I had a mishap-- we stopped for gas, and I was going to walk Cassie. But she managed to pull me over when I was coming down the stairs, and I landed hard on the concrete. Fortunately, H&L were waiting for us with open arms, a delicious dinner, and a hot tub just waiting for our aching bodies. The next morning, we took off for Linville and our friend Margie's mountain cottage. We were extremely happy to get there in daylight, but as has been our luck so far with this vacation, just as we were unhooking the jeep, another torrential downpour soaked Joe to the skin once more. However, we did get the RV up to the cottage and situated on the flat driveway pad of a neighbor (Margie's driveway is too steep for us, as we discovered the hard way last fall.) We spent the rest of Momday and all day Tuesday visitng with Margie and Grace, and even seeing Margie's parents Dot and Ed (whose anniversary we were at in 2019.) We also saw Margie & Grace's daughter Eliana. We played bridge with Dot and Ed, ate barbeque, and generally just had a relaxing time despite the heavy rains the night we got there. Finally, we left Margie's house to drive to Joe's sister, Betsy, and her husband Sean in Hendersonville. We got there at about 3pm on Thursday, and have been hanging out with them since then. Today, Betsy had an appointment in town, so I went with her and then walked on the main street window shopping while she was busy. Meanwhile, back at the RV, Joe changed the oil and installed a new XM antenna on the roof (the old one was broken, so he ordered it while we were at the beach and had it sent to Betsy's house.) Then all four of us had lunch together, after which Sean went back to work and the three of us went to the Pinball Museum. We ended up buying "bracelets" allowing us to play the machines for as long as we wanted, and Betsy and I spent about an hour trying them all out (I still much prefer the 1970s vintage machines to the razzle-dazzle electronic machines from the 1990s.) Then we came back home, and I took a nap for the second day in a row. Tomorrow we head west to Chattanooga. I have reserved a place to stay for the next 3 nights through Boondockers Welcome, a program which matches RVers up with people willing to host them. This will be our first time using the group, and it looks like a very nice place to stay, very near downtown Chattanooga. So if all works out, we will get there in the late afternoon and have a launching pad to explore the city.

A Little Slice of Heaven

8/7/21-8/14/21 We got up on Saturday morning after a night of constant heavy rainstorms. The pounding on the roof of the RV woke us up several times. During those times, I kept hearing the sound of a cat meowing. I finally decided there must be a cat hiding under the RV or Jeep, because it didn't stop and was very close by. I felt awful--the parking lot was streaming with water all night. I was VERY glad we had decided not to seek out a campsite at the nearby Nature Center; it was reassuring to know that the parking lot would shed the water and we wouldn't have to deal with mud as well as with wetness. In the morning, it was still raining lightly. We knew we couldn't get into our beach house on Oak Island before 4:00pm. We were planning to drop Cassie at the "Bed & Biscuit" at about 3:00. But there was no real point in hanging around at the Walmart. So we packed up to leave. Joe went out to make sure everything was okay with the Jeep and prepare to move it, and suddenly he heard the cat meowing again. He opened the hood of the Jeep and there it was--perched uncomfortably in the engine compartment. He came to the RV and said, "Deb, we have a big problem." When I went outside, the cat (it was actually a kitten) had moved back, deeper into the engine toward the windshield of the car. I got a long dowel from the RV and tried to "poke" it toward the way out, but instead it went even deeper, and wedged itself underneath a piece of the hood adjacent to the windshield. In the end, Joe got out his tool kit and had to remove the piece of the Jeep that the kitten was stuck under. When he lifted it up, the poor little thing sat up, looked at me, and then hip-hopped across the engine to the edge, leaped to the ground, and ran like lightning across the parking lot. It headed for a cluster of bushes, and I would like to think there was SOME kind of shelter there, but I fear it was soaking wet there too. The poor thing couldn't have been comfortable in the engine, with absolutely no surface flat enough for it to curl up onto, and the entire area was soaking wet. It's probably a good thing it ran, or we'd have ended up wanting to keep it! After that, we proceeded with our expected itinerary: we drove to Oak Island and decided to head for the Lowes parking lot, which has a great ice cream place and a huge empty area where we had room to disconnect the Jeep from the RV. We had some lunch there, got ice cream, then unhooked and took the dog (with both vehicles) to the kennel, drove to the RV storage lot, transferred anything we wanted at the beach into the back of the Jeep (it was literally filled to the roof), and drove the Jeep to the rental house, leaving the RV in storage. This all took so long that although we were the first of our group to reach Oak Island, we were the last ones to get to our home for the week, C&E At the Sea. The week at the beach was fantastic. We had perfect weather, we loved spending time with our family and dear friends, Joe got to cook a lot, I managed not to overeat, the ocean was like a bathtub,

and everything was just wonderful. As usual, it was hard to leave, but we had to be out of the place by 9:00 on the following Saturday. So we reversed our procedure: we loaded up the Jeep with all our stuff and several coolers of food, drove to the RV, hastily unloaded the Jeep into the RV without any planning, then drove to pick up Cassie in the Jeep. Then, back to the RV, where we spent a little while reorganizing. We left almost everything in the RV, taking only the dog and things we needed for a 2-day stay, plus both coolers, still filled with food. And then, leaving the RV again, we drove from Oak Island to Myrtle Beach.

Driving Down the Eastern Shore

Friday Aug. 6, 2021 We woke up to bright blue skies and a quiet Walmart lot, where we both slept great last night. We took our time getting dressed, having breakfast, and before we were ready to pull out, we decided to walk “next door” (the other side of the parking lot across the street) to the Dunkin Donuts and get some iced coffees. We took Cassie with us, and although in the end it got hotter than we’d thought, we enjoyed the exercise. We finally pulled out of our “site” at about 10:00 in the morning, and headed south down US 113. We travelled this route last year, and I recognized some of the places we passed. But it was an uneventful drive-- local traffic when passing through towns, and otherwise a rural landscape. It sure beat the heck out of I-95! We stopped for lunch by pulling into a large supermarket parking lot along the way, and decided it had finally gotten REALLY hot. We switched drivers, and kept on going. At about 2pm, we made it to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We’d loved going over it last year, and it was just as beautiful today. There were so many fishing boats out enjoying the bay breezes, and the views were awesome. Unfortunately, the bridge-tunnel ends at Virginia Beach and then Norfolk, and the traffic was HORRIBLE. We crawled along for a while before getting out of Norfolk. I don’t know if it’s always like that, or if it was due to a problem on the road plus friday afternoon traffic. We also had a first--just before the tunnel entrance, we had to pull over for a propane check--they made sure we’d turned off our propane tank. We’d turned it off already, though, from the bridge-tunnel, and hadn’t had a chance to turn it back on. (The lady at the toll booth had asked us about it; then she gave us a dog biscuit for Cassie!) The check only took a minute, though, and now I know how to turn the propane on and off.

On the other side of the tunnel out of Norfolk, we had some fast highways for a while, and then a two-lane road that took us into North Carolina. Somewhere along that road, we went through a huge cell hole where NONE of our phones could get a connection, even using our new wifi booster. But we knew we were on the right road, and besides, I could always refer to my paper map if the online mapping program wasn’t available. We headed directly for Kings BBQ in Kinston, NC. We’d heard about this place on the Drew Barrymore Show (don’t ask-- it was an accident that I saw it and when I realized they were having a BBQ Taste-Off, I kept it on.) Kings won the taste test, and Joe and I put it on our agenda for this trip. However, before getting to Kinston, we had noticed that the sky was getting darker and darker, and the weather reports said rain. We saw some incredible thunderhead clouds, and soon we were driving through a torrential downpour. It seems our beautiful blue skies are gone for the time being. We found Kings BBQ with no trouble. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting-- it is a very small neighborhood place (although there are two of them, so it must be popular.) We went in and ordered dinner. Sadly, as it turned out, we were disappointed. This is supposed to be premier “Eastern NC barbecue”, and I guess maybe I don’t like that variety. For one thing, the only bbq sauce we got with it was way too vinegary for my taste. I did love the collards, though, which I got as a side dish, and the hush puppies were good. Joe liked his collards and slaw, too. But we thought the actual meat was just “meh.” Joe’s comment: “Don’t watch Drew Barrymore, and don’t take her recommendation for barbecue!” We’re planning to make up for it tomorrow at lunch, when we’ll got to the BBQ House on Oak Island. Their stuff is fantastic, and you get a choice of sauces too.

After dinner we came right to our favorite campground franchise, Walmart. I picked up a few things (I’m seeing my granddaughter tomorrow-- I needed to get her something, right??) including a bathroom scale to keep in the RV. I’m trying to lose weight before our reunion in October, and the scale will help keep me honest. (Joe was appalled when I mentioned it!) So now we’re ready to call it a night, and to try and stay comfortable in all this humidity.

Road to Raleigh And Beyond

Joe and Juniper at the party on Saturday night

2019-08-17/18 Saturday/Sunday

As anticipated, our day yesterday was as hectic as anticipated, and a little bit more. As we finished packing up the Jeep in the morning to pull out at 9:30 right on schedule, we discovered the Jeep battery was completely dead. We had to do a bit of scrambling with Beth’s fancy new keyless-entry, all plastic car, trying to find somewhere on the car’s frame to attach the jumper cables.  In the end, we were about 20 minutes past schedule when we said a very hasty goodbye to everyone and rushed off to collect our RV. Of course, the drive there seemed far longer than I remembered from the week before. Fortunately, we were able to get into the storage yard with only a brief delay due to flustered nerves, and the RV was ready to go in 5 minutes. The on-and-off rain showers which we’d already encountered (it rained all night and before 9:30 a.m. it was pretty rainy) fortunately held off for a little bit.

With the delay, I was worrying that we would miss the 11:00 a.m. cut-off time to pick up Cassie. We didn’t have time to transfer stuff out of the Jeep, and we couldn’t just leave the Jeep parked like we did a week ago and go in the RV, because we were afraid to turn off the Jeep in case the battery died again. We didn’t want to have to take the time to jump it. So we drove (separately) in BOTH vehicles to the kennel, apologized for filling up their meager parking area with our vehicles (and one of them left running), and collected Cassie and her belongings. She was all fluffy from the extra humidity, and very happy to see us! And, we were happy to see her too.

From there, we returned to the Lowe’s parking lot as planned. The transfer of our beach clothing, gear, and food (almost all staples— i.e. nothing to actually EAT) went quickly and smoothly—the rain seemed to have stopped. I decided to run into the Lowe’s and buy a few things to actually consume, i.e. coffee and half-and-half for Joe’s morning needs. I also grabbed a few items which were on my RV grocery list, including nosh, water, and yogurt. As I checked out and walked to the door, I discovered it was just starting to rain again—and between the door and the RV, the heavens opened up.

We decided to eat some lunch—we still had an hour on my planned schedule—while it rained, because we hadn’t yet hooked the Jeep up to the RV and didn’t want to do it in the rain. That was when we realized, I hadn’t bought any bread, and we had none— absolutely nothing—to make a sandwich. It was still pouring. There were no fast food places by the Lowe’s. So Joe took an umbrella and after asking what I wanted (some kind of baguette thing), he went to buy bread. I realized right after he left that I should have told him, “And grab a loaf of something for later,” and of course he didn’t think of that himself. So he returned with “exactly what you TOLD me to get!”, a baguette.

We made and ate lunch, by which time the rain had let up again. We then hooked up the Jeep, and, as it started to rain yet again, pulled out of our last Oak Island stop to head for Raleigh. We went through several more deluges, and it was frightfully hot and humid. Plus Cassie pitched a fit in the middle of the drive, and we had to stop in a pouring rain to walk her (it was a semi-false alarm... maybe it was just the thunder that worried her.) However, the skies cleared up around 4pm, and it was bright and sunny when we pulled into the NC State Fairgrounds Campground at 4:30,  and happily hooked up to electricity so we could run our AC in the clawing hot mugginess. By the time we’d unhooked the Jeep, walked the dog, paid for the site, and arranged ourselves, it was time to dress “up” (i wore a dress and Joe wore chinos and a nice shirt—NOT our usual camping attire).

We drove the Jeep to a local restaurant to meet up with Beth, Joe and Juniper, as well as a crowd of about 20 family members gathered to celebrate the 70th wedding anniversary of Dot and Ed. They and Joe’s parents were best buds from dental school on, and they moved to Dad’s little hometown of Highland Park after graduation. Their daughter Margie became my BFF about 50 years before the phrase “BFF” was invented (back when we were in kindergarten), and of course she and her brothers grew up with Joe and his siblings. She  invited us to the lovely celebration she threw for her parents. We got to see Margie’s two brothers, all the first cousins and their significant others, and catch up with everyone. 70 years is really something special, and it was an honor to be included.  We especially enjoyed exchanging RVing adventures and information with Margie’s younger brother, who with his wife was parked right next to us at the Fairgrounds in their own RV.

It was a long day, and when we got home at 10:30 or so, we quickly jumped into bed. We woke up on Sunday at about 8 a.m., maybe the best night’s sleep I had for days! It was nice being back in our own bed again. While we waited for Margie to call us, we unpacked more beach things and our clothes, walked the dog, and did some general planning. Joe messed around with the Jeep, and decided we need a new Jeep battery—it is going dead too easily (it was dead again when we arrived at the campground, but this time we had our small portable jumper handy.) Margie came by to get us at about 10:30, and we all went out for some brunch and to catch up a bit more. I can’t believe we forgot to take a photo of ourselves, both the night before and on Sunday morning. Huge oversight!

Around noon or so, we finally had to say goodbye. She took us back to the RV, we hugged goodbye, and Joe and I hooked the Jeep up, battened down all loose items, and found our way to I-40 west.

The rest of Sunday was just driving. We were hoping to get as far as Knoxville, TN, but by 9:00 it was already a long day and I was tired. We had difficulty deciding where to spend the night, because there were no legal free overnight places near Knoxville—Walmarts were “no overnight parking”, and even the interstate rest areas were two-hour parking only. We finally stopped at the last rest area on I-81 (we’d detoured off I-40 to avoid the steep mountain switchbacks through the Asheville area) before rejoining I-40, and decided to take a chance. I wasn’t even hungry (we’d had a hefty snack break at 5pm) and we hardly had any food other than staples. So we had cereal for dinner, walked the dog, and fell fully dressed onto our bed. We figured if anyone DID tell us we had to move, we’d look like we were “just napping” and overslept. But no one disturbed us all night, and I slept soundly until 8am again. Joe was up much earlier, but he too slept well until then. We got dressed, walked the dog, and hit the road by 9am Monday. 

Week at Oak Island

2019-08-16, Friday

We’ve spent the last 6 days at the beach for our annual family vacation on Oak Island, NC. It has been a lovely week— spending a lot of time with the family and friends, snuggling the baby, swimming in the bathtub warm ocean, and eating incredible meals Joe has been making for our pleasure (and at our command.) Today, our last day, turned out to be overcast with quite a bit of rain, although we are holding out hope for a last opportunity to swim before dinner. It doesn’t look very hopeful, though.

Luckily the house we are renting this year is so wonderful, we are all completely comfortable hanging out inside. It is a brand new house, built a couple of years ago, with 6 bedrooms (each with its own bathroom), including a great room for the 5 and 7 year old kids with two bunk beds. The kitchen is very nicely appointed, although we’ve been frustrated that it is lacking a teakettle (of course we have one in the RV, for all the good that does) and a few other items such as a dish drainer. But it is QUITE large and airy, and higher up off the ground, and then, the living room/dining room/kitchen area is on the top floor, which gives us a bird’s eye view of the beach. There are TWO outdoor showers, lots of comfortable furniture, a wine refrigerator, and a recessed deck on both levels, with couches on them so we can really relax while staying in the shade outside. All in all, we totally have loved the place.

Our fully stocked wine refrigerator

 We are already doing our final laundries (I wouldn’t pass up this opportunity) and Joe and I will certainly plan to make good use of the hot showers again at least once before we leave. We’ll probably do as much packing as possible tonight also. Tomorrow’s hectic schedule is: Wake up early, have breakfast, pack the Jeep, do as much house cleaning as possible before we leave at 9:30. 9:30– leave house and head for RV storage lot (~25 minutes). Open up RV, air out some of the heat, and then drive back along the same road to the Lowes parking lot we used last week. Then, either a) quickly transfer cargo to the RV or b) leave cargo in Jeep, park the Jeep, and drive the RV in order to pick up Cassie before 11 a.m.  Then we will come back to the Lowes, unpack the beach cargo into the appropriate RV storage areas, reattach the Jeep to the RV. Unless, that is, it happens to be close to noon by that time, in which case we will probably take the Jeep to the BBQ House for lunch before leaving Oak Island.

Relaxing afternoon

We’ll then head west to Raleigh, where we are parking for the night at the NC State Fairgrounds. This will be our first Fairground overnight (there are many fairgrounds in the country where you can do this) and it has full hookups, I believe, although all we really care about at this point is electricity. We are spending the night there so we can go to a celebration of Dot and Ed’s 70th anniversary. Their daughter, Margie, was my bff when we were growing up (and she still is!), and Dot and Ed were best buddies with Joe’s parents too. So our families are very fond of each other, and we, as well as Beth and Joe and the baby, are so happy to be able to celebrate the anniversary with them. Their son, Dan, and his wife also own an RV and will be spending the night at the fairgrounds too. We’re hoping to pick their brains a little bit about their trip last year to Alaska, which is something we may be interested in for some future trip. But in any case, the day will be LONG and busy, and we have a lot to do before we tuck ourselves in tomorrow night.

Catching Up with the Past Week

2019-08-15

A week has passed since the last blog entry, and most of it has been lovely. So I am going to catch up with my blog as quickly as possible.

Last Friday, we woke up in the RV and got a relatively early start toward Oak Island. Our goal for the night was to get to the Walmart in Leland, NC, for our overnight stay before checking into our beach vacation house. We really enjoyed our drive on Route 301 through Virginia— it is so green and pretty, and far preferable to taking the I-95 route. Far less traffic, too! Unfortunately, all good things must end, and eventually we segued onto I-295, parallel to I-95 (and still far preferable and prettier!) to bypass Richmond and Petersburg, VA, before inevitably having to join I-95.

Our GPS alerted us to some kind of construction backup about 20 miles north of the state line. We were happy to exit in a timely manner, especially because it was lunchtime. We were expecting to just find a parking lot and make some lunch, but we immediately noticed at the exit not only a huge parking lot with a sign for “truck parking”, but the same sign announced “Granny’s Fried Chicken”!  Joey immediately jumped out of the RV, with a cry of “FRIED CHICKEN,” and he disappeared into what looked from the outside like a gas station (which it was.) But he soon reappeared, with a box in his hand containing 6 pieces of delicious fried chicken. So we had a fast and very easy (also very inexpensive) lunch of chicken, before stretching Cassies and our legs. Then we stayed on the 301 route again until we passed the point of the I-95 tie-up, and rejoined the interstate for the rest of our journey.

We arrived in Leland without incident, and with the added advantage of going past some of our old scenic wayside markers such as the Battleship Memorial in Wilmington. The Walmart lot was surprisingly busy, but we parked at the outside perimeter as usual and went inside to do some brief shopping. When it came time for dinner, though, I was still too hot to be comfortable. So we ended up at TGI Friday’s just across from our RV, for a nice dinner and DRINKS. We followed that up with a stop at the Fuzzy Peach Yogurt Bar, where we sort of went overboard on yogurt and toppings. By that time, it was much quieter, and we crashed for the night.

Saturday morning we woke up and spent some time organizing our belongings. The idea was to identify what was coming with us to the beach house, vs. what was staying in the RV for the week.  A number of bags had ridden in the Jeep from NJ, but we had other things which had been with us in the RV. We seemed to have a surprising amount of stuff coming with us! Then we drove about 20 minutes further, to the Lowes parking lot not far from the Oak Island bridge. We unhooked the Jeep from the RV, and then, leaving the Jeep parked in the lot, drove the RV back up Midway Road to Adam’s Folly Bed & Biscuit, the kennel where Cassie was to spend her week. Our original plan had called for transferring all the Jeep items into the RV and taking Cassie to the Bed &Biscuit in the Jeep, but i realized it would make more sense—assuming the RV could fit into the parking area at the B&B—to just take her in the RV instead, and not have to transfer everything twice.

This plan worked well, although we were very glad we hadn’t tried to get into the B&B parking area with the Jeep attached— it was NOT large and we needed to K-turn the RV around in it. The people at the B&B seemed nice, and we left Cassie in her “suite” at the B&B, looking a little bit surprised that she was being left behind (i hate that!) Then for us, it was back to the Jeep again. We spent the next 30 minutes or so cramming a huge amount of STUFF into the back of the Jeep— it was totally full. We’d not only had to collect personal items, but take out all the food from the refrigerator and two cases of non-refrigerated food (staples etc) which we would need on our trip, but also at the beach. We left the auxiliary brake for the tow set up in the RV for the duration to give us more room. And then, finally, our last logistical task was to drive separately to the storage yard where we would leave the RV. This part all went smoothly, and after turning off the electrical connections inside the RV (so the battery wouldn’t drain) and making sure the refrigerator door was open (so it wouldn’t get moldy), we left the RV in storage and drove our packed-full Jeep to Oak Island. YAY!!!!

By this time, it was a little after noon, and we headed for our favorite island treat, the BBQ House. We knew we had time to kill, because we couldn’t check into our house before 3pm. So we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch, and also hydrated ourselves with huge cups of iced tea— i didn’t emphasize how incredibly HOT it was in the parking lot while we were transferring everything to the Jeep, and how sweaty we were. We left the BBQ House and, considering we really had nowhere else to go, went to our beach house to wait in the shade of the driveway (under the house) for our friends to arrive. We had actually planned to take showers meanwhile, in the outside showers under the house. But we were so tired, that when we discovered two lounge chairs and the lovely breeze which passed over us as we got out of the car, we just lay down on the lounges and relaxed until 2pm, when Howie and Lois arrived to keep us company. The house itself was locked with an automated lock, and the realtors stubbornly refused to release it until 3pm (even though we’d seen the cleaners leave as we arrived at 1:00). So the four of us hung out until we were suddenly allowed to enter, and our beach vacation could truly begin.