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.

And We're Off!!

Thursday, August 5, 2021

We’re off today on our second “10 week” vacation in the RV (mostly). As we did back in 2019, we decided to drive the RV, with the Jeep towed behind, down to Oak Island for our annual Cohn-Mezer Beach Week. When the week is over, we will proceed with the second stage of our trip, meandering toward Milwaukee. But for now, we are focused on Oak Island. Last year when a tornado forced us to relocate our vacation, we rented a house in Kill Devil Hills, on the North Carolina Outer Banks. To get there, Joe and I drove down the coast through the Eastern Shore (Delaware, Maryland, and a smidgen of Virginia), took the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to Norfolk, and stayed east to get to the Outer Banks. The drive was so lovely that I said, Next time we drive to Oak Island, the heck with I-95, the most miserable highway in the world... let’s just go this route all the way down to Wilmington. So this year, we are doing exactly that. We have the RV this time, so we can take a couple of days to get there, like we did in 2019, but the drive is much prettier. Today we started off by driving through the New Jersey Pinelands, the small but incredibly lovely town of Haddonton, and ended at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, which we took back in April. Except for the time we spent on the NJ Turnpike, we have totally avoided I-95. So we left home at 1:55pm (my absolute must-leave-by time was 2pm) and headed south, as I said. Our drive was uneventful, except for one stop to find out why the front tire under me was screaming (we have a tire monitor.) It was apparently too inflated, and Joe released some air to solve the problem. Other than that, and one wrong turn that we fixed right away, the drive was uneventful. We arrived at the Ferry at 5:10 pm, pulled into our slot, walked the dog, and relaxed until it was time to drive onto the ferry. The voyage was delightful; we sat in a shady place and watched the NJ horizon move farther and farther away. I leaned back and dozed for a while, which was just perfect; I think Joe probably did too (he drove the entire three hours.) We finally docked at about 7:30, and drove 30 minutes to Georgetown, DE, where we are comfortably parked in the very back of a Walmart. We don’t expect any issues to arise overnight, and the air is cooling off quite a bit. Joe made me chinese dumplings (frozen at home, and brought along with us) for dinner, and that is pretty much all about our day! (I left out the packing all morning, of course, and the quick lunch at Highand Pizza... it takes a LOT of packing to get out of a house for 10 weeks!) Tomorrow’s plan is to head down US113-US13 into Maryland, cross the Chesapeake Bay, and find someplace in North Carolina to stay for the night. The pickings are kind of slim down there, so we will need a little bit of luck. All part of the adventure! And that is Day 1 of the Cohn RV Journey of 2021.

Place Holder: Assateague State Park

Oh gosh, I never wrote the last blog entry for our trip in April-May! I am leaving this place-holder so that the entries in the blog will be in order. Bad me-- need to come back and write what I still remembe about our stay with the wild ponies!

Flea Marketing

Saturday, May 1, 2021 Flea Marketing We had a good time today--this entire vacation is both nothing out of the ordinary per se, but very relaxing in so many ways. This morning, we went out in the Jeep with two goals. First was to “case the joint” for a place to get propane--we’d been given two names of places, and wanted to see if they really were going to work out tomorrow. The second was to find “Antique Alley”, supposedly a largish antique store. I am still on my hunt to check out the Roseville situation these days. We did the propane first. It turned out that there was quite a bit of traffic along the main route of US 13 through Laurel, Delaware, which is where we were, but to get there, we went through country roads with no one else much around. The first place we checked did not have propane, but the other place was across the street. We drove in, and figured out how to get the RV into position at the propane tank, and where we could hook up after that. Mission accomplished! Then, after a stop at Dunkin Donuts, where I found out I had not just earned my free coffee, but they were giving me another one as a birthday gift, we continued through the construction traffic and found, not the antique store we were expecting, but a giant building with what looked like a flea market behind it. The place was hopping--and reminded us of Englishtown Market back at home. We used to love that place when we were teenagers--the kind of place you’d always find SOMETHING you need. Joe and I parked the Jeep on the grass verge (no place else to park) and immediately started “finding things.” He went one way, toward a table with plants, flowers, vegetables, fruits, chickens (live!) and stuff like that. I stopped at a table with jigsaw puzzles. I made a big $2.00 purchase of a puzzle “mat” (to roll up with a partially done puzzle inside it--I always wondered if they would work, and this one looked unused) and found him eyeing the tomato plants. We continued outside, but our only treasure was a $1 treat for Juniper. Inside, the downstairs seemed like a shuk-- little shops of clothing, toiletries, a hairdresser, all kinds of odds and ends (including rabbits for sale.) The antiques, it turned out, were on the second floor, and it was indeed a large area. However, we did not find a single thing of interest up there. Back outside around the other direction from the flea market was another smaller antique store, and they did have a couple of pieces of Roseville... not of much interest, though. Nevertheless, we really enjoyed just taking in the local color and wandering. By then we realized it was already 1:30 in the afternoon. So we went back to the campground at the state park, had some lunch, and then spent the rest of the day relaxing and reading. There were a lot of people canoeing and kayaking on the lake, but it all just seemed like too much trouble somehow. I did take walk with Cassie back to the lake, though, and took some photos to post here. When dusk arrived, I packed up the chairs, knowing we’d be leaving the next morning, we had some dinner, and that was our lazy day. I did sneak in a couple of pages of Daf Yomi, however, so it had that Shabbat feel. All good.

Transition to Trap Pond State Park

Friday, April 30, 2021 Today’s blog is going to be short-- because there’s not much to tell about! We got started fairly early, but not rushing, to slowly tidy up the RV so we could leave Cape Henlopen. I wrote a blog for the previous day, and organized some photos, and discovered that my own phone would allow me to access the internet. So I uploaded a blog and some photos. Then we disconnected from the water and electric, and pulled out of the campsite at about 11 a.m. It took another hour for us to get through the dump station--there are three very well arranged dumps, but there was a line waiting to use them--and then hook up the Jeep. Luckily, I had noticed the large parking lot in the park near the beach access yesterday, so we drove down to that end of the park and used the nearly empty lot to get ourselves together (literally!) Then we headed out. We still were hoping to find a propane place, and the park attendant had suggested a place in Rehoboth, about 5-6 miles from the park. So we drove that way. The road (Route 1) was 3 lanes on each side, and packed with stores, shopping centers (no fewer than 3 sections for Tanger Outlets), at least one midway-style area with rides and games, restaurants, etc. Clearly this is a town built around the beach and the summer visitors. Unfortunately, the propane was on the wrong side of the road and looked inaccessible when we finally saw it. We decided once again to just skip the whole thing for now. We ended up making a random left turn to try to go back the way we came, and got lucky--we turned left at a light which led right into a big parking lot adjacent to two buildings. One was an auction house (nothing happening there) and one was a huge thrift shop run by the local parish. When I saw how large it was, Joey agreed to stop so I could check it out. Everyone wore masks (this seems to be true everywhere we go, luckily) and I took as short a time as possible. In the end, I decided against picking up anything for Junie, and just got myself one jigsaw puzzle. When I went back outside to the RV, Joe pointed out that it was already after 1pm, so we decided to eat lunch before leaving. And then we hit the road, went back through the traffic for a couple of miles, and then turned south. We drove for about an hour and arrived at Trap Pond State Park, where we are spending two nights, until Sunday. The campground is really pretty--much higher trees than at Henlopen, and more space between RV sites (although not as large sites as we had in NJ a few nights ago.) The “pond”, really a nice small lake, is at the end of the camping loops, and each loop has a boat dock. We sat on a bench and enjoyed the lake for a while after we first got here, then set up the chairs back at our site. It got a LOT cooler during the afternoon, and it just figures that in a place that would be ideal to take out our kayak, the weather will only be in the 60‘s, which is kind of cold for us to be out getting wet, I think. (We are wimpy like that!) So we’ll have to find something else to do here... probably hanging out and reading and napping. The park has a free bicycle “Rental” shack, and maybe I’ll push myself and take a bike ride-- I’ve been wanting to do that for a while. The park is so flat that we didn’t need a single block to even out the RV, so it’s probably a nice flat bike ride as well. I was able to use my hot spot here, so uploaded another blog... maybe I can catch up with that this weekend too!