Should I Stay Or Should I Go

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog. The last two and half months have been a blur of activity, and there just wasn’t any time. A few days before we were due to return home from our last trip we got a call that my Mom was sick. We packed up, broke down in record time, and made a mad two-day dash back to NY. It feels like I’m just now coming up for air. 

Nana (Bill's Mom)

Bill’s Mom is 97. My Dad is 83 and Mom is 80. All have health problems. Bill’s Mom lives at home, but has aides that take beautiful care of her. Until a few months ago, my parents were mostly still independent. Dad has mobility issues, but he can get around on his own. Mom, in spite of her apparent memory issues, had few limitations. All that has changed. After ten days in the hospital and seven weeks in a nursing home, she came home two weeks ago. She is making slow progress, but needs assistance with everything. As a result, we have 12 hours per day of aide care in place. I don’t expect her to make a full recovery and know that their lives as they knew it is over. That means mine, as I knew it, is also. 

We haven’t been doing this long, but the few times we’ve hit the road for any considerable length of time, the thought that something like this could happen was always in the back of our minds. Now it’s more than just a fear. It’s a reality. So what now? How do we balance our desire to travel with the needs of our aging parents? More importantly, how do we do it without feeling guilty? 

Maybe we don’t. Maybe we just don’t go. Maybe we just can’t. Then again, maybe we have to anyhow. Maybe it would be a mistake to put our dreams on hold. After all, life is so short. But that takes me back to how. How do we find a way to do both? Be there for our parents and fulfill our RV dreams. 

Mom and Dad

My parents would be the first to say, “Go!” When Mom got sick they insisted that we not come home early. But really, there was no chance that was going to happen. There was no way we could have stayed and enjoyed ourselves. So, now that things are the way they are, how do we go in the future and enjoy ourselves? 

We’re thinking of Southern Utah next May. Five weeks away from home. If we go, and something happens, will we be able to forgive ourselves? But, if we don’t go, will we be able to forgive ourselves? Round and round it goes...

-Diane

Food Karma

We’d visited the historical sights. We’d admired the architecture. We’d seen the devastation in the ninth ward. We toured the unique graveyards. We’d explored the narrow and charming streets of the French Quarter. We’d listened to Jazz on a steamboat, in the clubs and on the street – even lucked upon a Jazz wedding as it passed by. We drank Dark N’ Stormies, Hurricanes and fell in love with Abita Amber, the local brew. New Orleans has so much to offer and we took it all in with relish.

However, if we had to choose a favorite thing, which is pretty much like choosing a favorite child, it would be the food. No matter how inexpensive or upscale, we never had a bad meal. We loved it all. And me, I loved it just a wee bit more. You see, there is this thing that happens to me with freakish regularity. I never get my meal as I order it. Not ever. No matter how simple or basic, it comes out of the kitchen with something amiss. Even when ordered from the menu without changes. Ask Bill. He’ll tell you. It’s simply bizarre. I think it might be some bad karma from a past life coming back to bite me. But in New Orleans my food curse was finally broken.

 The Ruby Slipper’s eggs came with a buttermilk biscuit the size of my head, stone ground grits and fried green tomatoes. It was the south on plate. Joey K’s red rice and beans was damned close to the homemade version a long ago boyfriend, Adam from Mobile, once made me – his Momma’s recipe. The Joint’s BBQ brisket melted in my mouth. NOLA Po’ Boys’ crawfish po’ boy was heaven on a cloud of bread. Court of the Two Sisters’ filet mignon was cooked to perfection and possibly the best I’ve ever had. The Mississippi River Bottom’s fried catfish platter was light and crisp and a delight on the tongue. And every delectable morsel came to the table just the way I asked for it. For me, that was priceless and elevated my experience from satisfying and enjoyable to rapturous pleasure.

It remains to be seen if this curse is truly broken, if this trend will continue beyond the Big Easy, but either way, the Crescent City will always hold a special place in my culinary heart.

-Diane

Uneasy Start in The Big Easy

We made it to New Orleans from the Catskills Mountains in just over two days. We arrived so early on the third day that after setting up we still had the whole day in front of us.

We stayed at the French Quarter RV Park located, as its name indicates, just blocks from the border of the French Quarter off Basin Street. The park itself is quite nice. Securely enclosed inside four walls, it is quaintly decorated and the staff is friendly and helpful providing concierge services including calling a cab, making diner reservations or booking a city tour. But as we were to find out, the surrounding area can be a bit iffy.

Using the map provide by the staff, we decided to take a stroll into the Quarter to see what we could see and get a bite to eat. However, due to deficiencies in the map and our map reading skills, we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in a very unsavory neighborhood. We quickly became lost and by the time we found our way back to the RV park we were a little shaken up.

So we decide to cab it instead. We dined on oysters and BBQ shrimp at Deanie's Seafood then wondered into Jackson Square. Here we enjoyed the Jazz stylings of Satchmo incarnate and, on a whim, jumped on the Natchez Steamboat and took an evening cruise down the mighty Mississippi. Not too shabby for our first day and, aside from an uneasy start, a foreshadowing of the delightful days to come.

-Diane

The Truck Stops Here

We were headed south to New Orleans. Our goal was to be there in three days. So on this - only our second long-term trip - for the first time, we opted to stay overnight at truck stops. It's an inexpensive and convenient time saver. You just park, eat, shower, sleep and go.

The first leg of our journey was a 600 mile, ten hour drive from Saugerties, NY to Wytheville, VA. We stayed at Love's Travel Stop. We arrived just as the last sliver of sunlight was disappearing in the sky. This location is large and busy with 140 parking spaces. We felt intimated and a bit out of our element. The lot was not full to capacity and we parked in a pull-thru with empty spaces on both sides. We hoped it would stay that way, but before long we were tightly nestled between two idling semis. It was a bit noisy but the low hum of the engines did not disturb our sleep. The only food options were Subway or Chester's Chicken. We went with the chicken. We put off showering until morning. In the morning we decided to put it off until our next stop for expediency's sake and because we felt a bit uncomfortable.

Another 600 miles, ten hours, and a time change later we landed at a TA Travel Center in Meridian, MS with daylight to spare. We immediately preferred this truck stop to the last. The parking area was easier to navigate, there was a nice diner attached to the store, and the showers were on the second floor along with a game room. It was a more inviting atmosphere all around. We enjoyed a delicious and relaxed meal at the Country Pride restaurant, showered and settle in feeling refreshed and at ease. Again, we had a semi one either side, but slept just fine.

All of the truck/travel stops have food and showers. The showers are available to anyone for a fee, which vary by stop. The food options also vary and can be very limited. However, the TA/Petro stops are consistent with either a Country Pride or Iron Skillet restaurant providing a sit-down experience with a full menu. The TA showers were full bathrooms with plenty of room to change and a good-sized walk in shower. They were clean and secure and even included bar soap and fresh towels. At the top of the list of things I thought I'd never say, "I took a truck stop shower - and I liked it!" The fee was $13 per person and worth every penny.

We will be using truck stops again in the future. We have yet to stay at any Flying J's or Pilots and would like to do so. However, based on our limited experience, will seek out the TA/Petro Travel Centers when possible.

-Diane

Sorry - That Does Not Register

We were driving south on I-87 headed home after a very long day. Bill turns to me and says, “So it seems we drove an unregistered RV all over the country. I responded, “In fact, the only time we drove it legally was when we moved her from the dealer to your brother’s property.” Then we laughed and laughed…

Flashback to 24 hours earlier. We were headed upstate in the morning to move the RV to a more convenient storage spot with a plan to stay the weekend. I was getting the paperwork together. We needed proof of insurance and the registration. As I pulled the registration out of the file the expiration date jumped out at me. According to the familiar yellow paper I held in my hand, the registration expired on 12/31/14. But we had gotten the registration on 11/24/14. That meant that the registration had only been valid for 37 days! How could that be possible? Weren't all registrations valid for two years? Something was very wrong. We pride ourselves on researching, self-educating, and learning to do all things RV related, or anything, the right way. This was a major failure and an affront to our inner control freak.

The next morning Bill went to the D.M.V. to straighten it out. What we learned: in New York State, RV registrations are only good until the end of that calendar year, something no one ever explained; we had to get new plates; we needed to get the RV inspected, which we’d never done; and we had to request a copy of the title, which we’d never received. So, yes Virginia, a registration can be valid for only 37 freakin’ days.
 
The registration issue having delayed us, I spent that morning on the phone rescheduling everything for the following day. On a referral from the campground where the RV currently resided, I made an appointment for the inspection with a local truck repair shop. Bill returned home and we hit the road several hours later than we’d planned. Due to a few unexpected but necessary stops and heavy traffic, we were way off schedule. Then the day got even better. We had been traveling about three hours and were about an hour from our destination when Bill realized we had forgotten the fifth wheel's battery. We had removed it and stored it at home to save it from freezing during the winter.

Without the battery we would not be able to operate the leveling jacks. We had no choice but to turn around and return to Long Island to retrieve it. With battery in hand, we were back on the road by 7:00AM the next day. We made good time and arrived around 10:30AM. Then we had an issue with the leveling system controls which hindered hitching up. With the help of one of the campground's employee’s we temporarily resolved that and proceeded to the truck mechanic. This is where our luck turned around.

We met two of the nicest guys you could ever want to meet. Mike and Rich of E. Mower & Son are the greatest. They are super friendly and knowledgeable and serve up old fashioned customer service at its best. In addition to the inspection, they offered some terrific advice and welded our entry step, which had been broken since March of last year (but that's another story). On top of that, they tried to bill us for only the cost of the inspection. We were having none of that. If you’re in the Saugerties, NY area and you need RV repairs, we highly recommend this shop. They made our day. Finally, we transported the RV to her new abode and, with a sense of great relief and satisfaction, returned to our own.

This cautionary tale of the perils of being an RVing novice is brought to you by the now slightly less clueless in the hope that we might save others from a similar fate.

-Diane

I Dream of Jetty

Atlantis Space Shuttle

The last stop on our maiden voyage was Cape Canaveral. We were visiting Bill’s cousin Pete and his wife Andrea. Our home for the week was Jetty Park, which is situated inside Canaveral Port with a view of the ocean and the Canaveral Air Force Station.

Bill & Diane at NASA

Since we’d arrive in Florida the weather had been ideal. On our first full day in Cape Canaveral it was rainy and chilly. I had to wear long sleeves, ugh. We took the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center. We spent the whole day there. I've been to numerous museums in my life, but I have never had as strong an emotional response as this. And the Shuttle Launch Simulator was out of this world! The whole place blew us away. We never wanted to leave.

The rest of the week we spent lazy days relaxing, visiting with Pete and Andrea and exploring this lovely beach town. In spite of the unseasonably cool weather, we even made it to the beach one day. We got to see our very first rocket launch. It was a SpaceX satellite launch, not NASA, but we didn’t care. It was still thrilling. We were starting to really get the hang of this RVing thing.

This was the only time our campsite did not have a sewer hook up. As luck would have it, our site was mere steps from the bathhouse and laundry. We used our toilet and shower, but conservatively. If we were awake and dressed, then we used the camp’s toilet. We did good. We had room to spare in the tanks by the time we left. This was also our first time using a dump station. Not the most pleasant thing we’ve ever done, but at least now we know how.

Bill, Pete and Andrea

That week, and the month as a whole, flew by. It was a wonderful trip and its end was bittersweet. We'd come a long way in every sense. The trip home was the reverse of the trip down minus the snow, cold, and glitches. We were seasoned RVers by now, breaking down and setting up in record time. Well, at least for us. The final leg of our trip ended as it began. As we neared home it started to snow. Within minutes you could hardly see more than a foot ahead. We had come full circle, and all we could do was laugh heartily at the irony and longingly look forward to our next adventure.

-Diane


Catch up on the complete story of our first trip:

1) Baptism by Ice: Digging Out
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2015/12/baptism-by-ice-digging-out.html

2) Baptism by Ice: Murphy’s Law
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/baptism-by-ice-murphys-law.html

3) Having Second Thaws
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/having-second-thaws.html

4) It Takes a Village
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/it-takes-village.html

5) Fifth Planet from the Sun
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/02/fifth-planet-from-sun.html

Fifth Planet from the Sun

We were in Florida only one week, but it felt like we’d always been there. This second week would be spent in Jupiter visiting Bill’s younger son and his family. The campground we chose was a KOA a short drive from their home. The entrance to the place was a long, snaking road. The campground was adjacent to an African Wild Safari Park. It was definitely off the beaten path. That combined with the neighboring sounds of wildlife gave it an air of isolation. We loved it.

It was a large park and we got lost on our first attempt to leave. We ran into a fellow camper walking along and asked if he knew the way to the exit. Apologetically, he informed us in his best broken English that he spoke only French and was unable to help us. We then saw a woman riding her bike; we asked her the same thing. She also spoke only French and was unable to help us. We loved that, too. It was like that everywhere we went. We met people from all over the country and all over the world, and everyone we met was friendly and helpful. That’s the RV culture and we were thrilled to be a part of it.

This was a busy time for us. We spent our days visiting with the family. Bill’s grandson stayed with us one night. The next day we took him to the Wild Life Safari, which we all enjoyed. One day we barbecued at the RV for the whole family. It was a fun time. In the early mornings, over coffee and tea, we would sit on the porch and listened as the lions roared, the chimps chattered, and the African birds chirped and tweeted in the distance It was magical, otherworldly, and easy to forget we were in Florida only a short distance from a main highway.

This is when when first imagined the possibility doing this full-time. We had been through hell getting here, but now all that seemed so far away. This is what is was all about and we were hooked.

-Diane

Catch up on the complete story of our first trip:

1) Baptism by Ice: Digging Out
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2015/12/baptism-by-ice-digging-out.html

2) Baptism by Ice: Murphy’s Law
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/baptism-by-ice-murphys-law.html

3) Having Second Thaws
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/having-second-thaws.html

4) It Takes a Village
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/it-takes-village.html

 

It Takes A Village

Hell had frozen over. We knew because we had driven through it. We had one problem after the other and came close to regretting our decision to become RVers. Now we could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We were on our way to our first stop in Florida in The Villages. As we drove south everything got greener and the snow completely disappeared. We delighted in watching the car’s thermometer as the exterior temperature rose making note as it got warmer and warmer When we crossed the Florida border we cheered and high-fived. Once again, the trip took longer than expected, but we didn’t care. It was warm, dry and sunny. We were happy as a couple of proverbial clams.

Naturally, just as we got within a block of the campground, the GPS got us lost. We were getting used to it by now. Once we found the place Bill got his first chance to back-up the rig. He aced it. Even the campground manager was impressed. I cannot express strongly enough how happy we were to finally be in the warm weather. The heater still wasn’t working, but we didn’t need it and had three more weeks to fix it. However, we were exhausted.

 We were in The Villages to visit some friends and had to call and tell them we needed a day or two to rest up. We slept, lounged by the pool and shopped. The first thing we bought was patio furniture for the porch. We lived out there the rest of the trip. The porch as was also a hit with our fellow Rvers. They would stop by to see and admire it. We met some really nice people and got a lot of great tips and advice.

Here was where we first learned that leaving room to open the porch meant that our connection hoses and cables might not reach said connections. We bought extensions. We treated ourselves by dropping the laundry off at a wash-and-fold. We got the truck washed removing the last reminders of the snow and ice and mud and road salt.

Of the five days we were there, we only we only able to see Tom and Kathy twice. We spent a lovely day visiting at their house and then had dinner out once right before we left. By the time we arrived to in Dunedin, we were fully recovered, totally relaxed, and for the first time, truly able to enjoy the experience.

-Diane


Catch up on the complete story of our first trip:

1) Baptism by Ice: Digging Out
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2015/12/baptism-by-ice-digging-out.html

2) Baptism by Ice: Murphy’s Law
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/baptism-by-ice-murphys-law.html

3) Having Second Thaws
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/having-second-thaws.html

Having Second Thaws

After a week of dealing with ice, snow, freezing temperatures, and a number of problems with the RV, we were eager to be headed to our next stop in warm and toasty South Carolina.

We got a late start because of the weather. We arrived in the dark. After we got off the highway, the GPS wanted to send us down a very long, very narrow, under-construction, unlit road. There was no campground entrance in sight and we were unsure if there was anyplace to turn around if necessary. We rolled forward very slowly – keeping an eye out for places to turn around. At one point I got out of the truck and walked ahead. After a terrifying ½ mile we finally saw the entrance!

We found our site and set up only to find that heater wasn’t working. Ugh! We were delighted to be out of the snow, but it was still cold at only 38º. We ran the fireplace heater all night, slept in our thermals and used both blankets. Right around now we were starting to wonder what the hell we had gotten ourselves into.

During the night the temperature apparently dropped below 32 degrees because the water froze. It was a quick fix and our spirits rose with the temperature which broke 60 degrees that afternoon. We opened the back porch for the first time. We had no furniture, so we used two of the dining room chairs and sat out there for most of the day barbequing and eating our dinner off the top of a cooler. We stocked up on groceries, ran a few other errands, and unsuccessfully tried to resolve the heater problem. 

We’re not sure if the heater issue was ever resolved. The igniter seemed to be working OK. You could smell gas coming from the unit when it was trying to start, and we’ve started it up successfully a couple of times since then. Hopefully, it won’t rear it’s head again when we need it most. By the way, after the trip was over, a Camping World mechanic told us that the propane doesn’t vaporize sufficiently in very cold weather. I understand that things vaporize better at higher temperatures but seriously? Not working in cold weather would be a major drawback for a heating fuel. Can anyone confirm that this is remotely possible?

Anyway, things were finally looking up and would only get better. Florida here we come...

-Diane

Catch up on the complete story of our first trip:

1) Baptism by Ice: Digging Out
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2015/12/baptism-by-ice-digging-out.html

2) Baptism by Ice: Murphy’s Law
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/baptism-by-ice-murphys-law.html

 

Baptism By Ice: Murphy's Law

After a horrendous couple of days digging out the RV and taking it down to New Paltz (see previous post, “Baptism By Ice: Digging Out” http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2015/12/baptism-by-ice-digging-out.html), we drove back to my brother-in-law’s house in Lexington. We were leaving the next day. It had been a challenging few days, but we were finally starting to feel excited. We ran a few errands in the early afternoon gathering together some last minute supplies. Then we heard that we would be getting another six inches of snow.

We were an hour away from New Paltz and, come morning, we would need to close up and winterize the house and drive down the mountain. Closing up the house and driving to New Paltz would take at least a couple of hours; so, with the coming snow, we decided it would be best to close the house then and spend the night in New Paltz. I made a few phone calls and found a motel a block from where the RV was parked. I made a reservation. We packed up, closed the house and headed there. By the time we arrived it was dark and the snowfall was near blizzard conditions. We checked into the motel, ordered a pizza delivered to our room – what a cool thing – and settled in for the night. Neither of us got much sleep. We were excited, like kids on Christmas Eve kind of excited; but, we were also worried about the weather and what we would find in the morning. 

We were up at 6:00 AM. We had a quick breakfast and we drove one block to the RV. For the second time in as many days, but not the last, Bill cleaned the new fallen snow off the roof. We hitched up and headed to our first stopover; Millersville, MD. The trip down was uneventful and we made good time, except for the fact that the GPS got us momentarily lost just blocks from the campground entrance. We’d been to this campsite once before so we figured it out fairly quickly and safely arrived with some daylight to spare.

Aside form the couple managing the campground – Brian and Sue - and a family in one of the cabins, we were the only guests. It was our first time hooking up and we were doing it in the ice and snow. It took hours. The 50AMP electric connection wouldn’t fit on the RV connector; it took forever to figure it out even with the help of the manager, Brian, and our dealer, Chuck. Once we got that done we found that the TV and fireplace weren’t working and half the outlets were dead. Bill was on the phone with Chuck a dozen times during all of this and in the coming days - Chuck was really great. Brian and Chuck insisted that it was a GFI problem but Bill told them that the GFI outlets were working. They couldn’t find the problem. We finally gave up and went to bed.

The water pipes froze that night and the next night in spite of the fact we left the taps open and dripping. Determined to resolve the electrical issue, Bill decided he wanted to check the campground connection. Brian said he had never heard of a receptacle being partly dead. Bill worked for Con Edison for 36 years and, although he wasn’t in the electric department, said it was a fairly common occurrence. Reluctantly, the manager checked the campground receptacle and it turns out that one of the “hot” legs to their receptacle was dead. We ran an extension cord to the site next to us, and viola, everything worked. The manager and Chuck kept saying, as one thing after the other went wrong, “I’ve never heard of anything like that happening before.” It was a phrase we would hear often when retelling our story.

Our relief was short-lived. On our second day in Maryland the snow started falling around 1:00PM. By 8:00PM it had let up some, but was expected to continue until midnight. We now had eight inches of snow on the roof and the temperature was predicted to fall to -8º overnight. Bill was afraid that the snow would freeze and decided to clean off the roof that night instead of the next morning as we wanted to head out early. By now he was experienced at cleaning off the roof, but this time he also had to clean off the slides. And we didn’t have a ladder. As many of you know, you can’t safely reach the top of the slides from the roof, so a ladder was necessary. At 8:00PM in the dark and the snow, in a place he didn’t know, Bill headed out to the local Home Depot. As he later told me, he and the snow plows were the only things on the road. The GPS again got him lost (see Bill’s post, “GPS Blues” http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-gps-blues.html). He made it back around 9:00PM and was finally finished cleaning off the RV around 10:30PM.

Anxious to get out of the cold and snow, our next stopover in South Carolina was calling to us. However, we woke to find that, due to the icy conditions, all lanes of I-95 South were closed because of a tracker trailer accident. We weren’t able to take off until 11:00AM. What was supposed to be a seven hour drive turned out to be 10 hours…

-Diane

P.S. Oddly enough, I took no pictures in Maryland. I think maybe, subconsciously, I didn’t want any reminders. I regret it now, but at the time we just had too much going on; little of it pleasant.