Prologue-I love it when a plan comes together

June 19, 2013 

I’ll be 63 in a couple of months and haven’t “worked” since January 2007 and yet the last 6 years have been the fullest in my life.

• I got to spend some quality time with Mom before she passed
• Had the extremes pleasure of spending a lot of time with our 4 (almost 5) grandkids
• Did a bunch of offshore sailing with a great friend

But there have also been one major negative during this time as Diana became a “Health Care Refuge” when the $1,200/mthpremiums and being a “sandwich generation” only child ended up with her spending the majority of 3 years in England. There was the positive side to this in that it allowed me to experience living in the UK for several summers. Highlights of that include getting to know “The Girls,” doing walking trips, excursions on narrow boats, spending time in Cowes, a race to Amsterdam, and driving from Lands-End to northern Scotland and a lot of wonderful places in between.

The transition for Diana and I took a significant turn last spring with the passing of her mother and Diana achieving the “Holy Grail” Medicaid Eligibility.

Over the last 9 months we have found her “nest" in Delray Beach a couple of blocks from Katie and her family. She is staying close to home this summer to help with impending arrival of grandchild number 5 and my mission is to rejuvenate the toys. This started in late April with a terrific race from St. Pete to Ft Myers on the J-29 with boat partner Rob who is doing a fine job of cleaning up several years of neglect.

Stage 2 officially started today with Alex and her kids loading up the RV that has had 6 new batteries and check-ups on both the engine and generator in the last month. Tomorrow we head to Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon near Wellsboro and then on to western New York and hopefully a couple of weeks around lake Ontario and the Adirondacks. This is the beginning of Alex’s quest to have Ty & Sophie visit all 50 states and most of the Canadian Providences before they finish school.

Out occasional home for this experience is a 2003 Holiday Rambler “Neptune”, diesel pusher Class A Motorhome

• Power is 300 hp Cummins supported by a Onan 7.5 KW Generator
• It has 2 slide-outs on the driver side and is roughly 320 sqft

So as they say “Today is the First Day….”

Over the last month I was lucky to have the support of Steve Dotson, the owner of South Hanover Storage in Hanover Pa.  After replacing the 4 house batteries and 2 chassie batteries, he arranged for a full service of both the engine and generator at a very reasonable cost.  And even better he coached me through “de-winterizing” the water system. I originally thought I was never going to winterize the RV unless it froze over in Key West,,, but then life happens…..anyway we are headed back to the original game plan… South in the Winter, North in the Summer and Spring/Fall in God’s paradise “The Chesapeake Bay.”

The primary purpose of this blog is to share our adventures with family & friends. However there is a second thought and that is to document “RV Friendly” place to stop for a mid-day meal. This comes from a very quick realization about a decade ago, 34’ plus a “dinghy” requires a lot of planning. Especially when it is 12’ high..(Garmin please add this logic)

As an example I would share our experience coming through Marathon on the way to the “most excellent campground” at Bahia Honda which is about 20 miles north of Key West. To be blunt the Marathon Chamber of Conference is anti-RV. We had hoped to have lunch at the Marathon Yacht Club but this only happened because 3 terrific folks from the kitchen staff came out and moved their cars off club property to make us a space. Thanks!

The original idea for this came from brother-in-law Jim Roland when he share his find just north of Brunswick, Georgia. Catfish Charlie’s is perfectly situated between to I-95 exits and it a great alternative to the typical “fast food” stop. Sure it takes a little extra time but it is a real break from the monotony of interstate travel. Please note that the parking is a bit crowded on the weekends but mid-week lunch has always had a lot of space.

So we hope to find & share other “Triple D” / “RV friendly” spots.

Today is the final loading trip from Federal Hill. Grandson Ty and I will finish up a few chores while Alex and Sophie head back down to Baltimore for one last school Board Meeting and a good-bye to daddy. The plan is to catch up somewhere north of Harrisburg on the way to the “Grand Canyon of Pa” just outside of Wellsboro.

Final kid quote of the day from Ty over dinner- “Grandy, Mommy says that we will drive and sleep in the RV, please don’t sleep while you’re driving…THAT WOULD BE DANGEROUS!”