Maine

7/30/14 - Today was a traveling day for Marilynn and I.  We decided to take a 5 day trip to Maine.  We left this morning at 10:00am. Marilynn was a little nervous but did well with the drive.  We stopped at a Visitor's Center for a short walk and lunch.  Drove some in Massachusetts, some in New Hampshire and then Maine.  We are in the southeastern part of Maine so are only about 40 miles into Maine.  We arrived around 2:00pm, checked in, got escorted to our spot, parked, ran electric, water and sewer and were sitting in our chairs visiting around 4:15.  We have settled in at a RV Park in Old Orchard, Maine. Pictures to follow later.  Plans are to go to Kennebunkport tomorrow and do some sightseeing.  It is really beautiful here.

Massachusetts

7/26/14 - Today was a driving day for me.  Will explain more later but will back up to 7/24/14.  I went with my nephew Jeremy to deliver mushrooms.  It is about a five hour day since there are a lot of miles to cover with various restaurants and retail stores. It was a very interesting day.  In the evening we had dinner at one of the restaurants that he delivers for.  It was a very nice restaurant and the food was delicious.  On 7/25/14, I went with him to a Farmers Market which was also very interesting.

This morning, part of his family left for a visit in Michigan and two of the boys and myself left for two different farmers markets to sell their goods.  I put my controls on their van and packed up both boys.  We drove for approximately  45 minutes to one market and dropped off one of the boys and then drove another 1/2 hour to set up for the second market.  We got everything set up in good time.  We were there for 3 hours.  Packed up what did not sell, drove to the other farmers market to packed Weston up and headed for home.  We got back home around 2:30pm.  I had gotten the RV already to move out except for the levelers and the electricity.  After everything was done, I left around 3:15pm for Norton, Massachusetts to visit my friends Marilynn and Joe.  I thought it was 127 miles but it was almost 200 miles.  I had a good trip and since the gas tank was full, I took a bathroom break and then had a snack.  I made a few phone calls and got back on the road.   I got to Norton around 7:15pm.  They had decided where I should park the RV so we took off the car, parked the RV and plugged in electricity.  Marilynn and I took the car around the block to get the transmission going.  It is so good to see both of them.  Plans are to stay in the area until 8/8/14.

7/21/14 - Today, I was able to help my niece Doreen.  I picked cucumbers and did a load of my own laundry before she started the family laundry.  Tonight, my nephew and his 4 boys went fishing and came home with 3 fish!  Tomorrow, we don't have much planned but then on Wednesday I have an appointment with the truck place to get the RV inspected for another New York sticker.

Will add a few pictures.

                                            Sitting in New York at my nephew's house way up
                                            on the hill

                                             As you can see "way up the hill"

                                          What is up with this.  Found a bent passenger door and some
                                           kind of scraping so something hit me between the time I left
                                          my brother's house and when I stopped to get gas at a shell station.
                                          I thought maybe I scraped the side of a guard rail but the RV is
                                          in perfect shape.

The door was bent enough it would not open but my 

nephew did a little prying and now I can at least open it.

New York

7/19/14 - The last couple of days, I have slowly been getting things back in the RV from my brother's house, did some cleaning in the RV yesterday and now it looks alot better.  We had a little picnic on Friday night since it was my last night in Delaware for a while.  My nephew, his wife and 3 kids, my niece, her husband and child, brother and sister-in-law in attendance.  We had so much food for a small picnic and everything was delicious.  This morning, I got everything together, my brother helped hook up the car and I left Delaware sometime after 9:00am.  It sure was a wonderful 35 days in Delaware.  I got to do so many things that I had not done in a long time.  (ie, gardening, helping with a calf, help cook, golf cart rides around the property)  I am sure there were a lot more things but these were my highlights. Also, one of the biggest highlights was a Sunday dinner when all of my brother's family was there.

I should have taken the time to buy gas in Delaware since diesel was $3.75 per gallon but thought I needed to drive for a while since I had almost a half tank.  Well, in Pennsylvania at a Shell station I needed up paying $4.03 per gallon!!!  My trip was much longer then planned since when I got on the Jersey Turnpike there had been an accident and we were bumper to bumper for over an hour.  I finally around 3:30pm got to a service area and stopped for lunch.  Then I had much better traveling after that.  I never paid so many toll road fares in my life and then learned with towing a car the price was almost double!!  I only got lost once with all my back road instructions but my nephew did drive up the road a little to fetch me.  He lives up on a hill but I made it all the way.  Tomorrow will take a picture and post again.

7/15/14 - Since last blog, my brother and his wife had a huge church picnic at their house.  On Monday (7/7) I took the RV in for some repairs.  They had it until Friday.  I then went to a place to get rid of the black water and gray water and re-filled the water tank.  I now have it parked out closer to the barn/chicken house area since it was scheduled for an oil change and general servicing of engine today.  It was easier for my brother to pick me up on Monday night instead of Tuesday early morning.  On Saturday their son, wife an 3 little boys came in from Ohio since there was a death in the community. On Sunday, all of their family was here for dinner including a guest from church and a grandmother.  My sister-in-law fed 17 people!!  The funeral was today and now the kids are traveling back to their homes so the house is quiet once again.

Since Friday afternoon, I had water pump problems so I tried to call the RV repair shop that had the RV before and he informed me that NO one was available to look at it until next week and I want to leave Delaware on Saturday so that was not acceptable!! I then asked if they knew of someone else and then he gave me the name of a mobile RV repairman so I called and he informed me that he only takes care of RV's that are parked in an RV park although he does have shop in Bridgeville, Delaware but is only in the shop on Tuesdays so I begged to bring it into the shop after I pick it up from the motor shop and he told me it might be a little wait but would be fine.  So I picked the RV up at 12:15pm and headed for Bridgeville which was 28 miles away.  When I got to the shop, it was a very narrow and up hill gravel drive and the shop was at the very end of the driveway.  He was quite busy but finally came over and asked me what my issue was and we started to do some checking.  I soon learned that I had a valve turned the wrong way and when it was corrected, everything worked just fine!!  So my lesson was free except for the 50 some miles and gas!!!  Hopefully, I will remember that on my next water tank fill up!!

7/4/14 - The last two blogs are not very accurate.  First of all the 6/25/14 blog is dated wrong and I dated the 6/24/14 blog right but my last sentence actually happened on 6/25/14 so now I will try to clarify things correctly.
6/25/14 - I am staying with two friends that are leaving for PA for a wedding so will be house sitting and cat sitting while they are gone. Laura left this morning for PA but Anne had a very important meeting on Thursday so she will not leave for PA until Thursday after the meeting.  Today, I went to the Dentist appt to learn that everything was OK with my dentures.  I then went to the office to pick up some financial paperwork before my meeting with my financial advisor.  I had the meeting and then met a friend at a Starbucks and we chatted for a few hours.  I met up with Anne and her parents for dinner.

6/26/14 - I had a doctor's appt and then off to the lab for some blood work.  Not sure what I did the rest of the day.

6/27/14 - Relaxed in the morning, went to the beach (it was rather cold and windy) and then met a friend at a country music place for a while.

6/28/14 - Relaxed in the morning, then got ready for the wedding which was at 3:00pm.  The wedding was very nice.  We had about 2 1/2 hours before the dinner and reception, so 5 of us from the wedding went to Red Robin for drinks and a snack.  Went back to the dinner and reception at 6:00pm.  Dinner was very good and it was great to see a lot of people that I had not seen for a long time.  I left at 10:00pm.

6/29/14 - had lunch with a friend and then in the evening had dinner with a former co-worker. Laura and Anne came back from their trip to PA.

6/30/14 - I spent the day with Laura.  We went out for lunch, stopped off at the grocery store and then Laura made a delicious chicken dinner.

7/1/14 - Went to the office to tell everyone good bye since I was leaving the next day.  I had lunch with a former co-worker.  In the evening I had dinner with Anne and Laura and then went to the bowling alley to watch Anne and her father bowl on a league.

7/2/14 - Did all of my packing, met Laura at a yogurt place to give her the house keys and then took the rental car back.  Deb met me picked me up and we went back to her house for a while.  When Rolf came home we went to a delicious Italian place for dinner, back to their house for a while and then Deb took me to the airport.  My flight was out at 10:45pm.

7/3/14 - Arrived at the Baltimore airport around 9:15am.  My nephew Lem picked me up and we went back to his house, dropped off luggage and then off to visit some monuments in DC.  I visited the Theodore Roosevelt island and monument.  It was very interesting.  Then we went to the Martin Luther King Jr monument and the World War II.  They were all very interesting.  It was rather warm and humid so walking was a little slower.  We picked up books at the library for Jessica (his wife), picked up his car after it was serviced and then later we all went out for Thai Food which was very good.

7/4/14 - Left Alexandria, Virginia around 9:20am for Milford, Delaware.  The traffic was not too bad.  Stopped for gas and found a good produce stand so got some vine ripe tomatoes.  At one point I felt I was going the wrong way, so called my brother to learn I was correct so turned around and got going the right way.  Got to my brother's house around noon.  Later in the afternoon, I went with my sister-in-law to do some shopping.  Their daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter came over in the afternoon and stayed for dinner.  We then drove to Dover to watch some fireworks.  We got really close and they were well done.
Off to bed.