Sorry I am late in posting. Third time since I started posting this blog. We have had a full couple of weeks - while still seemingly getting little done.
My mom was ill a week ago Tuesday at 4 am and we had to run to the hospital with her. Since we go to bed around 4 am - the call came just as we had gotten into bed - we were terribly tired while at the hospital. My sister and her husband came and saved us and let us go home. Husband had tried to sleep out in our car - lack of sleep always hits him harder than it does me - and as result of not being able to sleep reached the point where not only was sooooo exhausted, he was also in pain from trying to sleep in the car. Basically that Tuesday was a gone day. Wednesday was still off as we were so off physical schedule - but as you know, I did manage to get my post out on time.
On that Thursday, day before Good Friday and the start of Passover, we went to my mom’s house as she was worried about her mail - most of the afternoon gone. We finished shopping for 2 holiday dinners and that evening I started cooking soup for us for Passover.
Friday we ran some errands and then I made dinner for me; husband picked up a Chinese main dish - shrimp - as it was Good Friday. I made vegetable soup for him and chicken for me - and added what I cooked on Thursday - matzoh balls to both soups. After Passover dinner, I cooked a chicken for Easter dinner - Brunswick stew and put it in the fridge to keep.
Saturday and Sunday between all the normal things we do I worked on the newsletter for my embroidery chapter which had to be out on Wednesday. (Normally I write that Wednesday afternoon and then Wednesday night I write my post.) We also went to church Easter morning and I cooked the Brunswick stew with the previously cooked chicken.
In the middle of all of this husband decided that we had to dewinterize one of our two fresh water tanks in the RV. This consists of letting the water out of the tank, refilling it and adding bleach to the new water and letting it sit. We then emptied and refilled the tank twice over the several days we worked on it.
I was looking ahead to what I had to do in the coming week - impossible!! Mostly I had 4 days - what is now yesterday (Thursday), today (Friday) and next Monday and Tuesday to: go to client in Manhattan, do her books & payroll taxes, take my mom to the doctor (on whichever day of the four doctor could see us), meet up with a member of our reenactment unit to get some government paperwork done at the agency involved, and prepare to give a talk at my embroidery meeting this coming Wednesday. On Sunday I did the payroll tax form for my client (she took no salary this past quarter) and mailed it to her for her to sign and mail out when she comes back to work after being on a vacation so that it will be out timely even if I don’t get there timely. I mailed it out to her on Monday.
Tuesday we drove to Pennsylvania. The system in our RV which lets us pump out the “used” water was not working right last time we went away (end of August) and did not work at all at the start of November when we tried to winterize. Husband made an appointment and the first date available was this past Wednesday. But we had to be there at 8 am! Two states away. This should be a two to two and a half hour drive, but we never know what the traffic will do - and we would be traveling (half asleep due to the very early hour and no or minimum sleep) during rush hour. Husband started to panic. The RV dealer said to us that we could drive down overnight and hook up electricity outside their building - which we have done in the past - but an entire night without a bathroom?! I let it roll around in my head. I came up with the idea of staying at a nearby RV park the night before - if we could find one. Husband did find one and that is why we drove down on Tuesday for a Wednesday appointment. We had to check in at 4 pm and left at 10:30 am to get there. We got stuck on the same two roads in our state that we normally get stuck on. Why do we go that way? If we go the alternative ways either we are driving north a good distance to go south or we are driving through midtown Manhattan - something we avoid with a car, let alone an RV (and which would soon be a very expensive idea do to a new toll coming to drive in Manhattan). So we have to go the way we go.
We were finally past the delays here in New York and about to get onto the New Jersey Turnpike. Easy to do - we have done it more than countless times. We got off the road at the exit to the Turnpike and when we approached the toll booths - we were directed away from them to a side road - there was an 18 wheeler truck - cab and trailer - lying on its side blocking the booths. Now we have to figure all this out. I looked and we had been directed into an industrial park - and one we have been in several times as there is a venue for conventions and we have gone to quilt, woodworking, and toy train shows there. (Heck, I won a judges prize for a doll there.) Relieved that I knew where we were - and there were lots of free parking lots with space to pull into - I suggested husband do the same. He kept driving around as he could not figure out where to pull in and his two (yes, two) GPS devices were arguing over what we should do. Now they are both trying to get us back to the entrance to the Turnpike, but husband has the idea in his head that one or the other will save us. One of them is preprogrammed by him and if we miss a point on the map he entered will keep sending us back to that point until we drive through it. Husband is going on and on about never getting “there” as we don’t know how to go to. I point out to him that we know that one way to where we want to go is to get back on the road we were on and head west - just the longer way. After about 15 minutes of him driving around I managed to get out a map - yes, a paper map - of the state and figure out how to get to the next entrance to the Turnpike on the streets. I find a parallel major road - US1 - which will take us South to where we need to be and then we take a state road - Rte 18 across to the Turnpike and get back on. Husband does not completely trust me on this. I tell him to get back on the main road in the same direction we were going. We end up getting back on it going back where we came from. Between me and the two GPS devices he manages to turn around. I get him off the road onto US1. The GPS that needs to go through specific points continues to try to get us to turn around - he finally managed to get that one shut off. The other one figures out that we are heading towards the next entrance and starts giving us directions to it. He is now happy that he knows where we are going - even though the GPS is giving him the exact same route as I told him - and he did not trust!
I should explain that we have traveled to Pennsylvania or elsewhere beyond it at least 10 trips a year - for almost 45 years. This is not driving in a totally strange area. Even as we headed down US 1 towards Rte 18 as we got close I pointed out to him - “Look, that is the Wendys where we had lunch last year when we went to that quilt show.” As we got closer - “Look this is where we used to drive to get to that nice Japanese restaurant for dinner.” (After all the quilt, etc shows in the area.) So I am comfortable with all this and know we will get to where we are headed. He is still not so sure. We find and get on the New Jersey Turnpike. Strangely I cannot find any information about what happened to the truck and why it turned over. There is nothing in the news for a turned over truck on that day - lots of others, but not even any in same month.
We continue on our trip. While the area near the RV dealer is a relatively new one for us, we have been going there since 2011 and early on in owning the RV there were a lot of problems with it and we might have made a couple of dozen stops there to have it worked on, often while going to Lancaster as this is on the way. We have also been going to a local cultural fair annually for about 20 years which I had figured out was relatively near to this one - same exit from the Pennsylvania Turnpike going opposite ways after exiting it. We find the RV park. Space is good - about 4 rows from the “bathhouse”. We then left and drove for dinner in another area of Pennsylvania. (Husband was getting the most of things he has missed from this trip.) Then back to the RV park and set up for the night as it is suppose to rain. Luckily it is not bad rain.
We are up early (for us) the next morning. I had not fully made the bed the night before as I knew I had to get it apart quickly the next morning. I took all of my bed linens and put them in one large plastic bag and ditto his. I then took apart the bed (two banquette type benches are the base of the bed). We dropped the RV off for repair and asked them to change the oil in the generator as it is about the time to do so and then to change the “dump hose” as long as it will be taken apart anyway for one we think we like better.
We spend the next several hours in their parts department shop, looking at the new Rvs, walking to a nearby shopping center - Home Depot, Staples, a dollar plus store and lunch at (yes) Wendys. While eating lunch I see the RV being driven back to the office from their shop and we head over. It was done. Twice the cost husband had anticipated, but it is working again.
We then set off to the Lancaster area for dinner - stopping at a local store as it is too early for same. After dinner we stop at a Walmart there - their Walmarts are larger than ours and carry different items. We then start home. It is basically the same time we would normally leave for home on one of our trips. Normally we would home around midnight - 12:30 am. The plan was for me to send out the prewritten newsletter for my embroidery chapter when I got home and I had planned to write and post to all of you here on my blog. Somehow it took us to 2:30 am to get home and we don’t know why - no traffic, no extra stops? We took out only the items that had to come out as we needed them in the house and the “snacks” we had brought with us.
Well, so why didn’t write and post on Thursday? Thursday we unpacked the rest of the stuff in the RV - and I cannot find my Diabetes meter, but it has to be there or her and we have a spare, so I am not going to go crazy over it. I sent out all 3 versions of the embroidery chapter newsletter. I had planned to write the post and send it out that evening. But when evening came - I forgot all about it! So here I am writing to you two days late! Forgive me.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Whether one gets diverted from the road on a physical journey or from their journey to getting better organized it happens. No need to get upset with yourself. Just pick up where you left off and continue.
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