Tuesday, May 21, 2019

2019 Road Trip and cat "tales"

  The summer months are upon us so that means its the time to hit the road. Our plans are started and hopefully all goes well this year. As you all may recall last year's trip ended prematurely because of cracked hot water tank.

  That was replaced at Camping World back in March when they were running a $59 install special. The tank was about $550 and some additional labor because of the broken support frame. The trailer is currently at the local RV repair shop getting new steps and new wheel well skirts after losing the passenger side during the tire blowout in New Mexico:


  Hopefully getting new skirts. The trailer has been in the shop for over a month and they are having a difficult time finding a skirt to fit or that even slightly matches. As of this writing they have exactly one week to figure something out.


  Regardless, the plans are set for June and July. We will be staying on the east coast this year and the first stop is Pennsylvania for three weeks. After that we are off to East Hampton, CT, Wells, ME, Contoocook, NH, Portsmouth, RI, Port Republic, NJ, and Bear, DE. I am not planning any further than that; you never know what is in store. I know a return to PA is a definite for late August. Four months will be the extent of the trip this year. I would like to be back in Florida by October. 

  Fall and winter were fairly uneventful other than some frigid temperatures in November.
I actually had an opportunity to wear my Fargo hat that I bought in North Dakota

The hat was nice and warm on the golf course:


  There was one mishap in January when Asia, our cat lost part of her tail. We were getting our water filtration system serviced and Doreen had locked her out on the lanai to keep her out of the way. I returned from playing golf and entered the house through the lanai. The feisty feline appeared to be asleep on the chair and I quickly slammed the sliding door shut as I entered the house before she could awaken and run in. Alas, the phrase "quick as a cat" became very real to me. I heard a loud shriek after the door closed and saw a brown blur, blaze a path to the bedroom. I looked down at the closed door in horror; the tip of her tail was caught and she had ran right out of her fur!

Here you can see the exposed bone at the end of the tail:


  This hasty move cost me 300 bucks at the vet. The tip had to be amputated. She has made a full recovery with no ill effects. 

  Anyway we are getting set to leave on June 1 and we will be able to cross a few more states off our list probably leaving only a couple of the lower 48 left. My plans have not included Maryland, West Virginia, or Missouri as of yet. Missouri is the tough one on the list. I don't know how we missed it on previous trips, none the less it is a good six or seven hundred miles out of my way on my current itinerary and 1000 miles directly from home in Florida. 

Stay tuned for another adventure.