I wrote a post back in January about our tentative plans for this year. Some major things have happened since. Kelly, Todd, and our grandkids are going to be moving from KY back to Texas! Todd got a brand new job in Lubbock, and is ecstatic to be back to his home state, although this time they will be in west Texas as opposed to east Texas. So our rendezvous with them will hopefully be in Lubbock after their house sells and they get all moved. Otherwise we will see Kelly and the kids while we are up in KY after our time in Atlanta.
We had an opportunity come up to spend 4th of July in New Hampshire with our dear friends, Ray and April, and Mark and Ginger made the generous offer to park in their driveway where R&A will be house sitting. We weren't planning on another New England trip so soon, but we really want to take advantage of this opportunity to be with them. So then we figured since we were already that far north, lobster roll heaven wasn't that much further, right? We decided to make a little loop as far downeast as Harrington, ME, about 35 miles farther east than Bar Harbor. When we were in Maine two years ago we tried to stay in this little campground on the water, but it books full very quickly. Could we squeeze in this year? It turns out yes, but the full hookup sites are already gone! Then we thought wow, if those sites are already booked this far out maybe we ought to take a look at the other places we want to go. So sure enough we were just able to make reservations at most of the places we wanted to go, several were already booked for the entire season. We don't prefer to have our plans this set so far out, but in the east, especially in New England there are fewer campgrounds, most are on the smaller size, and their summer season is very short, so it can be a challenge. We are hoping Karen will join us for most of this loop. We will follow the coast north, and then loop back through Augusta to try to see friends there, and beat feet for Buffalo, WY. We want to spend some time exploring in the Bighorn Mountains. One of our favorite authors, CJ Box sets many of his books in this area of the country with his featured character, Joe Pickett who is a game warden in the county, and although it is definitely fiction he sets a lot of stories accurately in these mountains and the tiny town of Saddlestring, WY. Much like James Lee Burke sets his fictional character, Dave Robicheaux in New Iberia, LA, and his character Billie Bob Holland in Missoula, MT, both places we've visited because of the appealing description by the author. We even many years ago searched in vain for the town of Twenty Mile, WY the setting of Trevanian's Incident at Twenty Mile, a fascinating read by the way.
But I digress, then we will head south to Rocky Mountain National Park, Denver, Gunnison, and Montrose for pizza, before our 5 weeks in Durango. So quite out of character for us our plans have become quite firm.
Then just to be sure you know Murphy is still with us every once in a while. I mentioned that I needed to replace a chattering water solenoid valve on our washer, a simple fix. The parts came, I tore into the washer, swapped out the valves, put it back together, decided to run it through its cycle before buttoning it up and.... leaked like a sieve!! Aww, come on. It was leaking from the new valves where they met their fittings, and then it was leaking profusely from a plastic "tray" that channels the water into the drum and on closer scrutiny it looked like it had been leaking a little bit for some time, and when did this occur, oh yeah, on Friday. So ordered more parts, had to tell Jan the washer was dead until yesterday, Wednesday, but all is well now, no leaks, no chattering, and running well.
Also, in a blast from the past, had an old Delta friend contact me, so Doug, Jan and I had a pleasant catchup lunch and visit, and hope to get together again while he is down this way. Amazing that we each looked exactly the same after 15+ years! Jan is heading to Albuquerque to visit her mom and Nancy and CT on Sunday, so I am hoping to complete a few little projects in her absence, mainly to stay out of the bars:-)
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