Abbey's Road

I spent a good part of the first few weeks of January getting my car ready to tow behind the motorhome. I ended up doing all the work myself, which is kind of scary since I’ve never been real mechanical. I did have some frustrating problems with the wiring kit for the lights, including something that flared up on the morning I was leaving, but I ended up getting everything working in the end. I didn’t get out of Wilmington before the cold weather hit, but I did manage to drive south without having to go through any bad weather. My first stop was at Greg Scheu’s in Raleigh. Greg was a high school friend of mine and I hadn’t seen him since around the time I got married. It was great to see him again, and to see his wife, Kim, and meet his two kids. I only got to spend a night, but it was real nice catching up.

My next stop was St. Augustine where I caught up with some RV friends, Doug and Liane, and their dog Max. The state park they were staying at was supposed to be full, but thanks to some clandestine work by Liane I got a spot for the night. Their campground neighbors left a day early but never told anyone so the spot was never filled. So they called me and gave me the combination to the gate and I had a free spot for the night. I left early the next morning, turned around and got in line to come back in when the gates were opened at 8AM. It pays to have RV friends! I’ll have to return the favor someday. Abbey was getting restless from all the driving, and quite frankly I was getting tired, so I decided to stay an extra day to rest up and get to the Keys a day late. Since we weren’t starting to work that day anyways, and I was far south enough not to have to worry about winter weather any more it didn’t really make any difference. Abbey and I took a long walk on the beach, and then I took a long nap. I woke up with plenty of time to get ready for dinner with Doug and Liane. Except for the long drives, it felt good to be back on the road, though I do notice the difference with the car behind me. At least, when I’m starting up or driving over bumpy roads. I kept looking in the mirror to make sure I could see the shadow of the car on the road since I couldn’t see the car itself. I was still paranoid on the 3rd day of driving, but I was getting more used to it. I’m hoping the day will never come that I get stuck trying to turn around on a narrow street because you can’t back up when you’re towing a car.

I made it into the Habitat yard on Big Pine Key around 4:30 on Monday only to find out there was a van parked in my spot. One of the other volunteers told me not to worry because they usually leave the keys in them. Then he said, as he jumped in the driver’s seat, “Let’s hope this one starts.” I soon realized that is true with a lot of the trucks, vans, tools, etc. around here. They have a lot of equipment but not all of it works. This is different from the other Habitat builds I have been on in that it isn’t a scheduled build. In other words, people come and go at all different times so it will be interesting to see how it works. More on that next time.

First campsite with the car

Posted by Ed at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

New Year’s Day was a bit strange this year without college football games to watch. We had to settle for watching them on Jan. 2nd (and 3rd and 4th) instead. Much to the delight of my cousin and the Cones family, Notre Dame got pretty well trounced by the Ohio State Buckeyes. We didn’t deserve to win, but all I can say is, “Wait ‘til next year.” I watched the whole game, but it was too nerve-wracking for my dad. He watched a few minutes here and there, but finally had to go to bed before he got completely unnerved.

My brother John “had” to go to the Sugar Bowl (something to do with Verizon sponsoring the WV Mountaineers) so I had to scrap plans to go and visit him and his family. Instead, I took another trip down to the DC area. On Tuesday I drove down to Ann and Joe’s again. This time the house was in much better shape so they asked me to stay over. Joe and I stayed up to watch the Penn State vs. Florida State game which seemed to go on forever. We both fell asleep a few times and with the second half being a defensive struggle I’m guessing we weren’t the only ones. We did manage to wake up for the last 20 seconds of regulation and the 2 overtimes.

On Wednesday morning I met up with Mike Schiavi and we drove down to the Pentagon where John Quinn, or should I say Lt. Col. Quinn, had invited us for a tour. We got to see where the plane hit on 9/11 though you could never tell. It’s all rebuilt already. The Pentagon is a pretty cool building though John said he couldn’t show us much of the cool stuff due to it being highly classified – a likely story! This being The Pentagon, I finally have a valid excuse for not taking any pictures, as opposed to the rest of the past few months and the lack of pictures. Wednesday night Mike and I went over to one of his friends’ house to watch the big game – USC vs. Texas. Since I lived in Austin for 6 years where UT is located, and since I hadn’t forgotten ND’s loss to USC earlier this year I was rooting for the Longhorns all the way. I have to admit that when they were down by 12 with 6 minutes left I was starting to have some serious doubts. But Vince Young came through and I hope I can be forgiven for my lack of faith. It was the second great game I saw this year, and this time the right team won in the end.

My celebration didn’t last long ‘cause I drove down to Cary, NC to see the Cones’ family. Their youngest son, Logan, had volunteered to let me sleep in his room and later that night when I went to bed I found out why. His room is a veritable shrine to the Ohio State Buckeyes including an army of bobbleheads on the nightstand and a big wooden “O” on the ceiling. It’s a wonder I didn’t have any nightmares while I was there. Logan was also kind enough to leave me the newspaper clipping proclaiming “Buckeyes throttle the Irish” hidden under my towel. I think he’s definitely learned well from his dad. It had been nearly 10 years since I had seen all of them – Rob, Jane, Jaron, Kelsey and Logan – so it was great to get reacquainted. Friday night the boys and I went to see the Carolina Hurricanes play. It was my second NHL game in the last few months and the home team won again. I must be good luck I guess. I was also good luck for Kelsey as her basketball team trounced their opponent by something like 28-7. I wasn’t quite so lucky for Jaron’s team, which was OK with me. I was beginning to worry that they would want me to go to all of their games. Saturday night another couple from our early IBM Kingston days, Dave and Linda Laubscher, came over and we all went out for dinner. Linda is still as funny, and talkative, as ever. Seeing them brought back some good old memories. Sunday morning I took off again, this time for Conway, SC and my brother Jim and his wife Carol. More on that next time.

Posted by Ed at 8:30 PM | Permalink