Sunday, December 27, 2020

A Very Merry Christmas!



Our son James, daughter-in-law Morgen and grandson Kolya
 joined us for lunch and time in the playground at our RV Park.
Our dinette sat 5 for lunch - big surprise.
What a treat to spend the holidays with our son and our daughter-in-law's family. To do this we all made a commitment to quarantine and then were tested. It was a wonderful week and we are so grateful for it. It has been cold though, below freezing at night. But our trailer stays warm with the combination of propane and a little electric heater.
We'll be off driving south again on Monday, headed for long time friends Walt & Honoree Cooper, formerly of S/V Will O' the Wisp home in Cameron, N.C. We'll stay there until 1/2/2021, celebrating the much longed for New Year. May it bring a better year for all of us. Happy New Year everyone!


Kolya loved the play structure


He is a happy kid as you can see with red
hair like his father and our youngest son.

Everyone had dinner together on Christmas
Eve at Morgen's sister Claire's home near
theirs in Capitol Hill.

And now a view the other direction at the adult's
table. The family tradition is cheese fondue with
fruit salad for dinner.

And for dessert, a Pavlova made by Claire's 
husband Bill's parents.

 

Morgen's father Karl gave out the presents. 
Stockings were before breakfast and the rest of the
gifts afterward. We stayed the night at Kris & 
Karl's home in Gaithersburg, MD with James,
Morgen & Kolya. Otherwise, we slept in our
trailer.
Morgen's mother Kris and Kolya - I should have
asked about the pajama protocol. Scott and I were
the only ones other than Claire & Bill's
daughters to get "dressed". 
That's Bill & Claire on the left with their youngest
daughter Nora, James & Kolya
Their oldest daughter Grace inspecting the pile
of gifts - lots more out of view!
Morgen & Kolya with a new puzzle
Bill and Nora
Heather with a present from Sean. He gave me
a new camera - a modern day "Poloroid" to 
document our trip with this display box to show
off the photos. 
The table set for Christmas dinner.
Scott at our dinette on Saturday for
our special breakfast with the beautiful vanocka,
Czech Christmas bread Karl made and 
gave to us.

Here's a close-up! Yum!

Monday, December 21, 2020

Change of Weather Already - Washington DC

 It is rather miraculous that we left our home in Vermont yesterday morning in freezing temperatures and tons of snow and the next day it's 47 degrees with bright sunshine and green grass. I can't believe we actually thought we could take off Saturday afternoon. We barely got started at 9:40 AM on Sunday. There was so much more to do and it took longer than we thought. And we forgot several rather important things despite pages of checklists: Scott's dop kit and sneakers and my plan to bring our favorite cereal/soup bowls. And the tea kettle (from Tall Timbers and packed away for ages) leaks! So we managed to order everything but the sneakers from Target for pick up this afternoon. 

It was an exhausting day yesterday. We had always planned to arrive at our first RV park in daylight as this is all new to us. But it was pitch black when we entered and there were very few lights. We got into a tight corner by mistake trying to find our site and it took a while before we were able to get through. Luckily, a nice resident helped us find our site. There were still pockets of snow there and lots of mud. Poor Scott had a hard time trying to set up the electricity (the post at our site was dead, but he managed to connect to an adjoining empty place).  And we needed water as we couldn't fill it up in Vermont - everything was frozen. We didn't get settled inside until 7 PM. BOY did that stiff drink (gin & tonic for Scott, bourbon for me) taste good. And the Cajan Dirty Rice and Butternut Squash hit the spot. After dinner and checking our emails, we watched some of the Sound of Music on our (live) TV just long enough to make it to bedtime - 9 PM.

This morning was so relaxing. Good coffee and a walk around the Bar Harbor RV Park (lots of RVs, a few cabins, and a lovely spot on the river). But it was cold, gray, and muddy so we packed up and headed further south to Cherry Hill RV Park in College Park, MD. What a change! The sun came out and this large park is spacious, spotless, and free from snow. We're about 1/2 an hour out of Washington, where we are headed next to see our son James, daughter-in-law Morgen and 2-year-old grandson Kolya. We're spending the day with them today but coming back here after dinner. Tomorrow they'll come here for lunch. There is a nice children's playground for Kolya. Then we'll return to their home for dinner. On Wednesday we're all going to Morgen's parents for Christmas Eve and Day. To prepare for this we've all been quarantining and had COVID tests (all negative). 

This is our very nice spot at our current Cherry
Hill RV Park in College Park, MD

A view of the waterfront at last night's Bar Harbor
RV Park in Abington, MD

And this is our site there, we're on the right

This is Bar Harbor management photo of their
site on the river in nice weather!

Kolya a few days ago with his first snow!

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Winter Storm Gail Hits Us Hard

 We are buried in snow here at The Hundred Acre Wood! It is at least 2 feet right now and still snowing. Scott is beginning the shoveling process as it's going to take a long time to get down to our garage. Luckily we did not plan to leave until at least Saturday so we and the rest of the Northeast have time to recover. It has been a long time since we've seen this much snow! Here's some photos and I'll send some more later,., (update at 2:30 PM - 3 feet of snow)

I waded in from our covered front door so you
could see the depth

That's our truck and trailer buried. It's going to
be a job shoveling it out, especially after the 
snow plow finishes our driveway.

I had quite a job walking in this much snow so
I could take a photo looking back at the house. 
We'll have to break out our snowshoes later!

Another view down towards the garage.

Looking along the deck from the front door.


The view out our office - snowed in!
Scott makes a start on the shoveling - it's going
to be awhile before we finish that!
This is the entrance to the stairs going down to
the travel trailer. I guess we'll be going the 
long way around!

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Watching the Weather

 Winter storm Gail is sweeping towards the Northeast starting this Wednesday. We've been watching the weather forecasts carefully to see how it will impact our trip. We rescheduled our COVID 19 tests from Thursday to Wednesday thinking we might get snowed in for a day here. The most recent forecasts show the greatest impact around New York City up to Boston. Our route south takes us south through Bennington over to Albany, down the New York Thruway to the Garden State Parkway and the NJ Turnpike. Our plans are to leave on Saturday so we can get 2 or 3 hours along our route towards Maryland. We would just stay overnight in a Walmart or CamperWorld parking lot south of Albany. On Sunday then we'd have only 4 or 5 hours left for the trip. Hopefully, by Saturday the roads will be good. We could leave on Sunday but that would mean a full 7 plus hour day. 

Our first RV park reservations are near my sister's on the Maryland shore - Bar Harbor RV Park and Marina for two nights, December 20 and 21. Then we'll head south to be near our son James, daughter-in-law Morgen and our 2-year-old grandson Kolya in Washington DC. We have reservations at Cherry Hill Park RV Park in College Park, MD for 5 nights. All of us that will be together on Christmas are being tested and quarantining so we can be inside together. 

Right now the house is a mess with Xmas wrappings and last-minute boxes being mailed. Then there are big plastic containers of food that will go into the truck cab. An inventory of their contents is taped on the top of each. Containers of tools and summer clothes are already packed and stowed away. We could go without a trip to the supermarket for weeks, longer if we didn't want fresh veggies. 
Wish us luck! We'll update you as the situation becomes clearer.