Well…this is another mostly filler post just so ya’ll will know we’re still alive…but the good news is that the “commitments” portion of the summer is done and we’re finally ready for some Fun Stuff©.

We left Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield VA as scheduled and made the 120 mile or so drive up to the DC ‘burbs and settled into our usual site113 at Bull Run Regional Park…this is one of the few sites there that actually had satellite visibility. Alas…the trees have grown up since our last visit and there’s no visibility anymore…which means no Direct TV…which means no recordings…which means unhappy Connie. The good news is that we completely watched and deleted our backlog of recorded shows.

We were in the DC area almost exclusively for commitments…the first day there we had dental cleanings and a couple cavities filled along with a meeting with our financial folks from Cassaday and Company. All is well on both fronts. 

We spent the rest of our time catching up on a few more things we needed to do…and it rained…and rained…and rained…and rained. Every stinkin’ day…it rained. And not your pleasant April showers either…downpours. It was so bad that for 2 days the main area of the Bull Run Regional Park was flooded by overflow from Bull Run…and the campground had to open an emergency exit through the back of the campground out by the shooting center to the park access road.

The only bright spot was Neil’s birthday (64) while we were there. We headed over to the Renaissance Cafe…one of our favorite high class (i.e., expensive) eateries…we’ve probably eaten there 20 or 25 times over the years. It’s a French-Italian place…and naturally being such dinner takes 2 to 3 hours. We had a Lobster Ravioli and Potato Gnocchi appetizer to split, Connie had salmon and Neil had Veal Picatta…then since it was his birthday they brought our a dessert plate for us…fudge, creme brulee, mocha ice cream, and a slice of cake sorta like tiramisu. We managed to force all of it down but were both pretty full…in fact Neil went to bed early as he wasn’t feeling well (overstuffed) after we got home.

Next morning…we got up early to start the transit to Boston…and you guessed it…it was raining. We had a 380 mile trip up I-81 to Harpursville NY for an overnight stop at Belden Campground…and the whole day we were in and out of heavy rain and fog. And the road…I gotta tell ya…I-81 in PA is probably the worst road we’ve ever been on.

Last nite…it rained hard again overnight but by this morning it was mostly just cloudy. We had a couple of leaks from slide seals we had to mop…since it was an overnight stop we didn’t unhitch Big Red…which meant that we weren’t level either fore and aft or side to side…with our 1.5 degree list to starboard (passenger side) the rain that would normally run right off the slide top instead ran over to the seal, back to the rear of the slide, and in through the seal there to puddle on the floor. We’ve got some wet towels we’ll lay out in the sun tomorrow to dry out…not the first time it’s happened and probably won’t be the last either.

The weather was nice today for the last 300 miles over to Mansfield MA just south of Boston…it sprinkled a couple of times but was mostly just miles moving…although it got pretty rough on the road surface (albeit not as bad as 81 in PA was)…and the traffic  got pretty crappy by the time we were within 100 miles of Boston.

We pulled in and got settled…in one of the 2 or 3 sites in Canoe River Campground here that has satellite visibility and were able to sync up…although we had to shift from multi-sat to single sat on bird 101 to do so…luckily 101 is all you really need. Connie’s setup the batch of recordings she’s saved up the last 2 weeks .

We touched base with our old college buddy Patricia Balzarini…she lives in Miami in the winter and comes back north to Dedham MA near Boston for the summers and lives in the house she inherited from her parents. We’re planning on getting together Memorial Day for some grilling with her here at the park.

We’ve got some Fun Stuff© scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday including dinner at Rabia’s Italian Restaurant in Boston…one of the best we’ve eaten at…but I’ll talk about all that stuff in my next post…which I promise should have some Fun Stuff© and photos in it.

Just a couple quickie things from the net this week…

They wanted to provide disabled access up this stairway I guess.

If pets could talk.

Cyas.