A lot going on: retirement, Gary’s birthday and the start of a two-month trip.
We were able to get work completed, pack up for a two-month trip, and leave when we had hoped to… despite a late start to spring in the Northeast, an unexpected furnace problem on the RV, and a re-occurrence of Kya’s chronic bronchitis.
The furnace problem was fixed in a day. It helped that it’s off-season in New England and the RV repair place was able to fit us in so quickly. (Thank you Paul for the recommendation! They were awesome!) We’re learning that RV repairs are expensive. The part was $150, the labor was 5 hours… $675 later we were fixed.
Kya was diagnosed with chronic bronchitis about a month ago and we’ve been trying different meds to figure out what works. It’s a work in progress. Prednisone eliminated the symptoms but left her peeing like a sieve. Not helpful when we’re starting a road trip. The morning we were leaving she was having symptoms again so we contacted the vet and ran around for 2 hours locating the meds. Naturally our local pharmacy didn’t have the bronchial dilator pills so we had to travel 30 minutes to pick them up. 24 pills and $90 later we were set. As it turns out, since we’ve been on the road, Kya is almost symptom free. Maybe she’s allergic to our house…
Monday, April 9th we left home around 11am and traveled down to Uncasville, CT to camp at Mohegan Sun, the Indian casino. Gary comes by his gambling gene honestly. His mom loved the slots. Gary enjoys blackjack, and he wanted to do that on his birthday, the 10th. We were able to camp for free at Mohegan Sun. It’s our first experience at dry camping (parking lot) but it overlooks the Thames River and is virtually empty this time of year. We shared the space with about six other campers. There are security cameras, lights and Mohegan Sun security makes the rounds regularly, plus there is a shuttle bus that takes you to the casino. We were there for 2 nights. Gary played blackjack the second day. I joined him playing after his birthday dinner and we played together for a while. I’m not particularly good so when I asked “what should I do?” I got in stereo from Gary and the other two people at the table, what I should do. It was pretty funny. I was playing with Gary’s money and even with my less-than-stellar-play, he ended up about $250 ahead for the evening.
The weather was cold! And we had no hook-ups so heat came from our propane, and lights came from the battery power. We do have a generator, which we haven’t used just yet. There was a glaze of ice on Wed. morning, the 11th. We waited for that to melt and departed around 10AM for a campground outside the Philadelphia area.
Travel in the northeast is lots of trucks and lots of traffic. A little stressful… we stopped in a rest area in Stamford, CT and we landed in an “Authorized Vehicle only” area. Oops. Had to back out of that. Luckily we weren’t too far in, but it took us a few tries to back out anyway. Then we had to back into a parking space in the same rest area. What the heck! As Gary said, we get a little back-in practice. Always an adventure!
We landed at the South Philadelphia KOA in Clarksboro, NJ at about 3:30 on Wed., April 11th. Busy campground. It’s one of the few open year round in this area. There are the snowbirds traveling back north and there were some full time transient workers here as well. But, the campground is well kept and there’s a pond and geese, which means there’s goose poop, which is one of Kya’s favorites and doesn’t sit well in her tummy. Kind of like me and sushi. TMI?
Thursday, April 12th, we headed into Philadelphia for the day! Weather was in the low 60’s, which was a treat. We were able to take a train. Mass transit is such a fun novelty when you don’t use it every day! Riding the train… feeling like a city mouse, rather than a country mouse. Very cool! We started out with the Liberty Bell. It’s free (a bonus) and the line was short on a Thursday. There are kiosks to educate you along the way. At the time the bell was made, the materials used for metal making, were not the best. It suffered hairline cracks early on, was repaired, and then cracked again…. wider this time and that stopped the ringing. It was smaller than I anticipated. I expected it to be twice the size it was, although it weighs 2,000 pounds, so not a lightweight. The “crack” is approx. 1/2” wide and 24.5 inches long. The circumference around the lip (widest part) of the bell is 12 ft. and the height is about 5 ft. But realizing the history behind this bell was humbling and reading the information in the kiosks brought tears to my eyes.
The Liberty Bell is in the historic district and surrounded by Independence Hall and other historic buildings where the Declaration of Independence was signed. We needed tickets to be able to enter some of the historic buildings. They were sold out and unavailable. We opted instead for a Hop On-Hop Off bus and got a 90 minute tour of the city. We saw all the different neighborhoods in Philly, including amazing architecture, where the wealthy call home, Chinatown, the waterfront and the famous steps leading up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, made famous by Sly Stallone in Rocky. There was also a statue of Rocky, which was donated by Sylvester Stallone, and grudgingly accepted by the Art Museum who thought it wasn’t worthy. But, since it brought a ton of tourists to the steps of their museum, they relented. The tour guide was interesting and shared lots of tidbits:
- Philadelphia has the second largest student population in the country, after Boston.
- William Penn introduced the concept of religious freedom and Philadelphia was the first in the nation to embrace the concept.
- There is a statue at the top of City Hall, which is the largest statute on top of any building in the world. It’s of William Penn and stands 37 feet high.
- The Chinese Friendship Gate at the entrance of Chinatown stands 40 ft tall and is held together with no glue, nails, etc. …. just craftsmanship.
We headed back to the campground thinking Kya was probably ready to have a pee break, and figured we’d come back into town tomorrow to continue with sightseeing. We had a pleasant evening and sat outside in the late afternoon and enjoyed the mild temps.
Friday, April 13th
During the night Kya’s tummy let loose with the goose poop. At about 3:30 in the morning Gary and I are having a very serious conversation in the middle of the living room, worthy of open heart surgery, discussing the best way to get said poop off the carpet in oh-so-many-places. We settled for wearing blue throw-away gloves, and used paper plates, paper towels, warm sudsy water and sponges to clean up the mess. Kya blissfully slept through the whole thing. 40 minutes later we were back in bed. We decided to ditch the plan of going into the city today since we didn’t want to leave Kya. We opted for a quiet day instead and hoped her tummy would settle down. Luckily it seems to have done so. It’s about 80 degrees and sunny! We’re taking advantage and sitting outside and enjoying it. A treat since it was still quite winter-like at home when we left.
We figure we’ll be stopping at this campground again on future trips so we’ll have the opportunity to visit Philadelphia again and see some of the things that we missed this go around.
Tomorrow we head on to Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland.
Enjoyed the Blog, info & pictures.
Enjoy your trip, stay safe and keep writing.
Love u
Bob
Thanks, Bob! Will do!
Love you back,
Teresa & Gary
Congratulations, the adventure begins! Your blog is so interesting, looking forward to following along with you.
Glitches happen, how well we know, we need to talk! But wouldn’t trade any of it for the memories we have and still are making. So glad Kya got through the goose episode, we have had experience in that area as well, not fun! Keep your sense of humor, it helps.
Until next time, enjoy every moment…..Meredith, Larry and the girls
Thanks, Meredith! Glad you’re enjoying! I bet you & Larry have tons of stories! And many that we could learn from!!
Love, Teresa & Gary & Kya
Awesome story, poor Kya; what is it with dogs & poop? Ours eat rabbit poop; gross! Hope you guys are enjoying your adventure – can’t wait to read the next entry. I didn’t know Mrs Dottie liked the slots; mom did as well.
We’re headed to the Dallas convention center this weekend for Ali’s last VB tourney of her club season; the Lone Star National Qualifier.
Love Mike
Hi Mike! Another favorite of Kya’s is horse poop, which we have a lot of at home in our neighborhood. We have to stay vigilant, or we pay dearly!
Dottie LOVED the slots! We took her many a time. I have fond memories of playing “wheel of fortune” with her at the slots. And, I know your mom had the gambling gene, too. I don’t know how you escaped that!
Go Ali! We’ll be thinking of you all!
Love,
Teresa
How exciting T&G. So far so good. Please give a big hug to baby Kya for me. Andrea
Will do, Andrea! xoxo
Good Morning Teresa & Gary, Happy belated birthday Gary! We are so excited to be able to follow you on your journey. Traveling across the country with no schedule has been a dream which we hope to do some day at retirement. John tells me I would have to ride in the back seat because I am NOT a very good passenger on highways. He is a good driver but I still get nervous every time we pass a tractor trailer. We have decided that the only way we could do this type of trip would be to go all back roads, which is fine with me. We will enjoy reading your blogs and seeing your beautiful pictures along the way. We look forward to going back and reading your earlier blogs. I told John this will be like having our own AAA reporters helping to plan future trips. Enjoy your day and thank you for letting us join you on your journey throughout the country. Be safe! Deb & John
Hi Deb & John!
We’re thrilled you’re interested enough to read it! I do blather on so feel free to skip to the pictures if I’m more boring than usual! I do get nervous and I’m not even driving! The two biggies for me are making a wrong turn and having to turn this behemoth around OR coming face-to-face with a low bridge we won’t fit under. Bumper-to-bumper traffic isn’t my favorite either 🙂 Luckily there are tools available for RV’ers to help with the navigating.
We know you have a trip planned to Nashville in June, enjoy that!
Love,
Teresa & Gary
All the talk about the goose poop pickup and yet no pix… what gives?
Actually – it sounds like you’re already off to another great adventure!
Oh, Waynerd, it wasn’t pretty. GJ says “think chocolate shake spilled on the floor.” Nasty. Miraculously, it cleaned up well and you’d never know!
Love,
Tere
Hi Teresa & Gary,
It’s great to follow along with you on your adventure!
I felt so honored to see you off on your trip….I was heading down to my mailbox on Monday around 11 AM. I got halfway down the driveway and spotted a pick-up truck with large RV attached humming along at a good pace down 152. All of a sudden I thought of you guys and realized, OMG, that’s Teresa and Gary heading out!
So nice to be included on your posts. Thank you!
Laurie
That’s so funny, Laurie! Yes, that was indeed us at about 11AM.
Sounds like a great time minus some hiccups 🙂
So true, Candace! As a fur mommy, you can relate.
It’s so fun reading about your adventures, all of them, including the wee hours ones. Thanks for the reminder about why we don’t have a dog of our own. Dog sittting once in a while is just right for us. Though one time we had to replace our futon mattress due to a cat using it as her litter box while we were on vacation……..Ah, we love our animal companions. I remember seeing the Liberty Bell as a teen and also being surprised at how much smaller than expected it was. Still a piece of history. Looking forward to more stories and pics!
Beth
I love your comments, Beth! Glad we could help with reinforcing your decision about why not to have a dog. That episode was followed by two nights of Kya getting us up several times in the middle of the night. I went along with it the first night because of the goose poop debacle the previous night. BUT, when I got up at 2AM the following night because she supposedly had to go out and all I got was a token pee, then I got Gary to take care of her. He’s the disciplinarian. He “yelled” at her and that was it. She settled for the night.
Teresa you always make me smile with your sense of humor and common sense. Congrats to Gary now that he has entered the realm of ‘ole men’. Time for the colonoscopy, etc. Sorry about Kia’s bowel situation, I can certainly sympathize. Love and Kisses and can’t wait for the next installment
Love you guys
Cuz Marie
Hi, Marie! Thanks for reading! Yes, time for another colonoscopy. We started those when we were 50. So far 60 isn’t so bad! Of course, I have another few months to go before I hit the magic number. Love you, Teresa