3300 MILES & HAVING TOO MUCH FUN

I am so far behind on writing, because I have been driving 3300 miles from west to east (right) coast, attending family weddings, playing golf, and getting a colonoscopy.   Okay, the colonoscopy was NAUGHT fun.  Here is my update on the Road2Reinvention.

After leaving my pal Beth, the horses, goats and dogs north of Austin, TX; I made my way to visit former Nevada pals Lisa and Dean just southeast of Dallas.  Lisa and I met in Carson City, NV when I was working for the State of Nevada Employees Association/AFSCME.  Lisa was a very out-spoken transportation employee.  That is my diplomatic way of saying Lisa was a whistle-blower and thorn in the side of management.  We became friends at our first meeting.  That meeting was because Lisa had called out her bosses on using bad materials on state road projects, and she was the inspector.  Rather than correct the materials, they wanted to fire Lisa.   I always considered employees like Lisa job security, and a lot of fun to call the bosses out.

Happily, Lisa retired from the Nevada Department of Transportation, and husband Dean moved to Murchison, Texas!    They hate Texas and plan to return to Nevada, but I love the fact my travels give me the opportunity to visit far-flung friends.

From Texas, I drove north to Arkansas, but was not able to stay in Little Rock as planned.  Campgrounds were flooded and closed.  I pushed on 444 miles to Memphis, TX and the Graceland RV park.  400 miles is TOO far to drive in one day.  I prefer 200 – 250 miles tops a day. But I arrived safe and sound. 

The two things I hoped to do in Memphis was to visit Graceland and eat ribs at Circa-1948 Charlie Vergos Rendezvous, BBQ spot in a basement down an ally from the historic Peabody Hotel.  The Rendezvous serves up racks of dry-rubbed smoked ribs and is a favorite or locals and visitors including Bill Clinton, before he went vegan.  Memphis was a bust!  Graceland cost $70 to visit, and as much as I like Elvis, I wasn’t that excited to see his jump-suit collection.  Worst, the Rendezvous is closed on Sunday!  Onward to Nashville, 225 miles.

While the middle of the country is flooding and suffering tornados, I have been extremely fortunate that my weather has been GREAT!  No rains, high winds or tornados.  My highway Goddesses are watching out for me.

I stayed at a really lovely RV Resort in Nashville, Safe Harbor on the shores of the J Percy Priest Reservoir. Every campsite had a level concrete pad, grassy picnic table area, and fire pit.   It was too hot for a fire, but the evening lake view was very enjoyable.  Downtown Nashville is a great walking area with lots of music history.

I moved on to Ashville, NC.  I passed on visiting the Vanderbilt mansion, paying $70 to see America’s opulence by robber barons does not appeal to me – now or then.  American’s have a strange love affair with the rich.  Personally, I am disgusted by great wealth when millions of Americans live in poverty, and we are caging children.  Maggie and I sought out a nice dog park, walk along the river and good Carolina barbaque.  Downtown Ashville is very cute and full or nice shopping.  When you live in 20′ shopping for stuff is not a sought after past-time.

Full-time life in an RV, like any homeowner-ship, regulary presents an opportunity for repairs.  Somewhere along the road my Sharp micro-wave convection oven died.  Fortunately, I was heading east on Highway 40, where Out-Of-Doors Mart, in Colfax, NC is located.  This Airstream and RV Dealer has the very best parts department and great customer service.  When I called, lucky for me they had a replacement micro-wave in stock.  I removed the broken unit and they  promised to recycle (rather than just throw in a dumpster, I hope).  I was able to install the new unit, with minor modification of the mounting and purchasing some high density foam from Amazon.  Yes, I am proud of myself when I can do repairs myself, my labor rate is very reasonable.

June has been spent with family in NC.  Niece Rachel finally married her partner of 10 years Adam.  The wedding was on the beach at Emerald Isle, NC.  My 89 year old mother Mary and step-father Erv (Chapel Hill), sisters Robin (Los Angeles and Long Island), Kerry husband Buzz and son Connor (Anchorage), Becky (Cary, NC) and Brother-in-law to be Chuck, nephew David (just back from deployment in Afghanistan) wife Camilla and son Benjamin (Italy) were ALL in attendance.  It was a wonderful family week at the beach and instead of horrible predicted weather of rain and storms, the sun came out and we spent our days in the waves and on the sand.

The following week we all returned to Cary, NC for the wedding of eldest sister Becky (Rachel’s mother) and best guy Chuck.  Chuck’s two lovely son’s and their wives joined a small group of their friends to celebrate Becky and Chuck’s happy day.  “BROTHER-in-LAW” Chuck and I got a round of golf in, before departing to the outter banks.

After a winter in the desert, Maggie and I are catching up on beach time, we travelled to Roanoke Island to visit Kitty Hawk and surrounding sites.  Washington, D.C. pals Liz and Tim joined us in their VW pop-up for a fun weekend of beach and site seeing.

It has been a whirl wind trip, 3300 miles departing Tucson, AZ on May 15 and arriving NC on June 5.

So, to finish off a great winter to summer/west to east trip, sister Becky and I underwent colonoscopies together today.  Wow!  Do we know how to have fun or what?  I will leave all my readers with a caution to make sure if you are over 60 to get your colonoscopies!  Yes, the prep is absolutely HORRIBLE.  I hope you all have the success Becky and I had today, both a clean bill of health.  Again, it is great to have Chuck my new brother-in-law in the family, who kindly drove us, waited and brought us home.

Maggie and I are headed to Washington, D.C. our favorite city.  We will visit friends and former colleagues.  I am looking forward to daily swims at my Rosedale swimming pool and Maggie is looking forward to her daily visits with BFF Lola to the Congressional Cemetery.   I hope my D.C. friend with dogs will join us?

Next installment from Washington, D.C.  Stay tuned.  Thanks for reading, and I hope you got to the very end!