We settled on our Summer House in mid-July and spent the
next few weeks cleaning and buying furniture. We managed to get some hiking in
each day. In addition to the many miles of trail in the MT Helena city park, we
were only a half hour to the Continental Divide and under two hours to the lake
region of the Rockies. It was fun to explore the surrounding area and discover
new hiking opportunities. Being off the road during the summer crush proved to
be relaxing, not worrying about finding an open campsite on the weekends.
Several times we packed up the RV and headed into the mountains on Sunday and
returned on Thursday. We were able to get work done on our car and RV including
buying 10 tires. You would not believe
how difficult it was to get Goodyear (for the car) and Michelin (for the RV)
tires. Even getting a replacement bike for Pat took months due an increased
demand and less production during COVID.
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| Don at Lookout We left MT in late September because we had reservations at
timeshares in Wisconsin in early Oct. First, we stopped at Little Big Horn
Battlefield. The site was very compact esp. when compared to Civil War
Battlegrounds. Next, we had to stop in Rapid City, SD to get our Driver’s
Permit renewed. We also dropped off our absentee ballots while we were there. We stopped in Blue Earth, MN and camped next
to the Jolly Green Giant. We noticed that the chrome wheel cover on our right
rear tire was missing. We assume that when we return the RV to the shop in
Helena to get the wheel torque adjusted, the cover was not put on tightly. We
also found the air pressure low on the inside dual tire - most likely, the
valve stem extension was damaged by the cover blowing off. We found a tire shop
and got the tire pressure fixed. About 8 miles further down the interstate we
heard a loud pop. Sure enough, that tire had a blowout. We called Good Sam Road
Service and waited for the service truck, and waited and waited. Four hours
later a truck showed up. The driver said it was a common practice for road
service companies to call around and get bids from different tow companies,
before contracting with one. Luckily, we carried a spare tire which the driver mounted;
however, the tire was not balanced so it was a bit of a rough ride after that.
Later I was able to arrange for a free Michelin replacement tire when we return
to Helena next year. |
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| Pat meets the Pillsbury Dough Boy |
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| Pat at Devil's Lake SP, WI Our first timeshare was on the Door Peninsula in WI. This was our second visit to this beautiful area. There were lots of county and state parks to explore and few people, once the weekend crowd from Green Bay went home. The leaves were turning and the weather was cool. As we traveled cross-country this fall, we didn’t see the vivid colors we usually see. We returned to the Wisconsin Dells for another timeshare week. Our next stop was the Phoenix Cruiser factory in Elkhart, IN where we got some work done on the RV. |
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| Don at Cave Point City Park, WI |
Don's Family
We returned to MD and stayed at Patapsco SP for the last
week in Oct before moving to an RV park in Woodbine, MD. We had dinner with Barb
and her girls just prior to Sharon returning to her mission work in Albania. Barb
was found to have COVID symptoms later in the year. In mid-Nov we winterized
the RV and stored it at Susan and Windsor’s and headed to a timeshare in
Williamsburg, VA. I had been having problems with my back and left knee, and
while walking in a park, my knee took a turn for the worse. I know it’s just
arthritis, but the pain pretty much kept me from doing much walking for weeks. Linda
Erby came down and did some hiking with Pat. We had another week in Virginia
Beach and a long weekend in Ocean City, MD. We drove down the boardwalk to
enjoy VA Beach Holiday Lights and walked through OC Winter Wonderland. Most of
these two and a half weeks had excellent fall weather, which made it all the
harder to be sidelined while Pat was enjoying the parks.
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| Norfolk Botanical Gardens |
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| Ocean City MD Winter Wonderland We returned to our favorite AirBNB in Savage, MD for the
month of Dec. I was able to get PT for my knee and Pat had surgery on her right
hand. After New Years we will head south and see if our bodies recovered enough
to do any hiking and canoeing in NC, SC, GA and northern FL. |
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