Trip Update Nov 2021- Mar 2022 MD - NC

Don's Family 

We returned from out west in time for Pat to get foot surgery. She recovered enough from her fall in Sept to proceed with the surgery. In the course of pre-op testing, an irregularity was discovered in Pat’s EKG. So off to the cardiologist and more testing. Pat was cleared for surgery, which went fine. Later it was determined that the leads on the EKG were hooked up wrong! A similar thing happened to me in 2007. She has mostly recovered from surgery, except for some swelling and soreness. 

Pat's Family

Our Condo, Third Floor, Right of center

We moved into an AirBNB in Columbia, MD for the months of Jan and Feb so Pat could rest. We were getting a bit tired of moving into and out of AirBNBs, so we thought about getting a house to spend the winter. We considered GA, but our family, friends and most of our doctors were in or near the MD area. Maybe it was the great weather we had in Dec that helped. We started looking on 12/31 and made an offer on 1/3. On Jan 17 we settled on a large 2 BR condo in a 55+ community in Odenton, MD. After four snow storms in January, GA was looking good again! 

Winter Wonderland

Pat mourned the loss of her cousin and close friend Gale.  When Bob was ill, Gale provided assistance and support to Bob and Pat. Pat’s sister, Linda came down from York to help Pat shampoo all the carpets. Phase 1 of our move was to pick up some excess furniture from Julie and Susan and clean out our 10x10 storage unit. I was delighted to know how much stuff we needed to buy to make the condo livable.

Beach at Kill Devils Hills

Months previously, we had made reservations for a timeshare in Kill Devils Hills, NC and an RV resort in Hilton Head NC, so we had to hit the road before spending a night in our condo. We stayed at a campground in VA Beach for a few nights before heading down to NC. We explored the Outer Banks for a week before heading down toward New Bern, NC on Feb 12.

Bodie Island Lighthouse

Wright Brothers taking off

Sunset from our timeshare

Our Ocean view

We stopped for lunch, filled up our 40-gal gas tank and switched drivers and headed down Rt. 17 Bypass, a lightly used divided highway. Twenty minutes later, I was napping in the passenger seat when Pat fell asleep behind the wheel. The RV crossed the left shoulder and Pat’s scream woke me up. Pat tried to get the RV back on the highway, but our car that was being towed behind us, was scraping along the cable guard rails. Once the RV got perpendicular to the highway, we were seconds from crashing into the woods on the opposite side of the road. Pat tried to correct, but with the car spinning wildly behind us, the RV spun completely around until the car hit the cables again, this time on the passenger side. The RV came to rest in this position. 

You can get this used car cheap

Unbelievably we were both not injured! Many local people stopped to see if they could help. Before long we had the fire department there. A guard rail support had ripped open the gas tank. Luckily no fire started. A large wrecker came and lifted the RV off the cables before it could be towed away to a body shop. The car was totaled and another tow truck hauled that way. A State Trooper gave us a ride 20 miles to the nearest decent motel. Pat was issued a ticket for Reckless Driving, a serious offence in NC. We hired a lawyer who says he can likely get that charge dismissed.

The guy at the body shop brought us a rental car. He did not ask for a driver’s license or credit card; we just shook on it. (Don’t try this at the airport!). After a few days of getting our affairs in order, we drove to VA Beach to buy a car. We needed a car like the one we had (2014 Honda CRV) so we could tow it behind the RV. We found one with 40+K miles, which was very low for an 8 yr. old car. You hear a lot about the outrageous used car prices, sorry to say they are not exaggerations. We paid about the same for the replacement car as we did for the original car when it was 2 yr. old with 18K Miles. 

Topper's new House in New Bern, NC

After we got a tow hitch installed on the car, so we could carry our bikes, we headed back to NC. We took what we needed from the RV and continued our trip to New Bern. Chris and Joselyn just bought a house there and we wanted to see it. It was a nice house in a good neighborhood in an historic town. My bike was another casualty of the accident, so I bought a replacement while in town. We cancelled our reservations at the RV resort in Hilton Head and headed for Morehead City, NC. We spent a few days there exploring the area. The NC Aquarium and Tryon Palace in New Bern were the most interesting places.

Tryon Palace in New Bern

Gardens at Tryon Palace

We decided to leave our RV in NC to finish repairs. No one knew how long this would take based on the difficulty in getting parts, so we returned to MD and got to sleep in our condo finally. We still had no living room furniture in the condo. We had been storing our living and dining room furniture from our Accokeek house in our garage in Lewisburg. Now it was time to retrieve it. Maybe you remember the horror story of our attempted move last year, well this year we hired the firm of Pat and Don LLC. We picked up a 26-foot rental truck from U Haul and cleaned our garage and hauled it to Odenton. What we didn’t put in the condo, we packed into a U-Box and it will be shipped to Montana.

Hellbender at NC Aquarium

The original travel plan was to fly to Portugal, spend a few days in Lisbon, fly to the Seychelles for a five-day cruise on a large yacht, fly to Tanzania for the Great Migration, fly back to Portugal and travel up their West Coast, then fly home. COVID restrictions made this itinerary impossible. We were not allowed to enter Portugal after being in Tanzania. There were many other COVID testing requirements which compilated the travel arrangements, so we scrapped Portugal and the Seychelles and added a pre-trip extension to our Tanzania trip. We are now scheduled to depart March 15.