The Time Has Come

Welcome to May (almost)! If it’s May it must be time to load up Winne and hit the road. Yes indeed ... with only 8 And-A-Wake-Up days to go ... it is time! Winne’s pre-trip maintenance is pretty much complete, the pre-trip appointments are almost completed, the load list has been made, some items have been checked off, and the list has been made again. It is the same ‘ol story with the same “stuff” to deal with ... but yet it is always different and new ... especially when we haven’t been in travel mode for over a year! About the only thing different for this trip is we will need to take our face masks for those places still requiring them and our proof of Covid vaccinations just in case some storm troopers are turned loose along the way and road blocks get set up to check Picture IDs and other “papers” to allow US citizens to travel state-to-state. I jest ... but yet I want to be prepared!

Our plan is leave next Sunday and spend the night at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. After some dry camping on the Reservation we will finish up our trek to NJ ... with a different for us stopping point near Atlantic City where we will spend a week while visiting the NJ Evringham clan and congratulating our newest college grad. Our granddaughter Alyssa is graduating from Stockton University with a degree in Marine Science!

After seeing all we wish to see in the Garden State we will be continuing our trip south - around Baltimore west to I-81 and then south again to the mountains of North Carolina - near Asheville. We plan on just relaxing and exploring a bit in the Asheville area for about a week before taking a side trip to Gaffney, SC to visit the Freightliner Custom Chassis Factory Service Center. There are a few maintenance items I would like done on Winne that I just don’t want to do and don’t trust just any Freightliner Service Center to do. So while we are “in the area” why not let the factory techs do it right the first time (I hope)!

After a few days in Gaffney we plan on heading over to “the quiet side” of the Smokey Mountains near Maryville, TN for another week stay of relaxing and exploring ... with maybe a wild party thrown in to visit our good friends Gene and Judy Curp!

After wearing out our welcome in Eastern Tennessee we thought we might meander our way over to Branson, MO. We haven’t visited Branson since 2007 and we really enjoyed our visit then ... so why not?! I hear they are open for business and have some great new shows to see!

After a week in Branson I think it will be time to point Winne northeast and make our way home ... somewhere around the end of June ... just in time to enjoy summah in Maine which always means lobstah, sunshine, and birthdays!

I am looking forward to it all!

Bingo!

 In spite of the wintry mix of rain and snow falling at the moment ... it really is “spring” here in Maine. We have had several 60+ degree days in the past few weeks, the daffodils are sprouting and the trees are at least showing some buds. That counts as spring for us ... like I said ... in spite of the sn*w falling here on this 16th day of April!

We enjoyed our visit with most of the New Jersey Evringham Gang last week and we will be visiting with them again in a few weeks when we head down there to help celebrate granddaughter Alyssa’s college graduation. The weather was nice enough for Brian and I to get out for a short ride on my two recently restored Honda Superhawks and we also got to enjoy an outdoor cookout and Bball shootout over at Stacy and Kaj’s place in Richmond. As always ... it was fun watching our kids and grandkids enjoying the day and each other. We (at least us over 16 year olds) are vaccinated now so that stress has been lessened ... one more step back to finding the new normal.

I brought Winne home from storage a couple of weeks ago to get started on preparing her for travel. Since Brian was available to help me I took advantage of the situation and we removed and replaced one of Winne’s rear leveling jacks that has been leaking hydraulic fluid for some time. I purchased the new jack last fall and was hoping to have some local repair place do the work ... but my Plan A and Plan B repair places couldn’t do the work. The Plan A shop doesn’t open up from a winter/COVID restrictions break until May and the Plan B shop can’t seem to find workers willing to give up their “enhanced” unemployment benefits and come back to work. Apparently this is part of the new normal as well. Regardless ... Brian and I managed to wrestle the leaky jack out and get the new jack installed with nobody injured and only a few work clothes sacrificed to the rag bin.

I have accomplished a few other repair/maintenance items on Winne over the past week and have a few more to accomplish over the next few weeks and she should be ready to roll once again!

So here we sit ... 21 days and a wake up before Winne hopefully rolls south once again. If it sounds to you like I am ready ... BINGO!