At one point during our drive, we almost veered off the road. I told Richard to let ME shoo the bugs out the window from now on (sigh again…).

The bike rack was a bust. It not only didn’t hold the bikes steady, but it left a big, ugly, red mark on the trunk of the tow vehicle.

I plan to send a picture to the manufacturer and we will return it and get our money back. The bikes are now lying on the bed in the back of the RV. We’ll just chain them to the outside of the RV each time we stop at a campground.

We spent the night in Danbury, CT and we had dinner at Two Step, a southwestern restaurant. The food was really good and the service was outstanding but the restaurant was bare. We arrived at 6:00 p.m. and only one other table was full. Just before we left, one more family arrived. It was a huge place and it was sad to see it so empty. Not sure if the economy is affecting that town that badly or if everyone in town was busy on a Monday night.

Max and Mason at Two Step in Danbury, CT

Just as dinner was wrapping up, we heard thunder. As we stepped outside, the sky opened up. Richard is still recovering from his badly broke leg so I took off my sandals and made a run for it. I then drove the car to the door and picked up Richard and the boys. The deluge filled up the streets pretty quickly but it didn’t last very long. We were then treated to a beautiful sunset in the Connecticut hills.

Before bedtime, Mason called Grandma Cindy to tell her he can’t wait to come to her house to play. He watched himself in the mirror while they talked.

Tomorrow, we’re heading farther west, through New York State and into Pennsylvania. See ya there!

~~~~~

I’ve posted many,  many more pictures of our trips HERE.

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

We kept going straight and ended up in a grocery store parking lot. That was easy enough to get out of and we waited a moment for the GPS to give us an alternative route. We ended up in that neighbor again, albeit on a different street, a very narrow passage with endless cars lining both sides. I remember passing the freeway at one point, going right under it, and wondering why the GPS was sending us a different way. It was a Saturday and there were lots of people outside enjoying the weather. There were also lots of junk cars, tattoo parlors, liquor stores, and other unsavory things that made us start to feel a bit nervous. At one point, men got out of two cars right in front of us, blocking traffic. They each went to houses on different sides of the street. We had no choice but to stop and wait. I heard a woman yell outside, “Leon, move your (BLEEP!) car!”

Leon was nice and went back to his car, whistling for his friend, who also went back to his own car. They moved out of our way.

We kept driving and the GPS wasn’t leading us toward any highway or freeway that we could see on the screen. At one point, I think I remember Richard calling the GPS the same name the shouting lady had used with Leon.

People were standing outside and staring at us, obviously wondering what this huge RV was doing in their very crowded neighborhood. We breathed a sigh of relief when the GPS not only led us to a two-lane road, but a police car also pulled in front of us. A few seconds later, he turned and we were once again feeling quite a bit alone and vulnerable. The neighborhood got even more imposing and, I’ll admit it, I was scared.

A few blocks later, I saw a man dressed like the Statue of Liberty. I whipped out my camera and took his picture. When he saw my camera, he made a rather rude gesture to me with his fingers. I was more discreet with my camera after that and I triple checked that the RV door was locked.

I’ve pixelated the fingers…

All our worry was for naught, though. We somehow ended up on the expressway and on our way toward the George Washington Bridge.

George Washington Bridge

I worked for a few hours while Richard drove. We were going to see the boys’ Godfathers, Doug and Raul, and Max and Mason were so excited we had a hard time keeping them still and entertained. We arrived at the campground and the boys were happy to see grass and a playground.

Doug and Raul came to pick us up about an hour later and, much to our delight, had chosen Mystic Pizza II for dinner. It was DELICIOUS!!!

Mason’s Dessert at Mystic Pizza II

The next day, a Sunday, Raul and Richard took Max to the YMCA to go swimming and Doug and I stayed in the RV with Mason, talking shop. I LOVE to talk shop with Doug, who’s a New York Times bestselling author. He has amazing creative ideas for book marketing and he is SUCH a talented writer. I just finished his book, Neverland. I couldn’t put it down! Doug has an incredibly entertaining blog. You can subscribe HERE.

That night, we went to HUGE diner, Equinox, and had a really fun meal. After dinner, we returned to the RV and the boys enjoying spending more time with Doug and Raul. We’d planned to stay an extra day but Doug caught a cold/flu bug so we started for home the next morning, knowing we’d be back in May anyway. Mason was noticeably upset and Max cried.

On Monday morning, we packed up the RV for the last time on our “No More Snow!” trip and started the long drive back to Bangor. I’m sure God was laughing when Ali called to let us know it was 36 degrees in Bangor…and snowing. Forty-eight hours after we got home, it snowed again. Honestly, after the snow we had the first three days of the trip, and the 15 inches we had when we got to Virginia, and the additional four inches we got on the beach in South Carolina, we weren’t surprised.

On the way home, we did what we always do, reminisced about the best parts of the trip while also making a list of all the stuff we broke in the RV…so we’d have that when we took it to the shop. We made it home in plenty of time for Easter, which was our goal, and on Easter Sunday in Bangor, Maine it was almost 80 degrees! It was the warmest Easter, by far, we’d ever experienced in Maine and it was absolutely perfect!

One funny thing happened on this trip that I forgot to mention in earlier posts. After we left home, I realized we hadn’t brought along the bathroom scale. It’s very important to weigh yourself daily when you are eating out so much because you might get home and realize you’ve gained far more weight than you knew. So, early on in the trip, we bought a new, very cheap bathroom scale for the RV.

We’d only been gone for a few days when we bought it so I was stunned when I stepped on it the first time in our little RV potty room and discovered I’d gained seven pounds. SEVEN POUNDS!!!! Why did my jeans still fit?! Richard said he’d gained weight, too (more than me), and so had Max (though less than we had). Hmm… Not good! A few days later, Max was in the potty room in the morning and I asked him to hand me the scale. I put it on the floor near the bathroom sink and was thrilled to discover I’d lost those seven pounds….in one day! Of course, I instantly knew what had happened. The RV was not quite level at that campground. In the potty room, the scale had been facing uphill. When I put it on the floor by the sink, it was facing downhill. I had a good laugh with Richard about it and, let me tell you, we was facing downhill for the rest of that trip!

I hope you’ve enjoyed coming along for the ride on our “2010 No More Snow!” trip.

Join us again in just two weeks when we head to Wisconsin!

I’ve posted many,  many more pictures of our trip HERE.

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

Wasn’t really impressed with this place. First, it is difficult to find. (GPS doesn’t route you correctly. You have to trick it by entering “8″ Hemlock Hill Rd. Lots of back road driving.) And the wifi signal was unusable at our site, even with the booster.

There was lots of lovely tree coverage – good from a scenery standpoint, but bad if you want to use satellite Internet.

It was clean and quiet, but it is so off the highway and the wifi is so bad that I doubt we would ever go back.

Two out of five marshmallows.

Hemlock Hill
118 Hemlock Hill Rd
Litchfield, CT 06759
860-567-2267
info at hemlockhillcamp.com
http://www.hemlockhillcamp.com
Latitude: +41.7808860
Longitude: -73.258053

Two mornings ago, we were woken up by somebody’s dog who had the most annoying, high pitched, screeching bark. This morning, one of the campground employees turned on a chainsaw just a few feet from our RV. I was NOT happy.

Max and Mason made a new friend last night, Lucas. He’d come to the playground when we were there, shyly shuffling his feet. Mason immediately said, “What’s your name?!” They all three played together for the next two hours and had a grand time. Lucas was six and had a walkie talkie on him, which he was using to talk to his dad, who was in their RV. I have no idea why any parent would allow a six-year-old to walk unsupervised through a campground. We’ve read that lots of child molestors live in campgrounds when they can’t find a place to live in towns, which regulate how close they can live to schools and such. We never let Max and Mason out of our sight. The world just isn’t what it was when we were young.

Anyway, we got some big news from home this morning! We recently adopted a stray cat that had moved into the hayloft above our garage (which used to be a barn). Frank and Ali took “Mollie” to the vet. They ran several tests. Mollie does not have heart worms, lieukemia or feline herpes. And, “Mollie” has been neutered. So, “Mollie” is now “Ollie.” Ollie is very friendly so we knew he’d had a previous home. We wonder if somebody had to dump him because of the economy. We’re happy to take him in.

We just crossed the Connecticut / New York state line. The country roads in Connecticut are beautiful! The farms are so large and well manicured. There are flowers everywhere right now. The corn looks a bit short for this time of year. Maybe they’ve been having too much rain, too. I sure wish we’d had more time to do some poking around in the small towns we passed through. But, Richard has us on a schedule and, since the wifi at the last campground didn’t work, we have to get to the next one so I can catch up on some work. Hey, gotta keep making money to pay for this gas guzzler!

UPDATE – After Midnight: We’re in New Jersey. The wifi at this campground is horrible. It cuts in and out and even disconnects you once an hour to make you log back in. Ridiculous. I spent most of the day switching back and forth between their wifi and the AT&T card, which isn’t great here, either. In fact, I spent more time wrestling with the connection than I did getting actual work done.

Richard fixed homemade pizza for dinner. That was a TREAT! At 8:00 p.m., we took Max and Mason to the pavilion to paint ceramics. You have to buy the figurines and the paint but it was super cheap and the boys had a great time.  They both picked trucks to paint and, miraculously, neither truck had broken by the time they went to bed tonight.

We also took them to the playground (Mason laughed SOOOO much on the swings!) and to see the farm animals that reside here. We walked around the campground just before dark and there were fireflies everywhere! The boys were thrilled!

This is a really nice campground. If the wifi worked, we might even be tempted to stay an extra day. I’m on the AT&T card right now. I have the best connection that I’ve had all day, probably because there’s less demand for the service right now. Richard would have to explain it. When it comes to electronics, I only know two things – either it works, or it doesn’t. Richard knows the the ifs, ands, hows and whys of it all. Sometimes he tries to explain it to me. I look at him and smile but all I can hear coming from his mouth is, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah….”

You can see our photostream from this trip (and past ones) here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94822774@N00/

We pulled into a rest stop that had confusing signs and we accidentally drove to the truck area instead of the vehicle/RV area. The only gas there was diesel and we couldn’t turn around so we had to get back on the freeway and keep looking.

At the next exit, the first gas station we found had a sign that said “cars only”, and a menacing yellow overhead pole that indicated we were too tall to get in there. Richard kept driving (and mumbling under his breath in frustration) while I tried to make light of the situation.

The good news is we did find gas and we’re just about to drive into Hartford so all is well.

Mason is fussy because it’s past his naptime. He just drank some tea and ate some cookies so I’m not sure if he’ll fall alsleep or not now.

Yep, just hit the bumper to bumper Hartford traffic. Whoo hoo!

Max and Mason are watching a “Mighty Machines” DVD so they’re happy.

It’s been raining in Maine almost every day since the snow melted in March so we’re anxious to try to find some dry weather. I don’t think today will be that day. Not only is it raining, but it’s actually quite chilly. It’s 56 degrees outside…which is, I believe, about 50 degrees cooler than it is at my mom’s house in Texas right now. Ha ha. And she keeps trying to get us to move back there. Not a chance!

We’ll post an update this evening when/if we arrive at our destination, which is somewhere in Massachusetts. (Richard planned this trip, not me so I’m just along for the ride.)

UPDATE: 3:40 p.m. – We’ve pulled over three times now and Richard is able to fix it…but it almost immediately breaks again when we start moving. We’re at a rest stop in Massachusetts right now. It’s still pouring, Richard is soaked, and he’s standing in the kitchen making something to support the loose wiper gizmo with duct tape and Max’s scissors. We’ll see how it goes…

UPDATE: 6:45 p.m. – We made it! We’re at the campground in Massachusetts. It rained until about 30 minutes before the end of our journey. The wipers never did get completely fixed but Richard worked on them when we got here and it looks like they’re fixed for now.

Max and Mason are eating burgers and fries for dinner while Richard will be making us breakfast tacos (for dinner) after he gets the wifi situated. I’m using the AT&T wireless card, which is very handy right now because we’re far enough south to get on the 3G connection.

We were at the Aces High RV Park in East Lyme, CT. I tried to login into the WiFi system there and my browser hung up as it tried to log me into my account.

I finally figured out it was a problem with the version of SSL my browser was using.

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer, and it is the process by which a web browser creates a secure connection between itself and a web site.

The current version of SSL is 3.0, but some sites still use SSL version 2.0. The problem is in the latest versions of FireFox (2.0) and Internet Explorer (7.0), SSL 2.0 is shut off by default.

So to get these browsers to work correctly, you have to turn SSL 2.0 on. Here is how:

Turning on SSL 2.0 in Firefox 2.0

Turning on SSL 2.0 in Internet Explorer 7.0

We woke up late (aaaahhh!) and Richard straightened up the RV (toys, toys everywhere!) while I worked. I had a ton of email to answer from our three-day weekend (I’m still working on it, in fact) and was trying to make a small dent in that stressful mess. I watched the boys while Richard went to the grocery store.

Doug and Raul arrived around 3:00 and we ate hor d’euvres (okay, chips and dip, veggies and crackers) and chatted, and then had yummy burgers and fruit salad for dinner. We then walked to the campground office and rented two boats for an hour. Max and I got the paddle boat (they call them pedal boats up here) while Doug and Raul got the row boat.

Richard stayed on shore with Mason, who smiled when we waved and called to him.

We raced and splashed and laughed and even saw a snake!

When we got out, my legs felt rubbery from all that pedaling. We stopped at the park, discussed if anyone has every really been able to make a swing on a swing set go all the way around, and went back to the RV. I had to change because my pants were wet from the boat. We sat inside and talked some more while Max and Mason played. When dusk arrived, Richard and Raul got the fire going and we moved outside to roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories.

We told one story round-robin style. Of course, playing this game with international best-selling horror author Doug Clegg means everyone else’s contributions are woefully inadequate…which made it even more funny. While the rest of us had Max rolling his eyes, Doug’s contributions had him literally quaking in his sneakers. Max was just fine and begged for more ghost stories later.

When Max actually asked if he could go to bed (parents don’t often hear that!), we all figured it was getting late. We bid a sad farewell to Doug and Raul and Max fell asleep almost instantly. Mason had already been asleep for over an hour. He was tuckered out after such a big day of fun!

Richard and I knew we could no longer put off the inevitable. We would have to get up early the next day and head back to Maine. Our month-long, Summer 2007 vacation was coming to an end. But, we miss the older kids terribly and can’t wait to see them! And, I bet they can’t wait to see what we bought for them!

We chatted the day away and then walked down to the beach. Raul braved the waters with Max while the sane folks stayed dry.

Mason ate his share of sand and got just a wee bit wet when he learned what a “wave” is. Don’t worry. It just splashed him up to his waist. He really seemed to enjoy feeling the sand under his feet and was very happy there, just toddling around, pointing, and chattering to himself.

We went back to the house, showered the salt and sand off the boys and ordered pizza. We left late and exhausted, but very happy to have seen our dear friends again.