END OF THIS TRIP.
Day 49 – It rained heavily all night, big puddles around the RV this morning; glad we were on pavement, not dirt. At 6:45 a.m. it was still raining, 44 degrees; the RV was all fogged up. We packed up to leave. Our biggest problem was where to put a year’s supply of wine & spirits, bought yesterday at the NH Outlet. We have three slide-outs. They have to be brought in before we can travel. This makes the RV much smaller. So the cases of wine were stacked in what little kitchen floor space there was.
We departed the campground at 8:40 a.m. It was raining & 44 degrees. Within two miles, before we even reached I-495, CRASH. Not the vehicle, thank goodness, but three cases of wine crashed down which knocked over the kitchen trash can. We struggled to quickly find a place to pull over on a two-lane road in the city of Salisbury, MA. Once we could get pulled over, we assessed the damage. Wet coffee grounds spilled all over the floor and down the stairs leading outside. On top of that, three cases of wine were scattered on the stairs upside-down on top of the coffee grounds AND everything was packed tightly away in the RV – all cleaning supplies & extra paper towels, and we only had two pieces of paper towels left on the roll that was accessible. And the cats were not too willing to be on the road again, “Are we there yet?!”, they screamed from the bedroom. We’d been on the road about 10 minutes.
We cleaned up the mess MINIMALLY because of the precarious place we were parked, and weren’t able to clean up properly clean up the mess until the first rest stop we encountered on I-495. Then we got more paper towels from the Honda tow car, cleaned up the mess, and opened three cases of wine & checked each bottle for breakage. Amazingly, not one was leaking. (I kept envisioning pools of red wine soaking through the bottom of the boxes and surging back & forth over the RV floor as we drove on.) Thank goodness the NH Outlet did not sell beer, too. We could imagine a year’s-worth of beer for Rob, exploding with fizz after the jostling.
The rest of our jouney went better. We continued south on I-495, then got on I-90 west. The fall colors in Massachusetts along the interstates were at peak and outstanding. Unfortunately, the rain was continuing and taking pictures from inside the vehicle would’ve been useless. By the time we reached the Berkshires & it had stopped raining, the fall colors weren’t as brilliant, maybe past peak somewhat due to the mountains & it being colder there. We did, however, get a couple of pictures before reaching the hills & the sun was out.
We stopped for lunch at a rest stop in Lee, MA & let the poor babies out of their jail cells. Leftover lobster rolls, surprise, surprise. The traffic on I-90 was much lighter than normal, COVID, I guess. Made the drive easier; I-90 can be a bit tedious. The girls back in the hole, we crossed into NY and eventually headed south on the NYS Thruway, I-87. Traffic there was also lighter than usual. Fall colors were gorgeous. 12:30 p.m., 56 degrees, sunny with a little wind.
We arrived home at 1:40 p.m. It was 62 degrees, beautiful fall colors, full sun, not a cloud in the sky. The five-hour trip was shorter than usual, probably due to less traffic everywhere. We spent the next three hours unpacking about half of the RV & putting those items up. We’ll unpack the rest, dump tanks, & winterize the RV tomorrow. Many loads of laundry will be done – we wash EVERYTHING. Then we’ll be set until next year when, if things go as planned, we’ll go back up to Maine and build a cottage. Guessing sometime between May & July. Now we hunker down at home for the winter. No travelling with COVID numbers going up again.
It was nice touching base with everyone with the blog. Stay safe & healthy, please. We may send out something once every month or two with updates from here and progress on the Maine front, too. Bye for now, Vicki & Rob; Gracie, Pixie, Java, and Luna.