On the Way and Our First Night in Maine

We decamped to go to Portland.  Of course, it was still raining.  Now I know how big the national debt is because about 16 trillion raindrops per hour fell through the night and into the morning, but it quit around daybreak.   Had a little trouble with the self levelers, but am getting used to mini-crises.  It worked out with a little patience and some cussing at manufactures in general.  Not all stuff is their fault.  The pantry that is a 

multi-bracketted, vertical holder of the cereal for the dogs and me, would not slide out. Now, this is a major crisis.  After much surveying, grunting while laying on the floor, and applying higher levels of engineering expertise that I don't have, Dan mentioned that most operate by a lever somewhere.  When he was saying that on the phone while while Gin was talking to Beth, I saw something that suspiciously looked like a lever.  HELLO!  Problem solved.

Just as an aside, while dealing with all of the little issues such as above, I have noticed approximately half the national debt number of screws that are missing, not turned all the way in, etc.  That doesn't include the brittle plastic tabs I broke off the screen between the bathroom fan and the vent.  Of course, the fan blades had come off the fan spindle connected to the fan motor, connected by 2 flimsy metallic thingamabobs held by a whichamacallit and so on.

The drive through Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and then Maine went well for the most part. There was some drizzle at times, but nothing terrible.  The roads in Connecticut, New York, and parts of Massachusetts were very, very bumpy at times.  People picture the drivers of class A motorhomes as smiling, serene, and loving life on the road.  For me, although it is getting better, a bumpy road causes me to be a mover and shaker - not the kind you are thinking about.  Dishes rattle, joints creak, the top heavy chassis is frequently leaning, the wind makes noise, my teeth are rattling, and there are other noises too many to describe.  One salesman described driving an rv as managing an earthquake following behind you.  Not bad.

Got to the campground.  The new supplementary braking system seemed to work fine, but how do you know?  Unhooking was okay, although Gin has to learn that the car has to have the ignition on for it to move - a minor problem.

Hooked up in the rain.  The number of raindrops falling on my head now numbers the amount of dollars our democratic governor has increased our taxes by.  A washer was missing from the fresh water hose, but I had extra washers - see previous blog about cats barking.

Rain, rain, and more rain.  Gin had to take the dogs out.  It was darker than the insides of a wolf.  More fun.

Went out to dinner at a family restaurant recommended by AAA.  Nothing in Maine is close. It the most spread out thing since I dated Fat Myrtle in high school.  Took 25 minutes to get there.  However, the food was good, the atmosphere real New England (we were the only strangers to the owners there), there was a piano player who played oldies, and we met some folks in their mid eighties who were delightful.  They heard us tell the waitress that we are from Baltimore and being Red Sox fans, they struck up a conversation.  Nice people there and would recommend it to anybody.

Gin had a lobster roll and we both had blueberry pie.  We never have desert, but this was suggested in the AAA book and it was as right as rain - wait a minute, I would not consider rain right at this point (see 16 trillion above)

Tomorrow, we head for L.L. Bean in Freeport in the toad.  Gin is looking forward to more lobster.