August 13, 2013
Broad Brook, Connecticut
As always, feel free to click on any picture to enlarge...
Hmmm. Two months between posts? Yes, well, it’s not that nothing has been going on, just that
nothing particularly interesting travel-wise and blog-worthy has been
happening. In other words, it’s just been life as usual, East Coast style, fun
with family and friends.
So, what’s been going on? Well, shortly after Britt’s
graduation from UCONN, Jesse graduated from Tolland High School. We attended
the ceremony and the “after party” and everyone had a good time.
Later in June, Al and I headed for Boston to see the Red Sox
win a game on a beautiful day for baseball.
After a very rainy spell, the weather turned warmer and we
actually had a few flowers in the yard. Pat actually has a blooming cactus in
one of the flower beds!
One of the benefits of spending time in New England in the
summer is waiting for lobsters to go on sale. When the local Stew Leonard’s
finally had the $4.99 sale, we were all in! Al, Mike Bower, and I each got our
limit of 8. 24 lobsters went into the pots; I set up our camping stove with
three burners going at the same time and we made quick work of them. Geri and
Pat did the hard part, cracking and picking. We had Lobster Bisque, Lobster
Rolls, and I even broke out the pasta maker and we had Lobster Tortellini. Good
stuff!
In mid-July, we made a day trip up to Hampton Beach (New
Hampshire) with Pat, Al, and the pups. Fried Clams, Boardwalk Fries, Fried
Dough; all the good stuff! Dogs aren’t allowed on the beach, but we set up our
chairs in a little shade on the boardwalk and had a nice afternoon. With dinner
at Brown’s Lobster Pool (including steamers to start for Geri), it was a
fulfilling trip.
Once back in Connecticut, we had a shopping trip to handle,
and told the pups “we’ll be right back”. I forgot something and went back in
the coach, and this is what I found. Maya has learned to make herself
comfortable! Speaking of Maya, we had our 1-month follow-up with the local
oncologist and her healing looks excellent! Good news!
Later in July, we had a nice, sunny Sunday so made a trip
down to the Westbrook Elks Lodge on Long Island Sound. It’s a relatively long
drive at about 90 minutes each way, but it makes for a fun day trip. Especially
with a stop at Johnny Ad’s snack shop for another Lobster Roll on the way home!
At the end of the month, right at Al’s birthday, we packed
up the coach and headed back to Hampton Beach. We settled in at the Black Bear
Campground and spent a week relaxing. Pat and Al came up the first weekend, and
we did the whole boardwalk over again – smile.
In early August, we were back at the Shore again, this time
to Abbott’s “Lobster in the Rough” for – duh – Lobster Dinners. We watched a
few boats sail by as we set up under their big tent, and were smart to do so
because a stray shower rumbled through. Nice rainbow, but no pot of gold. The
lobsters, and all the lead-ins like garlic mussels, steamers, shrimp, and even
an artichoke were excellent.
Next up was Britt’s birthday, with another celebration on
the deck. Dinner and cake was awesome! Even the pups enjoyed themselves. Alicia
was able to get some time off from working two jobs, and joined us along with
Tanner’s brother, Cruz.
Now, we’re winding up our stay. Al and I are in the Ultimate
Cribbage Playoffs (I won the “regular season” with 22 wins, but I’m only
leading the playoffs 6-5 so far).
Of course, not everything goes exactly as planned, right?
When we were heading to Hampton Beach in the coach, I noticed that the water pump
(fresh water for the faucets, not the engine) wasn’t quite right, so I order a
replacement online. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the extent of the findings, as I
saw some dripping near the furnace. A water leak would have need nice, but this
was coming out the furnace overflow tube. A sinking feeling came over me; that
kind of a leak can only come from a cracked boiler. It’s expensive and it’s
going to be quite a project to replace it, but we’ll get it done. We’re back in
Connecticut and the replacement furnace has been shipped. It’ll take a couple
of days to make the swap, but I’m feeling reasonably good about it after studying
the current setup and the installation manuals. Plumbing and wiring; I can do
it!
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Sorry for the long time between posts. It's just too easy to post quick updates to Facebook, Instagram, and Foursquare rather than sit down and do an old-school blog update, even with authoring tools available for the iPhone and iPad. We'll be hitting the road again after the furnace swap is completed (more details on the travel plans in our next post), so updates will be a little more frequent between now and November!
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