From October 7 to December 16, 2006

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Day 732 of Lee and Irene’s Most Excellent Adventure

March 20, 2007

The sun is shining brightly over Perry, Georgia, where Montey (our motorhome), Lee and I are attending an FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) Convention, which is a giant RV Rally with several thousand motorhomers in attendance. Last week we were at a Beaver Ambassador Club Rally (our motorhome is a Beaver Monterey) with about 70 other Beaver motorhomes, in Moultrie, GA. On Saturday about 55 Beaver Coaches, including Montey, lined up and caravanned to Perry, GA, about 2½ hours north of Moultrie. I have never seen so many motorhomes in one place before! It is amazing! Motorhomers are the friendliest people around so we are making new friends and enjoying our time here. We leave on Friday and then head down to Florida.

In my last update Lee and I were about to fly to Venice, Italy to visit our daughter, Jenni, and her husband, Tony, who are stationed at Aviano Air Base, about an hour from Venice in northern Italy, at the foot of the Italian Alps. Before I get to that trip, I will fill in the gap between our departure from Yosemite, and our trip to Italy.

We left Yosemite National Park on Saturday, October 7th. For a while it looked like we would not be leaving the park because Montey was so tightly wedged between the towering pine trees that it took almost an hour of sweating for Lee to be able to maneuver Montey between the trees and out of the campground. We traveled East over the Tioga Pass and out of Yosemite. Tioga Pass had already gotten some snow but the road was fine. We didn’t get far the first day, only to Fallon, NV, because we got a late start. The second day we spent the whole day driving east in Nevada. The northern part of the state is a lot wider than I thought! We spent the night in West Wendover, NV on the border with Wyoming. We visited a casino and both Lee and I left with winnings, which was nice. Monday, October 9th Lee had to contend with rain and snow as we traveled through the mountains of Wyoming. We spent the night in Laramie, WY. (The western states sure are BIG!) We made it to Omaha, NE the next day and then to Wakarusa, IN on Wednesday. Anyone who has ever owned a Monaco, Beaver, Safari, or Holiday Rambler, motorhome is probably familiar with the Wakarusa/Elkhart area because of the large service centers there. It is also the area where lots of different motorhomes and trailers and fifth-wheels are built.

Montey had an appointment, for a wide variety of issues, at 0700 Thursday, Oct 12 at the Monaco Repair facility there in Wakarusa. As is usually the case when we visit a repair facility, we were there days longer than expected. In this case we had to leave before they were done because Lee and I both had doctor appointments, that we had made a month earlier, that we had to keep or wait another month or more for new appointments. (Such is life in the American healthcare system.) About 1700 on Oct 18th we left Wakarusa and headed east to Virginia, after making another appointment for Montey. (Such is life in the American RV service system.) While we were at Yosemite we had made appointments in Virginia for our annual physicals, as well as Lee’s cardiologist, and the dentist for both of us. We prefer to see the doctors and dentist that we had for years while living in VA. While in VA, Lee also did his annual qualification at the Fairfax County Police firing range, a requirement for being able to carry a concealed weapon anywhere in the country (applies to all retired law enforcement officers). Because we had so many appointments to attend to, we didn’t get to see a lot of the people we would have liked to have seen, but we did squeeze in dinner with our friends Mike and Sheila Bishop, and Paul and Debbie Willemann. Lee went to the Police Academy with both Mike and Paul back in 1979 and we have all been close friends since then. In fact my kids consider them to be Aunts and Uncles.

Because there was a gap between some of our appointments, we took the opportunity to spend a week at our timeshare condo at Massanutten Resort, just outside Harrisonburg, VA. My sister Barb came up from North Carolina to spend the week with us so that she and I could celebrate our birthdays together (albeit a little late). She and I took in a Winery Tour while we were there, visiting Barboursville and Horton Wineries. Virginia has many wonderful wineries and the bus ride was lovely because the countryside was decked out in beautiful fall foliage.

While at Massanutten we also had the opportunity to see our nephew James (Barb’s son) as well as our niece Laura and her son Jackson (Barb’s daughter and grandson), and friend Natalie. We had a great Texas Hold’em Poker night as well as some exciting rounds of Yatzee (a birthday gift to me from Barb). We also had a nice lunch in Harrisonburg with Doug Graves, Lee’s 2nd Lieutenant when Lee was a Sergeant in Reston. All in all it was a delightful and relaxing week, after which we headed back to Fairfax County to finish up our various appointments.

When we were through with all our doctor and dentist visits, we headed to New Jersey so I could visit two of my sisters who live there, Ann Marie and Kate. We also spent a couple of days with our son, Chris, in New York City (Montey had to stay in NJ, he doesn‘t like big cities). Even though Chris is the one who lives in New York, we took him to visit some of the sights (like the Natural History Museum and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, etc) that we have been to but he never has. We also had dinner at a wonderful Italian Restaurant with Chris and his girlfriend, Kelly. Kelly was a waitress at the restaurant so the four of us received very special treatment and had a marvelous time and a fantastic meal. After dinner we headed to Dave and Busters (restaurant and bar and arcade/amusement center) to watch the Rutgers University football game, which was billed as the “game of the century” or some such. Anyway, it was apparently a really big game because they were undefeated and even the Empire State Building took part in the excitement by lighting up in Rutgers Red. After the game we headed for the arcade and had a blast. Kelly gave us a game card and the four of us had fun competing at driving games and trivia games, etc. We pooled the tickets we won and I got a little food processor with the winnings. It is the perfect size for a motorhome. Although our time in the city was short, we greatly enjoyed our visit with Chris. As an added bonus, we got lots of exercise because we walked miles and miles while we were there. However, my feet, hips, and legs did rebel for a few days after the visit.

After our brief interlude in NJ and NY, it was time to head back to Wakarusa, IN to continue Montey’s visit to the Monaco Service Center. We spent another 8 days there and believe it or not (anyone with a motorhome will believe it for sure) we still weren’t done. We couldn’t stay any longer because they were closing down for the Thanksgiving holiday and we were due in Indianapolis for the Williams family reunion/Thanksgiving dinner. Lee’s Aunt Delores and Uncle Len hosted the event and we flew Lee’s mom, Marita, and our son to Indy for the occasion. As always, it was great to see everyone, and dinner was a true feast.

Day 760 of Lee and Irene’s Most Excellent Adventure

April 17, 2007

Sorry for the interruption to my blog entry. As you can see, a month has passed since I started. We are now in Wildwood, FL at the Monaco Service Center because Montey’s dash air-conditioner has quit working. We arrived Sunday, having driven through the storm that turned into a Nor’easter that is still terrorizing the northeastern states.

Continuing…

On the Monday after Thanksgiving we went to an Allison service center (maker of Montey’s transmission) and Montey received a quick reprogramming (which didn’t solve Montey’s chugging issue). We then headed for Milwaukee to visit my brother Kevin and his wife June. We had planned to stay until Friday, but a big storm was headed that way so we left Thursday night and although it started snowing before we got to Chicago (our next planned destination), we beat the worst of it. We had a good visit with Kevin and June and got in some great hands of Spades (a card game for those of you who aren’t familiar) where June and I were victorious over Lee and Kevin.

Some might ask what in the world would possess us to go to Chicago (or Milwaukee for that matter) in December. Well, we were in Chicago to attend the wedding of Lee’s cousin Kim to her fiancé Joel. It was a beautiful and intimate ceremony held at the Episcopal Church that the couple attends, followed by a reception in the Parish Hall. We flew Lee’s mom up from Florida so she could be there, but the ice and snow really frightened her. She stayed in Montey with us, but because the temperature got down to about 3 degrees during the night, the heat couldn’t keep it any warmer than about 60 degrees and poor Marita froze! She couldn’t wait to get back to Pensacola. Lee could definitely have done without having to climb up on Montey’s roof to clear ice off the slide-outs so we could get out of Dodge (Chicago).

As you will recall, Montey was still not done in Wakarusa. The wrong shocks had been ordered when we were there before Thanksgiving and had to be reordered. First thing in the morning (0630) Montey was in the service bay and before noon we were finally finished having all Montey’s ailments cured, or so I thought. Lee decided to stop at Camping World to have Montey’s mud flap replaced. Five hours and $300 later we were finally back on the road. By then it was 1700 (5 pm) and Lee ended up driving through the night to get us back to Virginia. We watched the sun rise as we left Breezewood, PA and a few hours later we were at Lake Fairfax County Park Campground. Lee got in a short nap before we joined our friends the Bishops and the Willemanns at the Bishops house for our annual Christmas get-together.

Thursday Lee was scheduled for one of those tests that all of us should get sometime after we turn 50. It is the one we all dread but the preparation is worse than the procedure (so everyone says - I wouldn’t know personally). Things went fine and we headed to my sister’s house in North Carolina. You will note that we were slowly making our way south, making Montey much happier.

While we were in Yadkinville, NC, at my sister’s house, my brother John and his family joined us for the weekend. Football was the focus of the weekend because the Eagles (Barb’s team) were playing the Redskins (our team). The Panthers were also playing (John’s team) who we could all cheer for because we don’t have a rivalry with the Panthers and they weren’t playing either the Eagles or the Redskins. As you all know, the Redskins lost (but I won money in a football pool I am in). We spent the rest of the week visiting Barb and Gene and then the following Saturday, December 16th, we all got up very early so Barb and Gene could drive us to Charlotte, NC for the start of our all day journey to Venice, Italy.

I am going to stop here. Look for our Italian Adventure in my next blog.

Until next time…

Lee and Irene Williams
3700 S. Westport Ave #3193
Sioux Falls, SD 57106-6360
Lee’s Cell 703-402-1130
Lee’s Email leonzo@hotmail.com
Irene’s Cell 703-963-4665
Irene’s Email icw1015@hotmail.com