On Saturday, November 9th, we left Fort Meade,
Maryland, which was our home for three weeks.
We really enjoyed our time touring the area (Gettysburg, Fort McHenry,
Philadelphia, Mount Vernon, and Washington, D.C.). But it was time to pick up our anchor and
head further south.
This time we stayed at Naval Weapons Station Cheatham Annex
near Williamsburg, Virginia. This was
the closest and most affordable campground we could find near my family in the
Hampton Roads area.
A couple of days after arriving, Steve took off for Texas
again to work for two weeks. The first
week he was gone, I encountered a few setbacks.
First, we had some very cold weather. (One night, it even snowed!) When the temperature drops below freezing, I
have to go outside and disconnect our water hook-ups. This entails filling the fresh water tanks
(so we can still flush the toilets and brush our teeth), disconnecting the
hoses, and emptying the “stinky slinky” (also known as the sewage hose). And then I have to remember to turn on the
water pump inside the camper, plus turn on the propane furnace so the tanks
don’t freeze. It’s a pain, but at least
it’s doable.
Another thing that happened is that the boys’ toilet
foot-flusher broke off. One of the boys
flushed the toilet using the foot pedal, and it just snapped off. A plastic piece broke and needed to be
replaced. My brother-in-law Ken came over
and helped me diagnose the problem and ordered the part for me. At least it broke in the “closed” position
and not in the “open” position. (Yuck!)
And the third thing that happened is that my dryer started
acting strange. It still dried clothes,
but it was taking a really long time, and it seemed that the heat would turn on
and off again. Again, Ken helped diagnose the problem, but this time I had to call in the Sears repair
service to help fix it. Thank goodness
there’s a laundromat at the campground!
Despite this stuff happening, I actually did enjoy the
week! I hadn’t been to visit my mother
in about six years, so I was long overdue to come here. My mother and two of my three sisters (Sonja and Diane) and
their families live in the Hampton Roads area.
I had a great time visiting with all of them. We really didn’t do much of anything other
than visit with each other, but that was the point! My poor boys aren’t used to being around so
many hens clucking!
During our second week here, we tried to take in some of the
local attractions (which I will tell about in separate forthcoming posts). We are staying in the area through the end of
the month and will celebrate Thanksgiving with the extended family this
year. So much to be thankful for!
