Independence II @ JMU Graduation

The 7 hour trip ended up taking 9 hours with traffic and stopping to fix the bus sign that fell down because the roads in the northeast are like driving through Beirut.  It literally feels like we are re entering the atmosphere when hitting the pot holes.   My parents did well and my dad was able to watch a live soccer game on the way.  Julian made a few appearances on the way as well.   We did not even need a map as my mom was able to point out all the rest areas and picnic spots we stopped at as kids. 

We arrived at the campground at 9:05 PM and by 9:07 PM we had a full blown party with more then 20 people here.  We met Spez's dad and step mom and finally met Andrea's parents.  Heather and David from the office and the wrestlers were all here and a new guy, Matt (6'5" ginger) who is Sabs, best friend (Jenny) boyfriend.   They all ubered here and the party began.  Spez manned the grill.  At 10 PM we were asked politely to quiet down and at 11 PM we were told to shut up.  Then Abby yelled at them telling them we were being quiet (we were not).    Day one fixes--broken sign from bad roads, air mattress for my parents outlet bad.  Not to bad for a low mid figure elite motor coach!  By the way, the lights underneath were awesome!  Classic line of the night when Andrea told her dad (while he was getting a beer to bring home that she had plenty of beer at home and he said, yea, I know but its a 20 min ride.  Then he saluted my father who told him he was a veteran many times and said thank you for your service.    Sorry, no pictures  of the party as it really escalated very quickly.  

In the am, I got up and decided to get up and show my parents how to make coffee and turn on the TV and then get back into bed.  That didn't happen because the Sat dish wouldn't go up because of power wires over rig so I had to go hook up cable tv and then figure out the wifi for my mom.  By the time I was done, it was too long to go back to bed so I just stayed awake.  I love getting up at 630 am after a late night of drinking! My parents said, "wow, that was a big party last night" and I had to break the news that last night was just a glimpse into the party weekend we are in for.   

We had a nice hike to the top of the mountain at the KOA and it was hard, buggy and hot but a nice break.  Got back and jen showered under the light drizzle of the water pressure only to find out after that the water got shut off at the site.  Easy fix.  

Next the scramble--get to motel 6, get rooms set up which were 900 for weekend which is crazy how they hike up everything for grad weekend.  Almost as crazy as our camping site which was only 40 per night (although we spent 500 at gas station to get here).  Next to Jimmy Johns to get lunch and platter for dinner, next to abby's to pregame for graduation.  True story,  they are doing shots before graduation.   Abby cleaned up her apartment (NOT-shit hole) and we met KK and Sarah.  Wendy, Jackie and Steve all got there and Spez shuttled us over to the graduation #1 for 3 pm.  Abby and the girls were late of course and the grad was short and sweet.  It was a little weird when we saw abby leave the graduation while we were all still there watching so we decided to walk back to her house to pregame again for Grad #2 at 6pm.  We did a good job of pregaming and my parents decided to leave earlier so they did not have to walk too fast (it was 1/2 mile and we had 15 min).  I called my mom to see where she was sitting and she did not know so we (about 20 of us) found a seat and saw them sitting 50 feet from us.  Julian and I both walked over to have them sit with us but they liked their seats better I guess.   I got them up and ready for the walk back before the huge storm clouds fully developed and we made it back no issues. 

The party started almost immediately and besides the air conditioner being broken, it was a lot of fun.  We finally left at about 11 and Jules got us home.  By the way, I had to park jeep next to a rock to get my parents in and out.   

Shout out to my girls for winning their game 7-5 and Grampa Herb for always reminding me of michaels graduation from college.  "Down in front, baldi, I'm trying to see my grandson graduate"

Tomorrows blog will be awesome as well.  Ali and Ty are coming and just a glimpse- My dad, on his way back from the bathroom, walked into someone else camper, thinking it was ours.  Then he asked the women inside, are you with us?...  Classic

A non fiction excerpt from my life

John woke up and knew he needed a shower. It wasn't that he smelled but he made it a habit to shower once a day.  He slept well but only an 70 percent  on his scale.  The night was warm but not enough to put on the air conditioner without getting in a fight (it might night have worked anyway).  Lupe parked herself in her normal spot right on my pillow next to me and Jen by the open window.  My leg pillow was becoming a pain in the ass because it was to big and I made a mental note to bring a smaller pillow next time.  Lupe is so sweet and snuggles us where Dora just lays by our feed until she is woken by Jen taken a trip to the bathroom and she is ejected from her dead sleep condition into a free fall 4 feet to the ground.  This all followed by "oh, I am so sorry Dora.".The alarm went off at 7 am as usual and I didn't snooze but just canceled the alarm.  We woke up at 8 am, begrudgingly and I made my coffee.  Jen took the girls for a walk and I checked my email and responded as necessary.  We had a plan for the day and it was a good one.  Leave the campground and stop by a Newmar dealer to see the quality of their motor coaches and then onto a 6.5 mile loop hike on our way to Philadelphia to meet Kasey and Sarah for dinner.  I had to make sure I got Jen out for a walk or I would be screwed.  Everything went to plan and we arrived at the dealership right at 11 am.  We did the normal meet and greet and then went to look at the motor coaches.  

It is amazing to me that people are so unresponsive to customers needs for purchases.  My team does not do this at our dealership and I am glad we do it our way.  We liked what we saw and got caught in the whirl wind sales process and had to follow the protocol and get the numbers from the salesmen, inspect trade, meet the manager, and so on.   It was fine and I admired his process but it takes way too long to complete.  Jen was all in with 2 feet and we almost bought a 1/2 million dollar RV on the spot.  I was the financial voice of reason (can you believe?).  I said, lets talk about it and we will get back to you.  She is a loaded cannon in these situations.   We left and took the info and onto Philadelphia to meet Kasey and Sara for dinner.   We were late and we knew it.  There was tension in the air because I initiated the stop at the dealership and if we ended up being late, it was my fault.   I wasn't planning on drinking tonight but it might be inevitable.    On the road, I felt the anger building in Jen and I offered to drive while she took a shower.  I thought to myself, this is a good plan to mitigate the situation.   Reluctantly, she did and I was so nervous I would get into an accident and her naked ass would be launched into the road and I would have to explain to law enforcement what the hell was going on,  but luckily that did not happen.  Next was me; I took my first shower in the Flag at 80 mph with firm planted feet.  Actually pretty fine and only a small cut on my leg as we launched into the atmosphere.  When I was drying off, I heard in the background, watch out for pothole ahead and braced myself for a smash but Jen did  a great job of missing the hazard.  We ended up getting showered and dressed on the way to Phili and walked to dinner though an up and coming neighborhood.  I brought my knife and removed most of my money for the trip.  Dinner was great and it was nice to catch up with Kasey and Sarah at an awesome tap house.  I had the Alchemist IPA from Stowe.  Actually I had 4.  The mood was on an uphill climb and I wasn't sure if it was me or the fact that Jen had 3 drinks also.   

This is were it all started last October and our first night in the Flag on our trip across America.  It is a dirty truck loading dock right in the heart of Philadelphia but the only RV place around.  I was a newbie then an now more seasoned.  

We walked home and had a healthy debate about the directions but I knew I was right.  Jen had a few drinks and you could tell.   We got home alright because we followed my plan and I know better then Jen.  It was an easy night as Jen fell asleep quickly on the couch.  She is predictable if nothing else.  We are back in the northeast and feel like we are home again.  I feel at home north of the Mason Dixon line.  Watched the Olympics and continued my tireless research on Elite Motor Coaches before turning in.  We will have a busy day tomorrow as we are heading to Long Island to see my parents and get then bring Kylie to visit Hofstra.  

Happy Birthday Justice!

Stay at home Jen, Really?

Ok, so we were discussing the fact that if we just RV'd full time like a lot of other people we have found do, Jen would still want to be a stay at home (in RV) mom.  Many people RV across the country and stay at a place and get a job at the campground and stay for free and even get paid.  Sounds interesting but even with this lazy lifestyle, Jen would like to go into "work" at 11 and leave by 1.  Her quote, "2 hours a day, maybe."  Classic!

Walked downtown Savannah in a self guided 6.5 mile walk after street parking the Flag and paying for 6 parking meters.  Very cool place and worthy of a return trip.  Sat on the Forest Gump bench.   Onto Hilton Head where we stayed at a really nice RV resort/marina, right on the water.  It was great and I got a chance to wash the Flag (much needed).  Took a ride into town and found the house where everyone came for Arky's 70th birthday and went to a nice dinner.   Back to flag to watch olympics!

I believe we are doing an injustice with our uniforms for the olympics.  I believe that the skeleton team should be wearing a Bugatti one piece stretch suit, the luge should be wearing a Ferrari red body suit, the downhill skiers should be wearing a fighter jet body suit and the freestyle ski and snowboard should be wearing an Iron Man body suit.  This would be a lot cooler then what we have now and way more relevant.  In addition, I think we should teach our figure skaters how to play hockey because they are awesome skaters and would skate circles around hockey players.

On a side note, how crazy is hockey as a sport?  It is the only sport where when you get pissed, you can actually stop the game and fight your opponent.  Sure you get a penalty but it is allowed as a rule.  Could you imagine any other sport you could do this with?  Really quite crazy.  Anyway, enough of the olympic talk for now.

I woke up in the middle of the night and was starving so I ate a sleeve of thin mints at 12:10 Am-- What a disappointing decision!

Woke up and walked the beaches of Hilton Head and it was awesome.  Definitely in contention for retirement spot.  Its Jens favorite town (surprising).  No lights on jeep but its not the flag this time, its the jeep.  Pushed on with no lights which is how I drive trailers all the time in CT.

I drove the flag to the main highway and then was really tired so Jen took over.  I fell asleep and was sleeping great with the potholes lulling me to sleep.  I woke up, yawned and looked out the side window to see Jen changing lanes to the right and a small car getting pushed into the dirt shoulder.  I screamed, Jen watch it and she paused her book on tape and said, relax, I checked my blind spot and didn't see them.  Luckily the driver was a stunt driver for the fast and furious and was able to safely complete the scene.  Un-paused book and back on the road.

Got to our site in Virginia at 8:30 pm and for some strange reason, we could not turn off the diesel engine on the flag.  It was so loud and everyone was so watching us.  Jen googled how to solve and I ended up pulling the relay on the ignition.  I hope we can get started tomorrow.

When someone buys this Flag from us, it will honestly have all the kinks worked out of it and be a great RV for someone.  I say that as we are considering selling the Flag and getting an "Elite Motor Coach"   If anyone is interested, let me know.  It has been gone through with a fine tooth comb.

Onto Philadelphia to have dinner with KK tonight and then to Long Island to visit mom and dad and take Kylie to visit Hofstra.  Hopefully home for soccer Friday night!

The signs are now a constant reminder of the "merge" fight

Decided to blow the popsicle stand (Miami) and head north back to Hobe Sound (Jackie & Steve's House for the assumptive close).  No traffic leaving Miami which was great and we decided to stop by the Palm Beach RV Show on the way.  We parked the flag in a Kohls around the corner and killed 2 birds with 1 stone and decided to walk to and from the show at the fairgrounds.  This tactic blew the mind of the parking guy and he could not understand why we did not have a car to park at the show.  After  a very detailed explanation, he let us pass and onto the show.  Mostly small travel trailers but found a few we liked and a camper salesman like Jake.   3 couples in a 45' motor coach and we are in our work out clothes and he left them all for us (that is a good salesmen because I am a loaded gun and we might not have looked like buyers, but we were).  To be honest, I think he saw Jen's ring which probably cost more then most of the trailers there, LOL.  Now I am obsessed with Motor coaches and although I like the idea of the Prevost (the best by far by all accounts), it is very glittery and almost looks bedazzled.  I would lose sleep with the amount of inventory these guys have.

Got to Hobe and Steve was out with his money guy, Stan Goodman.   We went for a quick 5 miler and then hung with the girls (Meg, Brenna and Emily) and covered the "Sex, Drugs and Rock'n Roll" topics.  Watched olympics and to bed.  Woke up and had a lazy morning and I tricked the girls into playing 20 questions for about 1 hour.   Then we bet Meg $35 ($20 from me, $5 from Jen, $3 from Brenna and $2 from Emily--Not sure how she did the math to get to $35) that she would not jump into the canal, swim across, climb the ladder and pet the dogs across the way all while carrying a dog treat in a zip lock bag.  Of course, Jackie said NO and was freak'n out and we had to call Jessee to get mom's permission.  I was the pusher and thank god nothing happened because I would have been to blame.  Mission completed- We were concerned Megan would get Necrotizing Fasciitis on her open wounds and lose her leg.  If she did, I would call her Stump unless she was wearing her modified field hockey stick as a leg and then I would call her captain hook (because she would not only have a hook for a leg but most likely would be recognized as a captain for her grueling recovery). That is blog worthy Megan!  Oh by the way, Brenna jumped in as well for no money.  Anyway, I laid out and got my tan for the next 6 months in 2 hours.  All this while Steve obsessed about the battery on his boat.

By the way, I am not allowed to sing, or whistle in the house because it hurts Jackie ears.

We talked to Jeansie (neighbor), who must be the heir to the Levi's Company, or named after a horse.  The dogs in the neighborhood are all barking at each other across the canal which would drive me crazy but our dogs were so well behaved.  I am surprised that is not a bylaw in the book.   Went for a quick walk to the beach (5 miler) and back to dinner when Jackie said Wayne and Becky from the other side of the tracks wanted to come and meet us.  Quickly took a shower and sent my new bestie, Emily to get me a beer and then it happened.  I got bit by the biggest M Fing mosquito and most likely now have Zicca.  If I do, I am suing Jackie and steve separately as Jackie told me their money is divided.

Ok, so Wayne actually got Necrotizing Fasciitis and had a chunk of his arm removed so we told Meg that he got it from the canal and she was freakin out (the best part of the bet) until Jackie who was not following at all, blew the whistle.  Steve was 26 seconds behing on all the conversations for the night so that was interesting also.  Anyway, Wayne gets bit by a mosquito and shrugs it off like nothing while I am searching high and low for anti bacterial because I remembered I shook his hand earlier.

Dropped a full glass bottle of beer (not because I was drunk) and used a ton of paper towels to clean up and now I owe J and S 100 yards of paper towels.  Then we celebrated Brenna and Emily's birthday and wore glasses and hats and ate a hodge podge of things.  Jackie made brownies (12 x 12 pan) and when I went for seconds, she pulled them back and said, "haven't you had enough?"  I said, the brownie I had was the size of my thumb but she insisted on saving for desert the next night.

Anyway, I got my bitmoji and it was controversial because there is some discussion on my final coloring.  I think people see me darker then I see myself ("I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley"--Turk Dunn).  Watched meg do her planks and olympics and to bed.

ADDENDUM to gun control plan--If you are caught in what I will call a "hand in the cookie jar" crime that is of heinous level, we will have a "rapid trial" where you will be tried in 1 week with a  judge and jury pre waiting.  Both defense and prosecutors will have the same time to prepare but this will be for crimes where there is no real doubt you did it.  Sentenced and made an example of within 2 weeks of a crime not 2 years like it is now.  For the record, I am not against the 2nd amendment and I believe you have the right to bare arms to protect yourself but I do believe that right should have some rules to follow.

Said our long goodbyes and back into the flag, onto Savannah.  We saw the monster turtles fighting in the yard and had a nice easy ride north.   Every campground was full, and who knew it was a vacation week?  We stopped at walmarts and got some food and dry camped in a field in a campground and for the first time on the trip when not plugged into anything we got the olympics in full HD, wtf?    I finally got to see the infamous bobsled and decided it is kind of a baby sport now. Seriously, if there is 5 seconds between 1st place and last place and these people are in cars going down the hill.  The real sport is the luge or more so, the skeleton, where the only thing between being fully paralyzed at 100 mph is a plastic helmet and a gator.  Or, downhill, these people are f ing nuts!   I said to Jen, Lindsey Vonn is coming up and she said, I assume at home.  I said, What?  and she repeated I don't know where yvonne is, probably at home.  Classic Jensie.  Also, who comes up with these events?  Biathlon, ski and shoot.  Jen thinks we should have someone do the dishes and knit with their feet which would be tougher.

Had a meat platter for dinner and here is how I rate it  in order.  1.  Pulled pork  2. meatballs  3.  hotdogs but the best was the girl Scout cookies we bought at walmarts for $4 ($1 cheaper then in CT). Even our girl Scout cookies are more expensive!  I hope Gabby got my order from FB.

Final thought.  Wtf with the train whistle?  I get blowing it once but they don't stop anyway, they have gates down, why do they need to blow it 10 times?  Jen doesn't hear it but it wakes me up every time.

Happy Birthday to Wendy!

The F-Ing Miami Boat Show

Not quite the Catalina Wine Mixer but nevertheless the biggest event in boat shows for the year.  Did our goodbyes to Jackie and Steve which took about 1 hour and then Jackie decided to get her tripod and take a family picture.  Said goodby to Emily. Jackie "assumed closed" us to come back on our way north but more on that later.  That one move cost me 2 hours of traffic heading south to Miami as we got caught in the worst traffic for the worst incident ever.  We literally were driving south and hundreds of police, fire, EMT, etc. blew by in the breakdown lane and it wasn't until Jen looked it up did we find out we were passing the Parkland School Shooting.  We passed directly by the school and could not believe the scene as it was at the time the shooter was still not in custody and it was a parking lot full of police.   Very sad situation and made my traffic seem trivial.

My solution to gun violence in easy common sense steps.  First off, you cannot eliminate guns in the US because there are already 300 million out there and as we all know, criminals do not follow laws anyway.  National gun license laws similar to CT and NY where you have to have a license, background check(which will hopefully uncover mental health issues), renewals, gun safety class, etc.  This should be for all guns, not just hand guns.  It is not hard to complete and seems reasonable.  We are not taking your guns away, we are just asking you to follow common sense steps to buy and own them.  If you cannot complete these steps, you probably should not own one.  National Law, enforced at the state level.  If you did this, it would also allow for inter state gun usage as everyone would be on the same system.  No automatic weapons which seems like a no brainer.  As a gun owner you are responsible for your gun so if it is in your possession, it needs to be in a safe, locked, etc.  If it gets stolen and you do not report, or it gets used in a crime, YOU AS THE OWNER ARE LIABLE.  We need to make examples out of the people we catch and stop with the kid gloves.   We also need to re institute the "see something say something" and stop with the worry about politically correct issues.  Finally, parents need to be parents again and parent their children, know what their children are doing and be a part of their lives even if it means reading their iPhones which you know the parents are paying for.

Got settled in our campground in Homestead. After getting directions from the security guard-it was obvious that English was not his first language- he sent us down a road that had just been paved and had police tape blocking where he told us to go(no other options).  I had Jen get out and quickly pull the tape down.  After parking, we noticed a small crowd at the scene of the crime and realized that we had evidence (police tape) attached to the RV. Off to a romantic valentines dinner and evening with Jen and Steve and Amanda Heese and Gavin and Kelly Hunt.  When we got to dinner, which was awesome, all the girls got red roses and we drank awesome wine from Italy.  I spent most of my time selling Amanda and Steve on RVing and learning that they have lived the majority of their life outside of the US.  I tried to convince Steve to work less on site and he could work remotely in the RV but as he told me he how is in the office from 6 am to 5 pm daily-- it sounded terrible.  Then he listed all the awesome vacations he takes with his family and I think the 6 am -5 pm every day may be a front, LOL.  Really interesting.  Steve and I shared a romantic dessert together; I wanted to eat Gavin's too.  The only hiccup was when the guys were all talking about something (probably boats) and a young handsome man asked to borrow a chair from our table.  We almost lost all three ladies but luckily he had a date.  We all discussed being empty nesters and were jealous of Gaven and Kelly's grand baby (we want one of our own).

Got home and watched the Olympics and we both decided that we need to see the MPH stat on the screen at all times.  No one cares about the time, what we really want to know is how freak'n fast are these crazy fucks going.  Seriously, the luge, skeleton, downhill, ski jump--wouldn't it be awesome to see the mph of all?  Even the stone on curling for a different perspective.

Off to the Miami boat show and went and met with a few people before going to Chris Craft to see the new 28 Launch GT.  Gavin called it the gated transom or grand tourismo version, but Jen had the best one--Good Times.  Boat was great, especially for a 101 (boat lingo incase someone gets that one).  Went to visit Neal at Pursuit and it was great to catch up, look at his 100 pictures of his hot dog puppy and grand baby (classic Neal).  Still wearing his 70 mile off shore mirror sunglasses while under a tent!  Also, did a double tap at the booth and secretly took one of my 5 and did not have to even explain to Neal as it is a staple at boat shows (some people will get this, others will not, #ustoo).  Did not get a chance to see Ryan because "the docks were too crowded" Jen.

Off to the Ge (Wells Fargo) event and got a call from the campground that our dogs were barking (like Neal's socks).  We had to bail on event and 1.5 hours later (traffic sucks here) were home to the babies who must have seen a lizard or something.   Stopped by Publix (we were going to go to Aldi because according to Javier in Espana, it is a good german market) to get a bit and Jen got the best deal on a chicken and a valentines day cookie the size of a tire but since we did not have a publix card we paid full price the day after valentines day (story of our lives).  Got home watched Olympics.  Oh, we had a huge fight about merging on the way home and I was accused of Mansplaining.  So as a punishment, Jen purposely stayed in the right lane all the way home.  No one tells Jen how to drive or what to do.  I am allowed to say something when we are about to hit something.

Eating dinner and I watched Jen get up to get something and Dora was laying next to her and she had to shuffle like you would leaving the aisle of a movie theater and Dora never moved.  It was funny at the time.  I said, did you ever agree to go back to your moms on the way home?   Jen said, no, I thought you did?  Well I didn't but when we left she said, ok, see you Saturday.  She even said, do you want to leave laundry here to pick up on the way back.  SOB, we got ASSUMED CLOSED.  Classic sales move.  So I guess we will stop there on the way home.  By the way, I am obsessed with Prevost RVs and cannot stop looking at them.

Shout out to Jessee for her birthday!