Through some miracle of mismanagement we arrived at the Perry Fairgrounds for the Rally without credentials for the coach and car. This meant we had to go to Will Call to pick them up. This put us in the Holding Area, from which we expected to be moved to a General Parking area. It was not to be. There we stayed and after three hours the word came that we were “home” for the week. We repositioned a bit to make everyone have necessary space and set up for the week. It was meant to be. Our neighbors, Dan and Val on one side and Phil and Rose on the other, became friends who we will probably run into again someplace in these United States.
The big news was that it did not rain. It has not happened before that there was no rain during the Rally in Perry. The weather started warm and clear and improved to hot and clear with great cool sleeping nights. We had several gatherings with the CHAI gang who were mostly in the Volunteer Electric area. The pot luck dinner was fun as always and dinner at Preisters was fun although the food was, as expected, awful. The Chapter decided to make a significant gift to the Whitville, TN Paper Clip Project with part of the surplus in the treasury. I can’t wait to see the minutes so I can include them in the Secretary’s book I keep.
Carol’s seminar on photographic composition had the expected glitch. This time we could not find how to dim the lights so the slides could be seen. The second session, work sharing, went better as we were able to get everything working and the lights were dimmed for us. Only two people brought work in a format we could project. One, Ronni Silver, had some very nice work and we spent a fair amount of time with alternate cropping and some change of contrast. She and her husband Rob are full timers and I am sure we will spend time with them again in the not to distant future.
We depend on serendipity to provide our entertainment. We had reservations in Forsyth, GA at the KOA we stayed at 2 years ago to do laundry, empty our holding tanks and recover from the 5 days dry camping with 4600 other coaches. When Carol went to the office to get quarters for the laundry she was greeted by Dan who had just arrived with no advance knowledge that we would be there. Naturally we got together for happy hour a couple of times. Friday, right after arriving, Carol and I drove into Macon for a look around at Cherry Blossom Festival. We took the well mapped scenic drive and then wandered around thee downtown area. When we went to the festival site we decided that there was nothing doing there that interested us enough to warrant the $6.00 parking investment so we went back to the coach. On Saturday we drove to Juliet. GA the home of the movie Fried Green Tomatoes and then on to a nature preserve that advertised some nice hikes. We set out on a 2 mile loop hike and only realized that the directions were misleading about half way though, the hike in to the loop was a mile, so the total trip was 4 miles. Instead of an hour hike we were on the trail over 2 hours.
On Sunday the 25th we headed for the Wilmington NC area to visit with Cousin Mimi and Joe and to see Uncle George. We stopped at Sesquicentennial Park outside Columbia, SC. It is a gorgeous park but designed with much smaller units than ours in mind. We maneuvered through the park with one of us walking ahead and providing guidance for the closely spaced trees and low hanging branches. We managed to avoid disconnecting the car and doing any damage. While there we got a call that my mother had fallen at the Jewish Home and needed to go to emergency at Highland Hospital for another saga that overlapped our travels. We pulled into Mimi and Joe’s farm yard mid day on Monday to a wild greeting by 4 dogs, 4 geese, 2 Guinea Game Hens and assorted other farm animals. I continued talking with people about Mom who was left unattended on an ED bed and fell IN EMERGENCY and broke her other hip. As we were at least 12 hours away, our son Dan flew in and was joined by my sister to be there for surgery. We made plans to move the coach to Dan and Malena’s where, after an overnight stay, we detached the car and drove to Rochester to relieve them. Two nights overnight in our house and back in the car for the 500 mile run back to the kids, with Mom stabilized and back in her room at the Home recovering with round the clock aids. Whew!
We made it back in time for Sedar on the farm and spent most of Pesach there, the kids were off school and we played with them and did a lot of work on the farm, I roofed the rest of the enlarged chicken coop, did some pruning and assisted in catching chickens and picking up fresh eggs. There is no need to detail the endless rounds of conversation about Mom’s condition and care, it has been continuous.
Monday, April 9, we left the Covesville farm for Rochester and the end of our Winter Hegira, two days earlier than planned, just because enough is enough and there is much to do before we leave for Turkey and Israel on April 28. There was one more adventure to be experienced. We decided it would be wise to stay in a campground rather than a Wal-Mart as that would provide the opportunity to take the time to clean out the holding tanks before going into storage. It is still early for most campgrounds in the northeast, but we located one that claimed to open on April 1. When Carol called, Wayne, of RV’s Mountain Top Campground said he was there and we could come in, but his water supply was frozen. We still had plenty of water in the fresh tank so we said that as long as there was sanitary sewer and electric we were happy. For those who know the Mansfield, Tioga PA area this place advertises a 180 degree view of the Tioga Valley. The turn off of 287 is one block before the road to Ives Run. What Wayne failed to mention is that after 1.5 miles the pavement ends and the climb continues for 3 more miles. The place makes rustic look up-to-date. The views are magnificent and the fact that it backs up against the Tioga Game Hunting Preserve adds to the interest as there is a field of Elk and other game animals just over the fence to shoot with the camera.
Tuesday morning I once again added air to the new tire on the left front and we set out for our non mobile home. . .
We have now been in Rochester almost two weeks and preparations for departure to Turkey are moving along, we have our visas, flights and packing list. We just need to execute. I will post from Turkey and Israel as the opportunity presents.