Day 46
Well, another eventful travel day. Personally, I kind of hated to leave here, because of the acres of grass right outside my door. But, the humans have their reasons, and they make the rig go. Don was up early, but I can’t say that for the rest of us. He got ready to take me for a walk, after my breakfast, and we went out for a final gambol in the grass. I had to do several rolls, but, at his advice, I steered clear of the creek. He knew what a good time I was having, and let me stay out longer than usual. When we got back to the coach, Geri and Don got into the usual discussion of where we were headed, and how we were going to get there. They eventually arrived at a decision, Geri called and got a reservation, and Don planned a route to get there. Sounds good on paper.
As we were making our final departure preparations, Don noticed that the alarm bell for the leveling jacks was indicating that they were not fully retracted. He looked under the coach and determined that the jacks were almost completely in their retracted positions, but not quite enough to silence the alarm. He decided to move out with the alarm ringing intermittently. So, we headed out to the occasional muted dong-dong-dong of the jack alarm. We headed north on Highway 17, looking to move to Highway 13 further north. We got to a town called Williamston, and tried to follow the Highway 17 signs through town. We got to an intersection that said that 17 (Business) went to the right. Geri said we should go right. Don said that we didn’t want the business route, we wanted the direct route. Well, we wound up on another route. It was interesting, picturesque and colorful, but it sure wasn’t direct. Eventually, with Geri navigating, we got back to Highway 13 and headed north. We were soon into Virginia, heading for Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Geri pointed out that there was an alternate route that kept us from having to go through Norfolk to get to Virginia Beach. Don said he didn’t mind driving through Norfolk. Then we hit the tunnel traffic. It was a slow crawl through the tunnel, and wild jockeying for position among all the drivers after we emerged. Don was saying some bad words. Meanwhile, I was starting to have a recurrence of my bowel problems, and I conferred with Geri on what to do about it. She told me to be calm, and it would only be a little while before I could find relief. We got off the highway, and bumped along a road under construction. We finally got to the RV Park, and Don took me off to a grassy area, but on leash. I can’t handle this sort of thing on leash. I need a little privacy. So I waited while Geri was dealing with the registration office. When she got back to the rig, we headed for our assigned site, which wasn’t far off, and pulled in. Geri got me out into the grass and let me take care of my problem, which was a great relief.
Don had jacked the rig up as high as it would go, and was underneath doing something. He had it up so high that we needed the auxiliary step to get up into it. In a little while, he let it back down, and was very pleased that he had solved the jack alarm problem. Something to do with WD-40. He left in the truck to get something special for me for dinner, while Geri and I stayed in the rig and listened to the sound of the jets from the nearby Naval Air Station. When Don returned, Geri cooked a special dinner for me, rice with boiled ground round. It was really good, but I remembered that that’s what Don cooked for Buddy in Lynnwood, just before he went to Doggy Heaven. I really hope that’s not where I’m headed immediately.
Don called his old friend Bill, a guy he went to high school with, who lives here in Virginia Beach. Bill’s coming over for lunch tomorrow, and I’ll be on my best behavior when I meet him. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow!