Travels With the Captain: Chapter 23. April 2015. Winding Down the Season and Planning the Summer.

Not mentioned earlier, Dear Reader, is the fact the the Captain and Commodorable's home at Ocean City, MD is now leased for at least a year, fully furnished. Let's think about what that means...we're gonna be homeless by mid May, when we board the coach and depart Pelican Lake. We know we must return to Ocean City to open the pool for the renters and to do a few other home related chores.

Beyond that, we got nothin'.

I got it! We'll do a tour of the U.S. and see the things and places we've only flown over before. That's it. Armed with his trusty iPad, the Captain plots the trip which covers 30 states and over 10,500 miles.

This is the plan. We depart Maryland on Jul 3 and head to Michigan...

Now since we will travel this great distance, it makes no sense for the Commodorable to follow the coach/Jeep combo with the Mercedes as we did coming south. We sub let air conditioned space from Dan to store the car.

Next problem...with a month to stay in Maryland and multiple chores to accomplish, how can we live with just the one vehicle, the Jeep? Answer...take Leslie's unsold scooter with us. But how?? Again armed with Internet search results, the Captain obtains a great rack for the rear of the Jeep which will hold up to 900 pounds.

Works great!!. Absolutely stable, with no movement underway.

Now we have two vehicles for our time in Maryland.

Thinking through the trip, the Captain decides to err on the side of safety and orders new Michelin tires for the front of the coach. (All too many Motorcoach accidents have been caused by front tire blowouts on large coaches). These are HUGE tires accompanied by a HUGE price tag. The Michelin man arrives...no, not the roly-poly one, but a small Hispanic person who promptly changes both tires and further reduces the inheritance for my offspring.

Even though I am married to a brunette, I still rarely make "blonde jokes". What follows is NOT a joke, even though it may sound vaguely familiar...

Shown here is an anonymous blonde (Our Dear Marilyn) attempting to retrieve her keys from her locked convertible, who's top just happens to be down. This answers the oft asked question, "Can you lock yourself out of a top down convertible?" Holding on to the anonymous blonde (Marilyn) is my Dear wife, Leslie who I guess is trying to prevent the anonymous blonde (Marilyn) from becoming trapped in the vehicle. Laughing at this spontaneous spectacle is Marilyn's good friend, DJ.

Success. Free at last. Thank Gawd almighty, free at last. Now off to the beach with you...

Of course, this being Pelican Lake, there are parties...

Donna & Larry (a bit blurry, but it was THEM, not your trusty photojournalist, the Captain.

And, of course, the crazy chicks are up to their shenanigans...

Same crazy chicks, somewhat more somber moment.

Lunch at Naples Town Dock with Leslie and Louise...

Naples Town Dock in the background...

Assistance from our imported British navigator...ain't she cute??

Early in the month, Leslie's 88 year old Dad hears news about his condo in the Hamptons...

The Hamptons condo (before)

Shockingly, there has been a bit of a setback there...

There has been a fire. Fortunately the building was totally unoccupied since the Summer season had not yet begun. Dad was properly insured.

...and the family tragedies weren't limited to Long Island...

High winds (19 MPH) and rain (wet) raged through our site capsizing (see chair) and destroying (see new patio umbrella embedded in bushes. Look carefully, it's the tan one). Appeals to FEMA fell on deaf ears. Never mind...WE WILL REBUILD!!!

All too soon, April draws to a close and we must say goodbye to our Tarpon Club marina and store our boat, the BANDIT in the storage facility where the Benz will be kept...