Chapter 25. June in Maryland

You, astute dear reader, will no doubt remember two prior events when the "Use it or lose it" philosophy of my Dear Bride of 30 years resulted in your despondent Captain being forced to part with his beloved Boston Whaler, then later, his cherished Burgman 650 scooter.  The trend now continues into June.  You will recall that your ingenious Captain purchased a carrier which would allow us to bring along the Commodorable's Burgman 400.

...the Burgman attached to the Jeep...

The need for the Burgman on this trip was primarily to have two vehicles for our extended stay in Maryland where we both had scores of errands to complete.

Well lo and behold, when our good friend Judy Allen learned of this plan, she INSISTED that Leslie use her spare car for the entire month...we took Judy up on this gracious offer... 

...our loaner car for the month of June..yep, a Mercedes V8 CLS...

Since we had all the transportation we needed, we placed the 2007 Burgman on Craigslist, and sold it in one day...it had less than 1400 miles on the odometer...  Now the remainder of our trip will be streamlined by not having to load and unload the scooter so often.

Factoid: This is the first time in more than 20 years that we have no motorcycles in our fleet!

Lot's of chores accomplished, we also find time to go to a few old haunts and hear our favorite band...

...the Lovin Cup, featuring none other than our eldest son, Troy (on the left)...

The venue for this evening was a great beachfront campground called Castaways (frequented by Rick & Beverly of alpaca-raising fame, also occasionally seen at Pelican Lake...Rick and Bev, not the alpacas).  

This evening we met a couple from Arlington, VA who came all this way to hear the band...

...Sara, Mike and of course, Leslie.  Note the sea in the background...

While spending the month of June in Maryland we both had a ton of items on our To Do lists.

The Captain taught a few new boaters, repaired a couple of boats for current clients, etc.

Leslie took care of doctors appointments for her and the three pups.  Grooming for the whole family was accomplished, although some would say that your intrepid captain looks no different than before.

While on the puppy grooming errand in Easton, Md. Leslie visited our good friend Katie Wyatt who also has Westie pups, Julip and Derby.  (Kentucky themed names since their Dad, Wilson, is from the Bluegrass State.  Don't be fooled...the grass there is actually GREEN like everybody else's )  

I told you all that to tell you this:

Katie surprised us with a quilt she made for the boys.  See below:

As anyone can see, our boys like their personalized quilt!!  For this photo, we tried to get them to sit in order of their names on the quilt, but being Westies they have no idea what ORDER means and further, they seem not to care...

In other, and totally unrelated news, our new Coleman Mach 8 Air Conditioners (thousands of $$) are really disappointing us.  In early June this happened:

As you may already know, this is not the way the fan should look!  This was from our rear bedroom A/C.  Can you imagine the racket that this made as it exploded?  No you cannot.  Therefore, your narrator will help...imagine a water buffalo giving birth to a farm implement, then double the sound and you will get the picture.

An hours long investigation on the internet revealed that your troubled Captain was not singled out by the gods of misfortune to receive these evil self destructive fans.  Many other unfortunate RV wanderers were dealt the same fate.  As they had preceded your Captain in this adventure, they knew the solution.  Following their lead, I called the factory and spoke with a very knowledgeable gent who promptly sent 3 replacement fans of the new and improved variety..  Fans were sent overnight.  They arrived after about one week.  

After enduring a week of 100 degree heat index days with only two A/C units, your handy Captain installed one of the new fans on the afflicted A/C unit.  Voila! Cool at last!  Thank heavens, cool at last.

Your planful Captain decided to hold the other two new fans in reserve pending the remote possibility that another fan would go separate ways from its base.  Ahem, did the Captain say remote?  Within one day of repairing the Bedroom A/C, the forward unit blew.  I'll save you, dear reader, from further descriptions of the sounds accompanying this fan failure.  

Needless to say, your Captain replaced both remaining fans.  As I sit here writing in blissful air conditioned comfort, I can't help but wonder when the next opportunity for your Captain to impress his bride with his mechanical skills will arise...

I'll spare you the details, but the following opportunities to impress said bride occurred in short order:

1. The main water supply to the toilet in the half bath exploded.  It was sealed behind a beautifully paneled maplewood wall which had to be removed.

2. The Girrard Awnings malfunctioned.  This was due to a dumb thing the Captain did...no need for details here.

Never fear, the Captain rose to all challenges...bride was impressed...all is well.

By now, I am quite sure that you, Dear Reader, have wondered how Miss Leslie has used her time in Maryland to best effect. As usual, pictures tell the story...

Leslie drinking with her beautiful friends Allison and Judy ( the owner of the Silver Mercedes Leslie has been driving)...and...

...Leslie drinking with her beautiful friends, Nancy, Nina, Lynn and Frankie.  Readers, this group could cause a riot at a seance!!!

Tomorrow the Captain and crew break ties with Maryland (state motto: we actually tax rainfall).

Of course Maryland ain't all bad...here is our town, Ocean City at dusk.

Next, we head northwest to Charlotte, Michigan to enter our week of RV chassis schooling.  From there we head to northern Michigan...

As you can see below, our 30 state odessy is drawing national attention;

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This is gonna get good...