Time to catch up

  It’s been a while and I’ll probably forget a lot but here goes.

  We had stopped in Dease Lake BC and had gotten permission to stay the night. When checking the car I noticed the RV’s radiator was leaking. I went into the store and asked if the was a mechanic in town. They said Charlie could help but he was camping. Someone else said to call Turtle. We had no cell phone service, which we found out later no one had cell phone service in Dease lake, but the gal in back of the counter offered to call him. He came up and looked at it, scratched his head and said how do I get to the engine. He had never worked on a Diesel pusher and said I should call Charlie but he was camping. The next day we were sitting in the RV waiting for Charlie to return from camping when a RV pulled in front of us. It was our friends Cindy & Phil. They saw us sitting there and stopped to check on us. As we were talking Charlie pulled in. He said he had pulled many rads damaged by the poor BC roads. Cindy said she would call our daughter and let her know our situation. We said our goodbyes and followed Charlie back to his garage. We shared a 15 amp service with a gold prospector for 3 weeks while waiting for our rad to go 600 miles to the repair shop only to find out they couldn’t repair and then waiting for a new rad from Monaco in Oregon. We just wanted  to get back to the states so we made no stops except to sleep and within a few days we crossed the border into Washington state.  We settled into a campground with facilities for the 1st time in a month. The next day we decided to go south a little to hit Oregon before turning east. We were surprised how dry and desert like this part of Wash. is. We stopped in Illinois to have a brief visit with our friends Ed & Hazle. As we entered western Pa. we had to decide if we wanted to put up for a few days and wait for hurricane Irene to pass or continue to Robins driveway near Wilkes-Barre Pa. and ride out the storm there. We decide to continue on the Robins. It was good to be back in northeastern Pa. with our family. When we left in Oct. 2010 our granddaughter Amelia was only a month old and we were anxious to get to know her and also to have lots of time with our grandson Connor. It wasn’t long after we got setup when the rain started and not long after Irene passed Tropical Storm Lee came in and the rain continued and the river kept getting higher. Luckily we were pretty high up as it wasn’t long until mass evacuations began. The river crested higher than it ever had. The new dikes spared Wilkes-Barre city but the flooding in other towns was worse than 1972. While we were in Pa. we had lots of quality time with our grandkids and really got to know Amelia. We also got reinvolved with our local church.Paula helped making lasagna rollups and pumpkin rolls and pie. We helped with the trunk or treat for Halloween, the pork supper & the Christmas open house. This was also the saddest return to Pa. First my sister was diagnosed with kidney cancer and had to have it removed and then in mid Oct my mom got sick. After going with her to the ER we came home that day and for the next 2 weeks she seemed to improve. Then the pain got worse and we returned to the ER. This time they recommended Hospice for pain management & comfort.  Hospice Community Care in Wilkes-Barre was fantastic. On Nov 23 my mom had her 85th birthday. All year long she would always say she  85 and when she awoke on the 23rd she said she shook her fist in the air and said I made it. On Nov 29th her pain & suffering ended and she joined my father who had passed away 50 years ago on Oct 25th. Mom we will miss you more than you will ever know.

  We stayed in Pa. until after Christmas. Some nights I would forget to disconnect the hose and it would freeze up but other than that the motorhome handled the cold better than we did. Our 1st stop was only 80miles away. We had gotten a new car in Sept and ordered a new base plate so we could tow the car behind the rv. We had canceled several appointments to have the baseplate installed so we decided to stop on our way out of Pa. They supplied us with 30amp power and we stayed there 2 nights. With the Honda hooked on the back we made it to a Thousand Trails park in SC in 2 days and it was warm. Now we could slow down. We stayed there 3 nights and then moved to a thousand trails park in Florida.

Now to see if I can remember how to publish this