The end of a wonderful spring

By the time we left Cancun, Mexico, tropical storm Andrea (yes, it was bad enough to actually get a formal name) had made its way out of the gulf, actually dumping a bunch of rain on lonely Max in Raleigh as it went on its NE track.  Our last few days at the "Grand Mayan" were actually nice -- so long as you watched the sky carefully for the occasional shower.  Funny enough, we found this to be the case when we got back to Raleigh too.  Guess it is that time of year when thunderstorms break out randomly many days.  Reminds me of my years living in south Florida!  Anyhow, before we flew back to the U.S., we snapped some cute photos of local wildlife at the Grand Mayan resort (see bottom of post).  Gator friends, it is a crocodile, not an alligator :-)

Once back to Max in Raleigh, we helped celebrate our nephew, Karl's, high school graduation. His parents (my dear college friend, Mary, and Jeffrey's brother David -- they met at our wedding), threw him a fabulous BBQ party at home ahead of his formal graduation ceremony.  So amazing to witness this milestone in a young man I once held in my arms shortly after he was born almost 18 years ago!  AGH!  Where has the time gone?  Needless to say, it was with a heavy heart that we left NC yesterday as we continue our "just the two of us" journey south.

Our first stop was Gaffney, SC, where we had an appointment to get Max aligned and inspected -- which we deemed a worthwhile expense after our first major jaunt on bumpy roads these last months.  Lucky for us, there were no issues... just a few minor adjustment and we were on our way.  Once again, the "chassis" part of our coach has been almost bulletproof.  The "house" part will get its time in the service bay next month when we finally buckle down and get the floor grout fixed in Florida next month.  Oh Joy... probably should have our heads examined for choosing hurricane season to do this!

Weather to stay or go?

After a day visit with our final Connecticut friends, Guy & Joan Clark, we started our 5 day run back to Raleigh.  Guy and Joan had fattened us up with a fabulous dinner the night before we left, so we were energized for a few long days of driving.  By the way, "long" is relative in this lifestyle.  Four hours in a car is no big deal, but motorhome travel is a little more intense.  There is a lot more to watch out for, you generally go at a slower speed, and a small "bump in the road" is really amplified.  We still haven't gotten to a level of comfort that we even listen to the radio when driving.

Anyhow, stormy weather showed up on the forecast for the entire week, so we opted to leave our options open and not make firm park reservations until the day before or even the morning of.  Day 1 was the road back to Pennsylvania -- which sure seemed rougher than the same road to drive east on a few weeks earlier. Day 2 storms held off in the morning, so we high-tailed it over 250 miles and managed to pass through the rest of PA, a corner of Maryland, West Virginia, and finally stopped in Winchester Virginia.  Jeffrey thought this was a great accomplishment -- being in 4 states in one day. 

While Winchester looked like a really neat town and we wanted to stay an extra night to have a day to explore, the RV park we picked (Candy Hill) was a not a good experience.  It was nice enough, but it was right beside a major freeway with loud trucks cruising by at all hours.  Instead, we outran the afternoon storms again and made a run for Richmond on Day 3.  Since we only needed 1 more driving day to get back to Raleigh, we had 2 full days to explore Richmond a bit, even though it rained on us most of the time.

Our final driving day was uneventful but rainy through Virginia, finally drying out once we hit the North Carolina border. The upside is that Max had a nice exterior wash and looked pretty clean after a dirty trek to parts north.  We got settled in to our RV park near Raleigh and enjoyed a week's worth of visiting with Jeffrey's two local brothers and their families.  One casualty of our recent rough road driving appears to be our washing machine which has sprung a small leak underneath somewhere.  Lucky for us, our family in Raleigh have extended the use of their in-house laundry facilities, so our washer repair can be added to the list to be fixed at our next service appointment (at Lazydays in Florida in July).

I write this blog entry from near Cancun, Mexico where we are enjoying a pre-25th wedding anniversary visit to our "timeshare". We arrived by plane (Max was left to rest in Raleigh) and unfortunately, the wet weather has followed us once again and we managed to land right in the middle of the first gulf tropical depression.  We have had wet stuff every day and some of it torrential, but it is still a lovely part of the world.

We will return this weekend just in time to help celebrate our nephew Karl's graduation from High School.  Crossing our fingers that the rain doesn't follow us home!