8/31/2010 Last Day of August….Already? Finally!

The last day of August. The last day of a full summer month. Oh, I’m sorry I wrote that. Yeah, I could backspace and make it go away like it never existed but the thought is already in my head, so what would be the point? I can’t un-think it.

While we have had a wonderful summer, living at the beach, seeing family and friends, eatin’ crabs, fishin’, baking in the sun, making new friends, well, we’re ready to move on, but its still sad.

Fall is just around the corner. Sweatshirts and jackets will come out, we’ll have more days in jeans than in shorts,,,well, at least until we get to Arizona,,,, a summer coming to an end, in my mind, is a sad thing. Another so long I don’t like to give. Of course when we do get to Arizona it will likely be 100 degrees and these sad thoughts will vanish as quickly as splashed water on the cement around the pool.

I worked the store with Linda as the ice person today, We sold very little ice. So mostly I just sat there and read or talked with Linda.

I did see a mobile RV repair guy in the park and went to talk with him about getting an estimate for the work we needed done. He said he would fax it to us as soon as he had it prepared. I’m still not hearing anything from Ocean Rv. I know they are busy but I was hoping for that promised call. By afternoon’s end I called them and left a message. Time is running out for us, we have to get this done SOON!

8/30/2010 Happy Birthday Bob!

Bob’s birthday is today, one of the big ones, the age where Social Security starts! Sixty two! Damn, he’s old. Being five years younger, I can say that. Besides, seeing as how its my blog and my rules I can say anything I want!

For all intent and purpose it was just another day. No cake and ice cream, no party hats or balloons, just another day. In fact, it was just another workday. With Bob being gone for the last week on his fishing trip the place was lookin’ kinda shabby since it seems no one but Bob will pick up the weed-whacker. So he spent his time doing that all morning.

I worked the store with iceman, Tom and it was soooo slow! The summer is over here at the Inlet now. There are wide empty spaces where RV’s and tents once were. They are missing because school is back in session. There are no kids whizzing up and down the street on bikes or skateboards. There is no dodging of scooters going on. The sky is empty of kites this Monday and there are no sounds of a ball being batted back and forth on the volleyball court, a sure telltale sign there are no kids here. Summer is all but over.

I kept willing the phone to ring, wanting to hear from Ocean RV when they were going to be coming in put our insulation back up under the rig. I didn’t hear anything, maybe tomorrow.

The store was supposed to be open until 7 p.m. but it was so slow, in that my sales total was almost laughable, that I called the office to find out if they wanted me to keep it open as it would be a total waste of time….mine! Luckily, they saw it my way and I closed at 4.

This is our last Monday here,,,,yep, summer is coming quickly to an end. We’re glad, we’re ready to go. Now that we’ve said our so longs to family and close friends its time to take to the road.

8/29/2010 Finally! I Get to Give IT to Her!

We left Wilmington pretty early this morning,,,that’s 9:30 in our life,,, because we’re having company today.

As expected, it was so hard to leave my parents. I knew it was useless to even try to keep the tears from flowing so I let them go and I could have filled a child’s small swimming pool I’m sure. I absolutely hate this part!

I wish I could be in this moment and look back over the past few months at the good times we had but I’m not made that way. I feel the pain of leaving and sorrow of missing them. When we get around the corner I’ll think about the good times and I’ll smile then but first I have to endure this. I think its normal.

An uneventful trip south to the beach got us home just a little while before our first guest arrived. Dianne was coming to see us. She came over on the Cape May/Lewes Ferry from New Jersey.

I had called her while she was still en-route to see how close she was and she said she could see land but it was quite a bit in the distance yet. I thought this was ferry ride was taking an awful long time. Come to find out she was looking at New Jersey as she was floating away from it and had she looked out the other end she would have seen Lewes, Delaware a whole lot better because it was literally right in front of her. Oh Di and her senior moments!

I had a box to give Dianne when she arrived and after we got caught up and settled I gave it to her.

When she flew in to meet us last year in Alaska, she had a left a few little things behind such as wash cloths, hairspray, tea mix, a towel, some souvenir brochures she wanted, some postcards she left behind and maybe one or two other things.

Now there was one thing in the box she had never seen before.

A book. A book I made for her of her vacation with us. Its one of those Shutterfly books that you make online. She had no idea I had made this last February.

If you remember from reading along with our trip last year, all Dianne wanted to see was a MOOSE! Well, she didn’t so I knew I had the title for the book.

She was thrilled with it!

She couldn’t wait to see what was inside….

…..and I think she really liked how I started the book……

I heard alot of “remember when we……” as she turned the pages.

I put all the pictures I took while she was with us in the book. I wanted some of her pictures in the book too so I asked her to email a half dozen or so of her favorite pictures that she took while in Alaska. She sent me pictures of me and Bob that she had taken. I emailed her back and said, “Dianne, I wanted your favorite shots that you took.” and she replied, “I sent them to you.” Brings a tear to my eye all over again. So I added them to the book too plus a lot of others.

On the back cover I put some random shots and listed the the towns we toured.

I was so happy to finally give this to her. She loved it just as I hoped she would.

Hmmm…since I picked the pictures, placed them, picked the background pages, wrote the captions, does this mean I’m published now?

It wasn’t long after and Bob’s oldest Tim arrived… looks to be very deep in thought about something doesn’t he?

with his daughter Brianna……

and Derek, Brianna’s brother.

We had a nice visit with everyone and before we knew it the day was over and Dianne had a ferry to catch and Tim and kids had traffic to fight.

After dinner I went to see what tonight’s sunset was going to look like.

GOODNIGHT SUN!

A perfect ending to a pretty special day, wouldn’t you say?

8/28/2010 So Longs, Lums Pond and Dinner Out

After getting the laundry I brought with me done and hung out to dry Bob and I drove over to my brother and sister-in-law’s home to say so long until next year. Being my only sibling, its never easy to say so long and tried as I might I can’t keep the tears from flowing.

My great nephews Steven and Justin were also there so we got to bid them farewell too. I imagine they will be a whole lot taller next time I see them. Why oh why didn’t I bring the camera with me?

After leaving there we went to a nearby state park called Lums Pond. This is where Bob and I would like to be camp hosts in two years. We went there to talk to the camp hosts there now and to see what it was like. A huge difference from where we are at the Inlet because its GREEN versus the tan sand we have now! Lots of grass and trees with HUGE campsites and fire pits at every site versus the parking lot we’re in. We talked about a half hour with the couple and decided that yes, this is some place we’d like to be. Its very close to our brothers and a lot of our friends, only 8 miles or so from my parents….oh yeah, this is where we want to be. The Badlands next summer and Lums Pond the summer after. Sounds like a plan!

Since Bob’s birthday is on Monday, Mom and Dad wanted to take us to dinner to the restaurant of Bob’s choice. He chose Michael’s. Its one of our favorites and i was so glad he picked it so that I could have Crab Imperial one more time before we left. Delicious dinners were had by all as usual. We’re going to miss having our blue claw crabs but we enjoyed them each time we had them this summer.

I took some candid shot of my parents catching them totally off guard as these pictures show.

Sorry mom and dad….

8/27/2010 Bob Returns, Our Last Weekend Home

I had the reservation cards to do this morning and everyone seemed to be leaving on time for a change. I did have a few stragglers but they weren’t too late so it wasn’t too bad.

I made up the cards for Saturday, packed the truck with the stuff I would need for the weekend and shortly after 1 o’clock I was on my way north.

I stopped at the booth on the way out to give say “cya” to Lynn but it was cut short by a truck behind me wanting to leave the park also. So I waved so long and was on my way. I stopped in Smyrna to get gas and when I reached for my wallet I pulled my hand back quickly like it had been burned! The reservation cards for SATURDAY were still on my seat! I didn’t give them to Lynn to pass on to Linda. OH NO! I was more than an hour into my trip home and I had a haircut scheduled at 3:30. This was not good! I didn’t know the number to the check-in booth and didn’t have Lynn’s cell phone number programmed into my phone. What to do….what to do…. Ok, I’ll call someone who I know is home who can look up the number on the computer. I’ll call KK….nope, she’s back in school, I’ll Elaine,,,,nope, her computer is down,,,SUSAN! I’ll call Susan in Georgia. Thankfully she was home and called me back within minutes with the number I needed. I felt so bad asking Lynn to make up a new set of cards for me as this was a busy check-in day. Lynn took it all in stride and said not to worry she would get them done in no time and everything would be fine. I apologized all over myself for causing her extra work.

I had a little bit of time to spare before my hair appointment and stopped for a few minutes to visit Wendy. Wendy was my dog groomer when we had our furkid, Shag. It was good to see her and her husband Randy. It made me realize once again how much I miss that little white dog.

Got the perfect haircut, said “Cya next year!” and out the door I went to pick up Bob. When he got in the truck we started talkin’ about his fishing trip and the “problem” was never brought up. At least it wasn’t brought up until we got to my parent's house. He was fine and naturally had some questions and concerns but overall he was fine. Whew!

For dinner we had Casapulla’s cheese steaks. Its the last one we’ll have until next year so we savored each bite. Nobody makes a cheese steak like Casapulla’s!

Bob went to bed very early,,,,can you believe at 8pm he couldn’t hold his eyes open and bid everyone goodnight.

My parents and I were up until waaayyy after midnight as we knew we didn’t have a whole lot of time left before we hit the road and wouldn’t see each other again for another year. We’re making every minute count.

8/26/2010 Stanley is My New BEST FRIEND!

Stanley STEEMER that is! The carpets are all dry and there isn’t even any musty smell anymore but I called for Stanley and his steam cleaner to come visit anyway.

I moved as much out as I could to make it as easy as possible for the men who were going to do the work.

They arrived around four and I was ready for them. I had originally contracted for two rooms to be done. The living room and the bedroom. After I had put on my online order in I looked at the bedroom again and thought that I just wasn’t paying $50.00 for the little strip of carpet that would be need to be done in here. When I told the fellow that I changed my mind on the bedroom he asked to see what kind of area I was talking about and he just waved his hand and said, “That will take me less than five minutes to do”, I’ll do it for you anyway. YES!

I asked that they spend a little extra time suckin’ that water out and why and he said he understood and would take extra care to make sure he left as little moisture as possible. True to his word, he did just that. When they were finished I had to really press down on the carpet to feel any moisture at all. Thank you Stanley Steemer guys!

It’s all coming together. Finally.

I got my clothes together and got a few things packed up for a weekend at my parents. Tomorrow I pick Bob up.

8/25/2010 Bill & Donna Travel On….

Seven o’clock this morning I made a phone call to Bob. I wanted to assure him that all was well and that the insulation was gone and the carpet cleaners were scheduled and that both Jeff and our insurance adjuster said that it wasn’t as bad as WE think it is. I think he felt better and when we hung up I got a “talk to you later hon” tells me we won’t be giving any business to the undertaker in the near future.

Also this morning I had to say so long to Bill and Donna.

I hated to see them go because most of their visit was filled with working with me to make things right after the GREAT FLOOD.

I’ve said THANK YOU a thousand times to these two these past few days so I don’t think once more will hurt a bit.

Bill, Donna, THANK YOU! Thank you for helping me keep my sanity these past few days. Thank you for going way beyond what one could hope for with help from a friend when in need. Thank you my friends, for being YOU!

After seeing them off I went back home as forever friend Cindy was coming in today to help me clean up a bit more and start getting stuff packed up to hit the road. Its amazing how much stuff one brings out from storage when one is settled in for a long period of time. I bring out all the knick knacks, not that I have that many to begin with, but they have to be packed away now that we’ll be moving soon. This is also a chance for me to go through every cabinet to find things that I just don’t need or use. Needless to say Cindy went home with more things than she came with.

After awhile, we just tired of this activity and went to Bethany Beach so I could pick some things up at the post office and then to the Bethany Beach florist to buy some things as I had a $30.00 gift certificate for there. I didn’t think to take pictures of my new possessions and they are wrapped and put away all ready. When I get them out again I’ll show you then.

Tummies started to rumble and I had another gift certificate to use up so Cindy and I went to lunch at Peach’s Bar and Grill. Oh. My. What a fabulous lunch we had. We got the sampler appetizer combo. We shared potato skins topped with cheddar cheese and bacon and sour cream on the side. The second of our choice of four was onion rings and they were cooked to perfection, Third on our list was a half pound of steamed shrimp served hot. Good sized shrimp, seasoned just right with Old Bay. Now the fourth item in our four dish appetizer combo was absolutely the best. It was a bread bowl filled with a crab dip with nice chunks of lump crab meat in a lightly seasoned cream sauce. We were served triangles of toasted white bread to spoon the crab dip onto. At first I thought….white bread toast????…..but actually, it was the perfect choice. You wanted something that was so,.,.so….white bread so you could actually enjoy the taste of the crab dip and this crab dip was to die for! There was not one morsel of food left when we were done. If ever in the area, by all means Peach’s Bar and Grill and is the place for lunch and I highly recommend the appetizer sampler, just make sure one of your choices is the bread bowl crab dip.

Cindy went on her way as she going back to Wilmington this evening. I spent the rest of the night getting ready for the carpet cleaners to come tomorrow. I will be so glad when this is all behind me.

8/24/2010 I Want IT To END!

I didn’t sleep last night. I am so tired. Mentally, physically, I just want this to be over.

I was at work and I find that if asked the most simple of questions,,,,Did you have a good time with your high school friends? Did Bob get off on his fishing trip ok?….I can burst into tears. Its because I’m exhausted.

Around ten I walked home to get my book and Bill and Donna were there. It was suggested I call Ocean RV for advice on what to do. I called and the man there told me that the insulation will take YEARS to dry out! YEARS! I’m not gonna be ready by Sunday for Bob to come home. After talking it over with Donna and Bill it was decided that it would be best if I called the insurance company. Damn, never a claim and now one in July and one in August. I am not a happy camper!

I get the insurance company on the phone and I got all emotional and cried through my explanation of why I was calling and the nice man says, “It will be ok, you called the right people, don’t cry, it will be ok, now Mrs. Quinn I’ll connect you with a claims representative.” Oh no, I had to tell this again.

I had a very kind lady on the phone and she said kept saying, “Go ahead, cry, get it out. I don’t know what’s wrong but it will be ok. I wish I could give you a hug right now”. I assured her I needed a hug right then. She asked for my number and I gave it to her and told her that the adjuster was to call ME….NOT BOB! She said she understood and that I wasn’t to worry, it will all be ok.

I went back to work and somehow managed to stay awake. About 3 Bob called to let me know how the fishing trip was going and what nice weather they were having, yada, yada, yada. As we were hanging up he said, “How’s it going there, everything ok?” Lying through my teeth I assured him that all was well.

Twenty minutes later my phone rang again and I was sure it was the Claims Adjuster. Darn, Bob again, he probably forgot to tell me something. I was hoping he wasn’t going to sign off with everything ok?

Here’s our conversation:

ME: Hellooooo!

Bob: Snook, I just a call from Progressive about a claim for water damage. I told her I didn’t know anything about it, do YOU?

ME: ****silence****

Bob: Snook, do we have water damage?

ME: *****silence****

Bob: (A little louder and a little sterner tone to his voice) SNOOK, DO WE HAVE WATER DAMAGE?????

me: uh, um, yeah.

BOB: WHAT HAPPENED?

Me: I told him.

BOB: We are F’ed!

Me: No we’re not, it will be ok….the carpets are dry, completely dry.

BOB: I CAN’T TALK TO YOU RIGHT NOW, I CAN’T TALK TO YOU, I CAN’T TALK TO YOU RIGHT NOW, I CAN’T TALK TO YOU.

Dial Tone.

Tears.

Sobbing.

Divorce Court?

Undertaker?

The insurance adjuster called me and I cried. I explained that Bob was away on a fishing trip and that I didn’t want to ruin his trip and she felt so bad for calling him first.

She listened to me tell the story AGAIN….and said to call Ocean RV to get an appointment with them to get everything fixed.

I went home and called. The first guy tells me they are making appointments three weeks out! I freaked!

I explained that this was a flooding situation, it was my HOME and that this was an emergency. He put the owner, Jeff, on the phone. We have known Jeff for quite some time and he said, “Snookie, tell me what happened. I did. He said for me to get under the rig and pull the access panels down and water would drain out a whole lot faster and it would let air up there which is a good thing. He said if the insulation can be pulled out, that was all the better.

My hero, Bill, got every bit of insulation out of the belly of the rig and bottom sprang right back up where it belongs. I can’t tell you how many GALLONS of water I squeezed out of that insulation. Bill got a really good view of the flooring above and could not see any water marks at all. This is a good thing!

The little girl next door brought her wagon over so that I could load the bags of soaked insulation onto it to take to the dumpster. Her name? KATRINA! How ironic.

So now air is flowing freely under my rig, everything looks dry. Stanley Steemer is coming to clean and deodorize my carpets on Thursday and all is getting right with my world.

I’m glad Bob knows. It was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.

It’s gonna be ok….just as everyone said it would be.

After Bill got showered and changed and I treated them to dinner. Geez, it was the least I could do!

I am so thankful for these friends of ours. They had put their lives on hold to get me through these past few days. Blessed with good friends? You betcha!

Donna and Bill, you guys are the BEST! I am so thankful you are in my life!

But you know, now that I think about it, if YOU GUYS hadn’t come to visit this wouldn’t have happened! This is all YOUR FAULT! I would have turned the water on, walked back inside, filled my cup with the cuttings with the now running water and turned the faucet off!

8/23/2010 The Nightmare Continues

Up at six, I got right to work sucking water again. It seemed to have pooled in areas so that it made it easier to get it out. They weren’t majorly soaked anymore, they were majorly damp. This is good thing. They will dry and Bob won’t ever have to know.

I started my work day, remember this is my LONG day, 8-7. I was exhausted! I had had no sleep, I was physically hurting and mentally, well, let’s just say I was beyond thinking at this point.

I didn’t realize I had been pacing and Tom, my iceman, said, “Snookie if you keep pacing like that I’m going to have to buy you a new pair of sneakers by the end of the day”. I looked at him and burst into tears. He was beside himself because he thought he said something and then he thought something had happened to Bob. I made him promise to not tell a soul because I didn’t want it to get out and someone bring up to Bob,,,,all will be well by Sunday and Bob won’t have to know.

Tom said he had had two floods and it would be fine, it would dry and its all good. I so wanted to believe that.

Donna and Bill had errands to run and when they got back Donna started suckin’ water and Bill propped pieces of wood under the belly to get the water flowing as it had slowed to a drip. This is good, its draining, almost dry as its down to a drip. Bob won’t have to know.

I couldn't last until 7 tonight so I closed the store at 4. We weren't busy anyway and my mind was definately not at work. When I got home Donna was there and I was anxious to see how things were going. Not as good as I had hoped. The carpets, just barely damp. This is good. The underbelly of the rig,,,,hmmmm,,,,still bulging. True, it had gone up a little, after all alot of water had run out but it was still bulging too much to suit me.

It was decided that Bill would prop our ladder under the rig to push up on the underbelly to get that water flowing faster. This will take place in the morning when there is daylight.

We played Mexican Train tonight and it was good to get away from this huge problem looming over me.

I’m hoping I can sleep tonight, I am so tired.

8/22/2010 The Rest of My 22 Hour Day!

When I returned home I stopped by to see Donna and Bill who are Quail Run friends of ours. They are visiting the baby states as Donna called them. Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and all the rest.

Donna told me that she was making dinner and to come back anytime after six. I agreed and drove off.

Back at the rig I was puttering around and clipped some cuttings from my philodendron plant for rooting. I got the cutting situated in the cup and proceeded to fill it with water. Darn, just a trickle of water because I had forgotten to turn our water on at the source when I got back. We always turn it off for safety reasons if we are going to be gone any length of time.

Distracted by who knows what I never did fill the cup with water. At 6:10 I noticed the time and grabbed and Pepsi and headed to Bill and Donna’s for an evening of Mexican Train and catching up with my friends.

About an hour later we heard thunder and I remembered that I had left the door open and excused myself to go close it before the rain started. Door closed, another Pepsi grabbed for their fridge, I proceeded to return to their rig. As I reached the end of ours another clap of thunder was overhead and sounded closer. Looking skyward at how dark the clouds were getting I thought I had better turn the water on at the source or I’d be doing it in the pouring down rain.

We finished our game and around ten I said that I had to get home since I had been up since 6:30 this morning and its been a long day.

I went home three streets over and walked into a dark house as I had forgotten to turn on a light. I walked to the kitchen counter to turn on the light there and five steps into the rig…..I splashed. SPLASHED ?!

I ran to the counter almost slipping on the wet linoleum and reached for the light. OMG! I looked at the water running nearly full force into an overflowing sink! OMG! I grabbed the phone and called Donna, nearly hysterical when she answered. She knew it was me but couldn’t understand a word I was saying but she knew it wasn’t good. Within minutes they were at my door and ran in and they too SPLASHED.

I had left the faucet open when I tried to fill the cup for my plant cuttings!

OMG…what do I do? WHAT DO I DO???? I did what any sane person would do when hundreds of gallons of water had run into her cabinets, down the floor, into the heater vents and everything was soaked! I GRABBED A TEA TOWEL TO CLEAN IT UP!

Donna asked where my towels were and I told her and yelled, “leave a clean one for my shower!” Trying to soak up this amount of water with towels, whether they be full size bath or small tea towels is like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon.

Wet vac! I have to find the wet vac! Of course it was in the last place I looked. It was so slow going that all I could do was cry. Donna and Bill just looked around and shook their heads. Donna then snapped into action and asked if I had a 24 hour grocery store around. I thought that was a fine time to be thinking about food! I’ve got forty day and night’s worth of rain in the my carpet and she’s hungry! She then instructed me to call them and ask if they had Rug Dr. machines! Oh yeah,,,,Rug Dr. machines, good idea!

I found the number and called and talked to a very nice lady named Mo. I asked if they did carry the carpet cleaners and when she said yes I asked the next logical Snookie question. “How much is it to rent one?” Like it mattered!

When we returned I took the towels outside and all the wet throw rugs and put them on the picnic table. I heard water. A steady stream. Where was it coming from? I couldn’t find it. I went and got the flashlight and looked under the rig and the bottom was bulging! OMG…OMG…OMG! I sobbed. Bill got under the rig and stuck a tent peg into a hole he found and opened it a little bit and water really started coming out. This is a good thing! The water will drain, the insulation will dry and all will be good by Sunday when Bob comes home and he’ll never have to know. Yep, this is good.

We got in the car to go get it and in no time we were sucking water! I kept telling Donna all the way there and all the way back I can’t let Bob know, I can’t let Bob know. I’ll get the carpets dry and he’ll never have to know. I can do this.

We got right to work and Donna started with the machine. In mere minutes we were emptying the machine bucket. Bucket after bucket, it seemed never ending.

In the meantime I started emptying the cabinets under the counter. Wet,,,everything was wet. OMG,,,why is this happening?

At one a.m. Donna had to stop, she was exhausted. I thanked her and bid her goodnight, I would take over from here. I sucked water until four in the morning when I finally realized that I was putting just as much back into the carpet as I was getting out,,, with my tears. My arms and shoulders and knees were killing me, I had to stop.

I had to be at work by eight and I had to rest. I wanted to get up again at six so I could start with Rug Dr. machine again before I had to get ready.

I laid down and felt sick to my stomach. There would be no sleep for me tonight. My mind was racing a million miles a minute. I must have dozed off at one point from sheer exhaustion and I had a dream that Bob and I were leaving here and we were towing the rig over the bridge by the campground and like Hansel and Gretel left a trail only instead of bread crumbs it was our belongings as the bottom of the rig rusted and gave way and our stuff was falling out. Did I say dream? I meant nightmare.

8/22/2010 Today, I Was Seventeen Again!

I dropped Bob off at eight this morning at his VFW club. He met up with his friend Bill Davis for the start of their weeklong fishing trip. Actually, twelve of them are going to New York. This fishing trip has been going on the for the last 15 years. Bob has missed only two trips and he so looks forward to this weeklong party. Yeah, yeah, he says he’s fishing but I’ve never seen a picture yet that didn’t have a beer can in it somewhere.

After my “have a good time”, “be careful” ,”love ya’s” I was off on my own adventure. I was going to have a very special day myself.

I pointed the truck south and took off. I was meeting up with Lourie and Janice. Janice lived across the street from me in high school and Lourie and I had been best friends since junior high. What was so special about this day? Well, today we will be TOGETHER for the first time since graduation night. I’ve seen them each over the years but not once was this trio in the same place at the same time and Janice and Lourie had not seen each other since that June evening thirty nine years ago!

Emails had been flying back and forth all week long about what day to meet, where, what time and we finally got it nailed down. We would meet at the Bandstand, on the Boardwalk at ten. It was finalized, the plan was in place. In actuality, we met at K-Mart, on Route 1 at 9:45. At the last minute I realized that I’m driving The Beast and there is no way I’m going to get a parking spot in Rehoboth Beach because all their parking spaces are designed for Mini Cooper’s or, at most, the smallest of Toyota’s. The emails started again and finally in a phone call Janice suggested the K-Mart parking lot where Lourie and I both could leave our vehicles and we would just take Janice’s mini-van and we would share the parking meter costs. Sounds like a plan!

I pulled in right on time and you’ve never seen three women smile so much when we got together! It was instantly like old times. We piled into the van and off we went on our day long adventure! We found a parking space immediately, which is unheard of in Rehoboth at the Boardwalk. We hit the boards all trying to talk at once, asking questions, shouting out, “Remember when we…….” We were all operating on “reunion overload”

We sat on the boardwalk for awhile talking away, people watching and just enjoying each other.

Lunch was next as it was noon and we headed to a boardwalk restaurant. I don’t think any of us could tell you what we had for lunch because food was certainly not the focus.

We learned a lot about our girlfriends today. Some had troubles that we had no idea about, some had issues she was dealing with that the other two were in the dark on. One had fears that she voiced and I think it made the other two think. We were happy to share, to unload and know that the other two women would understand whatever was said. And we did, it was like we were seventeen again and we shared like we used to. Sure the problems today weren’t nearly as “innocent” as the ones that plagued us back then, but our joys and triumphs were a thousand times bigger and better than those we shared thirty nine years ago.

We laughed. Oh, how we laughed. We reminded each other of things we did way back when and we giggled and laughed like it was yesterday.

After lunch we walked out to pouring rain so we made our way back to the mini-van. After a ride we went back to K-Mart to do some shopping for exciting things like laundry detergent and sat in the snack bar over sodas to continue our conversation. When we just couldn’t sit anymore we loaded back up into the van and went to another store for some more shopping.

Our day finally had to come to an end. Lourie had to go home for dinner with her husband, Janice was going to visit her mother and I had friends from Quail Run waiting for me back at the Inlet.

So we three, Lourie, me and Janice had a wonderful day and being seventeen again,,if only for a few hours, priceless.

We parted ways with hugs, a few tears, sincere I love you’s and a promise to not wait another 39 years again before we were all together again.

Girlfriends are just the best!

This post is continued. Click on newer post.

8/21/2010 A Nothing Sort of Post

Today was a day for mom/daughter time. Our time is getting short here in Delaware and my mom and I made the most of it and went shopping today.

Bob spent quality time with my dad on the front porch watching the world go by and solving all the worlds problems.

After mom made Bob’s favorite dinner we went to cousin Ronnie and Patty’s to drop off the GPS for him to load the latest maps onto. We said so long to EvaLou and called it a night

This is short one, I don’t really feel the need to go into the details of our shopping trip for new towels and sheets and you are probably glad I’m not.

8/20/2010 Headin’ to Wilmington

We headed to Wilmington for the weekend today. We left here around 1:30 and made it to my parent’s by four with a few stops.

After dinner we went to the Elks Club and met up with my brother and sister-in-law, Billy and Michelle. The main purpose was to learn a new game. After visiting for a bit the dice were gathered and the call for players was put out. Sixteen Elk members answered the call. We all gathered around the pool table and each of laid $3.00 in singles in front of us. Billy explained the rules of LCR to the newcomers. The first player rolls three dice. On each dice is either a “dot” which is what you want, the letter L which stands for Left, the letter C which stands for Center and the letter R which stands for ______?______ . Anybody? Anybody got a guess? Yes, R stands for Right. Everyone got that? Ok, moving on. The first player throws the dice and let’s say he rolls a dot, L and C. He would take one dollar bill and pass it to the player on his Left. He would take another dollar bill and pass it to the center of the table which is the “pot”. He keeps the third bill because the last die was a “dot”. So you can see why dots are good. You keep your money! Now while you are throwing the dice you have all the players to the left calling out LEFT, LEFT, LEFT! And all the players to your right calling out, RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT. They want your money! If you throw 2 L’s and a C and all your money is gone, you still aren’t out of the game because the player on either side of you is going to be passing you money at some point. If you were to throw two dots and a C, you would keep two dollars and one would go the center and next time you would throw just two die. Of course the C’s take the money out of circulation and in the end its between two players who still have money to see who the last person with a dollar in front of them is. That person gets the pot! In our case, $48.00. Its a faced pace game, its really, really fun and for $3.00 it doesn’t break the bank. I could see playing with 20 people but more than that it would be really crowded. You can buy this game in Walgreen’s for $5.99. It can be found where the playing cards are. We’ll be taking this game to Quail Run this winter as I’ve already gotten a set of the dice.

We played the game twice and then sat and talked with Billy and Michelle for a while longer. Since our day had started early and they had to be up early on Saturday we called it a night around ten and went back to my parent’s place.

8/18/2010 Surf’s Up!

I forgot to post this sunset picture the other day and since it was so good I couldn’t just let it slide. I think you’ll agree.

Today, it rained. And rained. And rained some more. By later afternoon it had finally stopped for a good while and we went into town to pick up our mail. What a mess that was. The rain had come down so hard and so fast that the ground just couldn’t absorb it fast enough and the streets were closed due to flooding and being in The Beast didn’t make for easy turning around. What should have taken us 25 minutes roundtrip took us an hour.

When we got back to the house Bob took notice of the surfing going on in the volleyball court.

THESE LITTLE KIDS HAD SO DARN MUCH FUN!

Bob napped all evening because his day will start at 1 a.m. tomorrow morning! Stay tuned to find out why!

8/17/2010 Cavalier, North Dakota Turns Counter

I can tell by the Feedjit info that our reader from Cavalier, North Dakota turned the counter to 129,000. I can be so precise because I was 129,001 when I viewed the blog after posting and I just looked to see who came on before me.

When I sign on I'm never listed as Bethany Beach or Dewey Beach or even Rehoboth but rather some town in New York, Indiana, Illinois and sometimes Virginia. I guess it all depends on what satellite I pick up.

My stats tell me that a lot of pages are read from Livingston, New Jersey yet I never, ever see Livingston on Feedjit. So Livingston readers, someone please leave me a comment and tell me what town shows up when you sign on. I'm really curious.

Monday we said so long to Steve and Kerri and we really hated to see them go.

Tuesday brought a half day for me as I was going to spend the afternoon on the beach with my brother Billy, sister-in-law Michelle and great nephews Steven and Justin. Billy called me when they reached the beach and I went over around 1 p.m. I called him the phone and got his voicemail and knew right away that he put his phone in the beach bag and there was no way he was going to hear it ring. I walked that beach with chair and beach bag in hand from one end to the other and I couldn't find them. I called several more times and kept up my search and finally had to face the fact that with so many people on the beach looking for these four was like looking for a needle in a mile wide haystack. I gave up and went home.

It wasn't too much later a storm came in and the lifeguards cleared the beach. They came to the Inlet to see us and spent about an hour or so with us and then headed to Rehoboth to take the kids to the boardwalk for the rides. Steven starts first grade tomorrow,,,,yes, he goes to school tomorrow, the 18th of August, its still summer for heaven's sake! So this was his last hurrah before school. We've made plans to see Billy and Michelle Friday night at the Elks club when we head to Wilmington this weekend.

8/15/2010 Do YOU Shop? Online? Win an iPad!

Do you shop online? Buy books from Amazon? Towels from Penney’s? Small appliance from Target? If you are like millions of shoppers around the world, you do some of it online.

Christmas isn’t all that far away, well, four months but I bet some of you have already bought that first gift. A lot of shopping will be done….. online.

Yes, I have a reason for this line of writing. EBATES! If you are going to shop and you are going to do it online, you might as well get an electronic rebate. Basically, the long and short of it is that if you’re going to shop online, just hopping over to Ebates first will give you cash back!!! 3% from Target, 1% from Wal-Mart, 10% from Old Navy and so on and so forth. There are thousands of stores to choose from!!

How does it work? “Online merchants pay a commission to websites when they send them buyers, and Ebates simply passes this commission back to you! [They] pay shoppers millions of dollars every year.”

So if you already shop, you can now use Ebates and get some of your money back. And use it to get out of debt, save for college or buy something special for yourself that you’ve been wanting.

And what’s this about an IPAD?

If you are a blogger or have a Facebook page, in addition to signing up for Ebates to get cash back yourself, you can also spread the word about it just like I am doing and have a chance to win an iPad!! Think you have 50 friends or readers who might be interested? Just get your own Ebates account and post about it. If you refer 50 people, you’ll get an iPad!! My wheels are already turning thinking about what I’ll do if I earn an iPad.

Happy money saving, cash back earning and iPad winning, my friends!!!

8/14/2010 So Long Family…

Today I worked the reservation cards and in between rounds hung out here and there at a site just a couple up from ours. Today, our family will go home. Back to work for Ronnie and Patty, back to enjoy the last weeks of summer for Melissa and back to enjoy one last week visiting before returning to Florida for Evalou. And I’ll stay here and enjoy spectacular sunsets every night now they’ve hit the road. See ya Ronnie!

Bob spent his morning with the lawn mower and gathering things left behind in his trash bucket.

Its been a zoo here in the park today. The tent sites borders had somehow gotten all discombobulated. Site twelve was half on thirteen, thirteen was on fourteen, fourteen was on fifteen and sites 16 through 18 were out in no man’s land.

Then we had a group of forty come in that just wanted to rewrite all the rules to suit them so that was a battle in itself. What a crazy, crazy day.

This afternoon we sat out with our new friends Steve and Kerri.

We met Steve in the beginning of the season shortly after we got here. Each time he’s been here he has been sure to look us up and spend some time talkin’ fishin’ with Bob. During the 4th of July weekend he introduced us to his longtime girlfriend Kerri. Bob and I enjoy this couple. They are great fun to sit around and talk with and we are so glad we got to meet them this year. They are very outdoorsy and share a lot of activities together. Kerri told us how one Valentine’s Day she got hip waders from her sweetie. And then there was the Christmas she got throwing knives! I’m still trying to figure that one out! At one point Kerri’s mom said, “He does realize you’re a GIRL doesn’t he?” She said he has given her jewelry here and there but she’s never surprised if a fly rod is wrapped up in holiday paper. We will make it a point to stay in touch with these two and can see ourselves catching up with them again down the road. Steve and Kerri, we’re glad we got the chance to meet you this summer!

8/13/2010 They’re Hatching!

Remember back in the end of May I was writing about and posting a lot of pictures like this…..

They’re hatching!

After last night’s storm a lot of baby turtles were “out” this morning. I don’t know if the storm had anything to do with it or not. Anyway, the three above were found on one campsite and this nice fellow was helping them get to the marsh via a ride on a Styrofoam plate. Whatever works!

Unfortunately I also saw more babies than I care to know about, dead, probably drowned in the inches deep water last night. I hope these three live to a ripe old age.

This was supposed to be the day that I spent with Lourie and Janice, my high school friends. It didn’t turn out that way because our truck was in the shop and we had no guarantee of getting it back in time, Janice is having car issues too and Lourie would have had to leave us by 2:30/3:00 to get home in time to get ready to go to Baltimore for dinner. Besides, its Lourie’s husband’s birthday and she really should probably spend the day with him. So, we’ll reschedule, find a day that works for all of us with the time we have left.

Time, time is running short for us here in Delaware. Just about three weeks to go and we’ll be on the road again. We’re glad, hitch itch is getting pretty bad. We’ve been stationary too long. The open road is calling our name.

If you were offered some of this to eat, what do you think you would be eating?

Chunks of pineapple? Cantaloupe? Peaches? If you guessed any of those you would be wrong. How about watermelon? Yep, yellow watermelon. To tell ya truth I had never heard of it before as I didn’t know that watermelon came in designer colors. It tastes exactly like its red counterpart but is just the prettiest yellow you’ve ever seen. Have you tried this yet?

Have you noticed I haven’t posted many sunset pictures this week? Just one. Only one. There’s a reason for this. My cousin Ronnie. Every night this week we have all trekked to the Inlet,,,,,ok, trekked make it seems like we hiked for miles when in reality we walked maybe 120 seconds and little tiny kids did it in their bare feet. Anyway, every evening Ronnie would gather everyone together like we were going on a big adventure and not once was there a spectacular sunset. NOT ONCE! Prior to his arrival I took enough fantastic, spectacular, breathtaking sunset pictures to truly make your eyes bleed. None since HE arrived. So on this last night we once again strolled to the Inlet, leaned against the railing at the waters edge and waited. We waited for the clouds to part and for that big orange ball to appear. We wanted to hear the oohs and aahs as the glow of the fiery orb danced on the water. Uh-uh, didn’t happen. Another night with no spectacular sunset. Thanks Ronnie! This is the best we could get.

Oh yeah, a lot of sunset fanatics will be glad when YOU go home cuz!

8/12/2010 Brunch for Nine

Bob started his day early as he left around 7:30 to take the truck to Milford to have that pesky turbo pipe patched/fixed/replaced. Evalou and I weren’t too far behind him to pick him. They’ll have the truck all day and we’re hoping we get it back….today. We are so glad Evalou is here otherwise he would have to spend the entire day at the dealership and if something goes wrong and they can’t finish it today I don’t know how he would get back here. Milford is nearly an hour away.

Evalou is treating everyone, nine of us, to brunch today. Our original plan was to go at ten but with the trip to Milford, Ronnie having to change spots in the camp, well we didn’t get out of here until a bit later.

So we all piled into her vehicle, well, all but two of us, and made our way to Ocean City to have omelets and crepes at Bayside Skillet.

The first thing I noticed was that its PINK. Everything is pink! Even the markings on the parking lot.

….and strawberries, strawberries everywhere.

So we get seated, place our orders and sit back to talk for awhile why we wait. It didn’t take too long for us to be served and what a meal we had! There were so many combinations of omelets to choose from. Potato and ham, seafood, spinach…just to name a few that were eaten at our table.

Bob and I each ordered the ham, potato, green pepper, onion and tomato omelet which was served with a crepe topped off with strawberry preserves.

Our omelets were huge and chock full of the ingredients I listed above. I’m tellin’ ya, to die for! It was so much we all had a problem finishing it but it was so good we weren’t about to let even a bite full go to waste. This caused some major waddling when we finally pushed away from the table. As I walking to the car I had made up my mind that there would be no dinner in the Quinn household this night. I knew I wasn’t going to be hungry and Bob will tell you, if I’m not hungry, I don’t cook. He was on his tonight!

We all thoroughly enjoyed our brunch, thank you Auntie Evalou!

Thursday evening brought a great storm. Not so much thunder and lightning, although there was some of that, but the rain! A torrential downpour that flooded tent sites, put the campground roads under a couple of inches of water, made a river of the volleyball court and closed Route 1 down to one lane in sections. Luckily, it does drain fairly quickly once it stops. There was no sitting out for us this evening talking the night away or playing Mexican Train.

Another good day in the lives of these fulltimers. Oh yeah, we got the truck back!

8/8-8/11/2010 Four Days of This and That

Since our day at the festival last Saturday, we haven’t done a whole lot of anything.

My cousin Ronnie and his wife Patty, their daughter Melissa and his mom Evalou are here for the week. I’ve been spending evenings with them just sitting around talking and now playing Mexican Train as I’ve taught them the game.

Monday and Tuesday were work days for us. Monday my long day and Bob put in a full day as he has hours to make up for the end of the month when he’s gone for a week fishing. Tuesday, we both worked the store and it was such a long day. We just weren’t that busy!

It had to happen! We’ve been here three and half a months and we have both been lucky so far. Well on Monday morning the luck ran out. I guess that should be MY luck ran out. I knew it was going to happen just a second or two before it did. I just knew,,,I could tell somehow. There were too many and I knew one of them was just looking for a target. Seagulls! Know where I’m going with this? I was standing next to the picnic table talking to Bob before I went to the store and I had my left foot up on the bench of the table. A huge flock of seagulls were flying over and I just knew that one of us was going to get “hit”. It was me. Luckily it landed on my shoe and was easily cleaned up rather than on my head which would have required another shower. Like I said, I knew it had to happen!

Have you all seen the Walmart People pictures that circulate through email? It has been determined that Seashore Park could rival Walmart People. This would be one of my first entries. Mister Speedo! He has one in every neon color you can imagine. This man is 65 if he’s a day and unfortunately his beer belly doesn’t show in this picture. Its just as well, its not pretty.

While most sunset picture takers were busy snapping pics of Mr. Speedo,( I’m not kidding) I did manage to get one of what we were there for.

This is my cousin Ronnie. He is a master of one liners and he keeps me laughing.

The other day we were talking about places we’d like to go and he told me he’d like to go back to Yellowstone and hike the back country. I asked him wouldn’t he be afraid what with the campers being killed by bears and all. He looked at me with all seriousness and said, “No, I wouldn’t be scared, I can run a helluva lot faster than the kids can.” He cracks me up!

Wednesday I spent the day with forever friend Elaine at the beach. What a great day! Four glorious hours on the beach soaking up the sun, enjoying the ocean breeze and talkin' with my girlfriend non-stop!

Bob spent the day taking the truck about an hour away to a Ford dealership to get the transmission serviced and of course we found out something was wrong. Not with the transmission itself but we do have a cracked turbo pipe,,,,whatever that is. I just saw $$$$$! And I was right. So the truck will spend its day back at the dealership tomorrow and hopefully we'll get it back by late afternoon . Its always somethin'.