In the footsteps of John Wilkes Booth

I’ve got to say — I’m tired, it’s been a long day. Our campsite in the back of Cabela’s was about as quiet as you’d expect — especially when you consider that we we were only about 100 feet from I-95; Morning came early. I think Lorraine and I were both up about 4:30 but managed to snooze until 6 when the dogs finally figured out we were pretend sleeping and asked to go out.

While Rrainy and I don’t hate winter — the dogs certainly don’t mind getting away and Swiffer in particular really had had enough of the cold and snow. They are really enjoying the trailer trip already. At dawn, in the cold in back of the Cabela’s they were out and searching for mice in the long grass and generally love the new scents and locations and the 5-6 walks a day they get in different places when we travel. Today was no exception. And the traces of snow that were hidden in the grass were gone even with -7c temperatures overnight.
We were up and out just as soon as the Panera in the mall opened at 7 and on the road well before 8. Google gave us a few options on getting from Newark, Delaware down to Ashland ( just North of Richmond) and none of them looked great. I took an option that ran us down a the Delmarva

peninsula and then across the Cheasapeake into Annapolis — Lorraine went “off Google” and suggested we stay on Highway 301 until following the path of John Wilkes Booth into eastern Virginia and back to I95 just north of Ashland. I’ve always had a mental image that Baltimore and Washington were the eastern limits of the coast — bypassing both on the east was a bit of a mind blower to me and really very lovely. The central Delmarva is lovely farmland and winter wheat was just sprouting in the farms that lined both sides of the road — this is country I could live in. Then the view from the Bay Bridge across the Chesapeake was simply stunning.
The easy drive continued down 301 just to the east of Washington with another stunning bridge across the Potomac and past Port Royal and across the Rappanhannock and down to Virginia. For more long suffering neighbours and kids waiting on Spring — I can tell you that it’s out there. On the north shore of the Potomac ( really east as the Potomac at that point runs almost north-south) the Rhodendrons and evergreen Magnolias were green and lush and Daffodils and dandelions blooming nicely. Spring is coming.

We arrived in Ashland about 1pm — a lovely park. All of the trailer systems worked except the fridge and a bit of a nightmare ensued. No one wants to come repair an RV fridge. The dealer in Canada told us to call local dealers, the local dealers didn’t want to service other dealer’s trailers, the little repair guys weren’t set to do warranty work, the manufacturer of the trailer recommended dealers we already called and told us to call the fridge manufacturer, the extended warranty I bought doesn’t kick in until the manufacturer’s warranty expires and the fridge manufacturer suggested others to call. After about 20 phone calls Lorraine finally got someone to come — great! We cancelled our dinner plans and I settled in to finish setting up the trailer while we waited for the fridge guy to come. Unhooking the trailer was a challenge — the hitch lift refused to work again (it hates cold salty, slushy weather) and I had to crank manually. In doing that I screwed up the sequence of taking the sway bars off and got myself stuck and then unstuck. The hitch, the chains the cables everything are caked in salt and sand so it was messy and everything stuck a little. We could use a good heavy rain to run through.
I got everything else set just in time for Tom the fridge guy to arrive. He was a real old-schools repairman. ( Old school meaning that he was in school sometime before my father and felt that electronics were the curse of everything...) He’d never seen our model of fridge before. He’d just printed out the repair manual before he got there. The fridge clearly needs a replacement circuit board. Eventually, he and I working together figured out how to disassemble it and run through the right testing... Lorraine meanwhile sat in the sun about 150 yards away with the dogs until it became too cold and went and sat in the truck. Tom phoned and ordered the circuit board ( I hope) to arrive tomorrow ( I doubt it).
Lorraine and I had not had lunch, had no food in the truck, and no alcoholic beverages in the trailer. So, we bolted to Ashland, found a nice restaurant, a liquor store, batteries for the TV remote and then had a nice dinner and a good bottle of California Cab. We’re tired, and cranky still but we’re back in the trailer having Bourbon and I’m writing my daily 750

words while Lorraine watches the office. Dinner was good — we recommend the Ironhorse Cafe in the old railroad hotel in downtown Ashland. Lorraine had Pecan crusted chicken and I had a lovely thick pork chop with black-eyed peas and collard greens; southern food is the real reason to look for Spring.