The Search Is On

Here I sit in the parking lot of the commissary at NSB New London while Dave does some grocery shopping.  Samson is resting in the backseat. It’s a beautiful day, high 70s, and a nice breeze to keep us cool as we wait.

We’ve spent the morning visiting RV parks, trying to find a new spot to land next summer season. There has been so much chatter on RV pages about all the RVs being sold due to the pandemic, but surprisingly the places we’ve visited so far are maybe at around 50% capacity today, if that.  Hmmm…. maybe they are all just weekend campers or won’t be vacationing until July/August?

It’s so nice to be 10 minutes away from Laura, Matt & Emma, so why are we looking? Well, we are concerned about the lack of adequate electrical service where we currently camp. It’s been in the mid 80s and humid already, so air conditioning has been needed. In order to turn our smaller a/c on though, we’ve had to shut off EVERYTHING else and switch the refrigerator over to run on propane. We supposedly have a 30 amp spot, so this should not be an issue.  Even without the air conditioner running, we sometimes have an issue. And it isn’t always an issue – it fluctuates.  And every single seasonal site is filled this year, so it won’t get any better.  Dave spoke with the camp director and was told they are well aware of the issue, but it’s too expensive to fix – they’d do away with the campground before spending that kind of money to fix it. He told Dave some people fried their air conditioner due to the power issues. Wow. Again, very glad we spent the money on a good surge protector.

And this year the waterfront is VERY crowded, so we’re mostly avoiding it. Social distancing can be difficult. And summer camp hasn’t even started yet. There will be close to 200 children a day added to the mix when camp starts on the 29^th – and somehow they have to keep them in separate small groups and separate from the members at the beach.  Fun times.

Not sure where we’ll end up next year, maybe someplace in a different part of the USA. Time will tell. But we’ve decided, since this camper is our full time home, we want to get back to full hookups and 50amp electrical service again.  The search is on!

In the meantime, we plan to enjoy this summer with our family. Laura and I continue to meet for early morning time on the Coventry HS track. I am thrilled to be able to run the straightaways of the track and just walk the curved areas – me, who until maybe a year or two ago would say I’d only run if something was chasing me. Laura tells me my form has improved.  I hadn’t really thought about “my form” at all, but good to know! What I do know is that I’m really enjoying this.  Go figure.

Emma comes to visit with us, sometimes spending the night. We go to visit Laura and play cards or other games while Matt is golfing. Samson loves to be free in their backyard, chasing his ball. Sometimes we gather for supper.  In another month, Paul will be in the campsite diagonally across from us – until mid October. It’s been a really, really long time since our family has all been in the same zip code! (And it was this very zip code!) Going to be so nice to be together for a while again.

Emma asked me to share pictures of her basement tent with you all.  I was told one room is the bedroom; the other room is the Netflix watching room (Dave suggested bedroom and living room, which Emma thought was a great idea!)

Last week, Emma and members of her basketball team started meeting here at Camp Westwood for some fun practice time. Nice to be able to walk down the path and spend an hour watching them one evening a week!

I’ll end with this: PLEASE be considerate of others and wear your masks!!  Every campground office we visited today was closed, but someone did come out to speak with us. Everywhere we went in Connecticut there were signs displayed saying masks were required. As Aunt Ruthie would say, “Good on you!”