Doctors, Dentists and Chop Suey Sandwiches

Between doctors and dentists, we barely had a chance to enjoy our gorgeous view of the Salem Harbour out of our windows. By Wednesday, we had the dentist, the gynecologist, the mammography and the bone density tests done. (Note how many of those John didn't have to deal with! Men don't know how good they’ve got it!)

In addition to the doctors, we managed to get the carpets cleaned and got the windshield "doctor" over to fix a ding in our brand new windshield. Given that we still have a general doctor's appointment and an eye exam scheduled for next week, we're going to start associating Boston with things less than pleasant.

We did manage to have lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant- Rangoli as well as try some local dives (recommended by our new friend, the carpet guy). We had drinks with him and the Salem locals at Dube’s. We should know better than to ask a Townie for restaurant recommendations. The fried fish at Dube’s was substantial in portions, but lacked a lot in the flavor category. We did have some interesting conversations with the locals, however. They also recommended the “chop suey sandwich” at the park down the street from us. Imagine chop suey on a white bread bun. A true Townie delight. We topped off our sandwich with a scoop of homemade ice cream at Hopp’s.

Boston hasn’t changed much. The Big Dig and it’s trillions of dollars didn’t seem to solve any of the traffic problems in the city. They appear to have given the patient a heart transplant-when in fact, it needed a complete organ transplant to get it well.

The Kruse Auction

We headed to Gerry and Sandy’s house- and "Camp Runamuck". Gerry has full hook-ups in his driveway and it was wonderful to have our own private campsite. Gerry and Sandy had set up camp at the Kruse Auction in Auburn for the week. So, we got set up and drove over to meet up with them, take a tour of the auction grounds and get some greasy food stall gyros.

The Kruse Auction was quite an event. 100’s of motorhomes and 1000’s of people and cars everywhere. We watched a bit of the auction(s). In one large building, they had two auctions going simultaneously, moving cars through in 10-15 minutes. Outside, there were hundreds of vendors- selling car parts and accessories, a giant flea market (selling mostly junk) and food vendors (ala the Minnesota State Fair, without the stick).

Gerry was parked next to some TGO residents (in Prevosts) and we shared information about the status of Hurricane Frances. Good news- our house made it through Frances without damage (only a piece of siding blew off-and one of our neighbors put it back up). We may have lost one of our bottlebrush shrubs and had to throw everything out of the refrigerator (after being without power for days, we had Bunny- our house-sitter, clear it out). We were feeling very lucky -and hope that our luck will hold out for Ivan.

Putting Humpty Dumpty back together in Indiana

Sunday afternoon, we arrived in Nappanee to find the full hook-up parking spaces all taken. So, we went to “lot 2” – John calls it the ‘asshole box’. No sewer hook-up, but it’s concrete! We got ready for our factory experience- getting a good nights’ rest before our 6:00 am start.

To keep busy during the week (and to stay sane), we took motorhome factory tours. Charlie and Gloria were at the American factory picking up their coach, so we met them for a tour of the Royale factory. We tried to egg Charlie into upgrading to “metal”. We followed the Royale tour with a tour of the American factory the following day and Travel Supreme tour on Friday.

At night, we settled into our parking lot site and watched the new: visionless Republicans, a hurricane coming to spend the weekend, and nothing to do in Indiana except eat comfort food while mechanics put humpty-dumpty together again. International news is on offer from the New York Times, the BBC, and NWI (Canada's News World International), but the stories being presented are distressing beyond belief. It's truly depressing to watch the coverage of the convention, followed by what is going on in the rest of the world.

We've decided that we're no longer part of this country--it's truly strange to feel so alienated from your fellow citizens. We were at breakfast the other morning listening to the old white guys at the next table talking about the convention and how great Bush is, how the lousy liberals are finally "getting theirs"...... We have never seen this country so divided and so angry. Even reading the NY Times is depressing.

The service team did a yeoman’s job and actually got through our punch list in one week. We went to our favorite dive bar in Nappanee and conveniently forgot to eat dinner while drinking massive amounts of cheap, white wine. Hangover city!