Another drop jacks and get a glass of wine. Our beautiful waterfront site was a bit less attractive this year. The three prime sites on the harbor have been taken over by a government mandated clean-up. So, instead of the beautiful view of Marblehead, we had a view of a chain link fence, a generator and some PVC pipes hooked up to large metal barrels. Evidently there had been an underground fuel tank on this site when it was a naval seaplane base and now- years later – they’ve decided that they need to clean It up. Charlie’s lost thousands of dollars in rentals and expects that it will take over a year to complete the cleanup. Looks a little Rube Goldberg to us…. Nonetheless, Chloe’s early morning wake-up calls did give us the chance to see some absolutely gorgeous sunrises over the water.
We did the usual doctor, dentist drill (literally this year as I had to have a crown on my back tooth and John had several fillings put in). 
The bright spot in our visit this year was Charlie’s (the park manager) new addition- a 3 month old cocker- poodle mix puppy named Bailey. Bailey is the color of Bailey’s Irish Cream (leave it to Charlie to name his dog after liquor!) Chloe and Bailey fell immediately in love and our happy hours were spent watching the dogs chase each other around the motorhome. Right now, the two are about the same size and Chloe had the advantage of speed. Next year, she’ll be in for a surprise- Bailey will probably be twice her size and weight.About mid-way into our stay, my mom ended up in the hospital in Wisconsin with severe back pain. Trying to deal with MRI’s, Pain Clinics and the bureaucracy of our health system remotely got to be just too much. So, leaving John home with Chloe, I was off to Wisconsin. With 4 bulging discs, she was in severe pain and the hospital was way to willing to just keep her on a morphine drip. I got there in time to pick her up from the small rural hospital (only 26 beds) and take her to the Pain Clinic in Rice Lake (the biggest town around). While the nurses were wonderful, the doctor’s bedside manner left a lot to be desired. But, the spinal injections did seem to do some good and we got her home with a bag full of drugs and orders to “take it easy”. I have to give her credit- within days, she had gotten off the morphine pills and was on Tylenol as needed. She is one tough cookie!
The next challenge was trying to figure out how to get the two of them from the house in Wisconsin (a two story house –definitely not ideal for someone with a bad back) to the house in Florida. With cold weather only weeks away, we decided to put the two of them on a plane to Florida and let me drive their car to Florida. Within a week, we had the house closed up and on Sunday, packed up the car. On Monday morning, after a hearty bowl of oatmeal, I was off. I had two long driving days and made it to the Panhandle of Florida on Day 2. It made for an easy drive to Inverness the next day. I got in on Wednesday morning and by the time Mom and E.D. arrived, the car was unpacked and the wine was in the refrigerator. Poor E.D., I forgot to get ice for his brandy and water- so he joined us for a glass of wine. He needed it- the guy just can’t seem to catch a break at airports. For the third time, he was stopped at security and had to go through a body search! Imagine- a 90 year old man, legally blind –this is the guy our airport security folks pick out as a possible terrorist!
Once the boxes were unpacked and the refrigerator was filled, I was flying back to Boston. Fortunately, the weather was gorgeous and we had a beautiful week of fall weather.
