A wrong turn on the BQE

We had a great time in NYC--we got to see Steph and Brett both in the city and at our campground in Long Island. They're doing really well- and we had some great dinners in the city (although the sticker shock at $13.00 martinis and $9.00 glasses of wine is still with us! Can't wait to see our VISA bill next month) We enjoyed being in Long Island (home to "the Hamptons" and the all of the NYC summer get-away beaches. Although, we were on the more full-time residential end of the island- in a community mostly made up of Jews and Hispanics! John found the local bagel shop when searching for the NY Times in the morning- and I can tell you for a fact- you haven't tasted bagels until you try a Long Island toasted bagel with cream cheese. They do know how to make bagels. Needless to say, the diet wasn't on for a few weeks.

We had an interesting experience leaving NY. In order to get from our campground in Long Island to New Jersey, we had to cross Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens. The network of roads in the NYC area is a combination of parkways (NO trucks or RV's- with bridge clearances under 11 feet) and expressways. You have to be very aware of this when driving a 12 foot high RV. So, we were very careful about our return route. We headed across the Long Island Expressway- and the road was horribly old and twisty. We came to a split in the road with no obvious signage-so we took the route that looked to be a continuation of the Expressway....WRONG--we found ourselves headed to a bridge leading directly into lower Manhattan- with our 45 foot motorhome and VW in tow. At this point, I think John was ready to throw me out the window. We had no detailed maps of Manhattan - and no idea of what to do once we got there. We opted to make a U-turn and John was forced to go down these narrow NYC streets with the VW going over the curbs. We finally got back across the bridge and thought we were home free. Wrong again! We followed the signs for Highway 287 and found ourselves plopped in the middle of Brooklyn in a 5 way intersection with NO signs. The streets were teeming with Hassidic Jews (the ones with the long black coats, strange black hats and springy curls). Not having a clue what to do, we stopped in the middle of the street and John hailed one of the local Hassidics to ask for directions. But first, we had to get our terminology straight. While we had a highway number (287), the locals don't use numbers. So, we got this puzzled look - then a question, "Are you looking for the BQE?".... Now it was our turn to be puzzled...until we figured out that the BQE= the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. We got a long set of directions (right at the light, go down 4 blocks, turn left....) With no confidence in our ability to ever get out of Brooklyn, we headed out and somehow found our way back to the Expressway. After about 3 hours of silence, we finally realized how hilarious the situation was - and wished that we had the foresight to have gotten out to take a photo of John in the middle of Brooklyn asking a Hassidic Jew for directions. I guess it was what John's mother used to call "making memories".

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!

Seeing Milwaukee

Milwaukee was a beautiful city—a bit like a miniature Chicago. It was an interesting combination of ethnic neighborhoods and lively city. We drove the historic districts and had a brat- teaming with sauerkraut and hot mustard- at the sausage cart downtown.

On Tuesday, we had our first rainy day in ages.....it wouldn't be so bad, but rain affects the satellite- so we couldn’t even watch the BBC News. Oh well, the news has been so awful these days, maybe we're better off…. So, with rain forecast for the rest of the day, we headed for the Harley Davidson factory tour. We topped off the factory tour with a huge German lunch- sauerbraten and weiner schnitzel. The lunch portions carried us clear through dinner. We grabbed a bowl of soup at the bar across from our campgrounds- Liquid Johnny’s. (Where the motto is: Let’s get drunk, naked and wreck stuff”)

The next day, we did a trial run to Illinois State Beach Park where we were planning to spend the next few days. Not knowing what to expect from a State Park, we thought it best to take the car rather than driving blindly in with the motorhome. It was a good choice- we not only got to scope out the spaces, but got a reservation in the “parking lot” section. Who wants trees and grass when you can have concrete and clear satellite reception! We stopped by Tom Christenson’s motorcycle shop on the way home. We got a chance to see his latest creation and John got to talk about Nortons.

We stopped for dinner on the way home at the “African Hut” restaurant and had a sampling of East African dishes and a wickedly good dessert called the Mindimindi.

The Potato Gun

John’s old stomping grounds- the University of Wisconsin. We got to see his old house, the campus of UW and walked down State Street, filled with sidewalk restaurants. We had a wonderful Indian dinner and did some people watching. It was the first back to school weekend, so the streets were filled with college kids and their parents.

On Sunday, we spent the afternoon with Horton and Kathy. We got the tour of the house that they built- literally. And, of course, Horton and John had to get out the potato gun. We had lunch at a local restaurant, right on the lake- beer, wine and burgers and some good political conversations (a very rare event these days- finding someone that you can talk openly with)

Chilling in Minneapolis

After all the driving, Minneapolis gave us a chance to relax a bit and get caught up on things like laundry, email, haircuts, dog grooming, etc. I got the chance to catch up with my high school friends, Kathy and Jane, and hear the latest on high school friends.

We drove up to Mom’s house on Tuesday and spent the day at the lake, taking time for a pontoon ride around the lake and an early dinner before heading back to the Cities.

We had a great evening with Jack and Walker and a wonderful meal at Kabul, an Afghani restaurant on Grand Avenue. The following day, Mom and E.D. came down to visit us and see the new motorhome.