Wednesday, October 31, 2012 - "Challenging" Self-Inflicted Disaster Day, Travel to Cane Brake

Got off to a little later start than we thought, the atomic alarm clock reset itself to the wrong time, so was 20 minutes off. Otherwise, we got out okay, stopped for gas in Powhatan and breakfast in Farmville, and a quick stop at a Lazyboy gallery to check out a loveseat I had found online. Can’t really decide on comfy furniture unless you actually sit in it, which we did, and found the one we want. Actually a sectional rather than a loveseat, but it has extra storage between the seats that we like. Hopefully we can get that worked out. Carried on toward the Uhwarrie, and made our second to last stop of the day for fuel at a Wilco in Asheboro. That’s when the trouble began. The main sign clearly posted had regular prices in red and diesel prices in green. When I pulled onto the pump, I automatically picked up the green nozzle, because that usually signifies diesel. Unfortunately, at this station, that was not the case. The diesel was actually all by itself in the back (no signage that I could see), but I didn’t notice it until the tank was full. I was just about to get going when Hubby raced out of the store and informed me that I had just filled up with gas, which he had learned from going inside to clear his credit card off. The girl behind the counter explained to him there was no diesel on the aisle where I was. Anyway, what a mess! I wasn’t sure what to do, whether the engine would run on a 2:1 mix (I had about 1/3 of a tank of diesel when I pulled in), but rather than take any chances, I got on my new smartphone and called the nearest GM dealer, which happened to be a GMC/Buick dealer about a mile up the road. After speaking to the service guys I was SO glad I didn’t try to crank it up, because they said if I had, the whole system would have to be cleaned out, but as it stood, if we got it towed, they could drop the tank to drain it, then refill it with diesel and it should be fine. They called us a tow truck, which wasn’t big enough for the job, then while we were waiting for another one, we disconnected the truck from the trailer and pulled it out of the way, then moved the trailer to the back of the gas station, where fortunately there was plenty of room. It wasn’t long before the flatbed showed up, which was still barely big enough to pull the truck onto, with the dually wheels almost hanging off the back end. The full load of hay didn’t help much, either. Finally we headed out, Hubby to run a couple of errands, and me to the dealer to get the job going. The service manager tried to tell me that the job couldn’t be done today, and that we should start making arrangements to spend the night. I, on the other hand, was determined to get it done, and explained to him that I believed in miracles, and would work toward that end. After some discussion with the shop guys, it seems they didn’t have a lift big enough for my truck anyway, so they wouldn’t be able to drop the tank, so it was decided they would try to pump it out with a little hand pump they had but had never used. They gathered a bunch of gas containers and started siphoning, but it took 10 minutes to fill the first tank. As the mechanic went to empty the container, I started pumping instead of just siphoning, and speeded the process up immensely, filling the next tank in just a few minutes. After I filled the next tank, one of the guys took over and started pumping as well, so things started happening a lot faster. Before long, the tank was nearly empty and one of the guys ran out to get diesel to refill the tank. Twenty gallons later, we cranked up the truck, and it seemed to run okay. We let it run while I paid the bill ($200, half for fuel and half for labor, not to mention the $100+ that went down the drain and the $80 for the tow...), but at least we didn’t have any engine damage. Apparently if I had tried to run it, we would have had to completely flush the engine and many be even put in new injectors for $2600 or something. Glad I had the sense to call first! Anyway, by the time that was done, we knew we didn’t have enough time to shop if we wanted to get to camp before pitch dark, so we hurried down to the horse camp at Cane Brake, a place we had come once before but had never ridden in because it rained for three straight days. The camphost put us in a double site that was open until Saturday morning, and we quickly got the horses highlined and us settled in, though the sun was down before we started, so most of it was during twilight. Finally got done around 8:00 before we were able to finish dinner and relax for the rest of the night. At least the truck seemed to run okay on the way down!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - Cold and Damp, Rain Diminishing

Wet and foggy this morning, more rain overnight than we’d had yet, a repeat of yesterday mostly. Despite the storm, UPS managed to deliver our package from Valley Vet with Hubby’s new horse boots. Considering the cable failure of the Boas, Hubby decided to try a pair of Cavallos like mine. These have worked incredibly well for me, and despite my initial worry that they were held on with "only Velcro," I’ve never had any trouble with them despite some challenging terrain. Now’s he’s looking forward to seeing how Clio likes them. Not sure when that will be, hopefully later this week.

Monday, October 29, 2012 - Rain and Wind and Little Else

More off and on rain and some wind today. Nothing too bad here, the worst of it stayed east of Richmond before heading north, never getting this far west. Another day on the computer, not much else to do.

Sunday, October 28, 2012 - Unspectacular Entrance of Hurricane Sally

With morning there came little sign of the approaching hurricane, with just a few gusts of wind. In fact the day started out quite sunny, clouding up later in the day as we tried to rest from our busy schedule the last few days. The wind and rain came in a bit later, nothing serious, just a little bit of a blow here, though it seems the NYC area is likely to get hit pretty bad. Relaxed most of the day, not a good day to be outside, but Hubby had managed to set up the satellite in such a way it was protected between the van and the RV, so we didn’t lose our signal. We took one side trip over to the horses’ pasture to put on their rain sheets, for when the horses came out of the shelter to eat grass, which they were doing when we arrived. Not much else to do when we got back but curl up with a warm computer in my lap and look to solve impending challenges, which lately has become the solution to our trailer swap. We’ve been looking at new trailer units since July, including communicating with several custom builders in an effort to get a floorplan we really like. It’s been a very slow process, with long delays between emails and difficulties in trying to get what want, so painstaking it’s starting to take its toll. Somewhat productive today, however, we feel a breakthrough coming soon, hopefully. Otherwise an uneventful night, which is just what we needed.

Saturday, October 27, 2012 - Move to Belmead, Spaghetti Dinner and Astronomy Night

In keeping with our constantly changing schedule, we packed up and headed out to Belmead, to a large area known as the loading zone, but which was the area the club members used to camp. There was one water spigot, so we filled up our tanks, and quickly settled in. The club was having a spaghetti dinner and invited us to join them, so we did. Afterward we learned about a local astronomy club meeting at the mansion, though it was a cloudy night so we wouldn’t be doing any stargazing. Two lectures were presented, one by a local amateur astronomer, whose favorite thing is to find anomalies on the surface of the moon, which we pretty interesting, and the second by a professor from Howard University who normally would talk about the stars the group would be seeing, but since that wasn’t going to happen, he spent a great deal of time discussing and Powerpointing all the various phases of the moon, for us a very basic lesson reminiscent of elementary school, middle school at best. I found myself reverting to just the kind of student I was when I was in school, always with the answer, until the teacher had to start to ignore me just to include other students in the conversation, while the other students kept looking to me for the answers... :-). Old habits die hard. Anyway, as a finish to the evening, I offered for Hubby to do a little scene from his one man show, a particularly apt scene when Galileo first discovers that the moon is not "a perfect sphere as Aristotle had said she was, but an orb of irregular terrain, just like our Earth." It was well received by the other attendees, who seemed to enjoy it. Afterward, we made our way back to the campground, where the wind was just starting the pick up a bit in front of the hurricane. We tucked in for the night, waiting for Sandy to arrive.

Friday, October 26, 2012 - Runaround, Doctor, Nice Dinner, Postponement of Job

Started the morning by heading out to a nearby ENT as a followup to the exam I had at the clinic in Rhode Island back in September. My hearing is somewhat improved, but still a long way from normal, so I made an appointment to have it looked at again. Not a very helpful visit in the end, they did an exam and a hearing test, couldn’t seem to find anything in particular except that my hearing wasn’t 100%, which we already knew! The only thing the doctor recommended was a choice between doing nothing and taking a two week course of steroid pills to reduce what MIGHT be inflammation in the inner ear. I usually don’t like to take medications unless I have to, but we were on the outer limit of time according to the doctor, if we didn’t take them soon we’d beyond the 8 week window when it might be effective, so I decided to give it a go. We picked up the prescription on the way back to the house. Meanwhile, I got a call from the guy in charge of the job we have scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, and after much deliberation, the company had decided to postpone it because of the threat of an incoming hurricane, Sandy, which was stirring up a lot of concern. The best laid plans! After a few more errands, we arrived back at the house, where we had a fantastic meal that Toni prepared, along with the company of their neighbors, another very pleasant evening (and why we like to visit them so much!) Stayed up later than we probably should have, but we didn’t need to be anywhere early, as we had already made arrangements to just go back to Belmead and camp out there for the weekend. What a whirlwind week!

Thursday, October 25, 2012 - Move to Richmond Area

Up early, headed out to our newest digs, Belmead Stables in Powhatan, just west of Richmond, which turned out to be a gorgeous old plantation from the 1850s. Several thousand acres owned by the Catholic Church, which is leased for various reasons, mostly of which is for the Riding Club and Stables. The folks there had set aside a very nice pasture for my two kids, and we got them quickly settled in before moving onto our next stop, to drop off the RV in the parking lot of the hotel where we will be checking in on Saturday. Then we grabbed some lunch at a Thai-Vietnamese restaurant in mid-afternoon, a very nice meal that would tide us over for the rest of the day. Afterward, we headed over to our friends, Don and Toni, where we will be staying for the next two night. They both had events to attend for dinner, so Hubby and I were on our own for a while, then we spent a few hours with them when they returned. A very enjoyable evening.