Monday, June 13, 2011 - Drive Day to Boarding Stable, Change of Plans

After waking up to the alarm, we headed out fairly early, with one quick stop for breakfast along the way, before heading out to our pre-arranged destination at a small boarding facility in Maryland. Unfortunately, I thought it was all set, but the owner seemed somewhat surprised to hear from me, and it all went downhill from there. We found the location, and it was almost entirely hilly except right by the house. The owner wasn’t going to be back until 10:00 that night, saying we’ll figure it out in the morning. His brother was on site, trying to get us to set up on a slope, in the pasture where all the horses were roaming around. There was no way I was going to do either, as we had to get out early to fly out in the morning, so I rushed to put together a Plan B, finding another situation on Craigslist. We did manage to find another location just a few miles away, which was not ideal but much better. The propery was being leased by a woman who was then essentially subletting it to boarders, and she had to get special permission to let us keep the RV on the farm. At least it was level and gravelled, so that wasn’t a problem. She also was able to look after the dogs, though she insisted on bringing them over to her house a few miles away to look after them, rather than just coming over to feed and water them twice a day. Whatever, it solved the problem, though it cost me a heck of a lot more than I have ever paid for the same services before. Next time I’ll have a Plan B ready before I get there to avoid this kind of stress. We finally managed to get settled in by about 5:00, though we still hadn’t packed yet for the trip. Fortunately, the flight doesn’t leave until almost 2:00 pm, so we’ll have plenty of time in the morning. The only potential problem might be traffic in Bethesda, which we have to pass through, as the U.S. Open Golf Tournament is on this weekend. We’ll just have to leave in plenty of time!