November 2004

November 11, 2004

Cream Ridge, NJ

We locked the doors of our condo on Thursday, November 11 with some trepidation. Although we had both been looking forward to this day for some time, we each wondered what the future would bring. Our plans did not have us returning to Rocky Hill until somewhere around April 1st, about 4½ months later.

We drove across the Tappan Zee Bridge and down through NJ until we got to Princeton. We met some old friends, Harry and Barbara Purnell, and spent some time discussing where we were going, both literally and figuratively. Then we drove a short distance east to Cream Ridge (in Upper Freehold, NJ) where we set up our motorhome in the street in front of Cathy (Shelley’s sister) and Steve’s house. A delicious dinner turned out to be a family affair, as Shelley’s parents and other sister Cindy and her husband Gabor joined us.

On Friday morning we joined Steve in heading to son Adam’s school, where they were putting on an interesting exhibit concerning Ellis Island. The children (including Adam) were each given the role of a particular fictitious immigrant. They had to answer questions concerning their health, their family, who was gong to support them, etc. as they went through various stations manned by parents. Some were “denied admittance” to the US because of something in their background. The students also learned things about life during the early art of the 20th century, the time when a massive wave of immigrants passed through Ellis Island. We thought the whole program was wonderfully carried out.

Leesburg & Richmond, VA

Then we headed south to our daughter Jan and her family in Leesburg, VA, about 30 miles northwest of Washington. We were surprised to learn that she had gotten permission from the school principal and from the police for us to park there from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning. We enjoyed the two days with Jan and Rob and our grandchildren, Lilly (age 5+) and Zack (age 3+). Every time we are with our grandchildren, we understand why most people have children in their 20s and 30s and not their 50s and 60s. Jan made several delicious meals which we thoroughly enjoyed and this time we excused Rob from spending time with Shelley on computer issues.

On Sunday at noon we headed south toward Richmond VA. Norm thought it would be nice to try the back roads instead of making the entire trip on major highways...and wouldn’t you know that we were lost within 10 minutes - certainly not a positive harbinger of future travels. Shelley finally located us on a map and figured out how to best get us on course. We both breathed a sigh of relief until all of a sudden we say a sign indicating a bridge ahead that had a maximum weight load of 6 tons while we weighed significantly more. Because of the prior angst about getting lost, we decided to go ahead. We held our breath as we crossed the restricted bridge, half expecting that the bridge would collapse under us. Fortunately, it held and we resumed our journey toward Richmond. We got off I-95 at Exit 89 in Ashland, VA and found the AmeriCamps campground, where we would stay for a few days. It turned out to be a really nice place, and Shelley rated the restrooms very high. They had a table in the office where guests could use a modem, so Shelley got her emails - it appears that our email woes may be a thing of the past!! What a relief that would be.... We even did our Open Enrollment for health insurance while we were there.

On Monday morning, we had our first experience collecting mail from our mail forwarding service. Nom drove into Ashland, found the post office and asked for mail sent to him at “General Delivery”. After a minimum of searching, the agent found the priority mail package including our first bills received away from home. During the afternoon, we drove into Richmond and visited Monument Ave., where there are huge statues of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Jeb Stuart and other southern Civil War heroes. The irony of finding the last statue, one honoring Arthur Ashe, was not lost on us. We also visited two areas that are part of an attempt to get people to spend recreational time is downtown Richmond. One, called Shocoe Slip, was being developed in 1990 when Norm spent a year working in Richmond. The redeveloped area is very small, and somewhat disappointing. However, the Shocoe Bottom area appears to be ready to absolutely explode with ethnic restaurants, clubs and interesting shops. The only problem is that this area is prone to flooding, having gone through a bad scene several months ago from which a number of businesses have not yet recovered.

Tuesday afternoon found us walking around downtown Ashland VA. Although it’s a small town, we found three bakeries there, an astoundingly high number. It seems that, in most cases today, bakeries have been absorbed by supermarkets. We walked around town for a while including several blocks through Randolph Macon college. During late afternoon and evening we visited Jean and Darby Schumacher. (that's why we were looking for bakeries, we promised to bring dessert.) Norm worked with Jean during 1990 and spent a significant amount of time with Jean and Darby. Jean is an actuary who works for William Mercer in Glen Allen, VA and Darby is a part time househusband who is building their 6,000 square foot dream house when he isn’t taking care of their two children, Katie age 10 and Jenny age 6. They currently live about 3/10 mile off the road down a driveway that goes through the woods. Fortunately they don’t get much snow that requires plowing. We had a delicious dinner and enjoyed the time spend discussing our past, current and future lives.

Williamsburg, VA

We continued our trip on Wednesday, heading to Williamsburg, VA. The trip was about 90 minutes, and Shelley drove the motorhome about half way (including her first "turns" coming out of gas station – believe it or not, gas was only $1.769/gal) and Norm drove the rest, as we pulled into the Williamsburg Pottery Campground just off Exit 234 off I-64. The Campground turned out to be just ok. There are probably about 400 sites and maybe 40-50 were occupied. (The site is in a great location, but it has been ignored and looks tired. The buildings need to be fixed up and everything needs a new coat of paint. Since other neighboring campsites were full, this could be a goldmine with a lot of TLC.) During the afternoon, we went and recovered our mail at the post office – miracle of miracles, there were no bills. (We later figured out our mail from the Rocky Hill Post Office had not yet been forwarded.)

Thursday was a really nice day. While Shelley was walking Rags, she stopped to talk with some folks…not an unusual situation. What was unusual was that they invited us to join them for breakfast. They were part of a contingent of 10 motorhomes, most from the Plymouth, NC area and one from Phila. They made us feel right at home and we enjoyed ourselves immensely, although we did have some senior moments as we tried to remember the names of 20 new acquaintances. During the day, we went to Colonial Williamsburg and saw the sights. They sure do a great job of making you feel that you were alive in 1775. Believe it or not, they have 3000 full time employees there, and they all seem to know a tremendous amount about the era they are playing. We got into some interesting discussions about freedom of religion, since Virginia, in 1775, had a state religion of the Church of England as ordered by the British monarch. We did have somewhat of a frustrating day with our camera, as it refused to work. Thursday evening, our North Carolina friends insisted that we join them for dinner. They told us just to bring our main course, and we also bought our box of wine. Well, you can’t imagine the evening, with 20 southerners talking in some undecipherable language that we were trying to understand. The food was outstanding and we tried collard greens, ham hocks, wonderful ribs, and pork rinds as well as an amazing variety of side dishes and desserts. This is what camping is really about. We didn’t leave until 9:30, so you can imagine what a good time we had, since Shelley was willing to give up some of her post 9 PM cell phone time. (Shelley says, "at least I am not going to bed at 9 p.m. anymore!!" The women there were all knitting these fun fur scarves and I got some really interesting ideas...will have to go to Joanne's for some supplies)

Friday we went back to Colonial Williamsburg, and one of the highlights was a town meeting with Patrick Henry. The actor dresses as Patrick discussed the looming revolution of those times. During the evening we went out for dinner with a couple from New Hampshire.