More Doctor visits & Trip Preparation

Gerry and I made the trip down to see our Doctors again today for follow up visits.  All is well.  I went to the audio specialist and had my hearing aids tuned up.  It is real neat to see how they do the tuneup.  They can either place a wireless device around your neck or hook you up to the computer with wires.  In either case she can see how many hours a day I have been using the aids, what the battery life is and which ear I use to talk on the phone.  I was more interested in the computer program that she was using than actually getting something done with the hearing aids.


I bought a battery tester for the hearing aids since I wanted to get an idea how long the batteries would last.  So far I am getting a good long life out of the first two batteries and it looks like they will last another week or so at least.  That would be great if I got 3-4 weeks of use out of them and since she gave me 40 batteries, I will be in good shape for a long time.


Gerry wasn't as fortunate with her ear appointment and has to go back in for another cleaning. It seems she has some scar tissue and debris blocking the ear.  She will have to get a general anesthetic so they can dig down deeper.  I think she would rather fight Mike Tyson than go through more poking around in her ear.  She took it like a champ and will do whatever it takes to make it right.

We plan on leaving Thursday for a visit to Illinois to see relatives and friends.  We will stay there until Tuesday morning and then head to Bowling Green, KY to see a cousin of Gerry's from Croatia.  They have been corresponding for the past 16 years and have never actually met face to face.  We are looking forward to seeing her and her husband for a few day.

We found our 600th geocache today after the Dr appointments.  The GPS routed us the long way to find the caches, but we did get to see a new area of Frederick, MD where the caches were located.  I would like to say they were interesting and difficult finds, but that would be a lie.  Both were very easy to find so we didn't even bother taking a picture.

This will be my last posting for August, 2010.

Norcold Refrigerator

We have a 4 door Norcold 1200LRIM refrigerator in the motorhome and have loved it since we bought the Southwind in 2002.  About a month ago the frig went on the frittz and there was a heavy ammonia smell in the MH.  Very heavy smell.  Luckily, it was detected early by our son-in-law Henry and I unplugged the unit and shut it down.  Then the fun began.


I looked into replacing the frig thinking $1500 or so would buy us a new one.  I was off by over $2000 on my estimate.  I found them from $3600 to $4300 for a new one plus installation at $100/hour.  WHEW!  Then I started looking for a new part to fix the old unit.  That part ranged from $1400-1600 plus installation.  It is a two man job so double the hourly rate.  No, I am not kidding.  I decided to not go with a reconditioned unit since they seemed to have a high failure rate.


I talked to my other son-in-law Jack who is a Master RV Technician.  He said he could repair the frig with the new parts.  I ordered it and went down to pick it up today at the RV dealer.  It took up the whole rear of our Saturn Vue and I had to push the driver's seat so close that I could hardly drive the car.  We got it home and it is now sitting on the floor of the cabin awaiting installation, which should take place the weekend of Labor Day or shortly thereafter.


Gerry says we should have traded the MH before this happened and we could have saved all that money.  Sort of like all the money she saves with her 15% off coupons at Kohls.  LOL


As they say, it is just the cost of doing business with the frig.  Now to get it repaired and get my beer cold again.  Then all will be right in the world.

Birthday Time

Our good friends Carolyn & Mann were camping in Gettysburg for a few days and we managed to visit with them three times.  Monday was his birthday so we all went out to the Ott House Restaurant to celebrate and then stopped by their MH afterward for birthday pie.  I think we were all stuffed to the gills after the meal, drinks and pie, but we had a great time.

Tuesday was Larry Jr.'s birthday and since he is in Norman,  OK we could only give him a call to help him celebrate.  We managed to catch him putting his stockade fence back up for the 2nd time in 4 days.  A very strong thunderstorm blew it down on Saturday and Monday another storm blew it over.  At least it wasn't a tornado taking the fence out.

Happy Birthday day Larry since you hit that magic age. 

I had my yearly checkup with my urologist and passed with flying colors.  That is always a nice thing to hear from him and I don't have to go back until August 2011.  My appointment was at 3:15pm and as usual he was running late so we didn't get out of there until rush hour in the DC area.  That is always a great reminder for us of why we moved out that area.  Horrendous and it was just a typical day for them.

Great Falls of the Potomac River

The Potomac river is navigable a short distance beyond Georgetown and is blocked for a number of miles by the Great Falls.  There are parks on the VA & MD sides of the river by the falls and it is a popular destination during the spring time when the river is running high.  I recently purchased a device to transfer my old film, negatives and slides to a digital format.  These are a few of the pictures taken in March, 1982 from the MD side.

  The falls are beautiful and interesting to see, but they are deadly with as many as 4-5 people falling in and drowning some years.  It is a favorite place for high school kids to sneak off to during the school time and it seems like one of them loses their life each year.

The flood water level has risen about 25 ft higher than the rocks on the side of the river.  I sure would not want to be in the area when a major flood is occurring, even though it would be exciting.

I used to fish the Potomac river above the Falls but was careful to not get too close.  The river is shallow and rocky above and easily wadeable.  Nice place for small mouth bass fishing and they had cleaned up the river by then and the fish were fine to eat.  We also used to catch crappie, catfish, large mouth bass and panfish in the river.  It was a rough place to take a boat unless you had the patience to repair shear pins all day long.  

Nice Homes

Waynesboro, PA has a number of beautiful homes throughout the city.  There is one street that has 3 story houses made of brick and stone for at least 5 blocks.  The homes are kept in immaculate condition on the outside and I imagine the inside as well.  


There are two houses that back up to a road that we use frequently and their backyards are beautiful.  They are next door neighbors and share a small pond outlined in stone like a moat.  The decorations on the balconies are patriotic in nature and set off the homes nicely.  What do you think, am I right in being impressed by these homes?

Sad News

We received word today that a good friend of ours lost his battle with cancer around noon time.  We were very saddened by the news.  You will be missed Martin.

Stormy Day

Our day began around 5 am this morning due to a very severe thunder and lightning storm with heavy rain that passed through the area. There wasn't the usual high winds that go with this type of storm, so we lucked out this time. It rained hard for an hour and then let up a little. Back to sleep for us until a friend called to tell me about the storm in the DC area that was passing through. Thanks! This Irishman will remain unnamed to protect him.

We worked around the cabin until late afternoon and then decided to find a dress for Gerry for the wedding. She has one that she likes, but was looking for a better one. Off to Macy's again to check what they had and she came out with another dress. I will have to wait until Friday to see what it looks like on her.


On the way to the shopping center we took the back roads just to do something different. As usual I had the GPS and we picked up a cache at Brown's Mill Schoolhouse. It is a beautifully restored old one room schoolhouse built in 1836. It remained in use until 1922 and was restored in 1936. It served as a church and schoolhouse for a number of years.












Today is Darlene and Tom's 38th wedding anniversary and we wish them the best. We called them and they were working on a bottle of bubbly  so we didn't want to keep them from having a cold drink, however we did talk for 40 minutes or so. The photo shown is from 1972 when Tom was a wild and crazy motorcycle rider.  Not much of a hill rider though. 







Happy Anniversary.

Good luck Jane!

Shamrock Restaurant, Thurmont, MD

We had arranged to meet our good friends Diane & John at the Shamrock restaurant for dinner today. John is from Ireland and the Fitzgerald family who founded the restaurant in 1963 are from there also. We thought we would get a great Irish meal there; however, we ordered Prime Rib and Salmon. Not very Irish.

Gerry ordered hers medium and it came out well done. Back it went and she got one cooked to order very quickly. John's and mine were cooked ok, but all three agreed they weren't the best prime rib meals we have had. Diane said her salmon was fine and she enjoyed it. John wants to go back for the Irish Shepherd's Pie on a Tuesday evening before we leave, so that will have to be scheduled before Oct 1.

We went geocaching for a short while after the dinner and managed to pick up three caches in a short time. Two were easy finds and the other was a moderately difficult find. After a while it becomes easier to spot where people hide the caches since they are so similar. We are looking forward to getting back to Tucson where the caches are more difficult and there isn't poison ivy.

I was on the internet this evening and saw where I-35 was closed north of Des Moines, IA. Now, you might say why is this so important that he included this in the blog. It just so happens that my brother was on his way to Minnesota from California with a load and was scheduled to go through Des Moines this evening. I got on the phone and warned him and helped reroute him around the flooding. I hope he doesn't get lost.

The Iowa DOT has a website and it shows road closure, accidents, work zones, etc and they had I-35 closed. I tried to call the DOT to see when the road would be open. Wow! Talk about listening to an automated response system that isn't responsive. There wasn't any way that I could discover, that would give me the info I wanted. It is neat that they have these systems but they can be a pain to work with.

Did I say it was hot here at the cabin? NO? Well, trust me, it is hot up here. This has been the hottest summer we have ever spent at the cabin. Last summer was the coolest summer up here since we bought the place in 1979. What gives?

Relaxing Weekend

Gerry and I took it easy this weekend. We spent the whole day on Friday with Doctors appointments and the 180 mile round trip drive wore us out. We left the Drs early enough, but ran into a traffic mess because of an accident on a two lane country road. No place to get off of the road and I didn't have my GPS so we had to wait it out.

Gerry cooked stuffed peppers on Saturday and ham & bean soup on Sunday. Great food and I managed to stuff my self as usual. Her stuffed peppers are known throughout the US and Switzerland.

We managed to spend an hour geocaching Sunday and found 5 caches. One was difficult to find since it was a 4X4 post with a hollowed out part for the cache. Gerry found that cache while I was getting my excellent medical report from my Doctor. That is right, a Dr called on a Sunday with the report. All the numbers were fine and he declared me in good health. Gerry received a clean bill of health also and is good to go for another year. Now you see why we drive 180 miles to have Dr. Glancy look after us.

We got back to the cabin in time to eat the delicious ham and bean soup. It really hit the spot. We will have leftovers for the next couple days, but that is fine with me.

Our daughter Barbara and her husband Henry celebrated their 28 year wedding anniversary on Saturday. I think he was at the races and she was visiting with her mother in law and two sisters in law all day. Barb and Henry had a very traditional wedding as you can see by the following formal photo of Larry Jr., Henry, Barb & Cassie.



Happy Anniversary Barb & Henry

Harley Davidson Factory Tour

We decided to take the Harley Davidson factory tour in York, PA today. They give tours every 15 minutes from 9-2 during the summer. The factory is about an hour east of the cabin and we drove through a number of old towns on US 30 to get there. Several of the towns had old town squares that were fixed up very nicely.

The tours last 1 hour and they take you out on to the assembly line where you actually walk the line. It was almost 100 degrees outside and the factory is 5 degrees warmer, so it was a very hot day, not to mention the high humidity.

The neat thing about the tour is that they start you from the fabrication of many parts and take you through the line to assembly, testing and shipping of the bikes. They could not show us the paint section due to environmental laws, but by the time we got there, I was ready to head back to the cool building. It was a very interesting tour and I would recommend it to anyone who likes Harley Davidson bikes or factory tours in general.

Gerry and I found a bike that would be great for us. It only costs about $35,000 and there is a two year wait to get it once an order is placed. They are made in the York assembly plant.



This bike would look nice in our driveway also, but I think it is out of our price range.


Barbara and Henry waiting to go on the tour.


York, PA HD assembly plant with around 1800 Union Workers on two shifts. They are proud to be Union workers and it is mentioned a number of times during the tour.


We left York in rush hour and it was surprisingly heavy there. At least you can get out of town in a few miles so it didn't slow us down that much.

We called Cassie & Jack and arranged to meet them at a restaurant in Rouzerville for dinner. I am glad we didn't plan on having a cookout since it rained cats and dogs while we had our dinner. At least our car got washed pretty good and there was a brown puddle around the car from all the dust and dirt that had been on it. We visited a while and then left there, stuffed once again, but happy.

Barb & Henry are leaving on Thursday morning early and we have a lot of errands to run so it will be a busy day for all of us.

Gettysburg tour and dinner

Our cabin is about 16 miles from Gettysburg, PA and we always enjoy going down there and seeing the town and battlefield. Henry hadn't seen the battlefields for many years and we decided it was a good day to take the tour.

The battlefield is so large that a driving tour is necessary to see it all. There must be over 1000 monuments on the battlefield and to see them all would take a couple days. I can see where true Civil War buffs would enjoy this tour greatly.




Barbara & Henry's wedding anniversary is coming up soon so we took them to the Dobbins House in Gettysburg for dinner. The house has been many things since it was built in 1776 and is presently a fine dining restaurant. They have tables setup in the various rooms and the decor is finished to the 1700s period. We all enjoyed a very nice meal there and were impressed with the place.

It was used as a hideout when the underground railroad was in use during the 1800s. They hid the escaping slaves in the attic behind false walls in a very confined space. I guess that was a small price to pay to gain their freedom.

Lazy day.

Gerry, Barb, Cassie & Lexa went shopping for dresses to wear to Stephanie's upcoming wedding in October. They let Henry and me off the hook and we didn't have to trapse around after them looking at dresses. It was like an early Christmas present for us two guys. The girls were semi successful in finding clothes and they were happy also.

We all met at the Ott House in Emmittsburg, MD for dinner afterward. Henry and I got there early and decided to begin a liquid appetizer while we waited for them to arrive. A pitcher of Yuengling beer made the wait more bearable. They finally arrived and we all managed to eat more than we should and left there with our stomachs stuffed. Oh, but it was worth it since the food there is great.

Barbara & Henry's Visit

Barb & Henry came up from North Carolina for a 4 day visit starting on Sunday. Gerry decided to prepare homemade soup, homemade noodles, dill gravy and dumplings for the visit. She uses an old family recipe and take it from me, it is delicious. Filling, also. She started making the soup on Saturday and put the finished touch on today just before we sat down for the meal.

We all met at Cassie & Jack's for the dinner and visit. As usual, we stayed too late and left for the cabin late.