Amy's Rear View Mirror

Baltimore, MD ...
5/27 - 6/30

Well, the ride up here from Northern Alabama was long and tiring but I got here Sunday afternoon. I'm beginning to think I'm crazy for coming up here - I'm freezing my butt off! The high for the days has been around 70 with the nights in the low 50's and the breeze is cold. I guess I've been in the south too long. <g> This campground is off I-83 at the last exit in MD before crossing into PA. Any shopping you need to do you have to go to the next town north in PA. That's not such a bad thing since PA doesn't put sales tax on many things.

I spent Memorial Day visiting with my Grandmother. We went over to my cousin Lori's house for supper. Other cousins, Vicky & Sid, were in town from NYC so they were at supper also. Now we're all caught up on the last few years.

Michael & Elita, RVing friends, stopped by the campground and spent the night on their way to Vermont. There's lots of sightseeing to do from here - Hershey PA, Lancaster PA, Gettysburg PA, Baltimore MD, Annapolis MD, and Washington DC are all easy day trips from this campground.

During the week I'm working - luckily it's only normal 8 hr days. Yeah! No more overtime. The money is nice, but it's too exhausting.

Kevin, my cousin who lives in PA about 10 miles north of the campground, drove down on his Harley to visit me. I really like his Harley ... but not enough to want another motorcycle. I'm still licensed to drive a motorcycle, so I could always go buy another one. Naaaaaahhhhh. We had a good time catching up on our lives. He wanted to toast to us, so I looked to see what alcohol I had ... found a broken gallon of Tequila. Luckily it was being stored in a pot so no big mess. Cleaned that up. But I do have several bottles of Champagne ... never know when there's something to celebrate ... so celebrate we did! Kevin & I drank a bottle.

Gail & Paul, some of my Dad's cousins who live in CA, were in town on a Saturday for the day and requested that we go out for MD steamed crabs for supper. I love steamed crabs! They had never had Maryland Crabs so we ate them just about every way there is to cook them ... steamed, soft shell, crab cakes ... we gorged, but now they can say that they've experienced Maryland Crabs.

I drove my grandmother to my Aunt's beach house in Lewes Delaware for a weekend. My visit with my Aunt & Uncle (my Dad's sister) this weekend was enjoyable. They're into eclectic stuff, theater, nightlife, fine dining - they always know where to go around town. We spent the afternoon sitting on the beach watching everyone playing in the water and walking the boardwalk. We also did a little bit of shopping ... some of the outlet stores and in the quaint little main street section of Lewes.

I had cheap entertainment one night at the campground ... very entertaining ... but I was good and didn't laugh. A new 35' Bounder pulled into the site next to me. I saw 2 older men walking around the MH a lot, but really didn't pay much attention to what they're doing. An hour or so later there's a knock on my door. It's one of the men. He said they just got the MH and wanted to know if I would mind helping he and his wife, they were having a problem. I could tell he was embarrassed to be asking. So I went over, he led me inside to his wife so she could show me the problem ... the toilet wouldn't flush and the bowl was full of water from them trying. I stepped on the pedal and it flushed great. Now they were really embarrassed ... they just didn't push the pedal hard enough. Then they confessed ... they just bought the MH a few days ago. They closed on their house last Friday. This is their first trip while moving in to be fulltimers. The other couple with them is her sister and BIL. Both couples are from Baltimore. The sister & BIL have never used an RV either so they're not helping much except with 'put everything in any cabinet somewhere'. They asked a few more questions while I was there - they've got information overload right now. <g>

Can't leave out my Mom's family ... my cousin Jessica, who lives in Philly now, came back to Baltimore for the weekend of her 30th birthday. Her father and his SO came up from Virginia on Saturday to celebrate her birthday with her. I went out for supper with Jessica, her sister's family, their dad and his SO. We went to Jilly's in Pikesville - known for great shrimp salad. Then on Sunday morning I went to her mother's house for a family brunch. So most of the weekend was spent celebrating her birthday. It was nice to have the time to see them all and catch up on things.

My last Sunday in town my Grandmother and I went back to Lori's for supper. Kevin came down from PA to join us. So it was one last chance to sit around and chat before I was going to be on my way south.

So as you can tell it was a month of spending weekends with family ... getting caught up until next time.

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