Bill and Cathy McArthur Spring/Summer/Fall 2007: 5

On Monday, July 9, we drove to Meyers RV in Lakewood and put a deposit on a new RV. The new motorhome is a Coachmen Freedom Express 21QB. The key selling point for us is the queen size bed in the rear of the RV, but there is also a king size bed over the cab, and a convertible bed using the dinette. There is a considerable amount of storage space, but the unit is about the same size as the BT Cruiser. As we were driving back home of the parkway, the thermometer read 104 degrees. On Tuesday morning, Bill and Joe Link went around the island on their kayaks. Bill's trip was 22 miles in length. The wind was blowing steadily from the south, so the ocean had some big swells which hindered our forward progress somewhat. Entering the Cape May Inlet was more exciting than we like because of the wave action. Once inside the inlet, it was smooth paddling to our rest stop beach. We took a break and headed out for the second half of the trip. Bill arrived back home after 5 hours, mostly paddling. We chilled out the rest of the afternoon. We viewed "The Shooter", highly recommended action movie. On Wednesday morning, Bill rode his bike over to a very foggy Cape May Point where he ran 3 miles and walked 3 miles on the beach. It was pretty hot on the return bike ride. We spent the rest of the day emptying and cleaning our old RV. We were sad to lose our BT Cruiser, in which we spent 31,000 miles of adventures. We viewed "Last King of Scotland" - very good movie with excellent acting. On Thursday morning, Bill put the finishing touches on cleaning the RV for its trade-in. Later, Bill did a 3 hour walk. On Friday late morning, we drove to Cape May Point and walked in Cape May on the beach. We had pizza at Louie's before heading back. Cathy had a doctor's appointment. Bill kayaked down to the canal. On Saturday morning, Cathy headed for the gym while Bill rode his bike to Cape May Point and then ran 3 miles and walked 3 miles. Later, Cathy went to North Cape May for her first workday at the bookstore there while Bill kayaked down to the canal into a fierce SE wind. He did some surfing on the following sea on the way back. On Sunday, July 15, we headed for Glen Mills for our granddaughter Erin's 8th birthday party. We arrived on scene a bit before 10:00 AM. Alex and Phil had things organized very well for the day's events. Bill's main job was lifeguard at the pool for the many kids at the party. Cathy helped with Garrett and many other details. It was a very hot and humid day, so the pool was a real treat. One of the highlights was a pinata. The kids queued up and took turns swinging at it until it was broken open. We stopped at WaWa for hoagies and arrived back home before sunset. On Monday, we went to Cape Savings to "close" on our home equity loan. The problem was that we couldn't get the check until Friday, so we arranged to come back on Tuesday morning to get a bank check from our money market to use to buy the new RV. Don and Bern Ernakovich came over to visit for the day on Monday. We did some walking in Cape May and on the beach to the lighthouse before enjoying lunch at Geckos. We walked a bit more in the rain after lunch and then headed to our house for the rest of the afternoon. Don and Bern left on the 6:00 PM ferry. On Tuesday morning, we went to the bank to get a bank check after Bill walked 3 miles in his new hiking boots. Then, we drove our BT Cruiser RV to Meyers to trade it in. We spent from 11:00 AM until about 2:00 PM doing all of the details and then left in our new RV. We stopped for lunch at the "usual" pizza joint for lunch (we always have lunch there after picking up a new RV). Bill enjoyed driving the new rig on the Parkway. It felt a bit bigger, but mainly handled the same as our previous one. When we got home, Bill started to try to figure out and test all of the systems in the "Freedom". We went to dinner at Harborview and enjoyed the meal as the fog rolled in. On Wednesday morning, Bill worked on the water system and started packing the "outside" stuff. Cathy went to the gym and the ACME. On Thursday morning, Bill went to Wildwood to install the registration program on a new Vista laptop at Imperial 500. Later, Bill worked in some exercise with packing the RV. Cathy worked at the bookstore until after 9:00 PM. On Friday morning, as we were doing last minute packing, Jimmy Johnson of Imperial 500 called to report strange doings on his laptop. Vista had deleted icons and programs. Bill said that he would research the problem on Sunday night and call on Monday. We left before 8:00 AM for the ride in the RV to Doylestown. The drive went well. Katie and Rachel helped pack their stuff into the RV and we left around 11:00 AM for our campground in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos. We ordered pizza delivery as we settled into our campsite. We set up fully with awning and outside table. The weather was gorgeous. Rachel loved that we were almost parked on the playground. After lunch, she played in the sand and took a dip in the kiddie pool. Then, everbody but Bill tried to get naps. Bill completed the campsite setup. Tom arrived late in the afternoon. We all enjoyed an outside dinner of torellini. After dinner, we lit a campfire and enjoyed S'mores. As Rachel was trying to get to sleep in the over-cab bed, the smoke alarm went off from the numerous campfires all around us. Bill disabled the detector and Rachel finally fell asleep. The adults sat around the campfire and chatted until bedtime. Bill and Cathy thoroughly enjoyed the bed in the RV. On Saturday morning, Bill turned on the furnace to fight the morning temperature of 57 degrees. We had breakfast inside, but Bill brewed coffee outside. Everybody but Cathy rode bikes down the long hill into Jim Thorpe and then to the Lehigh Gorge trail. We rode along the Lehigh River for around 10 miles. We could see and hear many rafters on the river as they traversed rapids. Rachel took a long nap as we rolled along. We stopped along the trail for a tasty lunch of peanut butter rollups and Goldfish crackers. The hardest part of the ride was the 2 mile hill up from Jim Thorpe back to the campground. Bill had to walk his geezer bike for part of the steepest pitch. When we got back, Tom took off for a 50 mile ride on his road bike. The rest of us hiked toward Lake Mauch Chunk. Rachel had a bit of a meltdown, forcing Katie to return to the RV. Bill and Cathy walked to the pretty lake and then back to camp. We grilled pork chops and veggie burgers for another great outdoor meal. We had a campfire and S'mores again. On Sunday morning, we all walked to the lake before breaking camp. We lunched at the Through the Looking Glass Restaurant. Katie and Tom arrived home after about an hour, but Bill and Cathy had a bit over 3 hours to get home. They saw 3 accidents in two states in the opposing lanes. When we arrived back home, we had another hour of unpacking to do. Then, Cathy went to ACME and Bill researched Jimmy Johnson's problem. Bill discovered that Vista's "User Account Control (UAC)" was the likely culprit. We watched our HBO shows during and after dinner. We had a great, but tiring, weekend.

        Bill and Cathy