Mixed Blessings!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Mixed Blessings!

Tom was up early as usual but not as early as sometimes. When he left I woke up. It was about 6:20. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to stay awake. Then I roused myself out of bed and tried to get the morning started.  It was 61 degrees inside and 54 degrees outside. Not bad. We’ve had colder mornings.

We had some rain showers before breakfast. They were just enough to make you a bit damp but not enough to wet everything. During breakfast we had some real rain. We thought we were going to have a problem with hitching the trailer and getting out of the campground. But all things settled down again and we were able to make our usual preparations with just some dampness. We were out of the campground at 9:37 and 60 degrees.

There seemed to be more color in the trees as we started out today although the sun was hidden by the clouds all day. And then as we drove closer to the coast the trees lost that color and were back to mostly green.

Two things I noticed yesterday: First was how much the scenery reminded me of New Jersey’s shore. Then I realized that we were riding along the Atlantic coast ways. We saw many marinas. The only thing missing was the smell of the salty air. Maybe it was because the windows of the van were closed.

The second thing was how much the road sides reminded me of the thru-ways of Maine remind me of the thru-ways of Mississippi and Alabama. The road sides for a significant distance from the road are grass and then a stand of trees. Pennsylvania’s high ways have trees and bushes almost right up to the side of the road.

Last year while we were in one of the western states there were signs at the rest stops warning us of snakes. In Maine, there are signs warning us of Moose in the road. We didn’t see any. I tried to take a picture of one of the signs but they didn’t turn out too well. Tom saved the best one but I guess it wasn’t the greatest.

No geocaching today but the GPSR seems to be working okay. Tom says that there are four caches rather close to this camp ground.

We arrived here a little after noon and took care of what needed to be done on the outside with the trailer and the site and then had lunch. A trip to the wash house, which is wayyyyyyy over there, was followed by a well-deserved nap.

We did some more setting up on the inside of the trailer and looked at all of the pieces of literature on the area that we picked up at the welcome center. We still have to decide whether we want to drive around the park or take the free shuttle bus.

Time for supper. We decided to just have some good warm soup. Thankfully the trailer is equipped with a microwave oven. We were using paper soup bowls and were having a hard time handling them when they were full of soup. We put it on a paper plate. Not too much better. Then we put the bowl and the plate on a “hard” plate (Melamine the set of which happened to be a wedding gift almost 48 years ago.) and that didn’t work. It got so hot that Tom couldn’t handle it. Then we thought about Melamine was around before microwave ovens. So we must remember to be sure to use the microwave safe bowls which we bought last year for just that purpose.

After the dishes were done we decided to get the computers out and do our respective jobs on them. Tom used the laptop, new for our trip out west last year, and I use my netbook. I couldn’t get but 2 out of 5 bars at this campground. When Tom was finished he offered me the laptop. I couldn’t refuse him. When I looked at the speed that was on the laptop and I was surprised. It was 5 bars! I’m sure that age of the computers has something to do with it.

I took so long looking at my mail and doing some other things than the blog that it became bed time. We walked to the wash house and when we came back Tom headed for bed. So the things in the trailer are in a new configuration.  But there will be more moving around space, when I go to bed.

But the biggest surprise of this day is that we are sharing the trailer with a mouse. I’ve been finding these little black “pieces of dirt” all over the place. And what was clean when I went to bed had “dirt” on it when I got up. Tom said that we just couldn’t have a mouse in the trailer but this is not so. I saw him tonight. We looked at each other eye to eye before he almost fell off the window valence. He saved himself, climbed up onto the top of the valence and scampered away.

What was so interesting at the valence is that this is where we keep our snacks all protected in Lock ‘N’ Lock plastic boxes. We learned during our 40 years on camping that one keeps all food in rodent proof containers. Only this year I didn’t do it. I had some Lance crackers that I just put the box out. This is the first year that I made them available and I missed the rule of protecting all foods.

I sat here writing this piece of history and listening to strange noises; noises that shouldn’t be in a quiet trailer. There was the sound of cellophane crackling and the sound of movement within the trailer both overhead and in the walls around me. I even got up and looked around. Nothing. Back to the computer. Then I heard this noise over my head and behind me. I turned my head and looked up. …

He’s back; he ran on the back of the sofa and behind my shirt. I wish I knew what to do to catch him tonight.  I’m just not fast enough to swat him and get him. That ornery little thing! He just ran along the back of the sofa behind my back about half way down from the top of the back. I think I’d better put the box of Lance crackers in the refrigerator for the night and check the rest of the trailer for other food stuffs. I guess I’ll have to take the trash out to the van for the night when I go to bed. There’s food scraps in that. Oh, geesh!

…And I saw that little fur ball looking back at me. Did you know that mice have rounded and not pointed ears? I’m going to bed at this ungodly hour. I can’t stand listening to these ungodly noises and wondering if I’m going to be sharing this sofa with a mouse any time soon. I hope I can go to sleep.