Birthday, Baseball and bad brakes

Our stay here in Delaware/Maryland started smoothly enough. On Saturday we met family at the old home place for my dad’s 90^th birthday. My parents still live in the house they bought near Newark Delaware in 1953 and they’re doing pretty well. After returning to Elk Neck State Park (Maryland) in the afternoon, we hiked a mile to the Turkey Point Lighthouse. Built in 1833 the lighthouse sits on a bluff high above the water. The panoramic view includes five rivers that converge at the head of the Chesapeake Bay. In another life, before the motorhome I spent a lot of time cruising in this area by boat.

On Sunday morning we discovered we were camped in the NO PETS section of the campground and had to move. After lunch at a water view restaurant in the town of North East (Maryland) we drove to Smyrna (Delaware) to see my granddaughter Delaney play in a softball. We couldn’t stay till the end (dogs) but Delaney and her team are very good and we’re sure they finished near the top. 

Somewhere on the way home the left rear brake started dragging, we discovered it when we stopped at a traffic signal and could smell the hot metal. The damage was done and we were almost back to the campground so we continued in the jeep.

Six AM on Monday morning I drove the jeep to the local dealer, the brakes of course operated normally. It’s like going to the doctors, nothing hurts when you get there. I was sitting in the dealership waiting for the diagnosis when I got a call from the Campground Ranger Station. Millie had taken the dogs out for a walk and the door to the motorhome had somehow locked, her keys and phone inside, and it was raining.

Just before we left home I bought one of those hide-a-key things, but as you may guess I hadn’t secured it to the motorhome yet. I did have a motorhome key hidden, under the jeep which was here with me in Newark. Millie assured me she would be ok till I got the jeep fixed. I checked on the status of the diagnosis, told them to fix it and rented a car to go home and rescue Millie and the girls. I found them next door sitting with the camp host. Nothing but good things to say about the park employees and volunteer hosts.

The door opened with my key, it is still a mystery how it locked. Normally you have to lock it from the outside with a key. Anyhow we now have two hidden keys, one under the jeep and another under the motorhome.

The unexpected brake problem interrupted our plans to visit friends but we did get to have dinner with my son and his family on Monday afternoon. BTW, the defective brake caliper was only six months old; both rear calipers were replaced in December.

 Tuesday we moved 80 miles north to the Thousand Trails Campground in Hershey PA. The drive thru southern PA is below the mountain ranges and is mostly rolling hills dotted with farms. Some are large some small, some modern and some are traditional Amish farms; it is a very scenic ride.  After setting up at the campground we drove to Roots Farmers Market near Manheim. 

Millie bought fresh veggies and I bought cookies and a shoo-fly pie! We are staying one night before moving on the New York on Wednesday. We will stage one night in Marathon New York, emptying holding tanks and filling our water tank. On Thursday we enter the fairgrounds in Syracuse where we will dry camp (No hookups) for the four days of the RV Rally.