"Home" Again

We had a great trip to Assateague (near Ocean City, MD) and then to Vienna, VA especially since much of the time was spent with Ellyn's sister and brother and their spouses. Geoff has posted some photos on flickr - the link is on the left side of this blog.

And now we have returned to our Danbury home. Unfortuntely, there is a chance that our sale is falling through since the buyers still do not have a loan commitment. It seems so 2008 that the buyer lost his job and now there's a delay in the loan. Uggh! There still is a chance that the sale could go through and just tonight we heard that our neighbors are fantasizing that they could buy our house and rent out their smaller house. So, maybe things will work out and we won't have to cancel our winter-in-the-south plans.

In the meantime, we're preparing the house to go back on the market by the end of this week However, we are in a strange living situation...we had already donated all our furniture before we head of the buyer's loan problems. The kitchen is empty, etc. For this week, we're still living in the RV but if we don't hear soon that the sale will go through, we'll move back into the house. Sometimes, I guess it's harder to reach our dreams than initially expected

Assateague, Horses, Sisters and more....

Hi from Assateague National Seashore. We're here for four nights primarily to attend Ellyn's sister's Father-in-Law's 80th birthday party and to spend some time with Laura and Jay while they are here from California. A side benefit is that we have the opportunity to visit Ocean City, MD and nearby Assateague Island for the first time. The weather has been a bit chilly in the upper 50's but very sunny. Last night we walked 4 miles on the OC boardwalk with L&J. And today, we biked 8 miles around Assateague Island.

Assateague Island is best known for it's herds of wild horses. We've seen many of them grazing by the side of the road. They look pretty much like regular horses except that they are smaller than most horses I've seen. One fable about their origin is that they swam to the island from a shipwreck but it's well known that early Maryland settlers grazed their horses on the island to evade taxes and it's more likely that some stragglers were left behind. In either case, the herd has been here for more than 3 centuries which is amazing to me.

It turns out that the campgroun doesn't have any hook-ups so we're "dry" camping for the longest time, so far. The clean water and waste water tanks are great for this duration so there's no inconvenience from the lack of water&sewer hook-ups. However, the lack of electricity is a bit more hassle. We have a gasoline generator built into the RV but it's a bit noisy so most parks (including this one) limit its use to daytime hours. We have RV "house" batteries so lighting is no problem for a few hours from the battery. However, the TV and microwave require the generator. Speaking of TV, even in this location, we're getting great digital recetion for several channels - including some HD channels.

One more day here tomorrow - there's still lots to do on our To-Do list including some of the little hikes in the Seashore Park and a bke ride the Ocean City board. We're enjoying the quiet-ness of the off-season visit. Today, we shared a miles long beach only with two other humans, gulls and the plovers. We both decided that it's easy to get used to this retirement life.

Meanwhile, in case you hadn't heard, there's another delay in the sale of our house. The new date for the loan commitment is Wednesday. Can't wait for that to be done with. Our next destination is Ellyn's brother's home just outside Washington, DC - a 3 hr. drive from here.

Ellyn's GREAT Birthday Weekend

Wow!! I had a great b-day weekend. We heading up to Boston, Friday, after we got ourselves about 95% moved out of the Danbury house. Our first event of the weekend was Saul's Bar Mitzvah and we had a great time celebrating with the Jonas family and Saul's GrandMother who is a long time friend of mine from when she lived in Danbury...plus we went to Israel with them two years ago and the other trip members were also at the Bar Mitzvah so that was fun.

On Sunday, Logan and Brian joined us for a drive to see Geoff's mom in Vermont and we were joined by Geoff Brother, Steve, and Nephew Robert plus their wives. It was beautiful seeing the Vermont countryside and we also saw a spectacular fire that bellowed black smoke visible for miles. http://www.cvspectator.com/CV/story/110208-ef-wrj-5alarmfire It was a great afternoon with Geoff's Mom - much laugher!!

Then, yesterday, was actually my birthday. Geoff and I first visited with our special friend, Rabbi Gold, then we headed off to Boston. First stop was Sushi for lunch, then an afternoon at the Boston Science Museum, then a fun Cheesecake Factory Dinner with Brian and Logan and finally we had a late evening visit at the home of my cousins, Fred & Lucinda. In fact our RV is dry camped in Fred's business' parking lot, today.

Shortly, we're heading to our storage unit to organize it and pull out a few things we had put there.Then off to home to watch the election results and to finish emptying the house.

Upcoming dates: Head south on Thursday and Buyer's Loan Commitment date on Friday.

Don't forget to vote!
ellyn