Maryland Vacation, Sept-Oct., 2010

We were home for about a month when we packed up, this time with our camper, and two dogs, and headed back to Maryland.  Earl had his navy ship reunion in Alexandria, Va the end of September.  Sandie and Jim wanted to celebrate their anniversary by the ocean, but now with the children in their custody, they had a dilemna about who would take care of them.  Since we were coming out, I offered to come early in the month, and stay @ their place while they were gone.  It gave us a chance to get aquainted with my niece and nephew. 

While there, we watched Mara ice-skate, for her lessons.  She is doing amazingly well, so much more than the last time we saw her in January.

Mama Julie and Rose @ the rink.

We had a picnic lunch after skating in the park nearby.

We went the first saturday there, to Hampstead, with Kyle and Becky, to watch Analese, and Mara play soccer.  It was so cute watching them play.  Greg is an  assistant coach for the team.

Taking a snack break.  It was a little cool but sunny that day.

Rose is such a happy little clown,  she was such a delight to be around.

Rose showing us her biking skills

Mara playing in yard

They enjoyed being in the camper, and watching movies with us, and  reading books.

Julie and I took Mara and Rose to the Baltimore Zoo, one day.  We had a picnic lunch, and walked around seeing the animals.

A week after being there, we went to Alexandria for Earl's navy reunion.  We stayed at the Crown Plaza Hotel there, and had a beautiful view of the Potomac River from our room.  We met up with two couples we have made friends with over the last few reunions, and we enjoyed our time together.  Sandie and Jim gave us their Prius to use, instead of the truck, and with the GPS it was a breeze to find our way around Washington, DC and back.  The guys went to the Naval Museum in Washington via the subway, while the gals walked around Old Town Alexandria, visiting a farmer's market, and many shops there. It is a very nice area, with colonial style townhouses, and everyone walks around with their dogs, even into the stores.

We then were back with the Bernhardts for another week, visiting my sister, Barb, and having lunch with siss, Sandie, Barb, and Ellen at our favorite lunch place in Eldersburg.  Barb and I also visited Mom and Dad's grave site, which is near there.

Here is some photos of the fall colors we saw in Wisconsin on the way home:

This is one trip we will always remember, not because of what we did in Maryland, but because of what happened on the way there, and on the return trip.  This was our first long trip with the camper, but we've gone 2 1/2 hrs. at a time, camping in Iowa, and up north in Minnesota.  Well it didn't bode well for us this time.  Our first mishap occurred on I-80 about an hour west of Chicago.  We blew the right back tire of the camper.  I mean really blew it.  Earl was driving, and pulled over quickly.  What we discovered is that it also blew a hole in the bottom of the camper, in the bathroom area, and did some damage to the pipes there.    Thankfully, we had a spare, and thought, glad it was on the passenger side, away from traffic.  Well, we got going again, and weren't but 50 miles down the road, when the left back camper tire blew.  No way Earl was going to attempt changing that tire, even if we had another spare, which we didn't.  It was 4:00 pm in the afternoon, outside of Chicago.  Traffic was horrific.  We ended up calling 911 for help.  Shortly, thereafter, a state trooper showed up.  After discussing it over with Earl, he decided to direct us off the interstate, to the nearest discount tire place.  Luckily, we were close to the exit.  So slowly, we hobbled to the tire place only to find out they didn't carry the camper tire, but they directed us to another tire place right across the street.  As we were pulling up there, they were getting ready to close, but again, our guardian angel was with us.  They had our tire, and were willing to stay open, and put the new one on, plus get us a spare. Oh, did I tell you that it damages the left side now, breaking off our gray and black water valve, and put another hole through the flooring.

Needless to say, we were a bit skiddish the rest of the trip, but thank the Lord, there were no more blow-outs.  So while in Maryland, we tried to figure out what caused the blow-outs, so they wouldn't happen again on the way home.  Greg made sure our tire pressures were good, and even got us an extra spare.  So confident we did everything we could to prevent problems, we headed home.  We stopped in Columbus, Ohio our 1st night, no problems.  Just as we starting out the next morning, sure enough, we blew the front right camper tire.  I thing we caught it before any further damage could be done to the camper.  Well,  we thought, there's only one tire left from the original .  We made it to Wisconcin to stay over the 2nd night.  I thought we were going to made it home free, as I was driving into Minnesota, outside of St. Paul, but, no way, I spyed the left front tire flapping on the camper, so I pulled over on the left shoulder, as I was in the left lane.  Again, we had to call 911.  A state trooper arrived, and said she'd help us get across three lanes of traffic to the exit.  Again, we were close to the exit off I-94.  But it wasn't meant to happen, cause when Earl tried to start the truck, the battery was dead!  So a tow truck was called to tow both the truck and camper, but when he arrived, Earl asked him to try to jump-start the truck.  Again, with our guardian angel's help, it started, he got us across 3 lanes of traffic @ 3:30 in the afternoon, and to a service station.  He got us a another tire, and changed it, and got us on our way.  We made it home safely 2 hrs. later.

Results of our trip:  our auto insurance covered our tires, and service, they totalled our camper, and they gave the retail value of it.  We are so thankful that no injuries occurred from all this.