Mystic KOA
Friday, 23 November 2018
I started the day with no water, my water line having frozen overnight and my pump still not working. I absolutely have to have coffee though, so I took my tea kettle down to the women's bathroom and - presto - plenty of water! Enough for my coffee and for the dogs to have water to drink and for me to wash my hands. But I've got to find a solution for that problem.
But the main thing I planned for the day was to pick Lily up from the PetsMart in Westerly (RI). I was warned she was likely to be a bit standoffish, which I figure is par for a cat in a new home so doesn't worry me.
After we finished the paperwork, Kelly the PetsMart manager took her out to the RV for me and we put her up on the overhead bed so she could be away from the dogs. And that's where she stayed the entire rest of the day. I put food up there for her, and she sniffed it but didn't touch it. She wouldn't let me take her down so I could show her where the litter box is, and I just prayed she had a good bladder. I wanted to take a photo of her, but she spent most of her time behind the TV - not really a picture-worthy angle. I'll get one when she comes down, presumably tomorrow.
I walked the dogs several times before we got her, hoping to shave off the top layer of their energy, but it was clearly not enough to do anything but make them want more. Dexter especially was interested in Lily, but I kept him from trying too hard to get at her to sniff more closely.
I finally called the day care place and made arrangements to board the dogs there over the weekend. I thought it'd be good for Lily to get a chance to explore the RV, and for the dogs to get some exercise and doggy companionship, and for me to get a break from dog care.
When we got back to the campground, I asked one of the KOA folks who was working nearby about the water situation, and he discovered to his surprise that the heat tape on my water tap wasn't working, and it wasn't working on the one next door, either. So he got busy with that, and an hour later I had a water source. Still not totally useful since I don't have an insulated water hose, which is what's needed in this climate, but I don't want to pay for and store something I can work around and would only need a short time during the year. So I can measure out my coffee water before bed and fill the dog bowl and water jugs also, and as long as the daytime temps get up into the upper 30s I should be able to make do.
But today I finally felt like I'd had it with the weather. Trying to walk the dogs was seriously difficult with the strong wind and really cold air. And between the water problem and using up propane so fast trying to keep the internal temp into a tolerable (if not comfortable) level and me feeling stuck over in this one corner of CT and not being able to get to any sights in the west, I just felt like it was time to consider leaving Connecticut earlier than my month.
From here into NJ it's normally a 3-4 hour drive, but there's massive traffic on the way (NYC vicinity) which stretches the drive to 7+ hours. And that's for a normal drive. For me in the RV, needing to stop every hour and a half or so and driving only 60 or 65 mph, it takes much longer. So I pulled out my New Jersey map and checked out the campgrounds that are open this time of year, and decided one of the KOAs was the most direct to get to. I called them and made a reservation for coming in next Tuesday, the 27th. I hate to skip out on CT, but I'm not really being fair to it anyway.
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