Connecticut - Day 10

Totoket Valley RV Park
Saturday, 10 November 2018

I planned to spend today at the campground and just lucked into a beautiful day.  Not sure why I'm so often getting rain on the days I'm driving around and sun on the days I'm sitting still, but at least it's sometimes sunny.  Today was really pretty.

I spent the morning defrosting the freezer, which I haven't done, ever, so there's more than a year's worth built up.  I have a very clear memory of swearing, about 35 years ago, that I would never ever defrost a freezer again for the rest of my life.  And up till now, I've managed to avoid it.  But frost-free freezers aren't really a good fit with the energy draw most RVs provide, so here I was, playing with ice all morning.

I've been working up to it for a couple of weeks, deliberately trying to empty both the frig and the freezer of food so there'd be less to try to keep cold.  And that worked out okay.  I just used a small collapsible ice chest and a pail and had enough ice cubes and so forth to keep it all cold for the 3 hours this project took - covered them with towels and put them in the bathroom, which is always colder than the rest of the cabin.

Hope it holds for another year and a half.

And while I was waiting for the ice to thaw, I mended the dogs' collars and the toilet seat cover, which was coming apart.  That's about the level of home repairs I can do.  I know my limits and am happy to pay an expert for anything more complicated.

When it really got warm(er), I put the dogs outside on long leashes attached to the RV, and about half an hour later, I saw Dexter at the door of the next-door RV sniffing around.  He had managed to break the metal fastener on his leash somehow, and fortunately hadn't seen any other dogs, or I'd have been in trouble.  The dog next door had gone for the day with his people, thank goodness.  So the dogs had to come back inside and I have to figure out an alternative.  Although as bad as the weather's getting, I doubt if they'll be missing many opportunities for the next few weeks.

In the middle of the afternoon, we had snow.  Some of it even stuck, but it didn't last long.  Harbinger of things to come, I suppose.

You may remember I was grousing a few days ago about having a hard time finding a place to sell me propane.  My smart cousin Angie wrote to remind me that many UHaul places sell it, a fact I'd completely forgotten.  But, as I told her, now that it's a critical fact, I may actually retain it.

I spent some time on the internet today (while waiting for the ice to thaw - a little like watching grass grow) and learned some interesting facts about New Haven.  Benedict Arnold was from here.  Noah Webster, Eli Whitney, Samuel Morse, and Charles Goodyear were all so attached to this place that they're buried here.  The Knights of Columbus was founded here.  And (the coup de grâce) lollipops, corkscrews and steamboats were all invented here.  Makes New Haven a lot more important than I'd ever thought.