Maryland - Day 28

Cherry Hill Park
Thursday, 28 February 2019

I heard on the morning news that Sully, the service dog that Pres. Bush (41) had, has been reassigned to Walter Reed Hospital, where I was 2 days ago.  I understand Pres. Bush suggested it, and that sounds like an excellent choice to me.

First thing this morning, when I was putting on the 3 outer layers of clothes I've been wearing for walks lately, all the critters decided to join me in my dressing room, aka the heater area.  Lily was sitting on the little stool, Gracie was sitting in front of the heater and Dexter was standing up wagging his tail.  It got funny when his tail started whapping Lily in the face - back and forth and back and forth - and before I could stop laughing to fix it, she'd gotten peeved and tried to swat the tail, but Dexter's tail is as strong as a tree branch and probably hurt her.  So she left in a huff.  (You take your entertainment where you can find it.)

The TV station I'm getting is in DC itself, and they had a story about how several DC bars were having a "watch party" yesterday for the Michael Cohen hearings.  One guy who was interviewed said, "This is DC.  We do politics here.  These hearings are like watching the Super Bowl for political junkies."  I continue to be amazed at how different every part of the US is.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out a route to Fredericksburg, VA, that would take me over the Arlington Bridge.  None of the search engines wanted to discuss it at all.  I finally figured out to ask for a route from this campground to Arlington National Cemetery, and that did it. 

Now the weather folks are giving a nearly 100% chance of some snow here tomorrow, and even if it's only rain by the time I leave the campground, I'm not going to want to be on an elevated bridge.  And the Arlington Bridge is the lowest one around, so I'm even more sure that's the route I want to go.

The prediction is for 1"-3" of snow in the campground area, so I'll have to play it by ear.  I've already paid for the first night at the KOA in Virginia so would prefer to go there, but I'm not driving in 3" of snow.  On the other hand, if it's only 1" and turns to rain, the roads might be fine by the time I leave.  Check-out time is 11:00 and a lot can happen by then.

All this time I've been in this campground and haven't seen a single child until yesterday, when a new RV pulled in 2 spaces down from me and a little girl got out and walked a little dog - maybe a young Boston Terrier.  And then today, there was suddenly a lot of noise and loud talk and laughing and I saw about 10 guys - maybe high school age - playing basketball on the court not far from our campsite.  Of course the sound of the ball sent Gracie into a tizzy and into the shower stall to get as far away as possible.  I had to wait until all 10 of the boys got tired of basketball before I could take the dogs out, and I still had to argue with Gracie until she could see they'd gone.  Pathetic. 

The boys all seem to be staying in 2 rented RVs, maybe a 28' and a 32' that could sleep 4 in one and 6 in another.  They really did all look young, but at least 2 of them must be over 18 because the campground wouldn't let them in otherwise (and they'd never be able to rent the RVs).  They don't seem to have an extra vehicle so I guess they're just staying in the RVs all the time, but I can't imagine what they're doing here.  I see a lot of odd things living like this.

I decided to grab a hot shower and do some laundry before I left, not knowing the conditions I'm going to and knowing the conditions here are nice.  Of course it didn't work that way.  The laundry got done just fine, but not so much the hot shower.

I couldn't get hot water, even after running it for a long time, which I hadn't had to do with these showers before, so I got dressed again and got a maintenance person to come.  And he worked on it and worked on it, and called his supervisor who worked on it and worked on it.  And by the time the laundry was done (fortunately I wanted a cold wash) they still hadn't figured out the problem and sent me to Bathhouse 1 (there are 5 shower areas here).  At Bathhouse 1, I prudently ran the water before getting undressed but, yea!, hot water so I got in the shower and started shampooing my hair, and the water instantly changed to lukewarm and then to cold.  And stayed that way.  It's cold enough outside for me to still be wearing 2 layers of outerwear in the middle of the afternoon, and the shower room wasn't heated, so a cold shower is the last thing I needed.  But it's what I got.  After, I went back over to where they were still working on the first showers (we've just about got the water hot now!, they said) to let them know Bathhouse 1 may not be quite what they think it is.

After I'd been settled back in to our campsite for a bit, the first maintenance guy came by and told me a boiler inspector had come by this morning and they figure he didn't turn any of the water heaters back on - I guess I was the first in the campground to want a shower after that.  He said he hated to have this be my last night's experience at the campground so if I didn't have firm plans and wanted to stay an extra night, they'd be glad to give me one free.  Nice of him.  I told him if there were 3" of snow I might take him up on that.  But at least I'm clean.