Sometimes you need a vacation before the vacation...

Wise words spoken by my sister-in-law Molly as we arrived at their house in Buffalo Saturday evening.  Our nerves were frayed after our alternator stopped working one hour into our trip on the Mass pike.  We ended up getting towed to Springfield, MA.  There a very nice young mechanic diagnosed our problem within 3 minutes.  A connector was improperly plugged into the field connector and thus had worked its way out.  Probably the last mechanic I had asked to go over all the systems of the RV and make sure there were no problems had left me this present.  He had assured me all systems were fine.  And people wonder why I check the details all the time.  An RV is like a giant NASA shuttle where you have to keep checking all systems to insure an incident free ride.  To add insult to injury that same repair shop back in Leicester MA (Deer Pond Auto) had reinstalled one of the rear tires improperly causing a slow air leak. We did not find this till Buffalo.  Anyway that nice young man in Springfield MA had us on the road in no time flat.  His name was Mike and I intend to visit his shop again to express my gratitude for his knowledgeable analysis and testing of the electrical system. While we were waiting for the tow truck on the Mass pike, sitting on a rock, I glanced to Elaine and said “I need a vacation!”

Later that afternoon we stopped in Chili (adjacent to Rochester, NY and pronounced Shy-lie) to see Andrea, Erik, Nina and their latest addition, Lyla who was only two weeks old.

                                         Baby Lyla on Aunt Elaine's shoulder

                                          Aunt Elaine holding Lyla

                                          Erik, Nina, and Andrea enjoying bubbles

Of course we could not find anyone on a Sunday to repair the tire, so we were forced to wait till Monday when the local RV repair shop would get us on our way.  So while Elaine and Molly went shopping, my brother-in-law Gary and I kicked back on their comfy couches for a nice Sunday afternoon nap.  A vacation before the vacation!