You are using an insecure version of your web browser. Please update your browser!
Using an outdated browser makes your computer unsafe. For a safer, faster, more enjoyable user experience, please update your browser today or try a newer browser.
The Boston Red Sox’s Triple-A minor league affiliate moved this summer from Pawtucket RI to Worcester MA. Formerly known as the “PawSox,” the team has been relabeled the “WooSox.” They play in a brand new ballpark, Polar Park, less than an hour from my summer home in Orange MA. I have already gone to two WooSox games. They won both.
For reasons known only to Red Sox management, but which I attribute to a deep-seated sadistic streak, the new ballpark is located in what may be the worst intersection in the entire state of Massachusetts, Kelly Square. This “square” is the convergence of 6 fairly heavily traveled streets with virtually no traffic controls to sort out the vehicular mayhem. It is every man for himself and if you are faint of heart you may spend hours waiting for an opening.
But while I expected the addition of the ballpark to raise the traffic pain from Horrible to Insane, it has not done that. Perhaps the traffic was already so bad that it couldn’t get worse. Or perhaps the fact that neither game filled the stadium to more than 50% capacity meant that we haven’t seen the worst yet. But getting in and out for both games was tolerable. Better than (the much larger) Fenway Park in Boston, home of the Red Sox.
Buddy Mike and Chaim Bloom
I got free tickets to the first game courtesy of sister-in-law Kim and her employer, Worcester Academy, one of the WooSox sponsors (thanks, Kim and Worcester Academy!). These seats were out in left field, which was fine as there isn’t a bad seat in the place. The second game was courtesy of softball buddy Dave (thanks, Dave!). He got tickets directly behind home plate. These tickets were perhaps the best in the house, the proof being that we were next to the Red Sox’s Chief Baseball Officer, Chaim Bloom. Since he is in charge of the entire organization, he can sit pretty much wherever he wants.
My buddy Mike also was at this game. Dave and Mike are the two softball buddies who come to spring training in Ft Myers most years (this year being the exception thanks to the pandemic). It was great being able to attend a game in MA as the “three amigos.”
I sprained my wrist playing softball two weeks ago. I tried to make a diving catch of a flyball. No, I didn’t catch it but somehow bent my wrist back in making the attempt. It was immediately obvious that I had hurt my wrist, but was not immediately obvious how badly I had hurt it. I finished the inning in the outfield and realized, sitting on the bench, that I would be unable to swing the bat. I came out of the game.
The next day I was in a world of hurt. I basically was unable to do anything with my left arm. Even the simple act of putting shaving cream on my face was unbearably painful. For about 5 days I was pretty much a one-armed man (no, I didn’t murder Dr Richard Kimble’s wife). I slowly regained use and thought, for a brief moment, that I might be able to play the next game. But when game day arrived I was still unable to swing the bat. And some pretty impressive bruising had appeared on my forearm.
Tomorrow is another game. I intend to go but likely won’t play unless the team is desperate for bodies.
At each step along the way in the construction of the shed in Ft Myers I posted a blog entry with an exclamation-point title (e.g., Insulation!). I don’t own my summer site but my excitement at (finally!) getting a sewer hookup was similar to a major step along the way in the shed construction. I received many promises, starting with the day I arrived (“You will have a sewer hookup by this weekend”), all of which were broken. In total I went 26 days without emptying my waste tanks – a record which I hope to never break. It wouldn’t have been possible except that I am now a single guy living in an RV with 2 bathrooms with separate storage tanks. But by the end I was being very cautious with my waste – short flushes, not letting the water run when brushing my teeth, letting the dishes pile up before washing them and even tossing Rusty’s water outside each morning before refilling his water bowl.
So I am now operating with a permanent sewer hookup, but temporary electric (20A, from the office) and water (a splitter from the owner’s hookup). That makes the situation considerably less miserable than a week ago, but still somewhere on the “miserable” spectrum.
The campground owner still hopes to be open by July 4, but here is the situation just 4 weeks before that date: 8 sites with sewer, 6 sites with water, 0 sites with permanent electric. So what did he do this weekend? Built some picnic tables. Apparently he believes that RVers will tolerate a site with no utilities so long as it has a nice, new picnic table. Puzzling.
This is a book about baseball and family and the loss of neighborhoods in America. Kearns’ childhood obsession with the Brooklyn Dodgers is recounted with deeply personal memories. Baseball becomes intertwined with her family – especially the sickness and death of her mother, but also her sisters and father. Her childhood friends also had a baseball nexus as she and her best friend were the most avid baseball fans among the children of Rockville Center NY – Kearns a devoted Dodgers fan and her best friend Elaine a Giants fan. The travails of the Brooklyn Dodgers – seven times to the World Series without a championship – mirrored the personal tragedies of her family and others in her close-knit neighborhood.
“Wait till next year” was the mantra of the long-suffering Dodgers fans. And, she realizes as she reaches adulthood, it is indeed the mantra of life, the optimism that keeps us going when all seems lost.
I am a baseball fan. And not just any baseball fan but a Boston Red Sox fan. Kearns notes, in her epilogue, that her second team – the Red Sox – had much in common with the Dodgers of her youth. I can attest that “wait till next year” was also, before 2004, the mantra of every Red Sox fan.
I enjoyed this book despite the fact that, in many ways, it is a downer. The Dodgers and Giants both abandon New York. Her mother dies. Her father, who had suffered a series of catastrophic losses before marrying, falls into a deep depression. A neighbor dies while watching baseball on TV. She loses the close friends of her youth. The neighborhood disintegrates as people die or move away.
But all of that makes the book a poignant memoir. The Dodgers provide the glue that binds the memories together.
Well, just shy of four weeks, actually, and not completely without television because I did have a weekend away in which I immersed myself in Law and Order. But it is my most TV-free span since my parents acquired our first set back in 1954. Even the transatlantic cruise in 2018 had television on board.
So what does a TV-generation guy do when deprived of his daily dose of boob toob? Well…
Read. I have finished several books.
Organize his DVDs and CDs. This can take a long time since I feel obliged to view/listen to any that I am considering discarding.
Watch all James Bond movies (thanks, Ray!).
Learn how to connect the television to my T-Mobile router so that I can watch shows on Netflix.
Watch the 7 seasons of Mission Impossible (the TV series, not those awful Tom Cruise movies).
I haven’t finished the Mission Impossible series yet (46 DVDs) but I am working on it.
Occasionally I read a book that I admire but have a hard time recommending. This is one of them. The problems I have with the book are (1) there are no likable characters and (2) I found the jumping around in time – from 1991 to 2016 – to be distracting. That said, I have to admire the author’s craftsmanship. She worked hard at developing an intense story and manages to tell it with some major plot twists that she keeps well-concealed. So I admire the book but didn’t like reading it very much.
I have now been residing at my summer site in Orange MA for two weeks. Normally, after two weeks in a place, I would be settled – unpacked, lawn furniture deployed, gas grill set up, etc. But not this time. Because I am in a “temporary site” I have left everything as close to ready to travel as possible.
How “temporary” is the site? My water is from a splitter on the owner’s rig (with 75′ of hose needed). My electric is running off of a 20A circuit from the office (not 30A as I originally thought and I have already blown that circuit once, when the A/C came on while I was using the microwave). And no sewer connection at all. Two weeks without emptying the tanks? A new record and one that would not have been possible if Jett had been here. The owner has laid sewer and water lines to the site that will be my “permanent” one. But no electric yet and it is too far from the office to even use that 20A circuit. So I have no idea when I will be able to move. In the meantime the owner has promised to run the sewer to my temporary site. But he has promised many things many times and most of those promises go begging.
So what have I been doing? Let’s see…
The completed puzzle
The Safelite van, through my new windshield
Visits with in-laws Ray and Kim. But they are in the cabin only on weekends.
Reading. The latest novel will be reviewed shortly.
Jigsaw puzzle. Finished a very nice 1000-piece puzzle a few days ago.
Researching my TV options. I still have no real TV, but have managed to get the main TV hooked up to Netflix using my cell phone’s hotspot. I have also had a discussion with T-Mobile on changes to my service plan (because I don’t need both Jett’s phone and a stand-alone hotspot). I think I am going to drop the hotspot and use Jett’s phone to provide the hotspot for Netflix. I have also priced out Dish TV service, but am not yet convinced that the $500 startup cost and $50 per month fee would be worth it. So I may be looking at a summer with only Netflix for television.
Getting the truck’s windshield replaced.
Photographing headstones in the Silver Lake Cemetery, a large (7,000 graves) cemetery about 4 miles from the campground and conveniently on the route to my favorite disc golf course. Amazingly, nearly 45% of those graves are unphotographed so this will be like shooting fish is a barrel. I could have several thousand photographs posted on findagrave.com by the end of summer.
Reviewing and organizing CDs. I had done the same thing with DVDs before I left Florida, but since I have no real TV, listening to all the CDs seemed like a good idea.
Feeding the goats. Rusty actually likes the goats. At the owner’s suggestion, I bought a large bag of animal crackers and have been feeding them to the goats during our dog walks.
Thinking about my Plan B. If this campground proves to be uninhabitable I will need to go somewhere else. There are campgrounds not too far away that offer sites for about $800 per month. That would be acceptable for up to 3 months. But I don’t know it any sites are available. Doubtful. But I always have the option of returning to Fort Myers. That would be a shame and it is not something I would be eager to do, but that option always exists. Another option is to buy a generator and use it on the site with the new water and sewer hookups until the electric service is installed. Having a generator for boondocking use would not be a bad idea and I could get one that would provide 30A service for under $400. But I would have to make sure that it would fit in the bed of the truck when traveling.
Bottom line: there is still a lot “unsettled” in my current situation. Hopefully things will resolve in the next week or so.
Well, it is 17 years old so it wouldn’t be considered “pretty” in any situation. But it proved its worth last weekend when, en route to brother-in-law Ray’s cabin, I encountered a fallen tree that completely blocked the road.
Ray and his son Matt responded to my phone call and they arrived with an ax and a chain (Ray had left his chain saw at home). A few whacks with the ax removed enough branches that I could get close enough to attach the chain and pull the tree out of the road to allow the passage of vehicles.
My home for the summer – maybe – is the Quabbin Pines RV Resort in Orange MA. I say “maybe” because I am probably residing here illegally and could be booted at any moment. The campground is not finished – not even close – and is not permitted for use by paying guests. If you click on the campground link today all you get is a “Coming Soon” page. An empty website is not a sign of a campground on the verge of opening.
Living in this campground is bizarre. I have to think of this campground, in its current state (with a nod to Bizarro World) as Bizarro Campground. But before I describe the campground in detail let me describe how I learned of its existence and my experience on the day of arrival.
When I was speaking with my brother-in-law Ray early this year and moaning about the difficulty I was having in finding a summer site, he told me of the existence of a “new RV campground” very near to his summer cabin. He was kind enough to go check out the place for me and got a tour of the under-construction site in February. He reported that “there was a LOT of work yet to be done” and opined that it would not be ready by May. Nevertheless, the campground accepted both my application for a seasonal site and a deposit for $1000. Subsequent attempts to contact the campground, both by email and phone, were unsuccessful. I left messages but got no calls or emails in response. Still, they had taken my money and had not told me to not show up, so that was my destination on May 11.
My expectation was that the campground would be open but unfinished and still in the midst of construction. But when I pulled into the campground on Tuesday May 11 what I found was a ghost campground. No construction. No people. No one in the office. I called the number given by the sign on the closed office door and got a message saying that the mailbox was full.
So I sat in the parking lot, scratching my head. I called Ray to tell him that I had arrived but that the campground was closed. I started thinking about my options as I walked Rusty. Near the end of my dog walk I got a phone call from Mike, the campground owner. He asked if I had called and what I wanted. I explained that I was a seasonal tenant who had given him $1000 and was rather dismayed that I had no site. He said he could set me up in a “temporary site.” I didn’t question him as to how temporary or what the financial arrangements might be because even a temporary site solved my immediate problem.
The BigHorn in its “temporary site” in a closed campground
So Mike directed me to a spot next to his 5th wheel. He got me hooked up to a 30 amp power supply (not ideal but adequate) and put a splitter on the hose serving his RV and invited me to run my hose to it. Well, my 50′ of hose was too short, but a quick trip to Walmart got me another 25′ which was enough to get water. No sewer connection yet but he dismissed that as an easy thing that would be done by the weekend. “It’s what I do” he said.
Well, it is now Friday and it isn’t done yet. I can live another week without a sewer connection – the black water holding tanks are 60 gallons each and I have two of them. But the lack of any construction activity in the 3 days I have been here makes me doubt that anything will get done in a timely fashion.
So a brief history of the campground, as given to me by Mike. The campground was started by a relative (uncle?) and was operated for many years, mostly, it appears, as a traditional campground for people with tents and pop-up trailers. No sewer connections and the water and electric connections were spotty and not suitable for modern RVs. The uncle died and his wife tried to run it without him but failed. It closed over 25 years ago and has sat idle for a quarter of a century.
Enter Mike and his wife. They decide they can turn it into a successful RV campground. The original plan was to open in 2020 but the pandemic hit, so plans were delayed a year. More recent delays were due to permitting and shortage of construction materials (Mike says he waited over 3 months for delivery of the metal roof for the recreation building).
The campground currently has an office building that had been abandoned for 25 years which looks to be serviceable but in need of cosmetic work, a swimming pool which looks old but Mike says it has a new liner and just needs a water treatment pump and a new fence, new propane tanks, a new septic system and 3 structures under construction: a recreation hall, a bathhouse and a “pavilion” which I think means an open-air structure where people can gather to avoid sun and rain.
Bathhouse
Recreation hall
No site has upgraded electric service and no sewer lines have yet been run, except the one to Mike’s site. But Mike is confident that he will be open by July 4th, just 6 weeks away. I am skeptical. Maybe if he has an army of construction workers but no such army has yet appeared. He has booked a 70-RV rally for the end of July. I have no idea how he expects to have 70 RV sites – and all 3 buildings – ready in just over 2 months.
Mike is quite proud of the site preparation that has been done in the lower area – I believe an area that was wooded in the old campground. This is the area that will allow him to book a 70-RV rally and it is where the pavilion will be located. But it is just an open field of dirt right now.
The open field
The site of the pavilion-to-be
There are a couple of minor things that make this campground – and the whole quixotic project – somewhat bizarre. One is the only completed new structure on the property – the shed housing the goats. That’s right, folks. The goat shed was completed before the bathhouse. Another is the fire truck. Why is there a fire truck on the property? I don’t know. I can only speculate that Mike offered to store it as a favor to town officials. You know – those people responsible for issuing permits.
Completed goat shed
Fire truck
The siding on the goat shed – and the siding that apparently will be on all other structures as well – is pine boards that Mike milled himself from trees cleared from the lower area. He says he has 35,000 board feet of siding ready to be installed. Pretty impressive. And I think it will give the whole property a very distinctive look.
I have already given the summary – that the TN7 was the most pleasant, trouble-free RV trip I have undertaken since the trip west in 2017. There were some highlights and lowlights and I will get to those. But first… the numbers:
14 hops
30 nights
2,150 tow miles (154 miles per hop)
3,290 truck miles
$1,435 in campground fees ($47.83 per night)
Because there were no significant problems you might expect that the actual route would be pretty close to the planned route and you would be mostly right. But I changed my mind about stopping near Philadelphia and was forced to add a second stop in MD.
TN7 segment 1 actual
TN7 segment 1 plan
TN7 segment 2 actual
TN7 segment 2 plan
Highlights:
Almost no RV or truck problems. The lone problem – the check engine light in MD diagnosed as a “glow plug controller fault” was dismissed as a minor cold-weather-only problem that could be ignored. The truck performed flawlessly. Even on the mountain hops it barely broke a sweat.
Seeing my stepsons and their families in VA. The timing of the visit wasn’t great as they were in the middle of moving out of the house they had occupied for 17 years, but they made time for me. As always, a pleasure. And I got to hand-deliver one last box of Jett’s memorabilia to them.
Cartersville GA. I picked this location for its proximity to Atlanta but treasure it now for its proximity to the Booth Western Art Museum and the site of the Civil War’s Battle of Allatoona Pass. Both of these were more memorable than Atlanta.
Second visits to Civil War battlefields in Manassas and Chickamauga.
A really fine Italian spaghetti-and-meatballs dinner in Maryville TN.
A poignant return visit to Pigeon Forge TN.
A lovely lunch with an old friend who I hadn’t seen in 35 years in NC.
Lowlights:
A cracked windshield in VA.
Dodging a possible tornado in MD.
An embarrassing back-in debacle in TN.
A sunburn from that NC lunch.
Obviously the highlights outweighed the lowlights on TN7. This is important as this trip was a test of both the truck and my desire to travel solo. I think it was a success on both counts.
If the trip south in the fall is similarly successful I will seriously consider a full summer of travel – possibly to do the “30 MLB stadiums in one season tour” in 2022.
TN7 wrapup
I have already given the summary – that the TN7 was the most pleasant, trouble-free RV trip I have undertaken since the trip west in 2017. There were some highlights and lowlights and I will get to those. But first… the numbers:
Because there were no significant problems you might expect that the actual route would be pretty close to the planned route and you would be mostly right. But I changed my mind about stopping near Philadelphia and was forced to add a second stop in MD.
Highlights:
Lowlights:
Obviously the highlights outweighed the lowlights on TN7. This is important as this trip was a test of both the truck and my desire to travel solo. I think it was a success on both counts.
If the trip south in the fall is similarly successful I will seriously consider a full summer of travel – possibly to do the “30 MLB stadiums in one season tour” in 2022.