Hurricane Ian

We were supposed to leave Maine and head back to Florida end of September. I had a conference in Orlando, so I was flying down and Brett was going to drive back and pick me up and then we'd head to Fort Myers. Mother Nature had other plans. With the threat of a large-scale hurricane heading towards the west coast of Florida, we decided instead to drive to Columbia, TN and wait it out. And we are glad we did. Fort Myers Beach took a direct hit and there was damage all the way from the west coast to the east coast of Florida.

These are all photos of Fort Myers Beach. The devastation goes on for mile and miles.

Where we're at, we got very minimal damage. We had some landscape debris to clean up and these unwanted skylights added to our tiki, but that was it. 

Bar Harbor, Maine

Bar Harbor was a tad bit windy! We did our best to get a selfie😂

We drove the loop of Acadia National Park and went up to Cadillac Mountain. Afterwards, we had to treat ourselves to some Maine lobster for lunch so stopped at a roadside cafe that appeared to be a local favorite.

We found out through Facebook that our friends, Danny and Margo from Tennessee, were also camping Bar Harbor! We hadn't seen them in several years, so they came by for a bonfire and visit. These are the best surprises.

New Hampshire

Best way to describe our stay in New Hampshire? Cold and wet. This was how we spent the time there.

Well, at least that's how we want to remember it. The reality is, it was raining, and our awning was supposed to have a feature where if there's a certain amount of weight on it, it will drop an arm and dump the water. Let's just say that didn't happen. One arm broke and it came crashing down. Next thing we knew, we were outside in the rain, trying to stand on a picnic table to hold up the awning so we could figure out what to do next. Not being able to figure out how to remove it, we finally reached out to an RV service center who as luck would have it was just a few miles down the road. They came out and gave us the bad news. Both arms were bent, and the fabric was ripped. They could get us a new one, but it would take about six weeks. We opted to have them remove the existing one and dispose of it for us and we'll get a new one when we get back to Florida.

New York: Tennis, food, sight-seeing, and Covid

Woot woot! After 51 days in a hotel room, we move back to our 5th wheel tomorrow. While it's mostly been work, we did have four Sundays during our stay where Brett was off and we could get out and about, so we took as much advantage of that time as we could.

On the first Sunday, we took the ferry to Manhattan and took a guided tour of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. There are no adequate words to describe it, so I'm not going to even try. All I'll say is that if you haven't been, and ever have the opportunity, it's a must see. 

One of the two Memorial pools, each nearly an acre in size, that sit in the footprints of the former North and South Towers.

"No Day Shall Erase You from the Memory of Time"

Each of the 2,983 watercolor squares on the wall represents a victim of the 2001 or 1993 attacks, and each square is a unique shade.

The following Sunday, we headed to CT and had a nice lunch on the water.

On our next day off, we headed to Long Island. The weather was perfect for driving with the windows down, especially after being in a hotel for so long. We drove through the Hamptons, strolled around the cute towns along the way, and stopped at the Montauk Point Lighthouse. We had our first ever lobster rolls at Lobster Roll, also known as "Lunch" in Southhampton. It was crazy busy and obviously a very popular spot, so we had high hopes, but we weren't impressed. Perhaps we're just not lobster roll people.

For our final day of exploring, we went to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. It was our anniversary and also the anniversary of the day Brett's family immigrated from Hungary through Ellis Island, 115 years ago. 

Our tour group

The ship that Brett's family traveled on from Hungary.

American Merchant Mariners' Memorial 

Last week, Covid finally caught up with Brett, so he's been quarantining in another room. He never had a fever and is feeling great, so since he's passed the 5-day quarantine period, we're going to proceed as planned and head out tomorrow. We did check about possibly staying a few more days, but the hotel is booked. We do have plenty of room in the 5th wheel to both have our own space, so he'll just mask up for the drive and we we'll stay "home" for a few days. We're thankful it was a mild case and just a slight inconvenience in plans.

Overall, our trip here did its purpose. It refilled the coffers. We did get some sightseeing in, but we're both more than ready to move on. One thing that the area did not disappoint on, was food. Coming from a small town, where gluten-free options can be limited, it's fun to find good eats. Here are some that looked just as good as they tasted.  

Soufflé Pancakes at The Thirsty Koala
We had several meals at this restaurant, and they were all amazing. Highly recommend.

Crepe Brûlée at T-Swirl Crepes

Carbonara pizza at Basil Brick Oven

And of course, we would be remiss if we didn't mention tennis, since that's why we were here. I became a bit obsessed and watched a lot of tennis. It also got me out of the hotel, which was needed.

Beau was in NY, so we hit up the shops and of course, watched some tennis.

I usually watched on TV right outside the stadium, so I could hear the roar of the crowd, but the one night we got access to a suite was the best! And Brett was so sweet to agree to stay for the entire match, which ended up going until 2:23am!

Peace out New York! I'm not sure if I'm more excited to get a new view or to have a kitchen again and be able to prepare a meal. New Hampshire, here we come!

View from our room at the Hampton Inn LaGuardia Airport

Philadelphia, PA and Queens, NY

We spent another week in Gettysburg and took some downtime to relax at the campground.

It was a hot weekend, so we weren't alone in taking advantage of the campground pool.

Then, this past week, we headed to Philadelphia. There were no RV parks in Philadelphia, so we stayed outside the city in an RV/Mobile home park in Hatfield, PA. We were only there a few days and only had one day to go into Philadelphia. Our plan was to go in and have lunch with one of my employees whom I'd never met face-to-face. I chose the restaurant by looking up places that were gluten free. I'll cut to the chase and say that I should have asked the local to pick the place. First, the parking was non-existent—at least for us with our beast of a truck. After driving for a bit and realizing the only possible parking in the area was in garages and they all had low clearances, we decided to just have Brett drop me off and he would hang out and come back to get me. And then the food was just ok. But it was great to finally meet Kristen! After lunch, we headed to the Independence Hall area where we were able to see the Liberty Bell and get in a quick tour of Congress Hall. A little tidbit we weren't aware of about the Liberty Bell is that it was ordered from the Whitechapel Foundry in London and upon arrival, cracked on its first test ring. The bell was then melted down and recast by local metalworker, but when presented to the public, the sound was so awful that it was publicly mocked, and the metalworkers melted it down and recast it again. After about 90 years of use, it developed another crack, but it's not documented exactly when that occurred or why. The large crack that we now see is actually the repair of that crack—they widened it to prevent the spread and restore the tone.

Independence Hall

House chamber of Congress Hall

Senate chamber of Congress Hall

The next day, we headed to CT to drop off the "house" and the following morning, headed to Queens, NY. The Hampton Inn La Guardia Airport is now our home for 51 days. We're here as Brett is working for a friend who owns Roadwerx, a marketing and event production agency. They are building out some of the areas for the US Open. Check out their website—they do really amazing work! 

The Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the US Open is held.

The Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. It was built for the 1964 World's Fair as a symbol of world peace and reflected that year's theme of "Peace Through Understanding."

Walking through the misting plaza at The Fountain of the Fairs.

"Before" views of two of the areas they will be transforming for the US Open.

Today, we went to Target to do a small amount of grocery shopping—as much as you can actually fit in a hotel mini-fridge;-) After going just the two miles from the hotel to Target, I am so beyond thankful to Donna for loaning us her car so that we don't have to navigate the city with our big truck. We then found an amazing Australian restaurant, The Thirsty Koala. Brett had a smoked trout and goat cheese omelet, and I had the pain perdue (french toast) with a bruleed banana, rum toffee sauce, and fresh whipping cream. We'll definitely be back, and probably more than once over the next seven weeks, as they have so many other amazing things on their menu that we want to try. And the fact they are relatively close doesn't hurt.