Witch Town....

We reluctantly, sadly, left our Cape Ann camping home. Abo ve is poop and gray water pumping.  Blech.

Our next stop was Winter Island park in Salem, that our new-friend-Joyce-who-we’ll-never-see-again recommended to us as a lovely place to stay.  Since it was a matter of a 20 minute drive south, I drove the car and Tony the RV.  I liked driving again and having some time to myself, being in charge of how and where to drive.  With Gertie’s help, of course.  Missed one turn and ended up in an apartment parking lot – awkward to turn for the RV – but otherwise found our new little slice of heaven.

It is so unique!  This is what travel’s all about for us, finding unique places to meet people, to sleep, to eat, to visit.  They add great stories to our already brimming mental files.  And we love a good story. 

So, we’re at this old Coast Guard station, which has at least four beaches of varying styles – all sandy/rocky, all protected by a little bay, some for families, some for adults, all very pretty.  We have a little lighthouse, about quarter of the size of a regular one; doesn’t work but it’s cute.  We have Fort Pickering, an old stone fort that’s seen better days, but is kind of fun to walk around.  We have South Beach right in front of our RV, tiny little thing which is beautiful to walk on and beach comb.  It has sand, rocks, snail shells galore…and is also very dirty.  I hope to make a sweep with a garbage bag before we leave.

During a little driving tour of the place, we came upon some campsites on grass that are pretty nice, so we stopped to look more closely.  Out of the hedge/fence comes a large ratty-beavery looking rodent.  It looks at us, we look at it – it continues to chow down on its salad of grass and stare at us.  Gave me the willies how comfortable it was with us looking at it.  Found out later it’s a groundhog.  Who would have imagined?

And, this beach has the distinction of being the first beach Roku has ever played/stalked/hidden on!  He first crept into the bushes lining the bulkhead, then sniffed and inspected each and every dingy in the rack.  As I walked on the beach, he and Tony continued onto the park next door, where he walked on the rock wall, then came down to the huge beach boulders.  What a character.  Of course he was fine until we told him to come in, as it was raining, then straight for the cracks in the boulders and just out of my reach.  I muscled my way up and ahead of him and was finally able to catch his uncooperative little ass and bring him scratching and fighting back to the RV.  But he was happier having been outside on his own again.

Yesterday was so lazy, didn’t get moving until 1:00 or so.   Tony made calls to our next stop in NH, to get our new step installed – more money!  We arranged for our next mail delivery in Weare, NH. We then made a beeline for the post office back in old Gloucester where Sandi and John sent our last bit of mail.  Nice seeing it again.  It’s a lovely old PO and I enjoyed standing in line ogling the beautiful and lasting craftsmanship.  After a quick conference on whether we should stop at our fav coffee shop to pick up a couple of Tony’s stand-out pistaschio scones – it was a “No” – we hit the road again for Salem to try and pick up on the trolley and at least one tour.  We ended up just driving around, enjoying the utter quaint beauty, and extreme mega-mansions of the area.  We ended up in two sweet towns nearby – Manchester-By-The-Sea and Profile Point – both rich in 18^th century history with town halls, old prep schools, huge mansions  - both old and new – graveyards, tree-lined curving backroads.

Finally made it back to the RV around six, a quick dinner of leftovers, a little TV, then reading and goodnight.  Roku bugged me most of the night, meowing, wanting out, needing to eat.  It was raining buckets so I did not get up.  When I did, at 8:00, he was indeed lacking food, and I quickly opened the door screen so that he could come and go as he pleases.  And he has all morning, in and out, in and out – always coming back.

We’ll be hitting up the House of the Seven Gables today, a little walk around Salem town, back for a gourmet roast type dinner.  Life is good.

One advantage of Alex working so early, West coast time, is that we are on the same schedule.  She calls almost every day around 7:30, during her break.  At 21 she is hitting her maturity stride day by day, and is living life to the fullest.  She’s now living in an apartment with her good friend Cindy, who she also works with.  She’s getting semi-liveable hours at work.  She has a new boyfriend, Jack, and they’re riding the pink cloud of love.  She’s energetic, excited, happy with life.  And she learned to drive a stick.  Good on her – so proud that she’s building a strong foundation to be a good citizen, and have a good life.

Oh, and my thyroid is just fine.  Go figure, two days in bed aching and tired…what could it be?!