Dolphins, cats, and other topics

February 28, 2014--It was a nice trip. It ended too soon.

Our vacation went as planned: fishing school, fishing, and more fishing. Unfortunately, we never did catch dinner. That's the way fishing is. You can fish, but there is no guarantee that you will catch!

Our last two times on the bridge, we kept casting our lines, hoping that something sizable enough to be eaten would bite. The fish nibbled--they really liked the live shrimp we used as bait the last day--but they sure didn't catch!

As we gazed out on the water, watching our lines and waiting for a tug, we saw several dolphins out for a late lunch. Swimming less than 100 yards from the bridge, they would silently and gracefully dive into the water. Up and down. Up and down. I thought possibly that as they fished for dinner, their prey would come our way. But no such luck.

Despite the poor catching, we enjoyed the fishing. An hour or two casting is very peaceful for the soul. And the sun felt good, too! We are determined to improve our fishing gear and even try surf surf fishing, which the school emphasized.

Other topics...

Charlie was a champ during our vacation. He ate well (seemed to have gained weight, too); slept well; and even went outside to play. We would eagerly wait at the door and want to go outside. I can't say he was eager for the leash, but he tolerated it.

Xena didn't want to be outside. She decided the shotgun chair was her bed the entire week, and that's where she stayed. She sometimes also tolerated Charlie to sleep with her, too. Sometimes...not always.

When we got home, we put the cats on the porch. Within minutes, Charlie went around the front and tried to go back into the motorhome. What surprised us, though, was that Xena did the same! She climbed in after Charlie and they both refused to come out. We let them stay with us and take the RV down to storage. They returned home uncaged in the car. They were good travelers...almost like dogs!

Once we got home again, we transported them to the porch. It was dinnertime for them, and Jim put the food out. Charlie was nowhere to be found. Finally, after some time, Jim heard meowing at the front door. Charlie had gone around the house--I guess in search of the RV! When he couldn't find it, it meowed until we let him in. I have no idea why he didn't just go around back and come in as he normally would. Cats! Give me a dog. They are so much smarter. And companionable.

The first day when we arrived at the RV park, we had electrical problems--again. Jim dismantled the entire cord from its reel and wired it directly into the electrical system. Then somehow he reset the inverter. After that, we had no further electrical problems. I think they are finally solved. He would still like to fix the reel problem (rebuild it with new brushes), but so far he has been unable to locate the correct parts. So, we may do without the reel and have to coil the cord manually.

We are having a problem with the microwave, but we will be getting a new one later this summer, so we should be OK on that account. Oh, another thing...our portable ice maker also died just before we left. We had worked it hard for almost three years, so I guess it lived a good life. Jim will either fix the freezer's ice maker or we'll purchase another portable unit.

We haven't decided where our next trip will be. Sometime in the early summer (after a few projects on the house are done), we'll either go out west, then up through Utah and back through the midwest, with a stop in Chicagoland, or we'll go up the east coast, swing out to the midwest and back home. That trip will probably last about two months.

Until later,

Your Reluctant RoVer,
Linda