Massachusetts visits, seeing the Coast Guard

We left New York and drove to Wilbraham, Mass, my hometown, and the place where I graduated high school. By random chance, and a search for dealers nearby, we found Redwood RV in Wilbraham who took care of the repairs on our awning. Bob Heywood evaluated our repairs, kept the damaged parts, put together a plan, and ordered what we woudl need for replacement the next week. We stayed one night at Auntie Flo's place in Wilbraham, then went to Ipswich where Paul, Maria, Liam and Amelia were waiting for us.

Liam (5 years old) started playing soccer this year, and his dad is coaching. There was a game on Saturday, which we all attended. Liam looks like a natural to me, but then I'm a proud grandfather. The games for these young players is set up on a small field, with 3 players on each team, boys and girls. I think Paul is getting as much of an education in coaching as the kids are in playing. He told them to guard the goal the previous week, and whenever the opposing team got the ball, all 3 players ran to the front of the goal. It did prevent the opposing team from scoring, but Liam's team never got the ball that way. Paul made some corrections, and Liam's team got to score a couple goals. I think that the exercise was well spent.

Saturday afternoon, we got the boat ready to go into the water, and took it down to the launch ramp for a shakedown cruise. We found the battery to be weak, and the gas needed freshening. Other than that, it ran OK. Liam, who has been fearful of rough water in the past, showed some fear initially, but as he discovered the waves in the bay to be pretty mild, he seemed to actually enjoy the trip. We didn't find any fish, so we started in.

But the Coast Guard found us. As we were the ONLY boat out that day, the Coast Guard needed something to do. So they pulled us over and checked our safety equipment, and found us lacking. We were missing a throw-able life preserver, and an audible signal. We went directly to the ramp, and pulled the boat out and stowed it. On Sunday, we went shopping for a new battery, and the items required by the Coast Guard.

<- Amelia's response to "smile!"

On Monday, Consuelo and I took care of Amelia while Liam went to school. She is a real joy to watch, a sweet and happy child. We watched Happy Feet with her, a fun movie. On Tuesday, we packed a few things off to our storage locker in Danvers. Getting a few things into that space was an engineering miracle. It's time for us to find a place in Maine and empty it out.

Tuesday afternoon, we returned to Wilbraham. On Wednesday, we returned to Redwood RV to get our awning fixed, and that process went exactly as planned. Kudos to Bob and his staff for making that work smoothly.

Thursday and Friday we played Aggravation with Flo, and sometimes Dee Keyes. That is our favorite thing to do with them, they are experts, and we're still trying to crack the code. Wednesday night, my brother Bill cam to Flo's place, and we had a picnic and caught up on our winter vacations. He bought a place and a boat in Arizona, and spent the winter there, and seems much more relaxed and happy since he retired. Thursday night we got together with old friends of mine in the area, the Whites and the Kastens. Like us, they are aging and enjoying life for the most part.