A near miss our first day out!

After months of planning and preparation for our four month adventure to Alaska and back, we left Fleetwood the morning of May 27 headed to the Buffalo NY area to see family and attend the wedding of Dick’s grandniece. Things started smoothly as we headed up through the central part of PA on Route 15. That was until just as we crossed the border into NY and noticed some very dark skies developing rapidly ahead. We clicked on the NOAA weather button and immediately heard tornado warnings for the very area we were passing through. Only moments later the winds started shaking the RV and then the hail started. In a matter of minutes the road was covered by abut two inches of hail and keeping control of the RV became and exciting adventure! Fortunately after about three minutes it was over as quickly as it had started!

Then, as we were only about a half a mile from our destination at Dick’s niece Becky and her husband’s home in Hamburg, NY we started down under a railroad underpass only to find a sign posting the clearance as 10 feet 11 inches. Now one of the first items you are told to learn as an RV owner is know the height of your unit! Ours is 12 feet 2 inches! (and we want a minimum of 12 feet 8 inches for safety) OOPS! Dick stopped just about 6 feet from the overpass! You can NOT BACK UP with a vehicle in tow! While Pat valiantly became a traffic director on the rather busy street right at rush hour, Dick had to make an unpracticed fast disconnect of our Saturn from the RV. That was a lesson not to be forgotten and gave us concerns if that was an omen of things to come! With the help of Becky’s husband Patrick, summoned by cell phone, we managed to get turned around and find an acceptable route to their home where we set up the RV to spend the next six nights.

We then met for dinner with all of Becky’s family and Dick’s sister Mary Anne and her husband Bob in from Chicago for the wedding and Dick’s sister-in-law Winnie who is Becky’s mom. It’s good to see family and we don’t do it nearly often enough!

The rehearsal dinner the next night and the wedding on Sunday were delightful events and it is great to see a young couple starting off on a lifetime adventure. We also got to see Dick’s brother Fred who is caring for his wife Joyce. Joyce was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and was hospitalized at the time and unable to have visitors. We are sorry we could not see and visit with her. Our thoughts and prayers are constantly with Joyce and Fred and we try to make calls to them often.

Additionally, we got to visit the homes of several of Dick’s other nieces and nephew and had a delightful time seeing each of them.

Friends from long ago thanks to the Internet

Late May: we hit the road

We left Orchard Park headed to Cincinnati to see some friends we had known when Dick was in training and stationed at the Naval Supply Corps School, Athens, GA in 1968-69. Thanks to the Internet Dick had been able to locate Verney and Mary Blanche in February through a web search engine and found they were living in the Cincinnati area. Since we had time on our side, one of the real bennies of being retired, and knowing we were heading west through Ohio we arranged to visit them. It was delightful to see them again after so many years and they showed us a very hospitable time in seeing the area and catching up on each other[base]'s lives over the intervening 36 years while spending the evenings of June 2 and 3 in their very beautiful home. Seeing old friends and renewing friendships is one of the little pleasures in life that is so enjoyable, and it isn't even taxable!

Dick and Pat Tracy hit the road

Welcome to a new page on Dan Small Outdoors! For the next few months, The Travelin' Tracys will follow the adventures of Dick and Pat Tracy as they log a four-month journey by motorhome from Pennsylvania to Alaska and back.

As they travel, Dick and Pat will send Dan messages and photos from the road, and Dan will post them on this page. Each post will bear the date it is posted and probably also the date of the events described. The timeliness of these posts will depend on the availability of Internet access to the Tracys AND on how quickly Dan gets the messages entered into his RadioUserland blogware.

If you are new to weblogs, simply click on The Travelin' Tracys to read the latest post. To read earlier posts, go to the calendar over to the right ---> and click on the date you want. You can access any post from the current or previous month. To read a post from earlier, click on the previous month. When that calendar appears, you will also see the month before that. Click on it and you can work your way backward through time.

Coming up next: Dick and Pat visit friends in Cincinnatti on their way to Chicaco.

Happy Trails!