Virginia

After a month in Kentucky it’s time to say good bye.  As usual on a Habitat Build, I made some good friends, 2 of which I’ll see on my next build in Toms River NJ.  Paul and Ginger came from West Liberty to Morehead to work with me several times and were so much fun.  They will be in NJ visiting family and said they would come out and work with us one day.  The last few days of my stay I moved back to the camp ground to hang with the Care-A-Vanners.  I’m glad I did, since I got to know Marlene better. Turns out she finished up the house I worked on in Tuscaloosa.  I’d love a chance to work with her again, she’s another single woman on the road and I really enjoyed talking to her.  I also got to spend more time with Sue who I met at the class in Americus.  I’m having so much fun meeting these women, but where are all the single men, sorry fellas, single men under 60?  OK I know I’m pretty young to be retired with no job, kids or grand kids tying me down, but there must be others out there.  I’m taking Sue’s advise and joining Wandering Individuals Networks, which promotes itself as group of young, single RV owners who go RV camping and caravanning.  I’m hoping for at least the opportunity to hook up with other single RVers so I’m not always the only single person in the group.  On one Habitat build I was actually asked to move to another table because there were an even number of chairs and couples couldn’t sit together with me at the table.  While I’m having an awesome adventure on my own, I’ve come to realize how much better it would be to have someone to share it with. 

My first day in Virginia I was joined by my good friend Ronnie Sue.  We intended to go to a BBQ festival, but ended up doing what we always do which was nothing but had a great time anyway.  We did some shopping and of course eating.  A bonus for me, she left her left over Thai in my fridge, so I had it for lunch the next day. During one stop, I upgraded my Droid to a Galaxy 3, so now I have a new toy.  I also got a new pair of hiking boots that I'm anxious to out to use.

On Sunday I went to Reedville to visit my cousin Jennifer and her family.  Her husband Stuart is a fisherman and we went to the Blessing of the Fleet.  Basically it’s a day where all the boats are out on the water with the families on board.  It was a lot of fun, I really like spending time with them and their friends.   There was some sort of ceremony with singing, speeches, praying and an actual blessing, but it was on shore and we really couldn’t see anything. 

The next morning, I noticed an email from Barbara, also a single RV friend.  Seems she spent the night in Fredericksburg and was on her way north, intending to stay in Maryland.  One quick phone call, and an hour later she was parked next to me in Dumfries.    How cool is that!

My first order of business, and the reason for being in Virginia, was to visit my dentist, Dr Moffitt. http://drmoffittdental.com  Seems I had a cavity under a crown he put in a few years ago.  Let me just say, I hate going to the dentist with an absolute passion.  It all stems from a traumatic experience in my late teens.  I had a tooth pulled and the dentist gave me a bad mixture of nitrous oxide; I couldn’t breathe.  I felt like I was literally suffocating.  He called in Nurse Ratchet and her helper and they physically held me down while he pulled the tooth.  The more I struggled, the more force they used to restrain me.  So, I’m very picky about the dentist I choose, but I just love this entire office.  From Katie and Connie at the front desk to Michaela and Ingrid in the exam room this has got to be the friendliest group of people I’ve ever dreaded going to see.  Ok,  I might not even dread it so much.  I thought I would be in and out, the tooth I thought they would be working on had a root canal, so I was overjoyed at the thought of no shot.    But alas, Ingrid said there were 3 teeth with decay, all crowns.  I was in the chair for 3 hours!  When I finally got up to go, half my face felt like it was melting.  He had to give me several shots because the Novocain kept wearing off.  I must say though, I was entertained for the entire 3 hours.  Dr Moffitt likes to chat while he works and is full of funny stories.  Of course since both of his hands, a wide assortment of tools, a water spigot and suction hose are all in my mouth at once, I can’t converse back, but an occasional random noise resembling agreement seems to do the trick. 

Me and my 3 temporary crowns got out of the office just in time to retrieve Barbara from the coffee shop where she was patiently waiting and meet Kevin for lunch at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant.  Did I mention the problem with my face?  What was the problem?  The left side of my face, from my eye to my chin was completely numb.   Except for my jaw where the needle repeatedly went in.  So, as I talked I could feel my top lip flapping in the breeze.  When I took a sip of my soda, half of it slid down my chin.  Not that I could feel it, there just wasn’t much left to swallow.  I was able to shove the noodles in the right side of my mouth, but I wasn’t sure my mouth was closed and that I wasn’t chewing the inside of my left cheek.  Eventually I just gave up, but man was I hungry.  I’m so glad I could give my friends a good laugh and even posted a picture of my very lopsided smile Facebook.  I’ll now know what I’ll look like should I ever suffer a stroke. 

The rest of the week Barb and I just hung out; we took a ride to Andrews and Bolling, we walked around DC, checked out the zoo and Adams Morgan, met my friend Larry for dinner in Gainesville and walked around Old Town.  On Friday she got to go hiking while I had to go back to see Michaela and Dr. Moffitt for my permanent crowns.  He does great work, they not only look great, but they feel good too.  Too bad they’re in the back, no one can see them. 

So, all in all an uneventful week, but fun to catch up with a few friends and to get my dental issues taken care of.  Tomorrow I hit the road for Toms River, New Jersey where I’m leading a Habitat disaster build.  We have 5 homes to repair and one 2 story home being built.  I’m looking forward to doing the repairs, normally I only do new construction.  I’m anxious to see how this is different.