Day 30 – Tuckertown, Rhode Island

Don wants me to let you know that if you have been looking for Tuckertown on a map, you should probably give up.  There really isn’t a town here, just a crossroads where a family named Tucker set up a farm many years ago, and is still here.  He says to look for a large body of water called Worden Pond, just to the west of Wakefield; we’re on the south shore of the Pond.  It’s very convenient for us, as it’s only about 10 minutes away from Buzz and Joanne’s place. 

Don and I had another very pleasant walk in the woods this morning, along a somewhat different route than we have previously taken.  A highlight of the walk was my encounter with a very low IQ chipmunk, who forgot that he was supposed to climb a tree when I chased him.  He ran around crazily, with me in hot pursuit, for about half a minute before it occurred to him that a tree might provide some safety for him.  It was a good workout for both of us.  When we returned to the coach, we started getting ready to go over to Joanne’s for the day, and finally got on the road around eleven.

I haven’t mentioned this before, with all the stuff that I’ve been experiencing personally, but Joanne has been having troubles with the contractor that installed the concrete deck around the new pool.  The problem is that some areas of the deck looking like they have had hoses laid on them while the concrete hardened, and some look like the coloring material has been sprayed away, leaving whitish trails in the surface.  She’s quite upset over this, and had the contractor over for a consultation yesterday.  He saw the problems immediately, but had no ready answer for what caused them.  It really appears that there isn’t much of anything to be done about it.  Joanne and Don talked to Buzz, who is presently in Singapore, where our friend Buddy goes frequently, and told him about it.  Today, Don took some photos of the bad spots and sent them to Buzz so he could see how it looks. 

The Pool Guy came today to clean the pool and show Joanne how to operate all the controls and do the chemical treatments.  Don was interested in the new chlorination system that the pool is fitted with, so he listened in on the discussion.  Joanne worked with the Pool Guy to sweep the dirt in the pool toward one of the pump suction lines so that it could be filtered out; Don thought it was good for her to learn how to do this, as she would be doing a lot of it in the future. 

A little later, while Geri and Don were sitting in the living room, Gracie approached me with a ball and shoved it into my face playfully, tantalizing me with it.  She kept it up until, amazingly, I felt the urge to go for the ball and take it away from her.  Before I knew it, we were playing!  I was whirling around, trying to intercept her and grab the ball, while she was prancing around me, keeping the ball just out of my reach.  The traction on the hardwood floor was not good, and I kept slipping and losing my balance while trying to lunge at her.  She was a lot better at this than I am.  Playtime was over pretty quickly, as I gave up the challenge; Don says it lasted 40 seconds.  But both he and Geri were very amused at my efforts!  Well, it’s good to give them a laugh. 

We all had dinner at Joanne’s, then Geri, Don and I hopped in the truck and returned to the coach.  Joanne is going to a golf tournament at the West Point Military Academy tomorrow, and we’ll have custody of Gracie.  She’ll be staying with us in the coach, which should be a lot of fun.  I’ll have a full report for you tomorrow!