Day 35 – Lisbon, Connecticut

Well, kind of an interesting day; not so much for me, but for Geri and Don.  I hear it started kind of early, with Don up a little after six, but you couldn’t prove it by me; I slept in until almost eight!  Geri was up before I was!  I guess yesterday’s activities had taken a bigger toll on my energy than I thought.  Don took me out for a very good walk after my breakfast, and we met another Goldie by name of Griffon, who was the same age as me, but had about thirty pounds on me.  He was a really nice guy, very friendly, and his human guy said that he had been hit by a truck a few years ago, and had his leg broken.  He had been well patched up, though, and got around really well. 

When we got back to the rig, Geri was busy cleaning the carpets and Don had to take some of the rugs outside to clean the dog hair (mostly Gracie’s) off them.  I guess he got a lot of hair on his clothes while he was doing this job, as he had to change clothes afterward.  As he was putting on his pants, Geri noticed that he had an ugly red spot on his upper leg, and asked him what it was.  He said that he thought it was a skin tag, and it didn’t bother him.  She looked more closely at it, and found that it was a huge tick that had attached itself to his thigh, and was looking very well fed.  She asked him how long it had been there, and he replied that it had been at least a week and a half.  She went a little funny then, not knowing whether to laugh or be mad, but she made it clear that something had to be done about the thing, immediately.  Don was forced to agree, and said that as soon as we got to our next stop, he would get some medical attention.

We got the rig ready to go, and departed our spot at Worden Pond to head west to Connecticut.  A little over an hour later, we pulled into DeerHaven RV Park in Lisbon, which is right next door to Norwich.  We were assigned to the Big Rig spot in the park, which is plenty roomy and very pretty, with lots of trees.  Unfortunately, those same trees make it impossible to capture our DirecTV satellite.  Don even moved the coach after our initial hookup, but was still unable to get reception.  They finally gave up on the TV, and went into Norwich to find a tick removal specialist.  They were gone for several hours, past my dinner time, even.  When they got back, Geri was kind of giggly, and I thought it was just that she was very happy to see me.  After we all had dinner (leftovers), though, she called her friend Laura in Long Island, and I got the real story. 

It seems that Don had been sort of Patient of the Day at the Urgent Care Center that they went to, causing a lot of unbelieving looks and snickering.  Like when he was checking in, he was asked what his problem was, and he answered that he had a tick, while blinking his eye.  Geri had to intervene, and explain that he had been bitten by a tick, which was still very much attached.  When the nurse asked where he had been bitten, he answered, “In Rhode Island”, which Geri again had to clarify.  It apparently got worse from there, when the attending Doctor asked him about when the tick attachment occurred, and found out that it had been more than a week and a half ago.  He wanted to know why Don hadn’t done some about it sooner, to which Don replied that it didn’t hurt, he didn’t know what it was, and it wasn’t a real bother to him.  The Doc kind of shook his head and walked away, muttering to himself. 

So the Urgent Care Facility brought all the power of medical technology to bear, and came up with their secret tick removal serum, otherwise known as Dawn Dishwashing Soap.  Once the area was smeared with this elixir, the miscreant tick was easily backed out of his feeding hole.  Geri asked that she be awarded the corpse, for possible identification in case Don died of Lyme Disease; Don was more interested in taxidermy.  It sounds as though this was somewhat less than a serious situation, and everyone, including Laura, got a good laugh out of it. 

So, TVless, and with only a XM radio, an iPad and an iPhone, plus a computer for communication and entertainment, we managed to entertain ourselves for the rest of the evening until bedtime, which came fairly early.  We hope your evening was at least as good as ours!