An iffy Fourth

Before the trip began we ran into a problem. Due to reasons too complex and embarrassing to go into here, we did not have a door on the refrigerator. So we had to do the trip using a cooler with ice. (The refrigerator has since been fixed.)

3 July
According to plan, we started by spending Fourth of July weekend at the Watermen''s Museum in Yorktown (VA) so that we could be available to help Jean's brother, Chillie-the Big Red Funnel Cake man. The weekend got off to an iffy start because Hurricane Arthur was coming up the coast and expected to be in our area about the Fourth. Heading toward a hurricane is something we don't usually do but what the hell, it wasn't supposed to be a big hurricane. We got to the museum about 5:30 on Thursday the third and settled in to our usual berth. The weather was in the high 90's. We learned that tomorrow's parade had already been cancelled due to predicted rain.

4 July
The rain happened during the night. By morning Arthur was off the Virginia-North Carolina border. There was no more rain but lots of wind. Friends stopped by from Williamsburg (they usually live in Seattle) and visited for a while.

With the parade cancelled, the morning was slow. Gradually the clouds cleared and toward late afternoon the wind moderated so that the fireworks were on as scheduled. By late afternoon business picked up at the funnel cake trailer and we had a line out the gate for a couple of hours. We eventually had to cut off the line because Chillie was running out of supplies. There were still people in line when the fireworks started.

Afterwards we walked down to the river. You could look across and in the distance see fireworks from four other cities.

By the time everything was wrapped up, there was no place left to eat but McDonald's. It was bumper-to-bumper getting there, and once there they were crowded and short-handed.

5 July
Morning was cool and pleasant. We walked to the Saturday market looking for something for breakfast. We ended up buying sandwiches and Linzer torts from the new Carrot Tree on the waterfront. After breakfast we drove to Sam's Club for supplies to replace what Chillie was in danger of running out of.

Back at the ranch, Jean rested and I worked on some knots for a new knot board for the museum. I found myself mostly doing whippings (2 per knot). In late afternoon, Chillie went to Richmond for more batter. After a while I joined his right-hand-man, Willie, and made lemonade. We had a steady stream of customers, but not a long line like yesterday. Chillie got back late, just as we were running out of batter; so we shut down and went to dinner at a real restaurant. Tomorrow we head for Vermont.