Also, I must point out that the letter is Durelle's creation; I merely did the formatting and picture insertion. So here it is:
Season’s
Greetings from the Cloutiers’ 2007 Allegro Bus!
Right now I am in the shop, duct
tape and all, for a few repairs, so I guess I have time to write the Cloutier
Christmas letter. If you were driven by Frank
and were transporting Durelle and Baxter all summer, you’d need some
refurbishing, too. I need a whole new
back end. It seems that Frank spotted
some cheap diesel in an unfamiliar and cramped service station. While leaving he scraped my backside against
a concrete post. The electric flush switch
failed on the toilet; the refrigerator door seals failed causing a frosting
problem; the stove top doesn’t always light; and the dishwasher occasionally
quits too soon. And...the retractable
step doesn’t. The main slide-out works
poorly I think from the residue of that broken safety glass from when I was
burglarized a year ago. Rumor has it
that I’ll be asked to get them up to Maine again next summer when I’m feeling
perky again. I’ve heard that I’ll be
parked in a new spot, facing the old one but with a better view of Penobscot Bay.
Thank goodness I
won’t have to travel the routes and the miles I did this summer. I started off by taking them from Hanahan, SC
to the FamCamp at Nellis AFB near Las Vegas, NV for their granddaughter
Melissa’s lovely wedding.
Then I went to
Cedar City, UT for a few days so they could check out Bryce Canyon and Zion
National Parks. From there it was on to
the Air Force Academy with a stop along the way for a visit in Parachute, CO to
visit Frank’s
cousin, Carol. The piece of oil shale
from her husband Tom’s homestead in DeBeque is now proudly on the mantle. Crossing the Rockies at 11,000 feet was no
problem, but my “Jake Brake” got a lot of use coming down the east side. At USAFA I had to park “the wrong way” so the
dish on the roof could see the satellite.
They left me with the dog a lot as they visited, wined, and dined with
the Catalfamos, the Glenns and the Dills.
Fortunately, I got them out of there before the Wando wildfire forced
the evacuation of USAFA.
We then proceeded across Kansas,
Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania until we stopped in
Westfield, NY on the eastern end of Lake Erie.
They spent a couple of weeks enjoying sunsets, wineries, quaint villages
and new friends Larry and Jane from the strangely named town of Boston, NY.
They took a few day trips in the car to Brant Rock, to Plymouth to reunite with Durelle’s roommate Marcia and husband Peter, and to Lynn to visit Durelle’s brother Marty and sister-in-law Ann. While there we met former acquaintances and fellow Allegro Bus owners, Bill and Diane Russell. Durelle just loves walking around campgrounds with Baxter and hearing someone say, “I know you!”
The next stop
was the owners’ hometown of Athol, MA which required squeezing over that scary
old Millers River bridge by the old UTD factory. I parked in the parking lot of the shuttered
Silver Lake School so they could enjoy the festivities of Athol’s 250th
anniversary including a two-hour parade complete with the Clydesdales as well
as several Athol High School reunions with friends from the classes of 1942 to
1965 but most importantly, 1956.
I
finally got to go to Maine on July 23rd and enjoyed watching my
owners reunite with their many camping friends and enjoy a visit from their
daughter, Cindy. I provide an expensive
windbreak for many lobster feeds. This is
what Maine coast camping is all about. Note the barnacles on this old-timer.
I also am a
baby-sitter (with Rick’s help) for Baxter as Frank, Durelle, and Cindy went to
Southwest Harbor to visit the vacationing Gobiens, a good friend and former
co-worker of Frank’s. They also went to
Lewiston for an annual reunion with Durelle’s cousins Eleanor and Phyllis and
her husband, Fred. And, of course, they
had to make a sentimental journey to New Harbor and Pemaquid Point which
included a visit with another of her cousins Harold and his wife, Diane. After seven weeks in Maine, we trudged on
down to the Field and Stream RV Park in Brookline, NH and stayed three weeks so
that my owners could spend time with their son, Mark, his wife, Heather,
grandson Kevin, granddaughter Meghan, grandson Dave, great granddaughter,
Brielle and her mother, Carolyn.
Granddaughter Melissa now lives in Sydney, Australia with new husband,
Illia Zotos. Durelle also really enjoyed
seeing a lot of good friends from Nashua Country Club. While in Brookline they checked out the
status of Frank’s sister Marian’s and her husband Eldy’s “log cabin” in
Royalston. They have moved in!
They finally let me
start home on the first of October which included a couple of stops in Virginia
to reconnect with the Looses, the Myers and the Wegners. We got home on the 5th at which
point they off loaded a half ton of stuff.
Boy, did that feel good! Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year from this tired, sick, but happy camper. That's our Christmas letter. To those who have already seen it...my apologies. To those that haven't...I hope you enjoyed it.
No comments:
Post a Comment