There is always next year.

 Well - I have some bad news to share.

Our trip to England is over.

You might remember that this past February I had a knee injury and spent the better

part of March running around and getting things lined up for arthroscopic surgery.

After my PT visits etc - things were great and we hit the road full of expectations.

Just an hour or so after our last blog post, I proceeded to do my stretching and strengthening

exercises to continue my therapy, and as soon as I tried a "step up" I felt a tear and a pop

and sure enough - my knee is toast again.

So - today we'll make a u-turn and start to head west 1,600 miles back to Tucson with our

tails between our legs.

Disappointed - but not beaten.

Don't feel bad for us - we roll with the punches.

To update you.

After that new injury, I figured that I can drive without any problems, so since we were only

6hrs west of Red Bay, Alabama - where the bus was built - and we had our windshield scheduled

to be replaced there - we continued east yesterday and arrived in Red Bay at 3pm.

Dave Hester owns 1st Class Glass.

A glass shop across the street from the Tiffin Service Center.

Dave ran the Tiffin Windshield Shop for years and a couple of years ago he branched off 

and set up his own facility.

So at 0700 this morning we pulled outside of our assigned bay.

Waiting to enter the glass shop

Tiffin Service Center across the street

As more and more Tiffins are built - places to stay in Red Bay are

dwindling.   In the past few years I know of at least 3 new RV Parks that have sprung up.

Dave built one next to his shop and reserves some spaces for his customers.

1st Class Glass RV Parking

Dave knows his stuff when it comes to windshields.

Loosening up the gasket to remove the glass

Vacuum suction cups and crane to lift it out

In just a few minutes he has the old removed.

Within about an hour the new one is installed.

After the new glass in in place, a urethane glue is run inside the gasket to help seal

and hold the glass in place.

A super nice guy, he goes above and beyond.

He even installed the magnets that hold my "Magna Shade" in place,

and applied a glass "sealer" for me that I used to make it easier to remove bugs etc.

Neither of those jobs is his responsibility but that is the type of guy he is.

He installed my last windshield in 2019 and I never had a problem, a leak or whatever.

Anyway - I'm sitting here now waiting for a few things to set and then we'll back out of the bay

and start our trek back to Tucson.

Looking forward

We do have reservations for next year on the Queen Mary.

We'll be taking the QM2 to Hamburg, and doing a Europe/UK/Ireland trip,

so I'll need to get busy planning that.

We also still have our return reservations on the ship for October, and we are going to keep

them for now.   

The thought is that after a 2nd summer of post knee replacement

Physical Therapy - perhaps a nice treat will be to fly over to London, spend a few days, and

then take the ship back to NY.    

Without dogs we'll actually be able to enjoy the amenities of the ship

rather than spend all of our time on kennel duty.

For now - my immediate concerns will be getting everything from this years trip

cancelled and unwound, and getting my new knee replacement scheduled.

Last but not least....

We received many messages from our past post.

Lots of them are marked "anonymous" which is fine.

But since you did not leave a name its hard for me to reply to say thanks, but

we want you all to know that we receive every message and enjoy to hear all of your

comments.  Thanks and keep them coming.

Thanks again for following along.