If you have been reading my blog, you know that right now, at this very moment, I am supposed to be waxing up my 6’5’ quad getting ready to paddle out at Dominical Beach, Costa Rica. Instead, I am sitting on my bed in the RV in Emerald Isle, North Carolina. What happened? Why are we here? The night before our first scheduled international flight from Richmond, VA, to San Jose, Costa Rica, Mindy and I were trying to sort out and purchase the Covid insurance required by the Costa Rican government. As I was thumbing through my passport, I noticed that the expiration date was 5.18.20…..WHAT…….I did a double-take, and it was correct. OMG. Here’s what happened: The night before that, we stayed in a campground near Richmond, VA, for our family reunion. Mindy handed me two passports. My old one with the 5.18.20 expiration date (that I had accidentally stapled my Covid vaccination card into), and the brand new one that took five months to get during Covid this past year. As I looked at both, I told Mindy I had no use or need to keep an old expired passport, and I threw it in the garbage can and out it went to the great dumpster of Richmond, VA, never to be seen again.
THAT was my new passport. In the trash. not my old one… I called the campground, offered a $300 reward, no go. I went to the state department in DC, but they would not even see us without an appointment. Earliest appt.? Maybe August. We were not going anywhere.
We had also arranged to have the leveling jacks repaired at a local RV service center in Henderson while we were away. We went back to them and let them know what happened and picked up the RV. They had not had time to look at the jacks yet. ANd, then, when we finally get back to our friend, Riley’s, house, we realize that the RV fridge is NOT working. WHAT? Yup. The fridge controller went out. Now it’s two days before the 4th of July in Virginia. We have already stayed at Riley’s house for four days because of my screw-up. We were supposed to be there for one night, and Riley’s family was going to take care of Mylo for the two weeks we were in Dominical Beach. Thanks for saving our butts, Shia’s! Now it’s the holiday weekend, and we need to get going, but we don’t have reservations at any RV park, and they are all booked for July 4th holiday. Mindy sends out a “HELP!! SOS” message on Facebook, and her friend from the early ’80s during the aerobics craze, Renee Weal, reached out and let us know that she and her husband had a full RV hook up on the beach at Emerald Isle, NC. Unbelievable. We went from total homeless desperation to a perfect spot on the Isle. Thanks for saving our asses, Weals! We spent the 4th on the beach with Renee, Michael, and some of their friends and then had a fantastic grilling session for dinner. Renee pulled up some of the crazy aerobic pics during dinner, and we laughed out loud at the outfits and hairstyles.
It was amazing. That’s Mindy doing a one-arm pushup, and Renee is doing the one-legged tricep dip. Love the hair!
And here I sit. I was bummed about my idiocy of throwing away a perfectly good passport and missing some epic surf. But maybe, just maybe, there was a reason for what I did. This mishap gave us the gift of spending time with great people and their families. I got lucky, got an appt. at the post office in Herndon, VA, the day we left Riley for Emerald Isle and expedited a new passport that should be in my hands in 4 to 6 weeks. Just in time to plan a trip to Portugal…….
PC update:
I am closing in on three months on Orgovyx. Another blood test in 8 weeks. I still feel great. No weight gain – still at 132 in the morning. Strength has taken a hit, but I am still working out as best I can every day. I’d give you an update on my Orgovyx with surfing, but I threw my passport away…..
RV living, baby!