UFO & Bingo

Today we departed the Pumpkin Patch for a 2.5-hour drive southwest to our campground near Naples, ME. T.D. Erin had exited and we had beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the seventies. Because we were back in the U.S., we started using cell data again and along the way, Jane identified a place to stop for groceries within two miles of our target campground.  

After refueling, we stopped at the Umbrella Factory Supermarket for groceries. I was looking forward to shopping in an Umbrella Factory, but my excitement was quickly dashed after a few minutes. Buying groceries with upside-down umbrellas hanging above you while navigating narrow aisles packed with shoppers may be someone’s idea of a good time, but I soon exceeded my shopping tolerance and began getting claustrophobic. Jane gamely parked the shopping cart in one spot and wormed her way down various aisles to find our items. I was glad when we exited into sunlight and fresh air to load the goods in the RV. 

In the same shopping strip were stores for ice cream and alcohol whose names were prefaced with UFO (for Umbrella Factory Outlet). We ventured into the UFO store advertising over 700 craft beers but after the grocery store experience, I wasn’t in a mood to read hundreds of cutesy beer names and labels, so we quickly grabbed two bottles of wine and a four pack of beer and checked out. 

After stowing the alcohol in the RV, we walked across the street for lunch at Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern. There, we enjoyed a beer and a relaxing lunch, mussels and a salad for Jane and a lobster roll for me.

We then proceeded to the Naples KOA and checked in. This is a nice family-oriented campground with lots of amenities such as full hookups, cable tv, pool, recreation room and organized activities for young and old. We plan to spend the Labor Day weekend (F-Su) here. As we checked in, we were issued a DTA box for cable. While Jane processed our laundry, I unsuccessfully tried to get the cable system working but eventually gave up. Instead, I scanned the air waves with our RV antenna and received over 20 local channels. 

Later, while Jane was cooking supper, our campground host, Con, came by to check out our cable because of Jane’s request. Well, he had to rewire the outside cable and spend time on his phone with Spectrum to get our box reactivated. Con was very efficient but I felt sorry for him having to debug over 200 cable setups here with constantly changing customers. In any case, we have excellent cable service now and so, can track the progress of Hurricane Dorian and the first full weekend of college football.

After supper, we headed to the Recreation Hall for Bingo. We each bought cards for six games plus an extra card for the final cover-all game. Well, I haven’t played Bingo since I was a kid. Back in the olden days we won by covering five squares in a row, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Sometimes we’d get exotic and allow four corners to win, too. Well, here we played “traditional” Bingo on the first card but after that, the winner (who receives a cash prize) got to call the next game. We were issued a page with about a hundred possible games displayed on its front and back. Patterns included letters (Z, T, C, etc.), Sputnik, bow tie, etc. The crowd was lively as many had been camping together and/or had stayed here long enough to make friends. We had a good time but exited the Rec Hall as we entered it, losers.

After Bingo, we watched a little news on cable tv in the RV, then read or listened to a podcast in bed before dozing off.