Aug 15, 2024 – Essex, MA
The six-hour drive from Seneca Falls, NY, to Essex, MA, turned out to take nine hours. What with stops for a fast food breakfast, to pee and refuel we were doing OK. Then, as we approached our destination near Boston the I-90/I-95 portion turned into beep and creep. Fortunately, Sandy’s lawyer stayed late at his office for Sandy to read and sign the mound of paperwork necessary to complete the sale of her cousin’s house.
When we finally arrived at Ernie’s Service Station in Essex, we were dwarfed as we pulled our 23 foot rig in next to a 45 foot long fifth-wheel trailer with six slide outs. In fairness, the nice couple who owned the fifth-wheel lived in and worked from it in the company of their three dogs.
We talked to Ernie for a while before retiring inside for a dinner of leftovers from our last meal at Wolffy’s.
Aug 16, 2024 – Essex, MA
This was closing day on the house sale. There was no need for us to attend the closing so we visited with Sandy’s cousin, did some grocery shopping and waited anxiously to learn that the sale was complete. Finally, we got the word and breathed a sigh of relief. Done!
Afterwards we met Mary, a longtime friend and advocate for Sandy’s cousin, for a dinner celebration at Maddie’s Sail Loft in Marblehead. While waiting to go into the restaurant, our realtor arrived and hand delivered the check for the house sale to be deposited at the bank tomorrow.
Aug 17, 2024 – Essex, MA
While Sandy spent much of her day visiting with her cousin, Bill worked on WAWA’s steps.
When in “automatic mode” the steps are supposed to extend down when the door is opened and retract again when the door is closed. From time-to-time the steps fail to open, meaning it’s a really high reach to get into or out of the camper. Intermittent problems are frustrating to solve. Bill checked all the electrical connections, the most likely culprit, but that didn’t solve the problem. The two components that fail are the control unit and the motor. So he ordered them from Amazon to be delivered to a nearby locker.
He spent the rest of the afternoon writing and editing photos for the blog.
Woodman’s of Essex is a New England institution. It was July 3rd, 1916, when Lawrence “Chubby” Woodman invented the fried clam. It was at the humorous suggestion of a friend that he cooked up the first ever fried clams at his roadside stand in Essex. His customers loved them and they’ve been going strong at Woodman’s ever since.
We generally avoid restaurants that serve fried foods because the fryers are usually contaminated with gluten by the breading on most fried foods. Woodman’s is different. They use corn flour. With two exceptions their entire menu is gluten free. Only the clamcakes and onion rings are not and the entire staff is aware of the issue.
The place is huge and there was a long line waiting to place their orders. The line moved right along, though, and we soon sat down with our orders outside at a picnic table under a tent. Exiting the parking lot after thoroughly enjoying our meal we saw that the line was just as long as when we arrived. Recommended!