Bill and Cathy McArthur Summer/Fall 2004: 5

   July began as usual with Bill's 64th birthday. We celebrated with a bike ride and a great meal at Union Park in Cape May. Katie and Tom visited for July 4th weekend. We enjoyed a good dinner and view of the Cape May fireworks at Tisha's Restaurant. Our friends, Sue and Jack Beatty from Boston, spent a long weekend visiting several of Jack's vacationing relatives and found time to visit us as well. Sue's brother Jay and wife Marge joined us for a cruise on the Salt Marsh Skimmer and for dinner outside the Lobster House. We also enjoyed dinner with Sue and Jack at the Crab Trap in Somers Point. We took our BT Cruiser back to Sunbird RV for some service items. We were disappointed that the broken mirror wasn't fixed due to a mis-shipment from Gulfstream of the wrong part. We attended our granddaughter Erin's 5th birthday party at Alex and Phil's home in Glen Mills and enjoyed watching the active children and talking with their parents. That night, Bill had to work from midnight to 6 AM porting two production websites to a new server. It was a long night with a successful conclusion. Our friends, Howie and Paulette Bell, visited for an afternoon and evening. Cathy had to work at the bookstore, so Bill joined Howie and Paulette for dinner at Union Park. Bill kept pretty busy working on clients' projects, while Cathy worked at GED testing and the bookstore. We took the BT Cruiser for its first camping outing by visiting the Delaware River Family Campground in Delaware, NJ. Katie and Tom joined us late on Friday night and got to enjoy some tent camping alongside our RV. We went for an 8 mile rafting trip on Saturday. The weather was perfect for a relaxing and fun-filled paddle. We saw a Bald Eagle up close as it ate a fish. Later, Bill and Tom hiked up Mt. Tammany while Cathy and Katie napped. Bill and Tom saw a large Black Bear lumbering the opposite way at about 50 yards distance. They stared at the bear and the bear stared at them. The bear wasn't afraid and also wasn't interested in the two hikers. The encounter came as Bill and Tom descended from the summit on a less popular path. We had rain on Friday early evening and all day Sunday, but it was much easier to handle in our BT Cruiser than it would have been in the pop-up camper. We were very pleased with driving and camping in the BT Cruiser and look forward to more of the same.

        Bill and Cathy