Rain Delay

I love Penelope Pop Up and I think my cat Osito does too. We have spent 10 of the last 14 days camped in the Poconos but the weather has not been very cooperative. During the first few days the temperature was well over 95 by afternoon and not much cooler overnight. Now we are in a rain delay.

One of the drawbacks of a pop up camper trailer is that you are not supposed to fold it up when it is wet. If you have no choice and you must pack up and leave on a rainy day then it is essential that you open it back up to dry out as soon as possible. If not, mildew and mold will set in and I’m told it’s almost impossible to get rid of. So you break camp, fold up the pop up, drive home and the next day you go out to your driveway and open it back up for a good airing.

Fine, except I don’t have a driveway. There’s no way I can bring Penelope back to New York City so I store it in a field in the Poconos. I have two options: put it in the field today, make an overnight roundtrip to New York and return to the Poconos tomorrow to air it out or stay put until the weather changes. So we stay in the campground another day. In the rain.

I’m lucky that I am able to stay here. Other than rescheduling a doctor’s appointment, there is nothing that compels me to return to the City. Such is the freedom of retirement. Strictly speaking, I’m not retired. Not quite yet. It would be more accurate to say I am permanently unemployed and burning through the savings that are supposed to sustain me later in life. I guess I’ll deal with that issue some other time. Right now I’m just happy that I can hang out with my cat in my new popup for as long as I want or need to.