An adventure on the way home.

We left Vienna around 9 am.  Early for us really.  I had no campsite booked for the night and thought we would just wing it.  I passed Graz where I bought us some subway sandwiches for lunch, then got back out on the highway.  I drove for a good 2 hours while George lay asleep in the back.  The mattress is good to have because it's so much more comfortable for him.  

Then disaster struck.  I was listening to an audio book when we drove through some construction.  I noticed nothing amiss, but when we got out of it, my screen started to flash red at me.  I looked down and the right front tire pressure was dropping rapidly.  

Thankfully I was near an exit so I took it.  The nearest garage though was 3.5 km away and being Sunday....it was closed.

I pulled over, put on the hazard lights, had George put on the only yellow vest in the car (I need to put another in), and set up the triangle down the road. Now to search for help.  I managed to find a garage open 30km away so I called.  1/2 an hour for a pick up.  Tesla roadside service was in venice-almost 2 hours from us. Pass.  

The tow truck came and loaded us up.  

He took us to a tire shop that just happened to be open.  In an hour they changed out my 2 front tires for 2 used tires and we were back to normal.  

Now here is the funny part.  Dad was a mechanic and I understand a thing or two about tires, etc. I was talking to the shop owner, and told him to make sure these "new tires" were balanced.  He was surprised I understood about that so put the tires on the machine.  I also told him I knew I was getting taken for a ride on the cost of the new tires but considering it was Sunday and we were in the middle of nowhere, that I was actually getting by lucky.  He simply said "Yes".  So €450 later we were on our way again. 

We headed towards Venice and stopped for the night at Camping Rialto (over crowded, small camp sites-not recommended).  Before settling in, we picked up some authentic Italian sushi and watched the Tudors on Netflix.  When dinner was over, we put in the window screens, shifted the non sleeping stuff to the front, and crawled in the back for a good nights sleep.  

A few notes, use regular pillows.  So what if they take up space, they are much more comfortable than the small travel pillows I bought along for this time.  The 2 old army ponchos that I have kept for well over 30 years came in handy.  George couldn't steal the covers from me because I was cocooned up.  I should probably look ahead and book campgrounds before hand. And there is no telling when road debris is going to ruin your day.  For the record, I had no choice but to replace the tires.  The hole in the one was probably 1/2 inch in diameter.  No ready plug is going to fix that.  Ah well.  He got at least one new tire.  I think I put those on this last winter.  

And through it all, I kept laughing.  It was just another adventure in the life of Roxanne and George.  And who can complain about waking up to this view?

Too long gone and a new adventure

I didn't blog about IPP this year. Honestly, as host I missed IPP.  I was hoping that I could make sure everyone had a good time, and from the feedback, I'm pretty sure all did except me.  Just a note to self: DO NOT HOST IPP again. 

I loved watching all of our friends enjoy themselves, but to be honest, I don't remember much of anything.  I was too busy rinning around.  So rather than post about a party I don't remember, I will instead post about the time after.  We skip a few years time because of hosting.  

George and I hosted a few friends after IPP and managed to get a lot more work done in the castle.  The plates are up, the people puzzle is up, the wolf and the rabbit is up.....One step at a time.  We took a week off to head to Corbo Sasso again this year.  We love glamping there.  The owners are such wonderful people and the camp is just a week away to relax. It was overdue.  

Now we are on our way to Vienna where our friend Alex is hosting his first puzzle party.  To get there, we are Tesla camping.  And this will be the crux of our next months worth of blog posts.  After this party, we are headed to Finland, then back to the Netherlands for Dutch Cube Day before heading back home again.  

Tonight is our first night sleeping in this Tesla.  We have stopped at a camp site an hour or so North of Venice.  We pulled in rather late tonight.  I had to make a stop to get some wine (how did I forget that!) before coming here.  

I unpacked the table and chairs while George worked on his computer for a bit.  I took out the air fryer and heated up dinner and we enjoyed it along with a good bottle of wine. I discovered that the silicon bowls I purchased from Amazon are no good in the air fryer as it melted.  Lesson learned.  

We spent a good bit of cash getting the car ready. I bought the Fruble light camping kit, a Snuuzu matress, and then added m old army ponchos, a pair of puppies, an electric blanket and a Bluetti power station.  I also took an induction stove from the apartment, the mini air fryer, our old picnic kit, a new bug zapper, and a few usbc chargeable lights to give us a bit of light.  I also purchased an extendable screen wand and a usbc chargeable bug zapper.  All in, I spent around 4000 to kit out the car.  But, with this upcoming trip, I ended up saving money because we are not spending all the nights in the hotels.  In the end, it will pay for itself in about 3 weeks.

The car used around 10% of the battery during our overnight stay.  The overnight outside temperature was 10 degrees so this isn't bad at all.  We were a nice toasty 22 degrees inside.  

My first nights sleep was fitful. Mostly because as soon as I fell asleep George decided to steal my pillow and that woke me up again.  Add to that getting used to the noises of the car and that made me a bit nervous.  I'll learn to live with that too.  

Oh, and the other thing....George had to wee at least 5 times.  Good thing I bought the pots for him. 

We drove on to Vienna for the first APP.  We checked in to the Austria Trend Schloss Wilhelminenberg.  It is an old castle that has been turned into a hotel.  It was originally built in 1781 and converted into a hotel in 1988.  So not as old as ours but what it lacks in age, it makes up for in view.

After checking in, we headed over to Alex's house in the country side for a nice chat, a few glasses of wine and a lovely dinner.  Sadly, 9 am was the start of the puzzle party so the night ended early for us.  Maybe around 10.  George gets tired easily these days and I didn't want to wear him out.  On the way home I had a giggle fit.  Enough said.  We slept well and the view at night from this room is spectacular.

Upon waking, I realized I only had sweat pants in the bag so after dropping George at the puzzle party, I headed to a local mall to get some jeans and a bit of good bread.  It is difficult for me to find the kind George likes in Italy. The jeans was quick and easy. The bread though was a disaster. I spent over an hour in the checkout queue because of some coupon discount sticker disaster that was going on. I texted George about my frustrations and to explain why I was taking so long....When my turn came, the final bill was to be paid, and the girl behind the counter remembered the discounts and wanted to give me mine.  I tossed my receipt at her and told her to keep it herself.  Later I found out this sale period ended 3 days ago but people were still using the stickers and this was causing much grief.

I got to the party a bit late, but did manage to solve a 2D packing puzzle that was given out to all participants.  I watched quite a few people solving puzzles and had some nice little chats.  For me, once I've solved one, I'm done.  I'm happy. A miracle has happened and why tempt fate?  

I saw Steve and Goerg were working on the host gift that I brought along for people to play with so I went over to watch.  No, I hadn't solved it yet.  It was a lovely puzzle, simple enough for me, tricky enough to stump others.  Stefan gave us the first hit. Without giving it away, it was basically, READ.  From there the solve was super fun.  I discovered one bit, played around with a bit of other things, but honestly wouldn't have solved it without the help of others.  And the surprise inside!  I loved it as much as I loved the look of the puzzle.  Stefan produced an amazing gift for us.  Now I just need to find a place to put it.  

We all had a nice lunch at a local place.  I had the dumpling soup.  Great broth, but the dumpling just didn't work for me.  George had a hamburger with fries and truffle sauce-I devoured those and had to order  another.  Toby entertained us with his story of how he met his German, and I learned quite a lot of history about the city from the local puzzlers.  Sorry, I didn't get any names as I came in late thanks to the sticker-gate.  

We returned to do some more puzzling and Alex showed us his prototypes for the ice-cream sandwich.  I liked that he prototyped pieces in various ways to make sure it worked. He won an award at IPP for this puzzle, and given that he designed it in 2 weeks time is incredible!  Hat's off!

A few 3D puzzles ended up with broken bits, but I learned about laying down filament and how infill is so very important on fragile pieces.  

Everyone packed up and left around 6. We headed to a pub for a beer and a bit to eat with Steve and Ali before heading back to the hotel for the night.  It's a long drive back to Panicale, and I hadn't gotten much sleep over the past 2 days so I turned in at 9.  That meant at 4 I was up and awake again while George snoozed on.  Ah well, time to finish this post.  

Tonight we camp again.  Hopefully I can find us a spot.