We are on the home straight now. Having moved out of our house on Thursday, Harvey is now our only residence. We’ve been staying with friends and inevitably that has meant me filling their drive with tools and bits of motorhome as I worked feverishly to tie up all the loose ends. Our great pals Maya and Darrel put us up for a couple of nights and threw themselves into the RV project with impressive gusto. Darrel has most of the Home Depot tool department in his basement and even a Rug Doctor carpet cleaner! Fab!

He cleaned the carpets and upholstery and then tackled several other projects. Maya, for whom great design is just a basic necessity in life, immediately knew that the ghastly faux ironwear in the form of Harvey’s various towel rails Had To Go. Not only that, but she had the perfect modern nickel replacements and installed them on the spot. Set against the dark grain of the interior woodwork, our 1978 motorhome now looks like something from a high-end Danish furniture catalogue. Maya, you are a marvel and you have transformed the interior. Thank you. You have also transformed this blog thanks to the new images on the masthead.  So the RV stuff was great fun (er, for me anyway) but better was the time with all of us together, kids and grownups. It was a lovely easy few days and the three of us found it painfully hard to leave. Not being able to hang out all together so easily is one of the very worst things about leaving DC. We shall miss you all hugely.

I think we are good to go tomorrow. There is still a list of things I want to do but nothing I really have to do, so we will be off. The plan is to go north through Pensylvania, then up into New York State; the Finger Lakes and Adirondaks. North again to Montreal to get new US visas, then up the St Lawrence and out to the Gaspe Peninsula. We’ll turn south to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, then Maine and down to Cambridge MA and our next, stationary, address.

So, goodbye and thank you DC. You’ve been a lovely part of our lives and we will miss you. Now comes The Road.