Waiting for the Sun

We're still hunkered down in Louisa, VA. It rained all day yesterday and is drizzling off and on today. There's lots of gravel in our area of the campground so no big puddles to wade through. Not sure how the area did with the storm but the winds weren't as bad as they predicted or the fact that we face north and the wind went straight down the sides of the rig made the difference. We could tell, if we went outside, that it was windy but the rig wasn't shaking while inside.

Nice park and being a Passport America park made it like $25 a night which is great for full hook-ups, direct TV and high speed internet. Will definitely stay at Small Country Campground if passing through here again. They are open year round.

We're hoping that First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach will re-open tomorrow. We will call today to make sure they are ok to open. It's one thing to be inside and do nothing if that is what you want to do but when it's gloomy and yucky outside and you have to stay inside, it gets old in a hurry. There is just so much TV I can watch of all the flooding and devastation. I feel sad for all the folks who have been impacted. All of our kids and family are safe and sound, up and down the east coast.

We've enjoyed our time with our friends, Amie and Marlene. If it hadn't been for this event, we wouldn't have seen them until March so this was a pleasant surprise for all of us. It's pretty disruptive to the park they were in the middle of working but they are making the best of it by trying to call and e-mail their advertisers. Everything will turn out great, I'm sure.

Hoping all of our RVing friends are safe. Can't wait to see the sun once again. Sandy has chased her away for a day or two but I know she has to come out again real soon.

Change of Plans

We were supposed to leave here today and drive to Virginia Beach, to First Landing State Park, to stay for the next two weeks but Hurricane Sandy won't hear of that. Since it's sounding like it might get pretty nasty along the coast (and the park is only separated from the ocean by some dunes), we have changed our plans. We are leaving here tomorrow and moving to a park about 20  miles away and will sit out the storm until Wednesday, then proceed to Virginia Beach, if the storm has passed and it's ok to re-enter the park. When we called the park, they said that they didn't plan on closing but the thought of 60+ m.p.h. winds blowing sand and debris around and possibly damaging the side of the rig, wasn't very appealing to us.

Our friends, Amie and Marlene, who were working at a Chesapeake campground found out that the campground was going to close today at 4 so they have also moved to the park where we're going. We can't wait to see them and hang out for a bit. They can help me celebrate my birthday tomorrow.....yippee !! We'll have a hurricane party....not gonna let Sandy spoil our fun. Our water tank is full in case we have any power outages. With a generator on board and a tank full of water, we should be all set. For any of our friends in the path of this storm, please be safe and stay out of harm's way. More later....

Fall in the Shenandoah Mountains

We are winding up our job here in Mineral, VA. We are really enjoying the beautiful fall foliage in the area and took a bike ride today on the back roads here to soak it all in. Skyline Drive, in Shenandoah National Park, is about an hour west of us and we found some time to go check that out. It was a little hazy so we didn't have crystal clear, long distance views but we can cross it off our bucket list. We thought the color palette prettier around here than it was up on Skyline Drive. Temps today are 80 degrees so perfect for short sleeves on the bike.

 

 

Lots of boaters out on Lake Anna today (at least the ones who played hooky from work) and the combines were working in the fields, harvesting the crops. We drove around inside Lake Anna State Park to check out all the different areas. This is a beautiful state park, right along Lake Anna. They have a very nice campground (water and electric - no sewer but they do have a dump station) with large sites. The state park is on the site of an old gold mine so some of the ranger led expeditions involve panning for gold. Sounds like fun !

The lake is man-made and was built to provide cooling waters for the nuclear plant here. They have a visitor center with all sorts of hands on exhibits. I must say that although I'm not an advocate for nuclear power, the visitor center is well done. One bit of info we learned is that nuclear provides 20% of the world's power. Hydro is the largest source of electricity.

I wonder if the country is on high alert or something cause we went by the visitor center over the weekend and found out they were closed. We were on the bike and as soon as we got near the guard station at the entry point, two guards stepped out and approached us. One guy put his hand on his gun and was looking over the bike (clearing with an eye on the storage compartments). He graciously informed us that the visitor center was closed and how to exit the property. Linda didn't pick up on any tension from him but I sure did. In light of the recent foiled plot by the guy that tried to detonate 1000# of explosives in NYC the other week, perhaps there is still an elevated alert at places like this. The nuclear plant itself is tucked away where you don't even see it.

The one neighbor we had in the park left today so I think we're the only campers here tonight. Sure is peaceful and pretty ! We're loving it to get our paperwork done and get ready to package the job. Hoping we get time to squeeze in another bike ride before we leave the area.

Young Eagles

Last Saturday was our last day to spend with Roy and Kathie (Linda's brother and sister-in-law). Roy owns an airplane and his flying club had a Young Eagles event planned for that day so we got to go and check it out. We've heard him talk about this event for many years but have never gotten to experience it. Jim, Linda's nephew was also there so we got to spend some great time with him.

EAA's (Experimental Aircraft Association) Young Eagle program celebrated it's 20th anniversary this year. Over 1.7 million young people have taken flights and experienced what it's like to fly. It's a wonderful way for kids, ages 8 - 17 to learn about flying and to actually experience it at no cost to them. Jim ran the flight simulator for the kids, under age 8. The plane has a certain weight restriction so that the kids are light enough to be able to "lift off". A leaf blower, in the simulator provides the lift and as the kids steer the plane they can turn the plane from side to side and raise and lower the plane. A water hose is attached to the plane and the kids can shoot a stream of water as they fly. They really love this part of their flight and if you look at the pictures, you'll see the band of water around the plane.

 

 

Jim talking to a young girl, with the headset, in the simulator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mission accomplished.

Another happy aviator....

 

 

 

 

 

The kids get such a kick out of being able to go up in the planes and experience this. The kids wear headsets, whether in the simulator or in the real plane, so they can talk to the pilot. Roy has flown over 350 kids over the years and both he and Jim enjoy doing this. Roy, along with about seven other pilots in his flying club had their planes lined up ready to take kids as they arrived to participate. Kids learn about the aerodynamics and what actually steers the planes and when they complete their flight, they get a really cool certificate.

Roy's plane

 

 

 

 

 

Roy on takeoff with another Young Eagle....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hangar where the event was held also had several aircraft inside, including this plane with the Philly's logo on it. Not sure who it belongs to but it would seem to be someone connected with the Philly's.

 

 

 

We're so glad that we got to see Jim and Roy at this event, since we've heard so much about it. Was great to see all the happy children, experiencing flight for perhaps the first time. This will be a memory that these kids carry with them for a lifetime !

Grounds for Sculptures

Linda's brother, Roy took us to Grounds for Sculptures in nearby Hamilton to look at the neat pieces. It's located on the grounds of the former fairgrounds. The neat thing about the displays are that they are out in the open where they can be enjoyed and interacted with. You're allowed to touch most of them (the ones with a green sign on them) and it just gives a whole new appreciation to it when it's not just hanging on a gallery wall but can be experienced by people of all ages. One of the artists is J.Seward Johnson who creates some really neat pieces. He will take many famous paintings like Renoir and create the scenes that are in the paintings.

This one is called "Dreamer"...the detail in the guy that is laying on the ground, in the midst of a daydream is so cool. Even the texture in his shirt, soles of his shoes and the sunglasses laying on his chest.

The guy that Linda and I are standing on each side of, in this scene, is the resemblance of the artist (Johnson).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't this one neat? All of her "clothes" are on nearby clothes hooks and there is a sculpted boombox and music playing. At a certain part of the song, she joins in and music comes from the shower stall to blend with that from the boombox....very neat. 

Rat Restaurant...a high end restaurant on the property. There is also a cafe called Peacock Cafe...that is where we grabbed a bite to eat.

Monet's Bridge....

We had a great time looking at the sculptures on a pretty fall day. We've enjoyed our time with Roy and Kathie. Tomorrow afternoon we'll go pick up the rig and then leave on Sunday for Mineral, VA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To the Tip and Back...

Linda and I are currently staying with her brother Roy and sister-in-law Kathie, in Lawrenceville, NJ. We're having a good time hanging out with them while our rig gets a couple of warranty repairs done. Technically the warranty ran out at 12,000 miles (we're over 13,000 now) but since we had scheduled the work several months ago, Thor honored the repairs. Trouble is the cushion they sent to fix the sagging couch was the wrong one and since they will only ship parts after a visual observation by the repair place, there isn't enough time to fix the bowed latch on the rear ramp door. We've been complaining about it since we picked it up but it takes several weeks to get parts in and we are seldom in one place for that long to get repairs done. We will now try to coordinate to get the couch cushion sent to Florida for when we are there the month of December. I need to start work on lining up a Thor repair place and have the new cushion sent there (sure hope they send the correct one this time). It's no wonder that most manufacturers get such poor ratings on RV surveys for follow-up, warranty work, etc. They make RVers jump through so many hoops and then when they incorrectly order parts, all of this leads to lots of frustration for us owners.

Jay and Becky at Herring Cove, in Provincetown MA with me

So we had a whirlwind vacation with my kids over the weekend. We drove to Media, PA to get my son Jay. He works till midnight in Wilmington, DE so we parked near his apartment complex, at a Wal-Mart, and I drove to his work around 10:30 so I could meet his staff and see what he does. He got off work a little early, went home to get his dog and some clothes, and off we went. We drove till 2:30 and then pulled off at a parking area and crashed for the night. The next morning we spent the day driving to Boston and parked at a Home Depot, about ten minutes away from Becky's work, unhooked the car and went into the city to get her. I must say it is a whole lot different driving in cities in the northeast than it is in the midwest or west. Can't say I'm real fond of it....makes for pretty stressful driving. Once we picked up Becky, we got the car hooked up again and hit the road for Provincetown, MA. By the time we got out of the city, it was around 5:30. While only a two and a half hour drive to the cape, it was during heavy rush hour traffic and it was starting to get dark and heavy fog moved in. It was like driving in pea soup ! We arrived at the campground and it was so dark and socked in with fog that we decided to just park in the office parking lot till morning. I have camped at this park many times before but back when I was in a tent. It's a whole lot different when you have a 38' motorhome that's 12'-9" tall. I found a site that we could get in and not get clobbered by a lot of trees and we got set up. I would not recommend this park (Coastal Acres campground) to anyone with a big rig because it's pretty tight getting around in the park and there are lots of trees that would prohibit tall rigs from backing into some of their sites. It's a park that is really geared to tents and small trailers.

We had a great time with the kids. We weren't sure how Baxter (Jay's Rhodesian Ridgeback dog) would get along with Boomer. They had a couple of skirmishes and Baxter got so he was pretty much afraid of Boomer and then they got along fine. He found out that he's not the only alpha dog out there. On Sunday we started making our way back. Dropped the rig off at the place where we bought it and then drove up here to see Linda's family. We got to see Linda's niece, Jen and her new baby Ava. They live in New York but will be moving to Finland next August. This may be the only time we get to see them till they return home to the states in a couple of years. It was so good to see Jen and meet Ava. She is such a sweet baby, with a bright personality. 

Need to pick up the rig on Saturday, from the repair place, and then we'll leave Sunday morning for Mineral, VA and our next park. Have had a great time seeing family. In another month, we'll get to see the rest of Linda's kids in the Virginia Beach area.

 

Linda's brother Roy and Ava

Linda and her niece Jen (Ava's mom)

Going on Vacation...

Linda and I finished up in Dover, PA. It rained like crazy the two days before we pulled out and the campground looked like each site had their own personal pond. Somehow all that mud and grit made its' way into the drinking water. I had noticed that the pearly white water filter we had when we arrived turned black in a hurry so I wanted to flush our system before we left. I did that and it quickly became black again. Pretty scary to think about all that silt that made its way into our spigots. The water has been really bleachy tasting so we haven't been drinking it (really missing our iced green tea). I bought new filters tonight and changed out the black one so we're good to go this weekend.

We took the rig this morning to one of our advertisers and had a new, beefier sway bar put on the rear end of our rig. Wow, does it handle differently. I still get a little push when a tractor trailer passes me but the top heavy sway has diminished a great deal. The size of this new Roadmaster sway bar is about 3x the diameter of the factory sway bar. This new one goes on and the original one stays on too. The shop said that the original one had some bolts missing and the bar was bent. Scary that the thin diameter factory sway bar got bent and bolts out in such a short time. Back in July, when we had the Safety Steer put on at the RVW conference, the installers had to replace a bracket then and the bar wasn't bent. Feel so much better that we have a beefier bar on there.

As soon as the rig was finished, we hit the road. We meandered towards Media, PA where my son lives. Stopped at a service plaza, took a nap and killed some time. My son works till midnight and right now we're sitting at a Walmart near his apartment so we can head out when he gets off work. We'll drive a bit to get above the city and take our time heading to Boston. We'll get to Boston to pick up Becky at five tomorrow, then head to Provincetown, MA for the weekend. Looking forward to seeing my kids after a year away !

Finishing Up in Gettysburg Area...

Hard to believe that we are coming down the home stretch on the three parks in the Gettysburg area. The jobs have gone better than anticipated and we're looking forward to returning next year to grow the jobs and get even more advertisers into the guides. We've made good use of our weekend time to visit family and friends and did get to revisit the battlefield area in Gettysburg since it's been a long time since I've been there (if you grow up in Pennsylvania, it's one of the field trips you take in elementary school).

Last weekend Linda's oldest son and his family came down and stayed with her while I went north to get a final visit in with my mom. There was an all you can eat pancake breakfast, here at the park, that they all went to and had an awesome breakfast. Each Sunday, all of the farm animals are available for the petting zoo so the kids had a good time with that. Bella, Linda's grand daughter had a birthday recently so they made some cupcakes and celebrated Grammy and Bella's birthday together.

 

 

 

Kids, cows, goats, horses, pigs, peacock, turkeys, ducks, donkeys and a whole barnyard full of fun is here at the park ! I love the pygmy goats and the other day, when we came home from work, two of them had escaped from their pen. They were climbing up in the bushes to get clusters of berries to eat. A couple sat outside their rig watching the goats and a bunch of turkeys that were strutting around.

They were stretching, trying to get to the berry clusters in the top of the bush so I helped them out by picking some for them. If I didn't pick them fast enough, they'd jump up on my legs to see if I had any more. They are cute little rascals !

As I mentioned, we also got to check out the Gettysburg battlefield. I didn't realize that they had built a gorgeous new visitor center, in 2008, and it holds a large theatre that shows a movie of how the Civil War started (I needed a refresher course cause my memory isn't too great and I never was very good in history class). There is also the Cyclo-rama where they have moved the huge mural, painted shortly after the war, and put it up in this round facility. The mural was four stories tall and longer than a football field. It has been restored back to its original splendor and it's a great way to visualize what the battle might have been like. After touring the visitor center, museum and Cyclo-Rama we took the auto tour through the battlefields. They have created a trail, that you follow with your car, on a 24 mile loop through areas such as Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, Peach Orchard, etc. After hearing and seeing how the war was fought, back at the visitor center, it helps you to imagine what it looked like as different battles were fought and how the lines advanced and retreated. It was a war with massive loss of life and thousands of wounded soldiers but one that was the turning point for the war. The town has done a great job of preserving the battlefields...something that was done shortly after the war concluded. The towns people felt that history needed to be preserved and they set about to keep things intact.

Linda, her sister, Carol and I hiked to the top of the overlook....all 120 steps ! We had a good time....there is a lot to see and to do it thoroughly would take more than one day.

 

 

Linda and I also met up with Chad for lunch one day. She and Chad have been planning something behind my back and sprung it on me  over lunch. Linda has heard me say that I've always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Instead of my mom letting me take guitar lessons, at age 7, she made me take piano lessons. So she decided to get me a guitar. What a great early birthday present ! I play a little bit every day, working in the book that she got me and also with some info I found on the internet. I hope I can prove that it's never too late to learn.

This is our last weekend in the area so Linda is with her family, up in her hometown of Chambersburg. I am working on some final sales and paperwork (and practice time with my guitar). On Tuesday we will take the rig to a place in Gettysburg to get a rear sway bar put on. This should help stabilize the rig and not have the huge sway in the back end, like we currently have. Our drive up to Boston will be the test to see if it helps. Our next assignment is in Mineral, VA in mid-October. Fall has come to Pennsylvania....trees are getting pretty and the nights (and days) are getting cool. One of my favorite times of year !

We Went to the Hershey RV Show and all I got was a Big Skinny....

Say what ? Yeah, we went to the Hershey RV Show....biggest in the country. Wanted to look at the Newmar Canyon Star toyhauler to size it up to what we have now to see if a contender down the road when my knees don't like crawling up into the loft. Although there are several mechanical aspects that we like such as heat pump option, option for 3rd AC in garage, etc., it has been crossed off the list for several key points that are important to us. With the bolted down step in the garage, it would be really tricky to get a trike in there. The ramp seems a bit on the short side, which makes for a steep entry into the garage. A lady we know had to have some custom ramps made to get her bike into the garage. The living space would not be suitable for our work needs. No space at all to put a printer, unless we put it on the dinette or in the bedroom. Bathroom is really tight and the living space is not laid out nice like our Damon Outlaw so you can easily see the TV. Nope...not on the list any longer. Been there, seen that and it won't work.

While we were walking around inside the arena area, where all the vendors are set up, Linda stopped to talk to a young lady that had wallets for sale. For anyone that knows me, I'm not a purse sort of gal and haven't been for a very long time. I fail to see a reason to carry something so big when I can fit everything I need into my pockets or wallet. It's an easy system..chapstick and keys go in my pockets and credit cards and money go in my wallet. So we listen to this woman talk about her Big Skinny and how great it is and I'm thinking "how different can a wallet be". You be the judge:   My old one is on the left....new one on the right

 

I was surprised that the 4 section one, like I bought, could fit in my pocket but it does quite easily. It can hold up to 40 credit cards that stay put and won't fall out of their sections. More than once, I've flipped my wallet open and the crap I have in the money section goes flying all over the floor. Aarggh !! So I bought a Big Skinny for $25. The lady showed us a picture of a trucker she sold one to, with before and after pictures of his wallet. His old wallet looked like he carried a huge kaiser roll in his back pocket....so much stuff in his wallet that it was giving him back pain (I would think he'd have an indentation in his butt the size of a softball carrying something like that around). I got home and moved my stuff over to it:

It's still thinner than the leather one even with the old one empty ! I bought the tyvek/nylon one although they do come in leather (It's not every day you can say you saved a cows life...today was my day). Here it is, open and exposed for the whole world to see:

So that was our exciting day at the RV Show. I resisted all the food booths with pierogies, crab cakes and funnel cakes but I succumbed to the Big Skinny lady. Hope you had a productive day...

Now you see it....Now you don't

When Linda and I left Nebraska, we were pushing hard to get to my mom's so we'd have a couple of days to spend with her. The weather was great and it was the last of Augusts' Blue Moon (two full moons that occur in the same month). We made really good time and as you may recall, we drove the longest on our first day...driving almost 12 hours. We had decided to take 80 the whole way across, regardless of the toll road so that we could make good time and not create a weird route going out around the toll roads. We were at the last toll plaza, coming out of Ohio and the outside lane wasn't open...which is usually used for tractor trailers and wide loads.

They had signs in the lanes that said to get close to the ticket machine so that you'd be able to reach and get your ticket. I was navigating to get "close" when I hear a really loud WHAM, which scared us both to death and I looked at Linda and asked her what that was. She said "you just knocked the mirror off on my side of the rig". Oh crap...Linda decides that she should go out and retrieve the mirror. The gate is up and I don't know if it will come down and we'll get stuck there plus I was worried about her out in the lane trying to mess around with the mirror. She was worried we'd drive over it and do more damage. She yells in that it's hanging by a wire and she can't get it. I tell her to get back in the rig and we'll pull off the road, away from the plaza and deal with it. We drive out of the toll plaza but the tractor trailers are whizzing by us and I can't get off the road (nor should I because it's not a real safe place to be). As we start to pick up speed, the mirror starts thumping on the side of the rig, which makes me really sick to hear. I pull off as soon as I find a quasi-safe place to do it and we go out to check out the damage. From the sound it made, when I hit the post, I expected to see a hole the size of a basketball in the side of the rig. Nope, a couple scratches and the mirror just hanging by the electrical wiring that heats the mirrors. When the mirror made contact with  the post, it pushed the mirror off the side of the rig and all four screws were there although a couple of them were bent a little. As we would find out later, there is a clip down inside the mirror that hooks the wiring together and I could have reached down inside there and unhooked it but not knowing that and hearing the traffic whizzing by us, I grabbed a pair of wire cutters and snipped the wire. I got some duct tape and fastened the wire to the side of the rig so it wouldn't slide down inside of the hole. We put the mirror in the rig for safe keeping. Thank goodness we have the rear camera on the rig because it would have been really tricky to drive (and pass other vehicles) without it.

While we were up at my brothers, he was kind enough to help me reinstall the mirror. We were fighting drizzly weather for most of the day but had to get it done so we'd be ready to leave. Jim reconnected the wires and used the new screws I had bought to reattach it. It's back up almost as good as new. We have a crack in the back of the mirror but it's fully functional and I'm so glad it's back on to assist with passing and seeing traffic on my right side. Thanks Jim for your help !

That was the weekend for mirror repairs. About two months prior to that, our rear mirror in the Xterra just fell off one day. We were driving down the road and it just fell on the floor. While I was in town, buying the screws for the rig mirror, I bought a kit to put the car mirror back up. We're now looking forward to looking backwards ! Ain't it fun the things that wind up on our "to do" lists ? Just because we don't have a sticks and bricks house anymore, doesn't mean that we don't have maintenance things to do. It's always something !