Spelunking in Virginia

We arrived here yesterday staying for 2 nights. The Caverns and the camp grounds are located on the same property. I took the first tour of the day, so it was a "privet" tour. Later in the day they have larger tours. It is a small cavern located in the side of the mountain. The tour took around an hour and there were 300 steps to go up and down. Part of the cave goes up 6 stories into the side of the mountain and down under the ground 10 feet. So today I was 10 feet under! I will need my Advil tonight after climbing all those steps and "Bring on the Wine!"

The drive from Hagerstown, MD to here was beautiful. We paralleled the Blue Ridge Parkway so the view was breath taking and enjoyable for the driver since we were on I-81 all the way. The camp grounds here at the caverns are reminiscent of Trailer Trash Park in GA. A lot of full time residences, pick up trucks and motor cycles. One traveling motor home has 5 dogs outside, 3 German Sheppard and 2 smaller dogs. Inside she said she had a female Shepperd with puppies. Couldn't imagine how that RV smelled. Chris wanted to say only 1 night but we stayed so I could go through the cave.

This trip has been a great experience. What a Wonderfully Beautiful County we live in. We have really enjoyed the campers we have met along the way. In Hagerstown we met two couples from Holland. They flew into NY, where they rented an RV and are traveling around for 3 weeks. They will end up in Boston where they will drop off the coach and flying home. Tomorrow we make the turn south to Charlotte, NC. Guess it is time to think about heading home. (After all there is an up coming wedding!) I see by my watch it is Wine Time!

15 Miles On The Erie Canal

Traveling from Maine through NH and VT was breath taking! The Mountain ranges are beautiful and both states are mostly forests. As we entered into NY and traveled along I-90 we ran parallel to the Erie Canal. Most of you reading this will not know the song mentioned in the title. I learned the song in grade school when we studied the Erie Canal.

We stayed at Herkimer, NY where they had a Diamond Mine that you can mine for diamonds (for a fee). Yeah, I can find enough diamonds to pay for this trip! Well, let's not hold our breath. It turns out that the diamonds are quarts and they give you a hammer to bang on rocks to find them. Where is Sandy when I need her? We met our friends Gary and Janet Townsend at the camp ground in Herkimer. They drove over from northern IN to meet us. After checking out the Diamond Mine, Janet and I decided it was more fun finding our diamonds in a jewelry store! We took a side trip into the small town of Little Falls located on the Erie Canal. The picture is of the Lock in that town.

We had lunch in a small cafe down town where Gary ordered Ham and Bean soup. Well it was a vegetable soup with beans (nothing like our ham and bean). I was going yo order a Gyro Sandwich but it was made with beef. Oh well, Janet and I ordered a salad. Gary and Janet only had a couple of days before they headed back to IN but it was fun sitting around the camp fire with them. We hope to do much more camping together if we can get Gary to retire.

After Herkimere we are headed to Batavia to visit Chris' brothers and do some golfing. I had problems with the WiFi and being able to Blog so that is why it has been some time between entries. Back soon with a posting from the Pocono Mountains.

It's Got Its Ups and Downs

What a day at Sea! We left the campground at 10:30am and caught the free bus into downtown Bar Harbor. We purchased our tickets for the Whale Watching Tour leaving at 1pm. We had lunch at a wonderful resturant on the harbor where we sat outside. For lunch we had pan roasted oysters and fish and chips made from fresh Haddock. The food was wonderful!

We sat on the dock overlooking the harbor waiting for our boat to return from the morning tour. It was late docking so we didn't leave until around 1:30pm. The water temp. was 52 and the land temp. in the high 60's. We were told to wear warm coats, hats and gloves as the sea air temp. would be between 45 - 50. Once we cleared the harbor the captain "put the medal to the pedal" to make up lost time. Outside the harbor, in the Gulf of Maine, the swells were 4-5 feet high. The best place to be on a boat in rough seas is at the back and outside in the fresh air. There were so many people sick that there was no room out back sooooo where does Chris have to sit, inside up front with several people around him using the barf bags!

I guess at this point I should tell you that I am up front loving it, as I love roller coasters and Chris does not! I love the Sea and Chris does not! (Any boat smaller than a Cruise Ship is not his "cup of tea".) Inside Chris is losing his lunch and losing his lunch and losing his lunch.

We finally get out far enough to slow down and look for Whales and we find two Humpbacks. I got a lot of great shots. We were out there a couple of hours before we headed back. The trip back took an hour but was much smoother and Chris did good with a ginger ale to help. Once we were docked Chris threatened to kiss the ground. (I don't think he will forgive me for this one!) He thought about asking the resturant for a refund but didn't think they would agree. (Lunch was not as good the second and third time around!)

Just one thing, I thought only fish were green around the gills! See you later.

Attach of the Lobster

OK this was a GREAT Lobster Dinner! We are sitting on the Beach in Old Orchard Beach, ME. Chris had a 2lb. lobster and mine was 1 1/4lb. The frozen Mango Daiquiris were wonderful. Life doesn't get any better!

Our drive from the Catskill Mountains was long with heavy traffic. (You forget how much traffic is in the North East.) Our KOA campground is very nice. They offer a pancake breakfast every morning. The pancakes are the size of a paper plate. One order has 3 pancakes. (Chris and I shared an order.) There is a Trolley that picks up at the camp ground and for $1 each way they take you to Old Orchard Beach which is about 4 miles from the KOA.

Now I must tell you, this was not our first Lobster dinner. We arrived on Saturday so on Sunday we took the Trolley. (Word of caution, NEVER take the recommendation of a Trolley Driver for a Lobster Dinner!) We went to a place called The Clambake Restaurant. We were told it was reasonable place to eat. You order your dinner and when they call your number you pick it up. Chris ordered a dinner that included lobster meat, sea scallops, and shrimp. I had a steamed lobster. When they called our number Chris picked up the dinners served on paper plates. Chris's dinner came in a small bowl and had only 3 small pieces of lobster with shrimp and scallops. I had a very small lobster. All this for $42.

Tomorrow we head out for Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. The camp grounds we are headed to is a first come first serve. We are a little nervous about this since we are headed into the 4th of July week end. It will take us about 3-4 hours to get there so we are heading out around 7am. Stay tuned for more.

PA State Park Camping

Yeh a picture! Here in the Catskill Mts. at the Pine Grove Furnace State Park we had no Internet and no TV signal! We were on top of a mountain in the woods. At each site there was electric hook-up and that is all. They had water stations to fill you tanks and dump stations (to dump of course). The park had new bathrooms with great showers. (Chris had his first shower in a bath house.)

Let me bring you up to date. We had a beautiful trip from Natural Bridge, VA to Pine Grove, PA. We decided to try a State Park for something different than the KOA camp grounds. The directions said 8 miles from the Interstate. No Problem! Well let me say, it took over 30 min. to just get to the Park Office due to steep hills and sharp curves on narrow county roads. (A white knuckle drive and that was ME the passenger!)

We parked next to the Camp Host, since they had only two 50amp sites. Ron and Sandra were a fun couple around our age. Sandra is director of the local hospital Blood Bank and Ron is retired from there. Chris was standing in their camp site, visiting, when a Very Large Bird decided to take a dump! A BIG dump on top of his head. I kept telling him (while laughing) that is was supposed to be good luck. (He wasn't buying it.)

We had a camp fire every night, watched the lightening bugs, and visited with our neighbors. The forest is pitch black at night. They had a nice lake that a swam in, brrrrrrrr cold. We decided as nice as the park was, we liked camp grounds better. Since we had time Chris did some routine maintenance. He even had me crawling under the RV! Wait, did I sign up for this?(See the picture.)

Wednesday morning we said our good byes to our new friends and headed out for the Catskill Mountains of PA. We had only gone a short distance (not out of the park) when I heard a loud click click click sound with each rotation of the tires. Chris stopped the Coach and walked around the vehicle. There was no apparent problem. We started up again and click click clicking. After traveling a few, miles taking a different route thanks to our Camp Hosts, we pulled over in a parking lot to recheck. I drove the home forward while Chris walked along outside and listened. He had put air in the tires while at the camp, so he decided to readjusted the lug nuts, to see if that was the problem. Yea, it was. On the road again.

Now I forgot to mention that I had walked through the RV while moving, to see if anything was loose and causing that clicking noise. While in the back bedroom I noticed heat pouring out of the floor vents. I checked the settings to see if the heat had been turned on. I didn't have the heart to tell Chris we had another problem while we were looking for the clicking. While he was fixing the lug nuts I got out the RV manual. It seems there is a switch on the dash that allows the engine heat, when turned on, helps heat the coach. Guess What? It was turned on! I turned it off and the problem was fixed! Gosh I'm Good! (I told Chris after the fact.) Who knows how long it was on. We were heating the bedroom while running the air conditioning. I wondered why the rear of the RV seemed to be warmer!

Well, I didn't mean to be so windy! Tomorrow we leave for the Coast of Maine and Lobster! I'll be back with more adventures!

Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

Here we are at Natural Bridge Virginia and it is beautiful! Our trip from Charlotte to here was smooth. We opened the windows in the RV because the air was so cool blowing in we did not need the A/C. We ran into construction on I-77 and sat in traffic for nearly 2 hours. It is nice to sit up high and be able to see far ahead with traffic. The only other traffic jam we have run into was in FL between Tampa and Ocala. A car was on its side on top of an overpass. No other car was involved and no one seemed hurt. It looked like the car had lost control, maybe hitting one of the concrete barriers then flipped. That wait was not nearly as long as I-77.

With the movement of the RV, I only put a small amount of water in the pets bowls. So here we are traveling at 65mph and I am checking the pets water dishes and see that Misty needs water. Now Skid has picked out the coolest spot in the coach to sleep, lying next to the sink. When I turn on the faucet for water, the air blowing in was so strong it blew the full stream of water onto the sleeping cat. Skid FLEW into the bedroom in shell shock! (No more sleeping on the counter. Guess that worked better than the squirt bottle of water I use.)

Poor Skid, she may be neurotic by the end of this trip. Here at the camp site, the front curtains were open so she could look out. When Chris decided to wash the front windshield she was sitting up there pretty as a picture. He got up on the ladder, grabbed his window cleaner, aimed at the window and sprayed. Skid was watching and the minute the spray hit the window she took off for the bedroom. Anyone know a good pet psychologist?

KOA had an "All you can eat" pancake breakfast here this morning in honor of Fathers Day. All dads ate free ( I had to pay $4.) We met a really nice couple at breakfast from PA headed to NC. Campers are a very friendly bunch always stopping to say hi and visit. It reminds me of simplier times when the living pace was slower. We are pulling out tomorrow morning headed for Pine Grove Furnace State Park, PA. There is no WiFi there so my next blog will be from the Catskil Mountains. Stay tuned.

More Adventures From the Road

Our travels from Savannah to Charlotte/Fort Mill was a smooth ride.

We arrived in camp and set up. When we put on the auto leveling jacks everything was doing fine then it started readjusting...............lifting the tires OFF the ground! Home on Stilts is Not Good, so we tried it again. Same thing happened. After checking with Tech. Assistance we used the Manuel feature. This worked so we don't have a "tree house" motor home.

We are relaxing today at the park and I decided to do a load of laundry. (Great front load washers.) I relaxed outside while the clothes washed reading in the cool morning air of 72. I went in and opened the stopped washer and water gushed out over my feet! I closed the door quickly and pushed the restart button then went back to my book with cleaner feet.

Chris decided to check all the fluids in the RV and found the coolant low. He checked with the front office and of course the one recommended, the camp ground did not carry. The girl working, let Chris use her car so he could to go to a Auto Store to buy the coolant we needed. ( He gave her a nice tip.) Chris packed extra oil for the generator and engine plus transmission fluid, but no coolant! We now have coolant!

Next, Chris checked the tire pressure and guess what...... the back tires were all 5lbs low. We think Lazy Days, when they added the extended stems, only put in 90lbs per tire not 95lbs. Sooooo Chris unloaded the Air Compressor and we filled the back four tires!

Chris had so much energy left that he washed the front window. (He really isn't falling off the ladder, just clowning around. Good thing he has a since of humor!) Tomorrow we keep heading north to Natural Bridge, VA. I'm sure I will be back with more escapades from the RV! PS animals doing GREAT!

On The Road Again

7:20am and the coach is loaded with the "Whole House" on board including the Dog and Cat. Off we go headed for our first stop in Savannah, Ga.

We are all of 12 miles from home approaching St. Road 70 and Chris notices something flapping in the wind near the back of the RV. We keep an eye on it and pull in at the Rest Stop before Tampa. A molding strip has come unglued! Soooo we get out the Duct Tape and WaaLaa it is fixed! (I hope this quilifies as our only oops!) Of course Chris didn't want to unpack the ladded so he stood on a chair with a smallfoot stool on top and me holding it in place. (Have a visual of that at the rest stop!) Frick and Frack fixing the RV.

Back on the road and all is well. We arrive at our Camp Ground a little after 3pm. Set up camp and we are ready for a couple of days relaxing on the lake with the Swans. Stay tune for more adventures from Ma and Pa Kettle.

New Baby

Why is life never simple? On Monday we headed to Lazydays to have our RV serviced for our Summer Trip. While we were there Chris says let's see our Salesman, James Paredes, to see if they have a new RV and can make us an offer we cannot refuse. I looked at him and said, "You are kidding?" Well he wasn't and they did! WE now own a new 2010 Winnebago.

Now comes the not so simple part.

When we test drove the RV, the rear and side camers were not working. Simple enough to fix. Also, Chris wanted another extender put on the rear tire making it easy to check and add air, to the duel tires. Again simple enough, Yeh Right!

Everyone was good to keep us a breast of the situation and we were told to pick up our new baby on Friday. We even had a confirmation call that morning saying everything is done and ready for pick up.

When we got there nothing had been done. Chris blew a gasket (this had happened with the last motor home) so we asked to see the supervisor. The motor home had simply sat there, with nothing being done. It took the supervisor ordering a new monitor from Winnebago to be shipped over night, and Chris going ballistic, because no one seemed to understand about tire air extentions, to get the job done. (They even had to look at our current RV to know what we wanted. This wasn't rocket science!)

OK, now we are ready for the walk through, but first the coach had to have a couple of last minute details handled (tighting a washer on the outside shower and washing off the glue they got on the front windshield). All things that should have been done before we were told it was ready.

Saturday afternoon and we are finally done and all set to bring her home. Once home, Chris parks the unit in the space we have and what does he do but RUN ONER MY PLANTER and cracks it in 3 places. (By the way this is the SAME length as the old one!) Then the emergency brake won't engage which means our sides won't slide out. Here we go again. I call Lazydays to make arrangements to bring her back up. At this point WHERE'S MY WINE?

Today, Sunday, Chris is cleaning the love bugs off the home and decides to try a couple of things to see if the emergency brake will engage. He figures he can't due more damage so he really stomps on the break and guess what? IT WORKS!...............WHERE'S MY WINE???????

The queston of the hour is, "Will I survive the summer and not become a Wine-O?"

Monday 19 April,

Lake Tobesofkee is beautiful, especially early morning with the mist rising off the water and the crisp clean smell of pine. This is a good time of the year to camp. There were no more than 3 other camp site occupied while we were there.

We went golfing at the Landings Golf Club, in Warner Robins. It was very hilly and beautiful. I loved golfing in GA. because the ground is so hard that the ball got a lot of distinace rolling in the fairways (provided you hit the fairways).

The animals were left alone for a longer time than usual (another hurtle to overcome) while we golfed. We left the TV on to help drown out outside noises. Once again they did great. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks. JUST LOOK AT CHRIS AND I.

Tuesday 20 April,

Today we went to the Warner Robins Musseum of Aviation next to the Airforce Base. The admission is free and it is a wonderful place to visit. I highly recommend it. We stopped at the store on our way back to the camp site and what do we pass but a Krispy Kream Donut Shop. I thought Chris was going to put our car on its nose getting us whipped into a parking spot. So a dozen donuts later we are headed back to our camp site.

We had rain most of the way back with it slowing up just in time for us to unload the car. Chris noticed the canvas awning was bowed with water. Now I have to tell you the tempreature is only around 70 and the rain is COLD. Our awning is manuel which has some advantage because you can lower one end and let the water run off. Chris decides to lower the back arm of the awning, but it is on a tight tention and you have to keep a strong hold so it doesn't snap out of your hands causing damage. This is where I needed my camera..............Chris lowered the back arm and here comes Niagra Falls right onto Chris! He gets drenched with COLD rain water and a lot of it. Next time he thinks he'll leave it slanted so the rain drains off gradually.

Wednesday was a relaxing day in camp and our ride home was uneventful...........Thank Heaven!

Our next trip will be north to Maine and I will share more Tales from the RV.

Chris' 65th Birthday Trip

Sunday 18 April:
We take off in our RV at 5:30am headed for Warner Robins, GA with the 12 year old German Shepard and 11 year old white cat for their first trip over 2 hours long. This is a trial run to see how they will do traveling all day in preparation to our summer trip of 5,000 miles. We have reservations made at the Perry Ponderosa RV Park for 4 nights. Everything is arranged with Golf on Mon. and a trip to Warner Robins Air Museum on Tues.

We stopped every couple of hours at rest areas and gassed up in Gainsville, FL. Everything going fine, until............................We got to the RV Park.

It was a very small park and when we went to check in, the office lights were out and the woman checking us in did not have our names. We told her we called ahead because we needed 50 amp electric service. So she took Chris with her to look at the space, because she was not sure which were 50 amps spaces. (first red flag) We were to be on the back area by the open field and forest. Oh it was the back field alright, complete with storage of other RV and Campers and trailers. (second red flag) Most all the spaces were "trailers" that LIVED there. (third red flag) The sites were so close you could hear your neighbor sneeze. There were no trees or grass and red ants everywhere. Clutter was scattered here and there. I'm sure I could hear banjo's playing in the back ground along with guns in the back pick-up windows. I am not sure what went on after dark!

Chris was ready to turn around and drive back to Sarasota. He was ranting and raving and saying things in Italian that I don't want to know what it means. I got on the phone with Christine, Chris's niece, and after a few calls and upsetting moments we were off to Arrowhead Park on Lake Tobesofkee. We had directions from Christine's husband, Jim. The Park was located about 20 miles north of where we were.

Chris had me call the Park direct and ask for directions. I got totally different instructions from the ranger. Sooooooo now I am trying to call back to Christine, while putting the address into the GPS, while trying to give Chris directions and calm him down! Where is my WINE!

Now let me say this. We arrived at the Red Neck Special RV Park around 1:30pm. After several U-turns and finally following the GPS we checked in at Arrowhead Park around 4:00pm.

Chris' family came over later and we had a nice camp fire and I drank a bottle of wine, ALL WAS GOOD. (Oh and the animals, they did great.)