Arrived safely in Ohio!!

May 12 – It was a lovely day with much less traffic once we were on the toll road of I-77.  Not much traffic at all but not many rest areas, especially when I need to make a potty stop! 

The weather was beautiful and traffic moved along with numerous of those aggravating closed lane areas.  Didn’t see any accidents today so that was a good thing for sure.

We arrived in Malta, OH about 1 and parked in our pull thru spot and met the owner of the park.  Nice lady who was out on a riding mower doing her thing!

After lunch we went into “town” to the hardware store for a couple of things, then to the Kroger store, which we learned is the smallest Kroger store in the US.  Narrow aisles and you definitely need to follow the correct traffic pattern in there.  We picked up some veggies and cottage cheese and then went looking for the post office, which we found on the second try!

By this time it was after 4 and our friends called that we set up lunch with at 4.  Well, I had agreed to today at 4 but my brain stored that it was tomorrow.  We took 5 minutes to get there and we visited and ate for about 3 hours.  It was great to see Mark and Sherri, who we worked with at Valley View CG in Valley View, ID one summer.  They lived in Arizona primarily but he is from Ohio and they decided to move back here where his sisters live.  Super nice people and it was awesome to see them again.  We’ve invited them to winter in Florida so we can get together some time.

We stopped at the only store in Malta on the way back to the campground, Family Dollar, for some white rags Bill wants for the RV.  We had a bit of dessert since we had dinner early and called it a day!

Nice afternoon in West Virginia

May 11 - It was a good day today!  The weather was great and traffic wasn’t as bad as we’ve seen already.  There was some road work but that seems to be the normal for every summer.

We left Asheville at 9:10 and arrived at Camp Creek State Park in West Virginia at 2:30. The park is very quiet with only about 15 sites and on a gurgling creek.   The grounds are very well maintained and we had managed to get one of the 2 pull-thru sites and didn’t have to unhook the truck.

I did have a close call at one point today.  I was in the right lane behind a Florida person towing a travel trailer.  I think it might have bene a virgin trip as they drove like snails.  Traffic was heavy and once I got a break to the left lane to pass it was at an entry where a semi was merging on from the right.  Well, the Florida person didn’t lay off or speed up and I didn’t want to be behind them when they crashed so I had to serve into the outside lane and luckily, they either got over or stopped as there was no crash behind us!  We did see a bad one after the fact further up the road.  Two semis and there were parts all over the road that I had to slow for and navigate around.  So, I guess it was a more exciting day that I thought.

We text and spoke to friends we make while volunteering in Idaho who have now moved back to Ohio from Arizona.  We will be meeting them for dinner in a couple of nights so that will be nice.

Bill washed the front of the RV and we sat out at the picnic table and had a beverage and read our books for a while.  Then we walked over to the creek and took a few photos and then stopped in the office and had a nice visit with the lady working.  She’s from here but lived in Florida for 30 years so we enjoyed our visit.

We will be in Ohio tomorrow and will do some sightseeing there. 

Fun trip to see wildlife

May 10 – Happy Anniversary Kam and Dan!  We had to change our plans for the day!  We were going to the Pinball Museum but it’s not open today and I thought we could drive along close to Biltmore so Bill could see it as tickets are sold out and we wouldn’t pay $84 each to go, so we went to the WNC Nature Center which we thoroughly enjoyed.  It must have been free or discount for kids as there were a lot of families and mothers with kids.  They were all very well behaved and it was fun to watch and hear them react to seeing so many wild animals.  I think they liked seeing the otters the most!  We spend a couple of hours getting in a good walk and enjoyed spotting the animals in their habitats. 

From there we tried to find a restaurant that Bill wanted to have lunch at but once we found it there was NO parking for blocks.  We finally found another place that is a BBQ restaurant with a “spin” on it.  You order and they give you a number placard for your table.  The salad I ordered was huge so I brought half home but managed to suffer through eating my BBQ pork.  The place was packed and had a line when we arrived but had winded down by the time we finished.

We made our first Walmart stop on the way back to the campground.  Still tweaking some things in the RV and picked up some veggies.  The freezer still has a long way to go to buy anything else.

I cooked my collards that Bill picked from my garden when he went home the other day for my hydroponic plants and he had some leftovers and I had some butternut squash we shared some  Asian chicken I had from Aldi.  It’s one of our favorites with the sauce included so it was a good dinner!

From the RV we keep seeing a rabbit in our yard and a pair of woodchucks.  They come right out of the bushes very close to our RV and the one beside us!

Heading on up the pike tomorrow! 

Long day but nice scenery

May 9 – Time to pack up and move again.  Today we landed in Asheville, NC.  The scenery thru the mountains was beautiful and it was pretty cold when we left.  Traffic was heavy with semi trucks.  We managed to arrive in one piece at Wilson River Front RV park.  Nice small campground on a river with all back ins and concrete level pads.  Can’t beat it!

We each had some paperwork etc to catch up on and somehow how I lost my ice cube trays!  Crap!  I have looked in all the cabinets and drawers and can’t imagine what happened to them!  Needless to say I have to get new ones tomorrow since Whirlpool won’t fix the icemaker valve until we are stationery for 2 weeks!  Crap for sure!

We visited with neighbors across from us from California.  She and Bill had a lot in common as she was in education as well.  We took an evening stroll to the end of the park where the tents are and it was getting dark and 2 girls were setting up their tent.  It’s beautiful along the river.

While I was making dinner I lost a chip from a tooth that I had repaired a couple of years ago and then I burnt my pointer finger!  Not good!  At least we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner of salad and pasta with chicken alfredo!

Bill did the dishes and we watched some TV after our walk and had some dessert!  Hoping to get my tooth fixed tomorrow and do some sight seeing!

Made it to Georgia!!

May 8 – We got a later start than planned today!  When the gang came over to day good bye, Mike and Tommy decided to fix the chair issue.  It didn’t take a super long time but it was certainly appreciated by Bill and I.  They also guided me out of a tough spot with an RV as long as ours.  Between the tree and the river edge it took multiple “watchers” to keep me from hitting the tree or diving into the lake.  We got that spot last year and I DO NOT want it again! 

We stopped at the exit to hook the truck up and had to make an adjustment there but finally got on the road.  Today was the longest drive we have scheduled so far!  It was a tiring day but we safely made it to Madison, GA.  Not the greatest park but decent price for a pull thru site.  Nothing exciting today just traffic and more traffic!  We finished off some leftovers and took a nice walk around the park and visited with one of the full time residents. 

We bought a set of folding pet stairs and have been trying to coax Molly to use them to get on the bed with treats.  The first 2 nights she really was fighting it and mad for sure.  Tonight I them on the side of the bed where she could walk straight up instead of along the foot of the bed.  I didn’t even get to put treats on the steps and “boom” she was on the bed.  I hope it’s a sign she accepts using them as she can jump down OK but can’t jump back up.  Time will tell!

Fun day with friends.....

May 7 - The campground has no WIFI so no posting until tomorrow, hopefully.  There won’t be any pictures this year as I considered not writing the blog at all.  It’s time consuming and cuts into my relaxing time.  So I’ll see how it goes if I don’t have to deal with the photos. 

Bill drove back home this morning as we forgot our hydroponic garden and he was going to get a couple other things as well.  At least we aren’t terribly far from home but the traffic on the interstate and expressway are not fun!

While he was gone one of our friends came to the RV and we learned together how the Cruise Control works on the new RV.  We checked on the fuse panel and breaker panel and tried to figure out how to set the engine brake but are still a little sketchy on it.

Bill was gone about 5 hours and made it home safely with my garden and 2 other hydroponic plants I have in glass jars.  He picked collards from my garden for me as well.  I’m a VERY lucky woman!

We had a group cookout this evening.  I took cake and cookies and out meat to grill.  The rest was a bit of a starchy dinner with mac & cheese, potato salad and corn.  Everything was good and the company was great.  We never run out of stuff to discuss and info to share.

Bill and I got things pretty much ready to head out in the morning but then I discovered that I had done something wrong and the driver and passenger chairs would not move forward or back!  Poop!  At least my seat was just right for driving!

Finally we are on the road again!

 May 6   -  It’s been a bit of a challenge for our summer trip this year.  First we picked out a new RV and then they would not release it to us due to a “possible” recall, so we finally went elsewhere and found the same RV for $25,000 less!  We managed to squeeze in two 3 night campouts to test things out and then took it to the dealer for 4 days to knock off all the items on the list.  There were still a couple of things they could do as they needed to order parts and our icemaker problem had to be dealt with by Whirlpool.  That didn’t get resolved as they require you to be stationery for 2 weeks to schedule a technician and to get the part and come back.  So I have to make my ice for the entire summer and I’m not happy about that!  On top of RV issues Bill ended up in the hospital with sepsis and once he was released he had a follow up with a Urologist who determined it came from his prostate so he had an out-patient procedure that is supposed to have “cured” any further issues.  It really worn him out and we ended up delaying for just 2 days so he could rest up a bit more.

We left today in our new 2022 Winnebago Forza and still have some tweaking to do inside.  Everything has a home, maybe not forever, but we got it all packed in.  Kam came over last night to visit and say good-bye and Jared met us at the RV as he had not seen it yet.

It was a short drive to Old Town, FL where we will be 2 nights with some of our camping friends.  The 8 of us went to dinner and visited for a while before so it was a nice afternoon and evening.  Felt good to be back on the road with our friends. 

It was an early bedtime for both of us as I was totally pooped by 9 and Bill was right behind me.