We Made it Home to NY

It was with some trepidation that we left friendly little Satsuma last Wed morning. We had some key problems that kept us from leaving as early as desired. Once we did hook up, we discovered the trailer hitch on the motorhome was really too high, so we left and stopped at Rochester Import in Palatka and bought a device that dropped the ball height by 6 inches, which was a huge improvement. Thanks to the later start we had to wait only a few minutes for the store to open. Then we were on our way, committed to our big adventure of driving an unknown, unproven motorhome 1000 miles.

After about 35 miles, there was a new noise,that was definitely speed related. We stopped to check it out and found a rear wheel cover had come loose. We removed it and the noise was gone, hoorah. We proceeded North at a fairly leisurely rate, about 55-60 mph. which was a comfortable speed, because we were greatly afffected by the wind and by every passing truck. Anyway, we were eventually out of Florida, through Georgia, and South Carolina, mostly through NorthCarolina and were shooting for Ft Chiswell in Virginia, when it got dark, started to rain, with lightning. We had never used the wipers, and they seemed adequate, but the lights did not seem to be too bright,so we stopped in Elkin, NC, in a walmart parking lot. We often wondered about doing this, but it worked out ok.

The next morning we left about 6:00 and worked our way through N.C. into W. Virginia, and we began to think "we might make this trip". The "Monster" had to work hard in the hills of Virginia and W. Virginia, but continued onward. Then we reached Pennsylvania and knew we had done it. We arrived in our driveway about 6:10 in the afternoon. Foolish or not, we had done it.

So we had to turn on utilities, etc and learned we a water leak that could not be repaired immediatley. Our house is set up so that we can isolate different parts of it, and not shut everything down because of a problem. We learned to do this a long time ago. Every sink, toilet, whatever, has its own shutoff, plus as I mentioned the house has separate runs that can be controlled by use of appropriate valves. So we do have running hot and cold water in our bathroom , but not the rest of the house. We have been to busy to worry about it but tomorrow it will be fixed.

Friday, Lester loaned us a car so we could get the Windstar back on the road. and we all went to the Fiddle Club at Good Shepherd Church in Wendelville. We got to see Jerry, Alison,Shawn and Cheyenne, as they came to pick up some camping gear that we had .

Saturday, we went to Norheast Walmart to stock up on some supplies, and on the way back, a tire blew out. we had some help, got the little iity bitty one on and got home, but now it is Sat afternoon, and we have no spare. So we got the lawnmowers going, cut the grass and headed for Lakewood Walmart, get 2 new tires, and stop at Lester and Sues' on the way home to play cards.

Sunday, Derek and Liza and kids are coming to visit us at the Vikings. We get there and find the tarp we had put over it in the fall had mostly blown off. it had survived the winter but not the spring winds.others had the same problem but it was not a big deal. one of the campers had put up a new aluminum awning last summer, but it did not survive the heavy snowfall of the winter. Anyway, we survived the winter ok, and it was good to see Charlotte, Gracie and the little guy, Eli. We visited for a while, had lunch, and the kids played at the playground some. After they left we did some picking up of branches, cut down some skunk cabbage, and went back home to Ripley .We finished unloading the trailer , put up some new clotheslines,etc.

I finally got a chance to practice some guitar, and to bring this blog up to date. I also got my golf clubs out as I am going to try to play tomorrrow. enough for now. We are back in NY and loving it.