The Brakes

Just when the trip was going so well ... some woman in an SUV 1/4 mile ahead of us tried to make a U-turn on I-81 in front of a whole line of traffic.   Needless to say, there was massive screeching of tires, and big rigs flailing this way and that to avoid hitting each other.  Pooh II was at the tail end of the action, but Frank still had to lay on the brakes extremely hard.  The smell of burning brake fluid was everywhere.  But, there were no accidents.  On a Southern California freeway, this would be just another day, but here on I-81 in West Virginia, not so much.

Fast forward 2 hours and we were in Lancaster County PA, looking forward to a couple of restful days in the Amish countryside when we heard a terrible clacking sound in the front wheel area, and then ... horrors ... no brakes.  No brakes, really.  Frank did a masterful job of bringing the 22,000 lb rig to a stop by downshifting, using the emergency brake, and then pulling into a big empty parking lot as we slowly came to a stop.  Whew.  It was truly scary.

A big-rig tow truck wasn't available until the next morning, so we had to spend the night there in the furniture store parking lot.  The evening became a lot more bearable when we discovered an open wifi connection from the coffee shop next door that was closed for the evening.  Voila!  We had internet and Slingbox TV.  Things could have been worse.

So sad

The next morning, we got towed to Anderson's Trucking.  Of course the required parts had to be ordered and wouldn't be delivered until the next day.  This meant one more night on generator power ... this time in the back lot of the repair shop.  No internet that night, but we were so tired we didn't care. 

Spending the night behind Andersons

Linda got a little nervous that the brakes might not get fixed on Friday.  The shop didn't start the job until 2:00 pm.  What if they can't finish?  They are not open on Saturdays. What if they find something else wrong?  Linda was stressing, and knitting as fast as she could.  But they did get it fixed, and we were on our way again Friday afternoon.

The owners of Anderson Garage

In our next post we'll tell about our sightseeing adventures in Lancaster County while we waited for The Brakes to be fixed.  We did have a grand time, after all.

Father's Day

Even though it's Father's Day, one of my mother's sayings kept popping into my head all morning.  When Mom was about my age now, (and also traveling for months at a time in her motorhome) she would say, "I can do anything I used to do when I was younger; but it just takes me longer to do it, and it takes me longer to recover from doing it."    

Whoo boy, I understand her now.  Take today, for instance.

We planned ... planned!, mind you, to load up the motorhome this morning, and then take off up the Interstate by noon, or shortly thereafter.  We definitely did NOT anticipate that transferring our lives from the condo to the motorhome would take 4 hours.   Actually, loading up and getting ready to roll does involve quite a bit of maneuvering:  loading clothes, food, electronic gear, hobby gear, knitting stuff, other stuff, and more stuff.  Then there is the exercise of attaching the dinghy to the motorhome, which involves going to get the dinghy at the off-site parking spot, leaving the SUV there, and then driving back to the motorhome, attaching it all together.  Finally, there are the last minute pre-flight checklists, and tire pressure checks to be made before lift-off.

It just takes us longer than it used to to get all this done (thanks for the warning, mom). So, we are resolved that for future trips, loading the motorhome will be a 2-day process.  As it was, we did not cross the Howard Frankland bridge headed north until 3:00 pm.  We made it to Dayton Beach, but no matter the time of day, the drive across Florida was 150 miles of pure joy.  We are on the road again!

Even with the tiring preparations, we love the motorhome lifestyle.  We like the fact that we get to sleep in our own bed every night, we don't have to unpack and repack suitcases every time we change locations, and we don't have to eat in restaurants all the time.  We do have to do our own dishes, tho.

We head for South Carolina tomorrow.

The Summer of 2012

Frank and Linda are on the move again.  The Winnebago has been checked, scanned, lifted, poked, prodded, tested, oiled, cleaned, polished, and pronounced road-worthy. 

We also did a mini "shake-down" trip to Bay Bayou Campground in Tampa ... you might remember we stayed there on our way home last year.  It is a delightful place, and we spent the day making sure all the internal organs were functioning . . . stove, refrigerator, plumbing, etc.   If you followed our trip last year, you know we had several setbacks and detours along the way.  We hope to avoid making similar memories this year.

Tomorrow we hitch up the dinghy and get back on the road in earnest.  Cue the Willie Nelson music.

First up on this year's agenda is our son's wedding in Upstate New York on June 29.  We're taking a leisurely journey north, spending some time doing genealogy research in Virginia, and then visiting Amish Country in Pennsylvania.

Frank says there is no better way to spend a Father's Day (once the kids have left home) than to be in the motorhome, heading for adventure.

Why?

A funny thing happened on the way to Largo.  As we were driving down I-75 near Ocala, we looked at each other and we both said, "Why do we have to go home now?"  Legitimate question.

It was Saturday afternoon;  there was Rays baseball to watch that night and Chargers football on Sunday, and neither one of us wanted to start the unpacking process after driving several hours.  After living in the motor home for 2 months, unpacking and transferring stuff back to the house is going to be a big task.  Best to start that early in the day, well-rested.

Ergo, we decided to spend the weekend at a local park in Tampa Bay.  There are so many nice parks here (thanks, snow birds) and October 1 is not the "season" yet, so prices are low and availability is high.  Our main criteria for this weekend was twofold:  good wifi and good TV.  We headed for a favorite nearby campground, Bay Bayou in Tampa.  It is lovely and only about 30 minutes from home.  We spent the weekend gearing down from the trip, watching baseball and football, and preparing for the move back into our house

Here is where we have been:

This has been a wonderful trip.  Come back to the blog for the epilogue + more pictures.

Spartanburg, The End

Sunrise in Spartanburg

And on the last day in Spartanburg, the men played golf.  It was good.

Linda went to some local antique shops, the outlet mall, and Camping World.  Sorry, no yarn shops this time, even though one of the country's prime yarn stores is nearby.  Her stash is screaming for mercy already.

Frank and Linda missed seeing Matt's fiancee Raelyn, but understood that she was taking an important professional exam and needed solitude and study time.  Go Rae!  We know you did well.

Back at the motorhome, we dined on take-out Mexican food and relived the day.  All too soon, our time in Spartanburg with Matt was coming to an end.  But it was such a good visit.  We will be back here, too!

Next morning, we packed up and headed for Florida.  The only destination awaiting us now is home in Largo. 

As we said when we began this trip, are we ready for this?

Spartanburg, Part Deux

Sunset in Spartanburg

We timed our stay at Spartanburg to coincide with our son's days off from work.  The day after the shrimp fest, Frank and Matt went to the driving range to hit a couple of buckets of balls.  We had sent Matt a new set of clubs for his birthday, and now we were able to see them in person.  They were a hit, to say the least.

Meanwhile, Linda went to see the Cowpens National Battlefield.
Google it.  Very interesting, really.

A man and his clubs

Battle of Cowpens ... short but mighty

Then we all went to Matt's softball game.  His team split a double header, and he had a long home run in one of the games.  After the games, we went out for a later dinner with Matt and some of his teammates.  Great day, so far.

Just before lift-off

As we were dining on sliders and chicken salad at Applebees, we watched the final MLB games of the 2011 season.  It was down to the wire for our Rays, and the prospects of them making it to the post season were grim.  Those darned Yankees were beating the Rays to a pulp;  worse yet, the Red Sox were leading the Orioles in the top of the 8th inning.  Any hope of a one-game playoff between the Red Sox and the Rays seemed to be gone as we drove away from the restaurant.  Goodbye, Rays until 2012.

We pulled into the campsite 20 minutes later, and turned on the TV to see just how badly the games had turned out, and to see the Red Sox gloat over their victory.  It was going to be sad.  Whoa...what happened?  To our amazement, the Rays had rallied to a 7-7 tie, and the Orioles were tied 3-3 in the bottom of the 9th.  How could this be?

The rest, as they say, is history.  One of the best sports days in history was nearing a close ... the stuff of legends.  The next day the internet would be full of videos and blogs and analysis of What Happened on September 28, 2011.