August 29–September 2, 2022 Elkhart, RV Surplus, and Flea Market

We left our beautiful little spot in Caesar Creek State Park and headed west thru small towns:

And into Dayton:

Dayton:

More Dayton:

Thru lots of farms and farmland:

 

 

 

Neat Road Side Attractions:

 

You can tell which way the wind blows:

 

I just love the small towns:

 

 

More windmills – yes it was very breezy: 

 

More roadside attractions!  I just love seeing them:

Welcome to another state on this journey:

We are in Amish Country:

 

We made our way to the Elkhart Campground and finished the day by setting up, fixing/rearranging more items, and then relaxing.  Sheesh!  It’s an adventure – LOL!

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 250 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Ohio: Center Road; OH-380; US-35; I-75; I-70; US-49; US-127; US-30

Indiana: US-30; I-469; I-69; US-20; CR-17; CR-04

On Tuesday, 8/30, we went to Bontrager’s RV Surplus and Johnson’s RV Surplus in White Pigeon, Michigan.  Bontrager’s RV Surplus Warehouse is huge and they have everything you can think of for any type of RV and small home.  We spent a few hours there picking up some items we needed and looking at what they have available and getting measurements.  I know that if we lived closer, Andy would be here quite a bit.  Johnson’s is more of an RV store but we still found some items that we have been looking for.

We did get some ideas of what we want to do above the cab and inside the cab.  And we found someone who will do it.   Soooo  we will make arrangements to get it done when we are heading back in the spring.  Now that we know what is available, we just need to figure out exactly what we want.  LOL!

We had lunch in a little town diner (just love the small towns) and watched some of the harvest:

 

On Wednesday, 8/31, we went to the Shipshewana Flea Market.  We have been thru this area a few times but never when it was open.  There were over 700 vendors (food, crafts, and junk plus interesting people). I could have spent the day!  Those who know me, know I LOVE these markets and Andy – not so much – .  We did pick up a few more items too.  Thank God, we are in an RV cause I could have bought so many more things for my yard.  I am going to be the old lady on the street who has lots of yard art or chachkies as I call them – LOL!

After a few hours, I took Andy home and I went to Walmart and the Amazon Locker to pick up a few of our packages.  It was a long day but fun..

Thursday morning, 9/1, was spent doing laundry.  In the afternoon, I went for a haircut and it is a little too short.  (I have a great hair dresser back home who took pictures of what it should look like and what to tell the next hairdresser.  Jess, it didn’t work…)  Oh well, it will grow back.  LOL!

Our neighbors:

That evening we went to dinner at the local Moose lodge – what a great time!

Tomorrow we head to Iowa.  We will be skirting the edge of the Chicago metropolitan area.  Always crazy.

So stay tuned and enjoy today.

 

August 27 - 28, 2022 Travel and Friends in Ohio

Saturday, August 27th

We continued our journey across Ohio.  Check out the cows, the blue skies and the green grass.  We have not seen so much greenery in months. (Our hometown is in a severe drought.)

The clouds and check out how flat it is…

So many beautiful farms:

  

I was so amazed at the greenery.  Beautiful!

We arrived at Caesar Creek State Park, set up, and met our friends, Karen and Tom, for dinner at a small restaurant in Waynesville, Ohio.

We met Karen and Tom in 2010 when they were camp hosting at Hueston Woods State Park and have stayed in touch every since.  Our paths crossed a few times when we were traveling but we have not seen them in quite a few years.  It was so good to see them and get caught up.  We made plans to have a cookout tomorrow at the state park.

After we left the diner, we took a little road trip around the area.  Saw many deer but no pictures.

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 180 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Ohio: Bond Drive; OH-149; I-7; I-270; I-71; OH-380; Center Road

Sunday, August 28, 2022

We spent this morning doing some more repairs and rearranging and some upgrading. (I will explain each in a future blog about the RV.)

Our site:

Karen and Tom came over later in the afternoon and we had a wonderful time still getting caught up.  We are so blessed with the folks that we have met in our journey.  It was like those years apart never happened and we picked up where we left off.

Their dog – such a cutie:

Andy with Karen and Tom:

Me with Karen and Tom:

What a wonderful time!  Thank you Tom and Karen and hope to see you again.

Tomorrow we head west and north to Elkhart Indiana so stay tuned and enjoy today!

 

August 26, 2022 Travel to Ohio

We did our final checks, packing and walk about and away we went.

Heading south on 209:   

Crossing the Susquehanna on 81:

Past the farms:

Heading to Western Pennsylvania Mountains:

Thru the Blue Mountain Tunnel (Tunnel 1):

Cool – this camera is GREAT!:

The light at the end of the tunnel:

But wait..another tunnel (Tunnel 2)..The Kittatinny Mountain Tunnel:

Love these mountains:

Tunnel Number 3 – Tuscarora Mountain Tunnel:

And the last one – Tunnel 4 – Allegheny Mountain Tunnel:

And we are out and among the mountains:

Pennsylvania turnpike has a few abandoned tunnels and a few years ago, three of us took a trip to see one set of them…very scary!

More farms – I love this picture:

That sky is very ominous:

A little rain as we crossed over to West Virginia:

But stopped as we crossed the Ohio River and entered Ohio:

Very dark:

Just as we got parked at the campground, it poured but stopped about 30 minutes later so we could hook up.

We are staying at Utika Shale RV Park in Belmont Ohio for the night.  It is a no frills park with full hookups.  The reason we are not boondocking is that it is HOT and HUMID and between us and the cats, we like it cooler.

Our Nexus rides like a bouncy truck and things get bounced around.  We thought we secured everything but did not so it was an interesting hour when we first settled in – LOL!  More arranging (and some repairs) to do going forward!

Our new GPS worked wonderful – loving it.  And the camera – loving that too.  Still learning both – good for my brain!

Tomorrow we continue west so stay tuned and enjoy today!

Stats for today:

Miles:  310 Miles (Long Day!)

Routes Traveled:

Pennsylvania: US-209; PA-125; I-81; I-76; I-70

West Virginia: I-70; I-470; I-70

Ohio: I-470; I-70; OH-147; Bond Drive

Summer 2022 Home in Pennsylvania

Hard to believe we were home five months! WOW!  That time went fast..

In short, this is what we were up to on the travel blog part:

RV Upgrades – We “Hitzelized” the RV – made it more our own.  I will have a blog in the future on what we did.  We have more we want to do so one of our stops will be at the RV surplus stores/warehouses near Elkhart, Indiana.

In June, we took a short trip to Tompkins Campground on Cowanesque Lake to test some of our changes.  We had a nice time and did have to make some more adjustments.  I think we may be making more as we travel. LOL!

Since we realized on the last trip that our GPS was outdated (lifetime maps really are not lifetime..), we did our research and purchased an Garmin RV 890 GPS.  It has been a learning curve (helps keep my mind active!). 

Also purchased a new camera – Sony DSC RX10 IV and that truly has been a learning curve and I am only at the beginning.

We put together a checklist of items we need to pack and things to do before we travel.  It will probably be an ongoing list as we travel.  

I also researched a planning tool for travel since my other programs were outdated.  I am currently using RV Life Trip Wizard along with All Stays and Escapee Days End.  The cool thing with RV Life Wizard is that the planned trip can be exported to the Garmin RV890..  Cool.

On the personal part:

We enjoyed spending time with friends/family although we did not spend as much time as we wanted to.

Andy was involved in some of the amateur radio events and Elks club events.  I helped King Cole Winery with a few wine events and got to a few craft shows and concerts.

Health wise, Andy is doing good.  I ended up getting the flu twice, then broke my toe, then COVID (again, sheesh!)  This time with COVID, my doctor started me on Praxlovid right away.  The week after I finished the pills, I felt wonderful and still do.  Makes me wonder if I had been fighting some other virus for the last few months. 

We had many discussions on traveling due to the price of everything. We feel that since we are both relatively healthy now and we know how quickly that could change, we are going to continue traveling until we can’t. 

Our plans right now are to head west to Washington, seeing friends and family along the way.  Then head to the southwest.  No real concrete plans after Washington.. so it will be an adventure.

We are on our way tomorrow so stay tuned and enjoy today!