Thousand Trails RV Park - Lebanon PA

We arrived last afternoon Thursday, a bit on the exhausted side. Driving much over 200-250 miles a day is guaranteed to wipe us out, toss in rain and cold and you get a double whammy. It surprised us how warm it was while we set up so once done, showers were the order of the day. We came here for two reasons, first it wasn't out of our way and we had not used out Thousand Trails membership and second, to see our friends, Nick & Terry Russell and Greg & Jan White.

The drive from Indiana through Ohio and Pennsylvania was pretty, we were both surprised how many trees where changing. I snapped a few photos while following behind Stu and at one rest area (when it was actually sunny for a bit).

The only ones I snapped so far here at TT was coming in and grabbing a shot of all the Canadian Geese. LOL!

Friday was supposed to rain all day so all three couples pretty much hunkered down and did inside things. That meant Nick and I wrote, Terry worked on fabric/yarn or other creative things while Jan, Stu and Greg all watched TV and 'resticated'. LOL!

Yesterday was Greg and Jan's 45th wedding anniversary so we let them pick the restaurant. Fuddrucker's it was, followed by ice cream at Mazzoli Ice Cream Shop. As always, we had a great time, telling tales and laughing.

We've decided to stay an extra day. Stu's making a Sam's Club run and I'm working on my mystery novel. Life is good!

Moving on down the road....

[little leaf - fall is here]

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we got our repairs at Mor-Ryde done by 2pm on Monday. Managed to catch our mail forwarding before it got sent to Elkhart and sent it on its way to Delaware. That meant, no reason to stay in Elkhart...so, we hit the road.

We didn't go far the first night, spent the night Wallydocking. We made it about 180 miles on Tuesday and stayed at a Flying J. We stopped early, eating a late lunch/early dinner, the weather was nasty and there was plenty of room at the back of the lot.

Indiana - old vs new

We got on the road by 10:30 today, I know, not an early start for most of you but it works for us. LOL! It rained all night and most of the day which made the 250 miles even more tiring for us. We stopped to Wallydock in Clarion, PA.

Tomorrow we'll check into Thousand Trails in Hershey area for two nights. Our good friends Nick & Terry Russell and Greg & Jan White are there for a while. It wasn't out of our way and we've never used our TT membership. Seemed like the thing to do!

Sadie found the sun

Saturday morning we'll move onward to Delaware where we'll be family-docking in Stu's oldest daughter's yard, at least for a couple of weeks. We have a lot going on while we're there. Stu's youngest daughter is getting married - a Halloween themed wedding.

Plus we have a ton of medical, dental, hearing and vision appointments to get done. That means blogging will be slow...but I'll try to post weekly. Honest!

Cloudy, wet and cold!

It was Wednesday before I felt like doing much, hate being sick. But we did get out to the RV Hall of Fame for our first visit. They were having a huge event on the premises, something for dealers, but the museum wasn't busy. I took a few photos and rather than clutter this post you can see them in our SmugMug album.

We stopped at Firehouse Grill and Lounge for a late lunch. It was pretty good and we liked the ambiance and decorations.

With all the storms coming and going, there have been some pretty sunsets, I manged to catch the tail end of this one. Should have gone outside earlier. LOL!

Stu has stayed busy with indoor chores (and a few outside when the weather cooperated). One thing was replacing the reading lights over our bed. He reads with his Kindle Fire that has a backlight, I read with my Kindle Touch that doesn't so a light is needed. Initially he replaced the bulb in mine, still wouldn't work. So he pulled it out and cleaned up the contacts and when he saw how bad they were he pulled out his, too. Both were beyond cleaning so being in the RV Capital of the US, he picked up a couple of new fixtures and installed them.

Right now it's cloudy, wet and COLD! We went down to 38 degrees last night with the same or colder forecast for tonight with a high of 55 degrees. Brrrrr.....

Sadie never saw her little pug friend again, suspect the weather had something to do with that. That's not to say that she hasn't had her outdoor time, even if she did have to wear her favorite sweatshirt to stay warm.

We have been staying in touch with our online friends,  Dick & Melissa Secor . Initially both Melissa and I were sick, then the weather was too bad for a nice outside visit so we made plans to meet at Bob Evans for lunch. They had never been and we've always loved it. We hadn't been inside for ten minutes yesterday when the deluge started and quickly turned to hail. (We had more hail later in the day but nothing damaging.)

We love meeting RVers in person that we've followed in blogs. We spent over two hours chatting, stopping only for a bite or two of food. They've lived in some interesting places and just returned from a two week trip to England. We really enjoyed hearing about it all and before we left we made plans to hopefully touch base this winter in Florida.

Stu has spent this morning getting all the outside chores done so we can make a quick move in the morning. It takes me maybe 15 minutes to do the inside stuff which I start as soon as I get out of the bed. LOL! We'll splurge with breakfast out once we get registered at Mor-Ryde for our repairs. Keeping our fingers crossed that 1) they can fix the issue and 2) that it will be covered by their or our extended warranty.

Once we're done there, we will come back to Elkhart Campground for a night or two to pick up our mail and get ready for the trek eastward to Maryland for the month of October.

One last note for those of you interested in my attempt at writing my first novel. You can read an excerpt on my writing blog HERE. I'm about 10-12k from finishing the first draft, then starts the real work - editing!

First week in Elkhart

Wow, where has the week gone? The only major things accomplished are getting the first 8 loads of laundry done, doing another 6 today. Okay, so they are small loads. LOL!

Thursday was my 65th birthday and I got a not so nice present when I woke at 5:30am - a bladder infection. Sigh. Welcome to Medicare and old age. LOL! I emailed our primary care doctor back in Maryland and by 1:00 was on medication. Friday I rested and Saturday thought I felt good enough for my birthday movie date. We went to see ParaNorman (cute movie) and Resident Evil: Retribution (great continuation of the series, left us hanging and waiting for another sequel). We stopped at Bob Evans for dinner and I couldn't eat all mine.

Arrived home with a sore throat and felt really tired. By 9:30 we had headed to bed and by 11pm we were both asleep. I had a restless night, lots of aching, tossing, turning, weird dreams - didn't get up till noon. Really exhausted today so guess I overdid it yesterday.

My book is still unfinished (another 10-15k needs to be written0, maybe I can do a little writing this afternoon while Stu runs errands.

Sadie had a visitor this morning, a year old pug slipped his collar and came over to play. He's 29# to her 40# and he took no guff off her. They had a blast! The owner plans to bring him back for another play date. I'll try to snap a photo or two.

My good online friends Dick & Melissa Secor are here at the campground, parked not far from us. He is a painter (I am proud to own one of his small paintings of sand dunes) and she is a children's book writer (and the one who introduced me to the April A-Z Challenge that I did last year). They are here for repairs, too. We had hoped to meet this weekend but guess it will wait a couple more days. Sigh...

Elkhart Indiana for a bit...

"Where did Daddy go?"

On Monday we finally pulled out of the Mercer County Fairgrounds in Celina, OH after a great breakfast with Nick & Terry Russell and Jan & Greg White. We really enjoyed our time there and if we are ever close to the area on our travels, we'd stay there again. Great Passport America/Good Sam rates.

We didn't get on the road till almost one in the afternoon and had a three hour drive without stops. Of course, you know we had to stop, pee, coffee and a last minute door closing on Freddie. We pulled into the Super Wal-Mart and did a night of Wallydocking (yes we shopped - yes we bought stuff - LOL).

Tuesday around ten we rolled into the drive of the company that manufactures our replacement electrical switch. When our solar was installed they used one from Iota that has since been recalled and has caused some major issues. Ours melted and the replacement switch had different wiring.

The two techs spent ninety minutes, determined to figure out what was needed to make the installation work. They knew nothing about solar but finally found one spot that needed rewiring and showed Stu how to permanently fix the last item needed. We are finally working correctly again....maybe our solar panel won't be so wonky. LOL!

From there we headed to Elkhart Campground and checked into a nice, long, level pull-through spot. We're set for the next two weeks. Stu got the trike unloaded, set up chairs and the back awning with sunscreen. Life is good.

Then today arrived....early for me. I just don't think you should wake up on your 65th birthday with a bladder infection, but that's the way it was. Sigh....emailed my doctor in Maryland and he called in a prescription for me. Rested all day while Stu ran errands and babied me. Hoping to feel good enough on Saturday to go to the movies, maybe even a double header!

We'll be here till the morning of the 24th when we move over to the Mor-Ryde facility here in Elkhart to get that system looked at and hopefully repaired.

Winding down....

Our time here in Jamestown is finally winding down. We leave on Friday, headed Celina OH for the Gypsy Journal Rally. We've missed them the last two years since the one in Elkhart, IN in 2010. Anxious to see everyone and have a laughing good time and even learn something along the way. This is our favorite RV rally, we call it the non-rally rally. LOL!

From there we are heading to Elkhart, IN for a couple of weeks. We have repairs scheduled at Mor-Ryde on the 24th, hoping to get the last of our suspension issues fixed. Time will tell. After that we go back to Maryland for the month of October. We'll do the annual Red Helmet Ride, visit family, stick in a few doctor appointments and top it all off with the Halloween themed wedding of Stu's youngest daughter.

Then it's back here to Jamestown for November and on into December, at least until the weather gets too cold. After that we head south to Florida for the winter, staying at Bee's RV Resort in Clermont again. I guess we're in a winter rut but Bee's is convenient and reasonably priced. We like the campground and everyone is friendly...and they all love Sadie. LOL!

If you remember, I did a lot of pre-blogging with our A-Z of Us posts so I could concentrate on participating in Camp NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write a novel in a month, well, at least 50,000 words of a novel. I had signed up for the month of August and my 50k was validated this weekend. I managed to write 50k words of my novel in 19 actual writing days. That allows me to claim the title of WINNER. I still have another 10-15k to write, then the edits will start. My final goal is to have the book up on Amazon by sometime in November. Phew!

Rally Roundup...Moving Down the Road

Well the rally is over...what a great time we had. So many friends...both old and new. We bought too much, ate too much, slept too little, laughed too much (nah, can NEVER laugh too much) and just generally enjoyed ourselves.

Let's see if I can remember our purchases. Stu got the on-board Electrical Management System (EMS from Progressive Industries) installed, we got a replacement dish on our Winegard HDTV dish (thank you to Bill Adams from Internet Anywhere for all his work and help), I bought a great new purse from Debbie Davis (love, Love, LOVE it), and a few other odds & ends (a travel bowl set for the Sadie, an anti-gravity lounger for Stu and a couple of Gypsy Journal t-shirts.

Again, check out these blogs (I added a few since the last list) for their recent posts about the rally...LOTS of photos!

• Nick & Terry - Gypsy Journal (our rally hosts)
• Jim and Sandie - Where Are the Dixons
• Chris and Jim - Geeks on Tour
• Greg and Jan - Our RV Adventures
• Ellie and Jim - Justravelin
• Mac and Lynette - Retirement Adventures
• Keith and Donna - Green2GoRV
• Mark and Dortha - RVing with Poppa
• Joe and Marcia - Chasing the 70's
• Paul and Connie - A Breath of Fresh Road
• Jim and Dee - Tumbleweed

We stayed after the rally for a couple of days of downtime. We got a few chores done, did a little shopping, we went to see The American, and we continued to eat out too much (with friends and on our own...LOL!) We also stopped at Sam's Club where Stu found his perfect chair....Edith Ann has nothing on Stu, LOL!

Now we are moving eastward. We'll have several Wally World overnights and one campground night (outside Cincinnati where we will have dinner with my son and his wife). We should arrive in Maryland at Stu's step-daughters house sometime early Friday.

We'll be in Maryland at least through the first week in October (we always do the Red Helmet Ride the first Saturday in October). Much depends on getting Stu's knee looked at and what is recommended. After Maryland we'll move on to Jamestown, TN where we bought land last year. We hope to get a start on setting up a basic RV lot while there.

We'll winter in Florida, not sure where yet. February will be around Orlando since we are taking two older granddaughters to Universal Studios and Stu has his annual retired firefighter reunion there as well.

So that's the latest....hoping to get some good motorcycle riding in over the next few weeks. I need to get Gypsy well broken in and on her way to her 1k service.

So that's the roundup...

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna and Stu

Hey kids, this could be YOUR grandfather!!

We're still having fun here at the rally. Yesterday both Stu and I attended sessions as well as volunteered as room monitors at sessions. Today is much the same except we are currently getting our EMS (Electrical Management System) from Progressive Industries installed as well as having our HDTV issue looked at.

For whatever reason we can't get our HD channels properly. Winegard (the antenna) says it's DirecTV (the receiver) and vice versa. So Bill Adams from Internet Anywhere is helping us troubleshoot the issue.

Last night was the Hoosier Honey Beauty Contest. A couple of years ago when I attended the Gypsy Journal Rally in Casa Grande, AZ they had the Cactus Queen Beauty Contest. In addition both contest raised money for the Escapees CARE facility in Livingston, TX. Nick had tried to corrupt...errr, recruit Stu but he gracefully declined. Instead he got recruited for THIS...dancing with Dennis Hill of the RV Driving School. LOL!

So take a look...but warn your kids and grandkids before sharing...and don't be drinking or eating...you might spew something onto your keyboard! LOL! Thank you to Chris Guld, Geeks on Tour and bride of the winner, for posting this video. And thanks to our event host, Nick Russell, for posting these photos in his blog today.

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna and Stu

The Gypsy Journal Rally

I know that over the next week I will be too busy with the rally to blog much. So I thought I'd pass along links to the blogs of some folks already here...maybe you can see what is going on by following theirs...LOL!

• Greg and Jan - Our RV Adventures
• Ellie and Jim - Justravelin
• Mac and Lynette - Mac and Nette's Retirement Adventures
• Keith and Donna - Green2GoRV
• Mark and Dortha - RVing with Poppa
• Joe and Marcia - Chasing the 70's
• Paul and Connie - A Breath of Fresh Road
• Jim and Dee - Tumbleweed

Today was much hotter than the last few days have been. I pretty much hibernated and caught up on a few chores. We did take a walk up to the vendor area but things were pretty well under control. I know Nick and Terry don't feel this way but so far things seem pretty laid back as compared to other rallies. In fact I think about 95% of the attendees are already here!

I've been busy listing some spare motorcycle stuff on eBay. Four items sold yesterday and I added three new things today and one has already sold. Guess we'll be taking a trip to the Post Office before the week is out.

Tonight we passed on the Happy Hour and headed out to the movies. We saw Inception....what an amazing movie! If you haven't seen it, we highly recommend it!

Tomorrow we'll help with registration and anything else that needs to be done. The rally begins!!

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna and Stu

First few days in Elkhart, IN

Let's see, we've gotten hugs....given hugs. We've eaten out....and eaten out again and again. We told stories and laughed....we've heard stories and laughed a lot more. We've made new friends....we've seen old friends. We rode our bicycles around the campground....we rode our motorcycles through the campground and around town. Yup, definitely having fun!

Okay...dinner Thursday night with Nick & Terry, Mike & Elaine, and Greg. We hadn't seen any of them since the Gypsy Journal Rally in Yuma last March.

Lunch Saturday with Duane and Louise. Dinner Saturday night was with Ed & Christina, Bill & Jan, and Jim & Sandie.

For our lunch we picked the South Side Diner (and Soda Shop)...we had seen it mentioned in several other blogs and knew we had to try it out. Neat little spot, Guy from Diners, Drive-in & Dives fame has visited there. Duane does wood carving (he is amazing, check out some of his old blog posts) and Louise does quilting. Lots to talk about! It was great (as was the company) and we plan to visit again before we leave. Oh, and we got a diner style mug for our collection.

Duane and Louise

Dinner last night was at Das Dutchman Essenhaus...talk about good food. The smells as we walked in was heavenly. We all struggled to not eat too much so we could enjoy the made on site pies. YUM!! We first met Ed/Christina & Bill/Jan at the Gypsy Journal Rally in Yuma last March. Ed is a retired firefighter so he and Stu immediately had a lot to talk about. His beautiful wife Christina had treated us to a Korean meal (talk about delicious...and she says she can't cook, can't imagine what it would have been like if she could....LOL!)

Ed and Christina

Bill and Jan

Jim and Sandie

We got back from dinner and saw that Nick & Terry were home so we stopped in to find out what we could do to help. Since most rigs are arriving early, there is no need for a parking crew. There will be little things we can help with as the rally progresses but no pressing need right now. So we sat there for two hours and swapped stories....LOL!

Two days, three great meals with a lot of old friends and a couple of new ones. Life is good!!

Oh, we also got some updated photos of our sweet little Sadie who is three weeks old and has her eyes open.

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna and Stu

Rewind, reload....RECAP

Wow...where does the time go? I used to blog every day....LOL! To rewind the days, reload my brain from my calendar notes, here is a recap of the last almost week.

We left you in Jamestown, ND where we picked up my new motorycle...who now has a name. She is Gypsy....this is the first "girl" bike I have ever had.

• My first motorcycle was a 2001 HD Sportster Hugger and was named Jeremiah (think "Joy To the World". 
• My second bike was a 2002 HD Dyna Low Rider named Benni (long story...think West Side Story, Sharks & the Jets and then Elton John with Benny and the Jets). 
• After two years I moved on to my 2005 HD Softail Deluxe who was named Rex (a combination of Retro and excellence, with Retro in honor of a good friend who died of cancer thanks to Agent Orange as well as the bike's retro stylings).
• Then along came a 2006 BMW F650GS that never got named...I never bonded with the bike.
• Last August we added Twister to the household, a 2008 HD Sportster Nightster.
• Now we have a 2011 HD Sportster SuperLow named Gypsy (and of course our second iteration of Big Red for Stu)

Sorry for the rambling there...thought someone might be interested...figured anyone who isn't will skip over it. LOL!

Back to the recap...we left Jamestown, ND and headed east. Our first night was spent at the Governer's Inn & Campground in Casselton, ND just outside Fargo. This was the same place I stayed 5 years ago on my motorcycle tour. That day was dark and rainy with hail and severe thunderstorms. For us it was sunny and windy. The park was nice and level and wide open for satellite. We'd definitely stay there again.

On Sunday we stayed at Irvington Campground in Menomonie, MN. A bit off the beaten track, it was a fairly new campground with room for a rig as big as ours. Another, we'd stay again..although we had to use the antenna...too many trees for our satellite dish.

Monday found us outside Milwaukee at the Bark River Campground in Jefferson, WI. Mostly a membership park with long term rentals, they also rent a few other spaces. Since it was a Passport American park we got a site for $15 a nite. The site was pretty unlevel and no sewer (although there was a dump on the way out). But for the price...it was fine.

Tuesday we did some chores and road to a neighboring town to see a movie. We had been wanting to see "The Expendables" and this was our chance. A lot of action and nice to see so many action stars in one movie. A full moon ride back to the campground...nice!

Wednesday was the first time out on my new bike...we rode 50 back road miles into Milwaukee to visit the Harley-Davidson Museum. What a great day! I got my initial 50 mile break-in done, we got to not only see the museum (very nice!!!) but we had the bonus of visiting the Evel Knievel exhibit AND the Wall That Heals - There are several versions of this moving tribute to those who lost their lives in Vietnam...the Moving Wall, the Traveling Wall, The Wall That Heals. They all are very powerful and moving tributes to those who fought and lost their lives.

We took the interstate back...60 miles with a little traffic around the stadium, but not bad. Now have 110 miles on the bike...390 miles left for the next break-in stage. LOL!

This morning we packed up and headed to Elkhart, IN where we will spend the next 9-10 days. We started in WI, moved into IL (and the AWFUL construction in Chicago), then to IN, darted up into MI and then back to IN. What a day...LOL! We arrived at Elkhart Campground around 6:30, got our site (#724, next to Nick & Terry...for those who are here or will be) and got at least a half dozen hugs from friends old and new.

Tomorrow we'll unload the bikes and the bicycles, set up the lawn chairs and then run some errands before coming back to socialize and meet up with more new and old friends. We'll be checking with Nick & Terry to find out what we can help with during the rally. (For those who may have missed it, we are here for the Eastern Gypsy Journal Rally...our #1 favorite RV rally).

So over the next 10 days, I suspect I won't be blogging much...I'll try, but no promises! Oh, the photos from our museum day are here: 2010 Visiting Harley-Davidson Museum, Milwaukee WI

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna and Stu