GTW Hop 8: Hillsville, VA, to Heiskell, TN

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Sparky

225 miles via VA 100, I-81, I-40 and I-75. Cumulative distance: 1,303 miles.

GTW Hop 8: Hillsville VA to Heiskell TN

It just keeps getting worse.

Another day, another blowout.  This one occurred at 60 mph in the middle lane of a very busy I-81 on a downhill curve near Wytheville, VA, less than 30 miles into our 225-mile journey.  It was the scariest and most destructive blowout yet.  I managed to get to the breakdown lane without losing control or running anyone off the road, but that was the end of the good news.  A quick inspection revealed the extent of the damage: a torn wheelwell cover, a dented sheet metal panel on the big #2 slide and dangling wires resulting from the total destruction of the straps that held them in place.  Further investigation revealed that support brackets for the sheet metal had been shattered, leaving the sheet metal flopping around.  And one of the heavy-duty support brackets for the slide had been bent and torn.  Major damage.

And, of course, we had no spare because our plan was to replace the previous blowout when we got to the next big city – Knoxville.  So the highway emergency patrol that stopped to assist could not change the tire.  A call to our new roadside assistance provider (Paragon) yielded nothing more than “get a spare and we will come replace it.”  So we had no choice but to leave a badly-damaged Patience at the side of a very busy I-81 and head into Wytheville in search of trailer tires.

A shred of good news was that we found a dealer quickly, less than 3 miles from the breakdown.  They had two tires and I bought both.  One was mounted on the slightly damaged rim from yesterday’s blowout (another shred of good news – we didn’t have to replace the rim) and the other I threw in the truck to be mounted once the other rim was off the RV.  When we got back to Patience (round trip: 12 miles) I called Paragon again and they sent out a repair guy.  He got the tire changed quickly and we could have, if we had so chosen, headed on to Knoxville.  But Jett suggested that it would be wise to get the other new tire mounted on the rim NOW.  After all, one of the original tires remained and the smart money was on it lasting less than 24 hours.  I had to agree that this was a very good idea.

So back into Wytheville.  The place where I had bought the tires had gotten busy and told us it would be a 2-hour wait.  We pushed on to the service station that had sent the tow truck.  They were more accommodating.  They had the tire mounted and (again, at Jett’s suggestion) on the RV in about 30 minutes (total cost: $10).  It was good that we had removed the last of the original tires because, once off the RV, it was clear that it, too, was on the verge of exploding.  It was misshapen in a way that, according to the repair guy, indicated that the steel mesh had torn.  We would have had a fourth blowout before we got to Knoxville.

Why all the tire problems?  I may never know the true cause as it could be a combination of factors, but my mind wandered back to that first blowout up in Maryland.  The roadside assistance guy had filled all the tires to 80 psi according to his gauge, but mine read 90 psi.  I thought my gauge was faulty, but I had not determined if that was true.  So I had the repair guy in Wytheville measure the pressure in the remaining original tire.  87 psi by his gauge – well over the 80 psi limit.  So I now believe that the assistance provided in Maryland, which seemed so fortuitous at the time, contributed to this blowout and the destruction of the final tire.  I still have to take the blame for the second blowout.

So, with Patience now shod with four new tires, we could continue on to Knoxville, right?  Wrong.  While checking the pressure in the passenger side tires the repair guy noticed that we were missing the dust cap on the hub of one of our axles.  It must have popped off in the confrontation with the curb yesterday. This was serious because, he explained, the hub grease could be thrown out, leaving the axle bearings dry.  He said we could freeze the bearings (BIG trouble) before we got to Knoxville.

So, off we went in search of a dust cap.  Auto Zone?  Nope.  Napa Auto Parts?  Nope.  Tractor Supply?  Yes!  It wasn’t exactly the same, but it fit.

At 4:45pm we were finally able to leave Wytheville.  Total delay: 5 hours.  The floppy sheet metal was strapped to the chassis with a couple of bungees and the torn wheelwell cover had been removed and placed in the basement.  So, looking more and more like a crushed tin can, we rode off into the sunset, arriving at the RV park in Knoxville at 9pm, in total darkness.  We navigated a very narrow path to our site, attached water and electric, deployed the bedroom and kitchen slides, had a quick bite, then crashed.  We were exhausted.

Jett is talking about giving up.  If it were easy to do so I might be convinced.  This trip has been nothing but a continuous series of disasters so far.  We spend our days driving and fixing problems.  It has not been fun. And our budget has exploded like one of our tires.

We are now in a hotel in Knoxville because the RV repair place told us they needed to keep it until Monday.  We are trying to figure out if our planned trip to Dollywood will need to be canceled.  We hope not because we are desperately in need of some fun.

The dogs like the hotel – they can sleep on the bed.  Their spirits are sky high.

I wish we could say the same.

Categories: Adventures, GTW, Places, Routes, TN, VA | Leave a comment

GTW Hop 7: Luray, VA, to Hillsville, VA

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Sparky

207 miles via US 340, I-81 and VA 100. Cumulative distance: 1,078 miles.

GTW Hop 7: Luray VA to Hillsville VA

We traveled to Hillsville for one reason and one reason only: it was just over 200 miles from Luray. We have determined that we don’t want to travel more than 230 miles in a day, that being the comfortable limit of a tank of fuel when hauling the fiver. It is also the comfort limit for Jett’s back.

Hillsville will be a 1-night stay, the first of several that we have planned.  Tomorrow will be another.  There will be several more in Texas and probably another in Oregon.

The trip route was simple: up US 340 (which took us over a ridge into the next valley), down I-81 for several hours, then a few miles on VA 100 to our RV park.  It wasn’t a difficult route and contained just one tight right turn, in New Market, just before we got onto I-81.  Unfortunately, I took the turn too tight, clipped the curb and blew out a tire.  Yup, two blowouts in two weeks.  So two of the tires that I thought would get us to California are now history.  I will have to get another tire when we get to Knoxville tomorrow.

Are tires cheaper by the dozen?

The good news, once again, was the kindness of strangers.  A couple of county employees working nearby saw the blowout, called the local police (who arrived promptly and set up some orange cones) and suggested that I go talk to Junior at the Exxon on the corner.  I did and Junior sent a guy over to change the tire.  We were back on the road 35 minutes and $25 later.

We met a lovely couple at the campground – Jack and Barb from Delaware – and spent a very pleasant couple of hours sitting by their campfire and getting some useful advice from some seasoned RVers.  It was a great way to finish what was otherwise a trying day.

 

Categories: Adventures, GTW, Places, Routes, VA | Leave a comment

Luray, VA, and the Shenandoah National Park

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Sparky

The plan for our 2-night stay in Luray, VA, was to take a leisurely road trip along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and, possibly, take in the famous Luray Caverns. But I learned that Jett is not a spelunker (her response when asked if she would like to tour the caverns was “No freaking way!”). As for Skyline Drive, the rain interfered. I went alone while Jett was napping, driving through rain and fog and thinking that this was probably going to be a huge waste of time and fuel. The park rangers at the entrance (whom I could barely see through the thick fog and mist) were not encouraging. They said that I would probably be in fog for the entire 34-mile segment that I was driving.

But I got lucky.  Though fog enveloped me much of the time, there were enough sunny breaks to make it worthwhile. I got some dramatic photos.

Shenandoah NP, looking SW

Shenandoah NP, roadside flora

Shenandoah NP, looking SW

I also cashed in on my advanced age and got the $10 card that gives me lifetime entry into any national park. That will save a couple of bucks when we get to the Grand Canyon. It’s great to be old.

Yeah.

Our home on this hop has been The Country Waye, our first KOA campground. I got the Good Sam discount, but it was still pricey: $48.51 per night. But very nice. It has beautiful landscaping and many level gravel pull-thru sites. Every site has a picnic table and firepit and – this really catapulted it to the top of the dogs’ list of favorite places – a huge fenced-in dog run. Grace, when let off the leash, set a new land speed record for canines as she raced from one end to the other. I think she would have done well at Wonderland, if she could keep up that pace for a quarter mile.

Being a Wisconsin boy, I also appreciated the herd of dairy cows next door. Jett was less enthusiastic about the bovine odor.

Next up: a 210-mile jaunt to the southwest tip of Virginia, then on to Knoxville for RV repairs.

Settled in at The Country Waye

The cows, heading to the barn for milking

Categories: GTW, Places, RV Parks, VA | Leave a comment

Amish furniture

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Sparky

We love Amish furniture.  Part of it is that we love furniture made from solid wood.  Another part is that we appreciated craftsmanship.  The third part is that we like a bargain.

Which is why I drove for 8 hours on Saturday to pick up two oak swivel gliders to replace the very uncomfortable loveseat that came with the RV. We had seen these chairs while browsing furniture shops last week when we were in Gordonville, PA, but didn’t buy them because we weren’t sure that we could get the loveseat through the very narrow (24.5 inches) door. But with the assistance of Jett’s son, we were able to push that particular camel through that particular eye of the needle (it now resides in his screen-in porch) when we got to Lorton.  And at the suggestion of Jett’s brilliant sister Sybil, we realized that it was feasible to make the trek from VA back to PA to fetch the chairs. And cheaper than shipping them.

So on Saturday, after dropping the grandkids off at the gym (they are both on cheer teams), I filled up the diesel tank and headed north.  I made the trip in exactly 3 hours, bought the chairs, had them loaded into the truck by two very helpful Amish gentlemen and headed back “home”. But as I wanted to minimize both the chance of any damage to the chairs and any possibility of anything flying out of the bed of the truck, I set the GPS to “avoid highways.” The result was that the 3 hour trip there became a 5 hour trip back.  But I saw some things that I never would have seen on the main roads:

  • The beautiful countryside south of Lancaster, PA.  The GPS took me down some very small back roads to get out of town – past some verdant fields being harvested by horse-drawn reapers – and connected with US 202 for about 20 rolling, twisting miles.  A beautiful route on a beautiful day.
  • Conowingo Dam. This surprised me.  I didn’t expect to find a large hydroelectric dam on the Susquehanna River, but there it was.  At just over 100 feet, it is one of the largest private dams in the country.
  • Pimlico Racetrack, home of the Preakness Stakes.  There were no horses running, but it was hosting a hotrod show.  In any case I got to see it briefly on my left as I cruised on by.
  • The beautiful countryside west of Baltimore.  This was mostly on US 97.  It wasn’t as bucolic as the stretch in Pennsylvania, but it was lovely in its own right.  A very relaxing 20 miles.
  • Georgetown.  Despite having worked for the federal government for seven years and having taken many trips to DC, I had never really seen Georgetown.  I probably would have preferred seeing it on foot rather than in a large dually pickup traveling some very narrow lanes in very heavy traffic, with thousands of pedestrians swarming everywhere, but I had enough time at the many lights to admire the area.  Looks like it would be a great place to go to college.

Georgetown accounted for nearly an hour of the travel time and there was nothing relaxing about it.  I really should have bypassed that area.  But I did get to see it and I didn’t run over any clueless freshmen while traversing the neighborhood, so I will count it a success.

When I finally made it to the RV park it was after 5pm.  Jett had been out all afternoon with the grandkids, so I had to unload the chairs myself (after walking the dogs, who were *very* happy to see me).  I had to remove the swivel base from each to fit them through the door, but got them reassembled in the space formerly occupied by the table (which we moved to the space formerly occupied by the loveseat – musical furniture) and was gliding happily when Jett returned.

And here they are, with the small table that we got at the same place:

Amish swivel gliders

Categories: GTW, MD, PA, Places, Routes | 2 Comments

GTW Hop 6: Lorton, VA, to Luray, VA

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Sparky

96 miles via I-95, VA 234, I-66 and US 340. Cumulative distance: 871 miles.

GTW Hop 6

Our first non-ding hop! OK, it was just 94 miles, mostly over interstate, but we have done short-and-easy before and still managed to collect a ding.  Let me feel good about this.

The route was pleasant enough, with rolling hills lining I-66 and the stretch along US 340 containing enough hills and curves to keep my attention.  There was little traffic, so it was relatively low on the stress meter.  But VA 234, while wide and level, contained lots of lights and moderate traffic.  I had to stop more quickly than I like a couple of times, so I can’t recommend that segment for a leisurely Sunday drive.

Leaving Lorton – and her family – was hard on Jett.  She was pretty quite the entire trip.  It started to rain about 15 minutes after we arrived in Luray and poured all night, which didn’t help to lighten her mood.  Dinner was potato sticks for her and pretzels for me.  I think today (Tuesday) will be pretty quiet as well.  Our planned trip along Skyline Drive will probably be postponed until Wednesday and may be skipped altogether.  Today will be a day of paying monthly bills and catching up on other chores.  Like shopping for food.  We are running low on potato sticks and pretzels.

A special note for my mother: sorry! I really, truly did mean to call you yesterday to wish you a happy birthday.  I even got so far as to bring up my “contacts” list on my cell phone, but then I got called to active duty to kill a moth.  Then we started watching a movie (“Bridesmaids”) and dining on potato sticks and pretzels.  Then I fell asleep.  I will call today.  Hope you had a fun time at the casino.  I hope my inheritance is still intact.

Categories: GTW, Places, Routes, VA | 1 Comment

Lorton, VA

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Sparky

We are currently 5 days into our 7 days at Pohick Bay Regional Park in Lorton, VA. We are spending a week here not because we love Lorton or northern Virginia (though we are growing more fond), but because the park is less than 30 minutes from the house shared by Jett’s twin sons. It is also very close to Jett’s 3 grandchildren. So this is a family week. I won’t bore you with the details, but will say that it has been a lot of fun so far.

It is also a week for getting things right with the rig.  I got two new tires for the truck yesterday, plus one to replace the shredded RV tire.  $550 and a bargain at that as one of her son’s friends works at a tire place and gave us his employee discount.  So we now have an upgraded set of tires to continue on our way.  The big surprise was the discovery, as he was moving tires around on the truck, that one of the inside dually tires was essentially flat; he said it registered about 3 psi (instead of the normal 60) on the tire gauge.  He removed the nail that shouldn’t have been there, patched it up and remounted it.

Note to self: make sure to test the pressure on ALL the tires, if possible. I could not test the pressure on those inside tires before I left as the stems were not accessible.  He installed some extenders and made sure that they were accessible, so I shouldn’t have that problem again.

Got an oil change, too.

We also removed the 2-seat convertible sofa from the RV last night and gave it to Jett’s sons for use in their screened-in porch.  We never liked it anyway.  We will replace it tomorrow with two new Amish oak swivel gliders that we saw in PA and absolutely loved.  But to get them I need to make a run back up to Intercourse, PA, tomorrow.  Three hours each way.  So that is what my Saturday will be: a 6-hour round trip in the truck.  Sunday will be a day of rest and teary goodbyes.

The Pohick Bay campground was chosen strictly because it was the closest campground to Alexandria.  I really didn’t have high hopes; as long as it was safe it would be fine.  But it has turned out to be much more than that.  In many ways it has been the best stop yet.  It is certainly the best yet in terms of natural beauty.  The campsites are large, well-provisioned and thoroughly shaded.  Squirrels and birds everywhere.  And hardly any neighbors.  We feel like we own the place.

The dogs love the squirrels and the nature walk down to the bay.  They didn’t see the raccoon in the dumpster, but they would have liked him, too, if they had seen him.

We had a thunderstorm last night which the dogs did NOT like.  But I did.  Hearing the wind in the trees and the pelting rain on the roof (along with an occasional falling acorn serving as timpani) while cocooned in dense darkness was a primal experience.

Next up: Luray, VA, and Skyline Drive. Then on to Tennessee and additional RV repairs.

Categories: GTW, Places, RV Parks, VA | Leave a comment

GTW Hop 5: Gettysburg, PA, to Lorton, VA

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Sparky

101 miles via PA 116, US 15, I-270, I-495, I-95 and VA 600 and 242. Cumulative distance: 775 miles.

GTW Hop 5: Gettysburg PA to Lorton VA

A ding-a-day. It is the theme of this trip. It would be more accurate to say “ding a hop” but that doesn’t have quite the same ring. So a ding-a-day it is.

The Hop 5 ding was unique in that it (probably) wasn’t my fault.  We had a blowout on the RV just south of Thurmont.  Not just a flat tire, but a major explosive blowout that shredded the tire and curled up the sheet metal over the wheel well. It sounded like an M-80 going off in the bed of the truck. Freaked out the dogs. And us.

I pulled over to the side of US 15, got out, inspected the damage, considered trying to change the tire myself for about 30 seconds, then opted for calling in a professional.  I dialed 911 and they patched me through to the state police.  They promised to “send someone to help.”  I was expecting a state trooper who would call a local tow truck guy.  We waited about 30 minutes – Jett in the cab and me on the side of the road, both reading.  Finally a yellow emergency assistance vehicle, like you see on the Mass Pike, arrived.  A very nice man introduced himself and proceeded to change the tire and, when done, adjusted the tire pressure on all 4 tires – at considerable risk to himself as the shoulder was not very wide and he encroached on the first travel lane a tad as he was working on the left tires.  He refused payment and a tip.  So I shook his hand and he rode off into the noon sunset.

My hero.

The blowout

The curled sheet metal

I said that this ding *probably* wasn’t my fault.  However, when I checked the tire pressure after he had filled the spare (to 80 psi he said), my gauge read 90 psi.  So we have a major discrepancy in gauge readings.  If I have a faulty gauge which resulted in the tires being under-inflated, then I could fairly be blamed.  But I would just deflect that blame to the gauge.

I will get another gauge and, together with my other electronic gauge, we will have a gauge-off.  The two that agree remain; the other gets tossed.

So, once again, we marveled at our strange combination of bad luck/good luck.  Yeah, we have had an appalling series of mini disasters.  But in each case things have turned out surprisingly well.  Even the loose slide cable – the repair guy finally appeared about 10 minutes before we departed the Campground in Gettysburg and we waved him off.  My temporary fix with the cut washer worked like a charm, bringing the slide in quite normally.  Twice, in fact, because after pulling it in I had to deploy it again so that I could retrieve my glasses from the bunkhouse (Note to self: wear glasses when pulling slides in).

The route itself was pleasant – it was yet another beautiful day, coolish but sunny and bright – and, except for the tiny little blowout incident, uneventful.  We had no trouble finding the campground in Lorton, despite the fact that, for the first time, I had forgotten to print the Google map of the route.  So we had to do the first piece by memory (the GPS kept trying to send me down little side roads) and we relied (gulp!) on the GPS to get us the 5 miles from I-95 to the campground.  Again, it took us a different route than Google and one of the roads was smaller than I would have liked, but we got there unscathed.

The campsite was of the back-in variety and was plenty large enough to hold the rig.  But narrow.  Trees were posted as sentinels on both sides of the entrance.  And, just to make things more interesting, a couple of trees limited the ability to swing the truck freely.  I knew it would be difficult but resolved to try.  Long story short: we made it in a single try!  I have to believe it was largely luck, but it was a huge confidence boost.

One try!

Other positives:

  1. I was able to get both bunkhouse slides deployed.  It took a little effort to unfurl the bent topper, but I got it.  This gives us access to the second bathroom for the first time in a week.
  2. With the two 10-ft halves of the 20-ft sewer hose that I bought yesterday and the Y-connector that I had purchased in NH, I was able to connect, for the first time, both drain pipes simultaneously.  I got the hoses nicely supported, too, so cleanup should be a breeze.
  3. I got the antenna to work.  The solution? Turn it on.  There was a button, nearly invisible, in the bedroom closet, that controls the antenna.  I gave it a shot and – presto! – suddenly we had access to way more channels than I expected: over 40, including some, like LWN, that I thought were cable-only.  Over-air TV has changed a lot from when I was a kid and we had 3 channels, plus the 6-hours-a-day educational channel.  The picture quality?  Unbelievably good.  Better than the cable that we have had at any campground to date.  High definition and a very strong signal.  Some of the channels were from Baltimore, over 60 miles away!

The bottom line on this hop was that the positives outweighed the one very big negative.

Today we need to make arrangements to get some new tires – 2 for the truck, 1 for the RV.

Categories: Adventures, GTW, MD, PA, Places, Routes, VA | 1 Comment

Gettysburg, PA

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Sparky

If you want to swim for a few hours in a deep pool of American history, just visit the Gettysburg National Military Park. I can’t say that I have been to all of the great battlefields of the world, but this one is huge (24 square miles), relatively new (the battle was 149 years ago) and incredibly well-preserved, so it is hard to imagine that there are many better. There is a wonderful visitor’s center, with a museum, a theater and a bookstore that looks like it stocks every Civil War book currently in print. And there is a self-guided 24-mile auto tour which is arranged chronologically. If you get the companion 2-disk CD and book (as we did – $25), you can spend an entire afternoon visiting the sites where so many died during those three bloody days of 1863. Plus the site of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.  You can take the dogs, too (as we did – free).  If you have a nice day (as we did – free), it is a great way to spend an afternoon. An incredible place. Highly recommended.

We didn’t do too much else while we were here.  We did go into town on Saturday, had a nice breakfast at the Lincoln Diner, right in downtown Gettysburg on one of the streets down which the Union army fled when routed on the first day of the battle. We were also lucky enough to be in Gettysburg for the once-a-year antiques festival which had 150 vendors lining the streets hawking all kinds of stuff that I had when I was a kid (Flexible Flyer, View Master, Hardy Boys, etc). Of course we couldn’t really buy anything as we have no room. That made it a very inexpensive day – $1 for a tiny doll and $8 for ice cream.

We stayed 3 nights at the Gettysburg Campground, conveniently located just 2 miles from the start of the self-guided auto tour. It is a large campground – 240 sites – and it has just about everything you could want: pool, horseshoe pits, playground, dog walk (with free poop bags), a very nice general store, mini-golf and, most importantly, spacious sites with cable TV.  There is also an on-site RV repair business, which so far hasn’t helped resolve our slide problem.  But I ran into the repair guy this morning at the general store and he promised to stop by to take a look at it.  I doubt if he will be able to improve on my temporary fix (cut a washer to serve as a collar for the damage cable end), but at least he can give me some idea of what will be involved to fix it right.  I will probably have to add that to the growing list of things to be repaired when we finally get to a dealer – probably in Knoxville, TN.

Next up: Lorton and Alexandria, VA and a week with Jett’s sons and grandkids.  And a pair of new tires and an oil change for the truck.

Categories: GTW, PA, Places, RV Parks | 1 Comment

GTW Hop 4: Gordonville, PA, to Gettysburg, PA

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Sparky

68 miles via US 30 and PA 116. Cumulative distance: 674 miles

GTW Hop 4: Gordonville PA to Gettysburg PA

This “easy” hop took over 2 hours to complete.  US 30 was bumper-to-bumper for about half the distance we traveled on it.  Not fun.

Because I was concentrating so hard on not running into the guy in front of me, I didn’t get much opportunity to enjoy the countryside. But there really wasn’t much to enjoy.  US 30 is a heavily-developed commercial strip, so unless you are into the “big box” architecture of the latest Staples, there isn’t much to see.

We were 20 minutes late leaving the Country Acres Campground because (1) I decided to gas up and got a station attendant who couldn’t communicate and (2) the tilt of the camper caused some difficulty in getting the big slide back in (lesson: level the damn camper!). In fact, we didn’t quite get it back in all the way; the lower back corner was sticking out a couple of inches.  When we got to the Gettysburg Campground we had difficulty getting the slide back out again and when I did get it fully deployed I noticed a loose cable. Further investigation revealed that the cable for that lower back side of the slide had popped loose.  I can’t be sure, but I suspect that the additional stress caused by the tilt was too much for it.

Yet another self-inflicted wound.

The good news is that our current campground is one of the rare ones that has an on-site RV repair facility.  I have already put in the call.

Today is supposed to be near 80 degrees and sunny.  Sounds like a good day to take the dogs for a walk on Seminary Ridge.

Categories: GTW, PA, Places, Routes | 1 Comment

Gordonville, PA

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Sparky

Gordonville lies just a few miles east of Lancaster and is in the heart of “Pennsylvania Dutch” country.  We stayed at the Country Acres Campground and dined last night at the Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant. We also visited some Amish furniture shops and bought a couple of small tables for bedside use, which I think showed great restraint on our part as the furniture the Amish make is beautiful. We really wanted to replace our loveseat with two swivel rockers, but the measurements didn’t quite work out – we weren’t sure how to get the sofa out, or the rockers in, through our 24-inch door.

We also had breakfast at the local Waffle House, but I don’t think you want to hear about that.

The campground is the definition of “pristine.” The landscaping is by far the best we have encountered yet.  The office has a store with some beautiful (and very inexpensive) local crafts.  The pool is huge, but was closed for the season.  The sites are level (sort of – I mentioned that I neglected to level when we arrived so we spent two nights listing).  Free cable.  The best thing, though, was the laundry.  We did two loads last night for a total cost of $4.25.  The dryers give 17 minutes for a quarter!

Maybe I will find some mud today just so we can do another load.

Next up: Gettysburg.

Categories: GTW, PA, Places, RV Parks | Leave a comment