Arrival in Elkhart

Saturday Sept 6, 2008

I am happy to report that although our ride today was long, it was uneventful! We left our Flying J "campsite" at 8:15, and after a stop outside a Hampton Inn to post my early-morning blog, we turned west on I-80 and never left that road until 6:40 pm, when we exited for Elkhart Campground.

The scenery as well as the drive was uneventful. Pennsylvania is of course beautiful, and luckily the rain had stopped (the weather was much cooler, too!), but there wasn't much to see other than trees. (For us this is nothing special, although I remember talking to a woman from California last year when we were in Yosemite. She asked whether it was true that in the east "the trees grow down all the way to the side of the road", adding that in California, this wasn't the case. I'm sure it's the case SOMEWHERE in California, but that really is what she asked me!) And then as soon as we crossed the border into Ohio, the land immediately became flat and very bland. Except for a few pretty farms, there was really nothing to see.

The most interesting sight to us was the Ohio Turnpike rest areas--the two we stopped in both had special RV parking areas with electrical hookups, as well as fresh water and a dumpsite. A good alternative to dry camping in a parking lot if you just want to stop for the night. There was also a fenced in dog run. The food court area included Starbucks and Panera. The interior had all the usual rest stop "stuff", but it was all so new and large and clean and almost like being in a mall. NJ really has a long way to go to catch up with a lot of the rest areas we've seen in other states (Arkansas is another one that comes to mind as exceptional.)

In any case, we are now at Elkhart Campground for 2 nights. It is extremely bland and uninspiring, but it seems to be the only campground in Elkhart, oddly enough. However it does have important things like free wifi and hot showers, as well as being very level (Mo's refrigerator needs us to be level... of course, no worries in most of the midwest on this score!) It is still light out, Joe is getting ready to make dinner, and I am hoping to relax for a while and to plan some activities for tomorrow.

And that's all the news from today. On a day when the agenda is simply to travel and to get there safely, no news is good news! I hope the same is true back home--I understand you are getting hit hard by Hurrican Hannah. I saw the weather maps on the fancy electronic weather board in the Ohio rest stop, and it looked bad. Beth told me on the phone that they are building an ark in Newark! I hope by tomorrow it will be all over. Here in Indiana, we are under blue skies and some pretty, fluffy clouds, and we are looking forward to a fun day tomorrow.