In Which We Set Out.... And Meet an Ish (see: Genesis 37:15-17)

Monday-Wednesday, May 7-9, 2018

Blue Highways--View from the Road, PA

We're on the road again! After 10 months, we are back inside Sam and traveling. It feels SO GOOD! We left Highland Park on Monday at noon, after 3.5 more hours of packing (I packed all day Sunday, but clearly there was a LOT to load up, or so it seemed.) The weather was glorious as we pulled away from the house, and we headed toward central Pennsylvania, our first planned stop. We'd been gone for about an hour when I went into the bathroom and realized, we had NO toilet paper! I mean, NONE. Yes, it IS on our packing list of "staples", but I never thought of making sure there was still some there. Thus began my fretting. We also needed a bag of ice, so after another hour, we stopped at a Sheetz to pick up both these items. The TP at Sheetz must be packaged for people in my situation--4 rolls wrapped so loosely that you can see between the sheets in the package. However, it saved our a***s, right?

We stuck to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, because after our several side trips (I forget what the other one was), I wanted to give us plenty of time in the evening. We ended up in Shawnee Lake State Park, which was beautiful--a huge lake and lots of campsites, and almost no other campers. We set up our bed, which hadn't been made up yet, had a light dinner of leftovers from home, and went to bed quite early. I was thrilled to sleep NINE hours with no tossing and turning, and we both woke up refreshed to a lovely cool morning.

Tuesday we set out on the "blue highways", avoiding the interstate and enjoying the quieter Pennsylvania roadways. Joe was just ecstatic, offering an unsolicited "Happy happy happy happy happy!!" as he drove along. We stopped at a small municipal park in a tiny town along the Monongahela River for lunch, and continued along. Pennsylvania is just TOO LONG, frankly, and I started to be concerned about the fact that we were making slow time (we took some wrong turns at one point, too.... easier to do when you aren't on the interstate.)  So we picked up I-70 after we passed Pittsburgh to the south, and headed into Ohio at last.

Our planned arrival was for 5pm at the home of our friends Gary and Jan, in Delaware, OH which is about 20 miles or so north of Columbus. At 3:30, we had just passed Cambridge, OH and were right on schedule when our GPS told us to leave the highway because of an accident ahead. It was routing us around the jam. And fortunately, too-- because just as we turned onto the off ramp, our tire monitor beeped frantically at us, and we heard a sound that did NOT sound good coming from the rear of the coach. Thank goodness we were on the off ramp. We pulled right into a Marathon Station parking lot at the bottom of the ramp, as I watched the monitor register the fact that the air was rapidly leaving our rear outside passenger side tire.

Joey's first thought, of course, was to change the tire. But mindful of his physical limitations these days, and knowing that (although he's done it before), changing a 100 pound tired on an 11,000 pound vehicle is NOT an easy thing, I suggested calling our Good Sam Roadside Service first. He actually agreed! The lady on the phone was very helpful (they always are), but when the call was placed to a tire shop, the message was that they would arrive at about NINE O'CLOCK. I mean, that was just completely ridiculous!!!  So Joe said, let's see if we can do it ourselves.

Well, when you have good tools, that does make all the difference. We carry an air compressor, a power jack, a power screwdriver to remove all the lug nut covers and nuts, and tools of every description. And Joe HAS done this several times already. I made him take it as easy as possible, while I did as much as I could to drag tools around. But the first thing we had to do was get the spare tire. And that was our first problem.

The spare tire is stored up underneath the back of the RV. It's held in place by a thing that goes up and down via a crank handle on a stick--a pretty simple mechanism, but it didn't work. The tire wouldn't come down. Joe thought that the gear box which lowers the tire was broken. And then our "ish" (the rabbis say that the Ish in the Joseph story is actually a messenger from God, without whom the story would not unfold the way it does) showed up. Some random guy walked up to us and said to Joe, "Need help?"  Sure. But the tire won't release. The guy says, "I had this happen one time," and he slides under the RV next to Joe (who is lying on his back on the ground underneath.)  Joe thinks it's broken, but the guy says, "See that hole? There's a little pin that's supposed to be in there, and it looks like it fell out. Do you have a small pin or nail or something?"  So Joe comes up for air, and goes to look in his tools, and finds a pin the exact right size. And the guy gets it into the hole (with me cranking the handle on the outside to turn the hole into the right position) and then bends it so it can't fall out again. And voila! I turn the handle and the tire lowers as nice as can be!  And then Joe thanked him profusely, he said, "You're welcome," and he disappeared. WOW!

So I was already thankful to God that we were OFF the highway when the tire blew, and we weren't up on an interstate with trucks passing 6" away from us. And then the Ish shows up. And then I realize we are REALLY lucky, because it is HOT in that parking lot, but the tire that needs replacing is on the side away from the sun, so we were working in the shade. And it just reminded me that things can always be worse!

From there, things went pretty smoothly. We lifted the RV with the compressor and jack, and then Joe sat on a little stool (purchased for the exact purpose of checking tire pressure!) and told me what to hand him, and we got the hub cap off with the help of the impact hammer, etc. The entire process took maybe an hour, with the hardest part being lifting the spare tire onto the hub--it was SO HEAVY. Joe came up with the idea of using our leveling blocks, and we were able to lift it to get it onto one block. The block slid easily to the perfect position, and luckily was the precise right height. So we managed the entire job.

At about 5:30, we were almost done, at which point we discovered we had misplaced Joe's keys. After ascertaining they were NOT on the ground, we decided they must have gotten into one of the bags of tools, and we gave up and used my set to continue on our way. We arrived at Gary and Jan's house at 8:00, about 3 hours behind schedule, but feeling very proud of ourselves.

We spent a lovely evening with our friends, and then spent the night in their driveway. Unfortunately though, Joe had a lot of trouble sleeping, and I didn't sleep long enough. So we weren't very rested in the morning. We had breakfast with Gary and Jan, and then went off to do our errands at about 10:30 or so. We needed to find a good tire place to test the flat tire and see if it could be fixed--if not, we would need to replace it so we had a spare again. We also wanted to copy my keys. We had done a lot of tire research, but were disappointed by the first place we stopped at. We also got bad map information from Google on finding the second place, so we must have driven back and forth through the very cute historical town of Delaware about 5 times.

At last we got to the second tire dealer (about 1 mile from the first, but 30 minutes as we drove it) and they were terrific. The young guy there helped us get the spare down (I showed off my newly acquired cranking ability!) and ascertained that the tire could not be repaired. We got a good price on a new one, and were very pleased over all. Oh! And while that was happening, Joe found his keys in one of the tool bags! Then we went to fill up on gas, and stopped at a AAA office right by the gas station so I could get an up to date Ohio map, which I inadvertently had neglected to pick up previously. At that point it was noon, and we splurged at a chinese buffet in the same strip mall. And we were FINALLY back on the road and heading west at 1pm.

I drove for the first 90 minutes; it seems that Joe was exhausted after yesterday, and not sleeping during the night. We were routed to avoid highways, and I made my first stop at an interesting looking store with a sign out front that said something about home baked goods and grass fed beef. It turned out to be a terrific natural foods place (emphasis on baking supplies, grains, and candies as well as other stuff like teas, vitamins, books, etc.)  We let Cassie roll in the grass, and then we spent 30 minutes in the store, buying ourselves some treats. Joe took the wheel after that, and I routed us onto the faster highways in order to make some decent time after our late start.

So it's now Wednesday night, and we are parked at Hoffman Lake Campground near Warsaw, Indiana. We are right on a lake, and a cool breeze is blowing, although it's kind of warm in the RV.  [Edit an hour later-- it is POURING out!! Thunder and lightening. Our dog is NOT happy.] We felt very lucky, we were the only ones in our section of the campground, but about 30 minutes ago a young couple pulled up in a huge trailer, and it seems they have reserved the spot right next to us through Sunday. So instead of being all alone, we have people 20 feet away. Since we're leaving in the morning, though, I guess it's not that big a deal.

Joe is definitely feel tired from yesterday's exertions, but also feels great that he did manage as much as he did do. We are also enjoying hearing from Beth and Joe in Japan-- she called a little while ago with a Facebook Messenger video chat, so we actually spoke to them. They are 13 hours ahead of us, so they are heading out for the day (i.e. tomorrow) while we are settling down for tonight. Beth just sent a video of the bullet train ride they are on-- wow! Fast! And meanwhile, we are having lots of weather. There was a thump on our roof (we are under a tree)-- I hope it's nothing serious!