Fallingwater

 

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Today I got to cross out another item on my Bucket List. Joe and I went to visit Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic house in southwestern Pennsylvania. And I have to say, the experience exceeded my expectations. the house was just stunning!

 But first, when I woke up, I had to put last night's plan into effect. I took a Covid test, which thank goodness came out negative. Then I went online and reserved our same campsite for tonight. And then I put my feet up for a little while and relaxed!

 We had a 12:30 pm reservation for our tour, but all too soon, I realized we needed to hustle. We took the Jeep  down the mountain, commenting at how incredibly steep the road was even for a Jeep. No wonder we'd had so much trouble getting up to the campground last night! Fallingwater was only about a 15 minute drive away once we made it down. There is a small touristy town at the base of the mountain, with the park office, a lot of places to rent rafts, kayaks, bikes, etc, and of course ice cream and souvenir shops. I made a note of some good places we could pull up to tomorrow in order to reattach the Jeep to the RV-- we'd already decided NOT to hook up until we reached the bottom of the mountain.

We arrived at Fallingwater, and went to the Visitor's Center, where our tour was confirmed. We had some time to wait, so we checked out the little cafe and I looked in the store at all the FLW-themed items. You an furnish your whole house with the FLW "look", but it's nothing without the architecture.

Our tour began with our guide handing us ear buds and a small speaker. When she spoke, our little speakers picked up her voice for us. This way, she could talk and we could hear her even if we weren't walking right beside her. They started this system during Covid, and Joe and I thought it was brilliant-- we could hear her even when we were looking around at the scenery, hear her answers to other people's questions, and all in all, it was a very good system.

 We walked through the grounds and heard about FLW's career and about Edward and Liliane Kaufmann, who commissioned the house. They had been coming to the property for years in the summer just to get away from the city (Pittsburgh), but they wanted to live there during the year. Their son, Edward Jr., had studied architecture with FLW, and he recommended that they hire Wright.They realized soon enough that although this was their private residence, Fallingwater was much more than that-- it deserved to be seen by the public. So they set up a trust and donated the house and grounds to the state, with the understanding it would remain open to the public.

As we came down the walkway and got our first glimpse of the house, I was just blown away. I had the same feeling I've had with other sites (and sights!) that I've seen numerous times in photos, and then got to see in person. It was just so much MORE than I'd expected. I could fill this blog with photographs of the exterior alone, it was just so stunning.

The tour took us through the entire house, although photos are only allowed on the first floor. The first floor was designed on the same kind of "open floor plan" that is so popular today (but was rare then)-- the dining room and living room/conversation areas are all just one huge space, surrounded by windows looking into the woods around the house. The river runs beneath the cantilevered terraces, and there is even a staircase directly from the living room down to the riverside. When the glass encloser to the stairs was open, it provided cooling air coming off the cold water. The kitchen was also on this floor, and although we couldn't go in, we could look at it through the doorway. The entire space was constructed of only four materials-- stone, glass, wood, and steel. We wandered all over while our guide pointed out small details and answered questions. 

Joe looks at stairway down from living room

From there we went upstairs-- the second floor had the "master bedroom" and Mr. Kaufman's study. The latter had this great window configuration by his desk, which allowed the window to actually swing into the room and open completely, allowing the sound of the rushing river to come into the space. Every bedroom had its own bath and its own terrace. The hallways, in contrast, were narrow and felt like little tunnels leading between the living areas. There was plenty of natural stone in the walls, adding to the tunnel effect.

View from first floor terrace of river rushing away from house

We went out onto the second floor terrace and from there walked up an outside staircase to the third floor, which had Edward Jr.'s bedroom. He had moved his bed to a little alcove on the other side of the floor (still connected to the main room) where the sun poured in from three sides--it was delicious! The walls of the staircase going down from that floor were lined with bookcases filled with Edward Jr.'s books. In fact, all the furnishings were original--the family's own stuff. They had wanted the space to really represent the fact that it was a HOME first and foremost before it became a public space.

Finally, we walked from the second floor up to the guest quarters, which were a separate building. The staircase canopy was an amazing concrete ribbon which swooped around with the curving stairs. At the top, the house had a small living room and bedroom, plus of course a terrace. There was also a "plunge pool" fed naturally from the natural stream dripping from the rocks. Apparently the family used this pool quite a bit for a quick dip.

Stairs down to the river from the living room

All in all, we thought the tour was very well done and the buildings were simply fabulous. We were so glad we had come. When we were finished with our tour, we went into the gallery (part of the visitor's center complex) and looked at photos and original documents related to the building of the house. We got something to drink, and then came home. The tour tickets allow you to wander around the grounds, but we didn't do much wandering-- climbing all those stairs, and then walking back to the visitor center was enough activity for us.

Kitchen

 

After that, it was a quick trip back "home" to the RV. But we did make one more stop-- at Cucumber Falls, which is in the park and was right on our way back up. The falls were very pretty and worth the 10 minute stop. Then when we got back, Joe immediately took a nap; I walked the dog and did some reading, and then I took a nap too. And that was our day-- dinner, and I started blogging this trip. I would consider today a success!! And I was SO glad that I had changed my plans... neither of us would have been up for driving for almost 2 hours just to spend the night in a Walmart lot. We can drive a little further tomorrow instead.

Cucumber Falls

One of Those Exhausting Days

Monday, May 2, 2022

Today was one of those exhausting days which just seems like slogging through mud and getting nowhere. We slept just fine, but woke up without much "ooomph", still very physically drained from all of our efforts the night before. It was about 9:00 before Joe was ready to call tire places. Our plan was to find a new tire and get it installed before leaving the Lancaster area. However, the tire places were all pretty busy, and although we found several with the tire in stock, no one could take us before the afternoon. In the end, we decided to just buy the new tire and keep it as a spare, and continue driving on the spare we'd put on the night before. The only down side to this is, we did not re-attach the tire pressure monitors to those two tires, and we will miss having them to warn us if another tire springs a leak.

It was about 1:00 by the time we got our new tire (the old one was not worth keeping, it was too old to begin with) and we stopped not long afterwards at at Lancaster visitor center to have some lunch. So it was after 1:30 by the time we left Lancaster. Oh, and we'd acquired one more problem: the pulley which stores the spare tire decided that although it worked fine last night, it was now stuck and would not come down. So we put our new spare tire in the back of the Jeep until we get home, or until Joe decides how to fix it while we are traveling. Yet one more thing to deal with.

I don't know why we had so much trouble deciding which route to take, frankly. We were planning to go on I-76 (the PA Turnpike) and we did that, but when the tunnels appeared, Joe was worried that we shouldn't go through them with our propane (one of the "danger" warnings on the signs). So we took an exit instead, and continued on a circuitous route on several other roads, 3 other interstates, going south of the border into Maryland before coming back up into southern Pennsylvania. Every time I looked to see "how much longer", it seemed like more time than when I'd looked before. And it was all so slow--The roads were quite steep through the mountains, with very long grades, and I drove up most of them in second gear. 

 We stopped a couple of times for gas. The second time was at a Pilot station which had an Arby's attached, and as it was already almost 7pm, we decided to have Arby's for dinner. After that, we had our last 90 minutes to go (the road never seemed to get shorter, and the time seemed to constantly get longer) before finally getting to Ohiopyle State Park, where we had a reservation for tonight. It was not QUITE dark by the time we got here, but we were so tired, we just drove head first into what is normally a back-in site. Luckily, it was long enough to keep the Jeep attached while we were here. I lay down on the bed immediately and simply passed out for a couple of hours, I was that exhausted. I think Joe must have slept, also. When I woke up at around 11pm, I needed to eat something, and then had trouble falling asleep.

One of the reasons I felt so tired was I seem to have developed a cold, or else an allergy situation (everything is blooming, of course.) It was already bothering me a little bit yesterday, too. And I was also worried that maybe it was Covid, evven though I am fully vaccinated. I decided that my plan for tomorrow was ridiculous-- I didn't want to go to tour Fallingwater at 12:30, then drive another hour-90 minutes to spend the night at Walmart, and get up tomorrow to run into Pittsburgh to the museum and then hit the road AGAIN for another 3 hours. It all just seemed too much.

So I decide on a plan. I would first take a covid test if I still felt lousy. If the test was negative, I would book another night in this campground. That way, we could hang out in the morning, go to Fallingwater in the afternoon, then relax when we got back here and have a quiet evening. If the test was positive, obviously we'd just turn around and come home. After I'd made these decisions, I felt like things were a little more under control, and I finally fell back asleep.

 

2022: Shakedown Trip Begins

Sunday, May 1, 2022

  So here I am, with my 2021 travels still incomplete, staring a new journey for 2022. As this trip is only 2 weeks or even less, I will try to keep up this time!

We decided to take the RV someplace again during the spring months for a "shakedown trip", to see how it is running after a 6 month winter hiatus, and to see what managed to break despite nothing being used for all this time. As usual, Joe found plenty to repair or replace before we even left-- most notably, a last minute discovery of a leaking over the cab due to the sealing tape coming off. He was resealing it this morning before we could leave. About a week ago, he had to figure out why the refrigerator was no longer cooling--something was wrong with the propane connection. So he handled that, as well as dewinterizing the vehicle. I should have been scrubbing and cleaning inside, but of course I didn't do that. So when we packed up to go, I was kind of unhappy with the surfaces. I am going to work on that during our trip. 

 We had plenty to do before we could leave today, including errands in town which were made more difficult by Highland Park's 5K race which blocked both ends of our street. Joe had to park a block away and walk around the corner so he could get home after a quick errand around 9:30 a.m. I, meanwhile, had last minute packing to do, as well as choir practice all morning. Surprisingly, we managed to leave on schedule-- 4:00p.m.

 Oh! So where are we going? We are heading through Pennsylvania to Ohio. Our schedule includes a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater House in southwestern PA, a quick drive via Jeep into Pittsburgh to the Carnegie Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs, a stop in Zanesville Ohio to see the collection of art pottery (Roseville!) at the Zanesville Art Museum, a couple of nights at a state park in Springfield, where I plan to visit the Heart of Ohio Antique Mall as well as several other antique malls while Joey and Cassie relax at the park. Then we will head northeast, stopping for a couple of nights in Delaware, OH to visit with some old friends, then on to the Cleveland vicinity to stay with our in-laws and go into Cleveland to spend a day at the ROck & Roll Hall of Fame. And after that... we will play it by ear. 

Tonight's plan was to stop at the home of an online friend, someone who I met through my Talmud class. The congregation hosting the class is in Lancasater, PA, and I shamelessly trolled for some "home hospitality" at our last class. Stacy very generously offered to let us park in the parking lot adjacent to her barn. I figured that stopping in Lancaster would leave us only about a 4-hour drive the next day to get to our next stop. 

Our drive was uneventful, but we got off the highway after about an hour to pick up some water. We have a list of food items (mostly) that we didn't have at home but want during the trip, and water was the primary necessity--we had absolutely none on board. We stopped at a Wegman's big parking lot, and I ran in to pick up the water. I also talked Joe into letting me buy some kind of pre-made food for dinner, because I knew that fixing the roof and then packing up to leave had exhausted him, and I didn't want him to have to cook tonight. I picked up some soup and some cornbread--I realized that I, too, was a little out of it, and too tired to really think more about what to buy. 

I got back to the RV and we took off toward Lancaster. What I'd forgotten was that this is Amish Country! We were charmed by the countryside, but not so much when we got stuck behind a horse-drawn buggy trotting ahead of us. I hated to pass in a 29' RV towing a jeep, but managed it anyway. We were only 10 miniutes from Stacy's house, though, when our tire pressure monitor began screaming at us-- and Joe grabbed it, took a look, and said, "Pull over!" Well, there were no shoulders on these roads at all, they were narrow and windy, and there WAS no place to pull over. Luckily just then, a business sign appeared with a large parking lot, and I turned into that. 

A quick look at the tire monitor and the actual tire showed that indeed, the tire was quickly losing air. In fact, we could hear it. To make matters a bit worse, it was one of the inside rear tires. And it looked as if it might rain any moment. AND, it was 7:00pm, and was getting toward dusk. And Joe and I were exhausted. So of course, he insisted we could change the tire ourselves. This is not the first time we've had to change a tire; but the last time I was involved was several years ago. We did it, though-- we had to unhook the Jeep, jack up the RV, remove the outer tire, then the inner tire, lower the spare from its storage place and get that on, tighten everything up, toss the leaking tire into the back of the Jeep, hoist the spare tire cable back up into the RV (the spare is stored underneath), and finally, with all the tools put away again, we were ready to go. The owner of the property showed up just as we finished--apparently he'd been away from home (which was behind the business's garage; I'd wondered why no one had come out to see what was going on.) It was, of course, pitch black before we finished working, so I moved the Jeep over and we used its headlights along with a couple of flashlights to see what we were doing.

I was very proud of myself--after having my 70th birthday just a couple of days before, I proved that I'm not old yet! I lowered the spare alone, tightened the lug nuts on the tires when they were all back in place, and helped GET the tires back also (Joey tends to work "hard", whereas I was trying to work "smart" and figure out some helping strategies to make our job easier.) I was proud of us, but MAN, were we EXHAUSTED by then. 

I do have to add that, adding insult to injury, there must have been several dozen horse-drawn buggies that trotted past us on the road while we were working. I was convinced that the horses were sniggering and the drivers, who eschew modern transportation, were smugly telling their wives and kids when they got home about how these people had to change a tire while their old-fashioned vehicles just kept on trotting along. 

Anyway, at about 10pm, we straggled into Stacy's parking lot. Joe passed out almost immediately; I was hungry, and heated up the Wegman's soup before walking Cassie and going to bed. Later that night, Joe got up and had some cornbread. And thus ended our first day. It's hard to know who got "shaken down" more-- the RV, or us!

A very nice weekend

2019-10-12/13 (Saturday/Sunday)

Another boring blog with no photos, I am afraid. These days driving on the highway are not that picturesque—or maybe we’ve just stopped noticing all the things that are “different”. But Saturday was a very nice day, breaking up our drive home (which is basically what our travels have become now.) We had to drive about 5 hours from the Indiana border (western, that is) to central Ohio. So we stopped for lunch at Arby’s, but otherwise were trying not to waste any time. We wanted to get to our friends, Gary and Jan, by 3:30 if possible for the kickoff of the MSU game. (Gary is, sadly, an Ohio State Uber-fan, and last week we exchanged some unpleasant text messages as his team pummeled mine. But the rest of the year, he is fine rooting for the Spartans.)

We sadly got stuck in some serious traffic outside of Indianapolis, so we didn’t make it to Gary’s local Walmart before the game started. Luckily, he taped the game so we could pick it up whenever we got there. We drove to Walmart, and he met us there so that we didn’t have to unhook the Jeep to drive to his house.

We had an absolutely lovely time with our friends, despite the worst loss that MSU has suffered in years. I am going to have to stay away from paying ANY attention to football all week, because the articles online are just horrifying to read (the game was horrifying to watch.) Luckily, we had friends to divert us (me) from misery. We caught up with our lives, our children and grandchildren news, and all kinds of other stuff. We are really very fond of them, and it is great that our travelers take us through central Ohio with some regularity so we get to keep up. I think we last saw them in May of 2018, on our way to Wisconsin.

At about 9:00, after a delicious dinner, we hugged Jan goodbye, and Gary brought us back “home” to the Walmart. Joe went right to sleep, but I was sitting and reading, with our new propane heater on to alleviate the chill. The darn thing set off the carbon monoxide detector, which required Joe to get up and the two of us spent some time wafting fresh air into the RV. We didn’t think the heater would cause that to happen; we had a baby one that was fine, but Joe bought this new one which is more powerful, and we’ve only used it twice. This was just a surprise.

Once that excitement ended, I went to bed and slept VERY soundly, until 8 this morning! And then, all we did was drive. I drove the first two hours, passing Columbus and almost to the border before we stopped for some lunch at a rest stop. Then Joe drove us through the West Virginia panhandle into Pennsylvania.

We stopped tonight at a Pennsylvania State Park where we’ve stopped before, quite early for us— 4:30, I think. We wanted to take it easy. Plus it is 30 miles from where we want to go tomorrow, before we finish the drive home. I remembered one place that I’d wanted to see last year, and we didn’t quite manage it—so we are going to have one more “experience” before we get home tomorrow evening.

Rolling on East

Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018

A short blog tonight, because I don't have ANY photos and not much to write about. We got a late start this morning-- I overslept!! Joe finally woke me up and to my shock, it was after 10:00-- he said he'd tried twice earlier but I was obviously SOUND asleep! So we didn't leave Walmart until about 11:00 or so.

Our first stop-- buy gas! We had forgotten the evening before, but we were almost entirely out. Then we headed back toward I96, US 23 (taking us through horrible Ann Arbor), and back to I-80. We did make one stop on US 23-- at the Beef Jerky Outlet. We spent quite a while tasting about 60 different flavors before deciding on a few to take home, along with some other goodies. Then we ate our lunch before really settling in for the drive at 2:30.

Other than a quick pit stop at a rest area on the Ohio Turnpike to dump our tanks, we drove right through all of Ohio, following I-90 rather than our usual I-80, up around Cleveland (we saw Lake Erie to our left) and then into Pennsylvania. By then we were getting tired and hungry and it was after 6:00.

We stopped for gas again, and decided we'd splurge and have dinner at a restaurant. So we stoppped in Erie, PA, and had dinner at Quaker Steak & Lube. This had the added advantage of many TV screens showing college football, and I caught the completely unexpected overtime situation and win by Penn State against Appalachian State. Then the Michigan-Notre Dame game came on, and I was faced with the dilemma of wanting BOTH teams to lose, but wanting Michigan to lose worse.

After dinner, we drove 3 more miles down I-90 and got off again at the Presque Isle Downs & Casino. We'd read on our RV Parky app that this was a better place than Walmart to overnight (the Walmart was literally behind the QS&L). It is a HUMUNGOUS parking lot, and quite dark in the area we are at. There are at least another half-dozen RVs parked here as well. It's too bad I wasn't really in the mood to go investigate the casino, I'm sure it would be fun another time. But this is a great free overnight stop.

And... hurrah for shadenfreude!!  Michigan lost! 

On The Road Again

Pennsylvania Farmland

Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018

Well, my amazing husband was able to fix our refrigerator yesterday--a lot of cleaning of electronic connections seems to have done the trick. By the end of the day, we'd packed all our clothes and "paperwork" (everything from maps, itineraries, and planned stops, as well as odd things like a map of the Michigan State campus (for parking at the game), confirmations of campground reservations, etc.) Unfortunately, we left most of the food packing for today. And because insufficient attention was paid to the standard packing list, we forgot a lot of things, like my special tea (no one carries it in the stores, I have to order it online), self-rising flour (biscuits! And we have SO MUCH of it at home!), and Krazy Mixed Up Salt, our standard go-to condiment, plus a number of other things. Yes, most of it can be purchsed on our way, but I just HATE buying things I already have more than enough of!

We pulled out at almost exactly noon, as is usual, and almost immediately hit the first of several very heavy downpours. However, we didn't encounter any accidents, only huge trucks trying their best to cause some. These things are SCARY-- a truck came within inches of us as we merged from I-287 onto I-78. However, we avoided any real dangers, and just made good time most of the day. We stopped at 2pm for an hour for some lunch, and again about an hour or so later for gas, but otherwise, we just drove through Pennsylvania. This time I actually took some photos-- we saw some stunning clouds, and of course that green farmland is so beautiful. We also saw a lot more trucks-- I think the ratio of trucks to cars was really 1/1.

Clouds after the Rain

Trucks in my Rear View Mirror

At around 7pm, we ran into construction traffic at mile 53 of I-80 in PA. It was frustrating because we had decided not to stop today for the groceries we need, and we would have arrived at our planned destination at maybe 8:30-- quite early! But what with the delay, it was 9:30 by the time we pulled into our favorite Ohio Turnpike stop, the Portage Service Plaza. They have a small RV section with about a dozen RV slots, including electricity, for $20. If it were cooler, we'd probably just take a free slot with the big trucks, but we wanted our AC tonight, and besides, there is also a free dump, which we need to avail ourselves of tomorrow (I can never understand why we always leave home with full waste tanks!)

In any case, we are comfortable tucked in, I put away a lot of stuff which had been loaded on board but not put away yet, made the bed, and Joe took Cassie for a walk. He's now sound asleep, and I am going to quickly (I hope) upload a few photos and go to bed also. I didn't get to sleep too early last night, and we have a lot of driving tomorrow again. But we are on our way, and that's always great!

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!

I've Had My Philadelphia

Day 1: August 20, 2005

Yay—we are on the road again! I’d hoped to leave by 8 a.m., but considering that Joe went to sleep at 1 a.m. and I went to sleep an hour later, we were fortunate to leave the house by 10:30 (we both had a REALLY hard time waking up!) By the time we left Highland Park with a full tank of gas, it was just 11:00. It’s interstate highways all the way at the moment—I-287 to I-78 to I-81 to I-76 (Pennsylvania Turnpike) to I-70, which will take us to St. Louis, MO, our first planned stop.

On our minds was the fact that we needed to dump our waste tanks, and there are precious few places to do that in New Jersey. However, I had a brainstorm and remembered Cabela’s, in Hamburg PA just about 90 minutes or so from home, has a lot of RV-friendly features. I confirmed on RV.net that they indeed have dumping facilities, so we stopped there at about 12:45 and did the deed.  We also walked Cassie and had lunch before leaving; we managed NOT to spend any money inside, although use of the dump was $5. Fortunately, it wasn’t free—otherwise we’d have felt obliged to give the store a little business as a “thank you”, and we would have spent a LOT more than that!

Just after leaving Cabela’s, we ran into some fairly heavy rainstorms, which continued through much of the afternoon. Around 4pm, we stopped at a rest area, thinking to walk the dog, but just as we parked, the skies opened again. I was driving—Joe had already gone to take a nap, and I decided to join him—as he said, “We’re on vacation, we can DO things like that!” So we napped to the sound of rain on the roof for about an hour. At about 5, we continued on our way. It was too bad that the weather wasn’t better—southern Pennsylvania is really beautiful, with rolling green hillsides and farmland. We did see a lot of clouds sitting on top of the mountains instead, but it’s not quite the same. I didn’t take any photos—one day I’ll have to take some “stock photos” of Pennsylvania for my first-day blogs. 

We stopped at a rest area at 5:30 for a dog walk and ice cream break. Soon after that, we got a call from Ben and Miriam. They had just left their home in Denver and are planning to spend the next couple of weeks camping with their two daughters, ages 1 and 3! So we are going to meet up with them in a week or so.  We are pretty vague about our schedule for Colorado, but camping in the mountains with people we love can’t be bad!

Sometime during the evening, we started a new game--we are looking for towns with names of states, so that it's a "double state". It started when we passed Washington, Pennsylvania, and just before that we'd seen a sign for California, Pennsylvania. We have friends who live in Delaware, Ohio. So now we're searching for more of the same. (Facebook friends contributed Indiana, Pennsylvania and Florida, New York to our list.) We'll be watching for more.

Joe also killed me with a terrible pun. We passed a sign for Triadelphia, West Virginia. I read aloud, "Triadelphia?" He answered quickly, "No thank you, I've had my Philadelphia." GROAN. But in tribute to the fact that I really DO love awful puns, I've memorialized it in the title of today's blog.

We stopped again at about 8pm at a Flying J to get gas and eat some dinner (scrambled eggs and salami—quick and delicious!) And now we are on the road again. It’s 10:20pm and we’re now in Ohio—our plan is to spend the night at a rest area. With luck, we should get to one at about 11pm, which would make this a 12-hour day. I probably would have been happier if we’d put more mileage behind us on our first day, but this is about par for our usual beginning. With luck we’ll sleep a solid 8 hours, and be on the road tomorrow by 8am or so.

Highland Park to Watkins Glen

Saturday, Aug. 17, 2013

It was somehow no big surprise that we didn’t get out of town today until noon. Joe had oodles of paperwork to do, and no matter how much I try to do ahead of time, at the last minute I always find stuff that I forgot to handle. So we pulled out at noon, made our customary u-turn two blocks later to return for a pair of glasses I’d left behind, and then set off toward Watkins Glen State Park in New York. We got to Pennsylvania and then stopped for lunch—too demoralizing to stop while we are still in New Jersey!  And then we stayed on the interstate until Scranton. 

I got a big kick out of playing with my smart phone. It’s still only a few months old, and this past week I downloaded apps which give me maps and info on all the NY State Parks, which are now stored in both my phone and my Tab 2. I also played with Waze, which cautioned us about cars stopped at the side of the road, objects in the road (potentially dangerous), police cars ahead, and warned about traffic congestion.  So for a while we were very “hooked up”, with the phone, the GPS, and occasionally the tablet for when I needed a detail map. Ironically, I had a paper map in my lap most of the time too, because I still prefer it to the GPS systems.

We left the interstate at Scranton and turned onto PA Route 6, a very scenic route along the river and through small towns…. And I mean SMALL towns!  Other than the scenery (which is gorgeous), the drive was unremarkable, except for one appalling sight. We stopped at a light and noticed on the side of the road a digital sign which had a video of the Beatles, probably from the Ed Sullivan show, or certainly something from that era. We watched it while we sat, and then the video stopped and showed the advertising—for a senior residence “for those who want a home environment with wonderful care.”  OMG!!!!!!!  The Beatles are now being used to market senior citizen housing??  It was horrifying! 

It took a while to recover from THAT, and we were very happy  to stop at the Marie Antoinette Scenic Overlook when it appeared. It offered a gorgeous view of the river below us, with green farmland on the other side and mountains in the distance. The farmland was called Azilum (Asylum) and was a colony, lasting from 1793-1803, established by French Royalists who fled from the French Revolution. Their hope was that Marie Antoinette might find safety there. An entire village was built around the Great House.  The scenic overlook was a project of the WPA in 1930. 

Looking West

Looking East

From there we continued west and then north through Elmira to the village of Watkins Glen. It was getting latish by this time—somehow we extended a drive of 4-1/2 hours to 7 hours!  But we finally made it, up the side of the mountain, to the park, where we have reservations for two nights. If this is a sample of the NY State Park campgrounds, we are going to be VERY happy on this trip! The sites are very large, with a lot of space between each one, and we are in the forest, which is lovely. It’s very interesting, we are basically the only RV, although we saw several pop-up trailers. I guess most folks who drive RVs want hookups (there are none here) but we really prefer to be in the woods and have no worries about having water and electric supplied—our tanks are full and we have enough light from our batteries and lanterns.

Joe made us an awesome supper based on previously cooked chicken which we brought from home (still frozen.) He defrosted it by steaming it, used the broth from the steaming as a base for a pepper, onion, and tomatoey sauce, and served it on rice. YUM YUM!!!!! 

 So that was our first day. Tomorrow we will go see the Glen, hike on at least one of the trails (one is accessible not too far from our campsite), and just relax. We are still trying to arrange our belongings inside Samantha, and as this is our first extended trip in her, we will probably be tweaking everything for a few days. We do have so much room, though… Joe is in the bedroom, I’m in the “living room” (in the front), and it seems like he is miles away. Roxy is happy, too…. She played with her squeaky toy and now she’s sleeping next to me. A successful first day! 

Added: I am LOVING this phone! I took these photos with the phone. Now the phone is also my mobile hot-spot and for the first time, we don't have to worry about where to find wifi to upload this blog.  What a miracle of technology. And it even allowed me to talk to my daughter earlier today :).  Very very cool!