Road Trip 2010: Days 74-76: HOME!

No, I didn’t fall off the face of the earth. Although, it’s mighty tempting to jump right about now—as you’ll see if you read all that is below.

Day 74: Terre Haute, IN to Seville, OH
We made our way still further eastward on I-70 across the balance of Indiana and into Ohio. We passed Dayton and skirted Columbus, Ohio before heading northeast on I-71. At the junction of I-71 and I-76 we took the turn on to I-76 for a few miles before looking for the Maple Lake Recreation Park. We had called ahead and found they had a back=in available but when we got there the person who had been there the previous night was still there and we were preparing to head on down the road when the owners, no doubt fearing the loss of a night’s rental, realized that a semi-permanent guest would not be back until Saturday night and that their drive through was available. Needless to say that suited us fine as we were going to be on the road quite early anyway.

We found our slot, pulled in and set up. Then we hit the pool for an hour before dinner.

Day 75: Seville, OH to Ive’s Run/Hammond Lake, PA—aka HOME

We left Seville, bright and early and headed northeast on I-76 and then onto I-80 east near Youngstown, Ohio. After that, it was “just” across PA and then north on Route 15—call it another 200 or so miles.

Only about 200 miles to go!

OOPS!
A couple days previously I had made reservations on line for the Corps of Engineers campground at Ive’s Run. I thought I had made them for Saturday night through next Thursday for one site and then from Thursday night through September 2nd for a second site. Even had the confirmation email to prove it—I thought. This would have been ideal as some foul weather from out by Lake Michigan was headed our way and we would beat it to the campground and get set up before its arrival around midnight Saturday. Somehow I had screwed up and our reservations. They were to start on SUNDAY not SATURDAY. We were a day early and everything was booked. They did have some overflow camping with no hook-ups available however. So I put some water in the freshwater holding tank and pulled into the dry camp for the night. The good news is that I finally learned how to use the refrigerator on its gas setting.

We then went home to the Aerie to see how things stood. The rain gauge said we had had between six and seven inches of rain since we left. The lawn was a mess, of course. Three large branches on the red but near the rain gauge were broken off. (Wind or critter?) The pumpkins hadn’t set many (read any) fruit but they did have some very nice vines. The winter squash had also grown lots of vines but they had also set a bundle fruit. Problem was that something (squirrels or raccoon? No visible foot prints could be seen) had eaten half of each of them so we will be lucky to get three or four. The onions looked as good as when we left except for a few that had sent up some flower heads. The contractor who said he would do the stone work and staining while we were gone had not gotten around to it yet. (I had spoken to him a few days ago and he says he got hung up on some other projects. Example: He was called in to rewire a room and ended up doing the whole house. Then there were several calls from folks who had leaky roofs. Those have to be fixed ASAP and take precedence over a job that could be considered cosmetic versus emergency care. All very understandable, but still frustrating to me.) He did have all the materials delivered and they sit in the garage and basement. The stone in the garage completely blocks my use of the ATV for awhile.

Then there was the Aerie’s refrigerator. When we left, we took what little we had in the way of frozen vegetables and meats and packed them into the fridge’s freezer compartment so we could clean out the chest freezer. Some time while we were gone the fridge went cablooey. The freezer compartment temperature rose to 38 degrees and everything defrosted. The Fridge compartment was at room temperature which ruined everything in there.

The phone had a full compliment of messages (18), nine of which came from the bank holding the loan on the Jeep telling us to call about changes to our loan status (probably due to the uncashed check from June’s payment). We’ll get some of that straightened out once we get to see our mail on Monday morning.

I went back to the trailer at the campground feeling a little sick to my stomach having seen all the work that lay ahead and repairs that need to be arranged for. It started to pour around 11:30 PM and continued all night. When I got out of bed at 7 AM, the campgrounds I was in (grass, naturally) was a marsh and it was still raining.

Day 76: Ive’s Run

Terry showed up with the Jeep at around 11 AM. We hustled to carry some stuff up to the Aerie, head down to Beiter’s Home Furnishing to see about getting someone out to service our GE refrigerator (they didn’t sell it to us, but we have bought a bunch of stuff there and they should honor our relationship), pick up the cats at Adams house (Julie and Chester were easy to get into their carry cases, Shadow not so much—but they all survived as did Dodge, Adam’s yellow lab), eat lunch, move the trailer into the reserved campsite (it stopped raining around 1 PM and remained dry skied while we were moving things about), fight with the slideout (finally used jumper cables to run the motor directly off the battery—hope it slides in using conventional means!), load the Jeep with most of Terry’s clothes, eat dinner and, now, take a deep breath. Terry is back at the Aerie. I’m in the campgrounds for the night.
The Road Trip 2010 is officially over. All that remains is the repair of the slideout and the clean-up and winterizing of the trailer.

Monday I’ll pick up all our mail as soon as the post office opens at 8 AM. Then we’ll see about getting things straightened out vis-à-vis: finding out what’s up with the Jeep loan (I’ve a feeling either the stick on label or stamp came off and it was returned to sender); getting the refrigerator fixed (Beiter’s should call early—I hope); cutting the lawn and weeding—if the rain holds off some; arranging for both the truck and trailer to get registered and inspected (the truck also need some service after logging 12K miles with just one oil change since June 9th); seeing if I can get my driver’s license renewed; look into getting my hunting licenses for PA and NY; and a ton of other things.

******
Well, Beiter's can't come until Friday, but Sears will be here this afternoon. It's still raining. THREE checks mailed out the day we left were never cashed. All were sent from a post office in Tioga Junction. That will be three stop payments and three new checks to write. (Everything handled on line went swimmingly but these three can not be done that way.) And the IRS has been dealt with. (Had to explain that even though my pension comes from the state, I was not a state employee. Never had this problem the last three years.)

Now, If you'll excuse me I've got to run to the bank to stop payment on three three month-old checks and then to the bank to mail out three new checks.

*sigh*
Wish I was back on the road again!