Today is Friday the 13th. This is our 3rd day out from leaving our home base back in Newfane. Today is the only day I have not driven with the 5er in back of me. It was nice, I think I forgot how to drive one. I made a few rookie mistakes in the last few days. First I judged wrong on our first stop. Wanting to get further into Pa on the first day, I reserved a spot for a night at Yogi Bear- Shangrala campground in Milton Pa., 280 miles, and six hours of a drive the first day. OOPs, it was a long day. Then with under  a quarter of a tank of gas, and not really knowing how far away it was, I decided to pull into one of the big Sheetz gas stations. Wrong move, when I went to turn into the end pump, I could feel I was in tight, so I stopped, four inches away from the gas pump, and just short of wiping out the back two feet of the rig. Thank you lord, but stuck I was , we tried backing out a little, but there were a lot of cars there. Thankfully a Sheetz big tanker truck pulled in and he saw my dilemma. He got out, and after a few back ups and pull ups, he got me out. Thankyou Lord. It was only ten more minutes to the campground and I had enough gas. Lesson learned, when it feels wrong don’t do it. After we got settled into our spot, it hit me that I knew I got lucky this time.

Ranger Smith and Melissa, telling me I am going the right way

Me, Cooper and Yogi

Hay ride anyone.

Cooper had a following here, no less than five people wanted to meet and see him, as they had had Whippets before, he was the hit of the campground for a day.,The campground was pretty nice, only one night here ,and we left Thursday about one, as we only had a two hour drive to Gettysburg. Getting to Gettysburg was uneventfull, but I still had that un easy feeling from the day before.

We have a nice pull through here, at the Drummer Boy campground. It is a large campground, with over 500 sites, many of which are seasonals. It will be in the 80’s here this weekend, and we leave here Monday. Today we went on a tour of the Dobbin house, and ate at the world famous Tommy’s Pizza. During the battle they served pizza to Union and the Confederates. That’s a joke.

We also happened to see this car, whatever in the parking lot, it is pretty neat, but is it safe.

 

 

 

 

2019-2020 TRIP ITENERARY

 

DRUMMER BOY CAMPGROUND- GETTYSBURG PA- Sept 12-16

WALNUT HILLS CAMPGROUND- STAUNTON VA- SEPT 16-19

CROFT STATE PARK- SOUTH CAROLINIA- SEPT 19-21

HILL FALLS STATE PARK- GEORGIA- SEPT 21-23

STEPHEN FOSTER STATE PARK- FLORIDA- SEPT23-25

SILVER SPRINGS STATE PARK- FLORIDA- SEPT 25-28

CHRISTMAS RV PARK-FLORIDA- SEPT 28-30

JONATHAN DICKERSON STATE PARK- FLORIDA- SEPT 30- OCT 1

JOHN PENNACAMP STATE PARK- FLORIDA- OCT 1 – JAN 5

CYPRESS RV RESORT- FLORIDA- JAN 5 – FEB 5

ORTONA SOUTH CORP OF ENG- FEB 5 – 17

HILLSBOROUGH STATE PARK- FLORIDA- FEB 17 – 18

STEPHEN FOSTER STATE PARK- FLORIDA- FEB 18 – 19

FALLING WATERS STATE PARK- FLORIDA- FEB 19 – 20

GULF SHORES STATE PARK-ALABAMA- FEB 20 – MARCH 5

BUCCANEER STATE PARK- MISSISSIPPI- MARCH 5 – 15

NATCHEZ STATE PARK- MISSISSIPPI- MARCH 15 -21

LEFLEURE’S BLUFF STATE PARK- MISSISSIPPI- MARCH 21 -29

MORO BAY STATE PARK-ARKANSAS- MARCH 29 – 30

CRATER OF DIAMONDS STATE PARK- ARKANSAS- MARCH 30 – APRIL 5

LAKE CATHERINE STATE PARK- ARKANSAS- APRIL 5 – 15

T. O. FULLER STATE PARK TENNESSEE- APRIL 15 -18

J. P. COLEMAN STATE PARK- MISSISSIPPI- APRIL 18 -21

DESOTO STATE PARK- ALABAMA- APRIL 21 – 24

CLOUDLAND CANYON STATE PARK- GEORGIA- APRIL 24 – MAY 1

RIVEREDGE RV RESORT- TENNESSEE- MAY 1 – 15

WALNUT HILLS- VIRGINIA- MAY 15 -17

DRUMMERBOY CAMPGROUND- GETTYSBURG PA- MAY 17 – 20

HOME BASE NEWFANE NEW YORK- MAY 20 FOR SUMMER.

The labor day weekend was a lot of fun. The weather was good, not overly warm but nice, until Sunday night when it started to rain, and it rained heavy at times. Saturday was a busy day, we first met up for breakfast at 9 in the morning over at Gail’s seasonal trailer. We had the standard, bacon, eggs, and all that. About 16 of us all toll. Below is a pic of my two best friends, Mike (cooking) and Donny (looking tired). Grew up with them both and after all these years, we are still great friends. In the back ground is Gail, Melissa’s friend, and Melissa, holding a hair dryer on the propane regulator, keeping it from iceing up, not sure why it did but it did.

After that fun, we met up with our RV buddies, Bill and Sandy. They were traveling back from Vermont visiting there daughter. We met them at the thruway exit, not far from us, and went to the Travel America restaurant there. Spent almost three great hours catching up. We may not see them again for another year. Bummer.

After that we went to my brother Jeff’s. He always has a labor day party. Got there about  two or so. He always has an hour or so set aside to skiet shoot in the back. I shot twice hit 3 out of 5 the first time and 4 out of 5 the second time. Thought I did good for only once a year shoot. After that the annual kick ball game got under way. I always am the full time pitcher. I play hard for both sides. It was fun, as always. Then we visited with everyone, had dinner, lot of food and hung around till about ten or so. It did start to rain about seven or so and the party stayed in the garage. We then said our good byes, for the winter and went back to the RV. Pic below is of me and brother Jeff, two years younger than me. Yes, I am wearing a hat, a funny hat with long hair on it. It was the hit of the party. I thought I looked good, but I guess not.

Monday morning we had another breakfast with the gang and everyone packed up and headed home. A good time was had by all. Back at home base now and only a week left to go before we head down to Florida, for the winter.

We are now at Sleepy Hallow campground. It was about a 50 mile drive from our home base at my brothers. It took about an hour to get here. Melissa worked today so we didn’t leave until 4 pm. rush hour traffic, but not to bad after all. I had the 5er all hitched up and ready to go when she got home, and off we went. We will see some of my childhood friends here over the week end. Also Sunday my brother is having his Labor day party,  so we will go to that, which is only about 7 miles from here. Also we are hoping to catch up with our Rv buds, Bill and Sandy, Sunday noonish for lunch, as they criss cross the northeast, catching up with there daughter ,who is hiking the Appalation trail. We will be here till Monday, and then back to our home base for about ten days, then we are off to Florida. Right now I am a little worried about the hurricane heading to Florida, will have to see next week what if any damage it does. Pic below is of our spot here.

We have now been here at our home base in Newfane for 3 months, one month to go and we are off to Florida for our 3 month work camping stint starting Oct 1st. The weather here for a while now has been very nice. Melissa has been working 3 days a week, and I have been busy bothering people, and pretty much making a nuisance out of my self. Not really, there is a lot to do on the Rv every week ,and I have been busy around here completing the arranging of the shed. In the next month we will be seeing more of our friends we have not seen yet and going to Sleepy Hollow camp ground for the Labor day weekend. After that we have a week to get ready to leave. I am ready to leave now. I will be posting our agenda here shortly of our upcoming trip for the winter.  We have for sure decided that we will not be back here until late May next year.

 

One thing I have done here to the Rv, is replace a breaker, before we came back ,the slides were not coming in all the way, they would just stop. The battery was checked and I even got a new one. Someone on the Heartland forum said it was the breaker, sure enough it was. This little thing is a 50 amp mini breaker, which powers the slides. The other one was getting too hot and just stopped, then reset itself a few seconds later Now the slides work fine.

The one with the red cover off is the one I replaced.

We are enjoying summer and have been “Fun and Frolicking” about.

We have also accomplished tasks we have wanted to do for along time.

Dave has been working on the shed he made last year and has decorated it with pictures and memorabilia. An impressive “Heshed” as well as maintaining the outside of the Fiver.   He also made a shelf at the end of our island for extra allure and use.

I finally made the curtains and the pillows for the living area, below are the before and after pictures. It made the whole area a lot brighter.

We are now at Red Rocks Pond RV Resort, in Holly NY, about an hour east from our home base. We will be here until the 15th. We got here yesterday about one or so, this is our third time here. It is a nice place they have a swimming pond with a beach and a number of ponds for fishing along with hiking and trails. The Erie canal is about 200 feet away and it has a walking biking trail along side,which runs from here to Buffalo, or to Albany. Most sites are seasonal, but very well maintained. The park is so named because of the red rocks here. Back in the early 1820’s when they put the Erie canal through, they quarried the rocks from here and used them for the elevated sections of the canal. Along with church, and cemetary buildings being built with the red stones. After they were done the quarries filled with water and now are the ponds that are around.

Picture of our spot.

Friday Melissa and I went to the near by Skydivers Club and watched a few friends and family go skydiving. Not in a million years would I go, but we had to go watch. It was a really hot day over 90 and very high humidity. We got there a little before noon and never left until almost eight in the evening. A very long day just to watch. They only took two people up at a time with an instructor jumper for each. They went tandum as you cannot jump by yourself until you have a few jumps in. The plane only held four people and the pilot. It took 25 minutes for the plane to get up to altitude which is 10,000 feet. You barely could see the plane and you could not see them free falling, once the chutes open up you can spot them in the sky. I guess you free fall for 30 seconds and after the chute opens you float down for 4 to 5 minutes.  The first to go was my sister in law, Donna and her brother, they landed safe. The next to go was a good friend Marie and her daughter. After they took off, they had to come back about 15 minutes later because of the weather. We had a small thunderstorm come through. After about an hour up they went again. They also landed safe. The last to go was my brother in law Doug and my nieces husband, Brandon. they also landed safe. All of them said it was a blast ,except when you had to leave the plane. Not for me as I said before, but it was a lot of fun to watch ,and I give them all the credit in the world. I took a few videos, but can’t figure out how to get them up yet.

My brother in law Doug on the left, and Brandon on the right all suited up ready to go.

After we left there we came home and had dinner. I then took Cooper out to play for a while, and then it happened. He went for the frisbee at the same time I did, Chomp, his teeth sunk into my right third finger. When he let go, I was screaming, the blood was flowing, I got into the rv and put it under water, I thought, the end of my finger was gone. It wasn’t but it was a tear about one inch long and about half way through my finger. Off to the Er we went, got there and it was closed, off to the hospital we went.  They were open. Was there about an hour, most of the time filling out paperwork. When the Doc came in he gave me two choices. One was not stiches as they do not sew up dog bite wounds because they want them to drain out. so he said I can do one stitch on each end to close part of the sides or just compress it and put a band aid over it. I chose the second option, so they cleaned the wound up and put a small compress on it with a band aid, plus a tetnis shot. It will take longer to close up, but it will be able to drain out and hopefully not get infected. It’s been two days now, and I have cleaned it twice, and it has closed up some, but I guess it will take a few weeks easy to kind of be able to use it.

The hospital bandage, one day later

After cleaning today the second day

Monday we took the 5er out for a drive, about 50 miles or so. It was one of the very few days here it was sunny. We had to drop off some stuff to my sister in law for the garage sale, so we took it out. On the last turn before we get to my brother’s, I pulled over and told Melissa I did not feel well. She looked at me strange and I said it again adding I think you better drive. She certainly looked concerned, then I smiled and said your turn to drive. I got her good, her mood changed from real concern to you, ass hole you. I got out and went to the passenger side and she got in the drivers seat. I really wasn’t too concerned, it was only a little over a mile and no turns. She did good and I am proud of her, she got up to about 40 mph or so, and came to a good stop in front of my brother’s house. She now knows what it’s like to pull 13,000 pounds or so. From there I pulled it into the driveway. Now its all I hear, when can I drive it again. Hold your horses, I say a little at a time.

Well on the move sort of. Friday we hitched up and took the Rv to the nearest dump station ,which happened to be an Rv dealer. It was free, which was nice. It was a round trip of 42 miles. The plan I had to dump our black tank water, in my brothers septic did not pan out, so every two weeks or so we will have to hitch up and go to the dump. That’s OK, as it gives me a little drive time with the 5er.

When we got back to our home base, from the dump station, we set up in the back area, next to our shed. This is where we will be for the summer until we leave we leave in September. The weather still has not been all that great, more rain, and still cooler. Next year for sure we will not come back until the beginning of June. Other than that not much has been happening. Pics below are of our spot.

Looking at our spot from the back yard of my brothers.

A closer view.

From our steps on the RV.

Looking at my brothers house from our set up.

A view from the far back by the woods.

Another view from the back