First week in Crawfordsville Indiana for 2015

June 11 - 17, 2015

It’s been a pretty good first week here in Crawfordsville Indiana.  First, we got our satellite system back this week. Actually it got here before we did.  This week it was also time for the 3 day Strawberry Festival in Crawfordsville.  We have had a lot of time with family too!

First thing Tony does when he arrives is to solve the puzzle of unlocking the wine bottle.

We got the satellite system back just about 3 weeks after sending it to Winegard in Iowa.  The final cost was $525 with a breakdown as follows: $50 Parts, $130 shipping, with the remaining being 3 hours of labor, $225.  Also, they sold me a new reflector at $23 saying the old reflector didn’t have the required gain.  I think that was BS, they just wanted me to have a new reflector to show off their name.  My old one was faded.   The real pisser was that they made me send back the old one which cost me double the cost of a new one at $55 to ship.  So, with my shipping and boxing, and Winegard's charge to me, the total cost was $525.  

The satellite system was very well packed in one large box. It really looked like they sent me a new system.  The roof roller was the giveaway though.  The roller was the only part that looked like it had been used.  I think they cleaned the old system up and then repainted it.  The wiring even looked like it was new.  None of this newness was accounted for in the price though.

Winegard's packaging makes what I sent look real bad!

Now I just need to get this on to the roof!

Anyway, I now have a nice new looking system on the roof that works.  It was a lot harder getting all of the equipment up on the roof than it was getting it down.  I also picked a real hot day of 95 to do the work.  And for some reason I am a glutton for punishment, I did the work on the roof in the afternoon after I did my 5 mile run/walk!  The reinstall really wasn't that hard, it was just really hot.  The whole job took me about 2 hours from getting out the ladder to putting it away. Just glad that job is done now!

All of the stuff is now on the roof, just need to put it where it is supposed to go!

The Strawberry Festival is held every year in downtown Crawfordsville IN.  It has a really big draw from the local area as this is the only thing going on.  We like to go once just to see the crafts and to eat junk food.  We also like to watch the kids have fun too!  The festival has live music that is pretty good too.  We went on the first day, Friday afternoon, to have a late lunch.  That is a very good time to go as it is a weekday so people are still working, the poor bastards!  We had a very good time there with the grandkids.

Girls playing the ring toss game while Grandma watches.

Livy hooked a plastic fish.  She won a "big" prize for that!

Tony's new car, he wishes!

They had a small zip line at the festival.  This zip line you can rent for parties.  Just 2 of the girls went on the ride, Bailey and Livy.

Note the smile on Livy's face.  She loved the zip line.  She is a little daredevil!

Not so much smiling for Bailey!  She went even though she was afraid, so good for her!
Savannah is watching from the shade.

Not sure what this car is but I liked it enough to take a picture and put it here.

Most of the week the kids have either come over to our RV or we have gone to their house.  We have also had some time to ourselves too which is good.  What we can see so far is that Savannah has grown the most, followed by Livy.  To me is doesn't seem like Bailey has grown much in the past 7 months (other than her chest!).  However, she is the one who grew the most last year.  

The kids can be nuts at times.  We had a big rain one afternoon so the girls stuck their heads under the run off from the roof!

Savannah and Livy both like to help in the kitchen.  We are making strawberry cool whip dessert! Patty's favorite and I love this stuff!

Who else but grandpa has extra bubble wrap!  What a great toy and fun!
 Need the bigger bubble though next time.

We have a lot of hummingbirds at our feeder now!  Have not seen multiples at one time yet.  I have seen 5 different birds though.

Well, that’s it for this post.  The posts will be shorter and fewer while we sit for a month.  Usually we will have one a week during our sitting periods. 
 
Stay Tuned!

Richmond Indiana Bump and Run and Then Crawfordsville IN

June 09 - 10, 2015  

We had another fairly long travel day from Point Pleasant WV to Richmond Indiana of 190 miles.  However, the road flattened out so the ride was actually sort of boring.  The Richmond IN stop is just going to be a one nighter or what we call a bump and run stop.  We don’t do these too often but, on occasion, we do mainly because we have a commitment to be somewhere and we ran out of time.  As long as we don’t do this too often it’s fine. 

We arrived at the RV park around 4pm.  The park is very woodsy with nice sized sites for a commercial campground; we liked it!  We would stay here again.  The cost was just $20 a night with the Passport America rate for full hook ups. The CG even had fairly good wifi!  Since this was a bump and run for us we just settled in for the night with no other plans.

Our site at the Deer Ridge Camping Resort.

Just had to take pictures of these in the park, cute!

Very cool stump carvings located in the RV park here in Richmond Indiana.

Passing some time with my honey playing ace deuce!

On a bump and run we do the minimum set-up but we do unhook the truck.  It is usually assumed that we are not going to unhook the truck when we are staying just one night. Actually, a lot of the times camp hosts think we will not unhook for 2 night stays.  We like to level the RV and unhooking the truck is so very easy and it is just part of our routine.

On Wednesday morning the 10th I went into town to fill up on fuel.  We are only traveling 125 miles today so I only needed to just top the tank off.  While filling the tank I noticed a chunk had come out of the driver’s side front tire.  I’m not sure if I need to worry about this or not.  The chunk is to the depth of the tread so I think it will be OK.  I just have not seen anything like this before.  These tires are just 1 year old now! It looks like I hit something in the road and the something gouged out one of the treads.  I will need to check with others on this and see if there is a consensus about it.

Front left tire with the tread chunk gouged out.

Before leaving to fuel up I had dumped the black tank and I was just letting the back flush run to clean the tank. When I got back, Patty had closed up the RV and now was just waiting on me to finish.  Actually Patty put up the anaconda (what we call the power cord) while I was gone too.  That was a big help because that is probably the thing I don’t like the most about closing up to leave, putting away the power cord.  Yea, this is a poor me thing I’m sure!

We were out of there by noon and arrived in Crawfordsville IN at 2:30pm.  We will be here for the next 4 weeks visiting with grandkids and my son Tony and his wife Tracy.  We are at the KOA just off of Interstate 74 on state road 231.  This will be our second year staying here.  The price here is way too expensive on a nightly stay for us but the monthly at $525 is fine.  The KOA has a pool which the grandkids like so it’s a win win here for us.

These are new signs in Indianapolis, at least I have not seen them before.  They seem to represent the international flavor of the city.

Our site at the KOA in Crawfordsville Indiana.

Stay tuned!

Heading Back West to Max Meadows Virginia

June 03 - 08, 2015  

We have turned the corner and are headed back east toward Indiana where we will spend a month.  However, along the way we want to add a couple of states to our camping map on the RV.  We are adding Virginia and West Virginia traveling in this direction.  

Now we have Virginia and West Virginia added!  We will get Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina added in the fall.  That will finish off the east coast from New York south.

Our first stop is in Max Meadows VA at the Fort Criswell RV Park.  This park is basically just a stopover type place just off of interstate 81. It's on the western edge of Virginia and just a few miles away from West Virginia and North Carolina.  Our intentions were to just stay 3 nights and then move on to western West Virginia.  That would satisfy our requirements of staying a night in a state to add the state stickers to our USA map.

Our site is second from left .

On Wednesday the 3rd we left North Carolina and headed to Virginia.  Patty was not feeling well so she dozed off and on for the 2 hour trip.  Once at the campsite, Patty headed to bed for the remainder of the day.  Thursday we got up and we both did our usual routines of internet plus I did my usual exercise work out.  By lunch Patty was tired and she was off to bed again.  Patty mostly slept until the next morning, Friday the 5th.  During this sleeping time, Patty was experiencing a lot of high blood sugars.  I was getting worried that she may be starting to have another bout of DKA.

Friday, Patty was feeling better and we decided to do a historic walking tour of Wytheville VA.  We made reservations to attend a dinner theatero after the tour at a local German restaurant.  Well, that was the plan anyway!  Patty was feeling good and she was actually hurrying me up to “get this day started!”  However, a telltale sign that something was wrong was when Patty took a shower before we were going to leave for the tour.  She came out of the shower completely out of breath, just from taking a shower.  After her shower we decided to take a nap and rest up before the tour.

After our 2 hour nap, I was in the bathroom getting ready to go and that is when things went south for Patty.  I left the bathroom and was on the stairs when I saw Patty piled into the corner of the kitchen on the floor.  Her mouth was open and eyes were closed.  OH SHIT!  Patty had passed out probably from low blood pressure.  She has not done this for over 4 months now.  

I tried to get her up out of the corner and lay her down so I could put her feet up and at the same time trying to get her awake.  I managed to get her partially up and talking a little and then down she goes again!  When she passes out like this she just goes completely limp.  It is just like she died, her bladder and bowels just let go.  Now she is jammed crossways into a space between the sink island and the stove and it is a mess to say the least!

After a lot of tugging and pulling I got her laid out on the kitchen floor with towels around her.  I then took the cushions off of the sofa and placed under her feet.  By this time she is talking but feels real dizzy.  It was 2 pm when she passed out and now it was about 3 pm.  I got a blood pressure cuff on her and left it there so I could check her pressure periodically.  At 3 pm she was 68/47.  Around 3:30 we got her on to the bed. Then by 4 pm her pressure was up to 87/55.  That is when I decided to take her to a hospital so they could get fluids in her if she was dehydrated from DKA.  I was just not convinced that her pressure would remain high enough to stay conscious.

The closest hospital was just 20 minutes away, Wytheville Community Hospital.  Long story short on the hospital stay, she was out in 2 hours.  She didn’t have DKA and was only slightly dehydrated.  All of her blood results came back good. Her pressure was still low at 89/55 but she was not having any symptoms so the doctor released her.  We believe this is just another symptom from her having autonomic neuropathy caused by diabetes.  Autonomic neuropathy is the loss of nerve control of the automatic bodily functions like sweating, bowel function and blood pressure.  There is not much that can be done for this which sucks!  

Since we cancelled the dinner theater for Friday night, we decided to stay another night and see the show on Saturday night.  We went to Walmart before the show and thought we would have enough time to do the tour.  We spent way too much time in Walmart so we just opted to go to a scenic overlook and then head to the show at 6 pm.  The show and dinner were pretty good making it a nice evening out. 

We can see 3 states from here; North Carolina, West Virginia, and of course Virginia.

We are at 3800 feet of elevation.

Something we didn't do, climb this tower!  It's something like 150 feet up
and it costs $6 for the adventure of climbing it.  Ah, no!

Before the interstates, this scenic view was a big tourist trap.  Now it just barely hangs on as a small tourist trap.  It did have a nice view so we enjoyed it!

German restaurant for the dinner theater.

Stage for the dinner theater.  The musical was called Under the Boardwalk.

By staying another night we will need to do a bump and run to get to Crawfordsville Indiana by Wednesday the 10th.  We decided to do the bump and run (stay just one night) on our last stay before getting to Crawfordsville.  Our last stay will be in Richmond Indiana.

On Sunday the 7th we packed up the site and headed to West Virginia.  We had 190 miles to travel to get to the city of Point Pleasant WV.  We are traveling completely across the mid-section of the state.  The interior of the state is just as I imagined, steep winding mountain roads and trees.  The trip didn't at all surprise me, it was exactly as I had imagined.

We arrived at the Krodel RV Park around 4 pm.  This is another less than exciting park, but we usually don't care about the parks we're just overnighting in.  The park has what we want, easy to get to and out of, close to what we want to see, and cheap.  We really would like to have internet but Krodel does not.  The problem with this area is that there just wasn't any place to park conveniently, let alone have internet.  

Our site in Point Pleasant WV.

The excitement started just after we started to set up our site. I was doing my thing with plugging in the power, turning on the water, and attaching the sewer hose.  About the time I am attaching the sewer hose Patty is putting out the slides, which is usual timing.  The slides got halfway out and then Patty comes out and asked if I heard the loud noise.  I didn't here anything.  She wanted me to come around the other side of the RV and listen while she tries to open the slide again.  It sounded terrible, like the slide was caught on something or binding up!  

I checked under and around the slide and didn't see a thing. I had Patty try again.  OK, not going to try that again, it made a bad popping noise that sounded like it came from inside the RV.  I went inside and found that the right fascia on the large slide was completely pulled away from the wall.  Actually, not only was the fascia pulled away, so was the 1x6 backing board behind it.  The backing board was broken about a foot up from the floor.

What the hell can cause that to happen!  Looking behind the edge of the slide I found the body of a wooden dragon we hang from the rear window when we are parked.  The dragon is placed on my recliner while we are moving.  It looks to us like the dragon dropped through the recliner cushions and fell out the back.  This put the dragon body against the pulled in slide side.  When we opened the slide the dragon wedged itself between the RV wall and the slide edge.  The rest is now history.

You can just see the wooden dragon below in the picture.

The fascia pulled away here.

I got out my tools and I fixed the slide back board and the fascia.  I also fixed the opposite slide fascia for the same condition from hitting Patty's recliner a few weeks ago.  Oh, and we broke another ceiling fan blade moving the slides back and forth during  the fixing operation.  We were just not watching and the fan blade caught the slide and snapped off. Now we have a broken blade and a repaired blade.  I am not fixing this one as we have new blades arriving on Wednesday in Indiana.  Anyway, it was not a fun time setting up this time!

Fixed!

We are only just getting our nights (2 actually) stay in here for the sticker and then moving on to Indiana on Tuesday the 9th.  The weather when we got here was great at 90 and sunny.  But on our only day for sightseeing the rain moved in.  We did get in a short 2 mile hike around the small lake here at the park.

Old fort inside the RV Park.  The fort is a representation of the one that was in town.  The original was commissioned by George Washington to help keep the British and Indians away. 

An across the lake picture of our campground.  Directly in the middle is our rig with our truck parked sideways in front of it.

Stay tuned!

East to High Point North Carolina

June 01 - 02, 2015   

We decided to visit a friend who lives in High Point NC after we left the rally site in Marion NC.  High Point is just 130 miles east making this a short move of around 2 hours.

We were in our long term set up for the 11 days at the Tom Johnson site.  When we are set up for the long term it takes us a little longer to pull up and leave.  Our flag is set up with a solar light and all mounted to the rear ladder.  We have lights under the RV along with our large mat out. The awning is tied down and we have the bird feeder out too.  And of course the grille is set up!   

Since our travel was going to be short I did my usual 5 mile walk/run before tearing down the site. Before starting to tear down the site, I went to a gas station and topped off the fuel tank.  I didn’t start tearing down until about 12:30 and we were pulling out of the park at 2:00; 1.5 hours to tear down. The short stay set up takes us about half an hour to tear down, so the long term takes us about an hour longer.

We did have a mishap closing the slides.  The entertainment slide is supposed to slip under the ceiling fan blades.  This has always been very close with the fan blades actually touching the edge of the slide as it retracts.  We think that the fan blades have dropped just a little in the past 3 years. So this time one of the blades caught on the edge of the slide as it was closing, SNAP! "@#%#@@!!!  Oh well, sometimes you are the bug and sometimes you are windshield.  We were the bug this time!

The trip to High Point NC was uneventful, which is a good thing I guess.  The terrain was mostly flat as we were heading away from the Appalachian Mountains now.  We arrived at the Oak Hollow RV Park around 4 pm.  

Oak Hollow is owned by the town of High Point.   It is a little expensive at $35 for full hook ups, but it does have decent Wi-Fi.  We picked site A25 as it had 50 amps. It doesn't matter here, 50 and 30 amp are the same price.  

The sites are back in and are staggered from left to right, 24 to the right right and then 25 was on the left.  Well, we read the site markers wrong and went into site 24 which is a 30 amp site.  We didn’t find out until the next morning that we were in the wrong site.  Oh well, we will get by with the 30 amps.

The real bad thing about the sites on the right side like 24 is that they are very unlevel from front to back.  We tried to raise the rear of the RV by placing some of our extra leveling blocks under the tires but that was just not enough.  The rear jacks are at full extension with 2 one inch leveling blocks under them, making the rear raised 20 inches.  The front jacks are completely retracted and we are still not fully level. We are out by 2 degrees from front to back with the rear jacked up 20 inches and we have the 2 rear tires completely off the ground!  Good thing it is only for 2 nights.

This is one of those sites that has the water connection on the opposite side.  The hoses need to come under the RV.  You wonder sometimes who plans out these campgrounds!

That chock on the far side isn't doing anything!  I am just a little worried that I might slip off and roll down the hill into the woods!

After we got set up we headed over to meet our friend Karen McNamara and her family for dinner at their house.  They only live about 3 miles from the campground making this camping site very convenient.  Karen lives with her daughter Antoinette and her husband Paul.  Her daughter has 2 kids (Aurora and Emmett) who are extremely outgoing!  The family just moved here from Houston TX about a month ago so they are new to the area.  Karen was originally from eastern Pennsylvania and worked with Patty in western New Jersey.  That’s how we got to know Karen.  

We had a great pasta and spicy sausage dinner, with great sauce!  We then spent the next hours getting caught up.  By 10:30 we knew we needed to leave as they needed to work in the morning.  We had a very nice time and we may be back this fall as we pass through on our southeast coast travels.  Thanks to Karen and family for dinner and great company!

We got back to the rig and watched some TV before calling it a night around midnight.  

Tuesday the 2nd, Patty and I headed to the free tennis courts at the entrance to the RV Park.  The town has a tennis center at the entrance to the RV Park and a golf course which is across the street from the Park.  We were thinking of playing golf but there were no tee times available.  So we decided to get a workout on the courts.

The tennis center has 6 clay courts and 2 hard surface courts outside with lights for night playing.  They also have some inside courts. The hard surface courts are free but the clay courts are $8 and hour.  If we wanted lights for the hard surface it was also $8 an hour.

Don't get the idea that we really are tennis players.  We really suck at tennis but we like to just run around and hit the ball. We like the workout!  We played for about an hour and worked up a good sweat.  Yeah us!

Back at the RV I ordered new fan blades for our ceiling fan from EBay.  I couldn’t get the exact same size but I got a set that is very close.  I was able to get a set that was a little bit shorter by half an inch.  I am hoping that the shorter length will keep the blades from getting in the way of the closing slide.   We shall see.  I also temporarily fixed the broken blade.  I glued the 2 halves back together as best as I could. I think I did a pretty good job, just don’t know how long it will last.

My frankenstein glue job!

The slide goes just under the fan blades.  We will need to watch from now on as we close the slides.

We think we are going to, again, just travel a short distance tomorrow.  We are thinking about staying a couple of nights in Virginia before heading off to West Virginia.  Both of these states are new camping states for us.  

We just added North Carolina to our camping map.  We should add Virginia and West Virginia the next week!

Stay tuned!