We are on our way from Crawfordsville IN to Keyport NJ for a wedding on October 1st. The distance is 750 miles due east through Ohio and Pennsylvania. Since we travel only around 200 miles a day and stay 2 nights as we go, this trip should take 7 days with the last stay of just one night. However, we left a day late so we decided to do an extra stay of just an overnight. So the trip took us 5 days to do the 750 miles with 3 stops.
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| At a rest area for a bathroom and stretch break. Note the fall colors are just beginning. |
We are attending the wedding of one of our best friend's (Cindy Weber) daughter Shannon. We have known Shannon since she was in High School. There just wasn’t anyway really that we would not attend her wedding. That is why we are doing this sort of unusual side trip back to New Jersey after having been there back in June. We plan to be in NJ only a week and then head slowly back south to Texas for the winter.
We have found, like a lot of RVers, that campgrounds have been much fuller than they have been in the past. Here we are in late September and still needing to make sure we can get into a site, even in the middle of nowhere!
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| We eat well on the road. Making cooked red cabbage and spatzle. |
Our first stop was to be at a campground we had stopped at last year near Columbus OH. As we need to do now, we called ahead after we were on our way to ensure we could get a site and found that the campground was booked solid! So Patty got busy on her tablet looking for an alternative. She found one that really was in the middle of nowhere. This campground, called Tomorrows Stars, is in Charlestown Ohio. It’s located between Dayton and Columbus Ohio. It was a nice place to spend a one nighter but was 30 miles closer or only 180 miles for us to travel for the day. The fewer miles was really OK, we will make it up at the end as we enter NJ.
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| Our site in Ohio. |
Our second stop on the way to NJ was at the Washington/Pittsburgh SE KOA for a 235 mile travel day. KOA campgrounds are not our first choice but they are usually in convenient locations and have Wi-Fi. By signing up their frequent stay program, called Value Kard, we get a 10% discount making the cost just high instead of unreasonable.
This KOA was right off I 70 just before the entrance to the I 76 toll road, the PA Turnpike. We stayed here 2 nights and really just chilled out and visited the local Walmart.
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| Our site near the entrance to the PA turnpike at the KOA. |
Our 3rd and last stop was at the Dogwood campground in Newville PA. This place was sort of off the beaten path but was a Passport America participant. We belong to Passport America so the cost per night was only $24 a night. Since we only have 188 miles left to our friend’s house in NJ this was a one nighter too. This campground is about 10 miles from the turnpike but it is in the right direction for us to leave from to get on PA 88 and onto I 78 in to NJ. We liked this place and decided that we would stay here on our way back west next week. The campground is close to Carlisle PA which we want to explore a little bit on our next visit.
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| The old small town of Newville PA |
We made it back to Keyport NJ on Tuesday the 27th of September. We arrived around 2:30 and were set up by 3:30. It took us a little longer to set up here because we spread out more here. We also need to add blocks on the left side in their driveway because we always lift the RV wheels off the ground here. Their driveway is also narrow so getting the exact spot and then adding the leveling block takes a little more time.
It feels like we never left! After we left NJ at the beginning of July we have been to all of the New England states, Quebec and Ontario Canada, Buffalo NY, and then Indiana before being back here. We just made a huge circle of about 2,500 miles!
The wedding was on Saturday the 1st of October in Morrisville PA just outside of Trenton NJ. Cindy’s brother Matt, his wife Pam, and their daughter Katie flew in from Florida for the wedding. Katie was the last to fly in on Saturday so we were the chauffeurs to the airport and then to the wedding because we knew the area.
The wedding and reception was the same venue, Michael's in Morrisville. It was a very nice event and we were very happy that we could attend. We wish Shannon and Matt a very happy and long life together!
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| Cindy and her daughter Shannon. |
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| Shannon and her husband Matt Riso |
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| Flower girl |
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| Patty and Cindy with Jordan (Shannon and Matt's daughter) |
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| Patty and I clowning around at the wedding. |
The weather in NJ was very wet while we were there. It rained almost every day for the entire week. This wet weather showed us that we have a roof leak in the bedroom slide somewhere! The leak, I believe, is on my side of the bed near the wall in the outside corner. I put my slightly used clothing on my side of the bed near this area and one morning they were soaking wet, OH CRAP! It was a lot of water. I soaked up most of it with a towel and then dried it completely with a hair drier.
I got the ladder out and examined the roof of the slide and really didn’t find anything that looked bad. The only thing I could see was that the seam between the rubber roof and the metal trim on the outside edge of the slide seemed open. It is that way on all of the slides though. Also, this open area runs down the front metal edge and the slide fiberglass side. Again, this is the same on all of the slides. What I saw that made me think this area may be the leak area was that the seam was wet at the bottom. When I pushed on the metal trim water would come out of the seam.
To fix this leak potential I decided to seal the roof first. I could use 2 things to seal it and I just had one of them, EternaBond Tape. The alternate and cheaper method, but just as good, would be the use of Dicor EPDM rubber roof lap sealant which I don’t have. I cut the EternaBond tape in thin long lengths to cover the joint between the metal trim edge and the rubber roof the entire length of the slide roof. OK, now just need to wait until it rains. Of course it didn’t rain anymore before we left NJ so I will test my fix later on.
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| Our last night in NJ we went out to eat with Cindy, Rob, and Chas at a new restaurant in Keyport named Old Glory |
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| Inside the Old Glory. The Old Glory is an old church. |
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| Flag painted on the ceiling. |
We were going to leave on Tuesday the 4th but the guys from my work put together a golf outing for us on Tuesday. I just had to golf with the work guys so we left NJ on Wednesday the 5th. Nice that we can leave mostly when we want to.
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| Golfing with the guys, Tom Vinson at the tee, Dan Melando and John Squitieri on his first day of retirement. |
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| John Squitieri and I |
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| Dan Melando |
Now we are finally headed the 2000 miles southwest for the Winter!
Stay Tuned!
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