We left New Jersey and headed west through Pennsylvania and Ohio to Elkhart Indiana, RV capital of America. We made arrangements 3 months ago with Recreational Specialties to have our shower pan replaced on the 3rd of October. We sent them pictures of the pan as well as the VIN number of our RV so they could get the correct part. We were in a hurry as we were going to a wedding in Cincinnati Ohio the coming weekend.
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| Our first stop in Pennsylvania just off of I 80. Not a bad state park but it only had Electric! And was $36 for just Electric! |
We arrived on the afternoon of the 2nd of October at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds for our appointment with Recreational Specialties in Wakarusa on the 3rd. We traveled the 750 miles in a 3 day set of bump and run overnights to get here. We were ready to get this over with and get to Ohio for the weekend.
Staying at the Elkhart fairgrounds is a different experience as far as campgrounds go. First of all the place is huge with over 600 spaces! Secondly, they don’t assign spaces here; they tell you where the spaces are and the type hookups available and then let you go find a place on your own. We chose a full hookup site place inside the horse track for the next 2 nights. The cost was $35 a night, not bad.
The next morning our appointment at Recreational Specialties was at 9am and we wanted to be early. Since we can pick sites here we picked up our site like we wouldn’t be back; little did we know!
Recreational Specialties was just 20 minutes away so we headed out at 8am and arrived by 8:30. Recreational Specialties is a fairly big place as far as RV repair places go. We parked and I headed inside to get things moving. Things were going pretty well as they knew who I was and they had the paperwork all ready. We just had to wait on “Miss Megan” who was in a meeting. I was told via phone and by e-mail that “Miss Megan” was the one who was in charge for the most part.
Miss Megan came out and addressed me by name and knew I was the one for the shower pan replacement. So far so good! She wanted to inspect the old shower pan and see it for herself, hmmmm. I just started to feel like this was going to go downhill. We took a look at the shower pan in our RV and then she said she would need to see if they could get the pan today. Ok, WTF! We made the appointment 3 months ago so you could have the part. You have the RV VIN number and pictures so you could make this happen. She told me that they just can’t stock all of the shower pans that are out there. Again, WTF!
She asked me to move the RV into their staging area while she went in to check on the pan availability. After about 15 minutes she came out and told us that it would be 2-3 weeks before she could get the part. She said that she was sorry that she could not help us and to have safe travels. OK, I was pissed off! This time I kept my cool and after telling her “we are done here” we pulled out to head south to Cincinnati a day early.
Patty, over the next few days posted on every internet site she could think of about our negative experiences at Recreational Specialties. The next day she got a response from Scott at Recreational Specialties offering an apology of sorts. He said that he could have gotten the part if we had not of rushed off. W.T.F.!! What did he think we were going to do after being told they couldn’t get the part and wished safe travels?! He went on to say that if we come back he would install the shower pan for us at cost. Now we are 200 miles south and have other plans. We figure that Scott wrote this to us on a public site (Facebook) so he could look better. Patty didn’t let that stand though and beat him up again after 4 attempts to contact him via phone and text.
Enough said for now about the botched RV repair and on to the Cincinnati wedding. The wedding is for a childhood friend of Patty’s son Chas, Chris Chasty. Chas and his friends used to hang out in our basement in New Jersey a lot. Many times he had dinner with us too. Anyway, he is marrying his longtime girlfriend Mary Thompson who he met in college at Rutgers.
We stayed at the Oak Creek Campground in Verona Kentucky about 20 miles south of Cincinnati. This was the closest campground we could find to Cincinnati. It was about an hour from the wedding site but just 20 minutes from the reception which was held across the Ohio River in Kentucky. Not the best of campgrounds either but it was adequate. It was also expensive at $35 a night without sewer and the dump station was not convenient either. However, they did offer free pump out service, so OK.
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| Our first site at Oak Creek |
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| We only had this site the first night and then we had to move sites. |
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| Our second site came with a black rooster |
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| On my walk I found this decked out Halloween permanent site |
On Thursday the 4th we picked Chas up at the airport in Kentucky. He flew up from our house in Florida. Not much of a difference in weather for him as this area was having a heat wave, hottest in over 20 years for this area! We were having 90+ days with overnights in the 70s in October in Ohio! The great thing was that this was to continue all through the wedding weekend!
That evening we got together with the Groom Chris and the bride Mary and Chas at a Cincinnati Brewery called the Madtree. This place was huge and great. Don't think I have ever been in a larger microbrewery! Oh yeah, they have great thin crust coal-fired pizza. What more can one ask for!
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| Arriving at Madtree |
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| I get hungry just looking at this picture |
Basically on Friday Patty and I just did some everyday chores. We went to Walmart in Florence KY. Weird Walmart as it was really modern on the outside but very old on the inside! Got what we needed so it was fine.
The wedding was at a Russian Orthodox Church. This was a first for us as it was for most who attended. The entire service was done standing up; the church does not have pews. All of their services are done standing up! The actual service lasted a little over an hour but we were there about 2 hours due to an attendee falling down with a seizure in the beginning of the service! Yeah, that added some drama to the event! The service was basically sung too! Very different from any weddings we have been too.
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| Priest waiting on the groom to arrive |
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| OK we have the groom |
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| Then the groomsmen arrive. Chas is fourth back |
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| Next the bride and her maids arrive |
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| After a short ceremony at the entrance, the bride and groom are moved to the center of the church |
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| Bridesmaids |
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| Groomsmen. Chas is third from the left. |
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| Now the priest ties the groom and bride together and leads them around |
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| They are led around the altar to the left a few times and then around to the right a few times. |
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| Lastly they complete the marriage at the front of the church. |
The reception was held at the Metropolitan Club in Covington Kentucky right on the Ohio River. The place had great views of the river! I think the toasts were some of the most emotional we had heard at a wedding too! Chris and his new wife certainly have some very great friends. It was a very good time indeed and many thanks to Chris and Mary for inviting us!
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| The Metropolitan Club |
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| View from the reception windows of the Ohio River |
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| The wedding party |
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| First dance |
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| A great picture of the wedding party but have no idea what they are doing |
The next day we are set to leave and head to Crawfordsville where my son Tony and family are. It is just a short 180 mile trip. However, there was an after reception party that Chas attended and now he needed a ride to the airport from where he was in Covington KY.
So we left at 10am to get him 20 minutes away and deliver him to the airport another 20 minutes away. Overall the trip would be an hour to hour and a half and our check out at Oak Creek was at noon. It was doable but would be close.
It wasn’t to be though as Chas had issues getting himself out of the hotel he was in so we got back to the campsite just a few minutes before noon. I decided it was just too much to hurry out so we stayed another night and made an early start the next morning.
That is it from Cincinnati/Verona Kentucky.
Stay Tuned!
4 comments:
Looked like a very nice wedding. When we stopped in Cincinnati area last year, we stayed at the little RV Park on the Indiana side - I think it was Indian Springs, or something like that. Basic park, but adequate. I hope you get your shower pan fixed -- that's a huge pet peave of ours -- that they won't order parts for your job until you get there. We always took our 5th wheel back to the Manufacturer - even though they did the same thing, they were at least willing to pull parts from the assembly line to get a repair done quickly.
Read the entire Post, but at the Onset, you never said what the defect or what was wrong with the shower Pan?
Great reaading this
What was wrong with your Shower Pan?
Cracked, Leaking, WHAT????
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