An Ohio Sunset- 09/04/11
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I75>US23>I475>I80>Genoa,
Oh Turnpike Service Area
 Really a
good day and got about 369 miles in. Road wasn't bad at all and it was
an enjoyable drive. Stopped for the night on the first Ohio Turnpike
Service Area. They have really good Service Plaza's on the turnpike and
it makes it worth the toll to have a good place to stop. The second picture is of the Macinak Bridge taken on my morning walk. It's the third longest in total suspension in the world and the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the Western hemisphere. From shoreline to shoreline it's 5 miles. We crossed it on our way back south and it's pretty impressive. |
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09/05/11-WMSC Parking Lot
Clearfield, Pa.  |
I80>Clearfield, Pa.  We spent the night in a WMSC (Walmart Super Center)
parking lot, but this one is at the top of a hill and offered a nice
view when it wasn't pouring. Rained most of the day on this drive. The
Ohio Turnpike is a good drive across Ohio. As you may remember from
last year we were not happy with the PA Turnpike so this year we decided to take a
different route and run across the I80 and then down to Intercourse.
The I80 has been recently resurfaced and is a great road. So it's good
by to the Pa Turnpike and paying for the pleasure of being hammered all
day by their bad road. The pic to the left is not on the drive, but from our stay in Pa. That is Bruce's front yard and that's the roof of a pickup truck sticking out of the water. Bruce's house is a split level and his garage and lower level are just slightly above street level so here's the lower level - pic1, pic2 |
09/06-15/11 - Beacon Hill Rv
Park, Intercourse, Pa |
I80>US322>PA283>PA772>Intercourse,
Pa - It was a good drive down. Rained all day and, in addition to just
not being  careful
enough the rain played a significant roll in the oops to the left
:( Beacon Hill has a tight spot on the upper campground where the
office is where you have to circle around to get back out and down to
the lower campground where we stay. If you have the whole area to make
the turn we clear it easily, but there was a car blocking the start of
the turn, so rather than bother the owner, I figured I'd pull part way
around, then backup and finish the turn. What I didn't plan on was the
pile of gravel that had been added to the end of the curve and which
disappeared in my rain covered mirrors. It just blended in with the
ground and so I ran into it. Bent up the hydraulic bay door and
seriously scratched up the rest of the bay doors. We have an
appointment with Bruce Deaton in Red Bay on the way home to get it
fixed. |
09/16/11 - Dry Camped, Dublin, Va |
PA772>PA340>US30>US283>I83>I81>Dublin,
Va We decided to take a little different route out this time and avoid the US30 all the way over to I81 which had done last year. It ran through some small towns towards the end and, as I remember it, had a lot of stop and go. So this time we headed for the freeway type roads and went a little out of our way but it was a much easier drive. The road was good overall and we made pretty good time. We had a false stop at the end of the day at a WMSC in Christianburg. We found it, but it was a real 'in town' type store and didn't have enough parking for all the shoppers much less for us. So we circled the lot and headed back to the big road. The next one up the highway was Dublin and it was more what we're used to. Right off the highway and big lot. But I did have a little fun at the first one - I missed my exit and got to play the ramp game, aka 'all around the mullberry bush' :)) Picture to the left is sunrise the morning we left. Good omen I thought, love it when the sun comes up just a golden ball in the sky. |
09/17/11 - Dry Camped, Attalla,
Al |
I81>I40>I75>I20>I59>Attalla,
Al Drive was good until the end. They're doing construction on the I59 and have the north bound side closed and the south bound down to one lane in each direction. The heavy traffic on the road has really torn it up and we were litterally down to 30-35mph going through a 10 to 20 mile section there. It was hammering everyone so bad that it was a truck 20 cars up in front of us that was setting the pace. When the trucks are down to 30mph you know the road is bad. Dry camped again and didn't take a picture of the parking lot - a parking lot is a parking lot - so used a picture from the drive on the 18th for this day. That's on AL102 (one of the straighter sections) with the trees lining the highway. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but it gives you the idea. Aside from the one section of bad road it was a good drive and a great day :)) We did 390 yesterday and I thought that was a big day, but we got over 400 today. Easy drive tomorrow. |
09/18/11 - City Park, Fayette, Al |
I59>AL69>AL124>AL102>US43>Fayette,
Al I had us routed on the US78>US43 for this drive but when we transferred it to the nav computer up front it lost something in the translation and routed us on the small roads. Kind of glad it did - it wasn't a bad road and was very scenic. It was also a short day with only 150 miles to go. Turns out it was a good thing it was a light day. We decided to part on the other side this time so we'd be near the dump station and could just dump daily but the best laid plans.... it was a stretch to get to the dump station so I got out the spare hose to use and discovered I didn't have one of the fittings I needed to use it. So off to the store, but they didn't have the right fittings so I ended up with another section of hose to add in. Ok, got dumped (that's the hose stretching across the picture). The POP - circuit breaker goes off. After checking it out turns out they have it wired badly. So slide everything in, unhook and move over to the other side where there's a good 50amp plug we can use. So had to set up twice today so that made up for the easy day. Off to work in the morning - working at a customer's here again. |
9/20/11 - Self Service Park, Red
Bay, Al |
US43>US78>AL19>Red Bay,
Al Time for a little repair work to get that argument with the gravel pile settled. We have an appointment with Bruce Deaton for the 21st and 22nd to get the doors straightenend and painted.  and
as always Bruce did not disappoint us. They straightened the door
panel (see picture above) and sandeds the others down and repainted.
This was 2 days work, and the bill was $1100 - so not only is it a
quality job but I think it was a very fair price. We already have a picture of the Self Serve Park in Red Bay, so picture at the right is our second morning (6am, still dark out) with the doors straight and ready for paint. For the end result see below - |
9/24-30/11 - Pensacola Rv Park,
Pensacola, Fl |
AL19>AL17>AL14>US43>AL21>FL97>US29>a
screwball route through town>Pensacola, Fl. Interesting drive down - we took a different route as we started from Red Bay instead of Fayette like we have in the past. It was a good route, roads were pretty good, nice scenery and not a lot of traffic. We passed by the artist's place again and I got a bull fighter, and snoopy on his way to meet the red baron :)) A little further down past Snoopy there's also a Smiley :))   |
