Roadtrip: Things That Went Wrong

Naturally, there's always something. One thing I forgot to get a pic of is the rig cabin leaning heavily to one side. Huh, I said, wonder if the guys at the shop forgot to fill the airbags. Sure enough, they were almost empty. Once I got 60# of air in them, the cabin leveled off. Much better.

This next thing is the TV mount deciding not to hold the screen level any more (the couch is below). We managed to wedge it up with library books long enough to watch it without lying down. It's now been fixed and is much easier to watch. I'm also the proud owner of a hex key set, basically allen wrenches, which are required on this mount.

Now this was a real pain. I have a plywood desk (covered in black rubber matting) that's 69 inches long, held up with two large heavy-duty L-brackets screwed into the desktop and into studs in the wall. The Pennsylvania roads were so bad they shook the screws out of the wall, thereby tossing the desktop down (along with everything on it, like computers, pens, clock, etc.). Amy got creative with bungee cords to support it enough to put light things on it and leave the space underneath for storage. Hooray for really strong latches on the cupboard doors. We've now put actual legs under the corners, and will probably do a little more shoring up. The L-brackets may or may not be reattached.

There's always something, isn't there? At least, none of it was life-threatening. I'm thinking about writing the Penn. State Tourism Bureau about their roads.

Kevin and Mark's Wedding

 Amy, Kevin, Adam, and Heather (Adam's wife). The first three all went to college together. The reason for the roadtrip was Kevin's marriage.

 The officiant at the ceremony. Most of the attendees are artists and theatre people so the costumes were outrageous.

 An important part of the procession was Princess Bucket (turtle) in her coach (wagon) escorted by fabulously costumed courtier.

 Kevin and Mark on their way to the altar spot. A lovely ceremony.

 After-party with Kevin and an ass not his own.

 Close friends of Kevin & Mark's are Kat and Mason, who have a lovely property adorned with these two hippie buses.

And their house, too, is a testament to their artistic impulses. Gorgeous.

It was a great weekend.

Roadtrip Pix

 Pie for breakfast is the thing to do on a roadtrip, right?

 Me, Jason, and Amy on a lookout seeing downtown Pittsburgh.

 Jason and Amy having tipsy fun at the bar.

 Local dragsters.

Phyllis Palm and me. She and I worked at the Madison KOA campground back in 2008 and have stayed in touch ever since. She let us park the RV at her place while we went to town to visit Jason.

Roadtrip update 2

Still no pix. Can't find the cable to connect the camera to the computer. Thought I remembered where it lives but it's not there. May be at home.

Stayed at the KOA in Bellefont PA near State College. Went to Penn's Cave with the boat tour which includes coming out the other end into a lake surrounded by pasture/woods with elk, deer, etc. and ducks on the lake. Then back through the cave to the dock, up the 48 steps, up the steep walk. And done.

Next day off to Penn State campus to see the Frost Entomological Museum. Sadly, closed for renovations until next Spring. Consoled ourselves with ice cream at the Ag College's famous Creamery across the street. Bought asiago cheese and summer sausage as a gift for Phyllis.

Thursday drove to Irwin PA to visit Phyllis Palm, a co-worker of mine at the KOA in Madison, summer of 2008. We've stayed in touch and it was great to see her. We basically collapsed on Friday and did nothing. Took her out to dinner that evening, her choice was the Eat&Park restaurant which had a good salad bar. I should have gotten that too but instead I ordered a steak salad. What I got was a glob of flattened ribeye (sort of like SteakUms) with some cheese on it, french fries under the steak blob, and then a generic salad. I ate two bites of the "steak" and pushed it aside. When I complained to the manager later, she said "sorry."

Sat. noonish Jason came after us. He worked with the both Amy and me at Reader's Corner bookstore in Asheville and has been in Pittsburgh for four years. We went for lunch down on The Strip, a commercial area for receiving goods from trains, so there are fish shops, meat shops, Polish deli shops, and so forth. Lots of street stalls, too, and crowds of people. We ate in a Mexican restaurant which started as a street stall and just got big. Good stuff.

Jason then took us on a 2-hour driving tour of the city, including up to a Lookout platform that has a grand vista of the city and the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers meet to form the Ohio River. We also saw the Andy Warhol Bridge which was hung with handmade blankets. There's also a Rachel Carson Bridge, along with many others.

That evening we went to his local bar, about a block away. The bartender had never heard of a gimlet so I told him the ingredients and received a highball glass of about 7/8ths gin and 1/8th rose's lime juice. Yowie. Halfway through I was buzzed and Jason walked me back to his place. He and Amy wandered in about 1am and we all crashed about 2am. Got up about 11am and went for brunch to a local cafe ( I had eggs benedict). Weak tea and coffee, though.

Then he brought us on back to Phyllis' so he could go meet friends at the Ren Fair out in the county. I went to it with Phyllis back in '08 and Amy didn't care to go, so we napped and read till Phyllis got back from her great-grandson's 4th birthday party. Spent a quiet evening watching TV and reading.

Starting for home tomorrow morning. Stopover at the KOA near Lexington VA.

Pix eventually.

Roadtrip

Just a quickie update. Access to internet has been nonexistent since last Friday. I've been so busy I haven't even uploaded pix into the computer.

We left last Wednesday 8/28 and headed for Foamhenge (near Roanoke VA), a lifesize replica of Stonehenge but in styrofoam. Pix coming.

We spent the night at Crabtree Falls  CG. Beautiful but 8 cylinders would have helped a lot. We had to stop for an hour to let the brakes cool on the way out.

Thur. visited Shenandoah Cavern. Very interesting. Pix coming. Then on to the East Harrisburg Campground which sounded sketchy but turned out to be a very nice place. Ate dinner and breakfast Fri at the Capitol Diner, a modern attempt at a classic 50s style diner.

Fri. afternoon arrived at wedding area near New Paltz NY. After some fiddling around, wound up at Creek View Campsites for three nights (no wifi, no tv). More on this later. Ate dinner at Eggs Nest Restaurant, blew off the shindig at Kat & Mason's house, and crashed.

There will be lots more on the wedding celebrations and pix to come, too. It was a fabulous time.

Left NY on Mon. am heading for Scranton PA and an afternoon spent at the Houdini Museum for a tour and a magic show. Then decided to treat ourselves to a motel room with wifi and tv, so that's where we are now. Ate dinner at Terry's Diner which has been here since the 1950s.

Heading out today for Penn's Cave, the only water-filled cave to tour by boat. And then State College KOA for two nights.

The rig has performed very well and the mileage has been good. Oh yeah, one of the support legs broke so the desktop fell down, mostly as a result of the ghastly state of Pennsylvania's road, including the interstate. Nothing was harmed but it's a pain. Amy rigged up bungee cords to keep it up for now so the other bracket doesn't tear out of the wall, too.

More later.

Updates & RIP

Well, Amy's house is 99% done -- the furniture arrived yesterday and last night she and Mateo got all the electronics hooked up and stashed in the new cabinet. Looks good. There's some touch-up stuff to do, but it's essentially done. Whew.

It dawned on me today that the roadtrip is ONE WEEK from tomorrow. Yowza. Lots to do. Today I took the rig to VJ's Auto and got an oil change and check-out and inspection (which it passed). Then off to the tag place in South Forest Center. No penalty for being expired for two  years but had to have a new plate.

Then I went out to the rig and it wouldn't start. Had that clicking sound, like it's been doing for months now. I kept telling people (male mechanics) that it was the starter. No, they said, it's too new to be bad (and besides, you're a girrrlll, what do you know?). After I got it to start, I went right back to VJ's and they tested it and, sure enough, it was the starter. So that got replaced and all should be good now.

Need to do some cleaning, both in the cabin and in the cab, and even some outside where the tree has dropped stuff around where the tarp is. Need to defrost the fridge. Need to take the rest of the bins out and store in the basement. Need to put the printer and scanner in the basement. Do a last clothes wash. Get 2nd chair for Amy to sit in at desk.

Before I put away the printer, I need to print out all the trip info, check for itinerary holes, fill them in, print new schedules, recheck, etc etc.

Next Tue. we'll be loading her stuff on board. Wed. am we're on our way. Mateo will be in charge of dogs and cat and house and cars while we're gone.

RIP Elmore Leonard. He'd been a favorite of mine for a long time, though I haven't read him much for the last several years.

Cousins & Gatlinburg etc

Great birthday party last Saturday. About 25 people. Grilling and eating and singing and fire. Sadly, no tiara -- it's lost to the tides of time. I finally went to bed about 1am and the rest went in the house.

Sunday, I got up early and set out for Gatlinburg TN about 10am for a noon lunch with Richard Harris (and wife and friend). We've only talked through email so it would be our first in-person meet.

He is my 5th cousin once removed (we think). There's a Thomas Harris who landed in Providence RI in 1630 along with Roger Penn, and we're both descended from him, me along one line and he along another. When we met, he said, I have cousins who look just like you!

Anyhow, I loathe Gatlinburg, the tourists and the shops catering to them. Richard and his wife Cristina were in town to attend the Arrowmont School of Crafts. He has a son who used to live in Asheville and may have wandered into my bookstore at some point.

We wound up at the Hard Rock Cafe (in Gatlinburg!) and I must say the food was good, though the music was just a touch loud. I know, I know. Told you I'm now elderly. Pretty soon I'll say thing like "whippersnappers" and "get off my lawn" and "why, when I was a child . . ."

It was very pleasant to meet him and wife and her friend Jocelyn (who turned out to be an ex-typesetter/prepress person, like me), and they're going to try to come to Asheville soon.

After I fought my way out of G'burg, I came back by way of 441, through the Cherokee National Forest, a beautiful and twisty drive, into Cherokee (saw the casino) and then through Maggie Valley. Both towns seemed kind of dead after the chaos of G'burg. Of course, they have 4-lane roads through town but there weren't so many people wandering around and much less traffic.

Got back home about 5pm, a long but pleasant day. Car performed well (got 30mpg). Promptly took a nap.