its just a start folks. good stuff later

Tuesday 9 June, 2008

On the road again…..I can’t believe I’m on the road again…..I thought the house would never be finished and I would never be on the road again!!!!! (apologies to Willy)

Well, here we are, sitting in the parking lot of a flying J near the Ohio border but still in PA. We finished the house yesterday and proceeded to “shovel” our stuff into the camper. We said we wouldn’t take as much food this time (yeah right!) and whatever clothes we have were chosen on the run so there are no guarantees that we will properly clothe our bodies. We have more games than we had in Alaska and more books. So why do I have this totally unprepared feeling?

The house came out great! It was a lot of work and took longer than this presidential election seems to be. Where we are going and where we are going to stay has taken priority to the actual preparation of our home for the next 5 (yea, 5 not 6…..the house took waaaaay longer than we expected but we stuck to our desire to do the job right rather than leave on time.

Regardless, here we are, trying to relax after our first day on the road. The camper is haphazardly packed…ok, its barely packed at all but we will put stuff away tonight and a little more tomorrow and then as the week rolls by, things will migrate to their newfound homes as we determine (for this trip) where we want things.

We headed out around 6:30 for our first stop at Hanscomb’s in Kittery for gas. Hanscomb’s is totally dug up. They are apparently building something much bigger than they now have. All we could find was diesel pumps so we wandered out the back through the construction site and headed south. Upon arrival at the Charlton plaza on I90, we pulled into the wrong line and were told to u-turn into another line, where the arrow pointed against us. These gas lines are not intended for people with 35 foot motorhomes and 20 foot trailers. There was no room to manouvre and nowhere downstream to park. We had enough gas to go further but breakfast was the real victim.

Thoughts on the road.

The extra 5500 lbs from the trailer and the car is making much more of a difference than I thought it would. We really creep up the hills. Connecticut was bad and Pennsylvania was even worse. I was not alone though, I kept company with several trailer trucks on many of the hills. The sporty little cars flew past. I can handle that. After all, I am bigger than they are.

The traffic was heavy pretty much all the way. We did have a few periods of thin traffic but not many. Life is very different at 55 to 60 instead of the usual 75 (or more). I think I passed 4 vehicles all da-y (they must have been really slow). Other cars blew by me, especially on the hills and there are a lot of them in Ct and even more in PA.

That made me think that they should institute “average” speeds. Those cars that slow down going up a hill should be allowed to go faster down the other side. I had to struggle up one side and then ride the brake down the other side because I was going too fast.

Gasoline…..There is nothing constructive that you can say about gasoline.

We saw 6 dead deer on the side of the road. It must be a tough time of the year for Bambi and friends. Many other animals met the same fate.

We are debating whether or not to run the generator tonight to watch the Celtics game. When I used to tent camp, I hated the motorhomes and trailers for using their generators but everyone here is a camper. Still it is rather un-neighborly. We will wait to see if anyone else turns theirs on. Hopefully, we can pick it up on the radio.

We will be out early tomorrow to put on some serious miles before we stop to make breakfast. It will be a few days before we have something real to report.

You can reply to estabrke@gmail.com

Peace !

Clayton & Cheryl