Circle Now Unbroken, Dashing Back to Colorado!

The "Big Circle", from Colorado North, East, South, then West and back again!

 Okay, so many of you are probably asking, what the heck is this (the US Map above)?  Well, this is something a lot of RV'rs, including Elaine and I, do when we travel around the country in our rigs; that is, buy a US Map decal you can stick on to the side of your RV, then attach colorful stickers for States you've visited during your RV travels.

This is our map, so far, a few states, Oregon, of course, also California and Nevada, tacked on in recent years and before our grand retirement travels began this summer.  The other states were all covered starting in late June when we set out from Oregon for Colorado.  Note the glaring absence of state stickers in the great (?) Midwest, except for Ohio.  That's purely coincidental I could say, but perhaps not.  You see, as I noted in an earlier blog ("Surprising Ohio") I've had preconceived notions about the Midwest for some time, picturing these largely unvisited states as being blah, boring, dreary, etc.  Ten days in Ohio in late October/early November helped change that misconception, as did a few days in beautiful downtown Chicago last year during a work conference there.

 But anyhow, back to our "paste on the states" map and the fact that now, 2 1/2 months after we left Colorado on our Grand Journey to the East Coast, we have completed a circle of states, plus the province of Ontario, not included on this map, but the obvious link between Minnesota on one side of the Great Lakes, and New York on the other side. It's been a wonderful journey, with a few twists and change of plans, a few minor mishaps (see Pennsylvania blog and our two "wounded road warriors" for instance), but memorable nonetheless, and a trip we will likely cherish and recollect for some time.

So there we were in Tom Sawyer's RV Park near Memphis, TN, this past Sunday (Nov 17th), ready to head West to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving and several weeks after that with Sara, Drew and Grandson, Jonah.  It would, as said, complete that "circle" of a great many wonderful states we'd started way back on September 8th when we left Golden, CO headed for South Dakota. This final Trek Westward would be over 1200 miles, "piece of cake" to knock off in 2 nights and 3 days, IN GOOD SUMMER WEATHER, as we had the 1300 miles from Eugene, Oregon to Golden, Colorado immediately after our retirement at the end of June.  But driving a big diesel while pulling a nearly 10,000 lb. 5th Wheel trailer behind it, is a somewhat grueling task, so much so that, even in good, sunny, weather, 400 miles in a day is a good long haul.  We'd handled it in late June and early July (i.e 1300 miles in 3 days); but we were fresher then, and eager to beat the arrival of Jonah (ultimately a 4th of July baby); so we'd hauled  like crazy, splitting the driving as needed, and took only  3 days to dash from Oregon to Colorado.

This time, we felt it would be different, winter weather setting in just about everywhere for one, so we parceled this 1230 mile return to Colorado out over 4 nights and 5 days, mostly to allow for possible inclement weather.  And we even allowed that if it just got really ugly out there on the road, we'd stay over in certain places longer if needs be.  Our first leg, some 315 miles, was also planned to be one of our longest, a trek across Arkansas to Eastern Oklahoma; and, as perhaps might be expected, it did not get off to a good start weather-wise; heavy rains and wind accompanied us half way across Arkansas; though the rains ceased and the clouds parted by the time we'd  reached the Western Half of the State, and we arrived at our KOA Park in Sallisaw, Oklahoma to clear blue skies, and a truly lovely RV Park at that, IF out in the middle of nowhere.

 Blue Skies in Sallisaw, OK - Day 1

Late Autumn Color in Sallisaw

 
But little matter, really, for it was just an overnight stop, and we'd survived our first bout of unpredictable winter weather.  By the way, Arkansas, or at least the western half of it, was pretty scenic; as soon as we got to Little Rock, we were already into rolling hills, which got even more pronounced and scenic as we ventured through the fringes of the Ozark Mountains, before flattening out as we approached Oklahoma that first day (Sunday).


Next days planned travel itinerary covered about 270 miles of mostly flat, somewhat boring Oklahoma countryside to another KOA campground near Elk City, Oklahoma, on the plains some 100 miles west of Oklahoma City.  The drive was boring, indeed, but in good weather, and was straight and fast, all of it on I40.  We were making good time, looking to arrive in Elk City by Noon at the latest.  Some 40 miles out from our destination, though, Elaine brought up a subject I'd been mulling around as well; that is, why not keep on truckin another 150 miles to Amarillo, our scheduled third night stop, and the shortest leg of our planned 4 night trek? Why not, indeed!  I readily agreed, if we could re-arrange our reservations, all with KOA, for the next two nights.  So we pulled off the freeway still short of Elk City, and made an unplanned detour some 15 miles straight south to the little town of Corn.

This wasn't accidental as my Mom's family has deep roots in little ol' Corn, Oklahoma, and she herself lived a short time there as a young girl after being born in Maize, KS.  Kind of coincidental that dear old Mom was born in Maize, an Indian name for corn as I recall, and moved next to Corn.  Anyhow, we pulled off the highway at Corn to make some calls and move our planned reservations, at Amarillo on night #3, and Pueblo, Colorado on night #4, up one day each.  No problems there.  And we took some pictures of this VERY SMALL town that probably had as many or more people in it over a hundred years ago when my grandpappy grew up there than it does now.

Corn's only delivery vehicle... only kidding!

And the only filling station - only kidding again!

Impromptu visit to Corn over soon enough, we headed back to I40, blew by the KOA in Elk City, not to mention blowing off the one night deposit, not refundable within 48 hours of scheduled arrival day, and steamed toward Amarillo... to one of the ugliest KOA's we'd seen so far, rivaling even the gravel field with Oil and Gas tanks nearby, way back in late June in Green River, Wyoming.  And the town (with all apologies to any Amarillo natives or lovers), wasn't much better.  But hey, it was just a one night stay, and we'd arrived before dusk, and the lady at the KOA office was very nice, though she didn't have to call me "Sweetie" 5 times or so in about 5 minutes as I was checking in.  But maybe that's just what they do in the lonely outpost of Amarillo, TX; so "Sweetie" I was, for 5 minutes at least, and we had knocked off one day from our planned 5 day trek, and covered some 420 miles in good weather (445 counting the detour through Corn) over mostly flat terrain and at high freeway speeds.

Day 2 -Sharing a Rest Stop enroute to Amarillo with 2 Big Guys and a Little Squirt

Next day our goal was to put boring North Texas behind quickly, then angle across the NE corner of New Mexico to Pueblo Colorado, a distance of some 320 miles.  We'd overnight there before a final leg of 165 miles to Loveland, Colorado, which would be our next extended stay home for 3 or 4 weeks.  This was the leg I had been most concerned about, namely because I expected some elevation gain in New Mexico, and Colorado weather is always dicey in winter-time.  But once again we had pretty good weather and made good time up to our next stop in Pueblo... WELL, maybe not a STOP at that!  We'd crossed over to Mountain Time as soon as we hit New Mexico, and suddenly we'd gained an hour back, something I'd over-looked during my "meticulous" planning for this Westward Trek.  So here we were again approaching a planned destination for the day before NOON.  The decision was easy this time.  We called ahead to the Loveland RV Resort to see if we'd have our spot available to us if we arrived, WELL, not one, but TWO days earlier than expected; no problem they said. We were about to blow by another planned stop, and blow off yet another unrefundable KOA deposit. 

So we headed up on our final leg "home to Colorado", hitting downtown Denver at just about the perfect time around 2 PM, and pulling into Loveland around 3 PM, on Tuesday (Nov. 19), covering 495 miles on this 3rd and final day, 2 days ahead of schedule.  Our "circle" was complete, and just in time as it turned out, for weather in the greater Denver area, including Loveland,  turned very cold and snowy last night (Wednesday, Nov 20).  We woke up today (Thursday) to 2 to 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground, temperatures in the teens, Denver area roadways an icy mess; and we were very grateful that on this day, on which we were originally scheduled to drive up from Pueblo in South Colorado, we didn't have to drive anywhere; and haven't.

Home, Sweet Snowy Home, Loveland, CO

Grandson, Jonah, another good reason to hurry back to Colorado

Taking Tennessee!

"Home" in Tennessee (Knoxville)... for a few days

The great state of Tennessee was not in our original plans for this retirement trip; but neither were Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico to follow on our ever-changing travel itinerary.  We had originally intended to spend some time in the Middle Atlantic States of Virginia, West Virginia,  and North Carolina, after leaving Pennsylvania, and before heading straight across Middle America (Kentucky/Missouri/Kansas) to Colorado for Thanksgiving.  But daughter, Sara, and grandson, Jonah, conveniently changed those plans when Sara told us she had a work conference to attend in  November in Nashville, TN; and, since she was still breast feeding Jonah, the "Little Man" would be coming along.  Okay, all bets (and previous RV Park reservations) were off the table at this point; and we quickly re-arranged our schedule to be there (Nashville) when Sara and Jonah arrived, and to provide on-site babysitting while Sara was in conference sessions.

And we don't regret for a moment the rescheduling of plans, part of which, before Tennessee time,  included a nice 10 day stay in Ohio, which I've previously related in a recent blog posting.  From Ohio it was on to Knoxville for three nights before heading to Nashville.  Knoxville is home to the University of Tennessee Volunteers (Vols), thus the name Volunteer Park Family Campground for our RV Park 12 miles up the freeway from the big city.  There was lots of Orange, Tennessee's school color, around when we arrived, and even more Orange of a different shade in the Park when Auburn fans started pouring in for that weekend's game against the Vols. The head pharmacist in a nearby drug store we visited offered his assessment of the then upcoming game when I charitably offered that the Vols would perhaps give Auburn a good game.  "Are you kidding, we're going to get creamed," is basically what he said.  And they did.

Tiger fans invade Volunteer Park Family Campground

After a three night stay in Knoxville, we hitched up the old gypsy wagon (5th Wheel) and headed to Nashville, setting up another "primitive camp" (WiFi, Satellite TV, 50 Amp Electric Service, Water, Sewer) for a week long stay starting Friday, Nov 8th.  Funny thing is, though we were just two miles from the Grand Ol Opry, and  20-25 minutes from all the honky tonks and other music venues downtown, we never made it to any live music shows, mainly because we were too busy doting over Grandson, Jonah, who arrived with his Mom, our daughter, Sara, that Sunday.  Babies sure change a lot in just a couple months; Jonah has developed so much since we last saw him at two months of age. He holds his head up, follows sounds and visual images instantly, is working on trying to roll over, laughs and smiles and generally expounds in baby talk on various subjects of interest, even if it's just a ray of light or a bug flitting around.

We split time between our trailer and Sara's hotel room the following week, and greatly enjoyed the company of our daughter and grandson.  Jonah loves his Grandma, and only she, between the two of us, had the magic touch with the bottle when he got fussy/hungry, or at other times cooing him to sleep when he was tired.  My main assignment was entertaining "Little Man" on other occasions by plopping him in his baby stroller and taking walks around the hotel public areas.  Jonah likes people and he likes movement, so it was kind of a carousel at times taking him into the bar, the lobby, past the front desk folks, up to the 2nd floor pool deck; and REPEAT! The front desk folks soon knew him by first name (they never asked for my name). Once I paused near the front desk so one of the ladies could ogle him for about the umpteenth time.  Jonah thought that was cool for just a moment, then he started to fuss, and even his Number 1 front desk fan had figured it out by this point as she laughed and told me, "better keep moving;" and we did.
                                          

Hanging out at the Hotel Wine & Martini Bar

Out on the town with Sara & Jonah

 We saw Sara and Jonah off that Thursday, and finally found the live music we'd bypassed all week, in an airport lounge, some guy with his guitar and portable sound system strumming and singing popular tunes.  Was a pretty good show and cheap.  Also should note that the laundry room at the Nashville RV Park is the only such room I've been in where someone was picking on his guitar right next to the washers and dryers.  He told me it was warmer there than his trailer, and he was practicing for a live show at some downtown joint later that evening.  All in all we found Nashville to be a nice town with a number of nice old buildings, a wide variety of dining options, and, of course, a lot of good music offerings; or so we'd heard.  We would definitely go back at some point to spend more time there.

From Nashville it was on to Memphis for a couple nights, kinda starting our Westward trek back to Colorado in earnest at this point.  We actually stayed across the Mississippi River in Arkansas in a riverside park appropriately named Tom Sawyer's RV Park.  It was the only park I've been in that was on the river side of a levee providing flood protection from a major river; in other words we were in the unprotected flood plain of the biggest honkin' river in all of the USA; and it has, on occasion, overflowed its banks and flooded the RV Park.  There was an outbuilding on the park, built on sturdy stilts, which has a sign on its side about 12 feet up from the ground indicating this was the high water mark for the most recent flood in 2011.  We found the riverside site greatly enjoyable, watching tugs go up and down the wide river pushing barges, sometimes 10 barges being pushed by one tug. And it was very quiet and peaceful at night, even with the low drone of tugs chugging by 24/7.

Moonlight over the Mighty Mississippi at Tom Sawyer's RV Park

And, to demonstrate how far we, and the river, had gone during our long journey, here was the Mississippi we visited back at its headwaters in Minnesota  a couple months ago.

Mississippi River at its beginning, Late Itasca, Minnesota

While in Memphis, which is admittedly rough around the edges, we did manage to enjoy some of the great history of the City.  There was Graceland, of course, Elvis Presley's mansion, still owned by his daughter, Lisa Marie, and long a tourist attraction bringing in mega millions every year for its owners. Was fascinating viewing the Gold Records, the flashy stage costumes, etc., and the oft-times gaudily decorated rooms, all maintained with same decor as they were when Elvis died in 1977. I think he had about 3 or 4 "man-caves" spread around the premises.  We were both surprised, though, that the "Mansion" was rather small by today's standards.  There are many million dollar homes in Eugene, Oregon and the surrounding area that are bigger, for instance.

A "modestly" decorated room at Graceland

One of many Elvis performance costumes

 We also drove by Sun Records Recording Studio, an unassuming little red brick building from which the careers of Elvis and other music luminaries from the 50's, such as Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and my personal favorite, Roy Orbison, were launched.  And then, of course, there was Beale St. and Live Blues everywhere, some call it the birthplace of the Blues; I don't know about that, but maybe they have a good claim after all because Riley B. King, more commonly known as BB, plus several of his contemporaries, got their starts as Blues Legends here. According to the "historical" record (Wikipedia, of course),  BB King, as a young up and coming blues artist, was called by many "The Beale Street Boy".  I enjoyed an hour or so of live blues in a little bar that reminded me of some of the small honky tonks near Austin Texas where we've enjoyed Real Country Music in past visits there.  This was Real Blues!

Sun Records where Legends were created

                                                     

Digging the Blues on Beale Street

Another stop of historical interest was the Lorraine Motel and the National Civil Rights Museum, sited where Martin Luther King was assassinated in April 1968; very well put together exhibits and very moving.

Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel, Memphis

Our last visit in Memphis was to the Central BBQ, very near the Lorraine Motel.  The ribs there were "fall off the bone" tender and very tasty, comparable to the best BBQ joints we've been to in the BBQ capital of Texas, Lockhart.

First rate BBQ in downtown Memphis

All in all it was a good tour lasting nearly two weeks and taking us almost clear across the great state of Tennessee from East to West.  It is a very pretty state with rolling hills, pastures and trees, and some interesting towns.  We'd been there before, to Nashville and Knoxville at least, on a couple earlier occasions, we enjoyed this visit just like we had the earlier ones; and we'll likely come back again.

Surprising Ohio!

Country road through rolling hills near Wooster, Ohio

Okay, I admit to long-held stereotypical ideas about the Midwest in general, mostly out of ignorance, as I've spent very little time there during my life... and had never before set foot in Ohio itself.   My preconceived notion was that of a relatively flat state with "smokestacks" everywhere, not very "sexy" as far as states go.

I was wrong on most counts.  Well, the smokestacks were still there if you got right into the larger cities/towns, like Canton, for instance, near where we stayed for a week in late October. But the surrounding countryside, in Eastern Ohio at least, was a pleasing mix of rolling hills with farm fields and hardwood forests, quite scenic.

And, no surprise, if you know anything about our shared genealogy hobby, one of the main reasons we decided to spend some time in Ohio was to search for elusive family ancestors.  Elaine uncovered several new names in her family tree; I confirmed final resting places of several of my ancestors... hey that's what we do sometimes, that is tromp through graveyards. Here's an ancient cemetery we found containing some of Elaine's ancestors.

 
Quite by accident, I also discovered that the Pro Football Hall of Fame was "conveniently" located right there in Canton, Ohio near where we were staying.  I'm not a huge Pro Football fan these days, unless you're talking that other "football"; think Portland Timbers, AC Milan (had to throw this in there for my buddy, Frank, who grew up with AC Milan football), FC Barcelona and, on a World Cup level, Cristiano Ronaldo and Team Portugal.  But I am a fan of the past HISTORY of American Pro Football, and, since I had already visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in NY earlier, why not visit this second Pro Shrine? It was very impressive, with touch screen interactive displays in which you could both locate a particular player on the wall of bronze busts and hear history and view game action for most every player.  I glommed on to the University of Oregon guys first thing, most particularly San Diego Charger quarterback great, Dan Fouts, who was in the same UO Class as me. I spent many Saturdays in Autzen, back when it wasn't ALWAYS packed to the gills, AND the Ducks actually wore Green and Yellow colors, thrilling to Danny's exploits. Hey, the Ducks didn't always win back in THAT day, but they were fun to watch nevertheless. 

 Also of interest was Norm Van Brocklin,  the "Dutchman", quarterback with the Rams and later the Eagles (way) back in the day.  When my 86 year old mother-in-law attended the UO as a young coed in the post WWII years, VanBrocklin was star quarterback for our Ducks. There were also three other UO players in the Hall, Mel Renfro, Dave Wilcox, and Gary Zimmerman.

Dan Fouts, UO & SD QB great

The "Dutchman", Norm Van Brocklin

Also quite be accident, we discovered we were quite close to the town of Kent and Kent State University.  I was a freshman on campus at the Univ. of Oregon in the spring of 1970 when news broke of the shootings by Ohio National Guardsman of four Kent State students in May of 1970. Visiting the campus and the Memorial set up there in remembrance of that tragic day was quite a moving experience for me.  And ever since that visit a few weeks ago, I've had the song by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young ("four dead in Ohio") playing in my head occasionally.  And then, somewhat eerily, I actually heard the song being played (and I hadn't heard it in years!) one day in the lobby of the Nashville hotel our daughter was staying in during this past week.  Still hearing that song in my head, as a matter of fact.

 

One fact about Ohio that somewhat surprised me was that it contains the largest population of Amish in the Country, and here I thought Lancaster, Pennsylvania was THE PLACE to find Amish folks, buggies, and farms.  Fact also is, as we motored through the rolling country SW of Canton, we saw more Amish buggies moving along there than we had in Lancaster earlier.  Here's one waiting at a stop light, with a school bus behind it,  very near downtown Wooster.

 

After a week in Canton we moved on to SW Ohio, staying  3 nights in another beautiful and quiet campground called Frontier Family Campground, in Waynesville, Ohio, on the outskirts of Dayton, Ohio.

Our home for 3 days in Waynesville

 Near there I had some family history, finding several ancestors buried in nearby cemeteries (like I said earlier, that's what folks do with a genealogy hobby) and generally enjoying our final few days in Ohio.

We set off finally, on my birthday in early November, heading South toward Knoxville, TN.  We'd planned to skirt Cincinnati, but missed the cutoff for the beltline freeway and were soon headed right into the heart of downtown Cincy; which we found not all that bad after all, even hauling a 10,000 lb. monster on our tail.  The Cincy skyline was quite attractive, and the capper for me was passing two sparkling sports stadiums, one for the baseball Reds, the 2nd for football's Bengals, placed within manageable walking distance of each other along the Ohio River; quite a sight, and quite a nice way to end our very nice stay in the great(er than expected) state of Ohio.  And now it was on to Tennessee via Kentucky.

Pennsylvania tales..A Bumpy Ride, but worth taking!

Old Inn along the Delaware River - Pennsylvania

I touched just briefly on our recent visits to Pennsylvania and Ohio during previous posts about NYC and a 4 month recap of our travels; but would like to comment a bit more about both of these states, each of which I think we found much more beautiful and mostly enjoyable than we otherwise might have expected. First, in this blog post, will be Pennsylvania, where we spent two weeks in the middle of October.

Okay, so we hit a few few rough patches, quite literally at times, in Pennsylvania.  The freeways were, in a word, some of the worst we'd seen for "bumpiness."  Not long after entering the State from New York over a month ago now (on Oct 10), we hit one gigantic bump in a construction area, followed, for miles and miles, by many smaller bumps and rattles and the like.  And when we stopped at a rest area eventually, first thing we did, remembering back to the infamous "olive oil" spill discovered back in Burns, Oregon at the start of our long journey, was check inside the trailer.  There were a couple cabinets open, a few glass bottles lying around, thankfully none broken this time; but it took us a while to sort things out because the kitchen floor was covered in hundreds of shards from a broken "CorelWare" dish.  Other dishes and bowls had fallen out too, but amazingly only one broke.  Welcome to Pennyslvania and the worst freeways in the US interstate system (in our experience)!

We finally bumped our way to Quakertown in the Eastern part of the State, where our "home" would be parked for the next couple weeks.  What was already shaping up to be the "Pennsylvania Jinx" soon rose it's ugly head again while setting up the trailer; namely one of our power jacks up front, used to level and support the front of the trailer when unhitched, basically broke, making the 5th Wheel (trailer) a "one legged animal" for awhile.  We got it set up well enough, if not exactly level, by propping the broken jack up with blocks; but it was obviously a short-term fix. More on this ( the "Ugly Chapter") to come later.

We had barely set up, on a Thursday evening, when we left our "broken jack" problem behind for awhile and headed off for Newark on Friday to meet our long-time good friends, Connie and Addison Manley, for a much anticipated three day trip to NYC, riding the NJ transit rail into Manhattan.  I won't bore you with all the details again as I've already posted about this weekend trip in a previous blog ("New York New York!").  We returned from that wonderful 3 day weekend jaunt on Monday and spent the rest of the week prior to Connie and Addison returning to Eugene exploring other great spots in Pennsylvania, notably Amish country near Lancaster, and Gettysburg, the park itself closed because of the US Government partial shutdown, but with a truly great visitor center and museum that remained open, and several of the battlefield settings still available by public roads.
 

Amish Farm in Lancaster County

Road Sign in Lancaster County, redefining the meaning of "Full Service Meat Market"

Feeling right at home in Gettysburg, PA

We capped the week with our friends spending part of a day in Philly before they winged back to Eugene that Friday (Oct 18th).  No Chip Kelly sightings that day, but then I never saw the guy out and about in Eugene either.  What we did see was a lot of early American history, the Liberty Bell itself, of course, and the centuries old buildings and halls where our Country first took form in the late 1700's.  What I had forgotten until being reminded during our short visit, was that Philadelphia was the first Capitol of the new US Government headed by President George Washington.  Government did not move to the newly created Washington DC until 1800. So "George" lived there during his term as our First President, as did Ben (Franklin), Thomas (Jefferson)and many other notable figures involved in the Declaration of Independence and the drafting of the Constitution.

Independence Hall

Liberty Bell

The capper to the Philly visit, for me, was lunch out at one of the original "Philly Cheese Steak" joints in South Philly, called, fittingly enough, "Pat's"!   This was no luxury dining experience, mind you, but curbside walk-up (in a big line that, however, moved along fast) to place your order, pick it up moments later from the next window down, and then find a table out on the sidewalk to dig in.  The Philly Cheese Steaks were delicious; fugeddabout the calories for an afternoon!  And a bonus treat for this old rock and roll fan was the side of a building across from "Pat's" painted with images of noted crooners from the neighborhood (South Philly), guys I'd sung along with ( off-key, of course, I'm a terrible singer!) while playing their hits on 45 RPM Records (aka "vinyls"), Chubby Checker, Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and Bobby Rydell among the notables.  If these names don't ring a bell with you, then you don't know nuthin; either that or you're just a whole lot younger than I am.  And if you don't know what a "vinyl record" is, then you double don't know nuthin!

Fine Dining at "Pat's, King of (Cheese) Steaks"

Teen Idols from South Philly - The "Vinyl Kings"

Connie and Addison winged off for Eugene that afternoon... we missed them as soon as they had departed... and we had another week to kill before packing up the 5th Wheel and heading to Ohio.  We spent most of that week exploring our family histories, both of which had deep roots in Bucks County where we were staying.  We found cemeteries where Elaine's ancestors dating back to the early 1700's were buried; had less success pinpointing the final resting places for my ancestors from the same period, that being mostly the result of my being so much less organized in my genealogy research. But in any event, like Philly, the whole state is filled with ancient history, and pretty scenic as well. The Homestead Campground we stayed in near Quakertown was one of the prettiest we'd seen; and, like it had been in Cooperstown NY earlier, we had our section of the campground virtually to ourselves.  

Our Pennsylvania "Home"

Now to some more of the Pennsylvania Jinx (the "Ugly Chapter" referred to above).  Seems like, in getting our broken jack fixed, a bigger, likely much more expensive, problem developed. We called a mobile RV repairman out who immediately diagnosed the problem; but to fix the problem he needed to take weight off the jacks.  Only way to do that out in the park like this was to hitch the 5th Wheel up to our pickup.  But it wasn't as easy as it usually is due to the one jack still being inoperable.  To make a long story short, with the repair guy guiding me, I backed the truck up to the trailer hitch, but the hitch wasn't jacked up high enough and instead of hooking up, the trailer rolled back off the propped up jacks, pushing one slide-out into a post and dropping the front of the trailer on to the pickup rails, "bruising" both truck and trailer.  The repair guy got our 10,000 lb. trailer off the truck rails after some effort, and fixed the original problem, the broken jack, for a modest sum of $100; but the expensive part still waits, fixing body damage to both truck and trailer and dealing with two different insurance claims.  Such fun (not!), but the repairs will have to wait until we return to Colorado later in November, and both vehicles are still functional until then.

Wounded Road Warrior #1 - Farmers Claim Pending

Wounded Road Warrior #2 - National Gen'l Claim Pending

The Pennsylvania Jinx had surfaced one last time, though it failed to dampen our appreciation for other parts of this beautiful state.  Soon it was on to Ohio, subject of my next blog (I think).

One more look back at our beautiful Pennsylvania "Home"