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Trying a New Way to Travel

Since the very beginning of our full time journey, Lee and I have wanted to try a travel schedule like our friends Steve and Deb. Steve works a full time corporate job and Deb is their travel planner and we have always admired how they have been able to balance those two things.  Until recently though we were largely going from one job to another, but finally we are able to give it a try.  We have six full months to just wander where the road takes us and we are incredibly excited about that.

I say wander where the road takes us, but that does include some restrictions.  I need to make sure I have ATT cell phone and data service at our stops, and although I can work from the truck some days, I also need to make sure that we are in place for certain conference calls.  This turned out to be more complicated than we thought, and I am thankful that business travel has been discontinued in my company because layering that in would have even been more difficult still.

Since we are new to this, we decided to work on our travel schedule together and it took two 2-1/2 hour sessions to schedule two weeks.  I am sure we will get better at this over time, but the first attempt was rough especially because West Virginia is not the easiest place to travel with restrictions.  There are lots of places with no cell coverage, and oddly most of the RV Parks are not listed on any of the sites we normally use.  That is probably because many “worker” RV Parks have popped up and these are not typically listed in one of our apps.

Consequently even with all that research things still didn’t work out that great, but as I said we are learning, so let me walk you through it.  Our very first stop was planned for near Wheeling, WV and it was a couple hours drive from Somerset, PA.  Since the beginning was all freeway and the campground was off a major road, we thought we would be fine, so we headed out after my morning conference calls.  I had an important meeting at 3pm I needed to be stationary for, but our ETA was 1pm which we thought would leave us plenty of time.

Our goal was Echo Valley campground.   We had checked the ATT app to make sure we had coverage and things looked pretty simple.  Since we had a back up we decided just to head that way without calling.  Big Mistake!! Once we left the freeway, things immediately were concerning.  It was a winding, twisty road and it was not clear where the entrance was on google maps satellite view.  For years Lee has asked me to verify entrances and exits at places and I do it, but not very graciously.  Until this stop I honestly didn’t see what the big deal was because things almost always work out just fine.

Well, this stop really drove home why he feels that is important because just getting in was a nightmare.  The entrance was a VERY sharp (over 90°) turn on a curve and down a hill onto a one lane gravel drive leading to a one lane narrow bridge.  There was a tree in the way and a street sign, and lots of gravel. There were no postings on how much weight the bridge could handle, but since we couldn’t back up we were committed.  It took a few adjustments to get past the entrance and over the bridge, and once we turned the corner a woman walked out of her house and said the campground was her daughter’s.  She seemed confused because we hadn’t called ahead but after talking to her daughter said we could stay for $30 cash per night.

We proceeded down into the campground itself and as soon as we got there…no cell coverage.  We weren’t thrilled about how it looked anyway, and decided we needed to leave and go on to the next option.  Unfortunately the only way out was the way we came in, and Lee had to make a three point turn to turn us around.  And on the way out we realized making the turn to get back across the bridge was NOT easy.  There was a steep embankment on the right, a light pole on the left, and a hill behind us.  It took numerous tries before Lee was able to make it.

One of the aborted tries

 

Trying again, that pipe railing really wanted to puncture our rig.

 

Finally got it!

Once we were back on the road (which involved me getting out and blocking traffic, I called the next place.  They were full, but they had a relative who might have a few spots.  We called them and they said they could take us and we pulled into a warehouse parking lot.  Lee walked in and was surprised to find that this was a local Trump headquarters.  The place was packed with signs and cardboard cut outs, which left Lee wondering if he was in the right place.  Thankfully he was and they said we could stay for $25 cash a night.

There were several open spots and some nicer rigs, so we looked around and selected one.  Once we backed in though we saw a sign that said the water was not potable (pretty common in West Virginia) and we knew we had to leave again.  We were not carrying enough water for our three day stay and although we had cell coverage it was on the weaker side.

By this time it was 2:30 and I was super anxious about my call.  We were back on the main road though and Lee was looking for a parking lot we could pull into while we had decent coverage.  Thankfully, he saw an unlisted campground along the road that had 4 bars of ATT.  Bonus it had potable water and was only $20 cash a night.  Turns out there are lots of these “worker camps” sort of everywhere in WV, but they are generally not listed anywhere on any website. Almost all are cash only and in this case we put the money in the slot in a container.  I was just thrilled we had a place to stay although Jack wasn’t a huge fan.  I think he likes the traditional campgrounds better.

 

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The campground was technically across from the Ohio river although you couldn’t see it without crossing a busy road

 

The storage container had a slot cut in it where we put our money

 

The site was level and large and again great cell coverage.

(UPDATE: After the experience above, it seemed like EVERYWHERE I went in this little town I was seeing these “baby” RV parks. Some with signs, some without, but I found at least 10 of them without even looking. They all appear to be designed for land owners to take advantage of some extra space, and provide working people with a clean, quiet place to live while they work in the area temporarily. The common things seems to be that they are small, have good new power, water, sewer hookups, are inexpensive, and seem to be specifically geared to NOT have kids and “RVers”. There might be a way people find these places, but I can’t see it. Anyway, here are five examples of these “temporary worker RV Parks” in Moundsville, WV alone. I will spend some time trying to find out how these workers are finding these places, and let you know in a future post, when I figure it out. The first image below is the one with the really tight turn that we went to first. As you can see, it’s tiny. The smaller area at the top is NOT the same RB park. It’s a different owner. – Lee)

 

 

This one is right in town.

 

 

 

 

This is the one that was situated around the Trump warehouse.

This is the one we ended up staying at.

Armed with what we learned from this experience our next planning session was more specific.  We spent one day working on our next few stops around visiting places in the area.  I’ll talk about what we saw in the area in future posts, but for this one I want to walk through how the next few stops went.  Just to be safe on our next stop we decided to travel on Sunday.  Not only did this give us more breathing room, but it also allowed us to take State Route 20 as a cut through instead of a major freeway.

 

The leaves are starting to turn

 

Lots of curves on the road and in some places the right side of the road was washed out.

 

The road ran alongside a railroad track and river.

 

Lots of logging in the area.

 

And a few small towns. My daughter Kyrston wanted to know what a “Hollar” (that’s how I pronounce it) was. A Hollow is a small sheltered valley that usually has a watercourse running through it. We saw several towns.  This one was called Folsom Hollow.

 

We went 30 miles before we saw any stores. Dollar Generals are really everywhere.

 

The road turned out to be beautiful, but it was pretty stressful for Lee to drive.  We tend to use car GPS regularly, but after this road we definitely need to pull out the RV GPS.  We don’t use ours much, but nothing else works quite like it does, especially when most of your route doesn’t have cell coverage.  I actually used my paper Atlas for some of the drive especially when it recommended we turn down “Gregory Run Road”.  I always call places like this “Bob’s Road” (ala Twister) and thankfully the paper map, and the no large trucks sign steered us properly.  The RV GPS would never have recommended that, which is why I highly recommend having and using one in rural areas.

 

No Bob’s Road today.

I actually have an affinity for West Virginia because my Great-Grandfather grew up in Buffalo, WV.  Family lore has it that when he lived in Fort Gay, WV he met my Great-Grandmother who lived in Louisa, KY. Since her county was dry, they crossed the river to drink in WV and that’s where they met.  If you have ever heard a twang in my voice (happens when I drink or am tired), I like to think it is the West Virginia coming out 🙂

Although it was stressful for Lee I loved the drive and even got to see a beautiful bald eagle.  It was flying low along the river bank and paced us for quite awhile.  Unfortunately by the time we got a chance to pull over and try to take a picture it was gone, but it was absolutely beautiful.  I haven’t seen an eagle that close since Alaska and it really made my day.

We finally arrived in our next stop Westin, WV and before going to the campground we pulled into the Robins Nest Travel Plaza.  We don’t like to set up when we are hungry and this was the only place I could find.  It turned out to be really nice, with good portions and inexpensive meals.  I will also say that they are taking social distancing seriously everywhere we have been in West Virginia, even limiting occupancy to two people in small spaces.  Been really nice seeing that.

Beautiful stained glass in Robins Nest

 

And I really liked the mural.

Finally we made it to the Broken Wheel Campground and at first I was a little nervous about cell coverage.  But it turned out to be OK and Jack was excited to be in the woods again.  Once again we had to pay cash, because their credit card machine wasn’t working but this time we were prepared.  A little pricey at $30 a night but the Stonewall Jackson Dam and State Park is right next door.

Really nice camp store

 

Backing in

 

Behind our RV

 

Out my window where I work

 

One thing I would like to mention here is I really appreciate having a front living room in situations like this.  Our wifi sits in the front window and generally even in a wooded spot we can get signal from the entrance.  Also our bedroom is in the back which means we are away from any road noise at night.

So that is where we are as of this writing.  We have booked a site at the WV State Fairgrounds @ $45 a night for three nights and we found a spot in Elkins by getting a recommendation from a booked campground there.  Weekends are a problem since most of the traditional campgrounds are booked and cell coverage was super tricky in the Elkins area which is next to a huge national forest.  We think the planning will get much easier once we leave the state (and have more practice) but so far it has been stressful but worth it.  I’ll keep you updated as we go along, but next up several posts about the fun things we have been doing.

(And for those who are keeping an eye on our usage of the TSD Logistics fuel card, on our last visit we stopped at a TA Truck stop outside of Wheeling. We got 26.13 gallons of diesel and the street price would have been $ 66.87. But we paid $ 50.80 so we saved a whopping $ 16 on not even a full tank of fuel! So far we’ve saved over $65 using the card, when we use it. – Lee)

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
  • You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on iTunes.
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First Time at Ohiopyle State Park

On Sunday, Bill and Kelly took us to Ohiopyle State Park.  They knows the kind of places I like, and I absolutely loved it. It is an interesting State Park because it actually encircles a small town.  White water rafting and winter sports are very popular here and the town was full of open businesses catering to those people.  I liked it so much that at the end I said I could absolutely live in a place like this.  Let me show you the amazing pictures though so you can see for yourselves.  One piece of advice is to go early because parking is an issue!

 

Bill found one parking spot and squeezed us in. Then we walked right down to the water.

 

During the summer this area is packed with families getting in the water

 

The water was on the low side but still lots of rapids.

 

Bill and Kelly

 

There were also lots of these little pools that kids can play in. Personally I love interactive nature.

There is a nice viewing platform of the largest waterfall.  It’s not the biggest waterfall we have seen but it was pretty and you can get close enough to feel the spray!!

 

The white water rafting tours start here after the waterfall.  In the upper left of the picture you can see the visitors center.

 

The visitors center also had an inside viewing area and this cool white water rafting display.

 

After the visitors center we walked under the road and over to town

 

We found a place with outdoor seating and had a gyro. Jack is getting really good at eating with us.

 

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Once we explored the small town we took the bridge across the Yough River to the hiking trails.  You can hike into the forest or along the river and we chose to do the latter.

 

Cool bridge.

 

Jack is not a huge fan of bridges but he stayed with his buddy Bill and did ok.

 

This path has steep stairs and a rocky path. Definitely wear your hiking shoes.

 

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After walking through a short section of woods we cut in and were on the rocks.  This part was a blast and Jack did great.  It was extra nice having Kelly and Bill along because we could pass the leash while we explored.

 

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Look at Bills smile!  It was a gorgeous day.

 

Jack and the bridge. I took the leash out of all these pictures, but he stayed on one.

 

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The water was so clear

 

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Seriously could not take a bad picture

 

The bridge in the background was great

 

Made me wonder who John Davis was. Obviously he didn’t win.

 

 

 

Jack did a great job clambering over the rocks but he would not jump across the water.  A few times we had to carry him over and again Bill and Kelly were a huge help. It was a bit like having a toddler along 🙂

 

He had a blast though.

 

 

 

 

We all did

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I loved being able to get so close to the falls and took lots of video. Lee edited it and its at the end of the post.

 

Because the water was low we were able to walk right down next to the falls and were lucky enough that a single hiker was walking by and took some pictures of all of us.

 

It was an absolutely perfect day and I am so grateful that we were able to spend it with our friends.  Next up we explore West Virginia and finally get that state sticker!

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
  • You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on iTunes.
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Flight 93 National Memorial

Everyone our age knows where they were on 9/11/2001.  I was actually separated from my family because we were in the middle of relocating to New Hampshire and Lee was still in Ohio with the kids.  I was in our new home to be with the home inspector and the owner was watching TV.   Like everyone else I thought the first plane was a tragic accident, but when the second hit I vividly remember thinking, “This means war.”

The next two weeks were incredibly stressful as I didn’t feel comfortable flying home and being with my family.  I was also staying in a cabin in the woods, with no television or internet.  Many of those nights after work I went to the local VFW and watched what was happening surrounded by war veterans.  They welcomed me into their community and we watched together as the pieces came together as to what was happening.

Many images and feelings come to mind from that time period, but in particular the courage of that small group of people who fought back and died in a Pennsylvania field really spoke to me.  It gave me hope for the future of this country and made me extremely proud to be an American. When we learned that we were only 24 miles from the site of the crash I knew we had to go, and early Saturday morning Lee and I went to the Memorial.

I found the experience very moving and the Memorial was extremely well done.  I will let the pictures tell most of the story, and will just say if you are ever in the area, I highly recommend you stop.

The entrance is a bit hard to find and the signage to get there is not great.

“Every element in architecht Murdochs’ design is aimed at controlling what you see and when you see it. When visitors reach the parking lot at the top of the hill, they are greeted by a massive freestanding concrete wall rising from a field of wildflowers. It angles toward the horizon, evoking a plane’s ascent. Rather than provide an overlook where you can survey the entire crash site, the architects have completely blocked off your view. As you get closer, the great wall parts, allowing a glimpse of a second wall and a bit of sky. The one-room visitors’ center—a mere 7,500 square feet—is gripped by this concrete vise, unseen until you step through the breach.”

Upon arrival we saw an unusual long building

 

 

Even though it was outside I wore a mask which had the added benefit of keeping my face warm. It was chilly that day

The walkway is the flight path of the plane, and has time and location markers of the other planes.

 

 

We later learned that this field was part of a strip mine and the government bought the land and is restoring it to its natural state.

 

The end of the walkway. The flight path continues to a wall of names in the field and eventually to a boulder that marks the point of impact.

We didn’t really understand the design, but when we drove down to the memorial at the bottom we learned that the building was designed to show the flight trajectory.  It made much more sense from below.  The design of the memorial is very subtle, but every part of it has a meaning which I appreciated.

Not a great picture, but the black outcropping is the end of the walkway.

“When Paul Murdoch designed the concrete walls of the visitors’ center, he specified that the wooden formwork should be from hemlock trees. The hand-hewn boards, which came from old local barns, left the concrete deeply scored with the impression of the hemlock grain, a nod to the resilience of the trees in the grove, as well as a subtle connection to the region.”

After seeing the walkway we went back into the visitors center. It was crowded but everyone was masked and respectful.

 

The first section talked about the two towers and these pieces that were found after the building collapsed really moved me.

 

Then it started to walk through what happened on the plane.

 

What was interesting to me about this flight was it was half empty. the entire back third of the plane had no passengers. I didn’t realize that.  I also learned that the terrorists (grey color) were all in first class.

 

Flight Crew

 

Passenger List

They also showed the timeline and I was amazed by how quickly it all happened.  Keep in mind the people on the plane did not know what was happening in the world until AFTER they were hijacked and standard protocol at the time for hijackings was for the crew to go along in the hopes the plane would be landed.  Using a plan as a missile was not something the crew was trained for.

 

 

It was only 4 minutes between when the captain was notified of possible hijacking and when the plane was taken over.

 

At 9:32am the hijacker attempts to talk to the passengers and accidentally calls air traffic control. That’s when authorities knew that another plane was hijacked.

 

At 9:42am the FAA orders all planes to land at the closest airport.

To understand the complexity of this every dot on this map is an airplane in the sky at the time of the hijackings. Over 4,000 planes were in the air.  The logistical complexity of that is staggering, but they managed to get it done with no accidents.

 

On Flight 93 the passengers were sent to the back and they learned about the attacks. They quickly put together a plan and decided to do something.

 

It is worth mentioning that most of the passengers on this plane were middle aged business people. There were only a few younger people and yet they decided to take action.

 

When the plane crashed it was only 18 minutes flying time from Washington DC. Later information pointed to the Capital building (which was in session) as being the target.  As tragic as the day was, how much worse would it have been if many members of Congress had been killed.

The crash was catastrophic and there was very little left. Local farmers and fire fighters rushed to the scene but there was little they could do.

Picture of the smoke as seen from a nearby farm

 

 

After the crash the FBI setup and conducted one of the longest investigations in history.  I was especially touched by the actions of the local coroner, Wally Miller, who spent several years working with the families to identify remains and ultimately was able to identify every single person.

 

After the visitors center we talked about walking a large loop down to the memorial site but it was still pretty cold.  Instead we drove down to the lower parking lot and walked beside the field and to the memorial. The natural topography of the area is a bowl with higher elevations to the north and west so the landform provides the circle shape of the memorial; the memorial rests and follows the contours of the circle. The loop path travels clockwise from the Visitor’s Center down to the wall of names in what the architect described as a “circle of embrace” which points your attention down to the crash site which is the final resting place of the passengers and crew. The trees surrounding this “circle of embrace” are missing in two places; first, where the flight path of the plane went overhead (which is the location of the planned memorial overlook and visitor center), and second, where the plane crashed at the crash site (depicted by a ceremonial gate and pathway into the crash site).

 

The walking path

 

A memorial wreath area with benches

 

In the pathway we saw these lines and later learned they are the exact angle of the needles of the hemlock trees the plane crashed into

“One of the recurring motifs in the design is an abstracted hemlock tree. The symbolism works on several levels. In nature, the trees are bound together by a shared root system, like the passengers united by their shared destiny. Because the grove survived the fire from the crash, it was seen as a symbol of resilience. ”

The walls are intentionally slanted to stop people from placing things on them, or sitting on them. The rock in the far picture was placed on the main crash site.

But they did have a few cubbies built in for mementos.

 

Because we came a week after 9/11 there were still flowers on the sites

 

This bouquet in particular really touched me.  From “Dear Ole Dad and Karen.”

The one Japanese member of the plane also had a small stand that had a Japanese flag and some paper cranes.  His mother has visited every year since it happened but this year she could not come because of COVID.  Instead she sent the cranes to an ambassador who placed them for her.  This was incredibly touching.

After spending time in the memorial we headed to one last area the Tower of Voices.  This is a newly installed tower with 40 wind chimes and it was very beautiful.  Unfortunately it was not making much noise even with the wind, so the tuning may not be complete.

 

 

I feel very privileged that I was able to visit this memorial and pay my respects to these fallen american heroes.

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things reminds me of why I am proud to be an American.

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
  • You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on iTunes.
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First Time in Somerset PA

As we were heading out of Columbus, our plan was to stop at a Discount Tire and get an upgrade to “H” rims and tires. They can carry more weight than our current “G” tires, to take full advantage of our Mor Ryde 8000lb axles, and they are an all around heavier duty commercial tire.  Lee had spent time on the phone and even driven to the location twice to make this as seamless as possible, but unfortunately the person he had been dealing with was off that day.  The tires were already on the new rims, but when we arrived there was confusion about who we were.  It took 30 minutes for them to get started and they immediately discovered we had the wrong lug nuts for the rims they had ordered for us.  Ours are conical, but the new rims were flat, and after waiting another 30 minutes we discovered it would take hours to get the new ones and an additional cost of nearly $500.

At this point we had a conversation and decided to walk away.  Even though we had prepaid for the tires and rims, we knew American Express would have our back on getting a refund, and thankfully the manager himself agreed they were at fault and refunded our money.  So we were on our way to see Kelly and Bill but with no new tires and no plan.  It was only a four hour drive to Somerset and thankfully we had no issues on the drive.

Kelly and Bill are staying in a seasonal site in Hickory Hollows campground because it is close to their daughter and granddaughter, and the owners are fine with Bill doing solar installs at their location.  It is surprising how many campground wont allow that type of work, but this one likes the extra business Bill brings in and the proximity to their granddaughter is a huge bonus.  It’s a really large piece of property with lots of sites, but during the time we were there it was very busy.  More people are camping even this late in the season this year which is definitely unusual.

The farmers who run the campground own hundreds of acres. Here is a view of the campground from the road bordering the property. Everything you see is their land.

Despite it’s remote location there is a ton of things to do in this area, and I took a day off so Kelly and I could explore. We went to a farmers market, a couple of great thrift stores, and also had lunch.  There are covered bridges in the area and in future posts I will talk about trips to the 911 memorial and Ohiopyle state park.  For this post though let me show you some pictures of what we did.

When we arrived Kelly made an excellent pot roast dinner, which is one of my favorites. It was exactly as good as it looks 🙂

 

There are numerous Mennonite families in the area. One location makes fresh pies on Friday and Saturday and we were first in line to get some!

The fields were right next to the store so you knew where the produce was coming from.

 

Neat and tidy with LOTS of great produce

 

And pies!! We got Lee a small one since he is trying to watch his sugar intake.

 

After visiting the farmers market we drove to see Kelly’s daughters house and were able to meet Freya.  I wore my mask since Maeve is 6 months pregnant, but it was still nice getting to see Freya their granddaughter.  She is 18 months old now and cute as a button,  Made me miss Oliver.

I love local thrift stores and this one was great. They were having a bag sale for $5. I filled up a bag for Oliver and another one for me. Can’t go wrong at those prices.

 

I also bought us lunch at a local cafe and my club sandwich was delicious. It was so big that I could only eat half of it.

 

It was a nice day and the only downside was only about half of the people we saw were wearing masks.  Coming from a larger city where it was more prevalent it was a bit of a shock.  We keep seeing this as soon as we hit the more rural areas, and always find it a bit jarring. Kelly has really been struggling with it because she is staying extra safe for her daughter and the lack of mask wearing has really stopped her from many activities.  She still hasn’t felt comfortable getting a hair cut for example and they are doing grocery pickups.

The best place for mask wearing Lee and I went the entire time was the Kings and Queens Restaurant.  It was this funky little castle shaped place Lee found for lunch one day and they strictly adhered to the best practices.  Also the food was amazing…I mean that I gave it five stars on YELP.  It was super kitchzy for sure, but there is a darn good chef in that kitchen and the service was phenomenal.

 

Appreciated the clarity of the sign. Everyone wore masks.

 

Old school decorations

 

With a country twist. This knight next to a stuffed wildcat was great

 

But the stuffed cows head on the wall was priceless

 

We started with this seafood dip (real pieces of shrimp and crab) and homemade bavarian pretzels…yummy!

 

Lee got the fish and chips for $9.99. The portion was huge and he said it was the best fish he had ever had.

While we were out seeing the countryside we also stumbled across a cool covered bridge.  Many of these are on private property, but the owners allow access.

 

 

 

 

Along with the exploring, I made dinner one night (air fryer chicken parmesan and fresh green beans) and we had a couple of fires.  One at Maeve’s house and the other at Kelly and Bill’s campsite.

 

And Lee worked on some repair projects including replacing a slide cable (post forthcoming) and putting up some K Cup holders for our new Keurig.

 

Another ingenious McGuyver hack by hubby. This was all his idea and it works great!

One last thing I wanted to mention (I am going to try to do this without in anyway being political), but I was surprised by how strong the support is for President Trump here.  What I mean by that is almost every house has a sign (and in some cases  many signs) out front and there is more fervent support than I have seen anywhere.  When we asked about it, we learned that this is the heart of coal country and the environmental policies of President Obama really hurt the area.  Large wind turbines did come to the area as an alternative fuel source, but the corresponding jobs did not.  The people who did most of the work came from outside the area and that did not sit well with folks here.

As always when we visit an area we like to meet and talk to people from that area.  Visiting Kelly, Bill and their family definitely gave us a chance to get an inside look to the area which was really nice.

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
  • You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on iTunes.
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We Don’t Really Camp Anymore

I know that the title of the post may strike many people as odd, considering we mainly live in campgrounds, but this last week has really brought home to me the fact that we don’t “camp”.  Rather we are living our somewhat complicated lives while staying in a campground.  The distinction is important, and I am going to explain further, but before I start I should say that this post certainly does not reflect the experience of all full timers.  Rather it is simply our experience as we move through the world and our own lives, so please take it in the spirit that it is intended.

When we arrived at Alum Creek State Park, I was immediately struck by how unusual a place like this is for us.  Yes, we occasionally stay at State Parks, and largely I like them, but this one only had electric sites available (they have full hookujps, but very few, and they book quickly because there are so few places to camp near such a large city)  and the lack of water at the site really bugged me.  I am often willing to go without services for a great view and low price, but at $32 a night this place had neither, and 10 days is a long time to stay without water.  We filled up our tank of course upon entry, but neither one of us thought we could get through the whole 10 days without needing more.  Skipping showers and having stacks of dishes is OK when you are on vacation, but I have work Zoom calls almost every day and needed a clean body and space for that.

 

Nice deep site

 

The campground is also pretty typical for this area, with minimal usage during the week, but PACKED on the weekends.  The cell service also really suffered on Thursdays and Fridays as more people meant less bandwidth.  It wasn’t just me.  Some friends of ours stayed here and their daughter was trying to do online school stuff, and had to go home a few times to upload projects.  In my case this is my home, and having work calls disconnect adds unnecessary stress to my day.

We also carry a list of things that need to be done everywhere that we go, and that list doesn’t go away when we are staying in a campground.  The location, services, and the proximity of resources matters when we travel versus someone who is taking some vacation and puts their list off until they get back home.  Don’t get me wrong, good for them.  When we first started camping in our travel trailer many years ago we used camping as an escape from our regular lives, but for us there is no escape and putting off that list just makes for more to do at the next stop.

Plus there are certain things we absolutely had to do in Columbus.  Last year we changed our primary physician to my brother in Columbus, and took advantage of being here to get physicals, blood work, and my mammogram.  Those were all multiple trips to various doctors offices and they took priority over everything else. (As an aside, Ohio Health provides excellent care and having my brother to help navigate the system was wonderful!)   Our second priority was spending time with family, and we saw saw Lee’s Mom and Dad, my brother and his family, and I celebrated my Dad’s birthday with him.

DeDe, Denny, and Lee

 

De De’s garden was in full bloom, absolutely gorgeous

 

My niece Elise and sister-in-law Patricia

 

My nephew Lex, me, and Elise

 

Lex is five, almost six, and liked my RV and Jack way more than he liked me 🙂 Actually he liked me a little bit

 

Birthday dinner with dad. From Left: Eddie (my brother), me, Miriam (Dad’s girlfriend), and Dad

 

We also Face Time’d with Oliver and Kyrston some so they could see everyone and the super cute OSU Buckeye shirt that Eddie bought Oliver. LOVED this!!!

 

Our third priority was seeing friends, and despite COVID we were lucky enough to see several people.  Bryan (Noodle, to his closest friends) and his family camped two spots down for most of our visit and several other people stopped by including Cori and Greg who were passing through on their way to see Greg’s parents! It’s always fun when people from different parts of our life get to meet each other. We got to meet their new puppy Trip who was absolutely adorable.  Jack, however, was a bit jealous of all the attention the new puppy got and was a bit of a pain in the butt!

Bryan and his daughter Sydney. Her drama school is doing a virtual play and she was auditioning for one of the parts…hence the cape 🙂  I did give Lee some crap because Bryan hooked up their friendly lights within an hour of setting up.  Lee never sets mine up anymore.  See, not camping!

 

Jack and Trip did fine until they took out the toys. Then Jack got really possessive

 

Lee took this picture. Can you even stand how cute this little guy is. He is a mini doodle and so lively and fun.

 

Hanging out with friends at a campfire.  From Left:  Greg, Cori, Bil (one L is on purpose) , Evonne, Susan (Bryan’s wife) Sydney, and Lee.

Campfires are another great example of why I don’t consider what we do camping.  When we first started out we carried wood everywhere and I even cooked numerous meals over the fire.  Then we started running into issues with transferring wood across states lines and the quality and price of the wood we could find made a difference.  Ultimately we bought a propane fire pit as an alternative, but we rarely even use that now.  Since we don’t smoke anymore, we spend less time sitting outside and our setup is minimal at best.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a fire, but its just not part of our normal routine anymore.  As far as cooking on one, that is WAY more trouble than its worth in my mind, although I did cook a couple of hot dogs one night which were yummy.

Overall I think we did a decent job of balancing work, family, errands, and friends, but Lee definitely had the worst of it.  He ran around like a chicken with his head cut off most days, but managed to squeeze everything in.  Our freshwater (and grey) both lasted 6 days which was pretty good, and he decided to buy a 35 gallon fresh water tank, but then discovered our water transfer pump wasn’t working.  He loaned it out last summer in PGE and someone must have left it running dry and burned it up.  We went one evening with no water and then he was scrambling the next day to buy a replacement and get us filled up.  He also made arrangements for us to get new tires when we leave and took the truck in for an oil change and coolant change.  We even squeezed in a trip to my favorite restaurant place, Bob Evans!

Loved this sign

 

Their breakfast sausage links are my all time favorite!

Despite all that we had lots of friend time and we are especially grateful to Bryan and Susan for hanging out with us so much.  It was really nice being with people we care about, and Cori and Greg taking the time to stop by was also amazing.  Cori and I even explored the nearby dog park and Jack and Trip had a great time.

We were glad they had a large and small dog sides. They also had a dog beach but we didn’t use that

 

Hanging out with a new friend at the dog park

 

The small dog section was big. The large dog section was HUGE!

 

Finally some puppy smiles!!

Get him Trip!

Before I forget Cori introduced me to Thin addictives. They are 90 calories for three biscotti cookies and I am munching on them all the time. YUMMY

So in summary, it was a wonderful week and was chock full of really wonderful moments.  I definitely would not say it was relaxing though! I was able to grab a few minutes of peacefulness though in the week and am really looking forward to getting out in nature more over the next couple of months.

I saw this beautiful buck in the campground

 

And watched a couple of nice sunrises

 

 

 

 

 

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Weird Labor Day Weekend

Because our trip to the UP got so messed up as a result of being hit by another car, we decided to just head for Columbus a few days earlier than our reservation at Alum Creek State Park.  Unfortunately there are a limited amount of campgrounds in Columbus and none had availability for Labor Day weekend.  I decided to call my Dad and ask if we could park in his driveway, and he was nice enough to say yes.  Our plan was to stay in his house but we could park the rig there while we were inside.  This turned out to be pretty nice because we had all of the stuff from our place with the added conveniences of being in a house.   I even washed all my dishes in his dishwasher and did a ton of laundry.  I do miss some household conveniences!!

But, I am skipping ahead.  First we had to get there, and less than 5 miles from the fairgrounds in Minneapolis, we had a blow out on the RV.  Thankfully we had renewed our Good Sam towing that month so we were covered, but it still took about three hours to get someone to us and get the tire changed.  We had a spare to use, but Lee was pretty concerned, especially because our TPS system gave us no warning at all.  We are seriously looking at upgrading from G to H Tires at this point and will probably try to do that in Columbus.

Against my better judgement we bought Chinese made G rated tires about a year ago and have nothing but trouble with them.  Personally I am never buying a tire that isn’t made in the USA again.  Update:  My daughter felt this sentence might come across wrong so let me refine it.  We started with tires manufactured in China and had a huge blowout.  Upgraded to Goodyear G’s and had no issues until they had to be replaced from normal wear.  Went to G tires manufactured in China and had a flat and then a blow out.  Yes, this is a small sample size, but we have heard enough anecdotal evidence (along with our own experience) to say we will never buy Chinese manufactured TIRES again.  Obviously I buy many goods that are manufactured in China and like them just fine.  My comments are only related to RV tires. 

Lee did an excellent job of getting us quickly and safely off to the side of the road.

The rest of the trip went very well, with overnight stops near the highway and staying on major roads.  As Lee explained in the last post we saved lots of money with our new fuel card, and the trip was largely drama free.  We pulled into Dad’s and got set up and Jack checked it out.  He has only been in houses a few times and didn’t know what to make of the place.  Thankfully my Dad is a dog magnet and they became fast friends in no time.  I am not going to share pictures of the house to respect his privacy, but I did want to share his outdoor plants.  He bought them when they were small and they are so huge and beautiful.  Had no idea my Dad had such a green thumb!

It ended up being a weird weekend, mainly because of the sports.  My Dad loves sports and we watch them together, but this year we watched the Army football game, golf, and the Kentucky Derby.  That was exciting because Dad is really into the race and because it was delayed I actually got to see it with him.  I was also in Columbus for his birthday, which again is a rare treat.   We went out to eat together a few times to local places and he took us to see the Grove City historical park.  This is all brand new, and they have moved multiple buildings to an open field area.  My favorite was the bell from a local church and Dad shared that when he was a young boy he got to ring the bell which was really fun.

We ate at a diner which was my kind of place. Reasonably priced and yummy food.

Dad and I went to the Farmers Market

And ate outside at Planks one of his favorite downtown restaurants. REALLY good club sandwich.

The bell from the local church

While we were there come classic cars rolled in which was cool

The old train depot.  When I was a baby we lived in apartments near the railroad tracks. The “‘wrong side of the tracks” was an actual thing in my hometown.

On Sunday, my brother came down to visit with my 5 year old nephew and my Aunt and Uncle stopped by as well.  Seeing relatives with COVID is super tricky and I am always left feeling like I could have done more.  I am not hugging people, and in the case of seeing my grandfather sat outside with masks on, and more than six feet away, but not everyone feels the same way.  At this point I worry less about myself than them, and the thought of passing COVID to people I care about is terrifying.  Still many people just aren’t worried about it, so I did the best I could in the different situations I found myself in.

My brother cooked dinner.

My Uncle Don and Aunt Susie came over

Dad and my nephew Lex

I made this special desert for Lex. It was packed with calories but kind of yummy. Pudding and Swiss rolls!!

On Monday, we headed out to the State Park we had reservations at, but before that I took Dad to lunch.  We went to my favorite childhood Chinese place, Ding Ho’s, and it was just as good as I remembered.

Hands down the best won ton soup I have ever had.

This dish is called War Su Gai and is their specialty. It is not something I see often on the road, and it was delicious.

Next up: seeing Lee’s parents, Bryan and Susan, and a special appearance by Cory and Greg!  It was a busy week in C-Bus so stay tuned!

Supporting our Blog

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TSD Logistics Update

For those who read the recent post about the TSD logistics card, I promised to keep you updated regarding the price performance, and here’s the first update! The app update that they promised for the end of August has not yet been released, but that’s pretty normal. Things get delayed. (UPDATE: Right before this post was published, the new app was released. So once I’ve had a chance to use it I will write up a post about it!)

In the first week of September, we drove from Minneapolis, MN to Columbus, OH, and I carefully tracked the advertised “street” price per gallon for fuel at all of our stops. In ALL cases, the price we saw advertised was the same as other truck stops within a reasonable driving distance, so this is what we would have paid without the TSD card. Also in ALL cases, we used the app to locate the lowest price whenever we needed fuel, and we tend to fuel up with around 50 miles remaining in the tank. Here are the results of the stops, in the order they happened. The “fee” for the discount, as well as the per transaction fee are already calculated into the data.

$ 2.18 per gallon street price
$ 1.86 per gallon discounted
$ 12.51 (14%) saved

$ 2.18 per gallon street price
$ 2.01 per gallon discounted
$ 9.74 (7%) saved

$ 2.19 per gallon street price
$ 1.90 per gallon discounted
$ 6.54 (13%) saved

$ 2.34 per gallon street price
$ 1.99 per gallon discounted
$ 6.76 (15%) saved

$ 2.29 per gallon street price
$ 1.93 per gallon discounted
$ 8.92 (16%) saved

$ 2.55 per gallon street price
$ 2.33 per gallon discounted
$ 8.71 (9%) saved

$ 2.99 per gallon street price
$ 2.22 per gallon discounted
$ 8.71 (25%) saved

So for the entire trip we saved a whopping $ 61.89 on diesel fuel over 876 miles, averaging  14% savings over the street price, and that’s AFTER the fee for the discount and the transaction fees.

I’m impressed so far, and can’t wait to see how the numbers continue to add up. We will sitting here in Columbus until September 17th, and then hitting the road again, so there will be more data to report!

(If you decide to sign up for the card, you can mention us by name and we will get a nice small fuel credit after you purchase a certain amount of fuel!)

Supporting our Blog

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  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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August 2020 Budget and Data

We spent a bunch in August but since we were seeing one of our daughters I was happy to do so.  We spent $5,282 overall and the details are listed below.  Lee also entered some information on our travel below.

Campground Fees – Now that we are not work kamping we have to pay for campground fees.  Originally we were going to spend two weeks at Lebanon Park but we liked the fairgrounds campground so much we took advantage of their monthly rate and cancelled our other reservation.

E- Cigarettes – Turns out that the taxes vary wildly from state to state for E-Cigarettes.   Minnesota is one of the worst where the excise taxes almost double the cost.  Seriously it was $27 for three 1.5ml cartridges.  I decided to try buying the liquid in bulk and filling my own, to avoid the high taxes, but the new dispenser was $40.  Overall the whole month was frustrating from this perspective, but Lee found me a map and I was happy to see that Minnesota is absolutely the exception rather than the rule.  Going forward I will be much more careful about where I buy from.  On a personal note this really ticks me off.  I am using the e-cigarettes instead of smoking and although it is not the best choice it is certainly better than the alternative.  Paying 95% of the wholesale price in tax is nuts.  The following map came from taxfoundation.org. which has lots of really good tax information of all kinds.

Dining Out – We took our daughter out to eat several times and we ate out ourselves a few.  We blew our budget by over $400 in this category and our waistlines absolutely show it!

Gifts – I spent a ton of time this month looking for baby clothes for Oliver in thrift stores and garage sales.  We also bought Kat some shelves for her basement and spent other money on gifts as well.  I definitely see a rise in the budget for this category in our future.

Groceries – Not sure what happened in this category as we spent over $1K, except we were able to make a couple of Costco runs.  Groceries in Minnesota really aren’t that cheap especially in comparison to Texas.

Home Repair – Lee took advantage of being in one place for a while to take care of a few home items, and we also bought a dash cam as a result of the accident we had. He read a bunch of reviews and did a fair amount of research and settled on the Kenwood DRV-A301W.

Truck Fuel – The one area we did really well with was truck fuel coming in over $200 under budget.  We are using a combination of the TSD Logistics card and Gas Buddy to find the best prices and it is definitely making a difference.

Additional monthly data from Lee…

This month we used a total of 556 GB of data on our AT&T unlimited plan, across all of our devices. (Total for the year is 39 terrabytes)

For August we did not have a mixture of places we stayed, we spent every one of the 31 nights in a paid spot, water and electric (50 amp) at $14.47 per night on a monthly rate, for a total of $448.

We put a total of 1,143 miles on the truck, which was less than half of what we did last month, because we didn’t do any traveling. In fact the trailer never moved, so no miles for her.

Year to date we’ve traveled 8,550 miles, 2,747.6 of which was pulling the trailer, with year to date engine hours of 242 hrs, 47 mins, 32 secs.

We burned a total of 81.2 gallons of diesel, and averaged 14.1 mpg for all of our travel, with a year to date total of 722 gallons at 11.8 avg mpg.

There’s no travel map for the month of August, because we didn’t travel anywhere!

Starting in September when we start to travel again, and are using the TSD Logistics card, I will detail the savings from that card here as well, because DATA!!!

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Minnesota Odds and Ends

Whenever we spend a long time in a place I always seem to end up with some pictures that I can’t fit into a regular post.  Here they are from our five week visit with Kat & Adrian.  We enjoyed spending so much time in her area and walked away with a new appreciation for the city. Personally I have never been to a large city with so many parks and green spaces and although big city life is not for me I can definitely see why she finds it so appealing. Since we have found a good campground to stay in the future we definitely will be spending more time there.  Here’s my random pics.

Jack got very shaggy while we were there

 

So we splurged and got a professional haircut. They did a great job.

 

Every Thursday Farmington had a really fantastic farmers market. It was right around the corner from us and I got some great vegetables, bacon flavored honey, and homemade cream soda.

 

I have a spreadsheet with restaurants I wants to try from Top Chef, Grill Dads, and other cooking shows but most are in large cities. We were thrilled that the Mason Jar was close to us and had excellent protcols in place

 

Eating at 5pm on a weekday didn’t hurt either. every table had an extra table no one sat at that they put the food on. Really cool process.

 

We went for the deconstructed chicken pot pie. The puff pastry is on top and its delicious.  My one recommendation would be to get it without cheese.  That was a bit overpowering.

 

We also had Vietnamese which is one of my favorites and it was pretty good. I found the fortune cookie fortune to be very topical.

 

Kat and I celebrated our birthdays with Mother/Daughter crab legs lunch at Red Lobster. Yummy!

 

Another great picture of Kat. Love her hair. She is very adventurous with color which I admire about her.

 

And a picture of her and her partner Adrian. Glad we got to know him a little better. We’re looking forward to visiting with them more often.

 

I found some Popsicle makers at the Dollar store and made Lee low calorie pudding pops which he loved.

 

We also rediscovered Aldi which was one of our favorite stores when the kids were young. They are very popular in Minnesota and we bought some great things there for reasonable prices.

 

I also found a new thrift store called Savers. Originally I thought this was a low price grocery store like in the west but they are huge thrift stores. Their prices are on the higher side but they have great selections, plus 40% off for 55 and older on Thursdays.  Can’t wait till next time we visit since I am turning 55 next year!!

Not every roadside attraction is great. Lee learned about these pies made by a local church and was so excited. You go to the door and ring and buy one. Unfortunately although it looked great it tasted pretty blank and not so good. What a bummer.

Finally I wanted to share with you a few pictures of Murphy.  We met a solo full timer (Matt) and his lovely golden retriever Murphy.  What a beautiful boy and Jack just adored him.  They would play almost every day and Murphy was super careful to never hurt him.  Matt, a photographer, was also nice to talk to and we were all super sad when we had to say goodbye to them.  Jack pouted for several days.

 

Jack was always jumping up and licking Murphy’s teeth which he was very tolerant of.

 

Even got some video!

 

 

 

Next up we headed to Columbus and spent Labor Day weekend with my dad.  Catching up on my posts, so look for that one soon.

 

Supporting our Blog

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  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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A Fun Afternoon At Hot Sam’s Foto Park

Written by Lee.  He went exploring on one of my work days and this was a solo trip.  Generally when we go to a new area we make a list of places we might like to see.  I’ll look at the list and decided which ones don’t matter to me much (Lee wants to see everything) and then Lee can do those on my work days. Occasionally if its really awesome he will even make a second trip so I can see it! – Trace

This post is going to be almost all pictures. I was poking around in the Roadside America app one day and saw this place Hot Sam’s was just a few miles away so I jumped in the truck and headed over. It was worth every minute and and every penny!

It’s part photo park, theme park, artist’s haven, junkyard, antique shop. It is undeniably unique. And how you perceive this place depends on your individual preferences. If you like the odd, unusual and quirky, you’ll appreciate Hot Sam’s.

There are quite a few great stories online about this place, but I think the pictures tell it all! I happily spent a few hours there and met with the owner and the resident sculpture artist, and just had a great time. There isn’t room to park an RV there, but there IS a restaurant just across the street with ample parking, so if you grab some lunch there I bet they wouldn’t mind if you left your rig there while you spent some time at Hot Sam’s. In the picture below you can see Hot Sam’s is just off Interstate 35, and just across the street from the Red Fox Tavern. This is what the entrance looks like, so it’s not hard to find at all. Right when you pull in you are greeted by the “shutter bug”, a massive (like bigger than a car) sculpture.     From that point I decided to drive all the way in and park and then walk back down to the entrance because there was just so much to take pictures of and I didn’t want to block the road.

This is the parking area, just on the other side of that head is I-35.

 

Off to the side of the parking area is a long low building that houses a lot of antiques. Looks and feels like a normal antique or “junk” shop.

       

Inside the long low building.

           

If you’ve ever wondered what the inside of an old gas pump looks like, this is it.

 

Love these bar stools.

       

Creepy Roger Rabbit and Jessica figures on the porch of the main building, which is a log cabin.

I am seeing these pics for the first time as I proof read the post and that is just weird and creepy. Looks like she is going to jump down on you. YIKES – Trace

  The back entrance of the main building is closest to the parking area. When I spoke to the owner he explained to me that this was originally a sales model of a log cabin company.                                  

Lady Liberty overlooks the parking lot.

 

Two stories of spiral staircase.

 

Walkway to the train car that serves as an art studio. With a rocket, because, why not??

That’s pretty cool – Trace

                               

I loved this two story sunflower, and you can also see the side of the log cabin and the back of a kid’s playhouse/treehouse built and painted to look like a giant birdhouse.

             

This is the front of the playhouse/treehouse/birdhouse.

             

Front of the log cabin.

                               

One of my favorite pieces, a tree growing up through and around an old rowboat.

      Working my way down the driveway from the parking and house area to the “lower grotto”.                  

There are several old circus wagons, which were just fascinating.

           

Another two stories of spiral staircase!!

    This might be one of the coolest things on the property. It’s an old boat that someone rebuilt to look like a land speeder from Star Wars. It was unclear by the way it was surrounded by dirt if it was retrofitted to drive on the ground like a car, or if it was meant to stay a boat, but it was well done, if a bit weathered. Ok  that’s  cool  – Trace                    

Featuring state of the art navigation via a label maker, and steering via a video game joystick.  Again very cool – Trace

 

and what speeder would be complete without a Radio Shack amplifier?

         

If you are willing to walk a little farther, you can see whatever the owner currently is displaying to the Interstate to entice folks off the highway, like this Finding Nemo car, and a rocket ship.  The ingenuity is impressive – Trace

       

Loved this sculpture. Everything on the property is for sale except the three buildings, and rumor has it that all prices are negotiable, and that the final price is based largely on what Jake thinks of the buyer.

 

Also loved this alien car, as well as the HUGE UFO suspended on a cable strung across the pond.

Again super impressive that a regular person did this – Trace

                       

Unfortunately there was nothing to use for scale, but the handlebars on this oversized motorcycle were WAY over my head.

 

To give you an idea of the size, the “sidecar” is actually the front of a boat.

Wow a tug boat – Trace

For our hippie camper friends – Trace

                                                                               

Back at the driveway, this Superman is suspended over head.

I don’t even know what to say about this one – Trace

GUMBY!!!! – Trace

                                    I also for some reason really got a kick out of this elaborate display of Avon perfume and cologne bottles.                                                                                

At the end of the driveway, or the beginning, depending on your perspective, there is a phone. Not plugged into anything, just hanging there. In case someone wants to buy it. (Again you gotta wonder what was going on in this guys mind- Trace)

 

The entrance/exit is guarded by another one of those GIANT metal sunflowers. Those things are easily 10 feet across.

 

And here’s the end!

 

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  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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