Walkabout

This morning's view from our rig before the sun came out to show us a sunny day.

 

We counted 9 campers in residence on Sunday. This included 4 tent campers. All campers left the campgrounds for a day of exploration, leaving us the only ones on the 110 acre site. We ate breakfast outside, under the awning and in the screened porch, while the rain came down around us. 

 

Trying to fight off laziness, we decided to explore the campgrounds during a break in the clouds.

 

 We looked at the tent sites, the yurt sites, the cabin sites, and enjoyed the flowers in the woodlands. It is pretty hilly, so I had to pause more than I thought I should have to, and had to remind myself that the only "hill" in Sandusky is the railroad underpass on Columbus Avenue, at that is the excuse I told myself!

 In the afternoon, we read, I helped teach a neighboring camper how to knit, and,we read some more.

This is truly a vacation in every sense of the word. Today, Monday, is our last day here. We decided to stay at our site again all day rather than explore the area. We have to return the car to Enterprise at 5, make our last campfire dinner, and commence packing for an early departure tomorrow morning. The Biltmore will have to wait for another time.

 

We plan to make the return trip in one day, traveling I 75 instead of retracing our path. So, are you wondering if we would do this again? The answer is absolutely. In fact, we're making reservations to return in October and hope to convince Bob and Paulette to travel with us. We'd like to rent the Class C 24 to see if that is just as livable and easier to drive as part of our  continuing the research toward a purchase. Of the 4 couples we've chatted with here, each of them recently purchased a trailer (not an rv) and pull it with a large pick up. Two couples were from Georgia and two were from North Carolina. They are either recently retired, or, in the process of retiring within the next three years. Baby boomers all. That might mean that there will soon be thousands of boomer campers hitting the roads over the next few years! Buy stock in rv/camper manufacturers.

 

Last night we watched The Long, Long Trailer (1954) starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, directed by Vincenti Minnelli. The stars play honeymooners who purchase a 40 foot three-ton home and take it to Colorado. Let's just say we could relate to quite a few of the gags in the skit! We'll probably watch Robin William's RV again when we get home to bookend two great camping movies and intend to search for a few others to round out a collection. Gotta get to my needlepoint, knitting, spinning, reading, and hiking now. Thanks for checking in. jb

 

 

 

 



Asheville,North Carolina

 

 

The home of Thomas Wolfe is one of the points of interest that we saw while riding on the trolley tour of Asheville a few days ago.It was a warm and sunny day on Saturday and the town of Asheville was humming with tourists and locals. Our first impression was that the area was very much like Duval Street in Key West after the cruise ships disembark passengers for the day. There were street musicians on street corners and the bars were busy in the afternoon. We met our new camper neighbors for lunch at a pub on Lexington Avenue. Ron got a gumbo with alligator and I got a kale salad. On the  trolley tour we learned the history of the town, which was a tourist center in the early 1900s. Our guide told us that Mr. Grove, a compatriot of Mr. Vanderbilt, designed the city to resemble New York City, and many Hollywood films have been shot here for the 1920s ambiance of New York.

 

We headed back to camp in the late afternoon and I spent some time spinning (yarn, not the bicycle) while Ron assembled the ingredients for salmon with roasted vegetables. Yum. This was another meal cooked over coals wrapped in foil.  As our site is the best for views of the sunset, we met a few more neighbors, one of whom asked if I knew how to knit. She was thrilled when I offered to spend an hour with her to get her restarted with the craft and we made plans for Sunday afternoon

 

We made it an early night, snuggled into our abode, and enjoyed reading while listening to....silence!

Sometime in the early morning hours, we awoke to the lovely sound of rain on our roof. As anyone who knows me can attest, I love a cool rainy day, and I drifted back to sleep happily  anticipating  a rainy day at the campground.

 

 

 

 

camping bliss

The sunset from our campsite (P8 at www.campfirelodgings.com ) was awesome. It seemed strange that such a sight was totally quiet. Our bed is comfy and the cool mountain breeze contributed to a great night's sleep for both of us. So much so that we had to rush to get ready for our horseback riding reservation in Marshall at Sandy Bottom Trails. We didn't have time to find the directions, so a quick call to Paulie as our personal gps set us on the road. All of the photos that follow are taken while riding the horse-no stopping. I often just held the camera aloft in my RIGHT hand, holding the reins with my left and hoping for the best. Furthermore, I did a great job of editing the photos and then they seemed to have disappeared in the computer somewhere. Giving up, the photos you'll see are UNEDITED. Sorry about that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our 4 hour ride was led by "Wild Bill," a 72 year old retired power company worker who has lived in this area for his entire life. Married for 48 years, he now enjoys retirement....a theme that resonates with me in this idyllic setting.

After an hour of riding through the most stunning scenery I have ever seen this close up, we ambled down to a defunct garnet mine, last mined by Tiffany's in the early 1900's. Pick ax in hand, I followed our guide's suggestions and hammered away and found several large perfect garnets and many small ones, too. I, who hates to get my hands dirty, scraped at the dirt, tossed out stones, got blisters for my endeavors, and could have stayed there all day!!! I admit, it was also a change to rest my legs, or rather, my knees, before getting back on Becky, my horse. Ron's horse, George Bush, was a solid rider, but, my was skittish if another horse got too close to her. For part of the ride, the ranch's resident dogs, Peanut, Hillary Clinton, and Jeb, ran along side, often diverting up and down the countryside, into the nearby streams and back to us again. Neither of us have seen dogs running free and it was a delight to watch their antics.

 

We rode over 500 acres, covering 10 miles of trails, up to mountain tops and down into valleys with streams. We stopped to have a quick pb&j snack before heading back to the corrals at 2pm. When we got back to our rv, we took a long nap. As you can see, even Peanut was exhausted.

 

 I am happy to report that this morning I feel great-both knees are functioning and there are no signs of being saddle sore, either.

 

 

Nirvana

 

I am telling you the truth when I say this is the view from our campsite!!!! Isn't it fabulous? Before I tell you more about it, let me fill you in our our travels to get here. We left Martin and TJ's at 7:45, after sharing a cup of coffee/tea and discussing what we were each reading lately. Martin was reading Dicken's Martin Chuzzelwit and Tanya just finished Gone Girl. Ron is reading Without a Trace, which is about 8 lost ships and their fates. I'm reading  Untouchable, the strange life and tragic death of  Michael Jackson. Reluctantly, we bid our dear friends goodbye. Martin drove ahead of us and led us onto I77 south and turned off at the next exit. We were ready to see what West Virginia was like.

TJ suggested that our first stop could be at Tamarack, just outside of Charleston. It is a big craft center featuring artists in their studios, such as glass blowing or pottery. I bought a few watercolor note cards and a child's illustrated book of John Denver's song, Take Me Home, Country Road-with cd. As we drove along, we had earlier mentioned his song, so, it was a perfect purchase.

At our first gas station en route, along side of us was a fellow on a Harley. He looked us over, and I remarked about the contrast of how light he was traveling compared to us! He said he was just thinking the same thing and asked where we were from. When we told him we were from Sandusky, Ohio, he said, "I love Sandusky. They have a great bike gathering in June that I go to every year."

We told him to look for us on our lawn next Saturday, when we sit parade style in our yard and wave to all of the bikers as they pass. Small world, getting smaller every day.

Ron couldn't quite make it to the first stop, so, we pulled into a rest area and I chatted with the other rv'ers parked near us. One was driving the Class A Forest River Georgetown, made by the same company at our rental. I commented that Ron felt ours was  hard to handle and that cars seemed to pull up fast along the drivers side. The Class A driver said that seems such because the driver's seat in a Class C is further left of center than a car or his rig. Also, the A sits up higher and you don't get that sensation from that height. They were from Riverside, Ca, right near my family in Temecula and heading south in their brand new motor home. He highly recommended it over his Fleetwood, because of service, and they also decided to turn in the Mercedes diesel, as the cost was too high.( we're getting 6.5 miles per gallon, by the way).

We arrived on schedule at our campground in North Carolina at 4:30 and managed to get into our site without any problems! After setting up camp, we made hotdogs (mine was vegan) and hamburgers, cooked baked beans at 10 pm. We were both exhausted and ready to try out the sleeping quarters of our rv. The cool breeze and quiet was the best possible end to an already super day.

I'm experiencing technical difficulties (Samantha, I need you!) so ignore the photos below for my next blog.

On the Road, or Travels with Ron

 Ron and I were ready by 9 and decided to head out to pick up the RV early. The dogs seemed to know something was up and they were too distracted to eat breakfast.  We had time  before our 11 am appointment  at the Neff's RV Rentals, and took a route via a stop at Starbucks. Below is a photo of Bill Neff explaining the sewer particulars to Ron. We spent a good hour learning all about the outside of the RV, the Ford F10 truck features, and every piece of equipment within our "home."

When Bill pulled our rig out of storage, Ron and I both thought it seemed a lot bigger than we expected and we had grave doubts that we were up to the challenge of driving it out of the lot, let alone driving it to Asheville, N.C.!!! Ron gamely jumped in the driver's seat and drove toward Sandusky and I followed in our truck.  At the Rt 250/Rt 2 exit for Sandusky, Ron turned left instead of toward Sandusky and I actually thought he was headed back to the dealer to turn in the rig!

Instead, my geographically challenged husband decided to take a less traveled route back to the house instead of joining the Cedar Point traffic. Pretty smart, I thought.

The loading of the RV was really a snap. I had already planned out what would go where, and Ron actually let me direct the effort every inch of the way. Paulette, Samantha, and Lindsey stopped by to check out the rig and neighbors Diane Ernst and Debbie Phillips stopped by for a tour as well. At 2:45 we hit the road for our first stop, Marietta, Ohio, where we were staying with friends.

While Ron got used to driving the rig, I tried to figure out the built in gps unit, which is also a radio, cd player, ipod dock, dvd player and more. Guess what. I asked Ron to stop at the Amherst thruway truck stop just 40 minutes into the trip. He actually thought I was joking, but, I was getting car sick from the truck's swaying motions and my reading of the gps instructions. Yikes. Ron suggested we head back to Sandusky and get the other car and I could follow him to Asheville. NOT.

After a few minutes rest, some cold water, and tons of A/C, I felt well enough to head on our way. We dug out our own gps and gaining speed,  headed down Rt 77 south, arriving in Marietta around 7.

 

It was great to see Martin and Tanya at their lovely home.  Martin and I were in the same class at Kent State in 1977 earning our Masters in Library Science. Tanya, already working as a branch manger of the North Branch of Akron Public Library, sponsored my practicum at her library. So, we go back a looong way and always have tons to catch up on. We took a tour of the area, stopping at river's edge. Actually, if we had dipped our toes in the Ohio River, we would have been in West Virginia, as that state owns up to the river bank on the Ohio side of the river.

 

Back at their driveway, we discovered that running the generator was too loud for the quiet neighborhood and we headed inside for our comfy guest suite. The best way to camp, I'd say!

 

We head out for our 400 mile drive to North Carolina at 7am. Our ETA is 3:00 at the campground, followed by a 4:30 pickup from Enterprise Car Rental for our wheels for the weekend. So far, so good, you guys!

 

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Early morning bike ride in Sandusky



 

For the past two days, I've taken a bike ride in the early morning. Really early for me. 6:30 a.m. early. This requires a great deal of stealth on my part. I have to wake up very, very quietly, and very gently step around the dogs without waking them. This has worked for Marilyn and Kate, but, Jack raises his head, looks at me, then settles back into the pillows. They think I'm just getting up for a bathroom break and will be back in a minute. But, instead, I quietly put on my bike gear and tip toe out of the house, heading to the garage. So far, so good. No barking! 

 

A 5 minute ride takes me to the Sandusky Sailing Club. I kept my sailboat here from 1977-1986.  I sold it to a fellow who has yet to take it out of his backyard. The boat is a 19 foot Victory Sloop, made in 1947 and purchased for me by my dad when I was 16. 

 



 

 

Heading to the other end of the waterfront is the Shelby Street Public Boat Ramp. This is near the coal docks, shown above. Yesterday there was a freighter there from Canada. Today, the train cars filled with coal were being readied for the next freighter. Ron used to row his Little River single shell here. It is smooth water in this area when the fishermen aren't racing out and about.

 

In between the east and west waterfront areas I spotted this fire boat. I don't know if it is visiting, or if it is located here. The guys were heading to the boat, armed with coffee carryout mugs when I rode by.

 

I stopped to check out the waterways that used to be used for barges, but are now bridged to a series of slender parks.

 

Loving KW as I do, I did a double take when I saw the Key West Sandusky sign at one of the boathouses! I bet the owner resides in KW, FL in the winter and KW, OH in the summer.

Here is another shot of the boathouses. Many of these have nice apartments located above or beside the boat garages, some of them in use year round. This circle tour takes me about 45 minutes if I add some side loops in parking lots and up and down some residential streets and is turning out to be a nice way to start the day.

Just as Ron and I head to Asheville, N.C. for our camping expedition, I'm reminded that the best place to take a vacation is right here in Sandusky. Maybe next year, I'll remember to book a "staycation"  here. How about you, home or out? which will it be?

 

 

 

 

 

Camping obsession

It all started with a conversation at breakfast a few weeks ago. I mentioned to Ron that I'd like to go someplace to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We discussed Key West, our favorite vacation destination, UP of Michigan, a place we've never been before, or Seattle. Then I suggested we consider renting an RV. I'd already investigated renting a vintage camper and discovered that just doesn't happen. I can see why no one would want to share their vintage gems. I thought we could find a vintage camper rally and just chat with various owners about their tiny rigs. In any event, we googled renting an RV and discovered a rental place just 20 minutes away.

Thomas Wolfe's writing muse draws upon his life in Asheville, N.C.

 We hopped in the car and headed over to inquire about renting a for a week in June. (I learned that we were looking at Class C rv's. Their calendar was already filling up, but an early June booking was open! The 2014 campers had not yet arrived from the Forest River factory, so we had to wait a few weeks before we could see what we had rented.

I found a dealer that sells the same model and convinced Bob and Paulette to go with us to see a variety of models. The salesman was very informative and commended our choice of rental. We suggested that if all goes well,  we'd be back next spring to talk about purchasing a new one. After we arrange for a second house mortgage...these rigs are not inexpensive! You can get a 20 year loan and if it has a toilet, shower, and kitchen, it is a tax deductible purchase. Oh yeah! I was already California dreaming, and headed for the Rockies.....fiber festivals here and there, and early retirement was calling my name!

Kate wants to go with us. And most campgrounds accept petso n a leash. At this point we hadn't determine where to take our first adventure, but, we picked up some campground directories and learned about the various amenities of RV camping. 50 amp/sewer/city water hookups, camp stores, swimming pools, game rooms, golf cart rentals and so on.

Allie wants to go, too. She hasn't ventured outside since the day we brought her home, but, she looks out the windows of the house and reproachfully notices the dogs go in and out and in and out and....

 

Jack is already in the cab! and Marilyn want to be wherever I am. Always and forever.

Having NEVER driven with Ron longer than 4 hours, and that was for a 3 hour drive, I knew it would be a challenge for him to take a real road trip. In the spirit of wedded bliss, he cheerfully gave me free reign to select our location. I first considered Charlottesville, Va. where Paulie and I traveled last fall. Then I remembered some of the white knuckle winding roads through the mountains and thought that might not be such a great idea for our first ever 31 foot truck camper drive. I looked at the coast of Virginia, eager to see the wild horses of Chincoteague and decided it was too restrictive for camping with pets.

 

I researched the Smokies, the Poconos, the UP, and we poured over atlases and maps together. I eliminated most campgrounds as being too citified, which I was beginning to learn is the nature of RV "camping". Others were naturally geared to family activities, some were too close to Interstate highways, or other conveniences that I doggedly (get it) wanted to avoid on our first time out.

 

Ron's only request was to have access to a campfire for cooking (this, when we have a microwave, 3 burner stove, oven and full refrigerator/freezer on board) and at the top of my wish list was a VIEW from the campsite and enough space not to hear camping neighbors snoring, watching TV, and /or other activities. Ahem.

 

I finally found the perfect (I hope) location near Ashville, N.C. And so it begins. My obsession with camping. I started a list, read the RVer's Bible (twice), the Idiot's Guide to RV Camping, and guidebooks on North Carolina, and have begun a staging area in our dining room! Here's the plan. Pick up camper at 1:00, get a one hour instruction on......hookups, flushing, running the A/C, chemicals needed in the commode, how to back up and level a camper, use the automatic awning, slides, and generator, ....and, head back home to load 'er up, hit the road by 5, and drive at least 3 hours south (no sense in breaking our driving distance record) yet.  Stay tuned for blogs on the road, I think the campsite has free WIFI. Oh, we haven't decided yet about taking the rest of the family. I'm not sure we're ready to add that to our camping learning curve yet.