What I did on my summer vacation and before that

Pictures: (top to bottom) a mountain meadow view along Virginia's Blue Ridge Parkway, at Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway, NC scene along the parkway, Danny happy to be on Amelia Island for Memorial Day, on Destin Beach, at Knight's Templar Spring Convent in San Destin

Wow, I can't believe that we haven't posted anything here since February...its true that the year (2010) has flashed by at warp four, but really we've been remiss. Did you hear that Dan Dan? We're supposed to be talking about our RV ing travel experiences here, right? My excuse is that I've been writing a novel about the adventures (and travels) of a dragon. What's yours? LOL

We did take some interesting jaunts in the Parakeet (the Winnebago View) since I last posted: First, we went to the Panhandle of Florida in early March for my investiture as a Dame in The Sovereign Military Order of The Knights of Jerusalem (Knights Templar). Danny is already a Knight of the Priory of Holy Rood, which encompasses Georgia and Florida and part of Alabama. (This blog is not about the Knights but should you be wondering: despite the name it is a charitable organization not military these days) The ceremony was in a lovely little church near the sugar sand beaches in Destin and it was a bit of a tricky maneuver to get formally dolled up in expansive Templar capes in a 24 foot motor home but we managed pretty well.

We stayed for several days at the beautiful Topsail State Park Campground which has wonderful paved spaces with all the amenities one expects in a top campground, great bicycling and walking paths to the ocean and close proximity to restaurants and shopping. Thumbs up for staying there. The beach was stunningly beautiful and not crowded. Of course this was before the BP Oil spill. My heart and prayers go out to the people of the Panhandle today for their economic recovery and the ecological devastation that was suffered.

We took the long way home through the "Big Bend" area that follows the coast, which is listed by Readers Digest Books as one of the most scenic drives in America. It was indeed lovely, even if it took almost nine hours to reach Orlando again. We particularly enjoyed stopping at Carabelle Beach for lunch and a dog walk. Anytime a beautiful beach welcomes dogs, it gets my thumbs up!

Our next long week end trip was to St Mary's, Georgia and Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Florida over Memorial Day week end. We had a sort of mini family reunion with Danny's uncle and aunt, mother, sister, and cousins and this time we stayed at the Jacksonville North KOA. We enjoyed wandering the streets of the quaint little seaside town of St Mary's: the shops, historic buildings and museums, and sampled some pretty good seafood too. I can really recommend going to Ft Clinch State Park for picnics and swimming and a quick tour of the Fort itself. The beach was pristine, the water clear, and it was not crowded. Dogs were not welcome on the beach in Ft Clinch Park but they are permitted on the beach at Fernandina and nearby St Augustine.

For us, it was an easy three and a half hour trip from Orlando. We planned to stop in St Augustine but found parking in the historic area very difficult so opted to spend a couple hours on Flagler Beach instead. 63 pound hound, Ginny, encountered a grumpy ghost crab. Ginny backed away from the crab. It was an historic moment.

We opted out of going to Cumberland Island since the only way was by a smallish ferry that operated twice daily. No cars, trucks or RVs or dogs are permitted on the island. Relatives who went weren't too impressed. They reported that bicycling was hard going on the sandy paths, the flies were biting, the wild horses wouldn't come close and the resort ran everyone off that wasn't a paying guest there. We felt we made the right choice in spending the day in St Marys instead.

Our summer vacation trip in mid July was to Asheville NC, then The Blue Ridge Parkway, into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and SW West Virginia. This trip will be detailed in near future blogs with lots more pictures. For now, I will post several of my favorite pictures so you can get an idea of how beautiful the area was.

I will mention one issue we experienced on a the technical side on this trip. It was extremely hot in Virginia (100 degrees) and we had to leave the dogs in the RV for several hours in a fairly sunny spot while we toured Monticello. We were parked facing downhill and other RVs were parked quite close to us.

Of course, we put on the generator to run the A/C while we were gone! We always crack a window or two for emergency ventilation, run plug in and battery fans in several places on the RV and we have a ceiling fan in the bath area that automatically comes on if the a/c goes off in an emergency and the temp reaches a certain level. I thought that was probably enough back up to keep the dogs safe.

When we returned to the RV we heard an alarm going inside the unit. Dashing to open the door we hardly dared imagine what we might find wrong inside. My heart wanted to stop beating in dread but the dogs were at the door with wagging tails. Danny said the Carbon Monoxide alarm was on. I opened all the windows immediately to further ventilate but even though the alarm would not shut off neither the dogs or we seemed affected.

Once we left the lot, the alarm stopped. Here's what I think happened. The weird angle of sloped mountain parking and the proximity of the RV next to us meant that either their or our propane fumes were being sucked in our vented window. Fortunately, there was enough fresh air being circulated inside and out again by the small fans, the large bathroom ceiling fan and the other cracked window over the cab on the other side to save the dogs.

We are addressing this scary problem for future trips in every way we can since the dogs are our number one priority. I welcome suggestions from other RV enthusiasts and travel veterans however. Since many of the folks we see in the campgrounds and parks travel with dogs this has got to be solvable. Since one of the reasons we got the Winnebago was so the dogs could always be with us, we do not want to leave them at home.

If you want to hear a bout how I got lost for forty minutes in a SC campground in the dark, you will have to wait for the next post. But, I will be back very soon. I promise.

TTFN

What I learned on my Christmas vacation.

Photos: Savannah Square, Tallulah Gorge overlook, Dillard House restaurant, Tallulah Gorge steps, N. Georgia Blue Ridge mountains scene, Tybee island Lighthouse, FT Pulaski looking towards Hilton head, SC.

Things I learned on our recent (winter) RV trip to Georgia:

1.Savannah is one of the prettiest and most interesting cities in America, winter, spring, summer, or fall. Taking a self guided walking tour around the historic area is a great way to see the 20 squares. We downloaded a tour app on Danny's iPhone. Don't try to park your RV in the city. We parked at the train station on the edge (MLK Blvd) and walked. Less than ten minutes to the first square on the tour. The tour trollies depart from the same parking area too, so you can get one of those if you prefer to ride. I recommend that in summer.

2.Do not hoof it down to the bottom of Tallulah Gorge without water and an energy bar, especially if you have not done any cardio workouts in awhile. Goin' down, easy. Comin' up, not easy. I almost passed out.

3. I fell in love with the family style Georgia down home cookin' at the Dillard House, especially the country fried pork chops and fried okra. The country fried pork chops and okra did not fall in love with me, however. Acid reflux medicine recommended for those folks like me with Gerd.

4. The north Georgia mountains are beautiful any time of the year.

5. Tybee Island lighthouse complex and Tybee Museum/Ft Screvin across the street are well worth a couple of hours stop. Gift shop very good. Parking good. On cold windy days, climbing the 169 steps of the lighthouse is doable but the wind at the top is harrowing.

6. Ft Pulaski, between Savannah and Tybee is very interesting. Allow several hours at least. The nature trails next to the ft make a great hiking area and the whole place is dog friendly and dog accessible. Great for picnics.

7. Our Winnebago View did just fine in 20 degree cold weather. No issues.

8. Cold weather and rain and sleet are over rated. Grey skies over Atlanta during cold, rainy, sleety weather are vastly overrated.

9. Never dry your hair in an RV bathroom standing backwards while somebody drives the vehicle at high speed down a major Atlanta highway unless you want to spend the rest of the day with motion sickness.

10. pay attention to water levels when spending most of your overnights in somebody's driveway instead of hooked up to water in a campground.

PS: Didn't post pictures of them, but we also enjoyed hiking through Sweetwater State Park in Atlanta and spending a day at Stone Mountain. I particularly recommend visiting the plantation. Lots of opportunity in Stone Mt park for dog walking, too. Big Christmas hoopla there.

Any ideas for where we should go for our summer trip welcomed. No more than two days of driving from Florida preferred. TTFN Happy trails.

Cold Weather RVing

Since I had a full week off from December 25th to January 3rd, Nancy and I decided do another week-long RV adventure. Our original plan was to visit my family in Georgia, then over to Asheville, North Carolina.

To prepare for this trip, I studied cold weather RVing in general, and really focused on any information I could find with regard to our model motorhome. Luckily, these little beasts hold up very well in cold weather. The furnace will heat up the entire coach in just a few minutes. I couldn't find any information where a water-line freeze cause damage. I think this is mostly because of the size and compactness of the units, and the construction of the water utility area. I did find a bunch of cold weather tips and tricks. Here are a few things I did to prepare

• We found a hikers foam sleeping mat, put velcro on the corners, and velcroed it to the slideout wall. This kept whoever slept next to the slideout wall from getting too cold.
• I cut out reflextics sheets to fit in all the Windows. While this is more of a hot weather tool, it did a good enough job.
• I lined the outside electrical and water utility areas with reflectics. At night, I kept the 12 volt light on in the water utility. Even though it dipped into the 20's, the area never froze.
• If we were plugged in, we kept the electric hot water heater on.
• If it was under 32 degrees outside and we were stopped for a brief tour, we kept the furnace and hot water on.
  

Two weeks before the trip, Asheville got heavy snowfall. The RV park where we were going to stay was inaccessible, and the roads were just too dangerous to travel. Here's a picture of some people on our Winnebago View/Navion message board. This isn't our right, but it is the same model/color/year as ours.


Just looking at the picnic table will give you and idea of just how much snow there was. Even more fell on the area after this picture. Asheville was a no-go. Biltmore will have to wait for spring or summer. Maybe a 4-day weekend.

We left Florida on Saturday Morning, and drove all day to Lithia Springs Georgia, just a bit west of Atlanta. We parked in the driveway, and got some free electricity from mom.


Sunday
We visited with my mother and sister, and my brother came with his kids to visit. It was really nice to see everyone again. We also took a hike at Sweet Water Creek State Park. Abby and Ginny loved that park. The new smells were so enticing to them, it was difficult to keep them under control.

Monday
Robin went with us to Stone Mountain State Park. The mountain looked the same, but not much around it looked like I remembered. The entire park had been redone for the 1996 Olympic Games, and it was much more a sport/recreation complex now. I actually like it better this way. When I was younger, it was more of a hangout spot. We visited the Antebellum plantation, and the shopping area where the train depot used to be.

Tuesday
We left moms and stayed at my brother, Mark's house. At least, we stayed in his driveway. By now, I'd learned to fill our water tank up whenever possible. Tuesday morning, we set out for Athens GA. We went in a back way, so things seemed a bit different for me. As we got on campus, I realized it wasn't just me. Campus was very different. Even Athens looked different. I was at UGA for a much shorter time than I would have liked. I miss it.

Wednesday
Nancy and I went to Tallulah Gorge.

After that, we headed to Dillard house for some good food.

Thursday
We spent New Years Day in an insane, desperate attempt to get to my Grandmothers' New Years day lunch on time. Some communication difficulties, and Google Map showing the wrong address (wound up using Bing instead, and got the right address). My family is used to living there, and forget I haven't been there in 25 years, so I don't remember or recognize any of the roads.

With the weather getting worse, and the greyish atmosphere settling in on Atlanta, we decided to head to Savannah. Driving on I-16 in the early evening with rain, mist, and fog made for some good horror movie imaginations.

We got to Tybee Island around 8:30, got an excellent spot at the Rivers End Campground, and settle in.

Friday
We found a good place to eat, then went to tour around Savannah. Little did I know how much there was to see. I downloaded a really good Savannah Tour App for my iPhone, but only got to see about 10% of it. We'll make another trip soon, and send a few days going through the full tour. I was really impressed with Savannah, and saw why so many people fall in love with it.

Saturday
We decided to start our journey back, with a few stops on the way out. First we went to Tybee Island Lighthouse. The Lighthouse History is very interesting, and the Fresnel Lens was fascinating. We also toured the Battery across the street.

A few miles down the road, we stopped at Fort Pulaski. Like Nancy said, don't expect a quick-through of this historic site. There's so much to see.

From there, we got home in about 5 hours, including several stops for the dogs to walk around for awhile.

RVing with my iPhone

I got my iPhone a week before we got the RV. How anyone RVes without one is beyond me.

The second page of apps is reserved entirely for my RV and Navigation tools. I'll probably eventually delete about four or five of the redundant apps. I'll test to figure out which are my favorite. My iPhone is almost full with apps, so app space is a premium for me. The rest of the storage space on my iPhone is devoted to audiobooks and podcasts. I'm hoping the a future iPhone OS upgrade will enable users to put many more than just 11 pages of apps on their phone.

When we're driving in the RV, I keep the iPhone mounted on a Griffin Technologies RoadTrip FM Broadcaster (with "SmartScan"):

The RoadTrip broadcasts whatever is playing on my iPhone to the radio. Sound quality is excellent. I have rare instances of slight static, but it's usually happens under lots of high tension electric wires. If I put the iPhone on the RoadTrip with the earphones plugged in, I can answer calls and talk on the phone and the RoadTrip will still broadcast to the radio. If I don't have the earphones plugged in at first, then plug them in, I can listen to audio without it broadcasting to the radio. This is a good option if I want to listen to an audiobook without disturbing anyone. Of course, I could just turn the radio off, I guess. Either way, no calls are ever broadcast over the radio.

I've also tried the Griffin WindowSeat with the iTrip. I like that I can also use it in landscape mode. The only thing I don't like about the WindowSeat is I have to take off my iPhone case to put it in the WindowSeat cradle. I haven't decided which I like better, but so far I use the RoadTrip the most.

aSmart 3D+Speedcams

From their website:

Key features:

• HUD MODE
• SHORT TIME WEATHER FORECAST
• EDITABLE FIXED SPEED CAMERAS DATABASE
• EDITABLE RED LIGHT CAMERAS DATABASE for USA, Australia and Canada
• IPOD PLAYLIST REMOTE CONTROL;

It visualizies your

• current speed
• average speed,
• time,
• elapsed trip time,
• heading,
• altitude,
• your location on the map (Street and Satellite image Google maps supported),
• weather forecast for nearest 48 hours the with 3-hour time interval,
• maximum reached speed (during the current trip or all your trips), maximum altitude and maximum distance to the starting point of your trip.
• current playing music track;

Also it shows

• positions of the nearest known speed cameras within an adjustible range
• it's speed limit (if known)

A newer version I've downloaded has a small map that follows where you are. The weather information come out of Norway, and tends to be about 10 degrees off here in Florida. I like that I can adjust the speed limit warnings. The feedback helps keep gas mileage under control.

MotionX GPS Sport

Another update since the picture above changes the GPS MotionX to GPS Sport MotionX. This app is intended for adventure, tracking, and recording trail rides/hikes. Since we'd be doing some hiking on our trips eventually, I keep this app on the RV page.

Google Maps for iPhone is the next app, and still my main GPS and direction app. It integrates well with everything on the iPhone. It has taken us on some off-beat paths where we were really glad it did. In Pennsylvania and West Virgina, we would have missed some really nice sites if we'd just used a map.

GPS Drive MotionX is another MotionX app.

It's a turn-by-turn GPS direction program. This one uses Bing as it's map source. The best thing about it is the price: $2.99, with the optional voice subscription at $29.99 a year. Apps like Tom-Tom are $99, big programs, and sometimes a bit out of date. The trade off is with GPS Drive you have to be on the network to get a map. Edge network can be VERY slow to update your tracking. Tom-Tom doesn't have to be on the network. I may eventually try the Tom-Tom, but I don't need it quite yet. So far, I'm really satisified with MotionX apps.

GasBuddy is a website as well as an app.

I've set my GasBuddy app to look for diesel. So far, it's been very accurate and up to date. This app is a must for saving money on Diesel, or finding the closest pump when you're running on the memory of fumes.

Gas Cubby was recommended by the Apple Staff, and had excellent reviews. You can keep records of pretty much everything with regard to the vehicle. I use it mostly to track miles per gallon. I like being able to track the costs per mile option, which includes all vehicle related expenses. The biggest problem of using it is the time it takes to put in the information. When you're on the road, you'll tend to keep the receipts and do it later. In realityIn the future, I'll get a scangauge2, and probably won't need to use this app as much.

TripIt Is an a social trip planning and itinerary site. You can setup a trip and share it with people you choose on TripIt. Kind of like LinkedIn for travelers. There is also a mobile TripIt website available. I haven't used it that much, and this would probably be one of the first apps I'd delete.

RestArea will list and map the rest area's closest to you, and the amenities they offer. It will tell you exactly how far you are from a specific rest area.

ezLevel, iWoMoSet, and iHandy Level are all leveling apps. Once they are calibrated, you can use the app to help level your RV. The iWoMoSet was orginally in German, and is difficult to use, but the default dimension are set exactly for our Winnebago View. The ezLevel and iHandy Level apps have a flat level. Here's a screenshot of the exLevel:

When we get to a campsite or overnight parking area, I set my iPhone and the floor next to the drivers seat. I make adjustments (either leveling blocks or different parking places) to get as comfortably level as possible. Once I'm done, I put the iPhone on the flat surface in the refrigerator to see if it's close enough. Other than comfort, the fridge is the main reason to get as level as possible. As long as I'm pretty much in the circle, the RV is level enough.

ZipFinder is a GPS zip code location finder. This app really helps in using the overnightrvparking.com website on the road. You'll need a membership to overnightrvparking to use the website, but if you're on a long trip and don't need to use a campground every night, the website can really help. I use zipfinder to get the zipcode of where I am, the put the zip in the overnightrvparking search too. I really hope someone works with the overnightrvparking site on either a mobile version, or an iphone app.

AroundMe finds all kinds of things near your current location. We use it mostly to find the nearest Grocery Store or Super Market. When you're in a city, this app is a real time-saver. Driving time, mostly.

OffLeash is an app that will find the nearest Dog Park. If you're a dog owner, you'll love this app. It's by Eukanuba, and it's free. Even though many campgrounds have a dog area, they tend to be small, and not many other dogs to socialize with. Our dogs love dog parks, and love to be off leash in one.

Continuous Traveler RVParks app in a must have for the RVer. This app will find our current location, then show you the closest campgrounds near you. I even use this app to find campgrounds for places were planning to go. You can find a campground, the look at the location, the website, even call from the contact list. Members of the website can add and edit campgrounds. The app started at $14.99, and is now $4.99. For the RV it's a huge bargin. The developer does frequent updates to both the app and the database.

RVCompanion is a new app for me. The main reason I purchased it was to test the leveler section, and the procedures section. I need to use this app a bit more before I can really do a decent review on it.

My First RV Podcast

Introduction to my "WinView" Audioboo Podcast:

Pennsylvania, GW, and the National Highway

After months of planning and preparation, Nancy and I left the driveway of our home at 4:00pm on Friday July 31. We were able to get out of the city before the traffic hit, and headed up I-4 to I-95. We hit Jacksonville soon after, and decided to stop in Darien GA, at the Inland Harbor RV Park.

Inland Harbor was our first experience at a late checking. We pulled in after the main office was closed, followed the instructions for late checking, and found a nice level spot. I like not having to do the whole leveling thing. Our original intention was to stay overnight at a Cracker Barrel parking lot in Poole Georgia. Neither of us were comfortable with doing the overnight RV parking thing, just yet. The campground was clean, nice, easy to access, and easy to use. The entire time we were there, we saw no one. No workers, and no other RV'rs. That was a bit strange.

Back on the road, we drove up I95 till we got to Emporia Virgina. We stayed at our first Jellystone Campground. The owner/operaters were there to greet us. They were nice folks. The campground was clean, and the pool was heated. After a long drive, it REALLY helped to even have a twenty minute swim. Nancy's leg and hip were bothering her, so I convinced her to swim in the morning. It made us leave a little later than we wanted, but it was time well spent. An evening or morning swim while traveling makes a huge difference.

Nancy's insert:

The dogs really enjoyed their walk through the wooded campground with all the un-Florida smells and I enjoyed my first sighting of lightning bugs in fifteen years! The dogs did not enjoy the horseflies the next morning, however. This made me recall that when I lived in SC in summer (where we had lightning bugs and horse flies) I used a spray on product designed for horses called Flys Off on the dogs.

We drove through Virgina, Maryland, then into Pennsylvania. Driving through Washington DC was an experience. The scenery through Maryland and Pennyslvania was breathtaking, especially for this Florida boy. I live in a flat state, so any amount of hills are wonderful to see.

Nancy's insert: hills are wonderful when you've spent too many years as a flatlander!

It was raining a wee bit as we came into Bedford Pennsylvania. I was tired from driving, grumpy, and ready to stop. The Shawnee Sleepy Hollow campground wasn't difficult to find, and we had the area pretty much to ourselves.

It was nice to not need to use the air conditioner, but waking up to 60 degrees, both inside and out, was a surprise.

Nancy's note:This area was spectacular with its mountain views and morning mist. Lots and lots of rabbits and more lightning bugs. Clear pure air and no allergies. The owner's house was a half log half field stone house from the mid seventeen hundreds. And yes, it was haunted until the owner had the ghost exorcised when it got nasty over a musical choice of his teen age son!

The next morning, we interred Nancy's mother, Nordena Miller Wayman.

Nancy's note: At the historic Chestnut Ridge Union Cemetery just outside of Schellsburg. Schellsburg, by the way, is a picture postcard town full of old houses dating from just after the Revolutionary War and the mid 1800s. It is where my mother's people came from.

It was the primary reason for coming to Pennsylvania. Nancy read from the Holy Bible, and a poem from her book about her mother. She also read one to her father.

Later that day, we went to Fort Bedford Village, and Jean Bonnet Tavern.

Fort Bedford was a rebuilt village from colonial times, using the actual restored buildings from all over the area. Some people lived there part time, practicing things like weaving, tin smithing, candle making, etc. as though they were in that time.

The Jean Bonnet Tavern was nice. It was older than our country, and haunted. When we asked if it was haunted, they brought a notebook showing us the evidence from a recent Ghost Hunters evaluation. Seems that Jean Bonnet Tavern is one of the most haunted places in the US.

Needless to say, we had an entertainingly tense meal. We kept looking for the ghosts. When we asked, the waitress said, "There's NO WAY I'd live here."

Nancy's note: I was not tense. I would have liked to see a ghost! And the peanut butter pie was great. By the way, we were all sweaty from trekking thru Bedford Village so we just parked the Winnie in the restaurant parking lot, showered and changed right there and went in to eat. Very convenient not having to return to campground first! Lovely shop there, too. And out back, chickens, a goat pen, an old gas pump at least 60 years old and great piles of coal.

We got back to the campground that night, walked the dogs, and got to sleep pretty quick. The next morning, we headed for Fort Ligonier.

Fort Ligonier was instrumental in the French and Indian War. We learned that war didn't actually start here, and is considered by many to be the true, First World War.

From Ligonier, we drove to and through Pittsburgh. But not on purpose. We were originally going to drive straight to Nancy's childhood home in Upper St. Clair, but, luckily, I got on the wrong road, and we wound up driving through the city. Even though I was very irritated and grumpy about it, I would have never seen the city.

We eventually drove through the city, through Mt. Lebanon, and to Nancy's old house.

From reading Nancy's stories, her house was nothing like I'd imagined. It really helped to see it, and I can see why she enjoyed growing up there. Good job, Mr. and Mrs. Wayman.

Nancy's note: The pine and spruce trees in the yard were our Christmas trees, planted afterwards by my dad. The stones in the chimney were from the foundations of his great uncle's farmhouse, once upon a time adjacent to Route 19. The woods I once roamed are gone now though, as is the farm down in the valley behind the house. Forty years of progress? I loved seeing Pennsylvania critters again: red squirrels, chipmunks, deer, rabbits, wild turkeys, beaver, gophers and groundhogs.

We looked for a parking lot to stay in that night, but even Nancy's former church couldn't let us. Seems the Upper St. Clair police are picky about that. If you live in Upper St. Clair, that's probably a good thing. We found a KOA in Washington Pennsylvania, only about 40 minutes from Upper St. Clair. On the way, we passed the school where Nancy's father went, Washington and Jefferson University. Beautiful school, and beautiful town. The people at the KOA were very nice and helpful. We decided to join KOA.

The next morning, we toured two historical homes in the city, then headed toward Fort Necessity and Falling Water in Mill Run Pennsylvania. By the time we got to Fort Necessity, the visitor center was closed. We looked around a bit, then went to find a campground. Luckily, Jellystone Campground of Mill Run was very close. That campground rivaled Fort Wilderness in Disney World. The place was huge, and very fun. I wish we had more time to stay there.

The next morning, we tried to get an appointment to tour Falling Water. I'll let Nancy fill you in on that attempt.

Nancy's note: I called three times on my cell phone since WiFi didn't work in the mountains much at all and finally got a human female on the line. When I said I wanted to reserve a tour (like the brochure said you had to) she said there were no tours at all available that day. I said, "Oh no we really wanted to see it. We're up from Florida and stayed over an extra day just for that!" She basically said, "tough luck, lady" (But not in those words). I could hear the shrug over the line. I got PO-ed after I hung up. Danny suggested we drive over there anyway. We did, paid at the entrance, waited a few minutes in the cafe until our number was called and got an escorted tour. Advice: don't bother to call. Just show up. The place is amazing. A don't miss it. Make sure you have several hours free, at least.

Falling Water was beautiful, and one of those "must see" place. According to the Smithsonian and it's one of 28 must see places, two of them are in the USA. One is the Grand Canyon, the other is Falling Water. I'd have to agree. I still need to see the Grand Canyon, though. Going to be tough to beat Yosemite.

After the tour, we went back to Fort Necessity, where we learned the road we'd been on, US 40, was America's first highway. The fort itself is much smaller than the visitor center. After that tour, we went to see The Mt. Washington Tavern that George Washington himself built.

Nancy's note: up in Pa people refer to "GW" all the time. I got a real kick out of it being George Washington, not George Bush. Nobody referred to George Bush, or Barak Obama, at all.

After the Tavern, we headed out of Pennsylvania, through Maryland, into West Virgina. I thought Pennsylvania mountain were cool, but West Virgina's mountains almost floored me. As we drove into the mountains, I started feeling light headed and dizzy. We found the KOA campground, part of a large hotel/convention/amphitheater/campground complex in Flatwoods. The next morning we walked up the large hill to the hotel to get breakfast. We told the waitress about how hard the hill was to climb. Her reply, "What hill?" made us realize our Florida flatland perspective.

Nancy's note: I don't know why they named the town Flatwoods. Nothing was flat. We saw herds of whitetail deer everywhere along the highways, feeding at dusk.

After breakfast, we headed farther south. As we climbed higher, about 1000 feet higher than Penn, I got really bad vertigo. More times than I'd like to remember, I thought the motor home was tipping over. Nancy convinced me it wasn't. We stopped and got me some Dramamine, I took a short nap and felt much better. I didn't feel sick, just not very stable. We drove to another KOA just south of Charlotte. Got up fairly early, for us at least, and headed home. By 8:30pm that night, we were home in Winter Park, Florida. THAT was a long drive.

Nancy's note: Danny stopped in Beckley to rest. High on a hill over the truck stop and convenience store was Tamarack, the largest craft center in Southwest West Virginia. I climbed the hill. I shopped. It is a craft fan's Heaven. Glass, pottery, furniture, books, clothes woodworked items, art, gourmet foods, etc. And all made in West Virginia. Food court is by the Homestead resort folks. Wonderful!

Things We Learned

• Every place we went, I had no problems finding a spot to park. The Winnebago View fit in most parking spots. I tried to be courteous, and find spots that wouldn't hinder other cars parking.
• I got very practiced at hooking up to shoreline. I can get it done in less than ten minutes. Luckily, I didn't have to do it in the rain. I'd probably only hook up electricity if that were the case.
• We don't need to bring as many shoes as we though, and a shoe rack in the closet just didn't work.
• Staying in campgrounds is fun. RV'r people are nice, friendly, and very helpful.
• The upper bunk sleeps one person very well, but is too cramped for both of us.
• The couch bed is a bit too soft. Eventually, we're going to retrofit the couch with firmer padding.
• The dinnette bed was more comfortable than the couch bed.
• I used Gas Cubby on my iPhone to determine MPG: Average was 16.2 for this trip.
• The iPhone, or similar device, is an indispensible tool for RV travel. Google Maps made making a route very easy.
• I need to get a bumper sticker that says, "I'm NOT in YOUR hurry!"
• Nancy's note: Never never toss a bag of bagels to anyone when a full coffee mug and a laptop and two iPhones are on the RV table.
• Winnebago is a little short of places to store clothes and shoes for longer trips.
• Plenty of pantry and fridge space and cooking was easy on the propane cooktop and microwave.
• We found we ate most breakfasts and suppers on board but bought most lunches.

Flagler Day Trip

Nancy, Chili, and I took a day trip to Flagler Beach. At first, we couldn't find a place to park. In Cocoa Beach, there's a public parking place behind Ron Jon's that has RV spots. That spot cost $10 for the day. Not to bad. But at Flagler, there are "No Truck or RV Parking" signs everywhere. We went to Beverly Beach Camptown to ask if there was any parking, and for $3 an hour we cold park there. With that price, we get:

1. Full electrical hook up
2. Water hook up
3. Sewer hook up

Full shoreline, and especially the sewer dump, make it worthwhile.

Compared to Cocoa Beach, it's a real deal. The price of Cocoa Beach has to include the toll fees, which make it more pricy than the $16.50 we paid at Beverly Beach.

This was Chili's turn for a beach trip. The salt water seems to help with Chili's allergies and itching. Abby and Ginny love the beach, but Chili is a pool dog. She'll jump and play in the pool all day if you let her, but the beach is just a wee bit ruff for her. That, and she doesn't seem to like the taste of sea water.

We were parked right up to the beach.

Nancy made a dinner of Chicken and Dumplings, and 1/2 inch diagonal cut green beans (my favorite kind!):

We waited for the Shuttle to blast off, but it was cancelled. No biggie at all. We had an excellent time.