27th Stop was HOME SWEET HOME!!!

When we left Winchester, VA it started to rain and it rained on and off (mostly on) until we got north of the NC state line. 

Ed was thinking about doing a short driving day and making an overnight stop at the Enfield/Rocky Mount KOA and we did stop but did not check in ... that's another story altogether.  He decided that we would head on home and that's what we did.  We had the RV in the driveway around 4:30pm on Monday, 10/15 and now it's time to unload and get ready for the FH RV Club trip to Myrtle Beach (11/1 - 11/8) and start making plans for January in Florida.

Anyway, we're home and thanks to all for keeping up with us ... I had over 1000 page views when I finally got logged on this morning and I know close to 700 of them was probably Ed but Judy, Jan, Pat, Betsy, Dave, Karen, Ellen, Elmer and my bro, Jimmy, to name a few, were regulars.  I hope I didn't bore you too much but if you timed it right and read my blog before going to bed, I'm sure I helped you fall asleep.

Until the next trip...Happy Trails!

NOW FOR THE YARD WORK!!!



my INVASIVE swamp sunflowers...some of
them were over 7' high!!!



26th Stop - Winchester, Virginia -- SOUTHBOUND!!!

When we left the Saratoga Springs area, it was raining and it was cold.  Ed said he wanted to pull out at 09:00 and I set my alarm and we pulled out of the driveway to the campground at 08:58.  Of course it helped that we picked up the carpets and hooked up the car the night before since we knew there was rain in the forecast.

It was a long driving day for Ed but at least the rain stopped just north of Oneonta and it was nice.  Ed wanted to get through Pennsylvania so we pulled into Candy Hill Campground in Winchester, VA around 16:00.  We opened the door and immediately took off our sweatshirts and opened the windows...it was warm outside...a good sign that we're getting closer to home.

If Jimmy and Sheri are reading this...thanks so much for including us in on all the festivities and we were very glad that we got to spend time with you two.  It doesn't happen very often and now that we're ALL retired maybe we can work something out.

25th Stop - Gansevoort, NY

We checked into Coldbrook RV Park & Family Campground today; it's located at the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, just minutes from Saratoga Springs and Lake George.

We met Jimmy & Sheri and Greg & Stephanie in downtown Saratoga Springs for dinner and the downtown strip is REALLY nice.  Lots of restaurants and shops and I hope we have time to go back during the day to check it out.

Thursday night was the rehearsal at Longfellow's where the wedding and reception for Stephanie (my niece) and Greg will be held on Friday.  Afterwards, the rehearsal dinner was held at Lillian's in downtown Saratoga Springs...NICE! 

Jan M kept asking for a picture of me and my evil twin so here it is...it wasn't easy to get!



My brother giving his youngest daughter, Stephanie, "away"

 The wedding on Friday evening was absolutely GREAT and the Bride and Groom looked stunning (yes, even he looked stunning) and everyone had fun at the reception afterwards to celebrate the marriage.  We pooped out a little after 9pm and I can just imagine how Sheri, my sister-in-law, felt after everything (there was a breakfast at Longfellow's the next morning!) was all over with. 

Saturday morning we woke up early to get to the breakfast and say our good-byes and when we went out there was frost on the pumpkin and the car windows were iced up.  In other words...it was DAMN cold!  After the breakfast we headed to downtown Saratoga Springs to see it in the daylight and did a little walking around.  There's a good chance of rain tonight so we're picking up the carpets outside and Ed's hooking up the car tonight. 

We're heading SOUTH when we leave here and even the highs in the 60's sound good right now.

24th Stop - Verona, NY

Ed had called The Villages at Turning Stone RV Park in Verona to see if we could check in a day early and they had one back-in site left and we grabbed it.  We didn't realize it but it was Columbus Day weekend so the park was filled.  Sunday we were able to move over to the pull-thru site that we originally had reserved and when we stepped outside the RV on Monday, the park was emptying out. 

When we arrived a little before 3pm and squeezed into the site, we called my twin bro, Jimmy, to let him and Sheri know we had arrived.  We were able to meet up with them for the days we were in Verona. 

While we were in Verona, Jan M urged Ed to drive to Lake Ontario and touch the fifth Great Lake since he's already dipped his hand in Lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron and Erie.  So we got up early Monday morning and drove to Oswego and he not only dipped his hand in but his feet got wet, too (not intentionally).  Dave C suggested a place to go to pick up some fresh apples up in that neck of the woods but we had to head back to make sure we didn't miss lunner (late lunch/early dinner) with the family.

Monday we got to see Erica (Jim's & Sheri's daughter) and her husband, Bill, and I wanted to get a picture of the four of them but my brother is VERY camera shy; hence, no group picture of Erica and Bill with Sheri and Jim...he's such a party-pooper. 

23rd Stop - Westfield, NY

Eastward bound!

The Thor Diesel Club Rally ended on Friday and we both went to the continental breakfast and said good-bye to the friends we met there.  Friday morning the Thor guys came and finished up the work on our coach and we pulled out of the Elkhart County Fairgrounds and headed for the Ohio Turnpike.

Along the way was when we realized the foliage had really started changing and the colors were awesome even though it was overcast.  Somewhere before Cleveland, we hit the rain and it was still raining when we crossed the NY state line and checked into the KOA Westfield Lake Erie Kampground a little after 5pm.  The KOA campground is right across the street from Lake Erie.

We found that this weekend the campgrounds are booked because MOST of the campgrounds close down mid-October so they're having early Halloween parties and the fall foliage is attracting the last campers.

  
It rained all night but Saturday ended up becoming a nice autumn day.  We drove into the small town of Westfield on Lake Erie (made sure we didn't blink or we would have missed it) and it was cold and windy but Ed got to touch the lake bringing the count up to four out of five Great Lakes he touched on this trip. 

We headed back to the KOA and brought the slides in, hooked up the car and jumped right back on the thruway making the stop an easy off/easy on for the night. 

22nd Stop - Goshen, Indiana

We said good-bye to the people that we met at the Elkhart Campground at the Mandalay Travel Club rally and pulled out this morning for the short ride.  When I say short, Ed didn't even bother hooking up the car; I just followed behind him for the ride.

We're now staying at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds and there's a sea of Mandalay coaches and a few others made by Thor. 

The fairgrounds are really nice and occasionally we hear clop-clop-clop as the horse-drawn Amish buggies go up and down the street. 

On Sunday, all the coaches that were at the Mandalay Rally in Elkhart arrived and filled in some more sites here at the Fairgrounds for the opening day that included a social hour, chili cook-off competition (no...Ed didn't compete and everyone who knows ME understands why I didn't), a pot luck dinner where the food ran out pretty quick considering there's almost 200 people here at this rally.  After dinner, a blue grass band played.

Monday started off with a continental breakfast; in addition to the full hook-up campsite, four days of breakfasts and dinners are included along with the beer, wine, munchies for the social hour.  The days are filled with seminars on (to name a few):  RV electrical safety, Onan generator maintenance, Freightliner chassis, Blue Ox Tow Bars & Brake Systems, Tire Pressure Monitoring, Furnace & Water Heater Maintenance and a few I was interested in...shorten/weave t-shirts, digital camera.  The seminars are put on by the vendors who are here for the week in the big building where the social hours are held and Thor brought in 5 coaches to put on display.

The thing that Ed likes (besides the free wine and beer) is the fact that you can get a lot of work done while we're here.  Thor workers are here going around fixing problems on coaches and it doesn't matter if they're brand new and under warranty or not.  We fall under the NOT (under warranty) category so we have to pay for the parts and they never charged for the labor;  very convenient. 

Tuesday was Ed's birthday and it was announced at dinner (not sure how the speaker found out about it) and the crowd sang happy birthday to him.  I treated him to dinner (ok...so it was free but I gave him my extra piece of salisbury steak!!!).

Tonight there is a variety show after dinner and tomorrow there's a doo-wop dance since the theme of this rally is "Strolling Back in Time".  Friday, hopefully we'll have all the work done that Ed asked for, we'll be heading east towards NY.

21st Stop - Elkhart, Indiana

Before we left Ionia this morning, we got a group shot of "the girls" ... Mandy, Molly and Lily.


We arrived at Elkhart Campground in Elkhart, Indiana today and we ran into quite a bit of rain along the way.  When we were checking in it was raining AND hailing and we got drenched! 

Ed and I will be here at this campground for a week and then heading just down the road to the Elkhart County Fairgrounds in Goshen for the Thor Rally.  

Sunday was our last day spent with Carol, Gary and Lily before they headed back to Arizona.  It was cold and we all layered up and packed the dogs in the car and headed to downtown Elkhart to check out the Riverwalk and the city's first-ever fall flower "Carpet of Mums".    We just walked up the ramp to a "viewing platform" overlooking 7,000 pots of jewel-toned mums when a young man unloaded a camera from a channel 2-ABC car called out to us asking if he could talk to us.  We told him we weren't from the area and he said that was fine and started asking questions.  Next thing I know, Carol, Gary and Ed had volunteered me to answer them and the guy was pinning a microphone to my jacket and pointed the camera and asked me my name and started asking questions.  After it was all over they all made fun of me and we went on our walk along the river and then took a ride on Beardsley to look at the big houses that the wealthy had built in Elkhart in 1910 and then to the Wellfield Botanical Gardens.  The Gardens had been under construction the last time Ed and I had stopped there last year and this year we (the dogs, too)
were able to walk around the lake and the gardens were beautiful with a lot of flowers still in bloom. That evening, my 6 seconds of fame (my name was spelled wrong, as usual) aired on TV during the local news:  http://www.abc57.com/news/local/Celebration-in-downtown-Elkhart-170905571.html!

Monday we waved good bye to Carol, Gary and Lily as they drove out of the campground.  In the afternoon we drove to South Bend to go to the Studebaker Museum...LOTS of nice looking cars!  Notre Dame Campus was close by so we headed there and were able to walk the dogs around the campus with us.  Beautiful buildings/architecture!!!  I don't understand though...the students looked sooooo young!!! 

Tuesday, Ed and I went to Shipshewana to the BIG flea market there.  We passed a lot of Amish horse and buggys along the way and Molly and Mandy were kept very busy watching for them. 

We "crashed" the Mandalay Travel Club Rally that started here at this campground on Thursday and joined in on the happy hours and Friday's breakfast and dinner.  These rigs will be heading over to the Thor Diesel Club rally at the fairgrounds in Goshen on Sunday (we're leaving Saturday to check in).