He called around and found a place that could replace the tire the next day. If they could get it done early enough, we could still get some driving in the next day. We were in a rush to get to Connecticut and a hurricane was bearing down on the East Coast so timing was crucial.

We had dinner that night at The Pufferbelly, which is located in an old fire house. The food was excellent and we had a great time! The next morning, we got up and drove the RV to the truck repair place. The manager and employees were super nice. We were going to buy a new set of tires before our big trip in January anyway so we decided to go ahead and have it done then, since another tire had problems as well. We had two blowouts a few years ago and I never, ever want to experience that terror again!

We took our tow vehicle for breakfast and, while we were eating, I thought I heard a guy yelling “TAXI!” outside. I looked up and he was standing outside the restaurant, looking up, apparently to a window above the restaurant. And, he was actually yelling, “LEXI!” He kept yelling for her and I guess she kept ignoring him. Perhaps young men who are trying to attract young ladies should wear shirts?

After breakfast, Richard called the repair place and learned the RV was all fixed! With had six new truck tires and we were $2,000 poorer…

We hit the road to see how far East we could get by dusk. I love driving through upstate New York and it was a beautiful afternoon. We don’t gamble but Richard was curious about what’s reported to be a really nice campground at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York. I called and they were available so we stopped there.

We unpacked and called the shuttle to pick us up to take us to the casino for dinner. They told us to wait at the end of our road for the shuttle that it would be there in 5 minutes. What they didn’t tell us is that we’d get eaten alive by mosquitoes. As they started buzzing, we started walking (quickly!) to the campground office in an attempt to stay ahead of the buzzing, hoping we’d meet up with the shuttle (we didn’t). I kept Mason busy by telling him to “call the bats.” I figured there must be plenty of them with all those mosquitoes buzzing at dusk. Mason started making kissing sounds with his mouth and saying, “Bat! Here bat!” Within a few minutes, sure enough, a bat swooped by, having his dinner. What a treat! We also saw several Canada Geese in V formations, flying low. So, despite the bug bites, it was a very unique stroll!

We arrived at the campground office and they once again called the shuttle. That time, they showed up very quickly. We walked into the casino and it was very impressive. Max could see all the slot machines in the distance and said, ‘I wish I was 18!”

Dinner was quite interesting! I’ll tell you all about that next time.

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I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

I took the boys inside while Richard finished pumping the gas. I ordered Mason’s “sammie” (that’s what he calls a flatbread, cheese sandwich) and Max’s usual, a “ham, salad and pickles sandwich” (salad means lettuce). I then ordered a toasted veggie for myself and the guy helping me got all bent out of shape when I told him which veggies I wanted before I told him which cheese I wanted. He made some crack about me getting ahead of myself. I was confused and said, “What?” At that moment, Richard walked up behind us.

With even more attitude, the Subway employee sighed and replied with something like, “You’re talking about something that’s down the line.

I realized he was giving me, the customer, lip so I raised my voice and said, “Look, I’m just trying to order lunch for my children. I don’t need attitude while I’m doing that.”

He didn’t say another word (and it’s a good thing he didn’t!). I looked back at Richard, who is the polar opposite of me when it comes to confrontation, and I’m pretty sure he was pretending he didn’t know me at that moment…until Mason turned around in my arms and said, “Hi, Daddy!” Heh…

We spent a few hours driving through Pennsylvania, which I love. The rolling hills and quaint farms are beautiful. If you venture onto the back roads, you’re likely to see one of these:

Whenever I see a sign like this I just wanna buy a quilt and eat some pickled beets!

Several miles down the highway, we hit some construction. Richard was driving very slowly and I was sitting in the passenger seat, formatting an author’s book, when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. A nice old lady was motioning to me. I opened the window and she said, “Your steps are down.” I thanked her profusely, got up, and turned them “off”, causing them to retract. They have previously done that automatically when we turn the engine on so that’s something we’ll need to add to the maintenance list. It was very nice of that woman to take the time to alert us because those steps are brand spanking new and it would be a shame to have to replace them yet again.

We had to replace them two weeks ago because, um, I was backing the RV out of the driveway and, er, the steps didn’t retract then either and, uh, I kinda hit the railroad ties and the steps bent badly and broke, getting wedged firmly into the wood. I should have taken a picture that day of Matt and Richard using a crowbar on those steps to try to straighten the metal. Richard was not terribly pleased with me on that day. That was even worse than the day I ran the entire side of the canopy along a huge tree. Heh… (See last picture HERE.)

When we finally arrived at the campground that night, the boys were getting restless. Right next to the campground office was a lake with a dock, a sand beach, and a slide in the water. Oh boy, were the boys thrilled! We quickly put on our shorts and sandals and headed for the water.

Max contemplating whether to keep going up…or to go back down.

Mason was admiring the sand castle built by a previous lake visitor.

They played there for about an hour before they decided they wanted to go to the park. We went back to the RV to put on dry clothes and then we walked to the park.

There was a sweet little girl there, probably around 6 or 7 years old, who approached Mason and said, “Would you like to play with me? I’m playing time portals and I need help getting back home. Right now, I’m stuck with the dinosaurs!”

Mason had NO idea what she was talking about but he was very pleased to play along. About 15 minutes later, she ran up to me and said, “There was a bee in his hair. I told him not to touch it but he did and he got stung.”

I looked at Mason who was just standing there holding his thumb. He sure didn’t look stung to me! I asked him if he got stung. He said yes and I inspected his thumb. Sure enough, there was a tiny hole there. He’d never been stung by a bee before so we walked back to the RV so we could treat it and keep an eye on him. I had a bad reaction to a bee sting when I was a little girl so I wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to have any trouble.

On the way back to the RV, he was still holding his thumb, but not crying at all. I thought that was really odd. I know those hurt like crazy! I also noticed he was cocking his head back, as if to rub the back of his head with the top of his shoulder. I said, “It’s okay, honey. The bee isn’t in your hair anymore.”

He replied matter-of-factly, “It stung me there, too.”

I looked and, sure enough, he had an area of swelling on the back of his head, just above his haircut line. I could see a tiny puncture hole there, too. So, Mason had two bee stings and didn’t shed one tear. Wow! He was more upset about not being able to stay and play with his incredibly creative time-traveling friend than he was about the stings!

Mason’s Bee Boo Boo

I’d called Richard to tell him what happened and he was ready when we arrived with the first aid kit. We washed the stings, looked for stingers (none there) and applied medicine. I bandaged his thumb but not his head. He then chilled on the couch, watching movies for the rest of the evening. And, again, no tears at all though he continued to rub his thumb for a couple of hours.

Tomorrow, we’re be driving through more of Ohio and into Indiana. I was born in Indiana but only lived there for three months before moving to Texas. We won’t be near any family as we’ll be passing through the wrong part of the state. We are looking forward to driving through miles and miles and miles of cornfields, which can put even the most caffeinated driver to sleep. Come on along!

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I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

The KOA we stayed at had a HUGE sandbox and Max and Mason spent two hours ensuring they’d leave with sand in every nook and cranny. Needless to say, they both took showers before bedtime. Good news is the sand didn’t back up the RV pipes.

We didn’t pass any restaurants in town that appealed to us so, for dinner, we ordered pizza to be delivered to the RV. That’s always nice. No dishes!

We all took a walk at dusk. The early afternoon air had been really humid and warm but the evening breeze was perfect. This afternoon, Frank sent pictures of my pumpkins back home. I’ve been lovingly tending to them for over a month and Frank volunteered to try to keep them alive during my absense. If you’re a fellow gardener and are curious, click HERE.

Tomorrow, we’re heading further west, into Ohio. Come on along!

~~~~~

I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

I also heard Max teaching Mason to say, “Oops! I farted!” (over and over again). That’s probably something older folks in RVers don’t have to worry about – big kids teaching little kids phrases to shock the relatives.

When we left Freeport, Maine this morning, it was still raining but the wind had died down. By the time we got on the freeway, it was SNOWING! UG!!! But, that didn’t last long. The longer we drove, the less snow we saw. By mid-afternoon, there was no snow on the grass and only a few pockets of ice on the rock formations along parts of the highway.

At one gas station today, Richard proved that he really is the master of getting the RV into tight places! It was an eensy, weensy place and he didn’t hit anything with the RV or the tow vehicle! We were impressed!

I spent the entire 12 hours on the road molding my backside to the passenger seat, answering email and formatting books. I actually got caught up today and I even finished tomorrow’s issue of WritersWeekly! Tomorrow, I get to drive while Richard works. However, I think we’ll only be on the road for four hours so I’m the lucky one. Heh… We’ll arrive at my sister’s house tomorrow and the boys are SO excited about playing with their cousin!

It’s 33 where we are right now so it’s still too cold for camping. So, we’re at a hotel in Pennsylvania tonight and it is REALLY NICE! We ordered room service so the boys could run around in the room (yes, it’s that big!) and get some exercise after being cramped in the RV for so long. Max and Mason got to talk to Frank and Grampa tonight via Skype. Before we left the house, I hung notes all over the house, reminding the adult children to get the mail, feed the cats, etc. While on Skype, I could see the wall behind Frank….the same wall where I’d hung two reminder notes for him. The wall was mysteriously empty! I mentioned that to him and he tried to convince me that I couldn’t see the entire wall on Skype. Yes, I sure could!!

Richard is already asleep. The boys just finished their ice cream and I’m going to give them a bath, brush their teeth, and get them into bed, too.

We’re hoping tomorrow is more like today (uneventful)…and not like yesterday (a nightmare!)!

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

He’s napping again this morning because of the Benadryl. The boys are still asleep, too. I just took a picture of them. The flash made Mason stir but he didn’t wake up. Good thing, too…cause I need to get some work done and the wifi here is the fastest we’ve found on this trip!

I asked Richard if he wanted to stay an extra day. We could just double up on our driving tomorrow. He said no. He wants to get on the road. I’m going to make him a spot on the bed so he can keep his feet up while we’re driving to help with the swelling. We have to go to the grocery store today so I need to plan a couple of meals for the next two days. I’ll do the shopping while the boys can stay in the RV with Daddy.

I can pack up everything and get road-ready inside the RV. One thing Richard must do is unhook the water, electricity and sewer. In all the years we’ve been RVing now, I’ve never learned how to do that. I realized this morning that if something happened and I had to do it, I’d be in a pickle. Of course, I’m sure I could convince a nice male fellow camper to assist me but I don’t want to bother other people.

More trip pictures are HERE.

Richard is not running a fever and there’s no vomiting or diarrhea. His face isn’t swollen. Neither is his tongue or throat (or I wouldn’t be typing this right now). I have asked him about 20 times if he wants me to call the doctor but he keeps saying no. Once we arrived at our new campground today (somewhere in Timbuktu, Pennsylvania), he took a cool shower and I made him a nice cool spot on the bed with a fan to his side. I also gave him my lap desk so he can work if he wants. No cable TV here so he can either work, surf the ‘Net…or take a nap. He’s doing the latter right now.

Trying to figure out what caused it. When you’re on the road, you’re exposed to all kinds of new stuff.

Here’s new stuff he’s been exposed to in the past 48 hours:

MONDAY:
1. New campground pool. Loads of chemicals and heaven knows what kind of bodily excretions. Eeewww!!!
2. Campground pizza. Yummy…but ingredients unknown.

TUESDAY:
1. More swimming – same pool
2. Brand new bottle of sunscreen (used by Max and Mason also – no reaction by them…not that that means anything)
3. Cherry red slush drink from campground cafe (probably contains more chemicals than water)
4. New green tea peach diet Snapple

WEDNESDAY at 4:00 a.m. is when he woke me up and asked me if I could see what was itching.

Not much itching now but the burning under his arms is bothering him. I looked and he’s scratched himself pretty good under there. I dug through all the cabinets, the first aid kit, and an extra backpack of toiletries we have on board and found a brand new tube of Hydrocortisone. He was happy to see that.

If I had a tow vehicle, I’d probably drag him to a clinic but he’s adamant. He doesn’t get freaked out about medical stuff like I do. I’d also go buy adult strength Benadryl. But, we’re stuck with what we have for now.

We do have a Scooter on the back of the RV that goes 50 mph. Richard had it ramped up so you can drive it on main roads if you need to. Problem is…I couldn’t get it off the doohickey on the back by myself if I tried though I’m sure I could get a fellow camper here to help. Even if I could, I’ve never driven the thing before.

If he gets worse, I know how to dial 9-1-1 and, yes, I already put the campground address and phone number near my phone just in case. But, I’m thinking it’s just a bad case of hives and if he were going to start having trouble breathing, that would have started hours ago. My imagination won’t give it a rest until he starts turning a corner, though. We’ve had several emergency room trips on the road in the past so one more wouldn’t be terribly out of the ordinary (sigh…).

Have to go cook dinner. Don’t worry. I’m only feeding him stuff he’s eaten many times before. I’m also making him drink tons of water to flush whatever the allergen is out of his system.

UPDATE: My sister called. She was at the campground with us last night. She has an itchy, red raised spot on her thigh, the size of a dime. She thinks it’s poison ivy. We’ll see. They both drank some of that peach tea, and they both swam in the pool (we all did) and Autumn drank some cherry slush drink today. Mason did, too, but he’s clean. Just checked him. All of us swam but Max, Mason and I are fine. Of course, different people have reactions to different things. More updates later, as spots develop…

ANOTHER UPDATE: It was a long shot but I walked down to the campground store with Max and Mason and they had individual packets of Benadryl for sale! I bought three packets, enough for the next 12 hours. Richard was very happy to hear that when we got back. I won’t let him take any for the next two hours, though, because the kids’ dose won’t wear off until 7:30.

Max and Mason are happy because I bought them each a small toy (since they’re stuck at the RV all night – no pool and no park). Max picked out a cap gun…but we didn’t buy any caps. I’m not interested in torturing myself and everyone around our RV, too. Mason picked out a toy car that is towing a toy RV. Um, I think he has four toy RVs now.

UPDATE: 7:10 p.m. – He’s up from his nap and the hives are definitely lighter than they were earlier. He thinks it’s because he’s not as hot as he was when we arrived this afternoon. That may be the case but they also haven’t spread further down his legs or to his face (seems to have stopped at his knees and upper neck for now). I’m about to give him his dose of Benadryl for grown-ups.

UPDATE: 11:45 p.m. – It is still spreading, down to Richard’s feet on the front of his legs, but not past the backs of his knees in the back. It’s spread more to his palms but not up to his face or even the upper part of the back of his neck. Considering it spread so quickly this morning to almost his entire body within just a few hours, the hives have really slowed down.

He has lots of broken blood vessels under his skin where he was scratching under his arms and also behind his knees and in the inside of his elbows, where the bends of the skin are. Those areas are pretty startling.

But, the “old hives” (the ones he got this morning and early this afternoon) are definitely lighter than the new hives so his body is fighting it pretty well.

Other than the itching/burning, he seems to feel just fine. I think it’s more of an inconvenience for him while it’s been an afternoon and evening full of fretting and hand-wringing for me.

Mason is potty trained now but he doesn’t yet have his sea legs. If he needs to potty while we’re cruising down the highway, one of us has to take him by both hands and lead him along in front of us so he doesn’t fall and get hurt if we hit a bump. He thinks this is great fun and he says, “Whoa! WHOA!!” the whole time (expect when he’s sitting on the potty – no, he doesn’t yet go standing up).

We’ve had to start reprimanding Max. Now that he’s a “big boy”,  he can get up and go to the bathroom all by himself. Problem is, this is such a novelty for him that he’s been getting up to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes or so. I’ve had to reprimand him more than once today. When the old “if we get into an accident, you’re going to DIE!” threat didn’t work, I had to resort to firmly telling him to “SIT DOWN and BUCKLE UP!”

Last night, Richard took the boys to the playground while I was working. I get a bit depressed when I have to work when everybody else is having fun so I turned off my computer, locked the RV, and walked over there, too.

Richard didn’t look like he was having much fun after all. Mason had crawled up on the playground contraption and Richard was standing halfway up the ladder, trying to catch him, or at least stop him from falling onto the slide. There were about a gazillion kids there and it was very noisy. A few feet away, a live band (only 2 people) was playing music. A few parents were sitting in lawn chairs. The later it got, the more rowdy and noisy the kids became.

One little girl came up to talk to me, and then another child did, and then another. You really can tell some children don’t get enough attention at home. You give them a bit of attention and they attach themselves to your hip and never stop talking. (Our children are so wary of strangers that they would never initiate a conversation with someone they don’t know.) I expressed interest in a tunnel one child was digging in the dirt and then the other children started digging tunnels, too. One man walked up and said, “Are they all yours?”

I replied, “None of them are.”

There was a two-year-old there and he and Mason were running around and around and around. It was hard to keep up with him and Richard got quite a workout. The lightning bugs came out, much to the delight of all the children.

It was getting dark and we told Max and Mason it was time to go in. Mason had missed his nap and, when he heard we had to leave all those other kids, he threw a FIT. Whoo-wee, it was NOT pretty. Downright embarrassing! I explained to the other parents that he’d missed his nap and they all shook their heads and smiled, probably silently thinking, “Yeah right, Lady!”

Mason got calmed down after I washed his face and got his jammies on. He settled down to watch a DVD with Max and then said he was hungry again. I gave him a snack and he didn’t fall asleep for another two hours! He slept in pretty late this morning so it’ll probably be another nap-less day today.

We’re still in Pennsylvania but we should be at our next campground, somewhere in Maryland, in about half an hour.

There were a few clouds this morning but it’s downright overcast and hazy now. I can smell rain in the air. That’s not so bad because the generator has stopped working, meaning no air conditioning in the back of the RV when we’re on the road. Uh oh. The rain just started…and the windshield wipers just broke AGAIN!

UPDATE: 4:30 p.m. – Well, we’re here. This place is pretty dumpy. Maybe it’s not the place. Maybe it’s just the clientele. The guy in front of us just squirted a ton of lighter fluid on a roaring fire with his young child less than a foot away from him. What a moron.

This place is packed. We didn’t get a water-side spot so we’re sandwiched in here between everybody else, in the middle aisle, meaning RVs, cars, bikes, and people are passing in front of and behind us. We don’t have a sewer hook-up so we’ll have to take lightning fast showers. We’d planned to stay here two days but we’re going to leave tomorrow and head for the next campground.

6:00 p.m. – Lighter Fluid Larry just walked up to the window to tell me our windshield wiper is broken. It’s literally hanging off the side of the RV. Uh, duh…

UPDATE: Next morning – We were right about this place being dumpy. A neighbor just told Richard that some kids were spray-painting cars here last night. We’ve never heard of that happening at a campground before. That means the campground has little to no security, and that there are parents here letting their kids run wild after dark. We’re outta here.

Our first experience with Horse Manure Hot Brakes was actually in our old van. We came down off the mountain in Bar Harbor one day without incident, or so we thought. A few miles later, we all smelled a terrible stink. I kept looking around for a ranch because that’s what it smelled like. The smell got worse and we finally pulled over and called a tow truck. We didn’t find out until the next day what had caused the problem. We rode the brakes so hard that day that we did major damage to the van.

Last year we drove down a steep mountain in the RV and, even though we tapped on the brakes all the way down, we tapped them enough to make them hot. Just when we got to the bottom, we recognized the horse manure hot brake smell. We pulled over at a gas station, and let them cool off to avoid any damage. We didn’t think to use the low gear that day because, well, we’d never used it before!

Today, we saw the lovely truck-on-the-incline sign next to another sign that said “Use Low Gear.” What low gear? Did they mean those low numbers, 1 and 2, on the gear shift? Well, okay, if the truckers do it, I guess we can, too. Richard coasted down that mountain for what seemed an eternity, only needing the brake here and there. Hence, no hot brake horse smell (and no need to pull over and delay our trip). Yeah, laugh all your want but at least now we know what to do!

We had to stop at a store to stock up on groceries today. We split up. Richard went for the foodstuffs and I went for other items. The boys begged for a new movie for their DVD player so I bought them two. When we met up with Richard later, he had two movies as well so now the boys have four. They’ll watch them over and over again and, honestly, you can’t put a price on quiet in an RV when you have to drive several hours at a time.

We are in Pennsylvania now. I love driving through Pennsylvania! Mountains, glorious pines, farms, and quaint homes nestled in the trees along blue rivers with gentle rapids – it’s just beautiful…one of my favorite drives. The GPS tried to route us through the national forest but we’ve been that way before and the mountain highway is pretty harsh on RVs. So, we went the long way, through Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, heading for Allentown. Now I can’t get that Billy Joel song out of my head now! Heh…maybe now it’ll be stuck in your head, too!

UPDATE: 5:15 p.m. – We’re parked next to another RV with three occupants, a couple and their grandson. Max and Mason are beyond thrilled that they have a new playmate…until dark at least. His name is Thomas. It must be time to give Mason a haircut because Thomas just asked Max how old his little sister is.

Right now, we’re in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. We weren’t supposed to be here until tomorrow, but the “free” wifi at the Artillery Ridge Campground in Gettysburg sucked. The signal went out about 2 hours after we arrived yesterday. So we decided to leave there early and come here today.

Artillery Ridge – the place has a cool-sounding name, so I thought it would be cool as well. Nope. Kinda dumpy. And the lousy wifi cinched the deal. I didn’t even bother to ask for our $40 we pre-paid for tonight, as I didn’t want to get into it with the owners.

We’d stayed at Drummer Boy Camping Resort three years back, the last time we were in Gettysburg, and that place was nice and had good wifi. Should have stuck with them.

One redeeming quality of Artillery Ridge Campground though, I have to admit, is that they have an awesome diorama of the Battle of Gettysburg inside a small Civil War museum.

It is probably 50 feet long and 20 feet wide. I took Max to see it this morning before we left. Anyone can come and see it, however people staying at the campground can see it for free.

They also had a picture of Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine, which any self-respecting Mainer knows turned the whole battle by defending Little Round Top and preventing the Confederates from flanking the Union line.

Chamberlain was born in Brewer, which is the city on the east side of the Penobscot River, right across from Bangor. After the war, he came back to Maine and served as Governor, and later as President of Bowdoin College.

But back to the “accident” I started this missive with.

So we were pulling out of our spot at the campground in Virginia on Tuesday. I was outside directing, Angie was driving. The part of the campground we were in was in the back, in the woods. The spots were pretty neat because they were kinda carved into the side of a hill lined with trees. But they were tight…probably a little too tight for a 32-foot RV.

Anyway, Angie takes the turn out of the spot a little too sharply (she has to because the there is a tree looming directly in front of her), and takes a nice chunk of bark off a tree with the end of our awning.

This is, of course, the new $400 awning that we had put on just before leaving on this trip.

I’m afraid to unroll it and see what the real damage is.

And while it is true, I was “directing” her, she is so good at telling me how to drive when I’m behind the wheel that I figured she didn’t really need my help.

Speaking of Percy, I asked Ali about him this morning. He’s just fine and hasn’t had any more back pain. However, Ali says she spent the night at her friend’s house and, upon returning home the next morning, was almost bowled over by Percy, who was jumping on her and licking her in his excitement to see her. She’s lucky he didn’t pee on her. He does that sometimes when we get home after a trip. He gets so excited he loses control of himself a bit. Happens to the best of us sometimes…

Ali also reported that they are under a frost advisory tonight! Yes, you read that right. It’s not even September yet and it’s going to freeze in Bangor, Maine. Well, usually about this time of the year my pumpkins are just now getting going with flowering and fruiting. It should be a few more weeks yet before we have a freeze. I’m wondering if maybe this is a sign of how our winter is going to be this year? Well, that’s okay. After all this traveling, I think we’ll be ready to hunker down for a few months, escaping to our land in Western Maine a few times before the snows set in.

We just crossed the state line into Pennsylvania. It’s not raining right now, but the sky is very dark and ominous. We should be at the campground within an hour or so. Once we get there, we’ll take the car to the local market and stock up on some essentials. We’re almost out of paper plates and bottled water (we really don’t trust the water quality at some campgrounds). We’ll also scope out the town for a good restaurant for dinner. Probably around that time, the rain will have caught up with us once again. I typed too soon. While I was editing what I wrote above, Richard had to turn on the windshield wipers.