On The Road Again

I thought I would start writing again.  Hopefully, a little more often.   We are having some internet issues in this remote location so trying different things at different times to stay connected.  Emails and texts are going well.  Phone calls - we think we have it figured out but then . . . .

The KOA wifi works fairly well so we'll give this a try.

It was very hard leaving Springfield.  We have made some very good friends there.  We realized that we had been there for more than 3 1/2 years.  We started full-timing 6 years ago.  More than 1/2 of this time has been spent there. 

We left late morning on Thursday, April 16.  We were hoping to get an earlier start but the weather didn't cooperate very well.  There was rain several days for the week before we left and usually on our days off.    We did get all of the maintenance work done on the camper and quite a bit cleaned out inside as well as storage.  We still have a lot of stuff.

We arrived in Adel, IA later that day without mishap.  On Friday, we delivered the marble table to my sister, Marcia and did a little shopping.  Also ate at the Machine Shed.  We tried to get some more of the Vidalia onion mustard relish but the orchard was sold out.  Boo Hoo!!  This is our favorite on brats.   Saturday night we spent celebrating with my sister Pam for her 40th wedding anniversary at the Chicago Speakeasy.  All of her kids and grandkids as well as my siblings attended the dinner.  We had a great time.  Sunday the family got together at Marcia's for a BBQ.  We celebrated Steve's birthday (Marcia's husband), Michelle's engagement and Matt finishing school and getting his plumber license.  The rain held off until later that afternoon. 

We stayed over an extra day.  Saturday night, the truck sent us a message stating it needed a fuel filter change.  So, we called Monday morning and got it changed.  Fueled up and got ready to head out on Tuesday. 

Tuesday night we stayed on the east side of Peoria at a campground in Carlock, Illinois.  Travel still going well.  The next night we were near Dayton, Ohio at the KOA in Brookville, Ohio.  KOA gave us travel vouchers to stay free at KOAs so we tried to route them on this trip.  Thursday night found us in Milton, WV at a KOA there.  To say the least we were getting nervous.  The trip is going real well up to this point.  We knew the next day we would be driving through the mountains.

I talked to my brother-in-law, John, about towing through these mountains.  He was a truck driver that drove this route several times.  It gave us some really good pointers.  It went well but it was very tiring.  I think the scariest time was the 7% downhill grade that seemed to go on for miles and miles.  There was also a sign along the highway that said the truck run away lane was closed.   We figured that would just be our luck.  But we did handle the braking going down hill well.  The brakes didn't burn up nor did the truck overheat so we figured we did well for our first trip.

We arrived at the Charlottesville KOA Friday afternoon.  We didn't have to back-in to the site.  They built 3 new sites and made them pull through also satellite works at this site.  There's trees all around us but an open sky right where we are parked.  Do you think we're spoiled before we even start working. 

The couple seem to be really nice.  We've talked some.  They're both 29 years old.  Ashley and Dane have 2 children:  Charlie - 2 yrs old and Edmond - 6 mos in May.  We're meeting with them on Tuesday to discuss working here.

So far so good and the scenery is gorgeous.  If this works, we'll start taking pictures and posting more.