Closing October-Back on the Road

November 1, 2020                                             October 2020-Fall Finally Arrives
Santee State Park                                                September: Finally the Heat Breaks
Santee, South Carolina

Mid October found me counting coins with my friend Mary.  I was at her house one day and saw a plate of change on the kitchen counter.  I said something about it and Mary told me I hadn’t seen the half of it.  Boy was that an understatement. 

She brought out numerous plastic bags and tins filled with change.   I’ve never seen so much change.  Must be years' worth.  I volunteered to help her roll it up.  She wasn’t so keen at first but once we got started, we spent a few hours a day for 3 or 4 days along with what she did when I wasn’t there and ended up rolling almost $900 in change.  What a windfall!  And soooo funny!!   I hope she’ll spend some of it on a plane ticket this winter to visit me in Florida.

We had such a good time, I was sorry when we had it all rolled up.  Who would have thought?  Certainly not Mary who really didn’t want to do it at first.  But look at her having fun.

And how about this mushroom in another friend’s yard.  She has several of them growing off the roots of an oak tree that was cut down years ago.  They are huge and come back every year and every year.  Diane digs them up in fear that they are poison and will hurt her dog.  Anyone know what it is?  And if it is eatable?  It sure is beautiful.

Walking the John Warner Parkway in Charlottesville took Mary and I by this house which wins the Halloween decorations in my opinion.  I meant to come back by and take pictures with my good camera since these were taken with my Motorola phone and are terrible but they are all I have so I hope you can appreciate this display at least a little.

Look closely above, there is a grave yard in the back left, ghosts, a witch climbing in a window, one on a bicycle.

The picture below shows the ghosts, a trio of pirate skeletons and a circle of witches around a cauldron.

Closer view of the skeletons.  How about the long gray hair??

These lanterns run up the driveway.  I wish I had seen it at night.  Perhaps my friend Mary will go out and take some pictures before they take all this down.

I was still doing puzzles.  Some of them are do overs.  Here are a couple I finished at the end of the month.  I’m too impatient to do anything more than 750 pieces. 

Restaurants opened back up in Charlottesville for eating outside but now are open for 50% capacity inside. 

Pam and I went back to Burton’s Grille  which has one of only two alcoholic beverages I will drink, the mudslide.   They also have great though a bit pricey food.

Good to the very last drop!

And FINALLY, it is time to get back on the road.  But, of course  not without incident.  My first day headed toward Congaree National Park, I stop for overnight in a Walmart in Roanoke Rapids N. C. as usual.  I’ve had a lot of work done on the RV including maintenance on the generator, appliances and propane system.  Things David always maintained and I have no clue about. 

When I left, I filled the fridge, turned it on and headed down the road for 3.5 hours.  At Walmart I go back to see what the fridge temperature is only to find that it has an F code which means the burner didn’t fire and there has been no cooling.  Everything is starting to melt including frozen raspberry fruit bars which are all over everything.   I’m tired from an entire morning of packing up and afternoon of driving.  I google what could be wrong.  Among other things, they say bad burner.  I’ve just had it and the board replaced.  I write to the wonderful (mostly guys) in my Winnebago Brave Group.  But it’s now nearly dark, I’m even more tired.   I just can’t deal with this now.

So I put Winnona in drive and go over to Carolina Crossroads where a night with full hookups normally costs $45.  I pull in.  Nobody is around.  I hook up in the dark and go to bed.

In the morning I go over to pay and ask about a second night so I can try to get this problem fixed.  I tell the guy taking money my story and ask about Passport America.  He says they only take it in January and February.  I think, Well my bad luck is holding when he says he’ll make an exception and charges me $33 each for two nights.  Great guy!!

The next day after some more checking I discover that my maintenance guys have left the main propane knob turned off.  I’ve never had it off I don’t think although David isn’t here to ask. I didn’t even know where it was before my investigations.   Things are good again.  That evening, I enjoy pink skies and a nearly full moon. 

Friday is a long driving day of nearly 300 miles during which I have to stop for gas.  Towing Ruby I am 57’ long so this is not a minor endeavor.  But the Pilot station is not very busy and things work out fine except that in the past 7 months they changed the rules on the Good Sam discount and you have to go inside to request it BEFORE you pump.  At least at this station it doesn’t work at the pump.  So I lose my 3 cent discount and pay $1.929/ gallon rather than $1.89. On an 75 gallon tank, it adds up.

I’m almost to my destination at Santee State Park when the yellow ‘Service Engine Soon’ light comes on.  This is the same as the check engine light in a car which had come on two days before in Ruby.  I easily took her up to my mechanic who said from reading the code that it was claiming catalytic converter problems.  He cleared the code, told me if it came back on again to let him know and if it started flashing to stop the car and call him.   Neither thing has happened in what is now the last 6 days.

David has a code reader for Ruby but I don’t know how to use it and don’t know if it will work on Winnona or if I can find where to connect it. 

For now I am parked at Santee State Park in a nice long site 19.  After arriving, I contacted my Brave group.  Thank goodness they don’t get tired of me.  They said it could just be the gas cap and not to worry unless the light starts flashing.  I did put Lucas Upper cylinder Lubricant and Injector Cleaner in the tank after I filled it.  Because David did. No idea if that’s related.   Any help or advise on how to use the code reader or this yellow Service Light would be very greatly appreciated.

After cleaning Winnona’s windshield and front of bugs, I asked one of my neighbors who is driving a similar Winnebago motorhome about the problem.  He also said gas cap and since it was dinner time on Friday night, offered to come over Saturday and “take a look”.   Since I’m going to Congaree on Saturday, I hope he’ll come on Sunday although it is scheduled to rain which probably puts an end to my hope to put the kayak in Lake Marion.  I leave on Monday.

I’m very near Marion Lake and can see it in the distance from my site.  I take some photos through the trees of the sunset and the moonrise on this day before the full moon.

Congaree National Park is the reason for my stop here.  It was a wonderful day but deserves a post of its own so I’ll be back after the election with that and some great Halloweening here at Santee State Park. 

PLEASE get out and vote.  There may not have been a more important election in our lifetimes.

October 2020-Fall Arrives Finally

October 16, 2020                                                               Most Recent Posts
Quarantined in Virginia                                      September:  Finally the Heat Breaks
                                                                                               August 2020

After last month’s way too long post, I promised to divide October into two so here is the first installment. 

I don’t think I talked in my last post about my absolutely horrible experience of taking Winnona to Truck Enterprises in Harrisonburg to have her cleaned up.  There is no where within 60 or 70 miles of me that does anything with RVs and no RV detailers further than that.  The closest Mobile Technician has to come from 70 miles away.  I thought this might change as the numbers of RVs on the road skyrocketed but it doesn’t seem to have.

I spent from March to August trying to find places to get some work done on her while I was stuck here.  The only place I could find that said they could check the frame to see if all the rust created by too many weeks over 9 winters on the ocean front had weakened it and if not, remediate the rust and wash and wax her.  So on August 11 I took her up and the Body Shop manager, Frank, told me two weeks.  Fine. 

My friend Mary went with me and drove me back.  So nice of her since I could have towed Ruby up.  But we stopped at Mrs. Rowe’s famous restaurant in Staunton which has been there for my entire life.  This is old fashioned southern cooking with fantastic rolls, cornbread, pies and well, here’s the menu.   All the pictures in this rant are from Mrs. Rowe’s because it was a pleasant experience.

Mrs. Rowe’s cookbook is quite popular around here.

There are no pictures of Winnona at Truck Enterprises since it is an experience I don’t want to re-visualize.  For sure, I will never return.   After two weeks I called about picking her up.  Frank said they needed a little more time.  After 3 weeks I called.  They needed a few more days.  After 4 weeks. . .you get the picture.  Finally on September 30, a full SEVEN weeks and 1 day Mary and I went up to get her.  I looked under the rig, Frank showed me two of the bins. The sides looked nice and clean.  I asked him if they had washed the roof, he assured me they had.  Everything seemed fine though it had taken over 7 weeks to do approximately 5 days of work.  I just wanted out of there so I paid the bill and put them in my rear view mirror.

Imagine my surprise when I looked out of the windows at home where I could see the roof and it hadn’t been touched.  Any IDIOT knows that if you wash and wax an RV you do the roof first so the dirt doesn’t run all over your clean sides.  I called Frank.  I was furious.  He had specifically told me they had done the roof.  He apologized for his worker and told me to “drop it by” and they’d fix it up.  SURE.  Drop it 60 miles one way?  I don’t think so.  This resulted in my insisting that I would get someone else to do the work and he would pay for it.  He said he’d call me back.  Not likely since in 7 weeks I think he called me once.  The next day I opened two other bins to find that the weather stripping had not been reattached after they had gotten rid of the rust and painted the bins.  I called again and Frank wasn’t answering.  At this point I’ll cut to the chase.  After talking with the office manager and being even more furious, she had the general manager call me and he agreed to my demands.  I will have to drive to Richmond to get that done and new awning fabric.  What a horrid experience with Truck Enterprises and Frank.

But my wonderful friend Mary drove me up and back twice so I got to take her to lunch at Mrs. Rowe’s and didn’t get a picture.  Still, I did get to have pie at Mrs. Rowe’s twice and the second time Mary and I brought pieces home which I shared with Pam.

It continued to be hot enough the first week of October that walking for 10000 steps had to be done as the run rose

Carrie, Colin and Celia came for a visit in early October.  They stopped in Charlottesville for lunch before heading out to the farm.

They’d been in the car for nearly 3 hours so it was time for a walk before going another half hour to the final destination.  The first picture here reminds me of Goldilocks in the too big bears chairs.

Celia sleeps in her Mama’s former bedroom and it has all the toys and games on the shelves.  Hard to tell who is more excited about playing with Carrie’s old duplos.  Clearly a great product to have lasted 40 years.

Colin is sitting on Carrie’s bed with stuffed animals.  I should have taken a picture of the bed from a distance as it is an “alcove” bed, built into the wall and has a trundle bed under it for friends to visit.  When they are a bit older, they can both sleep in this room but for now, there wouldn’t be any sleeping if Colin wasn’t in a separate room.

Many homes have the TV as the focal point of the living room.  In ours it was the piano and every day of their stay they were playing it.  First day, Carrie and Celia.  Should have pulled down those window shades

Then time to get outside and do a little farming with the wheel barrow.  And off for a walk, another thing we did each day.

Second day of their stay, they are playing a duet.  HA!

And we’re out for another walk.  I love this picture.  It was beautiful weather.  My bushog man was having trouble with his equipment.  The fields need mowing.

Now that we have no horses, or burros, or chickens or anything, we walk 1/2 mile to the neighbors to visit their horses.   Celia stands back but Colin was quite interested if Nana would hold him.

One of the nice things about growing up on the farm is that Carrie went to the same school from Kindergarten through graduation.  She met Niels in the 4th grade, and they have been friends ever since.  He lives in Richmond now and is a doctoral student at VCU but came over for a visit.

Colin trades the wheelbarrow for the little red wagon.

Siblings on the porch swing.  Until I got up to take this picture I was sitting beside Colin and pushing us all with my feet.

Nana chased Celia around the house to delighted shrieks.  Then she wanted to chase me so as you can see, with my hair flying, I was running fast. HA!  Notice that we both had our socks up over our pant legs since we had just come back from a walk through the fields and woods to “picnic rock”, a favorite spot of Carrie and her friends.  I left my camera behind – darn.

More sibling piano while dinner is being made.  What a great memory for me.  Every evening Carrie would practice while I made dinner.  I really missed that when she went to college.  Notice that both of them are playing with two hands just like they saw their mommy do.

Colin is in the kitchen pushing Pooh Bear in the Strawberry Shortcake stroller.  Celia and I are in the west porch stringing beads.

And too soon it’s the last day of their visit. Back to work for Carrie. Seems like the only things I took pictures of were the piano playing and the walks.  We played a lot of games, ate a lot of meals, but somehow no pictures of those.   Here Celia and I are playing together

Colin is having lunch in his mom’s wooden high chair that actually can be turned into a desk and chair very easily.  Great idea.  Don’t know why they don’t make them like that anymore. 

Last walk at the farm was a great one.  Leaves everywhere.

Ring Around the Rosie 

and then they all fall down.

Time to head back and for them to get on their way.  In today’s pictures, Carrie and I are both wearing coats of David’s that I kept.  They are way too big for us both but they keep us close to him and this place we all loved

But Colin is thinking not time to go.  He’s in his own dream world.

I persuade him to come along and catch up with Celia.  .

Celia and Carrie drop back and Carrie takes these pictures of Colin and me.  The last pictures of their visit. 

Always sad when they go.

Right after they left, a group of 4 flickers  flew into the recently mowed back yard as if to keep me company.  They were after something in the grass which I’ve never seen before.  Usually they are make a ring of holes all around the pecan and hickory trees hunting for bugs.  Look closely, there are 3 of them in the first picture but two have their heads in the ground.

Sorry the kids were not here to see them.

The next day, the flickers came back and there was activity of a different sort down by the pond.

I often wonder how they know which trees have the bugs they want. Perhaps they can hear them. 

Since I included pictures of my favorite outside sitting spots in my last post, I thought I’d include a couple of pictures of the farm house kitchen and the west porch off to the right behind the glass doors.  Celia and I were stringing beads in there in an earlier picture.

In the mornings, it is chilly enough for a wood fire but I haven’t had the chimneys cleaned, nor do I have any split firewood.  Too bad as I love love the warmth of wood heat.

The above picture is looking from the back of the woodstove toward the front of the house.  The one below is looking from in front of that same stove.  The two cupboards on the left and right are known as Hoosier Cabinets.  Most of the pictures in the article are not of original non painted oak wooden cabinets but I was shocked when I google the term to find how expensive they are to buy now.  There were ads for cabinets like ours for over $2000 and $3000.  The one on the right that you can barely see has a tin work surface and the one on the left has enamel.

Since my next blog will most likely not be posted until after the election, I’m going to show some political signs I’ve seen on my walks that made me smile.  These were all in people’s yards and posted before Mr. Trump got the corona virus.

Remember the Access Hollywood tape?

 

 

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I’ll be back on the road the last week of this month and headed for Congaree National park in South Carolina.  Until then, looking forward to your comments.