On The Road Again in 2013: Hello from Winchester, VA

We have seen more rain on this summer's trip than we've seen in Arizona the past ten years and truthfully getting pretty tired of it.

We said good-bye to our friends, Craig and Cheryl, on Tuesday morning and left Elkhart as planned. We stopped for diesel at the Flying J in New Haven, IN and that was the beginning of a VERY long day and night. When we were ready to leave, the truck wouldn't start. Dick did everything he knew to do, some fellow truckers gave us their ideas and still 'nothing'. Of course, we were blocking one aisle at the fuel pump but what is one to do! Dick called a mobile Freightliner guy and he got there within about 30 minutes and worked on us for another hour and still it wouldn't start. Needless to say, we were all frustrated and wondering what we were going to do. Dick is very conscious about taking care of the mechanical end of this motorhome and had just had a tune up while we were in IN, so we were all stumped. As a last resort, the mobile guy even installed a new starter thinking that had to be the issue, but it wasn't. All of a sudden about 90 minutes later, Dick happened to look down and realized that he had accidentally hit the battery disconnect switch down on the side of his seat. Not only was Dick mad at himself, but the mobile guy was mad at himself too, both not even thinking about this being a possibility. Dick has only turned it off (manually) a couple of times before and that was when we sat so long in Phoenix last summer and he didn't want to wear out the battery. So after paying a pretty hefty bill to the mechanic, we were once again on our way.

By losing a couple of hours that morning we drove later into the evening than we usually do trying to make up some time. We started watching for a truck stop or WalMart to overnight at about 6:30 but all were full or there were no WalMarts, so it was after 7:00 when we stopped at a Flying J in Luray, OH. Once again we went way to the back, found a spot in the corner that allowed us to put the slides out over the grass. We had hoped not to unhook the car but in order to fit into that spot, we had to unhook and park the car in front of the rig. No problem. Of course, it had rained most of the afternoon so between the fiasco in the morning, the rain, and finally finding a place to park for the night, we retired early. At about 2 a.m. I awoke to someone pounding on the door. At first I thought I was hearing things, but it continued and then moved to various parts of the rig. Dick was up by then and opened a window to ask what he wanted but the guy couldn't hear us (several trucks around us must have been refrigerated trucks because they hadn't shut their engines off) so Dick could see that it was a Flying J employee so he opened the door. Because we were at the back of the lot, and it was a dead end back there, we had to move because the truckers couldn't turn around. There were absolutely NO signs saying 'no parking' because we pay close attention to that and never park where we're not supposed to......except this time I guess. Before going to bed we had seen several trucks turn around just fine but I guess by 2 a.m. and because it was raining, the truckers were frustrated that we were there. It is absolutely pouring rain and we have to decide whether to just move to an empty spot in between semis or move on down the road. We were awake, so we hooked up the car and went on down the road about 50 miles where we spotted a WalMart and stopped for a couple of hours of sleep. What a long day to say the least! Oh well, you have to have those once in a while to appreciate all the good ones.

Wednesday we had rain all day again until we got here to Winchester, VA where the sun was out for the balance of that afternoon. Then later during the night it rained again and rained off and on all day Thursday and parts of Friday. Fortunately no storms just a steady downpour of rain. Even though we've been in this part of the country before I always forget about how we go from OH, into W. VA, (3 times in and out of W. VA), PA and then finally into VA.

We are about 30 miles from Dick's niece and her family and we've spent some wonderful time with them since getting here. She has some health issues of her own and a 19 year old autistic son with many health issues besides autism. We are so proud of her and her wonderful husband and how they manage all of this because it isn't easy. Saturday they had some birthday plans for their 15 year old son, and even though they invited us to participate, we chose to let them have a 'family day' along with his friends.

Dick and I needed a 'chill day' so we were home all morning and after a quick lunch at Arbys we drove out of Winchester on Cedar Creek Grade. We have driven the Skyline Drive here in this part of the Shenandoah Valley previously so we just left out of Winchester and took this road to see where it would lead us. It was a beautiful drive past many huge VA brick homes (I think they have a full-time job mowing their HUGE lawns), stopped at a wonderful Farm Market where right now you could pick your own blackberries, raspberries or peaches. It is a wonderful place to bring children to play, and teach them a little about farms and picking fruit and there were many families there shopping, enjoying the wonderful patio (much like a Cracker Barrel with rockers) and picking fruit. Everything in the market was grown or made locally and they had fruit, vegetables, jams, jellies, bakery items, and much more. I love drives like this with no destination in mind and after awhile we found our way back to the campground after a lovely afternoon.

I did want to tell you that Mike had his surgery on Tuesday and he is at his daughter's in Flagstaff for a long recovery. He has 9 pins and a plate in the shattered heel and the doctor feels the broken heel needs only a boot (we're not sure about this but he's the expert) so this is going to be a long road to hoe as my dad would have said. Much therapy will be needed and the plan/hope is to return to Phoenix once he's released from the doctor in Flagstaff for this therapy. He texted his dad this afternoon and said the pain is 'never ending' so I think he realize's what he's going to be in for.

We will leave here on Monday morning and make our way towards North Carolina. We are off today to a family barbecue of smoked pork.......yum!