Cincinnati OH (09/15-16)

Up at 5:30, was suppose to be up at 5 but the alarm didn't go off.  No worries still on the road by 7.  We are heading to Cincinnati OH via the PA turn pike.  We have about 460 miles to go today.  It was pretty easy getting on the turn pike once we figured out how to get the ticket that you pay for when you leave the turn pike.  What a nice highway, at least it will be once they are done with the road construction.
We drive through miles of fog.  It was really cool driving in pretty thick fog.  You could watch the tail lights of the car in front of you disappear for a few minutes.

 The picture on the right is one set of tunnels we had to drive through.  Right through the mt instead of moving the mt.  They were cool and pretty long.




By lunch time we were out of the fog.  The other cool thing on the turn pike is the Service Centers instead of rest areas. These have at least 3 different  eating places, mostly fast food, plus they all have a Starbucks and a gas station.  I figured they have these because if you leave the turn pike you have to pay and then get a ticket to get back on and pay again when you get off again.  We left the turn pike just outside of W VA.  We were only in W VA for a short time then we were in OH.

I don't know how people manage to get on the interstate without having accidents.  Each entrance has a stop sign to enter and no lead lane.  So you come to a complete stop then when you see a opening it dart into it.  Pretty scary.  This picture is a little blurry but I think it show what I mean.

It was a pretty nice drive to OH, my only complaint was the road construction almost the whole 460 miles.  I think the whole US is under road construction.  Everywhere we have been has had a lot of road construction an then there is the rain!!!!!!!!  We arrived at our destination of  Winton Woods Park Campground.  This is a beautiful campground with a big lake, Very woodsy and close to downtown Cincinnati.  We will be exploring the area for the next few days.

The picture to the right are the cabins they have for rent.







It rained most of the the night and Tues has dawned cloudy, but no rain.  I am keeping by fingers crossed, the rest of the week is supposed to be sunny. We didn't do anything today, just grocery shopping an laundry.  Tomorrow we will drive into Cincinnati.

Rain again (09/13-14)

Saturday we wake to pouring rain, it rains all day long.  This gave us a great opportunity to clean things up.  It is time to put away summer close and take out the winter things, including our down comforter.  It has been in the 40's and 50's in the mornings. With the rain it never reached 70 degrees today.
It was a good day for Goulash, so I made a big pot and this time added green chili to it, gave it a nice bite.  This will be dinner for a few days.
Joe helped me with the vacuuming because I am having some lower back problems again.  I have been doing good since July so still feel fortunate.
Joe spent most of the day on the computer, we are having to make some changes to our Sept. and Oct plans.  I have posted them on the blog.  I still need to update the October schedule because he has made more changes.  I spent most of the day reading.
By 5 o'clock Joe is ready to go to Selinsgrove for the sprint car races, I decided not to go because it is cold and wet everywhere.  Went on their website to make sure the races were still on and then he was on his way. It is 70 miles one way through many small towns.  Joe called be about 7:30 and he had just got there.  They were racing stock cars and sprint cars.  He called me again around 9:30 to tell me he would be home in time for lunch  tomorrow.  There were a lot of cars and it was going to be a long night.  I was very glad I decided to stay home.  He called just before 11 pm to say there were only 3 more races, the biggest being the sprint car 44 lap feature.  He finally made it home a little after 2 am.  Again so happy I stayed home.


 Sunday we slept in until 8 am, that is late for us.  It was nice to wake to sunshine, but it was 46 degrees out side and 54 in the fifth wheel. So glad we have a good heater.  Not sure what we will do today, Joe does some research on the web and finds a street fair about 21 miles away.  What a beautiful drive, I am enchanted with PA, at least this part of it.
Here are a few of the great old houses I liked.

We get to New Bloomfield for the street fair just to find out it was yesterday.  Oh well, we turn around and head back to Carlisle.  We stop at a little diner to eat lunch,  I wish we had passed it by.  This was the worse meal I have had since we left Yuma.  Everything on my plate except the chicken was instant.  I do not like instant potatoes or gravy, I don't mind instant dressing but this was dry and salty, and the chicken was like shoe leather.  Joe had there Italian meatloaf and said it was very good.  At least one of us had a decent meal.  The rest of the day is spent reading and catching up on my blog.

Tomorrow is another long travel day, we are heading to Cincinnati OH.

Carlisle PA (09/11-12)

We try for an early start, his pretty good we were on the road by 7:30.  This really did us no good as we were now in NY rush hour traffic.  We had decided to take a different route back to PA on the recommendation of the operators of Croton Point Park.  We stayed on the 9 South.  This took us through all the little towns between Croton an NY.  The average speed was 5 to 10 miles an hour.  It was to late and no place big enough for us to turn around and go back the way we came.  So we made the best of it.  It was a great chance to see more of the suburbs of NY.  Again the old architecture  was worth seeing.  Many beautiful old churches made of stone.  We had to go through to tole boths this way.  The first one was the bridge over the Hudson and cost us $8.25.  It is a pretty big bridge with narrow lanes.  The second one was for just driving on the road and only $1.75.  I guess every tole is different, coming in on Monday the one we had to take across the river was $3.50, a $1.50 for the truck and a $1 for each axle on the fifth wheel.  We were happy to finally find the 6/17 out of NY.  Then we were on the 81 South to PA.
There was so much road construction in NY and through PA, I hope it is all behind us now, but I somehow doubt it.  As we are driving to Carlisle PA you can see fall changes coming.  The trees are starting to turn colors and the air is crisper.  I can't wait to see the full changes fall brings.  I haven't seen the change of the colors in over 30 years.
We finally arrived at the Western Village RV Park in Carlisle in time of dinner.  We took time to get set up.  Then we were going get groceries and got distracted by talking to our neighbors.  They were telling us about the park they stay at in Florida.  They had an extra brochure they gave us, we will be in Florida next Feb.  They also told us about the big RV show at Hershey Park.
We went to the grocery store to buy dinner and food for our stay here.  We ate and watched a movie and made it an early night.  The drive wasn't that long but it was stressful.



Western Village RV Park







Friday is a little cloudy and we had several choices of things to do and ended up going to the RV show.  We needed to pick up a few things and thought we might get them cheaper at the show.  It was fun looking at all the RV's, fifth wheels and motor homes.  We know with all the traveling we are doing we will probable need to get a new one somewhere down the line.  Of course wouldn't you know it, we found the perfect fifth wheel.  Same size as ours but with some great features like a double refrigerator freezer.  I we thought we could handle it we would of consider trading ours in but we knew that wasn't a good idea.  We looked at several motor homes including the big $400,000 ones.  Wow is all I can say, but you know I don't even want a house that fancy.  We did find one small motor home that was very well laid out, this would be an option for the future.

We went through the market place by Camping World and several other vendors and were able to get what we needed for a little cheaper than buying them at the store.

Back home with enough time for a short nap before going to Williams Grove Raceway to watch the sprint car races.  It was a very pretty drive over there, it took about 45 min to an hour to get there.  There are no street signs and we took one wrong turn so it wasn't so bad.  We ended in a parking lot on the back stretch with no access to the front stretch.  We like to sit in turn 4 and ended up sitting by turn 2.  Definitely a different vantage point, they really drove into turn 3 hard.  The races were great, very fast and very few yellow flags.  The only problem is the track takes to long to set up for the next race.  All the tracks we have been to have been good at starting one race after another with little in between.  It was a little cold and damp but all in all really enjoyable.  Williams Grove is a track Joe as always wanted to go to, now it is crossed off our bucket list.

Wonderful visit with Aunt Jean (09/9-10)

Today we finally got to go visit Aunt Jean.  She is Joe's aunt and a wonderful person.  We were really looking forward to this visit.  Joe's cousin, Andrea and husband Joe, also drove down from New Jersey.  We had a nice long visit and talked about old times.  I learned some things I didn't know Joe did as a child.  So that was great fun.

The drive to Aunt Jean's apt was beautiful.  We let the GPS lady guide us.  We picked what was suppose to be the shortest route, not sure it was, but it was fun going on all the back roads. We drove by so many quaint old southern homes.  I fell in love with the area, but I know the winters can be horrible here.  Might be nice to spend a couple of months of summer here, we will see!

We went to lunch at Pizza Roma, the food was wonderful.  I had Fettuccine Alfredo and Joe had their cheese ravioli.  We are eating good while in New York.  Aunt Jean leaves us at lunch to go to a computer class. She is amazing, at 90 years young she is still learning new things.  The rest of us went back to her apt. to visit some more and wait for her return.  It was a great day with wonderful family we will always treasure.

Wednesday we go back to Aunt Jeans.  I brought my computer so I could share some pictures with her.  She again took us to lunch at of all places West Point.  We would of ever thought we would end up touring some of West Point before lunch.  The buildings are magnificent to look at, all that old stone work.  After are little tour we go to the Hotel Thayer for lunch.  We sit where we can look out at the Hudson river.  What a peaceful place to enjoy lunch.  I just love all the history in this part of the country.

After lunch we went back to Aunt Jean's and went through all the old Marino family pictures we had.  This was another unforgettable day for us.
We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to get something for dinner and then back to Croton Point Park.

Corton Point Park on the Hudson

 Tomorrow is another travel day, under 300 miles so it won't be so bad, I hope.