The First Week

Here it goes, my first blog post! A little late, but better than never!

We have been on the road for 2 weeks and 4 days already, and a lot has happened in that time, so here's a 'quick' run down of the first week.. (I'll do better at keeping this updated so that they won't be such long posts going forward!)

Prelude:
I had already learned a few key lessons, before ever hitting the official DAY ONE of the road trip....

1. Stabilizer bars are just that, they stabilize. They do NOT support weight. I learned this the hard way before learning the proper way to level my camper, and therefore had crushed 2 of them while spending a month at my mom's house in Connecticut. But that's what I was there for, to iron out my mistakes before I hit the open road! (And to see my adorable newborn nephew 😍)
2. Always get your camper inspected before hastily buying it, so that you don't have to spend $1200 on a new suspension the day before you're set to leave to travel the country.
3. Sometimes cabinets open while you're towing. Sometimes those cabinets contain Moxie, and cans of soda can sometimes explode when they fall, spraying every inch possible..
4. When you take off your sway bars, you can make extremely tight turns. If your kayak is sticking out the back end of your truck, it will puncture a hole in your camper when you make that tight turn 😣
(2-4 all happened on the 12th)

We left from Hatfield, PA on July 13th and headed to Happy Acres Resort in Waterville, PA. I foolishly had checked the weather for Hatfield that morning, no where else, and saw a nice clear day for our first day of driving! Well, we got caught in a downpour on the highway, the kind of white rain that you can't see through. If the truck in front of me had driven off the road, I would've followed right along! But we made it through and safely to our site. When we arrived I immediately met with the unofficial welcoming committee- a young boy, maybe 8-10 years old, who lived with his family in one of the neighboring campers. I don't like kids. Especially after a long day of driving, a hectic long day at that - it was my first day on the road! From the moment I got there it was as if I had gained a shadow. No matter what I said he would not leave me alone. In all of his senseless bantering he did let me know that if was bit by a snake, even if it was poisonous, I could not kill it or I would be fined and maybe put in jail. So at least I would've known my punishment had I crossed a snake that I wanted to kill..

July 14th started off as a pretty dreary, rainy day. I had planned on going to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, but instead decided to take a scenic drive. The rain cleared up along the way and it turned out to be a really nice, sunny day! The road wasn't quite my type of "scenic" though - I had thought it would be all mountaintop views, and while it was all on a mountain, there weren't too many good overlooks. So when I saw a sign that said "Overlook → ", I eagerly turned down the dirt road. Well I drove for awhile and when it kept declining I decided I'd better turn around (I only had 34 miles left in gas, and was about 20 miles from the next town). There wasn't really anywhere to turn around, so I backed off the road into the grass...not thinking about all the rain we had just gotten! Yep - I got stuck. In the next 2 hours I tried: 4WD, jacking up my truck with my floor jack to put boards under the tires, carrying gravel in my shirt to lay in the mud, wondering why my front tires weren't moving in FOUR wheel drive, trying to get cell service to call/text my sister, more carrying gravel..I even tried shoveling with a hammer at one point! (Which I realized later on that I left in the mud 😒) Finally, somehow, I got out, with more mud on my body than on my truck. It wasn't until I got enough cell service to call my sister that she reminded me that I had to lock my hubs in order for 4WD to work on my truck. Oh yeah. 2 hours of ridiculousness which could've been a 2 minute fix! Not my brightest moment, but I still felt very proud that I got myself out and never gave up! And it wasn't a boring day after all!

July 15th we packed up and drove to High Pines RV Park in Kane, PA.

July 16th was a day to explore the Alleghany National Forest area. I started off by going to the Kinzua Bridge State Park, which is a set of old railroad tracks that fell over in a tornado. That doesn't really sound that interesting, nor does it make much sense - how can railroad tracks fall over? And why would I want to go look at them? Well these tracks went over the Kinzua gorge, and were the highest tracks in the world when they were built! At the highest point, they're as tall as the Statue of Liberty! The half that is still standing has been made into a walkway, so that you can walk out to the middle of the gorge and see the amazing view. There's even a glass section on the floor at the very end, but I didn't have the guts to walk on it. It's a strange feeling knowing that you are completely safe, yet being so utterly terrified that you aren't. I kept feeling the bridge move underneath me, but of course it wasn't moving. Just my mind playing tricks on me!

From there I headed to the Alleghany Reservoir to explore some overlooks. And there were a ton of them! Every spot that I found was even more amazing than the last, with endless trails and views of the reservoir from the mountains. I drove along the reservoir up to New York, looking for a place to put my kayak in that wasn't as crowded as the rest of the park. With no luck I circled back down and paid $6 for a day pass. Even though I was only in the water about 10 minutes before the ranger caught me without a life jacket, it was worth it! Paddling through the water surrounded by towering, wooded mountains was amazing. I wish I had known how beautiful the area was - I would've made more time to explore!

On the 17th we drove to Uncle John's Elk Creek Campground in Lake City, PA. After getting set up I drove back to Erie which we had passed earlier, and drove out onto Presque Isle Peninsula. I think the driving had finally gotten to me, combined with a little sunburn I got at the reservoir, I just wasn't feeling a beach scene. Lake Erie was really pretty though. Hard to believe it was a lake, I'm so used to being able to see another side! Seemed more like an ocean - it even had waves!

July 18th I drove into Cleveland, OH to be a typical tourist. The most memorable stop was Heinen's grocery store. It used to be a bank, with the vault still in the meat department, though even for a bank this building was immaculate. It looked like something you would find in a castle! I went up to the second floor to get a better view from the balcony rather than disrupt lunchtime traffic while I looked up at the ceiling! It's pretty amazing how they turned such an incredible building into a grocery store instead of a museum. If you're ever in Cleveland make sure you check it out!

July 19th we officially left Pennsylvania and drove into Ohio. I don't know where exactly we were, just a long dirt road that had a bunch of free campsites on it. It was our first night camping totally off the grid with no electricity or water hook ups, and of course it became the hottest days that we had so far! With no AC, and no outlets to plug any fans in, there really wasn't much I could do to cool down the camper.

On the 20th I drove to find a town to get ice cream for Cooper and I (Cookies and Cream for me, and vanilla for him 😋) The town was tiny and even had it's own Mayor's office! Luckily I also found a hardware store! I bought a battery powered fan and a tarp to hopefully cool down the camper, but it was pretty useless. So with nothing else to do, and no one around, I stripped down and soaked up the sun with a book, while Coop Dog tried to stay cool under the camper. I probably could've filled a bucket with how much I sweat that day. It was gross. Later that day the sky started to get a little dark, so I moved to a campsite down the road that was a little more accessible. The site that we had been at was a gravel loop with a steep entrance, probably shouldn't have parked there to begin with but I was determined and made it work!

And that was week 1! I'll post a recap for week 2 soon!