Day 26 - Medina, New York

We traveled through the tip of Pennsylvania today and into New York.   We are in Medina, New York, about 45 minutes from Buffalo and Niagara Falls.   The forests alongside the freeway and sometimes toll roads are amazing.  Huge dense forests.  And as for toll roads, we did finally get our EZ Pass and get it activated.  It was $25 to purchase it.  It makes the tolls half price but mostly allows us to just drive through the booths without stopping and dealing with money.  It is a magnetic sensor attached to our windshield and the credit card is charged the toll.

Now with Pennsylvania and New York on our map, it is easy to see that the next time we travel the USA we will be going across much further North.  Oregon, Washington State (home of the first Starbucks among other stuff), Montana (where a tree was planted and a plaque placed for Martha's dad that we have to visit), Minnesota to see the Will's family, visit my Aunt again, upper Michigan and across Canada.  

We are getting good at setting up, usually 20 minutes to turn a trailer into a home.  

There are two pools, unfortunately no hot tub though.  The spaces between trailers are huge and we have a nice fire pit.  Given the size fire I like the Chevy truck belonging to our neighbor may be in danger.

The Park is called Wildwood, there are lots of nice trees surrounding us.  I am not sure where the name came from but I will not wonder through the woods at night just in case there is a reason for the name.   We are in witch country you know.  In a week we will be in Salem.  When the sun sets it is close to bedtime anyway.  

Martha taking a walk with me.

Just a second for a selfie.   Tomorrow we will spend the day at Niagara Falls.  By the way, thanks for following us, we just passed 2,300 views of our blog.  

Day 25 - Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame

Big day for me.  I have been wanting to go to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame for quite some time.   So today we made the drive into Cleveland.  That's the Cleveland skyline below.

Got to the Hall around 11 and we were there for two hours.  It would have been easy to spend the whole day there listening to music and watching the many display tv screens of interviews.  Lots of clothing and pictures.  Hand written lyrics and guitars.  It's a very cool place.  We had a nice time.

This is the view outside the hall from the fourth floor snack bar, it is right on the lake.

Original items like the Fab 4's, well, Ringo's drum set used on the Ed Sullivan Show.

A statue of a very famous rock and roll reporter made for some interesting conversation.

I love this song.  

ZZ Tops Auto on display.

We got to tour through Johnny Cash's tour bus.

After leaving the Hall we went to check out the house where I lived in 1956.

Then a few miles away to see the house where I lived in 1964 just before we moved to California.

And who could resist this huge Starbucks.

We stopped by Camping World to pick up a few things and Martha ran into Mr. Good Sam.

On the way home we saw a really cool graveyard.  

Tomorrow we leave Round Up Lake for Medina, New York.  It is just outside Buffalo.

Day 24 - Round Up Lake

Stayed at the RV today.  Caught up on some chores, Martha did laundry.  We added three more states, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.  

We have a nice tranquil spot.

Very peaceful little lake.   60 years ago that would have been my brother Ricky and me out in the rowboat.  

Tomorrow we are going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and then cruising by two of my former residences.   One from 1955, the other from our second time living in Cleveland, 1964.  Just prior to moving to Corona, California.   I am anxious to see if they have changed much.  

Day 23 - Again

Yesterday....  On Friday from Chicago we arranged for a Monday Afternoon repair of our three warranty issues with our trailer.   The RV place was very accommodating.   Our slide out issue turned out to be pretty minor.  The loud groaning wasn't the motor but the rubber surrounding the slide out.  It was a lubricant issue and they told us how to fix it, so Martha and I took care of that.   The door lock which was disintegrating (two locks, one had fallen out on the road and the other was nearly unusable) had to be replaced completely.   They took measurements on it and ordered a new one, it would arrive Tuesday early.   The refrigerator quit working and that required a refrigeration person to come out and look at it.  He couldn't arrive until Tuesday early afternoon.   So with the promise to have everything done by 3pm on Tuesday we got a motel room and decided to keep our RV Park reservation for Tuesday night and make the five hour trip to Cleveland after picking up the trailer.  That would get us to the park by 8 and still daylight.   So we now have until three on Tuesday to ourselves.

This picture is from Monday on the way to the RV repair place in Elkhart.  I wanted to get a better picture of this castle appearing factory, but noticed the height of the underpass.  Our trailer is 12'6" and we have to be aware of height issues.  I was warned to be especially careful when we get to Pennsylvania.

So with our Tuesday morning free time we took the 20 mile drive to Notre Dame.   WOW! What a campus that is!   Beautiful, beautiful.   We checked out of our motel at 8am. (The trailer being in the shop)  and had bagels and coffee (not Starbucks) on the Notre Dame campus.   Then spent a couple hours walking the grounds.  What a place to go to school.

The Cathedral was unbelievable.....  This picture does not do it justice at all.

Every building is just incredible.  

The grounds immaculate.   

The stadium was closed off.   The white square in the center is actually the field, the reflecting sun caused the loss of green on the field.   This is the chute the players run down to enter the stadium.

Today was actually the first day of class and at the top of the hour the grounds filled with students.

After a few hours at Notre Dame, we headed into Michigan.  We took an hours drive through the countryside and a few small towns.

After leaving Michigan we returned to Indiana.  Goshen, Indiana near Elkhart.  We had arranged for a tour of the Keystone factory.   Our trailer was actually built right here before its journey to Arizona where we bought it.  Amazing place, the hour and a half tour was nearly private, only one other couple, and amazing.   Keystone Montana and Keystone Cougar are the number one selling fifth wheels in America.   They are really well built.   Montana is and upgrade from our Cougar.  Getting to see the newest ideas for 2017 and a unit that is the first one of a new model being built was cool.   Great new ideas put into action.  Makes a person wish that they had waited to buy.

This location puts out 17 completed units a day.

 

We got back to Elkhart late, at 4pm to discover that they had received the wrong door unit.  So that issue was not taken care of and when the refrigeration guy showed up, the trailer had not been plugged in to electricity so he said he could not do anything unless the trailer had been plugged in for 12 hours prior.   So that issue was not taken care of.  Why he didn't tell the RV people to be sure it was plugged in to power prior to his arrival I can not guess.  So they wanted to keep it another day.   We decided we would deal with those issues another time, hopefully in Buffalo, and head out to Cleveland anyway.   It was now 4:30 and that meant arriving at the next park in the dark.  If you have ever tried to find a camp location in the dark, well, it was a hassle for sure.  We were able to have the RV place do a couple of other things to the trailer while they had it.  We added three roof vent covers that will allow us to keep them open during transit and bad weather.   Also the rough roads jerked the truck around quite a bit and I knew that couldn't be good for the transmission.   So we added a hitch gismo that absorbs the shock and makes a smoother ride and much easier on the truck.   It was expensive, but worth it.  What a big difference it made as we discovered during our trip to Cleveland.  So we did accomplish a few things with our RV repair, just not all things.  Today, now Wednesday, we are hanging out at our Cleveland park, Round Up Lake.   My family, all seven of us,  lived in a cabin here for six months while a home parents had bought was being completed.   That was 60 years ago.   I was seven years old.    Among just exploring the grounds we are going to call a place in Buffalo to arrange for the additional repairs next Monday.   Hopefully that will get accomplished.  I will be giving them exact door lock specs, and informing them that the unit needs to be plugged in prior to the arrival of a refrigeration guy.  Live and learn.  These issues are not upsetting as they were expected.  We have an ice chest and we don't keep much food in the trailer anyway so no big deal.  It will eventually get done, hopefully before the lock falls apart completely.  

Day 23 - Notre Dame / Michigan / Goshen

What a day!!!   We went to Notre Dame.  We have tons of cool photos.   We drove into Michigan.   We toured the Keystone plant where our RV was built.  It has been adventurous to say the least.   It is 10:30 now and we just got to the park.   We didn't get our RV out of the shop until nearly 5 but decided to make the five hour trek to Cleveland anyway.  Tomorrow I will expand on today, but right now, I have to crash.  The internet is too slow to download pics so I'll put some up tomorrow.  I hate driving in the dark, especially country roads and pulling a trailer.  Nite All!

Day 22 - Elkhart, Indiana

We took the back roads to Elkhart going through all of the small towns and farms.  People here sure have some beautiful places.  We reached our RV repair place and they are being very considerate to address all of our issues as we are traveling.  Unfortunately some parts had to be ordered which means we will be here overnight and possibly tomorrow night as the refrigerator quit working and the company that handles that will not be able to show up here until tomorrow afternoon.   So we are in a motel room for tonight and most likely tomorrow night as well.   Since we are sort of stuck here we signed up for a tour tomorrow of the Keystone factory that builds RV's.  Nearly all the RV's in the U.S. are made here in Elkhart and its neighbor Goshen, Indiana.   I am really looking forward to the tour.  So we hit Applebee's for a lunch dinner combo and bought some cookies at Walmart's bakery to tide us over through this tv filled evening.  

The motel is right next door to the RV place so we can keep an eye on the repair progress.  This whole RV problem is costing us a day of Chicago-ing and a day of Cleveland-ing.  We knew that there would be some glitches along the way.   It isn't a problem and I will still make it to the Rock and Roll hall of fame in Cleveland.  My primary travel goal.  I can't let some troubles with the 5th wheel stop me from viewing a wax Elvis!  Oh yes, and we are now surviving a three hours difference from our California friends, and are therefore three hours closer to seeing the premier of Big Bang Theory in a few weeks than the Pacific Time Zone.   Na na na na na na.... Sheldon fans.

Day 21 - Rockford / Aunt Ruth

Went to church in Marengo and then off to Karen's house, Aunt Ruth's daughter.   Stopped by Starbucks on the way and Office Depot to buy a road atlas with BIG maps.   Our GPS doesn't always take us the way we want to go.  

Karen has a beautiful house and gardens.  We were met there by Karen, Ruth, and Nancy.  We had a nice lunch then six hours of conversation.  I learned more about my family, especially my Uncle Russ, than I ever knew.  Throughout the day we were joined by Ruth's Granddaughter and Steve, her husband.  The proud parents of EIGHT children.  My goodness.  A beautiful family that includes a son serving in the Army.  Ruth's Great Granddaughter, Great Grandson, and Great Great Grandson.  Among others.  What a nice day for us and topped off with a nice dinner and conversation.   I can't say enough about the way we were treated.  What a wonderful legacy Ruth has filled with the best of people.  We really hated to leave but we are having a few trailer issues and so tomorrow we will be at the manufacturing home of our trailer to get a couple issues taken care of.   We made the 45 minute trip back to our trailer in the dark, a test for my new glasses.   Unfortunately, I still have my old eyes behind them.

Tomorrow we go to Indiana.  What a great trip so far.  Thanks Karen for making this day so memorable.