Our Trip Back to PA

We were on our way back to Lancaster County PA by 8:30 on Tuesday, March 15th.  Hook-up went well, but we weren't looking forward to the long drive.  The 1st day went very well.  The truck was finally working properly, and the weather was perfect.  We went as far as           South Carolina arriving at the Campground around 6:15.  We had a level pull-through site, so we didn't have to disconnect.  The campground is a great stop for it is conveniently located to Route 95 and most of the sites are pull throughs.

We were on our way again by 8:00 on Wednesday morning but this day was not as uneventful as the previous one.  When we stopped for gas at a Flying J in North Carolina, we were disappointed to discover the way the pumps were set up for RVer's.  It was not at the same location as the tractor trailers.  We waited awhile and then decided to go around to enter the pumps.  At first we were concerned about the height of the roof over the pumps, but we were fine!  Ken made a wide swing for the pumps and thought he was far from pumps.  Wrong!!!!  I tried to get there to warn him, but I was too late.  My heart skipped a beat when I heard the crunch and felt so bad for Ken.  He is always so careful and tried to be one step ahead.  But, that is why these things are called accidents.  Fortunately we both handled the situation as well as possible.  The service station people were wonderful!  The 5th wheel was wedged between the pump and the upside U that is at the end of each island so people can't hit the pumps!  ( I guess they don't always do the job!!!)   We were lucky, for we only struck the pump nozzle and not the pump.  No leaking gas. 

 And, we only did cosmetic damage to the rig, not to the frame or to the gas lines, etc.   We talked to Good Sam and our RV insurance company.  It was decided that we should get a tow truck to come and hopefully be able to move us alittle to the right so we could just pull out.  After 2 hours the tow truck arrived, but since our 5th wheel did not have a bumper, there was not way to hook it to the truck.  The driver was such a help.  He said he thought he could direct us out of the spot with minimal extra damage.  He was exactly right!  There was no more damage and we were on our way home after 2 1/2 hours.  We felt fortunate, but somewhat stressed.  Our next gas stop was abit frightening, but went well.  Hallelujah!

We stopped that night at a campground in VA, again conveniently located to Route 95 with level, pull through sites.  Another good stop!  On the road again by 8:30 Thursday morning and it was an uneventful, pleasant day.  We did decide that driving on 95 around DC is something we will probably try to avoid in the future.  We are getting too old for some white knuckle driving.  Not only is the trafffic terrible, but there is so much road construction in the area.  Not fun driving!

We were in our driveway by 2:30 Thursday afternoon and it was 65 degrees.  I guess we brought the warm weather with us.  Wow!!!  We were almost totally unloaded by the time we went to have dinner at our daughter's house at 5:30.  (Our 4 year old granddaughter Bria had invited us to dinner at her house on Wednesday night when we talked to her from the Campground.  I told her she had better ask her Mommy.  Jamie said that would be great, since we probably didn't have any food at our house.  Bria got back on the phone and said she would see us tomorrow night!)  Good to see our daughter and her family.  It had been 7 1/2 weeks.  

Our trip to Florida had been fantastic even though we had some cliches along the way.  I will talk about them in our next post.