We left Tuesday morning July 21 and our first stop was to the propane shop in Roseville to get our tank hooked up. Then we hit the road and headed out I-80. Our goal was to get to Rhode Island in time for an August 1 wedding, so we weren’t really sightseeing on the way East. We scooted through California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, stayed in a couple of rest stops, and a couple of KOAs. Once in Indiana, we stayed at Jim and Sue’s place in Elkhart for the weekend (and attended Trixie’s birthday party on Sunday at Jenny’s) and then headed East again. We had extra time, so we made a slight detour after Ohio to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where we spent the night in a KOA.
After spending the day touring the Gettysburg area, we stayed in Caledonia State Park. The next day we headed through Hershey and got an earful from the locals in the grocery store. They aren’t too pleased with Hershey Corporation. We stopped in Hershey to do some lab tests my doc wanted done and then spent the night in Locust Lake State Park. On through the rest of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and into Rhode Island. We settled into Melville Ponds Campground in Portsmouth just outside of Newport … our home for the next 4 days. We are here for our niece’s wedding on August 1 : Katie Siering and Eddie Berube. The first night we were invited to a dessert party at Eddie’s parents. It absolutely poured rain for about an hour; the entire time we drove to their place and while most of the guests arrived. The next day was for setting up the reception hall. We joined the Sierings after breakfast and spent the entire day hanging lights and arranging centerpieces and flowers. The site is gorgeous. It is a beach house and opens onto a beautiful sandy beach and protected bay. It was pretty warm out but there was a nice breeze. No more sign of rain.
That night we parked in the driveway at the house where the Sierings were staying to save us the 30 minute trip to the campground. So we were able to “entertain” the men while the gals went for hair and makeup the next morning. The wedding was in the afternoon at a park followed by a couple of hours of picture taking and visiting grandparents. The reception started later in the afternoon with dinner and dancing. The day went off without any huge hiccups and Katie was radiant. A truly beautiful day. We spent Sunday recuperating at the campground and planned the next stage of our trip to Wilmington.
First stop was Philadelphia. We were worried about finding parking in Philly with the van. It is over 9 feet and won’t fit into many garages. I found a KOA along the Brandywine River that provided tours of Philadelphia so we spent two nights there. The tour was fabulous. There were five of us and the guide was great. We saw all of the Philly sights and even had a Philly Cheesesteak for lunch. On the way back to the KOA, we also toured Valley Forge. A great day that we finished off with a dip in the pool.
We left Pennsylvania, went through Maryland, around Washington D.C. and into Virginia where we got a site at Chippokes Plantation State Park. From here, we could catch a free ferry across the river to Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg. We got in early enough to go over for the afternoon in Jamestown and then spent the entire next day seeing the rest of the peninsula.
The next day we made it to Monticello where we had breakfast in the parking lot before heading up to the visitor center which opened at 10am. It was drizzly today which kept the heat down. We toured the visitor center, then took the shuttle up to the house where we toured the mansion, the gardens, the support areas and the slave quarters. Amazing place: amazing man. We left and spent the night at Shenandoah Lake Campground.
We started the morning with a huge mistake. Rog used the green handled fuel pump to fill up and, at this station, the green handle was unleaded not diesel. We were touring the Blue Ridge Trail when Tess started coughing and sputtering. She continued to run but we had no cell phone coverage so decided to cut our tour short and head straight to Wilmington to be with our boat buddies, Ken and Roberta Heinrichs while we looked into repairs. We got there about 3pm but it was Saturday and there was nothing we could do about Tess’s indigestion until Monday, so enjoyed ourselves for the rest of the weekend. The Heinrichs drove us to Southport on Sunday. On Monday, Ken got recommendations from his daughter in law’s father and we got in to Ken Baker’s, a local mechanic, that morning. We did some shopping that day and had dinner with their son and his family that evening. On Tuesday, we toured Wilmington and had a BBQ dinner. We went out to breakfast Wednesday morning and were relaxing that afternoon when the repair shop called and said that the van was ready. They had pulled the tank and cleaned it, replaced the fuel pump and filter and cleaned her up. Ready to rock and roll again! We picked Tess up, restocked for the next leg and then did laundry back at the Heinrichs’. We said our goodbyes, spent the night in the van and left at dawn the next morning.
Tess had a few hiccups on our way through North Carolina, but got better the further along we got. Looks like we will need to have her looked at one more time when we get to Elkhart.
My niece, Katie, lives in an apartment building on Lakeside Drive in Chicago and had a party on her roof Friday afternoon to watch the Blue Angels rehearse for the weekend air show that weekend. We were a day behind our schedule to get to Chicago by Friday for the party so we took a direct route to get there in time for the air show on Saturday. We did make one side trip to the Indianapolis 500 on Friday as we headed through southern Indiana. Rog took the paid tour while I browsed through the museum. Rog was thrilled with the visit so I’m glad that we made the stop.
I was worried that we wouldn’t have time to visit Lincoln’s Presidential Museum at our stop for the night in Springfield, Illinois…but we crossed a time zone so got an extra hour to spend! We got there about 3pm and were able to see the entire museum, then take a leisurely walk around Lincoln’s home and tomb. We were pretty tuckered out by the time we got to the KOA and sacked out.
We made a quick stop at Home Depot to make a repair on Tess, then got into Chicago just after noon. The air show had started at 10am so we missed the potential traffic jam and made it to Jenny’s apartment where we would be crashing. We took a taxi to Katie’s apartment and got to the roof about 10 minutes before the Blue Angels started their performance. Fabulous show and all the more exciting to see from the 24th floor…practically eye level.
We joined Katie, Jenny, Abby and her boyfriend, Lucas, and hit the town to see the sights. We were introduced to the Red and Blue lines, getting ourselves to downtown Chicago. There, we took one of the river boat taxis through the downtown area to Chinatown where we enjoyed a delightful dinner. We were joined by Ellen, a friend of Katie’s who happens to live on the top floor of the home we are staying in. She made sure we got on the right train to get home. The next morning we walked a few blocks to a coffee shop for a breakfast snack. This neighborhood is exquisite: full of large shady trees, folks walking around or jogging, and 100 year old homes. We successfully navigated the trains and made it to Wood Restaurant to meet everyone for 11am breakfast. Katie waitresses brunch at this restaurant on Sunday mornings and the rest of us (Jenny, Abby, Lucas, Rog and I) were treated like royalty with her superb waitressing. After breakfast, we left Katie and crossed the street to see Abby’s apartment. On to another red train to downtown where we boarded the hop on-and-off trolley. We sat on top and, once on, we stayed for the entire tour which seemed to take about 3 hours. It was a warm afternoon and we definitely felt that we had seen Chicago when we got done. Abby and Lucas left for other plans they had for the evening and Jenny guided us to Giordani’s to meet Katie for a true Chicago pizza dinner. I think every place thinks they have the best pizza in the world. It is all good. One more stop on our Chicago tour; Katie was taking us to a play she was reviewing that evening. “Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight” was the play and the theater was a cozy intimate place with small tables and comfortable cushioned swivel chairs. They all knew Katie and provided free wine to all of us. The play was outrageously rude and funny and was over way too quickly. We said our goodbyes, experienced our own Uber ride back to the apartment, and hit the sack.
Monday morning there was no hurry to get to Elkhart, so we had a lazy morning packing up. We had breakfast at Indiana Dunes and walked along the shore enjoying the lake and good weather.
Shortly after lunch, we arrived at Elkhart and relaxed the rest of the day. Tuesday I needed to get Tess looked at. I picked a few names out of the book and left messages. Rog and I tackled Jim’s yard while we waited for a return call. Jim pulled his back out pulling weeds about a month ago and it is still in bad shape. His yard is like a park and he takes great pride in it, but I knew that every leaf on the grass was a temptation to bend over for him. So we raked and weeded his yard. Took us a couple of hours and I hope it helps him nurse his back a few more weeks.
We still had not received a callback from the mechanic so we headed there to talk to them face to face. I was a little concerned with their lack of follow-up, but they were courteous and really seemed to know Sprinters. He ran a quick test on it and said he knew what was wrong. We made an appt for an oil change and the repair for the following morning and headed back to Elkhart where we spent the afternoon cleaning the van and water jugs. We treated Jim and Sue to dinner in Shipshewana followed by a lovely drive to see some of the huge homes along the river in Elkhart.
Right after breakfast on Wednesday, we headed to BenzTech for Tess. By 9:30, she was all done and working fine. We wanted to have someone in Elkhart set up an auxiliary cable for the battery from the alternator but everyone was booked weeks out. We finally gave up on the idea and drove out to Amish country. We toured the museum and learned all about the Anabaptists; the Amish and Mennonites. Across the street was the flea market and auction that are quite busy on Wednesday. We walked around what reminded us of Denio’s in Roseville and Rog treated me to an ice cream. On the way home, we picked up donuts for Sue and an apple pie for Jim. Sue made a casserole for dinner and then we played “5 Second Rule” while we relaxed in their sunroom.
Thursday was a relax day. I planned the next leg of the trip while Jim and Sue headed off to pick up Katie at the train station. That afternoon, Jenny had all of us over for a delicious smoked turkey dinner. Friday was the day before Michael and Erin’s wedding. We headed to the reception hall with Katie and Jenny and helped decorate the place, followed by a lunch of leftovers at Jenny’s. Cindy had arrived with Sabrina and Noah by the time we got back to Elkhart. We headed to the rehearsal later that afternoon and then were treated to a fabulous dinner at Papa Vino’s where the food just kept coming and coming.
The day of the wedding, I did a load of clothes and joined the queue for showers with the other 8 folks. After lunch, we headed off to the wedding which was flawless. Again, the reception was to be held later in the day so we all headed over to Jenny’s for snacks and drinks. I discovered a new drink I like ; Root Beer Liquor. Jenny mixes it with Rum Chata but I had it plain. Good stuff. At 5, we headed back to the reception where we had a Polish dinner and lots of dancing. Bride and groom were radiant and fun was had by all. Another successful wedding.
The Carters left after breakfast on Sunday and we left soon after them. The freeways were a bit confusing and there was a cloudburst in the middle of our confusion which added to the drama. It cleared up after about 5 LONG minutes and then it was smooth sailing to across Illinois. We stayed in the state park and walked around the reconstructed 1833 town of New Salem all afternoon. This was the town that Lincoln lived in during his early adult life and where he decided to study law and enter politics. New Salem completely dried up and disappeared shortly after Lincoln left for Springfield but was reconstructed for the state park.
The next morning we left for St. Louis and stopped at the Budweiser Brewery for the tour and lunch. The facility was unbelievably clean and we enjoyed seeing Clydesdales.
We reached Platte City, Missouri by about 6pm and pulled into Jowler Creek Winery. It was fun to finally get to meet Addison and Sawyer and we had a delicious taco salad dinner with some exceptionally good Jowler Creek wine!
After the kids went to bed, we said our goodbyes and headed out to the van. We left early the next morning as the contractors arrived to finish the winery addition. After we got past Kansas City, we stopped for breakfast and gave a birthday call to Karissa. The day was spent travelling the length of Kansas and Oklahoma. We stopped at a KOA in Durant near the border of Oklahoma and Texas that night. We had the shuttle take us over to the casino for an evening walk. It has been a while since we’ve been in a casino and we were amazed with the technology. Not sure I could work one of those newfangled machines!
The KOA had a spa-like restroom and I had it all to myself the next morning to get ready for Texas. Pretty luxurious. From Durant, our destination in Rockwall Texas is only about 1.5 hrs away so we were in no hurry. We stopped in Rockwall at a city park and had lunch, then headed to Russ and Janet’s place. The rest of the day was spent catching up with each others’ lives. Janet made a fabulous stew and followed it up with a scrumptious red velvet cake.
Thursday was for sightseeing. They drove us through Rockwall and we saw the houses that they have flipped over the years. We ended up at the Bass Pro Shop and we got a sense of the store that will be opening in Rocklin when we get back. Then Russ drove us to Dallas where we had a guided tour of the JFK assassination site, Russ had heard a new theory of what happened, so when we got back to Rockwall, we pulled up the documentary (JFK: The Smoking Gun) on Netflix and watched it. Pretty convincing. For dinner, we went for pizza at Campini’s at the Harbor. The rest of the evening was spent playing Baja Rummy. Took us a while to remember the details, but it all came back.
Janet made breakfast for us the next morning while I set up the next leg of the trip. We said our farewells and got to McKinney Falls just about lunchtime, snagging their very last campsite. It was pretty warm out and I ended up laying down for most of the afternoon. On Saturday, we had breakfast in San Antonio and spent most of the day touring the Alamo and the river area. That afternoon, we decided to visit HEB for groceries and have lunch at a Whataburger. Now we feel like we have experienced Texas. We made it to South Llano River State Park, got settled it and took a walk to the river after we edited our photos to date.
Two days of travel ahead of us to get to Apache Junction. The first night we made it to a KOA in Las Cruces in New Mexico and the next day, we got to Apache Junction KOA by noon. We couldn’t believe how hot it was. I made lunch, then we spent the afternoon by the pool. At 4, we gave Rog’s buddy Mike a shout, expecting to set up a time to get together tomorrow. Mike couldn’t believe we were in Apache Junction and said he would be right over. We spent the next 2+ hours in Chili’s enjoying both Mike and his lady, Kathy. We kept the van open and went to bed, then had to close it up when a thundershower hit. Mike came down the next morning and took Rog for a cup of coffee while I cleaned up the van and planned our final leg.
First stop was Sedona. Amazing scenery reminiscent of “Cars” but so much more beautiful in person. We walked around town long enough for a Starbucks and ice cream, then headed to the Grand Canyon.
Interesting to me that there is no “warning” for the Grand Canyon. You drive through the national park entrance, head for the visitor’s center and do not get even a glimpse of the grandeur until you walk to the edge of the cliff. It opens up before you and is magnificent in color and size. From 8-25 miles wide and up to a mile deep, the colors and the strata are glorious. You take pictures but this is definitely something you have to see to appreciate. We took the shuttle to 3 other vistas, then headed out and back to the KOA in Williams.
The next day was a drive to the Hoover Dam where we drove down to the old road over the dam and to the vistas of Lake Mead. Probably won’t see the lake this low again for a while. I hope.
Then on to Las Vegas. We tried unsuccessfully to get into the KOA (they only take RV vehicles) so ended up in a parking lot behind Harrah’s just under the High Roller. After lunch we walked the strip and hit a bunch of the casinos. We stopped for ice cream and beer and did a lot of “front lobby people watching”. On the way back to the van at dusk, Rog was pulled into a street dance finale. The guys wanted a “tall white guy” as they did a backwards somersault over him and 3 other gals. Another hot night in the van. We got up early just so that we could get some air as we headed to Walmart for bottled water before heading on to Yosemite.
This was the first time I had gone the back way into Yosemite and it was pretty but fairly desolate. No cell reception at all. We got through the national park entrance and into Tuolumne Meadows shortly after noon. We had lunch and then headed down to the valley to look around. Rog always feels like he has come “home” when he goes to Yosemite. Glad he pushed for this visit. We got back to camp at dusk and headed to the ranger campfire talk. I used our wool blanket as a coat….it gets cold up here in the High Sierra! We snuggled into our sleeping bags and suffered through deflating air mattresses on our final night on the road. We were so cold the next morning that we left as soon as we woke up, heading down to the warmer valley floor. All was good until the shuttle in front of us on the road came to a stop to pick up a hiker. Rog had to slam on the brakes which turned the jugs up on end and tossed the porta potty. I scrambled to get things uprighted as we continued on and when we got down to a sunny turnout near the valley, we cleaned things up and made breakfast. Then we headed to Glacier Point for a short hike and more pictures.
Rog took the scenic route home, using 49 to Placerville. One week later this area had a huge fire that devastated Calaveras County, but we enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We got back to 5330 at 4pm. Max the gardener was there with his dad and sister, doing his last day of watering. SO nice to be home!! We chatted while Max finished up and made arrangements to get together the next day for lunch. Nice to be able to turn on air conditioning and to sleep in a real bed. But what a great road trip!!!
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