Trailer Trouble

 What happens when you drag your home behind you ever bumpy roads. We found out today. The frame on our slide started to pull away from the trailer. This was no good because if it continued, we would not be able to use the slide. We pulled over at a Wilkes-Barre Walmart in Pennsylvania to re-search dealers. There was a local RV dealer 8 miles away and the lady was very nice on the phone so we drove over. Boy did we luck out. There were two young men that analyzed the problem, and immediately knew what to do. They did what was also recommended on the Winnebago forums. They removed the screws and put in rivets and now it will be almost impossible for the frame to pull away.  From there we went to our hidden gem, the Susquehanna Brewing Company. We shared a flight of beers, and then bought four cases – blue berry, orange, blackberry and peach. We love these fruity beers and plan to take some out to the island with a repair. Stop a Walmart stop a brewery stop it made for a long day and we were glad to get to our campsite. Hope Pond Island State Park is a pretty park, but it is absolutely packed with people. There’s only one small section of beach and all that we didn’t go over during the day. We imagine it gets very very full with swimmers. 

Repaired

Caledonia State Park, PA

 It was about a 5 to 6 hour drive to Caledonia State Park. This is a pretty treed park, although our site was at a slant, which made it a little more difficult to level the trailer.We immediately got into the truck and drove over to Pine Grove furnace State Park and rode our bikes for 6 miles. The path was part gravel, and then partly paved. This is a pretty little park, and it appears to be much used by the community as there were lots of people in the lake. This path is also parallel to the Appalachian trail, and there was even a large hostel their rooms available for the night. We passed several hikers, and I briefly considered us hiking it someday until Scotty reminded we may have to sleep on the ground. The Appalachian Trail is off my list! When we got back to the trailer, we made a veggie pizza and ate it outside. We were both amazed that there was absolutely no humidity in the air, or at least it appeared so to us.

New River Gorge Bridgewalk

 Wow! How do I even express the emotions felt on this walk? Originally, Scotty looked online and the slots were filled. I later found that they would book a few people that called in that day. So I called and booked a 3:00 slot. Immediately afterwards, I began to think, ‘What the hell did I just do?’ But, we showed up and apparently, my anxiety showed as another young lady named Alison began talking to me. She was on her 1 year anniversary trip and her husband convinced her to go. We decided to walk beside each other - wimps unite! The guide showed us how to pit on our harnesses. The trans-fastener that attached our harness to the steel cable cost $900 and that somehow gave me some relief. If it costs that much, it has to be good, right? (Just don’t think about it’s purpose!!) The walk is a 2 foot steel walkway with 2 railings on each side. It is underneath the bridge - a 4 lane highway so you’d be protected from precipitation. And they do tours all year long! The guide was great, she asked a couple of times at the beginning how we were feeling. All were good so we proceeded. Of course at the beginning, we walked above the trees. I couldnt help but think, would I be safer falling into a tree, or the river farther out! Not good thinking, I know. One of our first views below was a white truck parked below and a few people. They looked as small as ants, okay, as small as gnats!! I couldn’t believe I wasn't more scared. As we walked along, our fastener would sometimes get stuck on the safety cable intersections. We were instructed to give it a tug. More than anything, that was annoying. We could also feel the walkway shake some and definitely could hear the larger vehicles passing overhead. I thought that might bother me, but it didn’t. As usual, when I travel with my engineer, he’s looking at the structure and pointing things out to me. He noticed the trap doors we walked over before the guide had even pointed them out and the numbers on the 70 cable supports. We learned that the steel weighed 44 million pounds and the cement pillar bases also weighed 44 million pounds. That was by design to act as a counter-balance. The bridge cost 37 million dollars and was completed in 1977. The more we walked, the more I appreciated this engineering marvel and enjoyed the views around us. It was a fantastic experience and I’m really glad we did it!

Endless Wall Trail

 We decided to hike this wall trail, which was listed as a 3 mile loop to be done in an hour and 15 minutes. We ended up hiking 3.7 miles in two hours and 14 minutes. The only way to do this hike in an hour and 15 minutes is to bypass the overlooks which would be a shame because that is the highlight of the walk. The skies were hazy because of the California wildfires are still spectacular. There were several overlooks, and each one offered a different view. Several of the overlooks included rock climbing, and there were two overlooks that had ladders to go farther down. We did not venture to do that because the ladders were straight down and looked a little scary to me. This is a very popular Trail and we passed lots of people.  We travel to trail clockwise last overlooks that we could see the new river gorge bridge through the haze.

Manns Creek Gorge Trail

 We drove about five hours through some beautiful mountainous scenery to Babcock State, Park. we first went to a water station look for tanks with water before going over to Site 47. It is a level site with no trees and a long gravel road. Also, the electrical amp seems to have a problem.as it was still early in the day, we decided to do a hike straight from the campground, which was a Manns Creek Gorge Trail the trail goes down to the creek, and it’s primarily through the woods with surprised me the most recent amount of rhododendrons still blooming when they’re how long they bloom here, as we got down to the water, we heard the Rushing and saw Manns Creek waterfall. After the waterfall, the trail went up and off before I finally decided it was time to turn around.  We hiked almost 3 miles relaxed once we got back to the campsite. We made shrimp and rice and veggies and topped it off with some mint ice cream. It was a beautiful day, although most days camping are beautiful days. 

Lago Linda

 It was raining when we got up so we had to hook up the trailer in the rain but we’re good and we got it done quickly. And we were off for our summer. 2023 trailer tour. Our first stop was like a Amanda campground in eastern Kentucky. It was a really long, really long, bumpy gravely road into the campground and as we drove in, we asked her selves. How in the heck did we find this place? The site where they placed us is grassy and bumpy and wet. Better sight still not quite level, but not marshy. We met the couple next doir who cone down every year from Pittsburgh. Seems an odd place to visit, but apparently he had family in the area. He did tell me that there are places where you could leave money on a stump and come back later to find moonshine. Sadly, we were there only one night and didn’t give it a try. we walked down to the lake, which was very small, the rain started headed back to the camper. Four wheelers drove by iften as they were having a get-together and then later, our neighbor played his banjo. We had fajitas and radlers for dinner and made it through the night at the ‘Deliverance’ campground.