Saturday, June 8, 2013

Heading Home....

     Well, we are almost at the end of our trip.  It's been a wonderful experience and we've all enjoyed it, but it's time to go home.  We've missed our church and all of our friends and family.  I'm sure it will take some time to get back into the swing of things after over 6 weeks on the road.  Michael says he could get used to this lifestyle.  I thinks he's enjoyed not having a schedule to keep. 

     We left New Hampshire on Friday morning with plans to drive to Scranton, Pennsylvania before stopping for the night.  It should have taken us a little over 6 hours, but we never made it nearly that far.  The RV had started giving us a little trouble on the way into New Hampshire from Canada.  It was seeming to lose a little power going up any kind of incline, but we just thought it might be from the weight of the Jeep and the water tanks on the RV.  We had unhooked the Jeep and emptied our fresh water tank before driving the last hour and a half into the campground and it seemed to do better.  None of us thought anything else about it after we arrived, but when we pulled out on Friday morning, the problem was worse.  We couldn't go up any kind of incline without slowing down to about 20 mph.  So we pulled off the road and started trying to find someone who could look at the RV and tell us what was wrong.  We quickly found out that was easier said than done in the wilderness of New Hampshire.  We finally found a Freightliner who could look at it for us.  They were about 50 miles away over lots of rolling hills and some steep grades so it took us over 2 hours to get there at the speed we were able to make in the RV.  It was definitely a test of patience for both Michael and me.....him driving the handicapped RV and me following behind in the Jeep smelling the diesel fumes.  We drove almost the whole way with our flashers on in hopes that no one would run over us. 

     At Freightliner, they checked out the RV and said all we needed was a new fuel filter.  Thank the Lord for that.  It was an easy fix and they had us back on the road within an hour or so.  We did our best to make up the time, but we still didn't make it too far that evening.  By 6:30, we were all ready for dinner and to have some time out of the car.  Isaiah spotted a sign for a Cracker Barrel in Holyoke, Massachusetts and was practically drooling so we decided to stop there.  We tried to locate a campground for the night but there was nothing to be found within any reasonable drive from us.  We told the Cracker Barrel manager about our dilemma and she said we could stay there overnight.  They were really nice to us and said we could come in and use their restrooms if we needed to. 
    
     We settled in for bed around 9:30 and got a decent night's sleep.......except for when the dump truck came in the middle of the night to empty the dumpsters right near us and nearly scared Michael to death.  LOL!

     We got back on the road this morning around 7:30 and our goal is to make it to Luray, Virginia tonight.  We should be there around dinner time.  We'll stay for a couple of days to visit Luray Caverns and then we'll drive the final stretch home.  We should be home by Tuesday.   Just in time to get ready for Michaela's birthday on Saturday and Father's Day on Sunday.  We appreciate all of the prayers for safe travel.  We've been very blessed on this trip!

Oh....I almost forgot.....the Jeep is bringing home a souvenir.  Yes, that's right....it seems to want to hang on to a little bit of skunk we ran over about two weeks ago!  The funny thing is, we didn't even hit the skunk.  It was in the middle of the road and Michael made sure the wheels of the RV straddled it.  I guess the mud flap on the back of the RV hit it and made it spray on the Jeep.  We've washed it and it still smells like skunk!!!  Michael said the smell was going to scare off the other wildlife when we were driving around through the woods.  We can't find a tub full of tomato juice that is big enough for the Jeep.  I wonder if I'll ever get that "new car smell" back!  Ha, ha, ha, ha.....

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