Sunday, July 9, 2017

Sunday In Ashland

Am I used to driving in the fishbowl window about 8' in the air while zooming down the highway in CiCiBlue yet? I need to be honest and say, ah, not yet. At times it's wonderful but going over high bridges next to a really small guard rail seems like I have just joined the Wallenda's high wire group. I'm afraid of heights. 😓 Needless to say, when we finally arrived at this campground, I asked to stay two nights just to regain my composure.



Americamps RV Resort is right off of I 95 and with taxes and Good Sam discount was 54.00 a night. The a/c doesn't work well up front so I was incredibly drained and hot and honestly would have paid hundreds just to stop. We are here for two nights and Roger, right now, is up front working on the window fan in front of me to see if he can get it to work.  They have a long drive through so we don't have to take the car off the dolly, good deal. Free waffles, juice, milk and fruit is served every morning except Thursday so this morning was a no brainer . Dogs to the small dog park, but I bet the small dogs think it's huge, then off to the "rally room".


This seems to be a stop over camp ground for travelers with a few full time people that probably work near by on construction.  Quite a few people have left this morning after their waffles.


My kids have been giving me lots of reference photos for up coming paintings. Love the light on this one!

Now a few photos from our past few days.

A Fire Rainbow. I read the sun has to be exactly at a 58 degree angle but to me this was a sign that we would be ok in our travels.




I actually am getting better in finding spaces to store stuff as we roll. Maybe, hopefully, by the time we go across country I will have less stuff!!!



The boys are keeping as eye of Dad as her fills our tank. I think this was in South Carolina. Fuel here at the Pilot was 2.39 a gallon.



When we stop the kids just chill.


I loved this. A tree outside our living room slide window. 


The infamous South Of The Border. After seeing a zillion signs for it you finally pass it. 


I believe in signs. Not the "Stop" or "Turn Here" type but the kind you find outside your steps after you spend a night worrying that you may break down, or the car you are towing may suddenly decide to roll away as you are zooming along....  I came out of the RV and this was at the bottom of the stairs. Yes I know the meaning so I'm feeling very protected right now.



295 N in Va is the route you take to get around Richmond. For miles it's smooth and fun to drive on. Then suddenly, it's like you drop of the face of the earth into the abyss. CiCiBlue held strong though I thought for sure the front axles broke away from the frame. It continued for a few miles, more than Lola and I could deal with. She became amazingly small and scooched down in front of me and I grabbed the rail beside me in a death grip. Why didn't we move to another part of the road? There was no other. The entire road was horrendous. And I complained about the Carolina roads. Dear Lord!



So here we are until tomorrow! To finish our journey up to the campground, I called and asked to extend our stay until Monday morning. Perfect. The GPS then told us how to get here and we followed. There is a lot of road construction happening and no one updated the GPS so we missed the secondary road and the GPS lead us through a small secluded residential area. CiCI is a loud diesel so I'm sure they just loved it. We backtracked and then the GPS lead us to yet another area on the other side of I 95. Sweet mother, how will we turn around? Take a left Roger and turn around at that store.

That's where we found ourselves going up the "no trucks" roadway into Bass Pro Shop. We made it thankfully into the parking lot and did find a way to turn us around and go back down to the road to the highway again. I thought I saw the sign for the campground just before the GPS sent us to the lovely neighborhood but we were on the wrong side of the street to turn so we had a head start this time around. Why do you get out of the RV and kiss the ground Sheila? Now you know.

Would I change anything? Well when I wake up in a panic at 3:00 A.M. and say this is crazy, probably. But when I wake up again in the morning and think this was our choice. Our adventure. If we stopped there would be a day I'd say.."if only...". We are still newbies, still getting accustomed to how CiCi Blue works. She is happy rolling along and on smooth rounds I can hear her purring in back. On rough roads it sounds like the tires are coming up through the floor. Maybe we will have the shocks looked at. (thinking mechanically again.) Roger just got my front window fan to work so tomorrows drive won't be so crazed, (even though there will be a 6% grade somewhere) See, I'm starting to worry way ahead of time. lol


Happiness is!!!!

Have a great day everyone and see you tomorrow if we have internet!

Warmly,
Sheila

4 comments:

  1. I totally understand your "worries". I was always that way. As far as the gps ( we called ours Gabby because she never shut up) adventure, I finally found I could bring up maps on my iPad and check that the gps was taking us the right way. Solved a lot of those "WHERE ARE WE GOING TO TURN AROUND" moments. We also would turn our generator on and run the house air conditioner when traveling in the heat. Love your blog and your artwork.

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    1. Thank you Cathie. Looking forward to loosing the nerves! Lol we have been running the generator and having the a/c on, it just didn't seem to be getting to me. Ugh. Hopefully now that the fan is working up front it will make a difference!

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  2. Hi Sheila! Somehow all your blog writings came up today. Wow, am I ever thrilled they did. What a harrowing time you have had. Since I believe in white feathers, Hawks that swoop down over my Dad's grave & graze the top of the artificial sunflower and set it spinning,just to let me know my Dad's spirit is with me, I felt that you would make it safely to your next stop.
    BTW, that happened years ago & The song Sunflower was playing in my 95 Pontiac van and my sister-in-law told me to remove the sunflower because it was "tacky". Well I didn't take it off his grave that day.

    I love your writing and also that picture of Sophie when she was a puppy. I always thought of her as the Dog Of The Dunes.

    Many hugs to you and your family.

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    1. Hugs to you! Dog in The Dunes started me on my painting Labs adventure remember! Glad you left the sunflower too!!!

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