Oops, the Mistake’s on Us

Friday May 30, 2014
Somerset Service Plaza
Pennsylvania Turnpike

 

 

Final thoughts on the Solar Saga.

Greg Young came by this morning to bring us a receipt we could use for taxes and we were happy to be able to report that after boondocking for two nights in a row, everything is working fine.  We are all very relieved.  So this will be my last solar post.  I am pretty confident.  And as I close it out, I want to say that in spite of two weeks of difficulty getting all this set right, through the entire affair, Greg Young displayed an up beat attitude, accepted responsibility for making things right and demonstrated an honesty and integrity rare in the business world.  He is tireless and unflappable.  We wish him the best in his future endeavors.

 

 

Then we get a knock on the door.

It’s about 1:00 in the afternoon.  We think we have plenty of time to get everything packed up after lunch and be completely ready for a big get away early in the morning.  We plan a longer than usual drive to do some catch up on our route.  there is a rap rap on the door.  

David answers and the campground manager says “Check out time is Noon”.   Huh?   She tells us she has the site rented for tonight and that Greg only took it for us for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. 

Opps.  Looks like we misheard when he said “you’ve got the site to Friday”, we heard “through Friday”.  So we assure her we will be out of the site ASAP.   We are so totally not anywhere near packed up but we scramble and amazingly pull out 45 minutes later.  That is definitely a record for us.

 

 

Where are we going?

 

No idea.  Those of you on the road know that a Friday night is not the night to come rolling in anywhere and expect to find a site.

I’ve been caught off guard.  I have not even a sketchy plan.  A rare situation for me.

We go down the narrow windy road in the direction of the PA Turnpike.  We stop at an empty lot on a corner where we will turn right.   We put the car on the RV.  We pull across the road and fill up the tank at $3.799.  David picks up a freshly made chocolate peanut butter brownie for good luck.  We are on our way.

 

 

 

I look at what I had planned for tomorrow. 

 

It’s now nearly 3:00.  No way we can possibly make that destination in what is left of the day.  I decide we’ll drive until around sunset I start researching where that will get us and what might be there.  Thank goodness for internet on the road.

 

 

What is all this bouncing?

Speaking of the road,  it doesn’t seem nearly as nice as it did two weeks ago Friday when I commented on this blog that our drive on this same stretch was amazingly nice. I was surprised at the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  It seemed much better than I remembered. 

But not today!   In fact we are now bouncing quite seriously with these irregularities in the road.  I’m wondering if something has happened to our shocks or our suspension in the past two weeks.  This is the very same road we were on then.  I don’t see anyone else bouncing like this.  At some points, We slow down to 35 mph to stop the porpoise effect.  We certainly aren’t going to make good time this way.  Have any of you ever had this bouncing happen?   And if so, what was it?

 

 

In our rush to get out of the site, we totally forget about lunch.

We’ve had no lunch since we were working up to it when the knock came on the door.  So David snacks on sourdough pounder pretzels and an apple.  I have a few peanuts and a few peanut M&Ms.  I think he wins the nutrition contest.

About 5:30 we stop at a service plaza and have a Double R Bar Burger in honor of it being David’s favorite hamburger in his youth and Roy looking like my dad.  Or is it my dad who looked like Roy.   Anyway it is a carb overload.

 

The sun is sinking in the west.

On we drive.  UP over mountains, through tunnels.  The sun is in our eyes.   I’ve determined that if we want to stop before dark, Service Plaza 112 or exit 110 is the place.  After 200 miles, there it is.  We could drive further, we’re not really tired but we don’t want to drive in the dark and do want to get a VERY early start in the morning.  Hardly a PDD day but amazing for us given a start at 3:00 in the afternoon.

 

Should we ask permission?

 

We decide to just pull in among the 18 wheelers and spend the night at the service plaza which will save us the trouble of getting off and back on the turnpike and of looking for a Walmart/Cracker Barrel/whatever for a blacktop boondock.

So here we are.  We haven’t asked permission.  David is more concerned about this than I am.  My theory is “It is easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission”.  Hope nobody comes pounding on our door a second time today.

We do get a pretty nice sunset here in our asphalt boondocking site amid the tractor trailers idling and releasing those whooshing air sounds.  Boy they are a noisy bunch.

Wish us luck.  Hope we can sleep. 
Hope they don’t wake us up and ask us to move.

Who knows where we will be tomorrow.
But we’re on our way!