Back in Texas!

We spent Monday night at the Rusk KOA in the Piney Woods area of east Texas as it was about 120 miles from Bryan, making a nice short day to arrive home and then unload the Flying Scotsman and get it tucked into its barn. The KOA in Rusk is absolutely first class with large, level, gravel sites and 50A power and wonderful hosts (we were the only customers). It is new and has all the facilities including a salt water pool ... new for me, but I guess it is the newest thing for public facilities.

Here is the intrepid blogger at work with his dedicated helper on the last night in the bus for awhile.

And as we were sitting at our picnic table at the site this was the view for over 20 miles to the west ... spectacular way to end the trip!

On this Sunday night we are in Hot Springs, Arkansas in a great KOA. It seems that we are doing more KOAs than before, but not through any special intent; it just seems that they are the better alternative for most of our destinations.




This one is particularly impressive. The sites are all gravel with paved streets and the infrastructure is well managed and professional. We got one of the "normal pull through" sites, but below is one of the premium sites next to the duck pond. You pull your monster bus through from right to left, putting your entry door and awning toward the pond.






And a close-up of the site showing the pond, the table and chairs, the hammock, the bird bath, and all the other stuff you need to really enjoy your "camping" experience.





"OK guys, watch my hand signals ... one, two, three, quack ... hey you ... the motley one ... you aren't quacking on cue!"

Tonight we are in Tom Sawyer's Mississippi RV Park located just to the south of picturesque (housing projects) West Memphis, Tenn. The park itself is a nice level place with all the amenities and while not a great photo of the Flying Scotsman, that is the Mississippi River and Memphis itself in the far distance.






While we have seen a lot of RV park rules and regulations this one is the best so far; "Our insurance company wishes to inform you of the existence of poison ivy, snakes, mosquitoes, fire ants and chiggers within the boundaries of our RV park." I guess that is our welcome to the South, eh?

We see a lot of things on the road, but this one is new but you have to look close to read it .... nah, I won't go any further.

And finally for today, I realized the similarity to what we are doing to my previous life as a pilot. Today, initially, we checked our fuel load and plotted the potential destination. As we were well into the trip, with me controlling the beast on cruise control at a smooth 70 MPH, Jo-Anne noticed on the real-time weather radar display on the laptop that we were about to be into some extended red rain cells and she then re-plotted our route in the GPS to a new destination and got a new estimated distance and arrival time to which we deviated successfully. Never underestimate the value of a great co-pilot!

After all our repairs were done on the 16th we settled into the Erie KOA which is just south of town on I79. This is a really nice park with level sites, 50A power, and some really nice property. There's a nice lake if I just turned around from where I took this picture. The movie on in the pavillion was "RV" with Robin Williams ... a must see for anyone thinking of this way of life.









On Thursday the 17th we left the Erie area and headed south toward West Virginia. Our plan was to head generally south following the mountains and maybe on Friday get to Knoxville and then head westerly. Thursday night we stopped at a KOA RV park in Flatwoods, West Virginia. This is a great facility with paved roads and pretty level sites. It was unusual that we had to register at the Days Hotel up on the hill before entering the park ... you can just see the top of the hotel in this picture. Really great place and as the hotel clerk said "It ain't level but it is the most level place in West Virginia!"






On Friday we made a decision to head more westerly rather than south because of weather and the hilly/curvy road toward Knoxville. So we then picked a course heading west from Charleston West Virginia, through Lexington, KY, and then down toward Cave City. After a 386 mile run and several rain showers we got to Cave City. Here's the Cave City park ... really nice! Our kind of RV park ... 50A power, level gravel sites with adjoining grass, and 35 foot wide sites. There's even a Cracker Barrel restaurant within sight of the place.

Tomorrow we are off toward Memphis and Little Rock and we'll see how the bus runs and how the weather is as to where we will stop. Right now the plan is to be home by Monday night, but we'll see how that plays out.

On Tuesday we left the familiar and beautiful Meaford Memorial Park for the road to the south. The first part through southern rural Ontario is pretty until you get to the Toronto burbs and have to work around the end of Lake Ontario and then on to Fort Erie and the crossing into the US.

After crossing into Buffalo a wrong turn got us into some side streets in a pretty rough part of Buffalo … if there’s even a good part; but we muddled along until hooking up with IH 90 to the west along the Lake Erie shore. The border crossing was so quick and smooth that we really didn’t realize that we were in the US until we arrived in the crappy part of town.

About when we crossed the border we noticed that the AC, while not really needed, was only blowing hot air and we opened up the windows and vents. About the same time the cigarette lighter outlets in the dash as well as the radio, ceased to function. As we pulled into our planned stay at the KOA in Westfield, NY, we noticed the slides were very difficult to extend and the leveling jacks took a bit to work. All of this pointed to some serious problem with the 12V coach battery system and the possibility that our batteries were dying or at least failing to charge.

We got up this morning and made some calls for the service help. Erie, PA, was about 30 miles from our KOA and a fairly large town, so we thought that we could get some help there. We left the KOA and made it over to the Boyer RV repair place in Erie and they worked out our slide and level jack problems. Basically they had to rewire the battery leads to the coach battery supply, clean the batteries, and build a substitute battery post connection. Super service and personnel. The bottom line is that we had about a maximum of about one more day with the melted battery terminals and leads before something nasty might have happened. So we got that fixed by noon and then headed over to the Ford dealer to see about the AC and the dash 12V problem as those parts are under separate warrantee.

About 4 this afternoon we were informed that they had ordered a new AC compressor and that it should be here by Friday and that they had fixed the dash 12V problems … blown fuse I couldn’t find. We agonized for a while and decided not to wait here in Erie until maybe Saturday for the potential of a compressor and the prolonged installation while we were trying to live in the “Flying Scotsman” while they were working. We will deal with the AC when we get back home when we have more time to install the compressor. We then booked the KOA in Erie off IH 79 tonight, which is actually very nice, and will leave tomorrow for home.

Tomorrow somewhere in West Virginia and then the next night in Knoxville.

As the last domino game is played ...

and the last of leaves fall from the trees ...

this shot through the vent of the RV ...

and the miniature horses graze outside for the last few weeks ...

and Jo-Anne says goodbye to her dad for the summer ...




we close up the RV, shut off the water and sewer, and prepare to head south for the winter!

One of the highlights here in Meaford are the special and unique memorial windows at the Christ Anglican Church. While the church itself isn't distinctive, the windows are really special.

They were the inspiration of the Reverend Harold Appleyard, Rector of the Parish during World War 2. Harold Appleyard, on leave from the parish, served as a Military Chaplain during the war years in Europe. He noticed shards of broken stained glass around bombed out churches, particularly in England. He gathered fragments of the glass in an ammo can and received permission from local church authorities to have the glass leaded and returned to Christ Church in Meaford as a memorial for Canadian men and women who served overseas. The fragments were formed into four windows and are the reason many visitors come to Christ Church. These two windows are in the main church and the other two are in a small chapel.

On the 9th of September we moved from the Roebuck campground back to the Memorial Park campground on the beach where we have spent many nights in years past. Our first site in the upper park was under the huge maple tree that we have made many pictures of in the past.





Then, today we moved down to the beach front site which is really cool. It is about 65 degrees and we have our sweaters on, the waves are about a foot high ... kinda crashing and making a real noise to lull us to sleep tonight.

We will be here for the next couple of nights and then head south. I think we will end our stay here on Tuesday morning and head toward Niagara and then south for Erie. By looking at the map the first night ... Monday ... will be near Lake Chautauqua, New York ... but we don't know for certain yet.

Happy Labor (Labour) Day from Canada .... eh!

Fall has arrived as the trees start to change and we make our plans to move south. This silver maple tree is typical of its breed as they are the first to change. As you can see from the other trees around it, the maples really outpace the rest. As we plan to depart Canada on the 14th of September and wind our way southward we will see how much color we get on our trek this year; because it is a couple of weeks earlier than the last two years.

Things are tough and the dollar ain’t what it used to be. So when the local market made a misprint offering toilet paper for about 3 bucks a 12 pack instead of 8 dollars (the ad was for the whole week and 1 to a customer), Jo-Anne’s father and brother jumped at the opportunity. Well, after numerous trips to the store to hit a different clerk with the paper in hand each time, they had almost 400 rolls of TP. Hey, the stuff never gets old, goes out of style, and you can’t get through a day without it. Here’s 324 rolls of the stuff and there are more stashed around the house. The “coupon kings” won this one! Too bad I can only use biodegradable sandpaper in the RV, eh.

"Let's see ... which is the hot wire and which is the water pipe?"

65 degrees out, which is perfect for humans and good wine ...

Bandit is saying, "If this stupid screen would go away, I would have a nice munchy lunch!" The chipmunk is oblivious to anying except the next sunflower seed or peanut.

And we did have an F2 tornado about 15 miles from here a week or so ago which did a lot of damage to both homes and crops ... really unusual for Canada and especially this area.