July 2020

Time for a summer update. For those who don’t know I retired from my dream job on June 30th. I thought for sure by now I would be long gone living in the van with Greg somewhere down by the river.. But then the pandemic hit and the world shut down and Greg and I have been living in isolation for the past four months up in Raquette Lake, waiting for the house to sell so we could begin our travels in the van. We did lots of hiking while there and spent some time on the lake with the SeaDo. We also got a new shed!!

We also had some time to make more improvements to the van. Greg put some new cabinets up and also installed a swivel seat for the passenger seat. It’s amazing how much that opens up the space.

We decided to hit the road and see what we could find. We are planning on heading down to Kentucky because I had made reservations at the Winton Woods campground like I do every year while Greg is at the ventriloquist convention. The ventriloquist convention was canceled so I just kept the reservation for the campground and thought I would take Greg there to spend some time since he never really got to stay there.

So off we went with no plans in mind. Our first stop was our Amish cabin in the woods,we open the door and walked inside and immediately knew that something was wrong. A MOUSE HAD GOTTEN INSIDE!! Probably more than one mouse as I started to look around and find the nests and poop everywhere. I literally took every single thing out of the cabin onto the deck and proceeded to wash every last thing down. Greg found and repaired the hole in the window pane that they chewed through so that the little bastards could never get in ever again.

It was in the high 90s while we were there so we spent a couple of days down by the Genesee River with the van. They called this the Fillmore beach. The water was nice and warm and that helped with the heat.

We decided to take a nice leisurely limp down towards Kentucky. Which means we are taking our time and never driving more than 3 hours a day. This allows us to see more stuff each day and to really enjoy the day. We stopped at the giant pool at Letchworth State Park. Stayed a couple of hours and then had lunch under a shaded tree.

Our first overnighter was at Sherando State Park in Pennsylvania. This was a huge state park with over 500 camping spots. We arrived without any reservations and were lucky enough to get a spot. Because of the pandemic they are no longer allowing walk on camping so you actually have to make a reservation on your phone and then pull up to get your site. We got a beautiful site but unfortunately next to us was a family that left their dog in the camper for the entire day and the dog just barked his head off constantly. Even with the barking dog it was still a beautiful time at the campground. We decided to spend a second night but we wanted to change our spot plus we needed to get some more sunlight for the solar panels that are on our roof which charge our batteries in the van. We moved to a really nice sunny spot. A great spot except for the guy there that ran his generator for the entire day and night. I just don’t understand people who run loud generators. It makes no sense to me.

The next day we headed towards Ohio in the hopes of spending some time in our favorite store… Lehmans. This is like an Amish store where they sell everything that you could ever possibly need for off grid living. We decided to stay at the Evergreen RV park which we have been at before. This is a very fancy RV park. The bathrooms here are unbelievable you get your own shower with toilet and sink, It’s like your own bathroom in your own house it’s unbelievable. They also have an indoor pool and a large covered picnic area that you could use their propane barbecues if you wanted to the place is meticulous and the landscaping is just gorgeous!!

We had a nice Amish meal in a basement restaurant near Lehmans Greg had a fried bologna sandwich which is always a fun thing to get. Oh I forgot to mention that we are the only ones wearing masks. There was absolutely no mention of COVID-19 or masks in the Pennsylvania state park. we saw hardly any masks in any of the stores or anywhere where we went in Ohio so far..

Currently we are doing a little Camping at a tiny spot at the end of the road next to a river with a dam lock somewhere in Ohio. we have the entire place to ourselves and we had to pay online again because of the pandemic. Normally you would put your money in an envelope and deposited in a little wooden box at a place like this but because of the pandemic they are not allowing that anymore and all transactions are being done online with a credit card either way works for us we’re just grateful to be able to be out here camping.

We have been cooking every night since being on the road. Currently we are in a quest to finish everything in the fridge so that we can defrost the freezer. With the heat we have been having, our fridge/freezer combo has been working way to hard. I think if we defrost the freezer, we can start a new especially when we start heading south to Kentucky.

Last night was great sleeping weather. I woke up to a 59° foggy morning on the river.

We found a 12 volt rechargeable bug light for the van. This thing works great although I did wake up with 3 new bites. They love my sweetness.

Drove another 2 hours (we are loving these short drives.) In the past we always wanted to get in as much as we could before school started. But now, it makes no difference. We will get there when we get there. So we picked another State Park in Ohio called Deer Creek. Every site has electric which is always an added bonus. They have a beautiful Lodge here where we had a nice dinner overlooking the lake. This morning I took a ridiculously long hot shower before anyone else in the campground even woke up. Then made breakfast. We are gonna go on a hike to burn off those pancakes and then head out.

Today we head to Winton Woods where we will spend the next 4 days. Will send out another blog next week or so.