Visiting the Poconos

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Visiting the Poconos

The last two years, we spent most of the summer in the Pittsburgh, PA area to see our family and friends as well as get in all of our annual doctor’s visits. This year, we planned a 2 1/2 month trip through New England during the summer. As the cost of fuel increased, we debated on changing our plans and staying in Pittsburgh. Our travel plans have been interrupted in past 2 years due to Covid and other obligations so we were torn about changing plans again. Even though it is costing us more for fuel, we decided to go ahead with our trip. We chose this lifestyle to travel and see the USA so we had to keep traveling. The one change we made was to leave the Mustang behind at Tim’s mom’s house. At least we only have to buy fuel for one vehicle.

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Passing Through PA With a Side Trip to Maryland

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Passing Through PA With a Side Trip to Maryland

We spent the last month visiting our hometown, Pittsburgh, PA and enjoying our family and friends. We stayed at Mountain Top Campground again. It has become our home park while we are back in the Pittsburgh area. The location works out well for us; somewhat central to where our various family lives. One benefit to this campground are the gorgeous sunsets over the rolling hills.

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Visiting Hershey, PA

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Visiting Hershey, PA

When I planned our spring travel north, I decided to save money by staying at as many Thousand Trails Campgrounds that we could. Since we had never been to any of the parks in Pennsylvania, it was an easy decision to try one out for three weeks before heading to the Pittsburgh area. The reviews of most of the parks in Central PA were pretty good and it seemed that the Hershey Thousand Trails was a favorite of many so we picked that one. It turned out to be a great choice.

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Springtime in the Carolinas

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Springtime in the Carolinas

After the nasty storms, we ended up with beautiful weather for the rest of stay in South Carolina and most of our stay in North Carolina. The days were warm but not too hot with sunny, blue skies and light breezes. The nights were cool and very comfortable. My absolute favorite weather and perfect for touring some coastal towns.

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Weather Challenges

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Weather Challenges

When we left Florida last spring, we traveled north through Alabama up through the midwest to Indiana and Michigan. Since it was spring, we had a risk of storms coming through and in a couple places in Alabama, we had tornado watches. Luckily we never experienced a tornado warning or an actual tornado. It definitely seemed to us that taking a slightly western route first to head north has an increased risk of severe weather in the spring. So this year, we decided to take a more eastern route and head north up the east coast. That may not have been the best idea!

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Enjoying Central Florida and Family time

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Enjoying Central Florida and Family time

I know that I haven’t written a blog post in awhile, mostly because we didn’t have much new to share.. After I returned to Florida, Tim and I settled into a daily routine and didn’t tour around much. It gets that way when you stay in one place for a longer period of time. When we are moving every few days or weeks, we get excited about being in new places and spend more time touring and being in that vacation mindset. When we are at an extended stay, we tend to lose that “on vacation” feeling and spend more time at the campground.

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Missing That Florida Sunshine

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Missing That Florida Sunshine

It is mid January and a cold day in Pittsburgh with the first big snow storm expected. Yes, you heard that correctly, I am back in Pittsburgh and it is winter. While I am thrilled to be here helping my daughter with her first baby, my first grandchild, I miss Tim and the warm Florida sunshine. December in Florida was wonderful with almost perfect weather, cool nights and warm sunny days

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Beach Time

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Beach Time

We are back in Florida for our third winter and it is the first time that we stayed near the Atlantic Ocean. I thought we should have a few days at the beach so our first stop was just north of Daytona and was fairly close to Ormond and Flagler beaches. When we upgrade our Thousand Trails membership last year, we got a year free of their Trails Collection membership. This is an add on to Thousand Trails that includes additional RV parks for an additional annual fee. We hadn’t fit any of those parks into our travels yet and I wanted to try one.

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Visiting Low Country

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Visiting Low Country

From Forest Lake, we moved onto The Oaks at Point South, a Thousand Trails Campground in South Carolina. This campground is situated in South Carolina’s Low Country, which to us meant there was a risk of flooding when it rains. Unfortunately it rained the first couple of days that we were here and luckily our site didn’t totally flood but there was quite a bit of water near where I parked my car. Luckily the water drained away fairly quickly once the sun came out. Fortunately, after the first 2 days, it has been sunny for the rest of our stay.

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Fall in North Carolina, part 2

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Fall in North Carolina, part 2

Fall has always been my favorite season. I love the cooler days, crisp evenings and brilliant colors. It makes me want to spend my time outdoors, walking through the woods, even on cloudy rainy days. I was a little worried that we would not get to enjoy the seasons as much as full time RVers, since we travel with the weather; trying to always stay somewhat warm.

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Beautiful Fall Days in North Carolina

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Beautiful Fall Days in North Carolina

The last 2 years, we had hoped our fall travels would bring slightly cooler temperatures but not too cold with views of mountains covered with the vibrant colors of fall. We initially left Pennsylvania, Oct. 8, 2019 and traveled south through Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama through October and November. While we saw some vibrant colors on the trees, it was a very cold fall and the leaves disappeared quickly. The next year, we headed out of Pennsylvania earlier, spending some of August in Ohio, then we headed south quickly through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama reaching Florida by late October. The entire trip was hot and we didn’t see any fall leaves. So this year, we thought we would try leaving in October again and spend some time in North Carolina to catch the perfect fall weather.

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End of Summer 2021

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End of Summer 2021

Tim and I were pretty busy our last month in Pittsburgh as summer ended and fall began. We continued to spend as much time as we could with family and friends. It was so wonderful to have that time together. We really enjoyed every visit and family gathering. I do feel bad that we didn’t get to see everyone so if we missed you this year, we will catch you the next time.

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Back in the “Burgh”

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Back in the “Burgh”

This guy surprised me this morning when I headed out with the dog. He was just hanging out on our front door and was still there after our morning walk. Believe it or not, this has been our most exciting happening since being back in the Pittsburgh area. Perhaps a bit boring, but we are enjoying being back home.

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Last Minute Changes

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Last Minute Changes

When we joined Thousand Trails, included was a 2 year membership to RPI (Resort Parks International). We can stay at their parks for $10 a night. I found one not too far off of our route so booked it for 5 nights. Well that didn’t work out so well for us. Our drive was mostly interstate except the last 40 minutes or so. It was the longest 40 minutes along country roads covered with low hanging trees. I drove in front to guide Tim and block the road as needed for him to drive in the center or even the wrong side of the road to avoid hitting the trees. Low hanging tree branches can seriously damage the rubber roof on our fifth wheel. Then we pull into a campground filled with trees. If you have a smaller camper or even one that doesn’t sit too high, this campground could work for you. For us it would have been a challenge.

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Making Waves

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Making Waves

Making waves: not us, but you should see the huge freighters coming down the river. They create a wake that resembles waves rolling into the shore at a beach. The water here makes us feel like we are in the Caribbean. I never expected to see such crystal clear vibrant blue water on an inand lake and river. Lake Huron and St. Clair River are absolutely beautiful and are a great place to visit.

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Dunes, dunes, and more dunes with a cherry on top!

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Dunes, dunes, and more dunes with a cherry on top!

From reading other RVers travel blogs, I knew that Michigan was a pretty state but I had no idea how beautiful until we visited. I am so glad that we decided to spend a month touring through this state. Since we are eventually heading back to Pennsylvania, we decided that we didn’t have time to visit the Upper Peninsula so we will have to come back at some point to see that area. For this trip, we planned a week in Empire, MI near Sleeping Bear Dunes and then 3 weeks in St. Clair, MI at a Thousand Trails park. With those two stops, we are able to visit both Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

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Visiting Michigan City, IN

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Visiting Michigan City, IN

While our RV was at Amish Family RV Service, we had to find a place to stay for a few days. I did some research and discovered that far west corner of Indiana is on Lake Michigan and there is a National Park there. Since we want to eventually visit all of the National Parks, we couldn’t pass up this opportunity. I found a small inn, Bridge Inn, in Michigan City that sits on an inlet from the lake and was really close to Indiana Dunes National Park. Seemed like the perfect place to spend a few days.

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Visiting Indiana Amish Country for RV Repairs

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Visiting Indiana Amish Country for RV Repairs

We arrived in Shipshewana, IN on Tuesday afternoon. We planned to stop here for a week prior to taking our RV to Amish Family RV Service for repairs and maintenance work. I am on a Cedar Creek Facebook group and heard so many great things about Orvan and the work he and his team do. Many people buy brand new Cedar Creek Fifth Wheels and take them immediately to Orvan for service. He has developed “extra’s” that he does to improve and stabilize the slide outs and the suspension. Every comment and review I saw were extremely positive so we planned to come this way to get some of the work done.

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Exciting News

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Exciting News

Exciting News - we adopted a dog! Our niece, Jenny, is involved with the Leader Dog program helping to raise and train puppies for the program. If the dog doesn’t make it to become a leader dog for the blind, she gets an opportunity to adopt. If she doesn’t want to keep the dog, a family member or friend can apply to adopt. She knew that we were interested so asked us if we wanted to adopt her latest dog, Trent, if he didn’t pass the program. Having a dog would be a big change for us and could impact our travels, so we thought seriously about it. Our last dog, Chance, came from the same program and he was such a wonderful dog. It was so hard when we lost him that we weren’t sure if we wanted to get another dog. Even though it was a difficult decision, we focused on the joy and happiness a dog can bring and decided to adopt Trent if he didn’t succeed.

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Spring 2021 Travels from Florida to Indiana

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Spring 2021 Travels from Florida to Indiana

Tim and I left Florida a few days earlier than planned on Saturday, April 17. The weather forecast was showing stormy weather heading our way and all day rain with more wind than we wanted to drive through. Even though it would be rainy in Alabama where we were heading, the weather maps indicated less rain and winds a little north of Florida. It started to rain just a little after we got into Alabama but not enough to impact our driving. The first day was a little longer for us but overall an easy travel day.

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