You just never know what's next!

UGH!!!!! Well, here's a picture that I was hoping wouldn't show up in the '09 trip!!

Yep, the truck went DOWN!!! The morning we left Junius Ponds on our way to Allentown, we got as far as Cortland, NY on US 81 and "funny things began happening". We were able to limp into the Ford Dealership in Cortland - it turned out that there was a problem with the cooling system for the EGR, and yet again a small leak in the radiator! Ford paid for everything and to have the camper towed to a nearby campground so we made the best of an unexpected 3 day stay in Cortland before we could get back on the road to Allentown. Thank goodness for the bikes!

With the 4th new radiator in 45,000 miles, we headed out about 6PM on Wed September 2nd, and got only a half hour down the freeway when the transmission hose blew and we were off the side of the road and GOING NOWHERE!!

We contacted the dealership and the co-owners came out with 12 quarts of fluid - it took all of them!!! Apparently when they put everything back together and were trying to hurry and get it done for us, the tech forgot to slide the clamps back in place!!! Good grief!!! Well, about 9:00pm we were back under way and got to the Walmart in Trexlertown around midnight!


Thursday after taking care of some things in Trexlertown, we left for Pottstown, PA and the KZ Dealership. However, because we weren't able to get it there on Monday as planned, they didn't have time available to do the major warranty work on it then. We decided to leave it with them for the entire month of September so we could follow through with the rest of our plans!!!


We headed to Maryland to see friends Pete and Barb and stayed with them for Labor Day weekend. What a treat! We had great trips out on the Chesapeake Bay on their boat, played with their Kayaks, enjoyed watching all 6 dogs, 2 birds, and several cats figure out how to "play nice" together, and of course ate great sea food.

Bruce and "Harley" seemed to develop a special bond!

The picture below was taken off the back of Pete and Barb's boat looking across the bay toward Annapolis one evening.





Before we left the area, we found time to visit a dear friend of Carol's, Kaye Craft, who lives in Rockville, MD. With Kaye's busy travel schedule, we were lucky to have an opportunity to enjoy a wonderful lunch and great conversation with her.



It also gave us a chance to drive across the Bay Bridge for another amazing view of the Chesapeake.





Then it was time to leave for Ohio with just the dogs and the truck. Bruce dropped Maya off in Ada, and we left Gypsy and the truck in Columbus with Ryan who took us to the airport for our trip to California.

More as soon as we can get it together!!!
Bruce and Carol

Phelps,New York

HELLO! HELLO!!

No, we didn't fall off the face of the earth.... just got WAY too busy to take care of the blog until now..... So, we're going to do this last official post of the New England part of our trip, and then a few posts covering our adventures on the way to Florida, as soon as we can get them togehter!

Here we go!




Well, here we are at our last stop on the Great New England Tour! It's exciting to be in the Great Lakes area of New York, and at Junius Ponds Campground in Phelps. Without doubt this is the biggest campsite anywhere, and having spent her 60th birthday here, Carol is quite nostalgic! Janet and Ron had a wonderful pull-through just one site over and we celebrated the successful completion of our trip together with a cookout on our last night in the campground.


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During the week we took a wonderful ride all around Seneca Lake to Watkins Glen. The road coming down into town from the famous Watkins Glen Race Track provides a breathtaking view of the Lake (as captured from the passenger seat behind Bruce).

Along the way we counted 44 Wineries just around the perimeter of the Lake! It's such a beautiful view everywhere you look, and we had wonderful weather to enjoy it all.

Stay tuned for our final post for '09!

Carol & Bruce