April 1 through April 13, 2005

Friday April 1:

At 7 AM it was 47.5 under the RV.  The temperature had fallen from 50 since I arose at 5AM, but I do not think the heat came on last night.  This was forecast to be the coldest night of the week...in the high 30's...but I do not think it got that cold.  It took me nearly two hours to process and sort out the keepers in the 276 pictures I took at the Truman library yesterday….but the "No Flash" prohibition there, combined with low light had induced me to take many duplicates to insure a good sharp image, and much deleting was in order.  We are not in any hurry today, as we travel to Blue Springs a short distance away, find the locations for Claire's TaekwonDo activities this weekend, and prepare to settle in at the Walmart there after her seminar is finished LATE tonight (for us...10PM).  The area around Blue Springs is pretty, with parks and lakes.

We have other things on our mind though, and find the Walmart; it's not a super, but is open 24 hours.  Parking is a bit congested, but we will arrive late and leave early both days we plan to overnight here.  We find convenient parking at the TaekwonDo school too, arriving a bit early;  we snug in along side a closed air conditioning shop with signs posted prohibiting parking for any but their customers....HUH?   Perhaps the heavy TaekwonDo parking in their empty lot must annoy them, as the school's lot is nearly full now?  Oh well, I'm going to be in the RV working on the webpage if someone complains...  A bit before 10PM Claire returns, happy with the thorough presentation given at the seminar by the lady head referee, Master Pat Weseman.  She also reports that the school is run by a woman, Master Terry Gautreaux, who had won Olympic events in TaekwonDo years before.  I drive to the Walmart, and we find parking open for the night.  Sleep is quick, as the morning activity will start early....it's a net day!  :-)   

Saturday April 2:

I awoke at 4AM, it was COOL inside and 40 under the RV.  The heat had run, and power was somewhat limited, so at 6:30 when Claire acknowledged she was conscious, I started the generator and pushed the heat up to shower temperature.  This is Claire's day to referee at the TaekwonDo tournament here, and we're gonna use the water even if there is no immediate replacement!  :-)   We left for the tournament location, a local school, in plenty of time, and found level school bus parking ...IDEAL for this RV!  :-)  I busied myself with the computer, and Claire disappeared before 8:30 AM, we expect for the whole day.  It was near 6:30 PM when she returned, reporting that the event had been a good time for her; it was very efficiently run, and she had refereed center ring to the point that she had become so tired that she felt others should do it to be fair to the contestants.  She was not completely enamoured of the electronic scoring equipment, which was erratic enough in its operation to be annoying.  We moved back to Walmart for the night, and quickly heated left over soup for dinner. I convinced her to review the web page so I could finish uploading it tonight, then we went to bed. Sleep was deep, despite the occasional loud muffler...then toward morning the parking lot sweeper that evidently had a broken part dragging noisily.   :-(  Oh well, the parking IS free!  :-)

Sunday April 3:

Today is a net day, and I'm up early for that.  The time has changed to Daylight Time overnight, and for the first time in a while it is the alarm that wakes me.  Claire arose before 8AM, and we moved out quickly.  We plan over 200 miles driving today, with a fuel, shower, dump, and water fill at Flying J on the way.  A check of Flying J fuel prices online revealed that the propane price had jumped over 75 cents a gallon at the station north of St Louis we were planning to overnight at, so we had no reason to drive the extra 15 miles to get there to overnight. From the lowest price on propane, they had become the highest in one day. We cross the Missouri River for the first time this trip a bit west of Columbia MO.  

Although it flows through Kansas City, we had not gone far enough north to cross it there. The river here does not look deep enough for barges, but we are not sure if they do come this far.  We'll cross it again in busy St Louis where it and the Mississippi meet.  Both rivers are busy with barge traffic there when we cross and soon we find ourselves in Illinois.  We had picked a Sam's/Walmart location in O'Fallon IL, well on the east side of St Louis (to avoid East St Louis) and, drove there by the most direct route on I-70 through the city.  Traffic on Sunday was not a problem.   We found the Walmart store easily, and there were no signs restricting our overnight parking.  :-)  We shopped a little in Walmart, but passed on the short walk to Sam's.  The sun was still high, although it was late afternoon (Daylight Saving Time to thank for that...or maybe not, as it is quite WARM inside while we cook).  At least we are traveling in the high pressure good weather region between storm systems, and pretty much expect to stay ahead of the next disturbance until Thursday when we will arrive in Lexington VA.  We can open up for ventilation when we need it!  :-)) Claire made spaghetti, we made phone calls, and I finished with the net for the week.  After dishes are done, I found it VERY easy to sleep here (perhaps it is the early wake ups for the weekend net use that make it that way?  :-)

Monday April 4:

It was warm overnight.  We did not turn the furnace on nor put the heavy comforter out at all.   We both overslept our intended 7AM wake up to get an early start, as we intend to drive over 200 miles, with a stop at Camping World near Louisville KY (but on the Indiana side of the Ohio river) for a new sewer hose.  We will lose ANOTHER hour out of our life today, with the change back to Eastern Time shortly before we get to Louisville, and do not want to arrive at Camping World too late to shop; they close at 6PM EDT.  We hurried across Illinois, puzzled a bit by clouds of dust or smoke drifting onto the highway in the distance ahead of us.   THEN we saw the cause....

Busy farm vehicles were travelling the gravel roads alongside the highway....vehicles too busy to slow down for dust!    We crossed the broad brown muddy waters of the Wabash river, entering Indiana.  

I'm surprised to see the oil rigs dotting the farm fields....

I've never thought of Indiana as an oil state.  We are soon crossing the mighty Ohio river on the outskirts of Louisville, and entering Kentucky.  

This barge of coal was resting along the river bank...waiting for???    The tug's left screw was turning, assuring the barges would not leave their position until desired though....  The drive through downtown Louisville was interesting ....  

This is a MAJOR city.  I apologize for the bug blotches on the windshield...sorry!   We crossed the Ohio river again, the shortest way to Camping World in Clarksville IN, and arrived there before 3PM.  We knew they did not allow overnight parking in this place, but did not fully appreciate WHY until we arrived.  They are co-located with an RV dealer, and the lot was CROWDED with new RVs for sale. They had signs posted prohibiting overnight parking per a city ordnance, but I'm sure it was also for the RV dealer's convenience.   We took the last open parking space, and bought our new sewer hose.  I insisted on changing the hose end fittings here, so the old hose could be disposed of here, and we might buy anything else we needed to make the new sewer hose serviceable if our fittings should prove unserviceable when removed.  Since there was still lots of daylight remaining after the hose was ready, I opted to clean the windshield which had caught lots of bugs since our last fuel stop, then used the remaining water to get some of the bugs off the front end of the RV too.  By the time I was finished, Claire had found a Sam's/Walmart on I-64 east of Louisville she preferred for our overnight, rather than the one we had planned near Churchill Downs racetrack.  She thought it best to get out of the city by the most expeditious path, as rush hour was upon us.  Seeing Churchill Downs was not that important; it's just another racetrack!  The Louisville waterfront is pretty from the bridge over the Ohio river.

 We found the Sam's near the exit, but the development was new and not showing on the GPS map.  We visually homed on the sign, and while shopping received permission to park overnight from a Customer Service Manager, who called the manager, who said we should park away from the gas station (which was $2.159/g for members) and away from the store, out of the way.  Two people gave us directions to two Walmarts in the area, but they were not useful directions to us...we'll stay here, with the highway in sight!  The day was WARM (hot even, in the late afternoon).  Spike had TWO blooms open near day's end when we moved to our overnight parking place.

 His pot is HOT to the touch from the sun coming in the windshield where he sits in front of the curtain, and evidently he LOVES that.  :-))  We give him just a splash of water each day on top of the desert soil in the pot, not even enough to run around the whole top surface of the pot.  It is absorbed to invisibility within a minute.  If he is not getting correct treatment, we cannot tell from his activity.  :-) Dinner is steak fried with onions, baked sweet potatoes and Cole slaw.  After dishes are done, Claire was not ready for bed while it was still light...but I'm not that proud.  :-)  Tonight sleep is not so easy, as it seems too warm, and there are trucks idling all night ( I do not understand why they do that with Diesel fuel near $2.20/g).

Tuesday April 5:

I am up at 4AM to work on the log, which always seems to fall behind on weekends when the net is available.   Overnight was WARM.  Blankets were too hot until well after midnight, and Claire had closed the overhead vents when she came to bed, mainly to reduce the noise from the idling Walmart truck nearby.  At 6AM dawn was breaking and it was 56 degrees under the RV.  We plan a relatively short driving day (a bit under 200 miles) to overnight at a Flying J with the cheapest propane on our route.  We will refill fuel at a less expensive Flying J 40 miles down the interstate, then proceed to our overnight destination for showers, water and dump.   We get an early start, as the idling truck nearby is not conducive to a late sleep for Claire. We stop for fuel, and find the price is $2.049, considerably below area market, but as posted on the web Sunday. We are passing through bluegrass country, and the farms on gentle rolling hills are beautiful.

Even cellphone towers can be attractive in settings like this ... but then maybe I'm somewhat biased.  :-)  We decide that a stop for shopping at a Super Walmart, and then laundry is in order today, if we can find a place.  The list shows a Super Walmart 10 miles ahead in a fair sized town so we decide THAT is the place to switch drivers, stop for lunch, shop, and try for a laundromat.  The town seems to have developed a lot since the GPS map was published, and we must guess at the Walmart location from the Interstate exit, but we luckily head the correct direction to find the right road, and find it less than a mile away.  After lunch we shopped, and got directions to a laundromat.  Laundry went pretty fast, and we were back on the road early afternoon.  We were SHOCKED to see the gas price at the Flying J we stopped at for the nigh was up from already high $2.199 to $2.349 when we pulled in, but propane was posted at $1.799 when it had been showing on the web Sunday at $2.139.  We pulled in to park in the large lot, and considered what we should do.  Clearly the Flying J system seems confused by the rapidly changing oil prices.  After consideration, we decide that filling propane NOW is our best bet, lest it go up 30 cents a gallon by morning when we would usually fill to replace the propane used overnight.  We pulled in to the RV island to fill propane and phoned for service.  After what seemed a long time, I phoned again.  After another long wait I walked inside and asked.  The lady on the desk said the tech was changing the sign and would get to us when he was finished...oh, nuts!   Are they upping  the propane price?  I look, and the tech is LOWERING the gas price to $2.259...that is nine cents change in less than 30 minutes!!  Finally he walks towards us with his tools, leaving the propane at $1.799.  He apologizes for the wait, but said corporate had called telling them to change the price, and he must respond to that immediately.  I'm not sure what is going on, but it sure is confusing to customers!  The web cannot be believed for sure, and your eyes watching the signs cannot be believed for long either....  :-(  It was HOT in the RV while Claire made dinner.  The outside temperature is near 80 this afternoon, and the sun shone in brightly.  We soon opened the screen door for relief...something we have not done since the desert.  Dinner is ground pork with mushroom sauce over brown rice, with steamed celery and carrots.  It is quite delicious...and I made sure that there were no left overs to put away.  :-)  The business report revealed total confusion in the oil market...so I guess we must forgive Flying J for their confusion.  We decide to stop at Walmart in WV to price their gas, and fill if at all reasonable, before proceeding to visit our friends in Lexington VA.  This price confusion is best countered with a full tank!

Wednesday April 6:

We got a late start this AM, but Claire did not sleep well in the Flying J  noise and awoke late; we had showers and dumping to do, and did not hit the road until nearly 11AM..  The driving in WVA was hilly, but I-64 from the WVA line to Charleston was very good in that the grades were limited to that which we could pull in overdrive with no downshifting.  Charleston had the capitol building, which in the distance looked unique...and even attractive, with its white dome.  Only when we got closer did we realize it was a traditional columned dome with a white plastic renovation cover.  :-))

I still think it's a style setter!  From Charleston on, including the toll part of the road with two $1.50 toll plazas ($1.25 for cars) some hills were STEEP, both up and down.

This four mile 7% downgrade was "safeguarded" by a steep downhill runaway truck lane that looked like a runaway truck might plow through the single pile of gravel at the end and continue off a high cliff.

I'm not sure I'd want that single gravel pile as my only salvation with over 50,000 pounds of load.....   We stopped near Beckley WVA to use a free dump around N37.80130d W81.21330d in a big rest stop at exit 45.  The water on the dump was said to be unsafe, but we used the gas island to top off the water that had a bad fill at the Flying J due to front high position of the RV at the fill station.  We found we were over an inch down on water in the tank after filling there, and did not want to be caught short.  West Virginia is extremely good about supplying RV dump stations at rest stops.  Claire shopped a crafts store located here, while I explored the maps.  There is a 106 degree hot spring said to be at Hot Springs VA.  I am considering driving 40 miles out of our way to check it out. :-)  The transmission temperature hit 181 degrees on one uphill that had a long hard pull in second gear. I reset the alarm temperature from 170 to 177, as we had never exceeded 170 before This is the hottest we have ever seen since installing the gauge this winter at a campground on Lake Mead near Las Vegas.  The A/C does seem to raise the transmission temperature almost 10 degrees when it runs, and it was running on this over 80 degree day.  We stop at a Super Walmart in Lewisburg to buy a few forgotten items and check gas prices; at $2.249 I decide to pass, and take our chances in VA.  We move on to the VA welcome station for info on the hot spring.  The spring they have info on is only 98 degrees, and is located in Warm Springs.  The lady remarks that there are springs at the Homestead lodge, but they are only for guests.  I later find that the Homestead is in the town of Hot Springs, while the public pools are in Warm Springs.  I'm not about to drive 40 miles out of my way to find only guests can use the 106 degree pool.  We'll pass on this one until we can get better info. We find really pretty views, especially from bridges crossing high above the streams in the valleys. 

Here there is evidence of plenty of spring rain in the high water, and really fast turbulent flow.  We drive to Covington VA and find signs on the exit to...WALMART GRILL!  Usually we must guess which way to turn.  The Street Atlas data put the Walmart in the middle of a roadless National Forest, and was obviously erroneous.  We follow the sign, and come to the Walmart immediately off the exit.  There are signs posted prohibiting truck and trailer parking;  this is bad if it's true!  I go in to ask, find a couple left over Motorcraft FL820S oil filters to buy, and receive management permission to park over night.  :-)))))  It is HOT while cooking.  There is TV and we use it for weather info, as the NOAA coverage is too weak to hear in this deep valley.  It looks like tomorrow afternoon and Friday will be showery in Lexington.  At least it will be cool for farm work...  :-)  The cell coverage here is 5 bar native Verizon. We're back in VA!  :-) KY and WVA had good digital coverage along the interstate, but it was NOT Verizon. There are a few trucks and a large motorhome that pull in to park for a while, but none stay long.  A group of young folks are chatting noisily at the edge of the parking lot when I go to bed, but I am soon asleep.  Claire watches TV until late.  There are new shows on tonight. :-)

Thursday April 7:

This is a QUIET place to sleep!  :-)))))))))  A train or two passes in the night, but NO TRUCK ENGINES are idling constantly.  Walmart security is running around in a pickup truck with a silent muffler, and we do not hear them.  It was WARM overnight; 63 degrees at 5:30 AM, and the automatic closing overhead is still open.  This weather is unseasonably warm, near record highs for the date according to TV weather last night.  That is expected to change today as a front moves in, bringing showers.  Claire is awake by 7AM, as we prepare for an 8AM departure.  The log writing is going well this morning (it does not always).  We are a few minutes behind our plan pulling out, but it's less than 35 miles to Ron & Elizabeth's Saville Hill Farm.  Even though the last 12 miles will be slow on the narrow country roads, we'll still be there by mid-morning.  I look for the farm's lat-lon in the trip plan...and the last page which carries it has ripped off and become hopelessly lost....probably days ago.  I insist on starting the computer again to get this data, putting us further behind plan.  :-(  We start, with Claire driving as I try to enter the lat-lon I have written down for the farm in the GPS. It is OBVIOUSLY wrong, so we will have to rely on the written turn directions and mileage.  The plan is to take exit 35 on I-64, and find state road 770 leading directly to the farm, rather than go 35 miles further to take the familiar route through Lexington.  On the way to the exit, I found the location of the farm on the GPS map....the roads are distinctive and recognizable when zoomed way in, and I set the GPS to navigate to the spot. When I check the lat-lon, I see what happened; I had copied one digit wrong from the computer screen, and that throws everything off.  I'm not as good dealing with the small numbers Street Atlas puts on the screen as I used to be...  :-(  When we drove down the exit, and turned right, all looked OK.  The left onto 770 however, was where we started to have a few misgivings.  The turn was a sharp 270 degrees, and the road was NARROW.  It was two lane for cars...but not for two large vehicles.  We have 3.7 miles to go to a (hopefully) better road...but in less than a mile the road becomes a single lane, and starts to climb.  We see a driveway that we might use to turn around, but keep going.  This road MUST get better...it's a state road, and we are only 12 miles from Saville Hill farm...as the crow flies!  Ahead we see a SHARP switchback turn...and beyond the road gets steeper.  This road is NOT for us...we cannot fly like the crow, and our vehicle is too long for that turn and does not hinge in the middle...so now we must turn around.  :-(((((  The road builders had flattened an area at the turn for their equipment to turn to start the next upward leg of the switchback...but it was cluttered with small fallen tree limbs now.  It looks like we may have just enough room to back around if we use that...so I get out and clear the limbs as much as possible without a saw...which I must be sure we take with us next time!  The terrain is much more formidable from outside the RV than it had looked from inside.  Everything I see is close and UP or DOWN.  Claire does a great job driving, as she must trust me and the road not to put her and the RV over the edge into the ravine while she sits cantilevered out into space looking down into the abyss...not fun I'm sure!  It's a tight squeeze with a number of backs required, but we get turned around and headed back toward civilization.  There are no other roads showing that might go through, so we opt to get back on the highway.  We might have noted previously, if we'd been alert, that I-64, which had come straight from St Louis to here with only one jog in mountainous 7% grade West Virginia seemed to circle around Saville Hill farm to the north on a constant 12 mile radius....  :-)   There is another exit before Lexington that might be a shortcut...but we opt to take the Interstate to the known good path rather than chance the unknown in this area again. We might be naive, but we CAN learn!   :-)))  We arrive at our pre-arranged parking place on the neighboring Leech dairy farm in the valley about mid morning.  Surprisingly, the mountain road adventure has cost us little time...but we have no pictures either.  We were just TOO preoccupied to think about taking any; sorry. :-(    Ron soon meets us and drives us up his Saville Hill Farm driveway ...

This is a small working sheep farm specializing in sheep, wool, and crafts associated with them.  Ron and Elizabeth built the farm from timbered hills...the road, fields, barns and farm buildings, even the HOUSE was cleared and built mostly by their hands, and they readily admit they could not start over now....  :-)  They tell their story better than I ever could on the farm website...just click the link below!

I'm struck by how much better the driveway looks than SR770 did,  and we do not think it is a good idea to drive up the driveway to the farm in the RV....   The driveway is just as wide, and has much wider turns than that state road had!   :-))

Removing the brush and undergrowth along the road is our chore for the next few days (it's sticking out enough to scratch the paint on passing vehicles)..  We find Elizabeth is looking fit, well along in her recovery from a broken ankle last Thanksgiving.  The weather is predicted rainy this afternoon, but we plan to help clear brush from the driveway as long as weather permits.  The four of us are working by 11, chopping thorny multiflora rose and honeysuckle vines from the driveway's edge.  Rain starts, slowly at first, but we continue through the afternoon, with an hour break for lunch.  The worst rain happens during the lunch break...so someone IS looking after us.  :-))  Elizabeth cooked a GREAT roast beef, potato and carrot dinner after we showered and changed, and we chatted until 10PM...wow, time flies when we're having fun!  Elizabeth is showing a limp now, she's TIRED, but so are we!  We agree to start again 9-ish in the morning, and drive Ron's pickup truck slowly down the driveway through the fog to the RV. It takes barely 5 minutes for us to hang our wet clothes to dry for tomorrow and snuggle between the sheets.  It's snoring time tonight!

Friday April 8:

I'm awake by 6:30…and want to keep up with the webpage.  It's harder when we work hard days and need our night's sleep more, but as long as I awake naturally, I'll keep working the log.  By 8:15 it's time to prepare for the day…..and I waken Claire.  We both notice the effects of a hard day's work....but Ron and Elizabeth do this every day.  We need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and tough it out...this is the hardest.... the third day gets easier.  :-))    After coffee we were ready to resume cutting brush along the driveway.  There was little rain today, just cooling clouds.  The progress the four of us were making was visible, and after lunch we kept going until late afternoon.  The border collies still wanted their run, so we watched while Ron played the "stick game" with them.

These boys are constant ACTION!  They become just a blur of black and white.....border collie in motion.... as they tug at the stick Ron threw them.  :-)   They are fun, and more on this farm, as they help handle the sheep moving between the barn and pasture.   The "old goat" on this farm, Romulus, trotted eagerly to greet us....

Alas, when he reached the fence, we had no treats for him....SORRY, Romulus!   It is time for dinner for all dogs however.....

The border collies are right up front with tails wagging........   while Miss Dee waits patiently on the bed in the bunkhouse......

She can afford to be patient; she resembles nothing so much as a polar bear out of place.....except in her disposition.  She is just the SWEETEST animal .....at least to us.  She roams the farm day and night, patrolling the property for intruders, and must have her tough side we never see; a few years ago she treed a mama black bear and two fairly large cubs in front of the house, and kept them up there until morning when Ron awoke to keep her inside long enough for them to escape...  :-)  She also defended some of the sheep from two dogs that attacked the flock in pasture two weeks ago;  sadly, she could not save them all, and we see wool  from three that were killed hanging on the fence.  They had desperately climbed THROUGH the barbed wire fence trying to escape...  :-((    These dogs are not expected to return (they kill for sport, not for food), but Ron and Elizabeth are now always counting sheep out their window...looking to see that something does not take them before their lambs come. Fortunately other sheep injured by the dogs could be sutured, and were well on the way to recovery.  The lead ewe had somehow gotten many of the flock back to the barn unharmed, using some unknown path....they were THOUGHT to be well fenced in their pasture!   Tonight when the animals are all cared for, we are going to town to fill up on Frank's delicious pizza....  This is always a special treat for us, as Frank's pizza is hard to beat ANYWHERE.  :-)  We are surprised at the large crowd in Frank's place, it being spring break at the colleges in Lexington, but it is not long before we are served and chatting with the locals working and frequenting this place.  This is a fun break for us all....college kids to watch, no cooking, and no dishes either!  :-))  Elizabeth volunteers to drive the 12 miles of dark twisty road back to the farm....and does a marvelous job too!

 Saturday April 9:

Today the sun is out in full force, and the farm is just BEAUTIFUL.  We start an hour later...just to be sure we all get our beauty rest.  :-)

This view from outside the house shows a small part of the beauty of the hilltop; in all directions we see grand vistas..... We had a surprise waiting in the sheep barn....TRIPLETS, all white clean and fluffy, wandering around among the feet of 15 sheep....but healthy and bleating their distinctive high pitched baby "baaaas".  We quickly grabbed the lambs and led mama to a solitary pen to start them nursing....

Mama is ready for some high energy FOOD after her ordeal....and the lambs need to sort out how the three of them will share Mama's two nipples.  One of them insists on trying between the front legs....well, we all gotta learn!  :-)  We go back to work trimming brush, and finish the driveway in late afternoon.  Ron decides some preventative medicine is in order, and applies iodine to the lamb's umbilical cords to prevent infection using a specially designed applicator.

 They do not like this, and are vocal with their protests...I imagine it HURTS. :-(   It does beat the alternative though.  An infected cord could prove fatal.   Claire and Elizabeth team up to bag 'em and weigh 'em.  

Isn't it fitting that a Walmart bag should be recycled this way?  :-))  When the three are totaled up, mama has delivered 23 pounds of lamb....I am AMAZED....but had no idea mama was a 200 pound animal either!   Still, she did GOOD!  They are healthy and two are ewes.   :-)  I do think you'd want to use special care when counting full grown sheep to get to sleep not to let one fall on you though...  better yet, count cute l'il lambs.  :-))    Our attention to sheep is interrupted by two roosters battling for supremacy over the hen house.....  :-)

These guys are going at each other with vigor, jumping in the air with wings flapping and feet slashing! I wonder that they do not hurt each other.   I cannot imagine what a professional cockfight with knives on the claws would be like...yech!  The farm is a show a minute in the springtime!  :-))   Ron is not finished giving the newborns every edge he can, and hand milks mama to be sure each lamb gets some of mama's first infection fighting milk containing colostrum.

 The syringe without needle delivers 1/3 of the early milk to each lamb, so the eagerest eater cannot hog it all....  :-))  We are now ready to break for MILLER TIME!  

Ron sets the example, and the rest of us are fast to follow.  This has been a GOOD day on the farm; sunny day, new lambs, brush cutting finished, and  now we celebrate with Elizabeth's DELICIOUS weinersnitzel for dinner.  This is GOOD grub;  Elizabeth is a master fry cook, and red cabbage is the perfect companion dish, followed by strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream AND ice cream....WOW!.  Hot showers top it off perfectly!!  We decide to start at 10 in the morning again, and return to the RV for the night.  Sleep came fast tonight!

Sunday April 10:

Sleep lasted until well after sunrise today.  We plan to cut up and move some of the trees blown over by a recent windstorm.  One had fallen on the 7200 volt power line feeding the farm, and blacked it out for a half day.  First we MUST see if the lambs are OK...and are happy to see that they have learned their first task well...  

They all seem content, sleep a lot, and share mama's limited resources well.  :-))   We went to work and moved a lot of the light branches, but the chain saw was not cutting thick logs well, and we had to stop short of a finished job in the early afternoon. It was interesting to find the scorched charcoal black limbs that had touched the power line though!  We had time free for more fun, so we fed the catfish in the pond....

The fish are at least 18 inches long, and come to the surface to slurp up the dog food pellets Ron throws out to them.  I count 11 of the fish visible at one time.  We then looked over the 6 acre mountaintop hayfield.  The road up there is steep and rutted, and I do not envy Ron and Elizabeth their task to bringing the loads of hay down to the barn....but they've done it for years; WOW!    When we arrive back at the barn,  there are some baby chicks just hatched...a first on the farm.  

Mama seems to be sharing the nest and eggs, and is shy about showing off her offspring, but the "peep peep" sounds coming from under her wings spells "success".... whoever mama REALLY is....  :-)   Then Ron and Elizabeth prepared another treat for us; venison stew cooked over an outdoor fire in a pot suspended from a tripod in true colonial style....

This setup really allows the heat hitting the pot to be controlled well.  The bricks set in the ground on a curve act as a heat reflector, focusing more heat on the pot.  The chain has a hook allowing the height of the pot above the fire to be easily adjusted as needed.  The food cooks perfectly....

This stew is nearly ready......and soon we're eating...and eating...and....

Mmmmmmm good! :-))    The dogs thought so too....the border collies jumped onto the truck used as a table, and caught a nibble..  :-)  One even got so eager he bumped his head on the bed cover jumping up....but there was plenty for all.  We agree to stop up in the morning before we leave to help move a few things, and head to the RV for our last quiet night on the farm....

Monday April 11:

We noted the difference on the driveway as we drove up to the farm.

We are satisfied that the truck is no longer being scratched by the brush....  :-)  After helping move some things, we find mama and lambs in FINE shape, and say our goodbyes.

We had to have the final "farm crew" picture.....

Ron took us down the hill to the RV around 11:30, and after thanking Mr Leech for our parking space, and meeting his grandson Beau we departed.  Lunch was a very welcome home cooked soup Elizabeth sent with us, and her home baked whole wheat bread to go with it.  More mmmm mmm good!  We drove to the Carlisle Flying J after finding the Winchester VA one crowded and charging $2.18 for gas.  We expected Carlisle to be one cent cheaper, but found it at $2.12.  :-))  This parking is also tight, but we find a good slot on the end; the snowbird migration north has begun in earnest, being especially heavy with Canadians who may not be out of Canada too long to keep their medical coverage.  I reload the GPS with map data, plot the route to brother Bob's, and try to catch up on the log, but sleep soon calls.

Tuesday April 12:

This morning we must shower and dump before leaving, but do it quickly.  We are off to spend the evening with brother Bob and Kathy.  The drive goes quickly, and we arrive just before noon. Our china cabinet hook is tested at the corner to his street, and holds beautifully.  Last year coming in here the Corelle china emptied out, shattered, and left numerous tiny slivers EVERYWHERE (some we still find from time to time).  This time the stuff shifted on the turn, but the door held by the hook kept any dishes from falling out and breaking.  THANK YOU Ed from Lowville NY!  (The screen door hook was his idea, and it works GREAT!)  We hook up power, as we expect we might need quite a bit of heat overnight, then visit with Bob until Kathy arrives from work; we're heading to a favorite restaurant of theirs, Henry's Salt of the Sea, in Allentown near the Fairgrounds, and intend to arrive in time for the early bird special.  There is room for us without reservations, and we dawdle a bit over ordering.... EVERYTHING sounds delicious.  I finally decide on veal, Claire has fish.  The food is delicious, and we are all filled to...discomfort, at least...by the time we finish dessert and leave.  :-)  A walk in the nearby Trexler Park fixes most of the discomfort before we head home, and we chat until late...for us anyway.  Kathy must be up for work in the morning too...YIKES!

Wednesday April 13:

I'm up before Kathy leaves, working on the log. We wave goodbye, and she's off!  Today is our going home day…and we need to be on the road before noon.  We join Bob for coffee and Kathy's cinnamon bun treat. Mmmmmm good!  :-)  I photograph a photo of Pappy...now I have one that is not bad for comparison with Harry Truman, and it will be on the previous webpage when you read this.  Too soon it is time to go….  We take in the power cord and back out the driveway, waving goodbye to Bob.  Next stop is Pilot in NJ for a final top off of fuel...it is $2.06 at the T/A truck stop next door, 1 cent cheaper and MUCH less crowded, so we go there.  The drive home is uneventful...just LONG.  A stop at the New York state line gets us some travel brochures, then it is on to Massachusetts.  We are delayed by rush hour in Hartford CT, but arrive home around 7PM.  We're ready to stop!  Our Winter-Spring 2005 RV Adventure is over!

PLANS:  We are home for the summer, and do not expect to update the webpage again until we start the fall trip.  Where and when we go is to be determined, but it is fairly certain we WILL do our best to avoid snow wherever it may be!    :-)

Until next time.... ENJOY!  We did!

Barrie & Claire