Day 38 - Timber Ridge Campground, Amhurst, Ohio

DH and I both got up at 6 AM. I was sleeping on the recliner and fighting with the pillows all night as they kept falling into the stairwell. I of course thought of using the stairs cover but figured the noise my wake up MIL.

DH had to tell MIL, Rise and Shine this morning. She made a disapproving face. DH threatened her with the camera and posting it on Facebook. It really is an idle threat as DH doesn't post anything on Facebook. However she did get up and dressed pretty fast.

Since we were in the Northern Chicago suburbs, we ended up going right through Chicago at rush hour. DH was tired midway through as he didn't sleep well last night. So I took over driving and MIL rode shotgun, as navigation is not her forte. All was going well until Indiana wanted me to navigate through a toll booth that had 6" between my mirrors and the toll booth sides. MIL asked me if I could retract the mirrors. I said, "NO!" Then I put it in neutral and put the parking brake on simultaneously yelling "GEORGE!!" "I NEED YOU!!!" So he came and changed spots with me and MIL changed spots with me too. Of course the next toll plaza had wider spaces between the toll booths. Some states have Express roads that read the EZPASS from above.

DH said to me he didn't recognize the road we were on from last year. I said that is because the Gremlin didn't take us on the Interstate. It took us off in some of the questionable places. That is before I realized it was a gremlin. Last year all I could think of was the song words..."in the South side of Chicago, in the baddest part of town"...excerpt from "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown." Words and Music by Jim Croce. But we finally found our way back up to the Interstate.

DH was convinced he could get the weather sealing gaskets for the motorhome in Elkhart, Indiana. But first we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch. I had my favorite Pecan Pancakes. We went to the surplus RV parts dealer in Elkhart, but they didn't have the parts. DH said it was a waste of time. So I had found diesel at a Marathon station for $2.29 when all the other stations were either $2.45-2.65, so I navigated us there with the help of my trusty GPS Google Maps.

It was about 3:00 when DH asked what day is it? I said Wednesday. He suddenly moaned that he thought it was Thursday. The sudden realization that he could have hunted for replacement gaskets after all in Elkhart finally sunk in. However, we were now in Ohio.

A funny thing about Elkhart is the town has a cool graphic logo with a drawing of an elk framed in a heart. It is really nicely done and graphically pleasing to one's eye. The only problem is a hart is a deer, not a heart. I'm sure the founding Fathers of Elkhart thought they were clever in naming the town. After all Elkdeer doesn't sound as good as Elkhart.

We had intended to stay at a travel plaza on the Ohio Turnpike. We got nervous when the plazas East bound were razed. Just empty parking lots that were barricaded. DH picked out a campground 79 miles away along our route. I called the campground and found out that their office closed at 5 but they would meet us at the gate when we arrived. DH told me to tell them we would be there by 6. At first, looking at the crazy directions that the Gremlin showed, looked like I said, crazy. Google agreed somewhat. Google had the road number and the Gremlin used a street name. Neither name nor number was on the road. The directions proved correct.
When we arrived the gate magically opened. I went into the office and paid $40. When I came out of the office, there was a little charcoal gray alley rabbit, as my Grandfather referred to stray cats. I was worried that it would follow me back to the motorhome, but it was more interested in the dumpster. There were several other young cats too. They belonged to the campground, so they weren't strays.

I had a mental lapse or something. When we went to unhook the MDX. We had to unhook it because our site was a back in. I put the MDX in Park but then I couldn't get it in reverse. So I used the trick DH showed me to get the gear shifter to move to reverse when there was no power. Then the MDX lurched backwards but it was still looked up. DH wanted me to drive forward a little bit but thankfully the MDX was still hooked up as the brake wasn't working. DH figured the brakes were burned out. I jumped out of it in hysterics. Instead it was my fault that it wasn't working! DH came and looked to see what the problem was and I totally forgot to take the brake assist off! Finally it was unhooked correctly and I drove the MDX near our site. DH expertly backed up the motorhome into our lake front site. Some lake front campground sites have hookups near the road so you can pull in and have the lake view. This campground has the lake front sites backwards for Motorhomes.

We had pulled pork for dinner and leftover French fries that I cooked in the convection oven. MIL had leftover poached egg, and grits. At the diesel station I picked up Blue Bunny Popsicles. A guy there told me I really had the munchies since I bought more than one. Of course he didn't know one was for DH. MIL still has Banana Pudding ice cream so I didn't get her one.