Episode 38
1/2020
We arrived in St Augustine. We had a chore day, laundry, podcast and Trish did a workout. That evening we watched a episode of Cheers. In the summer if 2019 we visited the namesake bar in Boston and will watch the entire show. It brings back memories of our trip there and puts a smile on our face. And that my friends is Stress Management.
The next day we drove into St Augustine and paid $15 to park. We visited Fort Castillo de San Marcos. While it is a dirt in the oldest city in the USA, it is not the oldest fort. It was built in 1672. It is a National Park so our NP pass got us in for free. They had great docents and had a cannon firing ceremony. From there we went to the Visitors Center on San Marco Ave. We inquired about sites to see and she suggested a trolley tour. We said we would rather walk to various sites. She said there are 16 miles of roads and you can't see everything on foot. And again directed us to the trolley tour. It seemed like she was only interested in pushing the tour. We asked her hair far it was too Flagler college, which is on the other side of the city, she said 1/2 mile. So we didn't take the trolley lol. The trolly which is a hop on hop off bus was $25 per person. If you bought the ticket, the 2nd day was $10. We planned on seeing the city for 2 days and so we just saved $70. That will pay for a couple meals for us and will give us some exercise. We spent the day hitting the shops in town and there was a lot of them. We figured if we took that Hop on Hop off tour bus would be hopping off every block. We stopped at the City Gate Spirits and I got the spiced orange rum. Talking with the server and we explained to her how much more we enjoyed Savannah as compared to St augustine. She said St Augustine is the bigger sister to Savannah. Savannah has a younger energy, more history and a better vibe. You brought sandwiches from the RV and we found a courtyard where we could sit and enjoy them. This was next to the Top Mill bar. There was a guy singing at the bar and we could hear it in the courtyard which was really nice. We then hit more gift shops (very touristy). We then walked to Flagler college. They had a 2pm tour so we planned to do that the next day. We walked a couple of blocks over to St Augustine winery. They had a great free tour and samples. Then on to more gift shops. And tourist attractions. And tourist traps. One place we really liked was the oldest school in the US. We gladly paid the $10 and really enjoyed it. After that we had dinner at Mi Casa and had excellent mahi mahi. Then as evening fell we sore different side of St Augustine the pub started filling up and we hit the no name bar. They had a great patio and an excellent musician. The next day we went over and took the tour of Flagler college. We were surprised to learn that in this college there is a deaf school, a girls school, and the only Masters program for the deaf in the country. The tour was $12 and was excellent. We then went over to St Augustine distillery. We took their excellent free tour and samplings. We had three sample cocktails one of which Trish actually liked lol. In the eight plus years we were together Trish has liked 3 drinks: Pina coladas, a Moscow mule at glacier National park, and now they're ru with tropical tiki mixer. We were talking to the owner of The distillery and he said he had the best retirement job. And I shook his hand and said I feel like I have the best retirement job. And I guess that's the key to a happy life. We then walked the waterfronts and over to the Old Town district which was really nice. We then went to the colonial oak music Park and visited the St Augustine seafood company and we got a mahi mahi sandwich. Which wasn't all that great. We also got conch fritters which are tough too heavy and too greasy. From there we walked and listened to a few bands and came to the conclusion Savannah has history in an upbeat vibe St Augustine is shops and...

Episode 37
1/2020
We are parked at lake Aire RV park and visited Charleston. We came across a emancipation celebration parade. While it was nice to rejoice about this celebration, it was a little sad because it was way too short and not very well attended at all. We went to King Street and got cookies on the suggestion from our friends. That day we walked Charleston some more. Campground was way too close to train tracks and it was noisy all night long. The campsites were soaked or underwater. But convenient to charleston.
The next day we went to Charleston Tea plantation. When I think of plantations this is not what I typically think of. There was no old plantation house to be found at all. So I googled the definition of a plantation and it is an estate which crops or grown and cultivated by resident labor. This plantation is a working tea farm and is the only one in the United states. It's free to enter and they have a free video guided tour of how they process the tea leaves all the way from the bushes into the tea bags. We learned that black oolong and green teas all come from the same tea leaves but the leaves are processed differently. They have a tour bus for $14 which we took. It takes you across the farm and the guy that explained a lot more about the Tea and about how the weather affects the bushes. It stops at the greenhouse and you can go in and explain how it's used. The tour is highly suggested by us. In the gift shop they have about a dozen teas that are for sale and are free to sample and drink. The tour bus lasted about 45 minutes.
https://charlestonteagarden.com/
About 10 minutes away is the deep water vineyard which we visited. We sampled many different wines and bought a bottle. We sat outside and enjoyed a glass of it. Right next door is a Firefly distillery. It turns out that this was my daughter Melinda's favorite distillery. We sampled some of the liquors. I really like the bourbon bowl chocolate pecan whiskey yep you heard me right. We then took a ride over to see Angel oak tree which was awesome. Check their website if you plan on visiting. They're only open certain days of the week. The entrance was free. We stayed about 20 minutes looking in admiring this big old tree. Angeloaktree.com
Then on our last day in this area we visited the Ernest f hollings basin and wildlife refuge. You can go into the house for free but each room has been made over into an office for the park. We walked around for a few hours and covered about 7 miles. The paths were really just old dirt roads. We got to see some wood storks and armadillos which was pretty cool. We then stopped at the Dungannon plantation heritage preserve and wildlife Management area. Here there is no manor house but there are about 5 mi of trails to walk. It was more scenic than hollings basin. There we saw another wood stork and alligators. The next day on the 4th of January 2020 we packed up and drove two and a half hours to another Boondockers Welcome location (check out RelaxRV.org/discounts to join). We got set up and we visited wormsloe state historic site. It was $10 to get in but they gave you a free tour. We visited the family estate dating back to the colonial English colony in 1733. Driving in your on the road that has the longest tree shaded driveway in the United states. There is over 400 trees along the driveway. The next day we went into Savannah. Savannah's been on both of our lists for many years to see. And yes we love Charleston but Savannah wow. So much history architecture squares and Parks. But also it has free shuttles bus and ferry. And live music in the city market on Sunday evenings in the January. It cost $5 to park in most of the parking garages and our first stop is at the visitor center. They told us a lot about the various sites to see. And oh the sites! We visited the first African Baptist Church in the us. There's a...

Episode 36
1/2020
We spent the day in Wilmington North Carolina. This is a town with a lot of big old houses, shops and a nice waterfront. At this time the USS North Carolina was moored there. It was 76° and I finally got to wear shorts. And then we were off to Holden Beach for a beautiful sunset but it was chilly. The next day we drove an hour to Conway North Carolina in our rig. I'm sure a lot of you are shaking your heads thinking you drove the rig 1 hour that day. That's the thing about RVing AND life, do it the way that makes you feel good. The furthest south we go the warmer the temps get. And we wish we had brought our bike and kayak. We had connected with a Kathy and Kim who I had worked with. And after a walk on North Myrtle Beach we met them at their hotel. The next day we play miniature golf on the beach and had a nice dinner. Our last day in this area we went to the historic district and walked on the Riverwalk. We restocked our meds at cvs. On December 31st we drove to Charleston South Carolina. We stayed at lake Erie RV Park in Hollywood South Carolina. It was a half hour to Charleston. We walked around the French quarter wow! We were a little disillusioned about the city it looked like it was going to be a lot bigger. But it was definitely worth it. We parked the car and enjoyed a nice dinner for Trisha's birthday at Fleet Landing restaurant and bar. https://fleetlanding.net/
It was delicious. The next day we went back into Charleston and visited the city market.

So what do you do to help MANAGE your STRESS? Perhaps you or someone you know would benefit from listening to Stress Management Exercises? I have 3 FREE Stress Management recordings at https://relaxrv.org/help/

If that ain't your thing, I have DISCOUNTS on my website to various RV related stuff.
https://relaxrv.org/discounts/

I’ve made some videos about improvements and fixes I’ve done to the RV. Here’s a link to them on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzwH6GhSMBDJ7qKxsLng-TA
Or you can watch them on my website at
https://relaxrv.org/videos/

Here’s a link to my RelaxRVPodcast Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Relax-RV-277623782811787/
I'm on Instagram as @relaxrvpodcast
https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=hsxp0gjpugbz&utm_content=5h4872a
My podcast can be found at https://www.spreaker.com/show/relax-rv-podcast

If you would like to support my efforts to help others, please feel free to do so at:
https://relaxrv.org/support/

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something from one of our affiliates, we receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thanks for helping to keep our podcast running!

Episode 35
12/2019
We stayed at a Harvest Host location near Melfa VA. And visited the Blue Crab Bay Co. https://themarylandstore.com/ We've been on the road a week now and have had to pay for only 2 nights stay. They were in the campground. We have saved thousands of dollars between Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Hosts. If you haven't already checked my discounts page, you should at
RelaxRV.org/discounts
We ordered a roof vent for the black tank to avoid having it's spell in the rig as we drive. Wow, it works great ! Under $20 and a 10 minute install. Yay!! Here's a link to it: https://amzn.to/3DIJYS9
When planning the route to Virginia we decided to go over the Chesapeake Bay bridge tunnel. I was reading people's take on it and it got me a little nervous. I saw you can hire a driver to driver your car or RV over it for you. Here's some facts about it; min safe speed is 45mph, Max speed is 55mph, all propane tanks valves must be closed, it is 17 miles long and in December 2019 the toll for our rig towing the jeep was $24. About half of it is tunnel the other half is bridge. But you did numerous short sections of each repeatedly.
But I'll tell you this, it was easy peasy for me. Actually the worst was the narrow tunnel sections. We drove down to the outer Banks for yet another Boondockers Welcome location. Our hosts graciously invited us in to a Christmas party they were having with their neighbors and Friends. We had a really good time. The next day we drove down to Kitty hawk. Neither of us had been to the outer Banks before. Real surprised at how built up the area was. We went to a place called trio to sample some wines. It's a very unique kind of place. They have wine taps on two different floors. You select a wine you want to sample and you pay with a credit card. Each sample was $1.50-$4.00. They did give you 2 free samples. This place was a little too crazy for us. We then went to OBX winery. You could sample all of their wines and get a free glass for $6. The gentleman working was very knowledgeable and friendly with sampled a bunch and bought a bottle of Veronica. We stay there for about an hour to chatting with him. We then took the Jeep and drove about 40 minutes north on the outer banks and hit the beach. You could drive on the beach for free with a four-wheel drive vehicle. This was December and we saw around 20 other four wheel drives and one track ATV I can imagine how crowded it gets into summer. We then drove South to Roanoke island. And we visited Raleigh City which is a national park that preserves England's first new world settlements. We were surprised to find that they did not have many hard facts or relics but we did listen to an interesting talk about the history of the area. We then went to Elizabethan Gardens for their Christmas lights it was $10 to get in and it was really really nice. We then went to the wright brothers first flight location. Is very interesting to see and they offered a great talk about it but one of their knowledgeable rangers. The next day we left for another Boondockers Welcome location near
Jarvisburg, which is about 10 minutes away from the bridge going to the outer banks. We walked just over a mile to the Jarvisburg Colored School. Very interesting to see. One of the downfalls to Jarvisburg was there not many places to eat. So we drove to Aqua in Duck, North Carolina which had excellent food. We had the tuna.
The next day we drove to Burgaw which was a 4-Hour drive south. This is my limit for a drive in the RV. Remember, we are retired and aren't in a great rush. We arrived just up the road from our next Harvest Host location. We found they were at the end of a 1-mile long mud road. So we unhooked the Jeep took it out by itself to make sure that the RV would be fine. And it was.
We got set up and we...

Episode 34
12/2019
We hooked the Jeep to the rig on December 12th 2019. The brake buddy would not extend. So off we go with no remote breaks on the toad. Our first stop is in Barnegat New Jersey at a boondockers welcome location. When we got there the brake Buddy worked when I tried it again. It does this when it's been sitting in the cold for a long time unused.
That night at 2:00 a.m. Trish looked at the clock and said how come we don't have any electric? I got up I checked the circuit breakers in the rig everything was okay. I went outside and checked the surge protector and the circuit breaker on the post everything was okay. I started up the generator and no 110 ac electric. We pulled out or down comforter and went back to bed nothing to do at 2am. I had heard that if one of the GFI outlets fails all the outlets fail in the rigs. So we ran out to the hardware store I bought a new GFI outlet being we only had one, went back to the rig swapped it out and nothing. I called the service guy that we usually use for the rig but it went to voicemail. I then called another local RV repair guy and he suggested a call Thor. I called Thor on their tech support phone number which is 877-500-1020.
The woman was great. She had us check a few different things. She suggested opening the automatic transfer switch and see if there was circuit breaker in it. Nope. But then they looked at the inside of the lid of the transfer switch and I saw a burn mark. One of the connections was bad. I took off the wire nut cut off the fried wires put in new wires and the new wire nut and everything worked beautifully. I'm glad I pack extra tools with me. After that fiasco we went over to the Barnegat lighthouse but it was closed because we were there midweek.
The next day we hooked up the Jeep The brake Buddy worked fine. We stopped in Mickleton New Jersey to see a house that decorated to look like the Christmas vacation House. That was a lot of fun. It was complete with a beat up RV and cousin Eddie was there too. Lol. We then drove to Maryland and stayed at a another boondockers welcome location.
So we got another state sticker for our map. We visited Chesapeake City in Maryland was a cute Town nice shops right on the Delaware canal. We worked five miles along the canal path and then five back to the car. In the town of Townsend we saw the Emmanuel Methodist Church was having a healing mass that evening. We are spiritual people. Not very religious. And not methodist. But we know we could definitely use some healing. We went to the service it was really nice. Unfortunately there was only a half a dozen people there. And we were the only non-local people. But they made us feel very welcome we talked about life and traveling with them. When we were leaving the gave us a Bible which we will leave in the reg. Hopefully that might help protect the rig a little bit from all these problems. From there we drove to Assateague Maryland national seashore. It's known for their wild ponies. Offseason the campsite was $30 a night. Report got set up and we saw about a dozen wild ponies. We like the Northern end of Assateague better than the southern end in Virginia. The southern end is more touristy and not as many ponies. On the way to the campground we had three nights of waste in our gray and black tanks, and while driving I could smell black tank seeping up into the rig.
The next day we went to Ocean City Maryland which is about a half hour from Assateague was quiet and small compared to the NJ shore points. It was also December lol. Resource very kid focused. They even had a sign on the boardwalk "no profanity please". Nice !
We went back to the rig we planned the rest of our route heading south and we booked all of our stays up until Mardi Gras in Louisiana. Heres a link to a video on how we plan our trips: https://youtu.be/m17giRxNVs0
We left the...

Episode 33
12/2019
We've been home for 3 months and this is a good amount of time to be here. I worked on Facebook links and discount links on my website www.relaxrv.org/discounts
We had a noise coming from our left front wheel anytime I would pass a car it would off of it I brought it to Ford and he said there was a rock between the axle and the strut. They removed it and lubricated the front end. I climbed up on the roof with her new ladder which I love, and resealed the roof. Every time I'm up on the roof I always give it a quick eyeball. Did some fixes around the house and cut some firewood. It was teaching a class over in Elmsford New York and stopped at the Captain Lawrence brewery. I talked with the barmaid Madeline. Had a nice conversation with her. We talked about childhood and spoiling your child as opposed to neglecting your child we talked about following your passion and finding diversions from stress. Hi Madeline.
We then started getting our clothes and supplies ready and loading them into the rig. We turn on the refrigerator the day before we leave to load it up. We're really looking forward to hitting the road for our Southeast trip. This will be our first snow birding experience.

So what do you do to help MANAGE your STRESS? Perhaps you or someone you know would benefit from listening to Stress Management Exercises? I have 3 FREE Stress Management recordings at https://relaxrv.org/help/

If that ain't your thing, I have DISCOUNTS on my website to various RV related stuff.
https://relaxrv.org/discounts/

I’ve made some videos about improvements and fixes I’ve done to the RV. Here’s a link to them on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzwH6GhSMBDJ7qKxsLng-TA
Or you can watch them on my website at
https://relaxrv.org/videos/

Here’s a link to my RelaxRVPodcast Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Relax-RV-277623782811787/
I'm on Instagram as @relaxrvpodcast
https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=hsxp0gjpugbz&utm_content=5h4872a
My podcast can be found at https://www.spreaker.com/show/relax-rv-podcast

If you would like to support my efforts to help others, please feel free to do so at:
https://relaxrv.org/support/

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something from one of our affiliates, we receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thanks for helping to keep our podcast running!

Episode 32
11/2019
So while we are home it's time to fix things on the RV. Pulled out the battery we had bought in Maine and put three 100 amp AGM batteries from Amazon https://amzn.to/3dBUVuc into our coach. We talked about lithium but they're still too expensive for us. As we drive we noticed we're getting a sewer smell from the black tank. So I put in a rotating plumbing vents up on the roof cost like 15 bucks and it works like a charm. By the front stairs I put an emotion sensor lights when you open the door to go in the stairs or automatically illuminated. For links to these items and other items we use in our rig, please visit https://relaxrv.org/thingsweuse
I took out the mirror in our dining area to make room for our photos. I winterize the rig changed its oil climbed up on the roof and resealed it which I do at least every 6 months. Change the outside porch light to LEDs things to our friend axel. I move the podcast host site to relax rv.org
On the last trip we were gone for 4 months and traveled 6,000 miles. And I totaled up the places that we stayed on the last trip. We stayed at 61 Boondockers Welcome locations. Seven Harvest Host locations and 10 nights at campgrounds. And three nights at ugh Thor. Here's a link to my discounts page, for Boondockers Welcome and Harvest host. Relaxrv.org/discounts. You're on your own regarding discounts at Thor.

So what do you do to help MANAGE your STRESS? Perhaps you or someone you know would benefit from listening to Stress Management Exercises? I have 3 FREE Stress Management recordings at https://relaxrv.org/help/

If that ain't your thing, I have DISCOUNTS on my website to various RV related stuff.
https://relaxrv.org/discounts/

I’ve made some videos about improvements and fixes I’ve done to the RV. Here’s a link to them on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzwH6GhSMBDJ7qKxsLng-TA
Or you can watch them on my website at
https://relaxrv.org/videos/

Here’s a link to my RelaxRVPodcast Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Relax-RV-277623782811787/
I'm on Instagram as @relaxrvpodcast
https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=hsxp0gjpugbz&utm_content=5h4872a
My podcast can be found at https://www.spreaker.com/show/relax-rv-podcast

If you would like to support my efforts to help others, please feel free to do so at:
https://relaxrv.org/support/

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something from one of our affiliates, we receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thanks for helping to keep our podcast running!

Episode 31
10/2019
So we are now two weeks since our Thor visit and no slide issues yay. We drove to Helena Ohio it was the second week in September and 90°in Indiana and ohio. We hit a couple of county parks but it was so hot we didn't really enjoy him much. We drove past president Hayes's house which is a museum and library near Fremont but we didn't go in. The next day was 91°, so another low-key day. Although we did do an 8 Mile bike ride but the heat was just too much. We are staying at another boondockers welcome location and he had 30 amp so it was nice to at least sit inside with air conditioning. We went to dinner with our hosts at the Depot which was really good. The next day we went back to Erie Pennsylvania to stay at the boondockers welcome location. We visited Wintergreen gorge cemetery and walked around for a while. The next day we hopped on the bike and we rode about 20 miles and visited romolo's chocolates and frontier Park arboretum then we had dinner on the waterfront and that evening we enjoyed a fire with our hosts in their backyard. We are heading home so we started lining up doctor's appointments and my clients appointments for stress management. Our next stop was at Olean New York. We stopped at a casino we visited it for a little while then left a rig there and drove the toad over to ellicottville. The previous week when we're having dinner at the Depot I had a great pumpkin beer and it turns out it was brewed in this town. Apparently they have a lot of festivals here skiing a winery and the brewery. The next day we went over to Rock City Park while we were staying at another's boondocker welcome location. We walked around Rock City for about two and a half hours and while talking to the owner he suggested we visit Kinzua skyway walk in Pa. We had never heard of this please but it turns out it's an old train viaduct which was destroyed by a tornado in 2003. It had been 300 and 1 ft tall which is 24 ft taller than the Brooklyn bridge when it was built it was the highest and longest railroad bridge in the world. It was built in 1882. And now it's a walkway that goes halfway across the valley and it has a plexiglass floor at the end so you can look down. And when you do look down on the valley floor you can see all the twisted steel from the old bridge. The next day we went to Allegany State Park in NY. The park crosses over the border into Pennsylvania where it is called Allegheny Park. We hiked for about 4 MI. To an area called thunder rocks. According to the Iroquois Indians the gods are having a competition on who can make the loudest sound so they would throw these huge boulders in competition. The next day we drove over to the finger lakes in New York for our final night and we stayed at Castel Grisch winery which is another Harvest host location. Apparently at this time there are 35 wineries on Seneca lake and then the finger lakes is five main lakes and another six smaller lakes so imagine how many wineries breweries and distilleries are in this area. Our plan was to visit Watkins Glen State Park it's been on our list for a long time to visit. But we decided not to visit the park because it would have been just a couple of hours we really wanted to spend time at Watkins Glen State Park so instead we visited the town of Watkins Glen which was a really good decision. It was a nice relaxing way to end this trip. We shopped visited Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop we had dinner at a place overlooking Seneca lake. We came back to the rig we watched the sunset on the back deck of the winery and enjoyed our last night out.

So what do you do to help MANAGE your STRESS? Perhaps you or someone you know would benefit from listening to Stress Management Exercises? I have 3 FREE Stress Management recordings at https://relaxrv.org/help/

If that ain't your thing, I have DISCOUNTS on my website to various RV related stuff.

Episode 30
9/2019
Wow this podcast is really growing in popularity. On September 5th 2019 we arrived at sleeping Bear dunes national Park. At first we were confused about the actual hike over the dunes. The information on the websites was confusing. But if you don't think about it too much basically you pulling into the parking lot and walking over the sand dunes to lake Michigan. Now in New Jersey shore it takes about a minute to walk across the sand dunes. Here it's two plus miles to lake Michigan. This Sand dune is definitely something to see and not an easy one to walk the first one plus miles it's uphill and sand and the rest of it is downhill and sand. You don't get to see the lake until you're almost off of the dune. When we arrived at lake Michigan after the hike we walked along the beaches and it was really beautiful. We found this hike to be tougher than what we expected. There's four miles of hiking in sand plus any additional walking you do on the beach. We thought it felt like about an 8 Mile hike. The weather definitely takes its toll also. At points we were chilly and other points we were hot and it's still other places we were really cold. It all depended on elevation wind and sun. After we were done we drove over to empire bluff trail. It was pretty in a much shorter walk. Although there are some stairs and a small hill. The next day we went to Frankfort. Which is a nice lakeside town. We kept having to remind ourselves this is not a seaside town. Remember lake Michigan is unsalted. Lol. We rode the bike for a while on the path to other towns. We saw two jetties protecting the harbor there was a lighthouse out on the end of one of the jetties and the tops of the jetties were paved. I decided I wanted to walk out there even though it was windy and chilly and to get some pictures. I was walking out the jetty I got three quarters of the way to the lighthouse and a wave came and soaked me and my Canon camera. When we got back to the rig I took out the battery and the memory card and left to cover open. I took the lens off and left that open. I left it that way overnight the camera all dried out and worked fine the next day. We then headed south on Michigan's West Coast we drove past Manistee it looked cute so we parked the rig and we walked the Riverwalk following the Manistee river. There were nice restaurants, shops and bars and also a casino with free parking. It turns out they have a Christmas parade and we saved it on our Google maps and will revisit it in the future. We then drove to our next Boondockers welcome location. (here's a link to our discount page for connections to Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome Relaxrv.org/discounts)We met our host was in really nice guy. We hopped in our toad and drove to Fennville Valley vineyard. They had a lot of excellent wines we bought a few bottles also got a t-shirt. We then went to the Saugatuck brewing company you got a flight of beers and played shuffleboard on their tabletops. We then played bumper pool which we had never played before we were trying to read the instructions when a young mom and her son approached us and taught us how to play. That was a lot of fun. The next day we went to Douglas. It's a small town with a lot of expensive shops. And he also had an accessible kayak put in which was really cool. This town is on the Kalamazoo lake. We passed by Holland that had an amusement park but didn't visit it. The next day we packed up and finally arrived at 4:00 we arrived there September 8th. I went through the rig I unscrewed the L brackets and beams that were holding the slide in.
our appointment was September 9th we set the alarm for 6:15 a.m. the service manager arrived at our rig at 7:05 a.m. which was a lot earlier than the year previous. I talked about that visit in episode 12. This time Jim met us right away he reminded us that the repair will not be covered under a factory warranty. Which we already knew. We gave him a list...

Episode 29
9/2019
We arrived in the US via the rainbow bridge. It was a Sunday August 18th 2019. We got there early to beat the traffic going through customs. We arrived at customs at 9:00 a.m. and waited a half hour. We went right through without an issue. Which made me think about border crossings it seems like the slower quieter ones have more time perhaps to look through RVs and such. Or perhaps they're thinking is if you're sneaking something through go through the quiet areas. But whatever the reason it always seems that going through customs at a high tourist area like Niagara falls even though we wait longer in line we don't have our rig searched. In the past I had enjoyed seeing Niagara falls from the New York side where it's quiet and more like a state park. Whilw we were in Canada we planned on walking across the bridge to the NY park from Canada but we saw the line of people standing and waiting to go through customs and decided it wasn't worth it.
We arrived in Erie pa and stayed at another boondockers welcome location. We had never been to Erie before. We learned that the city has a lot of concerts and live music in the summer. Our hosts invited us to join them at a huge street fair. This was a part of their 3 day celebration which happens every year in August. They had three stages food art and a beer garden. But no wine. This year Sister Sledge and Scotty McCreery performed. The next day we paddled kayaks with them and their friendly neighbors at Presque Isle State Park for almost 3 hours. Halfway through the panel we stopped at a small Beach and had snacks and a glass of wine. The name got me wondering so I googled what a Presque is and it is a peninsula that is almost an island. Now you know lol.
The two of us then visited some covered bridges and wineries in Rome Ohio. We drove past Kent State University so of course we had to listen to The Crosby stills Nash & Young song. From there we went to Ashtabula which had a small main Street with a drawbridge and a great chocolate shop. From there we went over to Geneva on the lake well how do I explain this town? Think of the New Jersey shore without the crowds. A lot of shops food and arcades. It was August 20th it was a Tuesday. And it was empty! Many people say it's packed earlier in the season and on the weekends. We had visited two wineries in the area one was South River winery which was a beautiful old church. Here's a link to it http://southrivervineyard.com/ We really enjoyed that winery. And the other one was a ferrante winery. This one was an experience. They had two menus a dinner menu and a light self-serve menu. We got the muscles they were $14 and they were delicious but we got no forks or napkins. So he asked to waiter for some and he handed his silverware and cloth napkins and then he saw that we were not dinner guests but only self-serve guests so he took them away from us and gave us plastic wear and paper napkins. Unreal.
The next day we left that host and went to another boondockers welcome host location. As we're backing into the site the host was guided me back on his hard pack driveway. I explained to him I don't want to leave the hard pack because of all the rain lately we had gotten stuck in the mud in the past and I don't want to get stuck again. Unfortunately I trusted him and not myself and he backed us off of the driveway and sank up to the rear axle in mud in the rig.
He said that his neighbor will be home the next day with the tractor and composed out. I shook my head the back of the rig was 2 to 3 ft lower than the front of the rig. And we were not going to be sleeping like that tonight. So I took out the tow strap hooked it to the front axle of the rig in the back of the Jeep Wrangler toad. I got in the rig Trish got in the Jeep we put it in 4 low. I told Trish hit the gas and keep going until I beep the horn on the rig. She did the rig...