When we left off I was heading home from Southwest Virginia and having trouble with my LP/CO detector. I made several attempts to get an appointment at my local RV service center, Reines RV, but they have only one guy who can schedule appointments and he wouldn't call me back. I even showed up there one day trying to schedule an appointment and they wouldn't make the appointment. I finally gave up on them and scheduled an appointment at Camping World in Winchester. Winchester was on route for my summer trip so I scheduled my service for the first day of my trip. Of course my route changed several times between when I made the appointment and the actual trip, now it really wasn't as "on route" as it had been, but I needed to get the LP/CO detector looked at!
I made an appointment for first thing Monday morning, I was thinking I'd sleep at a nearby Wal-mart. The guy at Camping World told me that the Wal-mart wasn't safe and I should just sleep in his lot. He even had a plug! I spent the day Sunday packing and loading and sorting my stuff. I went to my regular Sunday yoga class then headed out to Winchester. After some minor navigational issues I arrived at Camping World at about 5:00 pm. It was totally deserted! No one in sight! I was a bit nervous planning to stay there because it was secluded and empty, but it looked like it was going to be quiet! Most of the plugs were locked shut, but I found one that was unlocked and got plugged in! There was a Gander Mountain right next door so I walked over there and then made dinner and settled in with some mindless iPad games & 1980s TV reruns!
A little before 8, I got a fun surprise! My friends Kathy & Jeff were at their nephew's birthday dinner a few miles away and were going to stop by! :-) I showed them the RV and we chatted for awhile. They offered to take me back to their house for the night, which sounded like a lovely offer, but I felt like I needed to be at CW in the morning to get them started and packing everything I'd need for the night felt like a big task when I already knew I had everything in the van. I knew I'd forget something!
After Kathy & Jeff left I crawled into bed with my book! Despite the breeze that had been blowing through all evening it was very warm when I went to bed so I turned the AC fan on. It created a wind tunnel in the aisle but didn't really blow much air on me! It wasn't the best nights sleep but by 6 am I was up and getting ready for the day.
I was one of the first customers in the door at 8 this morning. They took me right away and they were done by 9:15. They inspected the entire system and found nothing wrong. Nothing. This is good, but it's all maddening that that detector randomly goes off for no reason. They also blew the dust of out the fridge which was likely causing the flame to go out & not come on again.
So here it was 9:30 and I was done at Camping World! Kathy was coming back this morning and we had plans to meet another friend for lunch at 11:30. Since I now had 2 hours to kill, I went to Wal-Mart and got the things on my list. We were still early for lunch so we hit the store closing sale at Coldwater Creek.
It was great to have lunch with Denise! She and her husband used to work at the school Kathy & I work at but they retired 2 years ago. We talked about everything and then went to see Jack at the store where he works.
It was about 3:00 when Kathy brought me back to the van that we'd left at Wal-Mart and I headed up the road. The next stop on my agenda is my Aunt, Uncle & Cousin's house in Downingtown, PA. This was only about 200 miles from Winchester so I knew I had time to do something along the way.
I knew the AT passed through Caledonia State Park and when I looked it up I learned that it was directly on route! In fact, stopping at Caledonia meant I could very easily take US 30 through Gettysburg, York & Lancaster and avoid the PA Turnpike!
It's a big campground, a bit rough, small not level sites and very hilly, but it's quiet and scenic. There aren't many people here tonight, I walked the whole campground and there are maybe 20 sites occupied out of over 100! I also walked down to the main park area where the pool, picnic area and trails are. They don't seem to have maps of the park, just maps to the nearest hospital?!?!? It wasn't easy but I did locate the AT and a good parking area so I can get in a hike before I leave in the morning.
I didn't spring for a site with electric so I needed to run my generator to heat dinner. I felt a bit bad because of the whole empty campground the two sites right by me are occupied! The campground was so peaceful with the birds signing I hated to destroy the mood, but I only ran the generator long enough to nuke everything!
It was very warm & humid this afternoon, but now that the sun in sinking behind the mountain it is cooling off! I hope it continues too cool off so we have a nice night!
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