The Retirement Trip – Long Time
Coming – Week 1
After all the planning and prepping the trip has begun. We started out on a bright, sunny day that
clouded immediately upon learning that the GPS system on the laptop wasn’t
working. A 10 minute stop at a
rest-area brought it back on line and we continued on our way. The rest of the drive to the kid’s house in
Kentucky was uneventful. HOWEVER….when setting up the RV to stay
the weekend, the front slide went almost
all the way out. Now we need parts
for repairs and all the dealers were closed for the 4th of July
holiday. We visited several hardware
stores in the area hoping to find items that could be adapted to replace the
needed parts. No such luck. Several phone calls and a drive across the
river into Indiana produced no
parts but served to convince us that nothing was going to happen until
Monday. Even then we would only be
able to order the parts so it’s looking like we’ll be here a few more days than
originally planned for. It goes
without saying that we’ve enjoyed visiting with the kids but even that’s
wearing a little thin and we’re anxious to continue the journey and let them
get back to their daily routines. We
did venture out on Sunday to look for a few geocaches
to pass the time. We found 3 and,
depending on the delivery time of the much needed parts, may find a few more
before hitting the road again.
Monday after the holiday found us making numerous phone calls trying to
locate the needed parts. We finally
had to settle for buying directly from the manufacturer of the slide-out. It took 2 days to get the order to us and
they sent the wrong size shear-pins.
We’re getting nowhere fast.
None of the local suppliers had the pins but Grainger would bring them
in over-night. Of course, with
Grainger, I couldn’t buy just one. It
had to be a bag of 50. Oh well! With time to kill we visited the Louisville
Slugger baseball bat factory and following that we strolled around the corner
to spend time watching glass blowers and assorted glass artists at the Glass
Works. I picked up the pins early
Thursday and within an hour the problem was repaired and we were finally on our
way. $6.00 worth of parts had delayed
us 3 days but I guess it could have been worse. Next stop….the Cuyahoga
National Park in Ohio. Through this park runs the course of the
old Ohio & Erie Canal with a nice bike trail paralleling it. We rode it almost 8 miles Friday and
another 7 miles Saturday. Although the
canal no longer exists there are numerous reminders of its existence in the
form of stone built locks at various intervals along the trail. As the trail passes through some of the
small towns there are café’s and shops to explore. The really neat thing is that you can ride
one way as far as you wish, or can, and catch a train to take you back to where you started for only $2.00. Today, Saturday, is our last day here. Tomorrow we leave for Watkins Glen, NY.
One of the better preserved locks.
Along the towpath
