Foolish Mortals, The travels of Truck 999, The HDT.

So on Tuesday we got up early to go for some puzzle time at Bama Ed's site, before we headed off to NAS. The Naval Air Station is about 30 mins away, and garneska and the DH were gracious enough to provide us with transportation. We processed thru the gate and proceeded to the museum, where we were greeted by a sign "Air Show Practice Cancelled."
They might as well told me Christmas was cancelled. I was really bummed, had the camera and large lens ready to go, hoping for some awesome shots.
So we entered the museum and after agreeing on a meeting time to leave, we headed out to tour. The place is enormous, and there is a second hanger bay that we also toured.
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Me 262

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Older Marine One helicopter

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The inside of the helicopter.

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Apollo 11 display

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F18 Hornet, was used by the Blue Angels, upon retirement was repainted.

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WW2 Pacific

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Another WW2 Pacific Display

There are plenty more photo's from the museum. Just a taste for now. We then left there and headed back to the campground. Later we met up with garneska and DH for a quick photo session with the Rockstar Mallory.
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These are just a couple of the shots taken that evening, but not the best ones.
Spent the evening visiting with folks again and enjoying the company. Sadly garneska and DH leave tomorrow.
 
So Wednesday morning and we are up for puzzle time, and then it is time for us to start to pack up as we leave tomorrow. So we start to break down camp and relax.
Evening rolls around and it is time for another annual tradition. We are headed to The Yard for milkshakes. So we all pile in to the truck and off we go. They have moved since last year in to a bigger space. We get there and there are a few people in line, but not the two hour wait like last year. We waited maybe 10 mins, DW orders, I order mine and we go sit to await our milkshakes. They bring the others and they look great, they bring mine and it is a soupy mess and is missing the chocolate covered bacon and it is small. What I ordered a quart, so DW pulls up the receipt and even though they wrote quart down they charged me for a pint. Really ?
Let's step back in time for a minute to 2018, I get my milkshake and it is a pint.....I ordered a quart, they charged me for a quart, so they made me a second one in a second pint glass. Ugh.
I come to the shop once a year and out of everyone there, they screw up my order again. Scoops, look out if we return we will be trying someplace new.

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One of the premade milkshakes, looks yummy.

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Order your own.....well. :confused3
 
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Thursday morning it was time to hitch up and head for home. First stop Gadsden, Alabama. It was a nice trip up and of course we got a little delayed at Buc ee's the gas station.20190530_112242_resized.jpg

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We left there and finally got to our campsite for the night.

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The cove RV resort. Small and cute and nice for an overnight stay.
The next day found us on the way to Ft. Chiswell, VA. As we got closer we ran in to thunderstorms and fierce winds. Luckily we were only going to MM80 as Interstate 81 was closed at MM99 for an accident.
By morning the accident at MM99 was clear but there was an accident on Interstate 81 at MM80 a tanker truck overturned in the southbound lanes. So we were good to go. Poor folks going southbound or coming north on Interstate 77 were stuck.
We did good traveling and pulled in to home about 130pm, glad to be home.

It was a great trip seeing everyone. Wish it had been a bit cooler so we could have gotten out and about some more, but it was nice to relax also.
 
So glad your trip was WONDERFUL! We are so sad that we did not make it. Arnold has smoked ribs & briskets. Going on 5 weeks & GM can’t find a turbo for our 1 ton. We have had to cancel all out trips we were going to do. We plan on making Dis meet in May 2020 & The Fort in 2020. Have a great summer & give Reba a hug from me!!
 


So glad your trip was WONDERFUL! We are so sad that we did not make it. Arnold has smoked ribs & briskets. Going on 5 weeks & GM can’t find a turbo for our 1 ton. We have had to cancel all out trips we were going to do. We plan on making Dis meet in May 2020 & The Fort in 2020. Have a great summer & give Reba a hug from me!!

We missed you and Arnold. And those smoked ribs, mmmmm. Sorry to hear that they still can't find a part for your truck. We will be at the Fort in 2020 and hope to see all there. Will let Reba know and give her hugs.
 
So noticed the other day that we have a torn seal above our outdoor kitchen. Got the ladder out and up I went to take a look. The tape they used behind the corner, shifted and the adhesive stuck to the lightweight D seal and tore it. Looks like I will be ordering some D seal to replace the one above the outdoor kitchen. I also have lights to replace, and have to order a vent to replace the one that fell out while we traveled to GSP.
 


Its been great reading up on your adventures! My adventures have been pretty awesome but have kept me offline for a while. We will be at FW this year July 20-27th!!! Melissa and I are excited to take the kids to FW, they loved our little trip last year to Williamsburg. Since this fall I changed jobs, we got engaged!!!, sold my house in Round Hill, and bought a gorgeous home in Gainesville/Haymarket on just over an acre a little less than .5 miles from Greenville Family Campground.

I am excited to catch up with everyone!!
 
Its been great reading up on your adventures! My adventures have been pretty awesome but have kept me offline for a while. We will be at FW this year July 20-27th!!! Melissa and I are excited to take the kids to FW, they loved our little trip last year to Williamsburg. Since this fall I changed jobs, we got engaged!!!, sold my house in Round Hill, and bought a gorgeous home in Gainesville/Haymarket on just over an acre a little less than .5 miles from Greenville Family Campground.

I am excited to catch up with everyone!!

Great news on a lot of fronts.
 
So we finally decided to scale the truck and see what it weighs. We hit a local cat scale, DW, Reba and I. We have half a load of fuel on board and our camping grills, etc that we would travel with, just over 20,000 lbs. Estimated weight with a full fuel load would put us just shy of 21,000.
We did not hook up and weigh with the camper. We will do that another time. The trailer max is 15,500 and I am sure we are not close to that.
So even hooked up, we still weigh less than some diesel pushers. Some of them have a GVWR of 57,000 pounds.
 
So since the GSP camping trip our summer has been busy, but has not included much camping. We do have some trips scheduled over the next couple months and may even take a trip into November. See what the weather holds. We will also be at the Hershey RV show on Friday, Sept 13th. Will post pictures with campground reviews of our upcoming trips. The biggest problem this year was the change of jobs and lack of vacation. But the new job is great and really enjoying it.
 
So camping season has returned. This weekend found us off to a local campground, a 30 min drive. Once we turn the final corner we come to this....Hmmm. Honey, what is our height again ????

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The access is to the right, it follows a windy, lane and a half road back to a one lane bridge before you arrive at the campground. The arrival building is huge and located up on the hill. We did not wind up the hill, as there is an access gate and we are kinda long. So a short conversation with the check in people and off to our site we go.

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Now this picture was taken on Sunday morning, but this is the same look I got when I came around the corner. Our site on the left, of course was empty. The small red pickup, almost right across from our site, the blue suv on the left was two sites up. There is only a small distance between sites here. The fella with the blue suv decided he wanted to move it up and out of my way, which was not necessary. First shot got in to site but was not quite lined up like I wanted to be. Pulled up, set up and started my journey in. Well the donkey that owned the red truck, was sitting there under his canopy drinking his beers with his family members.
We did not need him to move it, we slid right in where we needed to be, much to his dismay.
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Sunset Friday night was very nice. Dinner this trip was kept simple, as we had our nephews all week prior to this trip. We did leftovers, with steak planned for Saturday evening.

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As the sun set we took a walk around the campground. Temps since Friday have been in the low 90's with heat index values of 97 to 101.

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Our site backed up toward the lake with no one behind us. Very nice.

This was also EMS weekend, offering Firefighters, Medics, and Law Enforcement a discounted stay. They also did demonstrations on Saturday.

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This was Charlotte the tracking dog.

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They did a full extrication demo, with two patients.

Was a nice weekend despite the heat.

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Even Reba approved of the campground.
 
So this weekend our plan is to enjoy at home. Next Friday our day starts off at the Hershey RV Show, working the morning. We will then head home and head out to the lake for a weekend of camping......on Friday the 13th !!
 
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Site a little tight side to side.

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Last month site was easy to get in to, this month was a challenge, on a curve, trailer to the front, trees....wow. But we are in.

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Weather was great, Reba enjoying the smells and the sights.


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So blue shows, one way around loop. Red is where our site was located there is a tree on the front drivers side of the site. The Green would be where there was another trailer located, as that is a site. The orange circle is the power box and water for the green site. And on the rear of the green site passenger side is another tree.. Distance from our site drivers side to the grass was only about 30/35 feet. As you can see there is a permanent site on the drivers side. So it took some snaking to get in and some patience. DW did a great job of guiding me back in, as there was a lot of real estate I could not see.

So this month found us back at Paradise Stream. Yes same as last month. We were in a different site from last month, a lot more difficult to get in to. Will have to get a google earth shot to add so everyone can see.
Weather was great, no AC this weekend, neighbors to one side, none on the other. Actually there were two open spaces next to us, then the mini Chapperal convention going on....
So we have one more trip scheduled this year, then we will see. I will need to do that W word, but maybe we can get another trip in before that happens.
 
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So this weekend finds us camping again. We did not even unhitch in between trips, just plugged in to shore power. This weekend it is Elizabethtown KOA, nice campground, we stayed here on our first trip with the Sandpiper. They have some very long sites, but some are very close together. It has been quiet so far. Here are a few pictures from Friday.

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Our campsite.


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Reba at the dog park.

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Visitor to our campsite.

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And some of the air traffic overhead, a C130 variant of some sort.

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And more of the air traffic, a commercial flight in to Harrisburg. Planes are not annoying, only a couple every few hours.
 
Well this was possibly the last trip of this year, until this morning. We got everything ready, hooked up the trailer as usual. We did our tug test and then we raised the jacks, time to head home. We started out of our campsite and boom, the trailer came out of the hitch and hit the ground.
We put a shorter pin box on earlier this year and when it fell, it damaged our front cap. So we are done camping for this year for sure.
Time to get quotes on repairing the damage, and looking for a new hitch.
So we will be cancelling our November trip, sadly and our back up Feb trip, since we don't know when we will be ready to camp again. Hopefully by next spring.
 
Well this was possibly the last trip of this year, until this morning. We got everything ready, hooked up the trailer as usual. We did our tug test and then we raised the jacks, time to head home. We started out of our campsite and boom, the trailer came out of the hitch and hit the ground.
We put a shorter pin box on earlier this year and when it fell, it damaged our front cap. So we are done camping for this year for sure.
Time to get quotes on repairing the damage, and looking for a new hitch.
So we will be cancelling our November trip, sadly and our back up Feb trip, since we don't know when we will be ready to camp again. Hopefully by next spring.

Oh no! Odd that it slipped out of the hitch. Had that happen before?

My ex BIL has a bodyshop and does the local repairs for the nearby RV dealers. Seen him have to fix a few with same type damage, but usually it's the truck that gets the damage, not the camper. However, in your case, not sure I'd call it a "truck".

Hope it is not too bad.
 
@PaHunter, so sorry to hear about that. Hopefully not too much damage and is repairable fairly easily and not too expensive
 
Oh no! Odd that it slipped out of the hitch. Had that happen before?

My ex BIL has a bodyshop and does the local repairs for the nearby RV dealers. Seen him have to fix a few with same type damage, but usually it's the truck that gets the damage, not the camper. However, in your case, not sure I'd call it a "truck".

Hope it is not too bad.

It is the second time this year. First time we thought we missed a step and caused it. Today we were taking our time, checking everything as we were in no hurry to leave the campground. Did our tug test and it was good, so not sure what caused the jaws to pop open.

We may need a new front cap.
 

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