Drive Report: 147 Miles / 2:20
As I said yesterday - short day today. We pulled in to the KOA campground at about 1230, which is early for us. But hey - laundry day is a big deal. A guy doesn't wanna be without socks or...other stuff. And so far as KOAs go, this one is...well...rustic. Frankly I'm surprised that KOA sanctioned this particular RV Park. And for a number of reasons.
First, it's literally in the boonies. We drove mostly county roads for 16 miles to get here. Part of that is because it's slightly off route. The other part is that there were no other KOAs near by. This should have told us something. I asked the proprietor what the draw to the area was. He said that people come here because it's Amish Country and to "recreate" (my word, not his) on the nearby Mohican River. It's so wooded and remote here we kept expecting to run into the last of the Mohicans. Second, the park isn't kept up very well and appears lacking in organization. But at least the owner cleaned the laundry room before Susan could. That's something, I guess.
So - say your prayers and hope that Google Maps is as efficient at getting us out of the boonies tomorrow morning as it was getting us here this afternoon. All that aside, the trip here was both short and interesting...
This guy passed us early this morning. I haven't seen one of these since Kansas, I don't think. We were gonna follow him all the way home, but after just a couple of miles we remembered why no one does that - follows a cattle truck. We cut him loose.
Once we headed South away from Lake Erie the terrain turned hilly. I was surprised and expected Ohio to have gently rolling hills with fewer trees.
This was taken on a stretch of I-271. For some reason the opposing lanes were elevated on a rather tall bridge while our side was much lower. I couldn't figure out why. But bridges aren't cheap, so I suspect there must have been a reason.
Susan took a pic of the Interstate early in the day while I was driving, but I forgot to include it - and as slow as cell service here is, I ain't going back to try an upload another pic. Just believe me when I say that it showed three lanes with no traffic ahead of us for at least 3/4 of a mile. Yeah - this is not that pic. I took this one right after Susan started driving. Readers who open this pic will be able to count seven rigs ahead of us. At one point, Susan had one behind, one beside and one in front of us. We were surrounded by Teamsters - she felt right at home. She's been after me lately to install a CB radio in The Rig. Teamsters are so 70s.
When this guy passed us, Susan told me she'd seen his rig before. Turns out he was in last month's issue of Teamster's Travels magazine as winner of the "Rig of The Month". (Apparently there is a calendar with pics of all 12 with their hoods up.) There was enough chrome on this rig to plate an aircraft carrier. And check out that paint job. While the reader can barely see it, the tractor had an identical paint scheme.
But soon thereafter, we were in the aforementioned boondocks. Not that the views were bad - just the roads...
Another cool shot of an old farmstead. Those are beans in the foreground.
And here are the previously mentioned roads. I was a bit edgy, but Susan was quite calm having spent something like, oh, 4,000 miles on similar roads recently.
A combine! We haven't seen one of these since about Kansas either.
The countryside was littered with nifty shots like this, but I had to pick just a few.
I like this one with the road disappearing in the distance.
And this one, where it disappears much closer to the dashboard. Remember, I'm riding with Miss, "That's no 35 mile per hour curve, I took it at 45." I've never seen an RV drift a curve before...
But she straightened it out just in time for me to snag this shot out my window. I fully expected it to be blurry what with the speed we were traveling, but iPhone cameras must be pretty good.
When we got to this spot we both thought it reminded us of Missouri what with the trees and the road bobbing up and down over the hills.
Since today we departed the vicinity of the Great Lakes generally, let me say two words: Edmund Fitzgerald. A couple of days ago when we approached Lake Erie, Gordon Lightfoot's song about the EF got stuck in my mind. This morning at breakfast I searched YouTube and found this...
It's a hauntingly majestic song about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald from 1976. Twenty nine men lost their lives on that day in November of 1975 when she went down. I was 16 when the song came out and only learned of the history of the EF much later in life. So, take six minutes out of your day and give it a listen. Then put yourself at the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral when that bell rang 29 times. See if it doesn't tug at you. It rings 29 times each year on the 10th of November...
Till next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment