Walkabout on Wheels

Well, it was too cold, as I said, so we headed out. We looked at a map and the Frommer’s guide to RV Parks as we drove and called one in Seville, OH. They had WiFi access, so we booked a reservation. The Frommer’s Guide is really inaccurate, by the way. Besides sending us to Lake Placid, which was about 100 miles out of our way, because they put the town in the wrong place on their map of New York, they gave the place we chose, Maple Lakes Campground, three stars for RVs. We thought this place was great! The people were friendly facilities were nice, and signal strength was good. Did we do anything there? Hmm. Not really. We only stayed the night since it was very chilly, and moved on south. I have to say that we have been traveling so much that the days are becoming more than a little bit of a blur. I know that we ate dinner in Seville at a little place called The American Heritage Restaurant. They had a nice fish and chips special. I loved Seville’s water tower. Why? Beats me. But here it is.

Seville itself was an adorable little town with Sears houses. I guess you would call it quaint? Of course, everything operates on what I assume to be small town hours. Closed on Sunday, and most days at 6 pm. With our schedule, we didn’t really get to see it much. I would have liked to have walked through town, but, oh well. “Cause I’m a wanderer. Yeah, a wanderer. I roam around, around, around, around, around…”

Sorry, Dion. Anyway, Maple Lakes had a nice, though slightly dirty playground with a ramshackle playhouse which Zorah absolutely adored. She shut the doors and shutters and refused to come out. So I pretended to be the mailman, milkman, grocery store delivery man, and the repairman (the sink and stove needed to be reattached to the wall). Then we had a pretend meal or two of chicken and apples. I love the fact that even in pretend meals she chooses healthy things to eat.

She also found time to go on their slide, which I think went a little too fast for her. I guess she thought so too, because after trying it once or twice, she ran back into her house and shut the door.

August 13 & 14

The next morning, we woke up and packed up. I got to do the hookups, which is detaching the water, electric, and (my personal favorite) the sewer hookup. I have a new note to self, which is to do the sewer detachment before the water. I did it the other way, and had sewer juice on my hands, with no sink to wash in! Ewwwww! It wasn’t a real tragedy. I just brought the soap out to the water hookup and washed there. But ewwww!

We forgot to heed my advice about getting gas the night before we hitch up, but luckily there was diesel right before the highway. Brian asked if I would like to take a turn driving. So I did! Woohoo! I am a truck-driving mama! It was actually pretty easy, though I didn’t do any backing up or sharp turns. I can drive for really long stretches, so I started hinting to Brian after about an hour of driving that I could just keep on going, and that I was sure Utah would be really hot, since it was in the desert. Coincidentally, at our next Z pee break, Brian said he would take over. He said it was because he wanted me to research our next campsite. I think it was partly because he thought I was driving too slowly (though I was going about 75 on average) and that I had mentioned marathon driving to Utah. Oh, well. Though my turn at the helm was short, it was enjoyable.

It was frustrating to find a new campsite. Finally, we consulted Frommer’s, and found Thousand Trails, which is actually the RVers answer to timeshare condos. We are here for three days and two nights, and all we had to do was attend a 90 minute pitch for their service. I am sure you have all heard that one before. Anyway, Brian was getting tired of driving, and we were all getting hungry, so we took it. Oh, and it had a hot tub, a feature over which Brian and Ian promptly began to drool.

The site was quite nice. Not surprising since it’s part of a travel club. No one wanted to back our trailer into a site, so we got upgraded by default to a pull-through site in the members only section! It was right next to the bathroom too, so I got to enjoy a nice hot shower with good water pressure. Our trailer shower may have these things, but I am wary of it. I haven’t used it yet, though Zorah has.

Anyway, Thousand Trails Wilmington Edition has huge maple trees. I suppose majestic would be appropriate. Here is the family under one of those monsters.

It also has a teepee and a playground!

While Ian and Brian went to the hot tub, Zorah and I went to the pool. There she met a really nice girl named Shelby whose four front teeth were also out! Shelby’s rotted and fell out. Zorah’s rotted and were pulled out. Anyway, they had a fine time in the kiddie pool. As they were playing, Shelby’s father came out to watch them too. As they were playing with a big yellow noodle, Zorah said to Shelby: “My daddy has a penis!”

“Whoa!” I shouted. “That was random!” He and I had been having a normal conversation up to that point. “Where’d that come from!”

“Aren’t kids great?” he said. What else can you say to a comment like Zorah’s. I guess it was the noodle that made her think of it? Who can say…

Today we got some wood and some big cardboard rolls from the deli and Amish products store down the road. Without any promping, Zorah put these rolls on her arms and transformed into robot Zorah. She chased me around our site for a long time, poking me with her long robot arms. They really improved her reach, so more than a few times, I wasn't faking surprise when she poked me.

So as I was saying, we had to attend the sales presentation. We kind of asked him to just give a summary since we never made snap decisions anyway. The guy said that was fine, then went through his thing. We said it was too expensive and went on our way after about an hour. Ten minutes after we returned to the site, our salesman came by to say that checkout would be at 10 am the next morning. Before the presentation it was noon. I guess they weren’t happy that we didn’t listen to the whole spiel. After dinner, a lady in a golf cart stopped by to make sure we knew checkout was at 10 am. Sheesh! Okay, we get the message! I wonder if someone will wake us up at 8 am to let us know one more time.

Wilmington is beautiful countryside. Just driving on this little state highway yields wonderful views.And interesting!

That night we went to the store. Zorah, Ian, and I went in the truck, and Brian followed on his bike. I guess he should really get some use out of it, since we bought a toy hauler trailer to accommodate it. Anyway, Wilmington was a little strange to navigate. I guess 4 or 5 little state routes intersect here, and they all branch at different times. So when Brian said he would meet us back at the park, I was a little worried. I told him how to get back and started trucking to the trailer park.

When we got there, Brian was not to be found. Uh-oh. He came home about a half and hour after. Not only had he followed the wrong route, but his bike had started stalling on him. He couldn't remember the road we were on, nor could he remember the name of our campground. Luckily, there were two on our road, so he eventually found it. Whoops. I found it funny. Does that make me a bad person?

But now we have to find a bike shop to repair his bike. There should be one in Louisville.

# posted by Rissa and Zorah @ 12:01 AM