Day 1 Sunday 9/17/2023
We departed at 7:45AM for another adventure. This trip will incorporate several destinations. We decided to work as Volunteer Campground Host at Stone Mountain State Park again this year in October. We have not been to the mountains in the Fall during leaf peeping season in several years so this will give us that chance and give us a free place to stay in exchange for working in the campground.
Lena has wanted to go to the Rock and roll museum in Cleveland Ohio for several years. Since we will be going near the State Park on the way we decided it would be a good time to incorporate the trip to the museum on this trip. We will be visiting some other places in Ohio and West Virginia on the way back from the museum. Then after we depart Stone Mountain we will stop in Greensboro NC to attend the North Carolina Woodturners Symposium. So this trip will accomplish several things along the same route.
We stopped at McDonald’s in Wallace for a quick breakfast before getting on I40. We exited I40 onto hwy 210 to go over to hwy 421 in Lillington NC. Before we got to Angier we almost had a head-on collision. A pickup truck was meeting us with several cars behind him. Well he made an abrupt turn to the right into a driveway and the cars behind him had to slam on their breaks (probably following to close). The second car behind him swerved out into our lane and I had to stand on the breaks. He pulled back into his lane just in time to avoid a collision with us. That was a little too close.
We stopped at the Farmer’s Market in Greensboro to get some vegetables from Walkers Produce. We have stopped here many times and always get good produce from them.
The last 50 miles to our campground was driving in rain, very heavy at times. We were glad to get to the campground. There were about 7 other RVs waiting to check in when we pulled up. We are staying in the Mayberry Campground site 10 just a few miles from Mt. Airy.
The campground is built on part of the land that was part of a 2,000 acre farm owned by the original Siamese twins, Eng and Chang Bunker. Eng and his wife Sara had 11 children and Chang and Adelaide had 10. I find that rather interesting but apparently they made it work.They each had their own home and would stay at one house 3 nights and then the other house 3 nights. The twins died in 1874 at the age of 62. The owners/operators of the campground are direct descendants of the twins.
Day 2 Monday 9/18/23
We didn’t have but 92 miles to drive today so we didn’t depart until about 9:45AM. We soon crossed the Virginia border on I77 and went through an area called Fancy Gap which is a climb up some rather curvy roads as we gained altitude into the mountains of Virginia. Sometimes the winds are bad in this area so a big rig like ours and 18 wheelers have to be on the alert.
We drove through two tunnels and so crossed the West Virginia border. Our stop tonight was at the Princeton WV Railroad Museum. They are a Harvest Host so with reservations we can stay in their parking lot for one night free. We got there about 11:45AM parked where the lady at the museum told us to. It was a level spot so that was good. We unhooked the Jeep and went to Dollie’s Dinner for lunch. This was recommended by the lady at the museum. It was okay but probably should not have ordered seafood at a diner.
Then we drove to the historic part of town just up from the museum to take photos of the murals painted on the sides of the buildings.
We returned to the museum and toured it and made a donation since they don’t charge to tour it or stay in their parking lot. They had lots of railroad artifacts and they said they had more but nowhere to display them.
Just after the museum closed at 4PM another Harvest Host guest arrived and park near us. Later we met them in the parking lot and talked for awhile. They told us about the 35 year old parrot that travel with them. We could hear is squawking inside their motorhome. I don’t think I want a noisy bird traveling with me.
Day 3 Tuesday 9/19/2023
It was 55 degrees when we got up a 7AM this morning. After we had breakfast we closed up the motorhome and departed at 8AM.
We had a beautiful drive on I77 through the mountains of West Virginia. We went through 3 toll plazas but we have a EZ pass transponder so we don’t have to hand out cash to the attendant. The transponder syncs up with their toll system and charges our account but we do get a discount by using the transponder.
As we got closer to the Ohio border the land began to be much flatter but still hilly.
We stopped for fuel near Ripley Ohio at a Loves Truck Stop. While I was fueling up Lena went into the McDonalds and got us a Latte and Pumpkin Cream pie.
We got off the interstate about 85 miles from out destination of Medina Ohio. This route took us through several small towns and by some beautiful farm land. There were several Amish farms along this route. Some of the roads we were on had a paved lane on either side of the highway for the Amish to ride their buggies on rather than on the same lanes as the automobiles use. We could tell that horses had used these lanes because there were numerous “horse apples” along the way. We did see two Amish buggies on the lanes.
We got to our destination about 2:30PM. Our campground for the next 4 nights is Pier-Lon Campground. After checking in the host escorted us to site F6, a pull through site. This is a family owned campground that now has the second and third generation running it. It is a nice campground and really clean.
After a late lunch we set outside and enjoyed the cooler temperature.
Day 4 Wednesday 9/20/2023
We drove about 45 miles to the Rock and Roll Museum in Cleveland this morning. After finally finding a parking garage about a block away we parked and walked over to the museum. The museum had 5 or 6 floors but most of the memorabilia was on three floors. There were a lot of items from people in Rock and Roll we had never heard about. We enjoyed touring it but don’t have any plans to return. We stayed about 3 hours and decided we had seen enough. I sure don’t like driving in large cities with all the twist and turns to get around. We paid our $13 parking fee and headed back to the campground for a late lunch.
The weather is nice so we sat outside for awhile until the air began to cool off.
Day 5 Thursday 9/21/2023
Lena needed a Latte fix this morning so we decided to drive about 15 miles to the town of Medina Ohio to The Honey Bee Bakery. Our campground is located out in the country so there are not any small towns close by.
When we stopped for the night in Princeton WV we heard a sound coming from the front of the engine that didn’t sound right. Just before we got to the bakery we heard another more stranger sound so when we stopped at the bakery I raised the hood on the Jeep and saw a problem with the idler pulley on the front of the engine that the serpentine belt runs around. After we got our Latte and a muffin I called a Chrysler/Jeep dealership that was only 3.5 miles away. I explained our situation and he said he had a full schedule today but he would try to help us. About 1/2 mile from the dealership the serpentine belt came off and the power steering quit but I was able to get it to the service facility. They took the Jeep right over to start diagnosing the problem. They found the idler pulley was destroyed and the water pump was damaged and of course the serpentine belt was ruined. Rather than us having to wait all day for the repairs they offered us a truck to use until the repairs were completed. They gave us a 2024 Dodge Ram truck to use. The top of the seats came to Lena’s waist so she had to struggle to get in. It was about lunch time so we went to Applebees for lunch and then to Plum Creek Park to take a short hike before returning to the campground. About an hour later the service department called to tell me that they had the parts installed but when they put the new belt on they discovered the power steering pump was also damaged so they have to get one and install it so we will probably be all fixed by tomorrow sometime.
Day 6 Friday 9/22/2023
We got a call about 8:30AM from the repair shop that our Jeep was ready to be picked up so we finished breakfast and headed that way. We had to stop and fill up the fuel tank on the truck to return it like we got it. It only took 1.9 gallons of fuel.
We paid our bill (crying here), turned over the key to the loaner truck and thanked the service advisor for them taking us in and getting our repairs done on short notice. Then we were on our way in a few minutes.
Since we were so disappointed with the coffee shop we stopped at yesterday we decided to try another just down the block. It was SO much better than the one yesterday that had stale blueberry muffins and bland Lattes.
We had nothing else planned for today but decided to go to the Oenslager Nature Center to check it out. The center was located on the grounds of the old Oenslager Homestead. They had a nice visitor center with lots of displays and there were several walking trails. We took the wetlands trail since it was paved and not too long.
Then we took a winding route back to the campground where we spent the remainder of the day. I had to wash the bugs off the motorhome windshield since we had killed dozens on the trip here.
We walked around the campground later in the day. The campground is much bigger than we were aware and they have a large pond with a section roped off for swimming with a sandy beach. They also allow fishing in the lake. There are lots of RVs here that are here long term. The man next to us said they had been here all Summer but would soon be heading to Florida for the Winter. The campground closes down October 15th and will not reopen until April 15 so all the long term campers will have to leave by then.
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