On the Road Again..Ye…Ha!

Well Tuesday around 4 in the afternoon I was on the phone with cousin Diane and got a beep, another call comin’ through. It’s the dealership that has our truck! Quick make excuse to Diane and take the other call. Our truck part came in early, they installed it and the truck is ready.

Yaaa…..Hooo……

We’ve been stranded here in the cold and rain for too long. “I’ll be right over”! As the dealer was just across the street. Three hundred samolians later we we’re out the door. Since we had made arrangement's with Diane and Denny for dinner, we had to see them one more time. We dined on ‘Weiners’ at their house and we were going to watch a movie but we decided to go home and see Bonner’ fer’ a while as we were ‘OUT-A-HERE’ tomorrow. We did spend some time with Bonnie and said our goodbyes before retirin’.

Wednesday we were up at 7:30, but after all the packin’ we didn’t leave till 2:30PM. I had taken everything, and I mean everything out of the truck. All the contents of the cab, cases of pickles, salsa, boxes of books, a box of goodies Gloria gave us, two tool bags and a rubbermaid box with carpenter tools (I brought for my short lived remodel job). Also everything that lives in the back o’ the truck when we travel, the hitch, the generator, gas can, wood boxes, and the auxiliary fuel tank. I also had removed the ‘Bully Dog’ Diesel Programmer from the truck and had to reinstall it and then teach the program how the transmission shifts again. The learning process involves accelerating in the truck through all five gears and then brakin’ to a stop at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% throttle, then doin’ it all again with the Tow/Haul mode switch turned on.

Well we finally got goin’ and we are elated. “We’re goin’ south, Oh Yeah we’re goin’ south.”

We made it as far as Morgantown, WV and stayed at the ‘Wally World Resort’. Rained and blew all through the night and we were gently rocked in our 5’ver.  Left there this mornin’ and made it into Virginia. Well Linda found some sights we needed to see so a few miles down from the Welcome Center that doles out all that tourist propaganda, we exited the big road in of all the excitin’ places, Bland, VA, on a little tiny black road on the map. Destination, Big Walker Lookout. Now this is supposed to be ‘A scenic overlook to not miss’. Well the day was foggy, rainy and the overlook was good, maybe 40 years ago, cause it was all rundown. The sky lift was gone, the original country store was gone and everything was in a sad state of disrepair. The view was…

That shot is zoomed a mite cause we were at 3405 feet at the base of the tower. The ‘Lookout’ part of the site is a 100 foot tower, similar to a fire tower, that one can climb and take in the vistas from the top. Linda said “NO WAY”, was she goin’ anywhere near that tower and since it was windy and gustin, I wasn’t dyin’ alone so we looked from ground level.

We left there with idea we were makin’ our way to the interstate when Linda spies a campground, a forest service campground. Right here, right now. Now we had been plannin’ to stop fer’ the night at Mt. Airy’s Mayberry campground, but we both much prefer the woods to an RV Park. So… here we are, $11 a night, water and electric, tucked away in the woods and it’s only 4 miles from the interstate.

This shot was taken near dusk at our site.

When we were passin’ through West Virginia, my co-pilot is givin’ me a blow-by-blow on all the scenery that I can’t ogle cause I’m too busy watchin’ them other drivers tryin’ to take their share out o’ the lane I’m already occupyin’. And I hear “There’s a deer bluff”. Huh? A what? You mean a deer blind. “I mean a deer bluff, where hunters go to try to bluff the deer”. OK whatever you say dear.

Well were makin’ our way south, tryin’ to outrun the rain, not too successfully so far, but we’re gonna’ beat it.

Well, gonna’ go fer’ now. Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.