April 30 2016 – On the Road .. Day 1

Day 1 … Home to our first campsite … Gaslight Campground in Emlenton PA.

Heading West .. Utah .. Arizona .. and many more adventures along the way !

Left home under cloudy skies at approx 9:30 .. easy day of traveling .. especially for navigator .. stayed on RT 80 for almost the entire day. Approx 5 hours of driving .. arrived at campsite around 3:30-ish. Switched our campground location from Yogi Bear Campground ($59 per night) .. to Gaslight ($33) .. decided we really wouldn’t miss seeing Yogi. For $59 .. I’d want Yogi to make us breakfast tomorrow AND deliver it !

No issues encountered .. no road construction .. or delays of any kind. Things will be different next few days .. rain in forcast for at least next 24 hours .. meaning we will departing tomorrow morning in the rain and will be driving in rain all of the day !

After driving approx 150 miles .. we stopped at a Flying J’s / Denny’s truck stop .. waitress warned us that there would be 30 min wait for any food orders .. place was not even half filled .. and they have a 30 min wait .. something wrong going on .. thinking there must be issues in the kitchen .. if thats the case .. we DON’T WANT to eat here .. walked out .. had tea and a snack in Casita .. then left parking lot to continue our trip .. Approx 20 min to our campground .. we found another Flying J’s and went to their Denny’s … much better .. had breakfast for lunch .. then on to campground. Filled truck with gas .. approx 20 gal .. $45 .. campground was 5 min away..  Campground a little disappointing ..it was rated 9/9/9 in camping reviews .. which is pretty good since 10/10/10 is the best you can get.  Place needs alot of upkeep ..  bathroom/showers not in very good shape .. But for $33 for a one night stay .. we’re not complaining (too much) 🙂   Campground is mostly for seasonal campers .. ratings of 9/9/9 is ridiculous ..  numbers stand for cleanliness .. maint of campground and activities ..

Next campground  will be in Ohio .. Hope to get an early start tomorrow .. trailer is still hitched to truck .. so we just need to unhook electrical connection and go !

Dashcam clips …  leaving home .. driving on RT80 and arriving at campground.. approx 3 min…

 

15 second clip of our campground

 

 

April 16 Promise Land Day 2

Last nite was a bit crazy …  First we made a horrible decision to go to bed early .. almost 8:30 .. we never do that .. but .. we were tired .. and thought we’d lay down and read our Kindles … BAD idea .. before too long .. we were in the Land of Nod !  Problem being .. if I go sleep early .. I get up VERY early.. I was wide awake at 2am …  ! Read more Kindle .. played with Iphone .. no luck .. couldn’t go back to sleep. But wait .. there’s more !!  While up .. I checked our indoor thermometer .. it was 39 degrees INSIDE Casita ! Very .. very chilly in Casita … Temp in our refridge was 37 .. temp in Casita was 39 … not good ! Turned on our electric heater to get some heat … temps came up pretty quick .. hate to run heaters at night because they are loud .. BUT .. from now on .. heaters go on ! For some reason .. Mrs G can sleep through these fridgid temps  as well as wake up and fall asleep very quickly .. I stay awake..

Anyway … another nice day today .. As we were sitting around breakfast .. we decided that we’ve accomplished all our goals (or most of them) on this trip .. all systems working AOK.. we are comfortable that Casita is ready to hit the road. And since we’ve got a ton of things to do at home .. we decided to cut trip short and come home early .. leaving this afternoon instead of tomorrow morning. So instead of thinking about our ‘things to list’ .. we headed home to tackle some things on our list.

Today was opening day for trout season .. alot of folks out early in the morning ..  all parking lots filled .. overflow lots filled .. Certainly more fisherman than fish !

Photo doesn’t do justice as too how many folks in lake .. shore lined with folks .. numerous boats in water .. folks in their hip waders ..

Scenery photos

So .. arrived home around 2:30 … unpacked .. and started to get some chores done .. 2 weeks before we head out West .. alot to do between now and then.

Problems with dashcam .. seems to be hit or miss .. sometimes it works .. sometimes it corrupts files on data card… at this point it’s totally unreliable .. fired off a note to tech support .. hopefully they have an answer .. would certainly like to get it working for the trip .. ! Wouldn’t want to disappoint folks wanting to hear us chat (banter 🙂 about trip as we motor down the highway !!

 

 

April 15 2016 Promise Land State Park

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First trip of the year !  Always like to take Casita out for a small trip before we do any extensive traveling for the season. Promise Land is less than an hour from home .. so .. it’s very convenient.

Arrived at campground approx 2pm .. excellent weather for next few days. No issues with Casita (so far !).. Only staying here for two nights. Will leave Sunday morning. No major plans .. a little hiking and photo taking.. still learning how to use Sony A6000.  Seems as though we are abit early for camping at this loop .. bathroom facilities do not open till early May .. another good reason we’re glad we’re staying for two nights !

Attempting to make a few changes with blog this year .. hope to add some dashcam video as well as other videos .. will add short clip videos to Utube then provide a link to blog. Problems with dashcam video from home to campsite .. data got corrupt somehow .. probably user error !

First attempt at Utube link .. It’s a merge of 3 clips .. dashcam .. and 2 Iphone videos of our campsite. First scene in video is from dashcam .. it’s approx 20 sec .. no movement .. but I wanted to figure out how to make this work .. 2 short clips of campsite follow.

NOTE:  It seems as though this link may only working on laptops .. not on WordPress Iphone applications .. ? it’s asking that you sign in to Utube .. need to figure that out .. Also I noticed that Utube is inserting a commercial at end of video ..

 

Our ‘bathroom’ facilities !

Lake near campsites