O-HI-O

Good to be back in Ohio - but not home yet. We have made it to Wapakoneta just north of Dayton, will stay here tonight, then home by mid-afternoon tomorrow. Why not come all the way home if we are this close? We have made it a point that the day before we come back home, we need to make sure all the tanks are cleaned out, that stuff is put away, etc. We only have electricity where we store the RV, so using water to clean and then to dump out the holding tanks a couple of times and then treat with chemicals - is a must if we don't want a smelly RV next time we use it.

Dave also wanted to get off the road - the wind gusts right now are over 35 and it's very difficult to drive with that kind of wind. We did make it from Kentucky last night without a problem. Let me get you caught up with the latest on the cats. We were ready and had the truck set up to let them out of their cages if they went bazzerk like they did on Wednesday. Well - Chip and Grace both slept most of the day yesterday, didn't make alot of noises, and we drove through some pretty nasty areas. Interstate 40 is closed just west of Asheville so we had to detour about 1 1/2 hours north, then south to get back to I40. Was those roads unbelievable! Up and down in and out of the Smokey Mountains. And, on top of that, we are having problems with the electrical hookup which gives us the extra safety brakes - they are not working at all. We had to depend on the truck's engine (jake brakes) to slow us down, speed us up. Very very nerve wracking - and I was so scared! Dave is a terrific driver, but knowing we were pulling 15000 pounds behind us and didn't have the added safety brakes and doing huge steep grades, wow.

And then! We left Asheville Thursday morning and drove all day - 6 hours and stayed the night in Corbin Kentucky - at a KOA (Kampground of America) which is pricey from what we were doing - but it is typically very stable, very clean, etc. The campground we left was in a "haller' (gap) and we managed to go off the road a couple of times because of the hairpin turns of the road in and out of the campground. It was a beautiful setting, but holy cow! Just as we got on I75 north - that's when the warning buzzer sounded that the trailer's brakes weren't working. Nerve wracking. Once we settled down and understood we couldn't do anything about it, we just kept on coming north. As we got closer to Corbin KY to get to the next overnight campground - we got lost once we left Interstate 75. The GPS steered us wrong - in a huge way. Added an additional hour onto our already long trip. But, made it. Dave literally collapsed at 7pm last night. Had no problems getting back to I75, once we found out how to get there, and was on the road by 9am. Again, today Chip and Grace didn't say a word all day. Can't believe it after that horrendous day 2 days ago. Chip still isn't right, just glad we will be home tomorrow afternoon.

This is the last post of this trip. We are planning to take off again - this time to Michigan/Minnesota/Wisconsin sometime 3rd week in May for about 5 weeks. Have to be home and fly to Phoenix by the 15th of July.