The Travel Blog once again becomes a Travel Blog...

 Time for this blog to revert back to its roots and talk about our travels.  Thanks to all for your prayers and support of Connie, we both appreciate it.

We left Ashtabula (the home of Ohio State Football coach Urban Meyer, by the way) on Thursday, October 10th.  Kister Marina was a great time, a great place right on the Ashtabula River, and we saw a lot of old friends in addition to making several new ones.  Can easily say we had a great summer.

Our plans were to head to my Mom's area (Cardington, OH) for a couple of days, then Connie's Dad's area (Wilmington, our hometown) for a couple of days.  We got rolling casually late and about 49 miles from our exit I started noticing some smoke coming from our driver's side tires.  Immediately pulled over to see that one of our tires had let go.  <sigh>  Tires have been a big issue with us.  We've loved our rigs, but they have come with some cheap ass tires.  Had some good news as our Good Sam Roadside Assistance was very handy.  The spare was easy to get down and put on.  Only cost us about 90 minutes.

You can barely see our
rig on the horizon of this
huge parking lot

We had left things open, since Connie's treatment was Wednesday (10/9) and didn't know how she'd feel.  That being said, we didn't make reservations.  Every campground is having its 'year end', everybody get together.  So, when we arrived at the Cardinal Camping Center, we were basically put in steerage.  Gravel parking lot, 50 amp and water, but no sewage.  Not a biggie as we weren't really "camping", just storing our house for a few days.

Our daughter Bethany came down after work on Thursday, and we spend a wonderful day with my Mom shopping at Polaris (while I had the tire swapped out at NTB Polaris), just south of there.  Mom wanted to make it our "Christmas" shopping, and was a little frustrated that there was more 'shopping' than 'buying'.  Had a great dinner at Max & Erma's, then stopped over to see our friends Dave and Jean and their daughters.

Got up early Saturday morning (7:30a is early for us), walked the dogs, got the chair put back in the basement, and changed the tire.  First time on this beast, everything went very well.  Was done by 9:00a.  As I was sliding the spare back under to go up, I saw something in the remaining tire:  a screw.  Couldn't believe it.  Now, we've got problems.  Noon check out, and a had a run back into NTB Polaris.  Guy there was who waited on me the day before and I think he felt sorry for me.  Got me right in and out, so that by 10:15a, I had it on the rig and we could start tearing down.

Pretty uneventful ride until we got to our SR 73 exit for Waynesville and the traffic was backed up incredibly.  I guess there were was a big festival (Sauerkraut Festival), the Flea Market, the Renaissance Center and everything else going on.

We got into the Thousand Trails Wilmington at about 2:30p.  You'll have to read my review after I post it, but it's not going to be glowing.  Met some friends from our "Heartland Family" here, and Connie's Dad and Aunt came out and we had a wonderful dinner and time together afterward.