Head West not so young Man

[buckeyefarmer]

I put the canyon video at the steepest cliff before I copied the link, because the link captures the current spot.
I see you are stopping at Gettysburg campground. I don't know much about it, except you don't want to be there if the creek is flooding. It is about a mile before(coming from gettysburg) where I camp at granite Hill campground. Granite hill is much larger, has nice pull thru spots, may be a tad more expensive. Here's a couple pics from last nov.
you are very close to the battlefield, and the Eisenhower farm, just take black horse tavern rd (across the creek from the campground) and turn left on Millerstown rd. You will drive past the original entrance to the Eisenhower farm. At the corner on confederate drive, there is a nice tower you can climb and see the whole battlefield.
Try to eat at the dobbin house or farnsworth house.
Dobbin House Tavern
Home

 

[daugen]

well now that two of you have mentioned Granite Hill I had to look it up. Don't mind it being a bit off route 15, but I think I can see now why it is not "big rig" rated.
It has tons of pull throughs, 100 of them, and they are nice and wide at 40 feet, but they are only 55 feet long. My small rv with car should fit in there, but larger rigs won't. Most pull thrus at big campgrounds I've read about are 70 feet long, so you can pull in and not have to do anything. I hope...never done this before.

I will definitely eat at one of those restaurants. Hope to post pics wherever I go; just bought an inexpensive pocket camera and will hopefully remember to take it out and get some pics. Plus I got a little mini tripod for my regular camera and a unipod(vs a tripod) for those big outdoors pics. Now if I can only figure out how to take a pic looking into the sun...:confused3:

hmmm. I looked at the menu...Game Pie, turkey, pheasant and duck cooked pot pie style. Now that I would not miss. Interesting, all game that historically would have been brought home to dinner. I wonder if I'll be able to tell which is which in that pot pie. Likely not, but sure sounds good.

 

[MacLawn]

Whew, buckeye, that trail is something! I'd be hugging that rock wall mighty tight!

Daug, you got a nice rig there! That should be a heap of fun. My, what they call it, kick the bucket list or some such, is to hook me trailer up and head west into the sunset with no schedule! Hmmm, I ain't got so much time! Looking forward to ye reports!

 

[daugen]

well I booked my first stop at Gettysburg Campground. Nice pull through site near a creek. And long enough from the ice cream shop that I will have to wear off
at least ten huge calories walking there...Am up at the very top in site 185, the only 30 amp site in that area. Funny, you can see how they ran their wiring
by the color patterns. And this one apparently original site that they didn't run 50 amps to. My rv only has one a/c unit which seems to do fine, if noisily so I can run
fine on a 30amp service. And that gets me at the very end with a nice view and no neighbors on one side. All good.

This is amazingly similar to docking a boat in a marina. Except I have brakes and the ground isn't moving. Peace of cake.

c'mon snow melt.

 

[wngsprd]

The planning and anticipation are rewarding parts of a big trip. Glad it's coming together.

 

[daugen]

thanks wngsprd, and I think you gave me good voodoo
because the rv dealer called the next day and said come pick it up, all ready to go.
So I'm off later this morning in my VW Golf and the plan is to drive it right up on the dolly and strap her in.
With some instruction of course. And then I will go pay the bill, which will range from "not bad' to "holy smokes", or something
similar. I can't take it with me...

Likely annoying them a bit, I asked them to recheck the air pressure in every tire and set the tires at 5 pounds over the suggested.
The tires can take 30 pounds more..., but my first project tomorrow is to install the wireless TPMS system I bought. Every tire on the ground will be
monitored, ten in all. Just trying to manage single points of failure that often fail, with nasty consequences. I'm seriously careful about tire pressure
and have never had a blowout. Nails and flats? you bet. But I figure that's not the tire's fault. Blowing out with improper tire pressure isn't either.
The system has an overtemp sensor too. Can see the psi accurate to one psi in each tire on a digital readout.

This is all the stuff you get standard on the $400K++ fancy diesel pushers. On decontented econo models like mine,
you wind up adding stuff back on. But that's ok with me, I get to spec the equipment

I have about 500 pounds of stuff in the garage to get loaded tomorrow. Haier 1.3 cf freezer, which will go quite nicely in the cavernous closet (six feet long).
It was cheap, very quiet when I plugged it in at home and it went down to -18 degrees in two hours. That will do...
It could fit in one of the outside lower compartments but I think it will last longer upstairs. And then boxes and boxes of stuff.

Now I know this might sound a bit much...but it's the old fireman in me. Since my late wife will not be with me, and therefore that opens up a huge amount of added
"toy" possibilities, due to weight issues. I have about two tons I could technically load about but lighter in my case is always better, particularly trying to climb the Rockies in an overloaded porker.

But...I am packing a small chainsaw with supplies, a Warn portable winch, five ton fabric tow ropes, axle straps, Smittybuilt shackles, heavy gloves...
just in case I'm in the right place at the wrong time and have to cut my way out...
and every variety of red cones, triangle emergency road markers. And of course about five flashlights.
and a fully stocked emergency medical kit. My late wife was an RN and we have an amazing amount of stuff at home.

in reality, if I have a normal emergency, I'm calling for the free road service. It's just when things get really crazy...

But every pound I load has to justify itself. Including gallons of drinking water, just in case...

So if I pack a hundred pounds of emergency stuff and never use it, well, I like that idea, just like insurance. And only a hundred pound premium to pay...
I'll be gone at least three months; truly like trying to stock a miniature house. But I've done this before living aboard a boat and doing off shore boating, where you have to be totally self-reliant, so at least mentally, I know the drill. Now just how many phillips screwdrivers do I really need...

:dance1:

 

[ultrarunner]

Sounds exciting...

I'm expecting progress reports along the way!

 

[MacLawn]

Great, daug, you're prepared! But it ain't like you're going out into the Pacific Ocean ye know. You'll never be too far from ye olde WallyWorld. I understand though, I'm the same way.

I'm looking forward to reading ye road reports!

 

[wngsprd]

Drew, do you have satellite radio on your RV? We found listening to local stations driving out west could be a good time, but there were places we couldn't get reception or just wanted to listen to news or our preferred music and the satellite radio was perfect.

 

[Gunny]

Drew, do you have satellite radio on your RV? We found listening to local stations driving out west could be a good time, but there were places we couldn't get reception or just wanted to listen to news or our preferred music and the satellite radio was perfect.

Excellent point - with all the driving I used to do, there were several places that I would wear out the seek button, just trying to find a station that I could listen to, many times there were none for quite a few miles. To that end, XM radio made all the difference in the world, I prefer talk radio and I never had a problem finding good shows on my XM.