Sunday July 24, 2011



Zoie liked to bark at and attack the balls on Glenna's walker, we took this one off for her to play with.



Having less than 200 miles to go to Celina, OH, we didn't hurry getting started.  Carl and Joyce came over and we said goodbyes.  Since arriving at Willow Bend I hadn't seen anyone from management so I left $50.00 with Carl hoping that would cover our stay. 

We were ready to leave at about 10 AM.  The road was narrow with trees on the other side, so I had Gerri stand by the tree to guide me as close as possible.  The plan was to pull up to the trees, cut the wheel and back up a little, then go forward out of the park.

It doesn't look too bad, but I couldn't move.

As Burns said in 1785, " The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!"  As I turned the wheel and started backward, I felt the right rear skip and drop.  I was stuck fast with the right rear tires rim deep in the mud.

We spent the next two hours or so trying to lift the wheels enough to fill in the hole under the tires.  Carl and Joyce helped us as did two neighbors Jeff and Walt, Gerri carried several buckets of gravel from a nearby pile.  Jeff had a Bobcat with a front end loader, when we were able to lift the coach enough to get gravel under the tires he filled it in.  The problem with lifting the right rear duals was that the jack on that corner kept sinking into the mud..  Joyce put wood under the jack and that too was pushed into the mud.  We managed to get some gravel under the tire, we hooked the Jeep ball hitch to the one on the coach.  Carl pulled with the Jeep in four wheel drive and I backed the coach with the right amount of power to not spin the tires and we pulled the coach backward about 10' and out of the hole.  With the help of Jeff and the front end loader we filled the hole and covered it wit 2x8's.  I turned the front wheels enough to avoid the trees and accelerated forward over the mud hole without hesitating.  WE WERE FREE!

After thanking everyone for the help and saying goodbyes again, I hooked up the Jeep and away went about 12:40.

We went to a Sam's Club in Sandusky for fuel and stopped at a Walgreen's store in Fremont, OH to pick up my new prescription for Warfarin.

After that we made a bee line for Celina.  Shortly after getting on I-75 we started to hit stretches of heavy rain accompanied with lightning and thunder.  The rain continued all the way to Celina arriving at abot 4:30 PM  The parking spots we were used to were taken so I called Kevin, he came over and fix us up with electrical hookup.  There are other units here and Kevin has moved his operation across the parking lot, a much larger facility.  The truck repair facility behind his old shop has closed down so it should be much quieter.

It rained heavily again while we had supper.  Supper was the left over ribs and rib-eye steak from our meal at the Lonestar in Charleston.