Pursuing Happiness In Pennsylvania

September 30-October 2, 2019

Penn Wood Airstream Park, New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Day 108-110

It's rainy and warm with low fog. Long driving day, but I had some of the best radio (89.7 Radio Folk Alley) to keep me company. Because of the rain, I did go the interstate for a while. The scenery was not as interesting, but I think it was the safest route; especially considering how things are starting to get increasingly hilly.

Cute sign on the highway welcoming us to PA - "Pursue Your Happiness" says it all. What a friendly way to greet visitors. Picked up a state map at the visitor’s center and started to notice pretty purple flowers along the highway. Hum, Sparky looks shabby. I'll hopefully book him a grooming appointment for later tomorrow.

Penn Wood is nice! It’s an all Airstream campground in western PA. The grounds are lush, well maintained and the sites are spacious. I couldn’t have felt more welcomed and immediately felt a sense community. Not that I needed help parking on the huge lawn, but I was offered it and took it. Arlo, a retired and longtime AS’er, gave me a real lesson on backing up, using my smaller right mirror (there are two). Even though I got to a point that it was ok, we continued to do it until I was perfectly straight on the concrete slab. Then, he gave me a lesson on how to properly level. This I was especially happy to get his advice on. I am getting better at it, and there have times I have been in the center of the level; but most often, I am slightly off on one side. He showed me how to back up on the leveling bricks, on the side that needed lifting. Of course, this is easiest when you have two people. When you are by yourself, it will take a lot longer because you need to get out of the truck and make sure you are centered on the 1” high, 12” square block (without having your tread hang over) before unhitching.

Mike, another member and the one I talked to when booking, was super nice too. He invited me out with his wife, Arlo and other campers for dinner at a local café! It made me feel like family! Mike’s wife went to Johnson & Wales, so we had a lot to talk about. Great stories from all of them. I can see why people belong to this camp.

Day 2 - Drove to Foxburg and Kittanning (coal town). It's a little breezy and the leaves are falling in slow motion. Green, brown and the occasional orange or red leaves dance over the windy, hilly roads. It's like a slow motion movie of a perfect fall day. Very few, if any, corn or soybean farms in these parts. Did I mention that the speed limit in residential areas is 55 mph? I can’t believe it, seems way too fast but I guess if they’re all locals taking these back roads ok. Not good for me, every turn is so new that 45 mph seems too fast at times. It’s also 55 mph on the busier two-lane roads heavily used by 18 wheelers. That would be fine if there were no homes or businesses along the way, but these roads are residential too! This was a stressful driving day and when I got back to camp, I learned that some of the roads are actually known to be very dangerous. No kidding.

Dropped Sparky off to get groomed - so happy I got an appointment!!! Tried to stop at a local butcher to stock up, but sadly they were closed today. I have two options for grocery – Walmart and Tom’s Riverside, an old-style grocery store with commodity offerings. I went to Tom’s because it was nearby but mainly because it wasn't Walmart. The store was sad lookig but it did have scrapple! The girl at the checkout didn’t know what it was. Told her it was in the same family as spam and corned beef, but far tastier than spam. My Mom loved pan fried scrapple, so I was excited to have it again. Produce here was anemic. Still, better than shopping at Walmart though.

Had a really nice visit with the groomer who also is an RV’er! She did a great job and I was so appreciative she fit me in at the last minute. Still can't believe how lucky I was to get an appointment for him so quickly.

Back at camp, the group invited me over for dinner again! A potluck of sorts with a wonderful soup later followed with toasted marshmallows on the fire. Funny, Sparky ended up getting stuck to a long skewer and was walking around with a sticky marshmallow on his newly groomed back. Bonding, friendship, stories...bourbon. This was so nice.

Later, Arlo came over to look at the shower door. Seems the problem is due to the hinge at the top. It’s not strong enough to hold the weight of the door. Not much can be done other to make a temporary shim and either have the door replaced by warranty or have the factory/dealer install a shim (that won’t mess with my warranty). Ok, I can deal with that for a while. Someone else in the group mentioned they too had that problem and eventually went with a shower curtain. (I have since brought this problem up with the Customer Council, turns out this is a common issue with newer rigs. Hopefully they will improve the spec or find another shower door vendor.)