The Tour, 2002, The Finale

April 13, 2002

Continue the drive home, yesterday we did about 280 miles, today we are looking at about 270.  Long days.

We call the family once we get near Cleveland (my cell phones cover this area).  Son # 2 does not get the message, and shows up at the house a few hours after we get home to check things over, so we have a nice visit.

We stop and get the mail.  OH, yowser!  We get one of those white boxes they use, FULL!  GULP!

We pull onto W street to discover they have just graded the roads.  How nice of them to do that for us!   HA HA HA

We back the trailer into the parking spot, the mud we left there two months ago is STILL THERE!!  The rabbits have been eating my crocus, the daffodils are blooming.  The hood of the Escort is sorta up (not all the way, just a little, like the latch is lose), not sure why, not sure how, but does not seem to be anything wrong with it.

The van battery is dead.  The cat has hair all over the carpet, etc.  I am cleaning carpet and sweeping carpet 20 minutes after we hit the front door.  The house plants need water, so I start that too.

Man fixes the garage door so it will go up, turns the power back on the stove, the pump, fills the hot water heater.  Oooo, does that water stink (sulfur smell), I burn a few candles to help get rid of the stink! We have hot water in less than one hour.  I start running the washing machine (empty) and the dishwasher (ditto) so that we can use them tomorrow.

I begin the process of sorting the mail.  One pile for income, one pile for bills, one pile for stuff that is important for Man to look over, one pile for genealogy, one pile for catalogs, etc, and one pile for pure junk.

April 14 to 17, 2002

The days all run together, we have been grocery shopping, have cut some of the fallen trees in the woods, Man has rolled the yard, we have started getting the boat ready for the season, we have cleaned out about 85 % of the trailer, the truck is completely cleaned out and oil changed.  We have cleaned part of the carpet in the front room, watered plants, paid the bills, deposited the checks, filled book orders, cleaned most of the flower beds, most of the garage has been organized too, which included carrying the chair from the trailer and the small refrigerator out to the pole barn and up that LONG stairwell.  Groan!!  We have even managed to spend a day with the twins and their parents.  Whew!!!  I guess the Tour of 2002 is officially over!

We were gone exactly 8 weeks.

We drove about 4700 Miles.

We stayed at 16 campgrounds, and we stayed in one private residence driveway (a very very nice campground indeed).

We used 472 gallons of gasoline (taking into consideration we left with a full tank and have not filled the tank since we got home, so that number may be off a wee bit).

We visited 10 different families/friends.

We could have gone on for longer, life in the RV is fine by us.  But so is life at home, the family, the friends, the community.

The Tour, 2002, Part 12

April 8, 2002

Meeting Alva for lunch today in Harrisonburg.  First I do a little research in the courthouse and I do some more after lunch.  Results, mixed.  Did find a few deeds that I did not have.  Did not find any more proof/data on Charles Trumbo or Catherine Fawley or the Kessler clan.  GRRR.  I am desperate now and will start reading the Minute Books of the Court.  This is a REALLY hard  way to research.  You have to read the entire book, line by line.

Man spends the day sitting in courtrooms listening to court cases.  He thinks this is FUN.  He tells me all about the cases all the way home! He even asks me if we are going to the courthouse again tomorrow so he can sit in on more cases!

Nancy is out of town for the evening, so we take T.D. to dinner, he buys, we drive.

Much warmer tonight and the heater hardly runs.

April 9, 2002

We decide to go back to Harrisonburg, Man does sit in on a few court cases, and I sit and read ONE Minute book.  JUST ONE!  Sad to say, I did not find what I was looking for, and I am beginning to strongly feel that the case will never be found, I was hoping to find that Catherine Fawley filed a bastardy case for her son, Charles.  I now doubt that she ever did.

Rainy all day, grey, foggy, hazy.  But not cold.

April 10, 2002

I cannot face another Minute Book, so no more research for me.  We we going to go up to Shenandoah County, but I do not have the map I need, so we just sit around and do, well, NOT MUCH!

April 11, 2002

I do some input, do some email, do some cleaning up of the trailer, storing away.  We have decided that we will leave Broadway tomorrow AM.  Time to get home to Michigan.  The weather is very nice here, and we spend some time just sitting in the sun.

Today is Nancy’s son’s birthday, so a crowd goes to Dayton to a real cool restaurant, it has been around for a long time, was a boarding house, is run by Mennonites.  There are 12 of us, the food is really good, and it was a nice time.

April 12, 2002

We take Nancy and T.D. to breakfast in Timberville.  A small thanks for being such good hosts.

We hook up, and start out, on the road by 9:30.  It is a lovely day, ya can see for miles.  Not windy, nice driving.  The day is pretty much routine, except for that one truck that nearly took our front left headlight out, he obviously could not tell where the end of his truck was, and he came right over at us, it was a 6 inch miss.  Man was NOT happy!

We discover that there are no campgrounds open in Ohio, at least about halfway between Cleveland back to the eastern gate of the Ohio Turnpike.  We end up finding a campground around Pittsburg (think that was were we stopped last year), only this time we are on the northwest side of town.  It is a small campground, nice enough.  They want $2.50 more a night to upgrade you from 15 amps to 30 amps.  Man says, no way, we can get by on 15.  The lady says, well you cannot run a heater on that, or an air-conditioning.  We know we we can, so why pay.  It is really warm, had to dump off the sweatshirt as soon as we stepped out of the truck.

Cooked dinner, I groomed out the dogs, combed them out, no baths.  Man got involved with the “motorhome episode”.  This guy had a brand new (5,000 miles) motorhome, probably about 2 hundred thousand dollars worth.  He had troubles tho, something about throwing oil out the back when he went down the hills with the diesel pusher engine. ?????  I will have to ask Man to explain it.  Anyway, he called the manufacturer, they gave him quite a bit of hassle and told him NOT to drive it, they would send a tow truck (a big tow truck).  When Man wandered over there, they were trying to hook the tow truck up to the MH (motorhome).  Only, they could NOT!  Man stood up there watching and chatting for a long time, cause I had almost all 4 dogs combed out while he was gone!!!

They finally called in another tow truck, and it took probably close to 2 hours for him to arrive.  Now, this was a HUGE tow truck, made the big tow truck look, well, not small, but not big anymore.

They were working in the dark, and it took a while, but they finally managed to get the MH hooked up to the HUGE tow truck.  It looked like a fifth wheel hookup, only upside down.  They pulled that MH out of there real slow like.  Maybe at 1 MPH!!!  And they checked the hookup several times.  One guy actually walked along side with a flashlight checking it as it progressed toward the road.

I managed to do input after all this excitement, and then hit the hay!

The Tour, 2002, Part 11

April 3, 2002

Back at the library, I do email.  Had so much that yahoo.com froze.  I had to throw out TONS of email and it took 1.5 hours.  Did about an hour then left it, hoping it would reset itself, came back later in the day, to find it did not reset.  BUT I finally managed to find the correct delete keys and get things working again.

Working on finding documents, more of them, and still looking for obituaries.  All of a sudden, after searching for 3.5 days of research, I am able to find the Norfolk papers for 1914, and wouldn’t you know it is after 2 o’clock, and I have only about 2.5 hours left to research.  I order the film, and much to my delight find the obituary for my great-great-grandmother, Sallie A. Darden Eley Pierce.  The best part is that it mentions 3 daughters, one of which I had lost track of!  She is listed on the obit with a different married name and in Nashville Tennessee.  Did you hear the YIPEE??  So, I now have lookups I need to do in Ft. Wayne!  YIPEE!!

While I have been working, Man has been walking around town.  He visits many museums (goes in one).  He also gets a hot dog from a street vendor (which will turn out to be a HUGE error!)

We stop for Italian food on the way home, found a great place, quite by accident, and had a nice meal and good service too!

I am worn out and go to bed very early.

Man wakes at 3 AM sick.  Tummy upset and the other end too.  He takes 6 Pepto Bismo over the next several hours, but manages to not “toss the cookies”.  Ohhhhhh, boy!!  This is not good, we are supposed to travel tomorrow AM.

April 4, 2002

Well, he is hurting, but good.  Muscles aches, generally ICKY!!  This is one of those times that I am really thankful that I know how to do most of the hooking up stuff (with him standing behind and watching).  I glad that I can pull the trailer.  We really need to get to Broadway and the toilet holding tank is in dire need of dumping.  YIKES!

I let him sleep as long as he wants, and slowly I pick up and start stowing gear, cleaning, etc.  Eventually he wakes up, and I get him to eat a English muffin, and get his britches on.  I get more gear stashed, feed the dogs, start packing away stuff that was outside like the grill and the ground mats, dog pens.  Man manages to get the electric and the water unhooked but cannot get the stabilizing legs cranked up because his back hurts so bad.  So, I do it.  I help him hook up the hitch, at the dump and we manage to pull out at 10:30 A.M.  Not bad for a sickie and the wife.

I drove all the way to Broadway, we stopped at every rest area along the way so Man could stretch.  He even took a one hour nap while I had lunch at one rest area.  We got to Nancy’s house at about 3ish and by then he was feeling good enough to back the trailer in.  Good thing, as that is the one thing I cannot do.  Nancy got home from work as we were backing in.

We had a nice visit, let the dogs out in the pens and let them bark for an hour.  They have been hushed so much that they probably thought they were in “bark heaven”.

Nancy cooked us dinner, YUM.  Man laid down before dinner, but to our surprise, managed to eat dinner, which of course, made him feel a lot better.

Cold tonight, real cold.  We can only run one heater here, due to the electric, and we cannot run the furnace in the trailer cause it smells like gas.  So, we put on some extra blankets.

At 3:00 A.M. we are taking a potty break when I discover a tick on Captain Hook.  So, Man does tick surgery at 3 AM and I check the other dogs.  I don’t find more, but will continue to check them over.  At least Cappy did not give me the tick, like the last time he got one.  He picks them up on his coat and they latch on to me when Cappy lays on my neck.  ICK  ICK  ICK!!

April 5, 2002

Man feels much better, so we figure the hot dog got him!  Food poisoning.

We start the day with breakfast, coffee, showers, email and laundry.  We move the dog pens OUT of the grass and on to the driveway.  One tick was enough for me.  ICK!

Tonight Nancy and I will go to Blue grass band pickin evening.  Tomorrow is Heritage Day.

More later, I want to do my nails.

T.D.’s friend, Jim, the millionaire comes from Maryland, so the boys end up going out to dinner, so Nancy and I go out to dinner and then to hear the pickers.  Home by 10:30 and we go to bed pretty soon, cause Saturday is always a long day.

April 6, 2002, Heritage Day, Fulk’s Run, Rockingham County, Virginia

So, can flies fly if they have 1/8th of an inch of snow on them???  NO???  Well, then the flies in the Shenandoah Valley are grounded.  YEP, there was that much snow on the ground.  I was headed out the door at 6 A.M. with three dogs and opened the door of the trailer to discover the ground covered with WHITE STUFF!  I had to be careful NOT to fall, the trailer steps are so slippery and they are narrow.  Brrrr.

What can I say, as usual, it is fun, loads of people (over 225 by 12:30 P.M. which was 1.5 hours after the doors open).  See a lot of people I know, chat, visit, look at the family posters, review the new family books.

By 2:30 we are exhausted, so head home.  Several of us take naps.  Whew, what a day!  

It is cold, and windy.  The sun is shining, thankfully, it is all that saves this day.

April 7, 2002

OK, I think I can safely say that I have never spent a night in the trailer that I was soooooooo cold.  It was 20 degrees outside and 53 degrees INSIDE!  I would have been OK, but I had to keep getting up, cause I had sick dogs.  First Gallagher, but I fixed him up pretty quick by hand feeding him.  Of course the girls got some food too.  But Captain Hook did not even request food, and I found out why a little later, as he got really sick, from both ends.  UGH.  The worst part was that I had to mix his meds in all that cold.  I had to take the meds and mush them, like you do for children, and then mix with cheeze-whiz.  The knife was so cold I thought my fingers would freeze to the knife.  I finally pulled my sweater down and held the knife with the fabric between my poor ole fingers and the knife.

It was a long night and I did not get a lot of sleep, sigh.

We took Nancy and T.D. to lunch, went up to West Virginia to the Lost River Café.  Then we drove up a few mountain roads and then to the Lost River State Park.  Stopped at my mother’s house at Bergton to note the condition of the house.  Needs some repairs, gutters cleaned out, painting.

It is a bit warmer, THANK GAWD!!  Slept pretty good, one can if it is NOT 53 in the trailer.  OUCH!

The Tour, 2002, Part 10

March 29, 2002

Showers today are in the bathhouse.  This is not my favorite way to get the dirt of the old body.  Bathhouses are not always the cleanest, sometimes the heat is not turned up very high and I end up cold, and I always seem to get my pant legs wet and the entire “event” is uncomfortable for me.  Larry and Mary, I cannot believe you do this so many weekends every year while camping!  You guys have got to be TOUGH COOKIES!  My hats off to you!!!   I stand in awe.

By 11 AM we are on our way to the Library of Virginia.  We find the library, the parking area is under the library.  Staff is very nice, library is physically just beautiful.   The first librarian who I ask for assistance is hard of hearing and is probably in training.  He wants to know where I got my “to do” list and the information on it.  Anne and Karen, maybe you have a good answer as to where I got that “to do” list.  I wanted to get obituaries from newspapers.  Had about 20 of them, give or take on the to do list.  Some were from Rockingham County, where the paper is located in Harrisonburg.  This poor fellow, aka, librarian (want a be), had the worst time trying to show me how to order up films.  Yep, you heard me, ya got to order the films.  Unlike many libraries where the films are stored in open stacks where you can help yourself, in the Library of Virginia, many of them are stored somewhere else, where they have to bring them to you.  After almost 30 minutes of this “instruction” we order films and then of course, the librarian concludes that none of the papers I want are held by the Library of Virginia.  It was a rough start to a research day.

But it got better, I managed to get an obituary for my great grandmother Minnie Maud Remley Bowen and my great grandmother Lorena.  Find some birth records, marriage record for Pembroke D. Gwaltney and Estelle Darden.  Do some Civil War Pension work, and Civil War service records work.  Have pages for birth records for several other records I will look up on Saturday.  Worked until 4:45.

Back at the trailer we have a wonderful T-bone steak.  Yummy, it was fab!!  Good cooking Man!!

Then I start revising the “to do” list.  Takes a couple of hours, will print off the revised version before heading back to the Library in the morning.

March 30, 2002

Man decides to stay at the trailer today, I am off to the library for a full day of research.  I have my updated “to do” list.  I  try to order some newspaper films for Norfolk, attempt to locate films for Norfolk for years after 1955.  The computer program and I just do not agree.  I later discover that even the librarians consider ordering newspaper films to be the hardest chore.  I discuss this method of ordering films with several of the librarians.  Finally after several “talks” I get to the bottom of the situation.  There is a book in the research room with a PRINTED list of newspapers, organized by area, county, and/or town name.  If you consult said PRINTED list, you can find a roll number, and then get one of the librarians to assist you in ordering the roll of film you need.  By doing this I discover that there are papers for Staunton which I need, Washington Post, which I need, and years AFTER 1955 for Norfolk, which I need.  I also discover that the papers I wanted yesterday for Rockingham County are indeed available.  I am thrilled to discover this, but irritated that the first librarian could not help me more, and a little peeved that it took me a day and a half to figure all this out.  But proud of my tenacity.  Like Dr. Lindquist once said about me, I can act like a badger.

As is usual with the research game, I find some, fail on others.  Overall it is a good day tho.

I am back at the trailer by 5 P.M., we have dinner, I boil and color Easter eggs, Man gets a campfire going.  First of the year.  We sit around the campfire for several hours, just as we decide to call it an evening it starts to rain.  Good timing.

March 31, 2002

Easter Sunday.

We have our eggs in the cute little bunny egg holder, very cute! For breakfast we have sausage, fried potatoes, Easter eggs and English muffins.  YUM.

I start on input and redoing the “to do” list.  I work all morning, Man disappears into the bedroom for a nap.  It is raining, rained all night, rains all day.  It is cool, and very dark.

For our Easter dinner we have smoked pork chops, baked potatoes, peas.  More YUM!

After lunch, I go back to the input and work.  Man watches several really stupid movies that are supposed to be funny.  We both do the shower routine, brrr, that walk back to the trailer was tough.

We have sandwiches for dinner, Man is watching “The Ten Commandments” and I am finishing my input and organization for tomorrow.  I am heading back to the library.  For now, it is time to get some zzzzzz’s.

April 1, 2002

Well, you know the term, best laid plans of mice and women.

Woke up this AM and had a sick dog, so the research trip is off.  The day is nice, quiet, we lay around, read, doing nothing much.

April 2, 2002

Today, I get to research.  I finally figure out more of the catalog, the newspaper part and then find obituaries.  Still cannot seem to find papers, for say, Norfolk, 1914.  I manage to work all day and find stuff.  But I do find the Rockingham County papers and find all but 2 or 3 of my long list of obituaries for Rockingham, including one for my great-great grandfather, Peter Preston Holsinger, which is very interesting, tells about his escapades during the Civil War, including the comment about his horse being shot out from under him.  One of my better obits!

Back at the trailer for dinner we have tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, they taste really good!!!

We decide to stay one more day and I get one more shot at the library.

Nights are cool, we are thankful for TWO electric heaters and enough power to run them both.