Category: Kim’s Daily Journal

We had a great morning and then packed up to go and one of the slides didn’t want to come in. On day 2. They say the one thing you need to pack for your RV is a sense of humor but really? Day 2. This might be funny down the road (pun intended) but today not so much. We did close it in so we were able to hit the road as planned. Off to Luray, Virginia and Jellystone Park. On the way I was able to make some calls and have a mobile tech meet us later that evening at the new campground. He was very nice but not sure it was all that helpful, he thinks it’s the battery but didn’t want to fix anything on site because it’s under warranty and he didn’t want it voided. But the living room slide out is a ‘nice to have’ not a ‘have to have’ so we will vacation on! It’s definitely hard to squash the annoyed and disappointed feeling that my new and expensive toy isn’t working the way I want. And the problem solver in me wants to do whatever I can to fix it but since it’s a luxury item I don’t want to sacrifice precious vacationing and reroute us to a shop for who knows how long. The realistic side of me needs to acknowledge that this fix will most likely take more time than we have. We aren’t in any one location for more than 1 or 2 days until we’re out west in a couple weeks. And the competitive side of me isn’t going to let the negative feelings win…so the rest of the day will be fun and even if we don’t fix the one slide this trip we’re going to have fun darn it (insert Clark Griswald quotes here). Really the biggest inconvenience is for Murphy…we have a very long dog and the narrow space means he can’t turn around anymore, he has to back under the table and do a 3 point turn to change directions or back himself up. If you thought Murph moves slow going forward you should see him back up. Poor guy.

So onto the delights… We found the “world’s biggest apple” along the way in Winchester, VA, home of the world’s largest cold apple storage (according to Roadtrippers app and the town signs). Bonus, we found a medium apple too! The funny part was the kids thought we were looking for the world’s largest real/edible apple which seems much more difficult to pin on an app and for some reason were disappointed with the concrete apple that we did find, lol.

The highlight of the day was Jellystone Park. It has 3 big pools, water slides, gaga pits, outdoor movie theater, jumping pillow things… so much fun! We all loved it. Mat and I thought we’d be introducing the kids to Yogi Bear and his friend BooBoo Bear but they had a whole song about them from Camp Huckins! Another camp win for us. So while today had it’s ups and downs I’ll remember it as the day Emerson woke up not liking waterslides and went to bed loving waterslides! That’s what this is all about, new experiences and finding the fun.

and it was. Day 1 was a success. Easy drive according to Mat. Charming and campy campground. PA is humid! Setup was easy leaving plenty of time to sweat through a game of mini golf, swim, grill burgers, play cards (our girls learned BS, thanks Camp Huckins! but mom or dad won every game), and the highlight of the night that makes all the planning worth it … catching fireflies with the girls in the beautiful twinkling woods. We realized it’s been a long time since we’ve seen them in masses in NH or ME.

Monday, July 12th, we finally hit the road. Our amazing neighbors made us an awesome homemade breakfast for the perfect send off (Thanks Pam, Jean and Bob!) Everyone has their entertainment ready. Turns out the table is a great place to sit and journal and during the drive is a good time to do it. First destination: Delaware Water Gap/Poconos KOA, 287 miles. See you in 7 weeks Derry!