Day 9 - Ohio Sucks

After sleepy hollow, where we stayed until about 3pm, we headed north west, towards Pittsburgh. Dumping the tanks went fine, and we made it about halfway there, where we decided to camp at Mirror Lake Campground, near New Florence, PA. It was a very nice spot, and our site was right on a small babbling creek. A lake was also near by, within the campground, and offered a nice sight at sunset, as well as fishing. We opted not to fish, but set up the dartboard after walking around a bit and taking some pictures. It was a nice change from sleepy hollow, which was also independent and small, but had a smaller, lightly creepier vibe to it. We only stayed one night, and then headed onwards after enjoying showers, towards Pittsburgh.

We arrived around 5 or so, and stayed at the Walmart in West Mifflin. We had no issues, and I got some needed work done. We enjoyed our four year anniversary, and had a decent meal at the local applebees which was within walking distance.

The next morning, I finished my Pearson SAT training, and passed my qualifying tests to be able to score the SAT essay portion. Sarah met up with an old friend, and his dad took us out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings, which was a nice treat. We stayed a second night at the walmart, and left Pittsburgh in the morning, with the plan to head towards Erie, PA. We decided to cross the border into Ohio, and shortly thereafter starting having trouble with our rear end (of the drive train), specifically the rear axle...or the rear brakes...or the bearings. Not sure yet, or what the cause could be. We may have hit a bump wrong or something, but it squeaks something fierce at a slow speed, without even hitting the brakes. So, we're getting that checked out tomorrow, or at the latest Monday, since everywhere around here is closed for most of the weekend. In short, Ohio kinda sucks so far. We made it across the border, and to our campground, "Terrace lakes campground." It's very much in the middle of nowhere. It's a bit decrepit, and is closing in few days for the season. Nearly every other RV here is abandoned, and on top of that, they are quite dirty, and set up to be permanent fixtures. The leaves and topography are nice, and it's still a bit hilly, but not quite like Pittsburgh. The playground appears abandoned, and there was a large amount of potholes and bumps on the way into the campground. Our site isn't level, and on top of all of this , the axle/bearings/differential/u-joint/whatever was squeaking fairly badly by the time we got here.

I did some work on the RV, and tried to research what could be wrong with the rear end. I also called some repair shops, graded some more essays, and finished up a patent application. Never lost connection today, so that was a plus. A fairly standard day, aside from visiting a new state for the first time. Here's to hoping tomorrow goes better, that we get the rig fixed, and are back on schedule soon.

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We awoke to sunny skies and plenty of fall color in Ohio. A large group of wild turkeys was spotted near the corner of the campground. Sarah saw around 15, but I only saw about 5. It was kind of neat to see them just running around in the leaves.

I called about 10 repair shops, each referring me to another one that might have a large enough bay to accomodate our rig. The majority of them did not. And all of them were too busy to see us until Monday, which essentially means we are stuck in Ohio for the weekend, instead of our goal of Erie, PA. A bit of a bummer, but we'll make do. Since this campground is probably the worst that we have stayed at, our site isn't even level, which makes it very difficult to get underneath it to check on the differential fluid, or to even view the plug. We plan to leave soon to a local wal-mart, both for the level ground, as well as supplies. My dad posited that it may simply be low on differential gear oil, so I plan to check that upon arrival - as long as we make it that far. It being Friday the 13th, I'm a bit skeptical that today will go as smoothly as I'd like. I'm still hopeful though. I just filled up our water tank a bit, although Ohio water tastes a bit weird. Hopefully not too much like Michigan/Detroit was.. The fill up is necessary though, as there aren't many campgrounds here, and don't want to travel far without getting the squeak fixed. As such, we'll likely be stayed at the local Pilot station or Wal-mart this evening, and perhaps through the weekend if we do end up needing service on Monday. I scheduled a tenative appointment for Monday at 7am at a ford dealer which claims to have the capacity to handle our large rig in their bay. Wish us luck.