Meeting Ed & Kathy - #52-01

May 23, 2005 (Mon)
Camp Walmart, Bucyrus, OH B
Home to Bucyrus, OH (563 miles) Q012868

We wanted to beat the commuter traffic into New York so we set our alarm for 4:30am. We were both wide awake and ready to get things started before the alarm was to go off so we got up. As we ate breakfast we looked at the kitchen clock and it read 3:45. What? Something was wrong! It turned out that the time on the bedroom clock had been changed when the alarm was set. We were an hour an a half ahead of schedule! It didn't make much sense to go back to bed so we continued the countdown from there.

Red Bank is very quiet at 4:30 in the morning. Hardly any traffic at all. For those who are interested in such things, we went north on the GSP, west/north on I-287, west on I-78, north on US-33 to I-80, then west (of course).

The trip was relatively uneventful. It rained off and on - sometimes quite hard. It seems that they haven't finished building I-80 - or, I guess, rebuilding it - but we seldom slowed below 55 mph.

Henry suggested two Walmart supercenters for our overnight accommodations. The first - and preferred distance wise - was in Wooster, Ohio but the parking lot was small and crowded. We drove on. This one in Bucyrus seems quiet and we are out of the main traffic lanes. There is another motorhome here - a big class A with jacks down and slide out - so we have company (sort of).

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May 24, 2005 (Tue)
Sullivan RV Service parking lot #7 e $5.00 not rated
Bucyrus, OH to Decatur, IN (138 miles) Q013006

It wasn't a bad night for the first on the road. We rose more or less rested and, after breakfast, headed west on US-30 toward Decatur, IN where we were to meet Ed and Kathy. The road across the rest of Ohio and into Indiana was mostly new 4 lane highway through flat newly plowed farm fields. The sun was a pleasant change from yesterday's rain.

Ed and Kathy have a new motor home that will have some needed warranty work done tomorrow. For $5 a night we are allowed to camp (w/30 amp elec hook-up) next to them, as their guests, outside the authorized Fleetwood factory service facility. Their stay is free because they are customers. After the necessary paperwork was taken care of, we all went into town to a Pizza Hut buffet for lunch. This afternoon we just hung out on our own reading and napping. In the evening we got together again for a rousing game of dominos.

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May 25, 2005 (Wed) #7 e $5.00 not rated (2)

The folks from Sullivan RV Service came by and knocked on Ed and Kathy's door at 7:10. By 7:30 their big class A motor home, with two cats aboard, had disappeared into one of the big repair bays. Ed and Kathy took their two dogs and disappeared into the visitor's lounge. At 8:30 Mark and Ed took off for the Fleetwood factory while Joy and Kathy stayed in "camp" to read, knit, and baby-sit the dogs.

The morning factory tour at Fleetwood was of the assembly line where the American Motor coach line of motorhomes (American Tradition, American Eagle, American Heritage, and Ed and Kathy's Revolution) are built. The afternoon tour, not taken, was of the line where the other diesel motorhomes built by Fleetwood are assembled. It was a huge facility with raw chassis - basically two steel "I" beams on wheels with a steering wheel at one end and an engine at the other - comes in one door and leaves through another a full fledged motor home ready for the retail lot. Absolutely fascinating!

Lunch was a Chinese Buffet (we've got to stop eating this way!) on our way to the local quilt shop. It was a small shop run by a very nice lady. She had an American Professional long-arm quilting machine (newer than Bertha) and was struggling to finish up a poorly made customer quilt - the borders were too long and it wouldn't lay flat. It brought back memories of some of Joy's jobs.