QC31-16 Back to sea level

April 10, 2013  (Wed) Mars Hill, NC (10) 52/82° - An unremarkable day in the mountains.

April 11, 2013  (Thu) Mars Hill, NC (11) 54/74° - The main activity today was getting ready for the party Saturday. Joy helped Bob and Pat clean, shop and fix some of the food. Mark did his best to stay out of the way while he worked at putting our combined iPhone contact list in order.

April 12, 2013  (Fri) Mars Hill, NC (12) 53/72° - This was a day of preparation. Joy and Pat gathered the ingredients for tomorrow's party - not the least of which was the food. This included both shopping and cooking. Mark went with Bob to the weekly men's breakfast at the local greasy spoon (The Wagon Wheel) then went on into Asheville to shop for iPhones. Bob and Pat have resisted plunging this far into the modern world but seeing how handy a
synchronized calendar (on both their phones) could be was the straw that broke the camel's back. Then they picked up sons Tom and Jim at the airport. The gathering of people has begun.

April 13, 2013  (Sat) Mars Hill, NC (13) 40/68° - A cold start to Pat's 80th birthday. In spite of that all went very well. Preparing to host a throng or 35 (at least) people in a home environment is no easy task but it was accomplished and all who attended seemed to enjoy being together. The food was excellent, the conversation spirited and varied. Pat was well honored for having reached the status of octogenarian - though maybe dubious from her standpoint. Even so, Happy birthday, Pat.

Q089152 Bob and Pat's yard (x13)
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April 14, 2013  (Sun) Mars Hill, NC to Winchester, VA (408/3543 miles) 42/68° - The hills were ablaze with the light purple of many, many red-bud trees scattered among pale green budding deciduous trees. It was a beautiful drive up through the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. In spite of the cold start, we had to scrape frost off the windshields of both Q and Lamont before hooking up, it turned into an pleasantly warm day. Traffic was surprisingly heavy most of the way but it moved. The stress level was low. We saw gas at $3.08 but we didn't do that well. The Walmart in Unicoi, TN was our first stop ($3.22 with their gift card) and Harrisonburg, Va our second ($3.33). We arrived here at the Walmart in Winchester, VA at about 4:45 and pulled into a relatively level spot in the parking lot amongst several other RVs. We aren't going to be here alone tonight.

Thanks, Bob and Pat, for an interesting and relaxing two weeks. It was good to see Tom and Jim again for a short while and to spend some time with Ted.

Q089550 Camp Walmart, Winchester, VA
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April 15, 2013  (Mon) Winchester, VA to Home (275/3818 miles) 48/58° - It was a relatively quiet night in the Walmart parking lot. There were about seven other units when we came in and another arrived after we'd gone to bed. One fifth-wheel left before we got up but everyone else apparently decided to sleep in this morning. We weren't even seeing any activity when we left at 7:45. (Although we did see one of our neighbors getting diesel at the Flying J in Carlisle, PA when we stopped there around 10:00) The off and on spritzing rain made driving less than optimal but, all in all, not bad. The temperature didn't vary much as we came up I-81 but it began to drop as we crossed Pennsylvania on I-78.

We normally stop at the Flying J in Carlisle to fuel up, where it is usually at a good price, and to dump our holding tanks. We got the gas we needed but could not dump because Flying J was having problems with its sewer. The Cabela's, a huge sporting goods box store, in Hamburg, PA came to our rescue. Although not allowed to now by regional (city, town, county?) ordinance, this store was set up for over night RV parking complete with sanitary flush facilities. While long term parking is banned the dump facilities are still operative. We repaid them by having lunch in their cafeteria and buying a pocket knife for Mark.

A traffic jam caused by an accident on I-78 in NJ delayed us somewhat but we arrived home at about 3:00. All was in pretty good shape. The winter winds and cold deposited a yard full of twigs and the lawn needs mowing already, these are to be expected, what we didn't expect was our FIOS (our TV/internet/phone connection to the world) being down - since Mid January! (We were recording Downton Abby to watch when we got home. We got only two episodes!) Even so it's good to be home.
 
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