Day 2! (aka "Wow... we're still alive)
We awoke at 6am and were on the road by 6:10am. As we were leaving the parking lot a terrible noise starting coming from the passenger side footwell. Something was rattling combined with a popcorn sound. We were pretty sure that it had something to do with the manifold but weren’t sure. The car was driving ok so we trundled on. After about 2 hours we decided that the noise was getting a little more concerting so we decided to look for a mechanic. Using trusty Google Helen found Fischer's Garage right off the highway in Crystal Springs, PA. Down the ramp and 3 miles into the middle of nowhere, there it stood surrounded by broken down cars, buses, trucks. If it was broken, rusted out or need a place to die, you could find it at Fischer's. Bill went into the office and came out with Frank, the owner. Frank was a man in his late 60s, well weathered but really nice. We decided it was best if Bill took Frank for a ride so he could tell us what he thought was the problem. So, out I jumped and Frank got into the passenger seat. Bill and Frank drove off into the surrounding hills leaving Helen waiting at the garage. In retrospect, Helen realized that it probably would have been a good idea for her to just get into the backseat. Thankfully she was safe enough and when they returned Frank told us that it was a manifold issue. Yes, the same manifold that had just been repaired. Frank said that as long as it wasn't leaking we should be fine to continue to the Outer Banks. After a handshake and a hearty thanks, we were back on the road.
Note to anyone in Crystal Lake reading this: While it might not be 100% true, we have been to Douglas Automotive twice in the past few months. Both times, the things that we brought the vehicle in for were not fixed and we've had to have other mechanics repair them. This is not a good trend and they are not somewhere I could recommend.
Down the road another two hours we received a phone call from Jean at Camp Hatteras. Jean explained that the storm that was approaching was going to be intense with 60/70 mph wind gusts and flooding. She said that they could keep us safe by putting us in between two buildings to shelter us from the storm but it was going to be dicey. We decided to look for other options on the mainland for a couple of nights. We focused on staying away from the coast and eventually landed on Newport News State Park just outside of Williamsburg.
What a great decision. The state park was awesome. We pulled in to site C79 at about 3pm. The site was really spacious and we felt like we had the place to ourselves. The fact that the colors were still changing enhanced the stay. We setup "The Bungalow", my new name for the RV and headed off on a grocery run. The weather was now cold and wet so a quick trip to Walmart seemed a good idea.
Note: We are not calling the RV "The Bunglow", -Bill.
Back at the Bungalow Bill made a great dinner and then we both finished out the night by catching up on work. We fell asleep to the sound of the heater and the rustling of leaves. Today was an interesting day.
One of the ways to make easy dinners is to get some of your things premade. Pasta is usually a good choice as it doesn't smell when you cook it and has a lot of taste and flavor. We found that Rana pre packaged kits are wonderful. Added in a bag of garlic knots and dinner was made with low fuss in under thirty minutes. It tasted wonderful and really hit the spot. An even more decadent treat was some fresh cookies! Yes, we could have made the mix ourselves, but again, ten minutes from start to hot cookies was wonderful.
So while we love cooking and often make things from scratch. It's also nice to have some things on hand that you can just toss into the oven or microwave and have a quick meal to eat. Especially if you are working on the road as well. Today we weren't, but it was a long day getting here and setting up, so spending a lot of time on dinner was not something we wanted to entertain all that much.
Newport News Day 1 Pictures!
