Friday 18th February 2011

Awoke sometime very early, still dark, to our little camper being rocked from side to side.  Then I heard two bangs.  I realise it may have been stupid to stay at a rest area in New York, but we have done that many times.  Surely no one wants to harm us here.  I glanced over at Mike, and yes he was still breathing, so no one had shot us.  Peaked outside through the drapes to see two people just leaving the car that was now parked next to us.   Guess the bangs were their car doors.  They were really battling the winds trying to walk across the parking lot.  That explains why the camper was moving so much.   Bonus - can go back to sleep for a while.

We were up and ready to leave at 8.15 am and still the wind was extremely strong., making it difficult to keep our camper on the road.  Certainly was not at all cold.

Stayed on the Thruway to Fredonia, where we stopped for breakfast and our usual supplies.

As the wind was so strong we stayed off the Interstate for a while.

Here you can see frozen Lake Erie.  

The ride along NY 5 was very pretty,   We passed a really great looking State Park which we will be very interested in going back to through the summer or fall.

Back onto the Interstate around Erie PA..   Still extremely windy.   From Erie there was not much snow to be seen.  However, there were many huge pot oles, and we managed to find a real good one.  It left us with a lot of noise coming from under the front of the camper.   After finding several more pot holes, and the noise getting louder, we had to pull off the Interstate to try and find out what damage had been done.   Mike the Mechanic to the rescue!  However, when he looked underneath, nothing looked out of place.   So back on the road and fill up with gas.  Still we couldn't see anything wrong, and much to our surprise, the noises were not so bad.   Headed back onto the Interstate just as the rain started.

We took steady ride into VA.

Although the rain was heavy the ski hills were open and all the lights on.

It still looked really impressive.

Drove on to Wytheville VA for the night.   Very heavy rain.   Huge notice on Camp Store Door.  "Do not leave any food outside.  Bears have been sighted here."    Oh well it is raining so we will not be outside.  6.30 pm.      Mileage, 295128.

All set up, and even had Internet, so were able to chat with Natalie and Danny.  Couldn't get Vince n skype but did text.  Everyone doing good. 

Nice supper, watched some TV, did some e-mails, relaxed.

Other than very high winds (60 mph) and huge pot holes the day was good.   Today we woke up and had breakfast in NY, Coffee in PA, Lunch in WV, Dinner in VA.   Reminds us of our days when we were trucking.