Rv adventure - Part IV

I had a lovely rest of the evening, talking with my neighbors, then settling in with a good book and a Diet Coke, snug in my new RV at the Cheerful Valley Campground. It was getting just a wee bit chilly, so I decided to turn on the furnace. It immediately turned on - a good thing. Blowing cold air. Not so good.
During this trip I had with me only the things I could carry on the plane. No extra anything. Including blankets. It was a bit of a chilly night.
Next morning was gorgeous. I woke up early and decided to tackle the infamous black tank dumping that everyone dreads from the scene in the Robin Williams movie RV - Runaway Vacation.
The first thing I did was get out my sewer hose and hooked it up to the RV. No problem. Stretched it out (it's built like an enormous flexible straw) toward the hole in the ground it's supposed to attach to. And could not, if my life had depended on it, get out the plug from the hole in the ground. I tried. I tried really, really hard. No luck.
So I walked up to the campground office to get some help. I'm never reluctant to ask for help from experts. It saves lots of time and energy. But the office didn't open until 9 a.m. It was 7:30 or so.
I took a walk, took the pictures in the previous post. Sat and read. And waited. Finally, about 8:45, I went back to the office and was delighted it was open early. I explained the problem and the "strict dad" from the night before met me at the campsite.
I'm delighted to say - I didn't get it wrong. Some idjit drove over the plug and jammed it in. It took tools to get it out. And the actual dumping part? Easy! No muss, no fuss, no bother. I can see how it might go horribly wrong, but it didn't!
Cleaned up, emptied out, ready to go! I set out on the next stage of my trip, with a stop that night at another campground west of Cleveland, Ohio.
On the drive that day I learned that the RV is water-tight (it poured in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio), it likes flat country much better than mountains, and that I can, in fact, drive it and park it at a mall. There was a nice-sized mall at my interstate exit in Ohio and I really wanted to pick up some blankets for that night. If you're willing to walk - there's usually plenty of parking on the outskirts of most malls. While my parking job wasn't the neatest - it worked.
So on Sunday night I arrived 10 minutes too late to check in at the American Wilderness Family Campground in Grafton, Ohio. And if all, or even most, campgrounds are as nice as the two I've visited so far - I'm hooked.

RV adventure - Part II

So when last we heard, our heroine (me) was sitting at the top of a New Hampshire mountain at a storage facility with her brand-new 13-year-old ginormous RV, less than a quarter of a tank of gas and a hand-drawn map showing how to get to the highway.
After a "here I go, wish me luck!" call to Fran, I set off. I quickly figured out that side-view mirrors are an RVer's best friends. If the mirrors fit, the whole vehicle fits. Another quick revelation - RVs are not good mountain climbers. In the New Hampshire mountains, for every down there's a very-closely-related up. I would like to apologize now to every single person who was out driving in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania on Saturday, September 25. Yes, that was me holding you up and forcing traffic to crawl at 25 mph. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I also noticed the needle of the gas gauge going down - fast. I needed to find a gas station and I had no idea if I was anywhere close to hitting the interstate and its nice, wide-open service plazas. So when I saw a sign for fuel - I got off the little highway I was on and headed for the service station. Which was on the other side of a two-lane street and had minimal maneuvering room. And an awning.
I know all the hysterical scenarios being imagined here. None of them happened. I filled up (BTW - did you know most gas pumps cut you off when you hit $75?), back-and-forthed back into traffic and went on my merry way.
Remember my day started at home in my very own cozy little bed. Up at 4 a.m., off to O'Hare, flight to Boston, 2 hour drive to New Hampshire. Crash course in RVs.
So my merry way started after 1 p.m., Eastern time. I had a reservation at the Cheerful Valley Campground for that night. Cheerful Valley is in Phelps, New York, west of Syracuse. Which looked entirely do-able on MapQuest and in my TripTik. Both MapQuest and TripTiks expect you to be going somewhat close to the speed limit. Which I wasn't. I tried, but The Land Cookie just couldn't do it. And New York is a very wide state.
It was well after dark when I approached Cheerful Valley Campground. Which will be Part III.
-Hope

You can't get there from here

A frustrating morning! I'm getting ready for Dax's and my road trip to the French Bulldog Jamboree in Ontario. And, according to all of my up-to-the-minute, wonderful techno-toys - you can't get there from here. My two-year-old GPS is only good in the States, and can't be updated. And my astonishingly smart phone is pretty stupid, too. Apparently my carrier thinks that the world ends at the border.
I guess I'll just have to go the old-fashioned way. Point to point driving directions from one of my favorite websites. Isn't it amazing how quickly the world changes?
Back when I was in college (lo, these many decades!) I drove Chicago to Maryland with only a road map. No cell phone. No MapQuest. No TripTik (no AAA membership).
Now I feel "naked" without the GPS. I think this'll be good for me - getting lost can be part of the adventure!