At the Car Wash

Rode with Joyce to the local car wash. One of the touchless automatic ones where you drive in, stop the car and let the washing equipment run back and forth past your car.

After the wash and rinse cycles were complete she started to drive out, through the dryer cycle. Part way through, she stops the car, then tries to continue out, but the car would would not procede further. Huh, says I. 

Joyce tried and tried - put the car in reverse - nothing - back into first gear - nothing. Again and again she tries it. I cannot imagine why the car is not moving. Looking out the side window I see that there is no way to open the door to get out. I am trying to think of emergency solutions. Now what to do? Joyce looks at the instrument panel, then at me with a grin, restarts the stalled engine, and out we go,  shaking our heads and laughing as we go.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday

To Philadelphia for dinner with Angela. To Liverpool for dinner with Erica, Nathaniel and Pancake. To Somewhere south of Cleveland for dinner in a Walmart parking lot.

A Day at the Antique Mall(s)

Joyce and I spent the day at the Adamstown antique malls, and there are tons of them. Saw (and bought) several items. 

Saw three items described as old prisoner restraints similar to the come-alongs in my collection. The ones I have are comprised of a length of chain 10 to 12 inches long with a T-handle at either end and are from the early 20th century. The items on display were made of elaborately twisted wire and the T-handles were made of some type of hardwood. The asking price was $85 each. My initial thoughts were, are they real, and are they old. I decided to pass on the purchase for the following reasons: the asking price, the fact that there were three of them, and not just one (the same situation as with the "old" padlocks on e-bay with 2 keys), and finally because in the same display case was an obviously fake padlock with a brass tag affixed to it labeled "Fort Smith" (the same as the fake padlocks on e-bay with various brass tags soldered on). Note to antique dealers - if you include obvious fakes in your display case you will lose credibility, and the possible sale of a different item.

On the way back to the RV we stopped at a supermarket to get a couple of items. Proceded to the 10 item or less line. In front of us was a woman with five kids. She had just a few items in her cart. Great, we'll be out of here in no time. Wrong. Each kid had his own item - a candy bar, a bag of chips, whatever. Each kid had his own wallet and paid for his own item. So the one person in front of us was actually six people. Ya never know.

Day Two

Having had one day's worth of experience at the show, today we went with a plan. Park in the same spot and hit the area right next to the one we were at yesterday. We left an hour earlier.

Uh oh, the parking lot is full. So, off to plan B. We were directed to a different parking lot all the way at the other end of the event. Other than that, and the fact that I had become a little more selective in my purchases, the day went as planned. 

Next year we will have a much better idea of how to go about this, but for now we will forego the third day at the flea market.

Tomorrow is Joyce's day. We will be heading out to the antique shops.

The Auto Parts Flea Market at Hershey (Day One)

Ok, where to start? This thing is sponsored by the Antique Automobile Club of America, so program the GPS for their museum, which is the only address I have for them. Got to Hershey easily enough, and while heading for the museum we passed an awful lot of activity, which we finally realized was the flea market. Headed for the available parking lot, and realized that it was going to be a long walk, so opted to use the disabled parking pass and see how that worked. Worked great. Parked right next to the flea market.

Now the largest gathering of this type that I had been to was the Extravaganza antique show at Springfield, OH. Joyce and I went there earlier this year. It was so large that I could not cover the entire show in the six hours that we spent there.

I mention this, because we need something to compare with today's experience. Joyce and I spent six hours at the flea market today and barely dragged ourselves out, we were so tired. We covered a fifth of the area. We will return tomorrow to do some more, but there is no way that we can see it all.

Bought a few things - some ignition switches, some keys (nothing special), an auto supply sales catalog. One thing that I was looking for was some Model T Ford keys to fill in the gaps in my collection. I found none. None! Not some really worn ones, not some prohibitively high priced ones - none. At all. And I couldn't understand why. I know there is a market for them. I see them on e-bay all the time. I finally mentioned this to one of the vendors there and asked him why he supposed there were no Model T keys there. His reply: "Why you don't need a key to a Model T - it's easy to just hot-wire it."

Maybe tomorrow.

Lancaster, First Night

Arrived a little after 3:00 today with a hot dinner ready to go. Joyce had suggested using a small crock pot while we were driving, but I did not want to run the generator without putting some type of load on it, like an air conditioner. A little ingenuity solved the problem. Used a small inverter plugged into a DC outlet with a long heavy duty extension cord. Put the crock pot into the sink and turned it on. Crock pot was 75 watts, inverter rated at 150 watts. Worked like a charm. Great dinner, Joyce.

She's already planning the next version.

Change One

It seems that the only thing certain is uncertainty. 

We arrived in Washington, PA this afternoon and established our presence in the local Walmart parking lot. We were the first to arrive, and at this point, (10:16 pm) we have been joined by several other RVs and tractor-trailers. Got the satellite TV hooked up, ready to watch a ball game or two, but that was not to be.

Joyce and I spent the evening in the dark discussing life (and death) and many things in between. Because of things over which we have no control, we have modified our itinerary somewhat.

We will continue on to Lancaster tomorrow and do the Hershey car show and all, but after our visit with the girls on Saturday and Sunday we will head home via Cleveland. We intend to be back by Tuesday afternoon.

We look forward to the rest of the trip and our early return home.

Trip to Hershey, PA

We will be heading out on Monday for Hershey, PA for the car show and swap meet. This will be a two week trip. We will be staying at Lancaster rather than Hershey which should give us a better feeling of normalcy, rather than staying amidst all of the auto nuts. 

Joyce had been all excited about the three day swap meet until I reminded her that it was just auto parts, and not a general flea market. Now she seems a lot less excited about it, although we did plan to spend a day in the antique shop area which we discovered last time we were in Lancaster. As it turns out, we will probably cut the swap meet to two days and leave a day early.

We had planned to visit with Angela, who lives in Philadelphia, and Erica, who lives in Watertown, NY, on the assumption that Erica would be visiting Angela during the weekend. Just discovered differently, but Erica suggested that if we could stop in Syracuse on the way to Niagara Falls that she could meet us there. So we have altered our plans slightly and will leave a day early to spend a little time in the Syracuse area on the way to Canada.

From Syracuse we will head to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and stay at a KOA near there for a couple of days. Then we will be driving through Canada to the Detroit area. If we have the time we might drive through Ridgetown, Ontario, where William Clark Newman took his family when they left New York City in 1902.

After a couple of days in Detroit, we will be heading home so that we can prepare for a trip in November to North Carolina, via Bedford, Virginia.