Drive From Marietta, OH, North On I-77 To Cleveland Then On To Michigan

                                       Friday 5/9/2014

On Friday morning I got a call from the Marietta Post Master telling me my packaged had been sent back to it's original pharmacy. He asked if I wanted it to be sent back to his Post Office or somewhere else. He said he would overnight it, but it would not arrive until Monday. Originally we were only going to stay for 2 nights, but after looking at the weather report the night before, rain was predicted so we thought we might have to stay longer. That morning the weather report had changed to rain chances for 5 days. I told the Post Master to send it to our next destination in Michigan because our plans were up in the air. Around 12PM Joe said he thought we should leave today and see how far we could go before it rained. I agreed with him, because I really didn't want to sit in rain for 5 days. We packed everything up and got on the road by 1PM. While we were packing up, we got some really strong gust of wind, which made me wonder if we had made the right decision. Mallery didn't agree with us, she seemed to like the fairgrounds and didn't want to get in the bus to go. As we left Marietta we drove past some of the old homes in the city.

Marietta had a really nice down town, and we would have liked to have been able to walk around it, but with rain predicted, we could see that was probably not going to happen. The down town of Marietta has maintained their old building really well, giving the downtown lots of charm. The picture above is another older home near downtown that has been turned into a Women's Home.

 I didn't like that we were sitting next to a river at the fairgrounds in Marietta, with all the rain forecast. Plus the fairgrounds didn't have any safe spot to go to if any tornado warnings came while we were there. There was a hospital about 3 blocks away, but was sure they would not let me bring my dog if I wanted to get in a safe place. We had decided when we hit Ohio, we were going to do some long drives to get out of tornado alley. The picture above is of a sign I saw that made me smile on our drive heading north.

When we first left Marietta, we hand several 23 to 26 mph wind gust, but as we got further away, the wind gust stopped. We made one stop at a rest stop for lunch, and got back on the road. Here we were going through Canton, Ohio where the Home Of The Pro Football Hall Of Fame is located.

After going through Akron, Ohio, we left I-77 and turned west onto the I-80 Turnpike.

Just as we got on I-80 it started to rain. We only had to drive in the rain for 2 miles to get to our night's designation.

We stayed at the Great Lakes Service Plaza just south of Cleveland.

We parked in one of the 3 RV lanes for the night. This truck stop is huge! No other RV's joined us for the night. We were once again with the "Big Boys". Because our night stay was free, Joe splurged and took me out to dinner at the Panera Bread Restaurant in the Plaza. Our total day drive was 164 miles. Even though this is a longer drive than we like to do, it was a very low stress day for Joe, because it was on an interstate that was straight and flat, plus the traffic was moderate.

The next morning we continued west on the I-80 turnpike. After about 1/1/2 hours of driving we stopped at the last travel plaza just east of Toledo, Ohio, at around mile marker #75 for lunch.

This Travel Plaza has a RV section that has electric hook ups for $20 a night. It also has a dump station off to the side.

Just south of Toledo, we hopped off the I-80 Turnpike. We paid $16.75 for the turnpike from Cleveland to Toledo.

This construction barrier path going into Toledo, was not fun because it was so narrow for our bus.

As we approached this bridge from a distance it made for a great picture, but I missed getting it because I was taking pictures of the down town. By the time I tried to take the picture, the shot was gone.

So this is the best I got of it.

We finally arrived into "Pure Michigan" where we are going to spend the summer, and look for our future summer home.

After a 194 mile drive we arrived at the Super Wal-Mart in Harland, Michigan.

Hartland, MI is just a few miles north of Ann Arbor, MI on Hwy 23. I really liked this Wal-Mart because it had a sidewalk I could walk Mallery on. Most Wal-Marts are very hard to walk Mallery because of all the cars zooming around.

It was a beautiful sunny day at 72 degrees when we arrived.

Our Drive From West Virginia on I-77 To Marietta, Ohio

                                                      Thursday, 5/8/2014

After a noisy night at the Morton Travel Plaza, which is south of Beckley, WV. we continued north on I-77. The whole drive through West Virginia was mountains and trees. Like the West Virginia sign said "Wild and Wonderful"

As we traveled through Charleston, West Virginia, we followed the Kanawha River.

The suburbs and the city of Charleston lie between the mountains and along the river.

The traffic just south of Charleston came to a complete stop for a while, because the traffic was funneled down to one lane for painting white lines on the interstate. A good time for a potty break!

I-77 crosses the river in Charleston.

Many barges lined the shores of the river.

Charleston is the capitol of West Virginia. We thought about staying at a Wal-Mart for the night instead of Morton Travel Plaza, but it was too far off the interstate, which Joe doesn't like because it costs us more in gas, and the hassle of driving into a city.

As we continued north of Charleston, the mountains get smaller.

Not too long the small mountains became small hills, and Joe started to relax.

If you don't mind driving longer days, there are two truck stops, one of them being a Love's, and a Super Wal-Mart in Ripley.  We though about staying here, but it would have made way too long of a drive for Joe after mountains and curves.

After Ripley there are two rest stops at mile marker #165, and 185. We stopped at MM #165 for lunch. This rest stop has a dump station if you need to get rid of your black and grey waste.

We cross the Ohio River and arrive into Marietta, Ohio.

"Ohio So Much To Discover" State

Our GPS took us down a street full of  old beautiful historic homes to our next stop.

Our GPS wanted us to turn left onto a street that was so sharp and almost going the opposite direction we were going, that we thought it was the wrong street. (It was the right street, but we never would have made the turn) Next the GPS had us turn down a street that was so steep, it made Joe and I hold our breath going down. Once at the bottom of the street, we turned left again and down the street, and we finally came to the Washington County Fair.

This is a fairground campground in Marietta, OH. No one is in the office at this time of year. You just fill out an envelope and place $35 for the night in it. Joe was complaining right away about the price we paid for the zero amenities in the campground.

The full hook up section sites were around a parking lot. All the RV's were parked in one section of the parking lot.

Joe didn't want to be parked right next to neighbors so he chose one across the lot on the other side of the lot.

We were told later that the only problem with this site was that on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we would be surrounded by cars 

when the Skate Rink was open. Oh well we thought, we will just close the curtains! After setting up we headed up town for the Post Office. I had some medicine being sent General Delivery to the Post Office. If the campground does not accept mail, we have our mail sent General Delivery to the Post Office. Post Offices will hold your mail up to 30 days. Because this was medicine, I called the Marietta Post Office to make sure they would hold it until we arrived. At first they said I needed to come in to fill out some papers. I told them we only planned on being there for 2 nights, so the mail would never arrive in time if I had to order it after we arrived and filled out paper work. The person I talked to said they would hold it for me without the paper work. When I got to the Post Office they told me they didn't have anything for me. I went out side and called the pharmacy, and they tracked it and said it had arrived on Monday, but it looked like it was sent back Wednesday. I then had to go back inside and explain to them that I had the tracking number and I was told it was sent back. The Post Master was brought out so I could explain my blight. I told him we were Full Time RVers, and we had been doing this for years, and we have never had anything sent back. He told me he was sorry and he would try to locate it and get it sent back to me where ever I was. He said he would call me the next morning once he located the package. These are the kinds of struggles Full Timer's have to deal with that can get old!