"Doing things Differently"

8-10-04

Wednesday, 10:58 a.m.  Below is what I wrote last night. Had no cell phone internet access last night.  Currently in Wytheville, Virginia.  Later...

Temps this morning started at about 70 degrees, highs were about 82.  Not bad for the middle of summer.  We took an off the wall route today.  After heading east a short time, and crossing into West Virginia, we took route 52 south along the river.  There were many small towns along this route, some of which were very old towns.  Some of the buildings were very old, some of the towns were unincorporated - I think the only reason they existed, was because they had a post office.  Probably got tired of running miles and miles for their mail.  It was a very scenic drive, as far as that goes.  There were plenty of sights, some of the housing was fairly new, some were very old, some were manufactured houses ( trailers, single & double wide), some well kept, some dumps.  There were many buildings that had existed as businesses at one time, many had gone out of business.  Funny thing, the ones that do well, are the auto parts stores.  Seems that no matter what else used to be there, the auto places like Napa or Advance Auto Parts, or one of the chain stores, seem to do well.  Go figure - hey, gotta keep that 4 wheeler runnin.  The route was interesting as I said - many turns, some up some down - reminded me of route 1 in California.  No, Sherry did not get sick.  Traveling those roads with the motor home is different than in a car.  You can't go as fast, you sit higher, so therefore you can see better, and the coach rides different.  So, all in all, it was a good day.  We are sitting in a Wal Mart SuperCenter in Princeton, West Virginia.  When I asked the manager if they allow overnight rv parking, she said, "yes, just stay out of the busier areas - and by morning it usually looks like a truck stop anyhow".  We are next to route 77 in the southern end of W.V.  I think in the morning we will take 77 south to Wytheville, Virginia.  From there, we will travel route 11 north as much as possible.  Hey, the 2 lane roads are where all the action is, remember?  Anyhow, I may have forgotten to mention that on Saturday, while we were in Normal ,Ill, we passed a yard sale going to Chuck's place.  After we turned around and came back, we found 2 bikes, 1 mens and 1 womans bike, both 18 speed mountain bikes for $5.00 each.  Yup, $10.00 for the pair.  They even had air in the tires and everything seems to work, including all the gears.  We bought them and hooked 'em up on the back of the motor home.  Tonight, after stopping at Wal Mart, I bought a cable lock - just for a little extra protection.  Guess what?  The cable cost me $9.99 plus tax.  More than we paid for the bikes.  Go figure.  Anyhow, I figure it may be tough to find replacements for that amount of money, so if it prevents a theft, it's worth it.  So, we'll see what we can find coming up route 11 starting tomorrow.  In case anyone is interested, West Virginia is the 20th state we have been in since we left on July 5th.  Current mileage since we left is - 8,448 miles.  By the time we get home - we should hit about 9,000 miles total.  Well that's the news from P.U. (paddleupstream) for this evening.  Later.......