Pah! to Pennsylvania

I had to tone down the title of this blog. It's been one miserable mother of a day.

Denny and I decided to try one of the affiliated member campgrounds in our system that is located south east of Pittsburgh. We had never been to the area and it allowed us to see something new, and yet not wander too far from Ohio since we have to be back there in a couple of weeks to be able to fly out to Palm Springs. The trip was longish one for us, about 286 miles, per Map Quest. We made okay time in spite of toll roads (don't even get me started on the Pennsylvania Turnpike) and construction. Upon our arrival at the campground, we were assigned a site and given a map to find it. No problem, except as we drove further into the campground we saw nothing but trees. Trees and satellite dishes don't mix at all. We located our site, having to put the truck into low gear due to the severe grade of the driveway leading to the site. The interior roads are narrow and the tree limbs on the site hadn't been trimmed so that we were concerned about them damaging the rubber roof of the trailer. Since the lady at the entrance gate had told us we could pick any open site if we didn't like the one assigned to us, we drove down the hill and up a different lane. All of a sudden I'm smelling something burning and look to see that the temperature gauge for the transmission isn't showing a temperature. Uh-oh. We're partly up a hill, with no open sites around to back into. So Denny eased back down the hill to the main driveway (not an easy turn to make with a fifth wheel going backwards) and we left the campground, telling the lady at the gate that we were leaving and asking if there were any other campgrounds close by that didn't have hills. She was not at all helpful, so we just left. Remembering a campground near the turnpike, we crossed our fingers as the truck struggled up two more lengthy hills on the main roads to get to the campground. We finally located the other campground, paid an exorbitant price for a week, got the trailer set up and the truck unhitched and set up the Internet satellite so I could find a Ford dealer. I did locate one, arranged for a tow, tried to arrange a rental car but it was too late in the day. So the tow driver took the truck to the dealer for us, where the service department will look at it first thing tomorrow morning. Denny tried to check the transmission fluid but it didn't even show up on the dipstick, so I think we're in big trouble here.

So here we are, in an area that's close to nothing, stuck without a car until someone returns one to the closest Enterprise office, at the mercy of a strange Ford service department. This does not bode well.

Note; I left out the yelling, the lack of meals for eleven hours, drinks downed quickly on an empty stomach between desperate phone calls and a few other minor details. Other than that, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.