Travels with Snowbirds Quest for The Stamp May 16-17 Thousand Trails Wilmington OH (Dayton)

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Winston felt crappy Monday night. Limp like jello. Nose warm. Didn’t eat dinner. Damn, I started to worry about those pesky tick bites again. Will seriously consider calling my veterinarian and get her to order some antibiotics; we are in Ohio where she can order drugs.

Up and out by 9:45 Tuesday, headed to Wilmington, OH, near Dayton for 2 or 3 National Park things. The roads in OH were far better than those in Indiana. We traveled the 70 miles easily, stopping at a Flying J with RV lanes to fill up. I even pretended to wash the windshield with the extra clean bucket of blue water and the brand new 10 foot long squeegee, but all I did was streak it further. Using the windshield wipers did little to make it better.

I left a little food in Winston’s bowl overnight and when I awoke it was gone. He seemed more chipper. We went for a long walk, and while he wasn’t pulling at the leash like he sometimes does, I wasn’t dragging him. His nose was cool and he ate his whole food serving like a rock star. I am beginning to think that as he gets older, his heat regulatory system is failing. He just doesn’t like the heat, like his mommy. He ate his entire serving quickly. So, back off calling the vet, yet again. I definitely will take him to see her when I get home.

Wilmington Thousand Trails looks like most other Thousand Trails campgrounds I have been to. Same furniture in the office and lounges, same green ranger shirts, same colors used throughout. Do I want to say that walking into the office feels like going home?? Nah, not ready for that just yet, but it is a comfortable feeling. One camper and his extra long 5^th wheel was rude and pulled into the lot and didn’t leave enough room for us to pull in behind him he really hogged the space, so we had to park farther away to go register, leaving him to check in first and have first dibs on a campsite. Nasty thing to do. He did get the prime remaining site, but we got good ones as well. Ranger Delores offered to drive us around in the office golf cart so we could see what was available where – a damn nice thing to do. We had a lot of old lady laughs on that short trip. We selected 3 sites, all kind of out in the open, with some daytime shade. Kim and Ginnie have water, sewer, electric, and I just have water and electric. That’s ok, we are only here for 2 days and I have a plenty large enough grey water holding tank to work and I will dump at the ‘sanitary station’ on the way out.

The best news, we were all set up by 2:00 and I got to watch General Hospital!!! First time in a few weeks that I have been someplace that I can get ABC on air antenna and home at the right time to watch it!

It surely was hot Tuesday. Moya’s shades and curtains are drawn and the a/c cranked most of the day. It’s not supposed to go below 70 overnight, either. Yucky.

We decided to go out for dinner and Kim and her wonderful TripAdvisor research skills found the pub at the General Denver Hotel and Pub in downtown Wilmington with a Walmart somewhat nearby – two birds with one stone. The hotel was in the middle of downtown Wilmington, and what a cute town, more what we are used to in our mid western older cities, but nowhere near what my Wilmington NC looks like. A red brick building with pub restaurant on the first floor. We walked in and the doors and windows were open and it was a little warm, I was worried, but it got more crowded as the meal progressed, they shut the doors and cranked the air. Seated on a great booth, I had 6 oz sirloin, fresh broasted asparagus and loaded baked potato. With iced tea and tip, $21. Ginnie and Kim had similar. It really was a great dinner. We explored Wilmington a little bit due to my bad directions to Walmart, with a lot of laughs and some good pictures of downtown and the grain elevators and silos. Walmart was big and empty, and I had to chase the man cleaning the ladies room out of it when my meal got the better of my intestines. TMI, I know.

Back to the RV with another tour of local roads due to my bad sense of direction. IPhone Google Maps and me just don’t agree sometimes. Those who know me, know my sense of direction just sucks, and the google bitch can’t get me out of a parking lot without saying GO EAST. Where the heck is EAST?? So, we make wrong turns. Seeing the countryside.

Winston ate like a rock star again, and then he got mad at me when I gave him a bath. All is well in the ILM of Ohio.

Wednesday morning we left at 10 for our adventure to Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. Whew, what a tongue twister name. We ended up at the National Air Force Museum. Guess who was navigator. Yup. Looked like a good place; we were told they have the largest collection of US aircraft in the country and I did see a C130. We just weren’t going to get our stamp there. We saw a teeny tiny brown shield sign pointing to the Wright Brothers Memorial and headed there. What a little treasure that was. It’s not where they are buried, but a monument that overlooks Huffman Prairie, where they built and tested the first airplanes. We saw a small museum and a great movie. There was a cool ranger there, too, she has been all over the country; for example, she guided canoe tour at Cypress something or other National Park in Florida. Orville and Wilbur had no formal engineering education; they did all their work by the seat of their pants. The ranger directed us to the other sites, the next one was Wright Bicycle Shop. Nothing special. Then we headed to Carillon Park which I still don’t fully understand. It is right next to University of Dayton, along a river that must flood because the banks are built up so much, but you must pay to get in to visit the restored buildings and the National Park interpretive center. The only things in the NPVC was an original plane that Orville rebuilt over the years after Wilbur’s death and an original Wright bicycle. We passed on paying the $6 fee which would allow us to do a lot of walking, and ate lunch at the Carillon Brewing Co German style food. Two old guys were actually brewing beer the old-fashioned way, over a fire…using wood mashers to break the grain, etc. I had a yummy ham sandwich on a pretzel roll with hot German potato salad as my chosen side. The sandwich had a beer cheese sauce on it and it sure was yummy. The potato salad was on the sweet side, it must have had apples in it. Ginnie had a hamburger, Kim ate beer cheese soup and salad. Back to the RV where we discussed our route for tomorrow’s travels which will really be over the river and thru the woods to Newell, WV and the Homer Laughlin Fiestaware factory outlet store and boondocking at Mountaineer Casino.

We are finally experiencing true spring here in Dayton, OH. The dogwoods are in full bloom. The Iris’ and peonies are at their peak. Ginnie says we have been touring around spring for many states, but here we get to see it and she’s happy because she will miss it ever happening in NJ this year.

I introduced myself to the man across the way. Bob. I am not sure if he still has a stick and bricks house or not, but he does spend a lot of time on the road. Ohio is home and he will stay the summer as both his sister and brother are terminally ill. When he met Winston, he knew we had met before because he remembered him. He is just out of a long-term relationship and kind of likes being a single camper, but it is nice to have someone to go do things with. He told me a lady at this campground ‘picked him up’ and they spent 3 days together seeing the sites. Nice for him. He told me a story about the nasty looking trailer in the site next to him. It seems someone came in late one day last week, plopped the trailer on the site, took some stuff out then left. Campground management has been unable to reach them. Tonight 2 guys in red pickup truck came and hooked it up and hauled it away. It was a nasty beast. Most of the rigs here are nice new ones, well kept. There are annual lots (which are really seasonal because the campground is closed in the winter) that are well maintained. Not as elaborate setups as Horseshoe Lakes, but nice enough.

Then there’s Steve. He also came over to say hello after I waved at him, well, actually put my hands in my ears, stuck my tongue out and wiggled my fingers at him. 70 years old, 1964 HS graduate like me, enlisted into the army, got the electronic education he was looking for and was shipped to Africa where he learned to speak Vietnamese, but he never went to Vietnam. I was a nosy busybody and asked him what blood thinner he was on….those nasty blood bruises on his arms. He didn’t know. Huh? Married for 47 years, mostly good, a few problems, she died 3 years ago 2 months after they returned from Thousand Trails Orlando (where I go with the girls in the winter) from Cancer of the Pancreas. I told him that’s what my mother died of and it is a horrible, nasty, way to die and he cried. He misses her. But, he met a lady in Orlando who lives in Ohio and he is picking her up on Sunday and they are going to tour for a while. He, too, misses the companionship and someone to talk to. All the time he was sitting at my picnic bench, he only had 2 buttons of his dress white shirt buttoned, leaving his round belly hanging out. I didn’t know where to look. He was well groomed, no hair in his ears, eyebrows trimmed, nice haircut, he just needed someone to tell him to wear a different shirt. We are to look for him also in Orlando over the winter.

Winston ate well today and was pretty active. No ticks.

Only a week to go!! I was looking at the calendar wrong. I will be home on Thursday May 25.

Kat out

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Photos

At the National Air Force Museum
lots of planes on the grounds. We did not go in this museum, just viewed from afar

Wright Monument overlooked this beautiful dam!!
This dam protects the runways at nearby Wright Patterson AFB from being flooded by the Mad River. It's a beautiful thing.