Sunday, October 21, 2012 – Mechanical Problems, Then Back to James River

Got up fairly early so that we could get back to James River and still leave me time to run into Lynchburg to do some shopping, especially for generator gas, of which we’re almost out. We got everything packed, the horses loaded, and just about ready to go, when I went to pull in the kitchen slide on the RV, only one end started to come in. Hubby immediately went to work, knowing it would require replacing a bolt in the shaft in the underbelly of the unit, though fortunately he had spares that he had bought when this had happened another time. It’s a pain, but we managed to get it done in just under an hour. Meanwhile, Dawn, the owner of Robbins Nest, arrived home (she had gone to an organized ride in Belmont for the weekend), and we had a chance to chat for a few minutes. Finally got on the road about 2:30, figuring we still had time to complete our day as scheduled. Arrived at the park around 3:00, but it took nearly 20 minutes to get signed in and paid. Whatever happened to simply paying what’s owed? Four nights @ $X, here’s my money and off we go? Now we have to practically give up every piece of private information to a government organization just to simply stay in a park! It’s ridiculous. Anyway, we finally got down to the campsite area at 3:20, only to discover that the previous campers hadn’t left yet! Check out is supposed to be about 1:00, though the hard stop is 3:00, but there they were, every site full. Fortunately, though, they were just about packed up, so they left within 10 minutes or so. Meanwhile, to save time, we moved the RV over to the water spigot and spent the time filling the tank. Just about the time that was done, everyone had left, and we moved back into our previous spot and got things set up as quickly as possible so that I could get out of there to do shopping. I was on the road right at 4:00, made stops at the ABC store, Tractor Supply, Walmart, Sheetz for gas, and the Post Office to drop off a letter in the box, hoping to get back to camp before dark, and just made it! The sun had gone down, but civil twilight was still in full force, and I saw that Hubby had managed to get the highline up by himself, as well as getting hay and water out as well, meaning he had brought out the long length of hose. Obviously he was a busy beaver while I was gone! He was surprised I got back so fast, but it was a pretty straight-forward route, even if it was more than 45 minutes each way. We quickly got the horses put up for the night with their warm winter blankets on, then settled in for the short evening, hoping for a quiet night and a good sleep!