Trish photographed the RV this morning:
We left the Walmart in Van Wert, Ohio, and continued west into Indiana:
And on into Illinois:
And on into Wisconsin:
We’re spending Shabbos parked next door to Tricia’s sister’s house in a neighbor’s yard:
Tricia’s sister has a dog, and B took her for a walk:
Good Shabbos from Brodhead, Wisconsin! See the alternating light blue line on the trip map for today’s drive.
This morning we had some equine neighbors:
Trish caught me chatting with the neighbors on her way back from shopping at “our” Walmart. The horse trailer was being driven by a woman from Grants Pass, Oregon, and the fifth-wheel hitched to the red truck was a family from Dutchess County, New York, about an hour north of our house:
We continued East and visited baseball bat manufacturer BWP Bats for a factory tour:
Their office featured memorabilia from players who use (or used) their bats:
The first step of the process uses a computerized CNC lathe to convert a cylinder of wood, called a billet, into a bat in about 3 minutes:
We learned that baseball bats have a fixed relationship between length and weight (called bad drop) that is determined by whether the bat is used for professional, college, or little league play. We also learned about “cupping”, which is drilling out the end of a bat to make it slightly lighter. The handle end of the bat can be terminated in a variety of shapes depending on the player’s preference:
Once the bat is formed, it’s sanded and the ends are cut off:
Next we went downstairs and saw the painting process which involves dipping the bats into paint one or more times depending on the color scheme. After being hung to dry, the BWP sticker is applied and the bat is dipped multiple times into a clear polyurethane finish before it’s finished:
This machine applies a narrow band of black paint over the seam between two colors added during the dipping process:
We continued east to overnight at the Walmart of Van Wert, Ohio. Getting gas is always a tricky affair when you’re 62 feet long and 13 feet, 6 inches tall:
There were plenty of trucks in the parking lot and it was another loud night as the trucks were running their APUs to power their air conditioners to keep the sleeper units in the trucks cool. It was 75 degrees and 99% humidity, so it was pretty uncomfortable. We decided to put out our generator so we could run the air conditioner overnight. It was no problem, since the trucks were making so much noise that generator just Blended right in:
See the alternating light blue line on the trip map for today’s drive.
After spending the last few days getting everything ready, by late afternoon we were ready to go:
We drove South and then East through New Jersey, ultimately arriving at the Walmart of Hazleton, Pennsylvania:
It was a warm night, so we opened all the windows and tried to go to sleep. Nearby semi trucks ran their APUs to power their air conditioners, and semi trucks would come and go during the night, so it wasn’t a restful night.
See the alternating light blue line on the trip map to see today’s drive.
Getting ready to leave for our summer trip involves plenty of work. I tested the telescope with the solar filter and camera mount to make sure everything would work well when viewing the eclipse. Note the sunspot:
I filled the fresh water tank and turned on the pump which supplies pressure to all the fixtures in the RV. I heard a spraying noise, and ran into the master bathroom to find the toilet leaking fresh water. I winterized the RV after our 2016 Assateague Island Sukkos trip, which involves opening low-point drains and then opening all water fixtures to allow the water to drain out of the fixtures and out the low-point drains. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of the toilets as water fixtures, so I didn’t do this. The toilet’s supply valve must have been filled with water and cracked over the winter when it froze. Getting the supply valve disconnected from the toilet was easy:
I ordered two new valves, since the kids’ toilet broke in the same way. The new valves won’t arrive before we leave, so I had them shipped to my brother’s house where they should be waiting for us when we arrive on Sunday. In the mean time, I capped the water supply line so we can use the water in the rest of the RV:
For now we’ll have to flush by filing a container with water and manually pouring it into the toilet. So much for our glamorous RV lifestyle.
We hope to soon be sharing our summer 2017 travel plans. It will probably look something like this:
Until then, feel free to visit our All RV Trips page to take a look at trips we’ve done in the past.
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