Countryside Campground, Mogadore, Ohio
(Joseph continues speaking) For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years, there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. ~ Genesis 45:6-8 Did you notice that besides glorifying God, Joseph is also prophesying? For thousands of years, God has preserved a remnant of devout Hebrews. And Joseph’s comment about ‘saving your lives by a great deliverance’, speaks not only about bringing his family to Egypt to escape the famine, but also to the even greater deliverance via God’s, servant, Moses roughly 300 years from now. There are so many things we can learn from studying the Old Testament! Seeing God at work through the ages, watching His Plan unfold, keeping His Promises and fulfilling prophecy, just to name a few! Knowing these things bolsters our faith today – or at least it should. If you’re into studying, spend some time researching the events mentioned in Daniel Chapter 11. It’ll blow your socks off how accurate this prophecy from God was that covers a time span of over 300 years! Another one that especially hit me was Isaiah 44, when he names the person – by name! – responsible for releasing the Jews from captivity – – 200 years before it happened! And then there are the over 300 prophecies Jesus Himself fulfilled! Our God is an awesome God!
Some have asked us about the rising gas and fuel costs. It’s most definitely an issue for us. Consider this: When we began in 2017, the cost of fuel averaged $2.75, which means filling our 100-gallon RV tank cost us roughly $275. Today, (and I mean literally today) the cost is $6, meaning filling up will cost us $600! The rising gas prices affect us as well. When we come home, we put about 1,500 miles on our Jeep in just four weeks (and that’s not counting the miles we put on our parents’ cars when we borrow them or have to take the parents somewhere). In 2017, that would’ve been an expense of $2.32/gallon, making the total around $200. Currently? $360. We can’t really make changes to our fuel costs, but we can curtail our driving distances in the Jeep now that we’re on the road; meaning, we’ll be carefully checking the distances of things we’re interested in visiting.
So how did our first day back on the road go? Not great. And certainly not as planned. But for those of you who fret over our moving day pictures, there’s no need for that today. We didn’t have any traffic issues, which was a real blessing!
It began even before we left Countryside. Next Spring, we want to stay for two months instead of six weeks (May 6-July 6), but the owner doesn’t want us taking up her premium site for that long. We pay about $23/night because we get a monthly rate (plus $75-80 for electric – so around $770/month), while others would be paying $50 per night (they don’t pay electric – so around $1,500/month). And remember to double those numbers in the event we stayed there two months. Can’t blame them! Before we made the final decision though, we wanted to see how we fit in a different site, and also check to make sure there’s satellite reception. Remember, we don’t camp. We live full-time.
So anyway, Blaine determined that it’d be good to back out of our site rather than pull forward, so he could make the necessary turns to get to the “new” site. As I was directing him, I slid down a small embankment and injured my left wrist/hand….something.
That was issue one. Even though it wasn’t severe and I didn’t say anything to Blaine (he had enough to think about), it was still a little swollen and uncomfortable all day when I used it, plus it starting moving up my arm, into my shoulder, upper back and neck. I was careful the rest of the day and took Aleve, which helped. 😊
Blaine discovered he couldn’t make the turn he wanted, changed tactics and before long, found himself spinning the motorhome’s right rear tires into a hole. He enlisted the campground owner’s aid and managed to get out, leaving behind a trench for the owner to fill and mud caked on the tires and up under the chassis. As well as consuming a healthy serving of humble pie.
When we got to the site, we parked and checked reception – nothing. Just as we suspected. So now, it looks as though we’ll be purchasing one of those remote satellite dishes you place in your yard. All for the love of family, friends and TV. 😊
We left about an hour later than we’d anticipated, but were anxious to embark our marvelous, magical, mystery tour. Especially since it was baking hot out there!
Well, a portion of our drive which was supposed to take an hour to get to from home, ended up taking two hours and twenty minutes!
Blaine opted for a more scenic drive today, as we headed in the direction of Wheeling, West Virginia, rather than fighting expressway traffic.
It was a great decision, until . . .
Route 800 was closed in the small town of Freeport!
There were no detour signs, nor were there any signs along Route 800 before that to indicate that it was closed! And here we are. Stuck in a small town, with small roads and no way of knowing what truly lay ahead unless it was marked as a truck route on our atlas. So we pulled over on the side of the road in a residential area (if you can call moving to the edge pulling over), so Blaine could study.
Fortunately, before long, he was able to stick his hand out the window, wave frantically and flag down a local, but there really weren’t any options for our size. And we couldn’t physically turn our 40’ bus around.
We had to drive an additional 55 miles (which cost $42) to get around that detour! I’m sure the Amish in the area weren’t accustomed to seeing rigs our size on their little horse-bearing roads!
If we’d driven I-77, it would’ve taken us an hour to get here.
But we made it to our destination. And it was a pretty day with lots of scenery today. 😊
Barkcamp State Park, Belmont, Ohio
Set up was more difficult than we expected since the site turned out to be unlevel. We ended our adventurous day leaning hard to starboard (passenger side). Blaine will work on leveling us tomorrow. Sometimes all it needs is for things to cool down.
Although it’s supposed to remain quite warm all night . . . .