GTW Hop 5: Gettysburg, PA, to Lorton, VA

101 miles via PA 116, US 15, I-270, I-495, I-95 and VA 600 and 242. Cumulative distance: 775 miles.

GTW Hop 5: Gettysburg PA to Lorton VA

A ding-a-day. It is the theme of this trip. It would be more accurate to say “ding a hop” but that doesn’t have quite the same ring. So a ding-a-day it is.

The Hop 5 ding was unique in that it (probably) wasn’t my fault.  We had a blowout on the RV just south of Thurmont.  Not just a flat tire, but a major explosive blowout that shredded the tire and curled up the sheet metal over the wheel well. It sounded like an M-80 going off in the bed of the truck. Freaked out the dogs. And us.

I pulled over to the side of US 15, got out, inspected the damage, considered trying to change the tire myself for about 30 seconds, then opted for calling in a professional.  I dialed 911 and they patched me through to the state police.  They promised to “send someone to help.”  I was expecting a state trooper who would call a local tow truck guy.  We waited about 30 minutes – Jett in the cab and me on the side of the road, both reading.  Finally a yellow emergency assistance vehicle, like you see on the Mass Pike, arrived.  A very nice man introduced himself and proceeded to change the tire and, when done, adjusted the tire pressure on all 4 tires – at considerable risk to himself as the shoulder was not very wide and he encroached on the first travel lane a tad as he was working on the left tires.  He refused payment and a tip.  So I shook his hand and he rode off into the noon sunset.

My hero.

The blowout

The curled sheet metal

I said that this ding *probably* wasn’t my fault.  However, when I checked the tire pressure after he had filled the spare (to 80 psi he said), my gauge read 90 psi.  So we have a major discrepancy in gauge readings.  If I have a faulty gauge which resulted in the tires being under-inflated, then I could fairly be blamed.  But I would just deflect that blame to the gauge.

I will get another gauge and, together with my other electronic gauge, we will have a gauge-off.  The two that agree remain; the other gets tossed.

So, once again, we marveled at our strange combination of bad luck/good luck.  Yeah, we have had an appalling series of mini disasters.  But in each case things have turned out surprisingly well.  Even the loose slide cable – the repair guy finally appeared about 10 minutes before we departed the Campground in Gettysburg and we waved him off.  My temporary fix with the cut washer worked like a charm, bringing the slide in quite normally.  Twice, in fact, because after pulling it in I had to deploy it again so that I could retrieve my glasses from the bunkhouse (Note to self: wear glasses when pulling slides in).

The route itself was pleasant – it was yet another beautiful day, coolish but sunny and bright – and, except for the tiny little blowout incident, uneventful.  We had no trouble finding the campground in Lorton, despite the fact that, for the first time, I had forgotten to print the Google map of the route.  So we had to do the first piece by memory (the GPS kept trying to send me down little side roads) and we relied (gulp!) on the GPS to get us the 5 miles from I-95 to the campground.  Again, it took us a different route than Google and one of the roads was smaller than I would have liked, but we got there unscathed.

The campsite was of the back-in variety and was plenty large enough to hold the rig.  But narrow.  Trees were posted as sentinels on both sides of the entrance.  And, just to make things more interesting, a couple of trees limited the ability to swing the truck freely.  I knew it would be difficult but resolved to try.  Long story short: we made it in a single try!  I have to believe it was largely luck, but it was a huge confidence boost.

One try!

Other positives:

1. I was able to get both bunkhouse slides deployed.  It took a little effort to unfurl the bent topper, but I got it.  This gives us access to the second bathroom for the first time in a week.
2. With the two 10-ft halves of the 20-ft sewer hose that I bought yesterday and the Y-connector that I had purchased in NH, I was able to connect, for the first time, both drain pipes simultaneously.  I got the hoses nicely supported, too, so cleanup should be a breeze.
3. I got the antenna to work.  The solution? Turn it on.  There was a button, nearly invisible, in the bedroom closet, that controls the antenna.  I gave it a shot and – presto! – suddenly we had access to way more channels than I expected: over 40, including some, like LWN, that I thought were cable-only.  Over-air TV has changed a lot from when I was a kid and we had 3 channels, plus the 6-hours-a-day educational channel.  The picture quality?  Unbelievably good.  Better than the cable that we have had at any campground to date.  High definition and a very strong signal.  Some of the channels were from Baltimore, over 60 miles away!

The bottom line on this hop was that the positives outweighed the one very big negative.

Today we need to make arrangements to get some new tires – 2 for the truck, 1 for the RV.