Trip Update Oct 2010 MD-FL Part 1

Train ride with Pat's father, Pat and Connie

Rick, Linda and Pat

Pat's family

Broken RV awing support

Trip Update Oct 2010 MD-FL Part 2

Killer whale on a stick
Halloween at Sea World
Whale surfing
Yellow crowned night heron
MD-FL
It was good to see our family and friends while we camped in the MD/PA area. We got together for dinner with my family and later headed up to Hills Creek SP in northern PA and spent Columbus Day weekend with Pat’s family. Except for getting lost on dirt roads after dark, we had an excellent weekend and we got an early glimpse of fall colors on a scenic train ride.
Several days later, while Pat was driving us to dinner, I started feeling chest pains, which continued for 20 minutes. I ended up spending the night in York Hospital. It was interesting in this day of electronic note pads, that I was asked about my meds and symptoms by every nurse and doctor that saw me (at least seven times). I felt like Bill Murray in ‘Groundhog Day’ when he found himself living the same day over and over again. In the end they could not determine the cause of the pain, other than it was not heart related.
One of the things we wanted to get done while in York was get new tires and brakes on the rear of the RV. Just before we headed south, we also got a front end alignment. The mechanic had considerable difficulty performing this work. He actually made it worse because we had great difficulty controlling the steering as it floated down I-95. While going through a narrow construction zone in Georgia, a semi squeezed by us on the left and I hit a traffic barrel on the right. This knocked the front RV awning support off the vehicle, which made it un-drivable (for fear of the awing falling down on the highway). Luckily we had enough rope to secure the awning and we were able to drive to the closest RV dealer. They removed the awning and we plan to have it repaired and reinstalled when we return north in December. We were glad we had not towed our canoe trailer to FL with this steering problem! We finally got the steering problem fixed, after the Ford dealer in Tampa corrected the problems from the previous alignment. After this, we took it in to an RV dealer to have maintenance done on the refrigerator and generator. We have certainly done our part to stimulate the economy!
We started our Florida trip in Orlando. We spent a few days in Kissimmee, visited Downtown Disney and spent a day at Sea World. Sea World was excellent - we saw all the shows and rode all the rides, including a new roller coaster which you ride in a position such that you are facing the ground. We spent a week in a timeshare on Bradenton Beach (north of Sarasota). It was a great location, but we spent a good part of the week dealing with the above RV issues.