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Saturday, July 4th Early Saturday morning, July 4th, my wife drove me to my cousin's, Ed Milish, house in Terryville, CT. We loaded up his 1995 Toyota Corolla with all our supplies that would hopefully last us for our week's trip to Wauseon, Ohio to attend the annual Crosley Automobile Club Nationals. www.crosleyautoclub.com. I've been going to Wauseon since 2003 to help the Yankee Crosley boys, Ted and Ed, hawk their Crosley parts and other miscellaneous stuff that they also sell from their website. www.yankeecrosleyparts.com Ed drew the short straw. He got to drive Teddy's Tahoe that pulled the trailer that carried the parts and would also carry the Crosley back home the following Saturday. I was navigator in the Crosley with Teddy as pilot in command. So the short straw included air conditioning, radio, comfortable seats, all those pleasantries of modern cars. Actually, the seats in the Crosley were very comfortable for our 750 + mile drive to Wauseon, the pop out vents in the front fenders worked well with the sliding windows to keep the cabin cool and comfortable.
The Plan was to leave Ted's at 7 am, but Ed and I didn't arrive to Teddy's until after 7am. We transferred our stuff from the Toyota to the Tahoe and the trailer. After a sendoff from Ted's family and Roy the Boy (another Crosley owner) we departed from Teddy's house in Watertown, CT at about 7:30 am. Ted DellaCamera driving his newly restored 48 Crosley Convertible and I, Russ Woodstock, hanging on in the passenger seat trying my best to navigate this wagon train along RT 6 to Wauseon, OH. After Teddy took the 1st corner in the Crosley at 35 mph, I asked him about seat belts and Teddy said, "Real men don't need no steeenking seat belts." So, I said, "OK, so when are we stopping at a Starbucks?" There was no reply. I learned if you slide the window back you can hang onto the window frame of the door, sometimes two hands were needed. The windows on a 48 Crosley do not roll down. The door window is two pieces. The front half slides back and the back half slides forward, making it impossible to stick your arm out the window to signal a left/right turn. Remember, 1948 seat belts and turn signals were not required. At departure time the odometer on the Crosley had only 104.5 miles on it since Ed had finished working on the motor. Following the Crosley was Kerm Phelps, driving his Chevy motor home pulling a trailer carrying his beautifully restored 1948 Crosley Flat side pickup. Ed followed Kerm with the Tahoe and the Crosley Parts Trailer. Ted wanted to leave early on Saturday morning because we needed to drive about 20 miles on I-84, picking up I-84 in the Southbury area and getting back on RT 6 in Danbury. When traveling on I-84 at about 55 mph, a number of drivers pulled up along side of us waving at us or giving us the thumbs up, at least I thought it was a thumb. A few took pictures using their cell phones and some just slowed down and gawked which ticked off a number of truck drivers who were trying to get by us on the I-84 hills. We did quite well on I-84, the big trucks didn't blow us off the road and we climbed all the hills without needing to downshift into 2nd gear. The post war Crosleys were a very small car weighing about 1100 pounds, of course add another 400 pounds with me and Teddy in the car. The 4 cylinder overhead cam engine is very small, 44 cubic inches and for you metric morons, that's a little less that 750cc. We crossed the border in Brewster, NY about 8:30 am and then drove on RT 202 until we hooked up again with RT 6 prior to crossing the Hudson River on RT 6 in the Bear Mountain area. Teddy was pleased with the way the motor was running, going up and down the hills in the Bear Mountain area, only had to downshift to 2nd once. Coming down one of the hills there were two deer nibbling on some shrubs along the side of the road. Teddy backed off the accelerator and the engine backfired causing one deer to bolt into the woods and the other to run along beside us for a short time. I was just hoping the buck wouldn't bolt in front of the Crosley, or worse, mistake the tan canvas convertible top for a doe. We stopped for gas in New Hampton, NY at 10:10 am. This stop was a little over 100 miles into the trip. The odometer on the Crosley was at 209.8. We filled up and checked the mileage. The Crosley was getting 35 mph, not too shabby for a 60 year old vehicle. Pulled out of the gas station and headed down the road, but Teddy and I missed the left turn that RT 6 took and we drove for awhile into downtown New Hampton before we realized we missed the turn. Turning the Crosley around on side streets is no trouble, but Kerm and Ed had to find roads or large parking lots to turn around in. 15-20 minutes later we were back on RT 6 again heading toward PA. This was just one of the many side trips that were taken during our 3 day adventure to Wauseon. Heading down a steep hill outside of Port Jervis, we encountered a group of bicyclists traveling about 40-45 mph. At times, they were riding 3 and 4 abreast and blocking the lane making it difficult to get by them. Teddy wanted to beep the horn but I protested, afraid that one of cyclists may have an accident at that speed. So Teddy started passing them one by one. At one point, I glanced over at the speedometer on the Crosley and we were going in excess of 40 mph. I was startled when I glanced to my right and a cyclist passed us on the right. Many folks thought we were crazy driving a Crosley from Watertown, CT to Wauseon, OH, but these cyclists were insane. We made it through downtown Port Jervis on RT 6 and crossed over into Matamoras, PA. We stopped at the Perkins Family Restaurant which has become our regular stop when we are traveling on the I-84 leg of our many previous journeys to Wauseon. After a breakfast/lunch/bathroom break and a gas stop down the road for Kerm and Ed, we were on the road again by 12:30 pm. At about 1:15pm we hit our 1st major traffic slowdown coming into Honesdale, PA. At first we thought we got stuck at the tail end of a July 4th parade, which it may have been, but it turned out to be the local Volunteer Fire Department extorting money from those passing through town. We lost 15 to 20 minutes and a couple of bucks and we were on the move again. At some point the gas fumes were getting intolerable in the Crosley, it wasn't me and Teddy wouldn't take responsibility. The cap on the spare gas can was leaking, so the contents in the spare gas can were dumped into the Tahoe and we were on our journey again. We took RT 6 Business in Carbondale and then RT 107 in Jermyn to bypass RT6 / I-81 in Scranton. RT 107 hooks back up with RT 6 in Factoryville and we arrived in Tunkhannock at 3:02 pm. We gassed up the Crosley again, 330 miles on the odometer and met up with Mushroom Dave at the gas station. The plan was to meet Dave Anspach, the President of the Crosley Club, in Tunkhannock, PA and he would drive with us to Wauseon, OH. Dave works for Giorgio Foods (who purchased the Franklin, CT Mushroom farm), hence the name Mushroom Dave. Dave was traveling from his home in Blandon which is the southeastern part of PA. Tunkhannock was our 1st night stop; we had traveled about 215 miles from Watertown, CT. Dave was driving his big Dodge pickup, pulling a box trailer that carried his 1941 fresh-out-of-the-barn Crosley pre-war sedan and his award winning 1951 red Crosley Hot Shot. We all drove to the outskirts of Tunkhannock to stay the night at the Skyline Motor Inn. After settling in at the motel, BS'ing a little, and giving the Crosley a once over, we headed to the Fireplace Restaurant just a mile west of the motel for dinner. Teddy had to make two trips to cart the five of us to the restaurant. After dinner, back at the motel, there was more maintenance on the Crosley; adjusted the clutch, minor repair to the starter and adjusted the idle on the carburetor. Dave and Teddy shared/split a room and the Skyline folks were kind enough to let Ed and Kerm park their trailers for the night. Ed, Kerm and I slept in the motor home. Sunday, July 5th The following morning, Sunday, we had breakfast across the street at a breakfast/lunch restaurant, Purkeys Pink Apple. After breakfast and checking out of the motel we left Tunkhannock at 8 am. Teddy led the way followed by Kerm in the motor home pulling his trailer, Dave in the Dodge pickup pulling his trailer, and Ed in the Tahoe pulling the Yankee Crosley parts trailer. Dave provided each of us with walkie-talkies so we could keep in contact with each other: ah, technology; life is good. Of course we can barely understand each other, either we're holding the walkie-talkie too close while talking or because of the noise the Crosley is making traveling at 55 mph. There were 340 miles on the Crosley odometer. The next Route 6 mileage marker was at 305 miles. I had Teddy stop so we could get a picture of at least one of the RT 6 mileage markers. There are over 400 miles in PA on route 6. There is even a website for Historic Route 6. www.paroute6.com
Up and down the hills we drove, Teddy trying to go faster whenever Kerm's motor home would get too close to the Crosley. We drove along on Route 6 and stopped in Troy, PA at 9:19 am to gas up the vehicles. The odometer on the Crosley was now at 400 miles. The Crosley took 2.42 gals and after doing some long division the Crosley got 28.9 mpg; downshifting into 2nd for those PA hills was tough on fuel mileage. On the road again and around 10:15 am we noticed that the speedometer was no longer working, the cable had broken somewhere around the RT6 218 mileage marker. We drove on into Mt. Jewett, PA where we gassed up again at 12:20 pm somewhere near the RT6 136 mileage marker. We used 3.78 gals of gas and that averaged out to 29.1 mph. We stopped 4 miles down the road in Kane, PA and ate lunch at The Barrel House restaurant. Before we left the parking lot there was a flat tire repair on Dave's Dodge pickup. (This may have been an omen.)
We were back on the road again by 2 pm. Dave stopped in Warren, PA to meet his daughter and granddaughter. He was going to bring his granddaughter, Makenna, to Wauseon. I think she had attended every national meet since 2003 when I first went to Wauseon. While we were driving toward Warren, Teddy fired up the hand held GPS and we began searching for auto parts stores. We needed to get a few supplies, a drain pan and some 80-140W gear oil for the transmission. We also needed to replace the broken speedometer cable, but we had extra speedometer cables in the Crosley parts trailer. Ed had mentioned when we stopped in Tunkhannock that the whine from the Crosley was gearbox noise and not engine noise. Actually, the whine from the Crosley was me complaining about not having stopped at a Starbucks for a Hazelnut Latte. Ted had put 80-90W gear oil in the transmission upon reassembly of the Crosley and Ed thought that the 80-90W was too thin and contributed to the noise. Well the GPS listed a number of Auto Zones, Advanced Auto and other auto parts stores but we settled on an Advanced Auto right on RT 6 in Corry, PA. It was still relatively early, about 3:30 pm, when we arrived at the Advanced Auto. There was a large parking lot in front of a storage facility where Kerm and Ed could park their vehicles while Teddy did his shopping. According to the odometer on Kerm's motor home we had driven 66 miles since The Barrel House Restaurant. At this point in the journey we were near the RT6 66 mile marker, getting near the Ohio State Line. The trip was going according to the Plan. Dave would pick up Makenna in Warren and Bill Winn who was traveling from CT in his 1974 Volkswagen Thing would also meet us in the Warren area. Ole Bobcat Bill Winn, driving a Volkswagen to the annual Crosley Nationals, what was that boy thinking? Bill got the nickname Bobcat investigating a noise in his mother's basement. Bill came face to face with a viscous bobcat and lost the battle. Bill received the round of Rabies shots and the bobcat is now roaming the heavenly mountainside with 41 virgin bobcats by its side. So now that Teddy and I are experts using the GPS device, we decided to locate a motel or maybe a Bed and Breakfast, just someplace to stay on Sunday night. Since we hadn't heard about Mushroom Dave and Makenna's or Bobcat Bill's whereabouts, we checked the listing that the GPS generated and just a few more miles west and then about 5 miles south off of RT 8 in Union City there is a motel to stay for the night. We went south on RT8 and of course, missed the road for the motel, no problem, let's just use the GPS to RECALCULATE and get us back on the straight and narrow, so to speak. This is where the adventure or misadventure really began. The GARMIN has us turn right, then right again, then left, and now we are on a narrow rural road with Kerm and Ed in pursuit of the Crosley. There is no place to turn the trailers around and we are driving into this rural no-man's land. We pass a house that is close to the road where two men in overalls are playing banjos on the front porch. Teddy wants me to ask these locals for directions but I said "Oh No, I've seen that movie and there is no way in hell I'm going to be Ned Beatty's stunt double. Kerm is now yelling on the walkie-talkie that his motor home is running on fumes and needs to get to a gas station soon. Teddy asks me why Kerm didn't gas up in Corry PA on RT6 where there was a gas station on every F'N' street corner. Of course, I would never use that language, but I did have the same thought. So what do we do, you guessed it, another inquiry for the GARMIN. A list is generated in a split second of all the nearest gas stations. A BP gas station is just about 10 miles down the road in Hydetown, PA. Dave had called us, he now had Makenna with him. We told him of our predicament and then determined we would meet at the intersection of RT 6 and RT 19. During all this madness, we get one of many phone calls from Bill Winn asking us where in Warren are we. We tell him to continue on RT6 and meet up with Dave and Makenna at the intersection of RT6 / RT19. It only took us 15 minutes to get to the BP station; wow, the price of unleaded is only $1.65 a gallon. F'N' GPS, the station has been closed for about 8 years. We check the GPS and there are gas stations southeast in Titusville. Gee, I wonder if we'll still be in PA. I tell Teddy to call the station to ensure they are open, but he has no reception on his cell phone. So down the road Teddy drives until he has cell phone reception. Kerm, Ed and I stay at the closed BP which was probably a 1940's vintage gas station. Teddy returns with good news, there is an open gas station in Titusville. Only a few more miles drive southeast. So off we drive to Titusville. More phone calls from Bill wondering where we are and where he is and where Dave is. Teddy always passes the phone to me when Bill calls. Thanks, Teddy, you're a real pal. You readers must know that some of us old f&*kers on this trip are technically challenged and the use of cell phones and GPSs are new and foreign and will probably remain that way until the day we die. When I'm talking to Bill during one of the many calls, Bill informs me that he doesn't know how to answer his phone, only how to make calls. He then tells me to give him a call after we gas up and get back on RT 6, yeah right. Another few minutes and a few miles and we reach Titusville. We pass a closed BP station and finally arrive at an open gas station. It must be the only gas station in town; all but one of the islands is very busy. Teddy has no problem getting up to the pump and Kerm drives up to a pump. Ed waits in the street with the Tahoe and Crosley trailer waiting for a pump to become available. Teddy fills up the 6 gallon Crosley tank in a minute or two and I then guide Ed into the gas station, having him pull into the spot vacated by the Crosley. As the Crosley pulls away from the pump, the lower radiator hose lets go. A couple of quarts of anti-freeze are lost in the parking lot of the gas station. As Ed is getting out of the Tahoe he tells me he has to use the "Little Boys" room and can I fill up the Tahoe. I start to fill up the Tahoe as Ed disappears. The Crosley is now in a parking spot and Teddy is already removing the leaking radiator hose. Kerm finishes gassing up and starts to move the motor home and trailer out into the street. When Ed disappeared, he didn't go into the gas station to use the "Facility," he went into Kerm's motor home. (See sidebar article.) Kerm was unaware of Edës activity in his motor home and as Kerm drives out of the gas station he drives off the curb and into the street. As Ed describes his adventure in Titusville, he was doing the paper thing when Kerm ran over off the curb and only because he was in a very confined space was he able to remain upright, and not get thrown from the commode while completing the required paper activity. As Teddy is working on the radiator hose, a local woman engages me in conversation (Let me tell ya, those Crosleys are chick magnets) and tells me all about the history of Titusville which I promptly forgot as she pulled her low cut blouse away from herself and displayed her set of Titusvilles to me. Summertime and women, life is good. God, I'm glad I'm alive.
Teddy and Ed complete the repair on the radiator hose, Teddy purchases anti-freeze at the gas station, tops off the radiator and we are back on the road heading northwest on RT8 to get back to Dave, Bill and the intersection of RT6 / RT19. Our mood has changed, just a 1/2 hour ago Teddy and I were screaming at each other, now we are back to having civil conversations, as we now laugh about the events that led up to and took place in Titusville. Another phone call from Dave and he informs us that he has found a motel in Edinboro, just a few more miles west on RT6N (Northern Route 6). He then tells us that Bill just passed him at the intersection of RT6 / RT19 and Bill is heading north on RT 19. Teddy hangs up from Dave's call and his cell phone rings again, it's Bill again, wondering where we are. We relay the message to Bill that he just passed Dave at the intersection and to turn around and to drive south on RT19 until he gets to the intersection of RT 6. You can't miss Dave's pickup and trailer we tell Bill. Of course he had already missed it once but we thought we'd give him another chance. While the guys were deciding whether to stay at the big Motel / Resort, Teddy and I drive down the street and stop at a motor lodge. The owner is very friendly and we talk for about 10 minutes. He was once the proud owner of a Crosley Station Wagon. He thought he could accommodate all our trailers but his parking lot is small and the motor home would have to be parked close to the road. We drove back to the motel and rented two rooms, Bill and Ted shared one room and Dave, Makenna, and I shared the other room. Kerm and Ed slept in the motor home. We drove into downtown Edinboro searching for a restaurant. We settled on another Perkins Family Restaurant and after a relaxing meal went back to the motel parking lot and worked on the Crosley. Teddy changed the gear oil in the transmission and all of us had a hand in replacing the speedometer cable. According to the Plan, we were going to spend the second night in Warren, but we traveled an additional 57 miles west on RT6 to Edinboro. It is 270 miles from Tunkhannock, PA to Edinboro, PA along RT 6. According to Kerm's odometer on the motor home, we traveled a total of 326 miles on Sunday. I guess we did a little extra driving on our side trip to Titusville.
Monday, July 6th We departed the motel in Edinboro, PA at 7:40am. Teddy had 433 miles on his odometer and his speedometer was working again. Kerm had 78,391 miles on the motor home odometer and there was still another 21 miles to go till the end of RT6N. I had Teddy stop the Crosley when we reached the end of RT6N, so I could get a picture of the last RT6N mileage marker in West Springfield, PA. We followed RT 20 into Astabula, OH where we stopped for gas at 8:46am. There was now 472 miles on the odometer of the Crosley. We eventually stopped for breakfast in Astabula at yet another Perkins Family Restaurant. We had been looking for old time diners for Kerm but when we noticed one it would be on the wrong side of the 4 lane road or there was inadequate parking for all the trailers. The closer we got to Cleveland the more traffic we encountered. We drove on RT 20 turning south on RT91 in Willowick, OH. The Plan was to stop at the Goodman's house in the suburbs of Cleveland in Willoughby Hills, OH for lunch. Norm usually calls Ed at his shop on Saturdays to discuss the state of affairs and maybe a little Crosley chit-chat is thrown in the mix . Norm met us at the intersection of RT6 and RT91 and directed us to his house only 1/2 mile down the off RT91.
Mileage on the Crosley was at 520 miles and 79,473 on the motor home. Either the Crosley or the motor home odometer was not recording the mileage accurately. Kerm had traveled 82 miles in the motor home and Teddy traveled in the Crosley 87 miles over the same route. (Probably, neither the Crosley nor the motor home recorded the mileage correctly.) Norm and his wife made us a great lunch. We visited for awhile before and after lunch, leaving the Goodman's house at 1:20 pm.
We headed north on RT91. The Plan was to take RT91 north until it ended and go west on Lake Shore Blvd, RT283, eventually taking I-90/RT2 and then taking the RT2/RT20/RT6 bypass. But as we were driving in the right lane on RT91 north, Teddy saw the I-90 west sign and decided within a matter of 50 ft to get over in the left lane and go west on I-90. And that's exactly what we did, go west young man, go west. I wasn't aware that a Crosley could force another vehicle off the road, but Teddy got over to the entrance lane and we were on I-90, west bound. Bill, Kerm, Ed and Dave all "kinda" followed. (Left and West sound very similar on a walkie-talkie. Ed.) The speedometer on the Crosley was showing 60 mph, and the people in the vehicles passing by were all looking down at us in the Crosley. Bill Winn was taking pictures as he was driving, what a talented guy, and one picture shows a motor home passing the Crosley. The Crosley looked like a little pedal car next to the motor home.
As we headed west through Cleveland, we almost lost Bill to I-90. We were bearing right to follow the RT6/RT20RT2 bypass and Bill pulled up on the left side to snap a picture, but he was now in the I-90 lanes. After the correct hand/finger signals we got Bill's attention to go right toward RT6/RT20/RT2. As we proceeded on the RT 6 bypass, at one point I thought we lost the rest of the caravan but Teddy slowed the Crosley down to warp 1 and eventually the rest of the group reappeared. We drove on RT6 into Lakewood, and in Rocky River stopped to gas up, 551 miles on the Crosley odometer and it took 2.6 gallons of gas. What beautiful homes, town parks, and marinas along RT6 where it hugs Lake Erie. You don't get to see America from the Interstates. You get to see it from roads like RT 6. We continued through Bay Village, and Avon Lake. At this point we had already discarded the 4-Day Plan that included an overnight stop in Lorain, OH. So westward we continued through Lorain. Teddy soon tired of the stop and go driving on RT6 and in Vermillion, took RT51 south and then got back onto the 4-lane RT2. We drove on RT2 until we bypassed Sandusky, OH and got back onto RT6. RT 6 passes over or under I-80/I-90 and in Fremont heads due west. In Bowling Green we stopped to gas up at 5:25 pm. There was 663 miles on the Crosley odometer and we used 3.5 gallons of gas. After a quick meal at Wendy's we were on RT 6 again heading west. Somewhere near Napoleon, OH at 6:30 pm there was a "What the F#$%^?" as the Crosley cabin filled up with blue smoke. Teddy quickly turned the engine off and we coasted to the side of the road. My first thought was the engine blew, but Teddy suspected the oil line had broken. We were only 20 miles from our destination at the Fulton County Fairgrounds. But a quick look under the hood and that is exactly what the problem was, a broken oil hose.
That Teddy is one smart guy. I have heard many other folks commenting how Teddy is a smart- something or other. A hose was taken from the Crosley Parts trailer and after Ted and Ed made the repair we were back on the road again with 691 miles on the Crosley odometer. In just a few miles we said goodbye to RT 6 and took RT108 north. We followed RT108 north reaching the Fairgrounds at 7:15pm; there were 709 miles on the odometer. According to the Crosley odometer, we had traveled 276 miles that day. According to Kerm's motor home odometer we traveled 259 miles on Monday. Teddy and I jumped out of the Crosley and posed for some Bill Winn pictures in front of the Fulton County Fairgrounds sign. After the pictures, Teddy and I then congratulated each other, Teddy throwing a right cross at me as I kneed him in the Columbus OH groin area.
Epilogue Saturday, July 11th There are always more adventures when traveling with the Crosley boys. This adventure occurred during the ride back to CT from Wauseon, OH. After selling Crosley parts on Friday and Saturday and then packing the Crosley Parts trailer on Saturday afternoon I'm always very tired. Then we attempt the long drive home leaving Saturday afternoon and driving until we are too tired to continue. I arrived in Windsor safely on Sunday am, but there were a couple of times I wasn't quite sure I would make it home. I rode with Kerm since he was driving on I-84 to Massachusetts. I live in Windsor, CT which is just north of Hartford so it is not that far out of the way for Kerm to drop me off at my house. We left the Fulton County Fairgrounds around 4pm, gassed up the motor home and got on I-80 / I-90 east bound in Wauseon. At one point Ted and Ed passed us on I-80 east in Ohio and noticed a shaking of the front tire on Kerm's motor home. Teddy told me this on Sunday afternoon after we had all gotten to our respective homes. Kerm also felt a vibration and at one point we did stop and did a quick check. We thought maybe one of the tires had picked up something and we had low tire pressure, but we didn't see any problems with the tires. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel in Austintown, OH. It is in eastern Ohio after the toll portion of I-80. We had a relaxing meal and after using the facilities, we continued east on I-80. He told me so many stories during our trip home he finally went hoarse around 1 am. After hearing many Kerm stories on the way home, I think there is a good possibility that everybody on the east coast may be related to Kerm. At about the 166 mileage marker on I-80 in the central part of PA, maybe around 2-3 am, we heard a flapping sound, at first I thought it was a flat tire. We stopped and took a look and a good chunk of the tread had pealed off the front trailer tire on the driver side. It was still holding air, but æ of the tread on the tire was missing. All that flapping tread had even bent the fender on the trailer. There were guard rails along the breakdown lane, so Kerm drove slowly for another 4 miles looking for a place we could get the trailer off the break down lane. He finally found a place a little past the 171 mileage marker. With no lights on the interstate and with just a little light from the flashlight it took quite a while to find the correct keys for the side luggage compartments on the motor home, that's where the boards were to back the trailer onto and where Kerm thought the breaker bar was. Kerm never found a lug wrench or breaker bar so he had to use a SK 3/8" drive ratchet to loosen the lug nuts. He backed up the trailer so the rear driver side tire was on a couple of boards and we changed the tire using 3/8" ratchet and a large box wrench hanging off the end of the ratchet for more leverage. It was pitch black on I-80 without any light and the flashlight went dead. I thought we were screwed. But it was a special battery and you flip it around and you have more battery life on the battery. The battery on the flashlight didn't have a cover, and one time it fell out of the flashlight and I had to feel around in the dark to find it on the ground. A truck finally drove by at about 75 mph and illuminated the area for a few seconds and I was able to find the battery. We finally finished changing the trailer tire, packed everything away, and off we drove. About a mile down the road was a State Trooper barracks, we could have changed the tire there. We followed I-80 all the way into Stroudsburg, taking RT 209 north. We were detoured on RT 209 (what used to be known to truckers as the Ho Chi Min Trail) that wound us through the countryside, it was probably close to 4 am and we encountered a group of youngun's changing a tire on the side of the road. Well, they could have been changing a tire or maybe they were stealing hubcaps, we didn't stop. We finally reached RT 6 and Kerm was getting tired so we wound up catching a couple of hours sleep at the "Wal-Mart Camp Ground" just down the street from the Perkins Restaurant and the entrance to I-84 in Matamoras, PA. After a short nap we hit the road again, the sun was coming up and we were driving east on I-84. We drove on I-84 into NY, stopping at exit 12 RT52 in Fishkill to eat breakfast at the 84 Diner. After breakfast I used the facilities and written on the wall in one of the stalls was "For UDB Support, call Paul DiSalvio at xxx-xxx-xxxx". Paul is a co-worker at AETNA with a very long commute to Middletown, CT. from Fishkill NY. We gassed up the motor-home across the street from the Diner and headed back on I-84. Somewhere around the Southbury, CT area we heard a loud noise. We were not sure if we hit something or something on the motor home broke. We pulled over and gave the motor home a quick check and this time we lost about a 10" chuck of tread off the front driver side tire. It wasn't as bad as the tread lost on the trailer. I asked Kerm if he wanted to change it and he said "F%@K it, I'll drive slow." Since the tread loss wasn't as severe as the trailer tire we just kept driving and I finally got home around 11:30am. Weeks have past since our trip to Wauseon. Teddy, Ed and I are speaking to each other. But, I may be demoted and not allowed to navigate again. Whether Kerm talks to any of us, we'll just have to wait for the next trip. |
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