Halloween at Chesapeake

[JEBar]

yet another beautiful day in the neighborhood with a clear blue sky .... during our 2 mile morning walk we stopped for my wife to pick up a strawberry ice cream cone, she really enjoyed it .... perched in the top of one of the tallest trees in the campground. a sentinel crow kept an eye on everything below

[JEBar]

the temperature were we are camped near Saluda, VA has dropped 21 degrees since the sun went down .... with the "RV Doctor" mentioned in earlier post due to return in the morning to complete the repair of our camper's water heater, we decided it is a good time to test the propane furnace .... we set the thermostat and am happy to report that it fired right off ... it does have the very distinct smell of dust in the combustion chamber being burned away .... we let it burn long enough to bring the room temperature up, the burner to cut off while the fan continued to blow, and later the fan shut off .... in short it ran for a cycle and seems to be operating as designed .... historically, the only time we rely on this furnace is during times its so cold that we are concerned about pipes/tanks freezing .... the vast majority of the time we heat the living area, basement, and its adjacent opening into the tank area of the underbelly with 1 to 3 Vornado heaters which for our money have proven to be the finest electric space heaters we've ever used

[JEBar]

true to his word, he returned early this morning and yep, it was raining and I do mean raining .... I couldn't get a good picture of the the problem with the OEM relay .... 3 of the 4 metal contacts are badly corroded ... one of them was burned .... the 2005 OEM heating element was still functional but clearly in need of repair .... the water heater is now heating on electric and my wife says the water is the hottest it has been in a very long time .... after the water heater repair was complete we drove to the closest Post Office, a 20+ mile trip .... we are now back in the camper settled in for the rest of today

[JEBar]

first thing this morning we extended our patio awning to dry it out after being extended during yesterday's all day rain .... with the temp only being in the low 50's it didn't dry quickly but the wind and sun helped to speed up the process ... a few hours later we were able to roll it in and lock it for travel .... we are due to pull out on Sunday when they are once again calling for rain .... consequently, we plan to begin packing up tomorrow and finishing on Saturday .... the campground is filling up in preparation for Saturday's Halloween festivities and site decorations continue .... a new neighbor moved in shortly after noon, I really like his truck .. .. not to mention the swivel wheel trailer behind his 5er on which he hauls a large street bike

[JEBar]

the boat launching area here at Chesapeake Thousand Trails normally appears as shown in picture 1 .... picture 2 shows the long pier 4 days ago, note the shorter pier is under water and cannot be seen .... in picture 3 taken from a different angle, the under water shorter pier can be seen .... picture 4 shows the shorter pier today .... we found it interesting that the high water wasn't caused by rain .... it was caused by major storm passing way out to sea ....

[JEBar]

busy but relaxed day .... wanting it to warm up a bit before we took care of some things around campsite, we drove to Gloucester for some shopping .... hadn't taken on any fuel since our return from South Dakota in mid August, we put 30 gallons in one tank .... our plan is to fill both tanks at a truck stop just before we get back into North Carolina Sunday on our way home .... from there we went on to Walmart for groceries .... with rain due to move in tomorrow night, once we were back at the camper we started breaking camp ... flag down and stored, flag/accent lighting taken down and stored, patio carpet swept, folded, and stored .... went out for some fresh, local seafood and are now settled in watching the Yankees and Astros

[JEBar]

today is the first 2019 Halloween celebration .... our campground is full .... site decorations are ramping up .... pet costume, site decoration, golf cart decoration contest are all on tap .... trick-or-treating scheduled for 4 - 6PM, no vehicle movement will be allowed during that time .... how big is this event, we were advised by employees that it will take a minimum of 750 pieces of candy ... further, the support has grown so large that another celebration will be held this coming weekend .... with a prediction of a 100% chance of a cold, heavy rain for tomorrow morning, we plan to have all we need to do outside in the morning be to lock the door, unplug the power, hookup to the truck, and drive away .... I don't recall ever awaking on a travel day with so little outside needing to be done prior to getting on the road

[JEBar]

today went pretty much as planned .... yep, I know that's pretty weird .. .. the morning and early afternoon was spent taking care of everything necessary for us to get out of here with minimal time spent hooking up and getting on the road .... the only things remaining are to unplug the 50 amp cord, raise the leveling jacks, lock the door, hookup to the truck, and head out .... according to the forecast, most all of our drive home should be in the rain but there is a good chance of it clearing by the time we arrive home

Trick-or-Treat was run .... we gave away something over 600 pieces of candy .... the pictures below may provide a bit of the spirit of the evening .... I first met the young man in the second picture about 11 years ago .... he was 4 or 5 years old .... he wouldn't ask me but his mother told me he really wanted to sit in our truck and blow the air horn ... the first year I sat him up in the driver's seat and let him pull the cable to blow the horn ... over the next few years he'd come by while Trick-or-Treating, climb up in the truck and blow that horn .... due to 2 hurricanes and some other scheduling issues its been a 4 or 5 years since we were able be here for Halloween .... I didn't recognize him when he came up to our candy bowl but his grandmother recognized me and told me who he was .... yep, he crawled back up in the truck and sounded the horn ..

[markiver54]

Sounds and looks like a festive way to end your trip. Safe travels home!

[JEBar]

60 degrees with steady rain on this last morning of our Halloween visit in Chesapeake Thousand Trails campground located near Saluda, VA .... a steady rain moved in sometime before 5AM and puddles abound .... our plan is to not pull out for home until 10 - 10:30 .... by doing so, per the forecast at home, the rain should have moved out by then

[JEBar]

as forecasted, we hooked up in heavy rain .... picture below shows a 1/4" thick sheet of water flowing down the road in front of our site .... as anticipated, we drove out of the rain well after reentering NC .... our camper is once again setup on its spot in the back yard .... next significant outing with be to Asheville in Western NC for Thanksgiving

[JEBar]

congrats to the 11 team for winning at Kansas .... Chase drove hard and finished second which moved him to the next stage

[JEBar]

we just booked a site at Thousand Trails Chesapeake RV Resort for Halloween .... our plan is to arrive on Sunday, October 11, 2020 and leave on Thursday, October 29th .... the highlight for us will be Trick or Treating on Saturday the 24th .... as noted in earlier post in this thread, Chesapeake is one of our favorite campgrounds and their family Halloween Trick or Treat is one of our favorite holiday celebrations at a campground

[JEBar]

two weeks from today we should be on our way to Thousand Trails Chesapeake Campground and we are really looking forward to it

[JEBar]

with the dogwoods in our yard changing color, the leaves should really be getting pretty up on Chesapeake ..

[JEBar]

just got off of the phone with the folks at Chesapeake .... they say that their plans for Halloween are as they have been in the past .... must admit I was a bit surprised

[JEBar]

thank goodness for cooler, dry temperatures .... we've moved over 1,000 rounds (500+ hunting level for our Henry & 500+ lighter level for our Redhawk) of 44 ammo with 240 gr bullets from our camper to our gun vault .... they were loaded on our portable press during our summer stay in South Dakota .... moved 600 rounds of 12 ga 7 1/2 shot from our truck into our camper .... moved all fresh water fishing gear (tackle box, rods, reels, etc) from the camper to our in home storage area .... the process of moving summer clothing out of the camper and winter clothes in has begun

[JEBar]

for the last few weeks, tropical system development in the Atlantic/Gulf have been pretty quiet .... as has become all tooooo common, they are firing back up as our trip to Chesapeake approaches .. .. in recent years we have ridden out storms while there and sure hope that will not be the case this year ....

[JEBar]

if the long range forecast is correct, our fall trip to Chesapeake is going to get off to a wet start .... on the way we have a 3 day (Fri/Sat/Sun) stop in Roanoke Rapids where they are showing an 80% chance of rain on Saturday .... that 80% chance of rain is supposed move through Chesapeake Sunday morning, we sure hope its gone by the time we get there

[JEBar]

Tropical Storm Delta still looms as being likely to have an impact on this coming weekend's weather .... for us the good news is that impact has been moved from Friday to Monday .... for us that difference is significant because Friday to Sunday involve travel and setting up our camper .... by Monday we should be setup and ready to weather the storm