Pulling a Train to Michigan

A long, long, time ago when our son was a toddler, he loved sleeping and playing in his train bed. With plans to visit a two year old nephew in Michigan, we pulled the train bed out of the attic and cleaned it up.

Since we were pulling the sailboat, Beth figured we could strap all the train bed pieces on top. The conglomeration was starting to look like a scene from the Beverly Hillbillies, so we decided to complete the picture by adding a rocking chair on top. 

Leaving Sunday afternoon, we drove 2.5 hours to Claremont, NC where we camped out at our Pleasure-Way dealer. They had us scheduled for a quick service appointment on Monday morning to look at our microwave oven. It works, but the door has rattled from day one. They verified the rattle, called Pleasure-Way, and had authorization to replace it before noon. A new one has been ordered so we can stop on our way home to have it replaced.

Later in the day we drove north through the mountains of both Virginias heading for a favorite stop at the Rocky Gap Safety Rest Area on I-77 in WV. A major stop for trucks, the service area is always busy.

If you take a right turn, just before the service area, you can find a special area just for RV & Bus parking where self-contained campers can spend the night at no charge.

Only four other RV's were parked in the lot!

The view out our window is the Tamarack Craft Center. Open from 7 am until 8 pm, it is worth a stop even if you don't plan to spend the night.

Working craftspeople, galleries, books, food, and clean restrooms await visitors to Tamarack. It is hard to leave here without at least one example of West Virginia crafts.

My favorite exhibit this time was of tools recreated in exacting full scale using a variety of woods. Each tool looked like it was ready to go to work.

An outdoor sculpture garden featured this nine foot high weathervane. by Mark Blumenstein. You can take it home for a mere $4,865.

Tuesday we headed north into Ohio with a goal of finding Apple Hill Orchards near Mansfield, Ohio.

Beth's navigation had us there at 3:30 pm, with plenty of time to shop at the farm store before closing time.

We found apple donuts, walnut apple bread, apple salsa, and some wonderful fresh tiny plums. This would be an even better stop in the fall when they press fresh cider.

Apple Hill Orchard participates in the Harvest Hosts* program, so we were able to spend the night in the field next to the resident goat and sheep. The owner was very welcoming and made sure we were settled in and comfortable.

* If you are interested in joining Harvest Hosts, please click on this referral link to save 15% on your membership. We receive a small incentive. 

A little west of Celleryville, Ohio we were in a line of traffic behind a large farm combine. Beth found an alternate route that we can't recommend.  It became a single lane road that would have been difficult to turn-around on if we met an oncoming vehicle. An unmarked railroad bridge gave us a little concern, but Beth volunteered to be a height gauge and we passed underneath unscathed.

By 2 pm we were parked behind the grapevines at Beth's niece Danielle's home in Wixom, Michigan. 

Not much time elapsed before the bed was assembled and passed on to grand-nephew David. The trip was a success! How many other people can say they have pulled a boat and a train with their camper van?