Day 3 So NOW What?

An orange morning sun was visible thru the blinds. It made me hope for a good day. We just had breakfast and were lingering with the 2. cup of coffee, when the yet open not yet answered, question came up. 

What are we gonna do? 

We were sitting at the Hazelton Walmart, which I think is brand new, and the question was "how to proceed" on our chosen route on the I-81. If we would go down that road towards Harrisburg, we might not have a trailer in one piece anymore. Also we felt sorry about Dixie having to endure this bumpibump road. In fact, the I-81 is so broken and so rough that I wouldn't even want to drive it with a regular car. 

So we were looking for alternative routes without having to go to great detours. 

After some short debating we decided to bite the bullet and backtrack to the I-80 and continue towards Youngstown, Akron and finally Columbus. It would get us farther north, and weather forecasts were mentioning wind, rain and even some snow showers there, but still better than having to pick up fallen-off parts from our rig. What a shame that this north-south Rte has been so neglected.

On our way back to the I-80 we found we could avoid traveling 20 minutes back on the I-81, if we would take Rte 93 which feeds into the I-80 north-west of Hazelton.

So that's what we did and we were not sorry about it. Of course there are a few shorter parts of the I-80 which are in need of repairs as well, but overall it is an alright highway. 

Naturally, we had rain and headwinds most of the day, but we made it to Mansfield,OH. And we also had a bit of sunshine on and off, but it stayed windy and very cold.

Here I would like to come with a recommendation for picking an overnight stay in a commercial parking lot. If you have eyed a place to stay overnight, please call ahead and ask whether overnight parking is permitted. Some places it is not, and it will save you a lot of trouble and back and forth if you can avoid to drive to a place where you cannot stay overnight. Another benefit of calling ahead is that store managers will often give special advice where they want you to park. We have done the calls on this trip and have been met with overwhelmingly friendly people on the phone. And it is sooo good to have a peace of mind when you finally can cozy up in your RV.

Tonight we run our generator as the sun was mostly absent today and could not put a charge into our batteries. Btw. we have secured it with a bicycle lock to the tongue of the trailer. Not worth trying to steal it.