Woke up in the middle of the night...the rain had stopped and the
cicadas were serenading us. Much prefer
the cicadas!
Woke up in the morning to puddles in the tent. Much prefer a dry tent!
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Kim told me that the neighbors to the right of us coaxed two ducks out
of their cabin this morning. I’m not
kidding you...they‘re camping with a couple of ducks. Okay...that piqued my curiosity so I wandered
over to check out the duck story.
The people were very friendly and used to people asking about their
ducks. The man explained that the ducks
had actually hatched in the woman’s hand and the ducklings imprinted on
her. They consider her their
mother. Really?!
Their names are Pickles and Peanuts and they’re male Runner ducks. This
calls for a Google search. This is an
excerpt from a Wikipedia article: Indian Runners are a breed of domestic duck. They stand erect like penguins and,
rather than waddling, they run. They run or walk, often dropping their eggs
wherever they happen to be. Duck-breeders need to house their birds overnight
or be vigilant in picking up the eggs to prevent them from being taken by other
animals. So maybe the ‘drop and run’
technique of egg laying explains why the eggs hatched in her hand.
 |
| Pickles, left....Peanuts, right |
Anyway, Pickles and Peanuts are house pets
and ‘Mom’ claims they go everywhere with her. They’ve been taught that a dog kennel is their
home base (nest?). So when they travel
with the family, they are safely crated in the kennel. And believe it or not, a
friend fashioned some custom made diapers for use when they’re visiting
somewhere where duck poo would be frowned upon.
Like isn’t that everywhere?!! And in case you’re wondering how exactly
you’d keep a diaper on a duck’s butt, there is a body harness involved. I’m making fun of the duck poo/diaper thing
but there’s no doubt in my mind that these ducks are considered to be part of
the family much the way dogs or cats are.
To each his own. 😎
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The man camping to the left of us was a former trucker and in the course
of our conversation I mentioned we were from Michigan. “Oh, so
you’re from The Wolverine then.” And
when I mentioned that I had already made reservations for a KOA in Pennsylvania
his comment was “Oh, so you’re heading to
The Keystone.” From those comments I’m guessing that he
called his home state of Indiana “The Hoosier” (he referenced living in Fort
Wayne) and that we were camping in “The Buckeye”. And yes, the way he said the names made me
feel that the word ‘the’ was capitalized, too.
--------------------
We were told that we were entering that Land of the Tolls on this trip
and an EZ Pass transponder was the thing to get. Using an EZ Pass is as simple as stopping at
a travel plaza, purchasing a transponder and setting up an account, linking a
credit card to it. No problem. The
turnpike was maybe 5 miles from the campground and voila! there was a travel
plaza within 4 miles of our entry onto the turnpike. How fortunate! We bought two EZ Passes (one for each bike)
and were told that once our account was set up it might take or could take
up to 48 hours for it to be active. No
problem as we were piggybacking on Brett’s account...it was an active account
and theoretically we should be good to go within a couple of hours.
We had Brett add our transponders to his account, attached them to our
bikes up by the windshield and set off down the road. Not even a mile down the highway and Kim’s
transponder flies off his bike. Aw,
shit!!! We stopped to look for
it...walked maybe a ¼ mile back down the highway, looking on both sides of the
guardrail in hopes of finding it. No
luck. Nothing to do but stop at the next
travel plaza and buy another one and repeat the process with Brett.
After stopping at a couple more travel plazas we finally reach the end
of our time on the Ohio Turnpike. At
that point we each paid $10.50 for the privilege of having used the
turnpike. I asked the man in the toll
booth about the transponder and he said it will take 48 hours for it to be active...okay, now I’m thinking that the
people selling these little gems in the travel plaza need to be aware that the
words might or could have a different
meaning that the word will. Using the correct words could save a bit
of frustration all the way around. Bah!
And just down the road in Pennsylvania we
had to pay another toll...over $15 for Kim’s bike as he’s pulling a trailer and
$7.35 for my bike. Turns out we were
paying in advance for the privilege of driving a just a small section of the
Penna Turnpike because 20 miles down the road from that toll we had to stop and
get another toll ticket which would cost another $7.90 each by the time we
reached our exit.
Somewhere along the way Kim started threatening to go rogue and just use
the EZ Pass lane, saying “they can just bill me”...I wasn’t willing to do that
because I know there are fines tacked added to the toll cost when you do that. His solution would be less frustrating and
more satisfying in the moment but would end up costing us more money. We played
by the rules...at least for today. No guarantees about tomorrow though. 😐
We spent more on tolls today than anything else...and the roads weren’t
anything spectacular for all the toll money coming in.
--------------------
This morning we had about 250 miles to ride to the next campground in
Pennsylvania...the Madison/Pittsburgh East KOA.
It should have taken us about 4 hours according to Rapunzel. It took us over 7 ½ hours...so it would seem
that those transponders took a toll on our day.
Ha! See what I did there? That
play on words? Took a toll on our day? 😉
--------------------
Temperature was in the mid-80s all day with more humidity than
necessary. Felt so sludgy by the time we
got to the campground tonight. Set up
camp and ate a quick supper before heading to the shower. The evening has cooled down to tolerable and
it should be a good night for sleeping.
No rain but there is a steady hum of night noises out there...bugs,
crickets, frogs, whatever.
--------------------
Tomorrow we’ll be in Delaware and then will start checking off states.We already have reservations for a Yurt at
Lums Park Campground in Bear, DE, about 280 miles away. There aren’t any KOAs in Delaware...big
surprise there, eh? Lums Park is a
Delaware State Park and sleeping in a Yurt will be a new experience. 😎
--------------------
Monday’s miles: 256
Total: 589 miles
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