Luray, VA

View of Skyline Drive from Stony Man Trail near Skyland Lodge

We're back in Luray, VA for a week.  This was our weekend get-away spot when we first started RVing in 1991. This time we're in the Jellystone RV park which we haven't visited since 2009 when we had our Excel 5th wheel.  Never really cared about phone or internet connection in this area back then.  Don't know how bad it was then, but wireless is poor now.  The only thing we can do now - reliably - is text.  Campground WiFi has been useless so far.  So how am I getting this post accomplished?  A layover at a Panera Bread in Harrisonburg, VA after visiting friends!

The campground itself has made tremendous improvements with some pave sites (premium, of course) and added numerous cabins.  Still remains a kid's paradise with a small water park and a large field to play in.  If you're a full timer, the local KOA worked nice for us last year and may be a better stop for you.

It's a little early to be in the park at Big Meadows.  Not all of Skyline Drive is open, and we know the Wayside at Big Meadows is still closed.  We'll try to get up there at some point and may go back to Luray that way from here (Harrisonburg), today.  If not, we'll probably go after tomorrow's severe storms pass by.   Looks like it's going to be a generally wet week for us.  Not all that unusual for us and does make for fantastic waterfalls.  We're carrying four cameras with us this week, so we - theoretically - should be able to get a good picture if it presents itself.

As is always the case, we're limping our way back to the Elkhart area.  I think we burnt the electric motor for the hydraulic system or damaged the pump while in Birmingham, AL.  We had a devil of a time getting the trailer to level, and we probably over heated the hydraulic system's electric motor.  Things move, but it's not right and at times you can tell the hydraulic system is struggling.  We're planning to leave the door-side slide in after we leave here just to relieve some of the demand on the system.

We smoked some wires carrying electrical power to the hot water heater last week, too.  It's back to propane-only until we can get that problem located and repaired.  All-in-all, I think we've got over 14 items on our "grip" list when we get to Lagrange.  Believe it or not, that's about normal for us though much of it is preventive maintenance.  We've still got a rogue ground fault that we can't locate, too.  Little stinker causes the surge guard to shut off all 120 volt power to the trailer when it shows itself (many times between 2 and 4 AM).

We're also finding that we're having to fully extend the front legs to get the trailer off the truck, so we're in talks with MORryde to have the trailer lowered in addition to talking with the guys in Lagrange to get the rear hydraulic legs lowered so we're not having to extend them so far.  We're routinely having to put 10+ inches of blocks under the front legs just to get the trailer off the truck.  MORryde, understandably, is struggling as they come come to grips that a customer wants to lower a trailer.  We've got eight inches of clearance over the truck's bed rails and over seven inches of clearance at the tailgate.  We're overkill on clearance, so we can give some up.  Expensive, but I don't think our hydraulic system can handle what we've got now.  Never mind that Donna can't reach the door to unlock it when we pull into a site.  (Our steps now store inside the door of the trailer.  If you can't unlock the door, you can't get the steps out.  Even I need a stool at times to reach the door lock.)

So that's this week's life of full-time RVers who are traveling through states where "level" is just an engineering concept.  Thanks for dropping by!  Everyone stay safe in the storms.  Until next week, David