The Flowers Explore - Drummer Boy Campground in Gettysburg - 2021/08/17-24

It's another travel day and we're about to head north. 

From Virginia we're going from Chesapeake Bay resort, up through Maryland, and into Pennsylvania. It's about a 4 hour drive, but we're up for it. 

We packed up and rolled out around 11:30am. 

Our travels today are taking us through Maryland. Founded in 1634, "We're Open For Business" might not be the best motto at the moment. 

And then we drove into Pennsylvania. "Pursue your happiness". 

That will add two more states to the kids' list that they've visited. 

Our site is amongst the trees toward the back of the park. And it's a pull-through!  

After getting parked and set up, we hopped on our bicycles to go explore. It's a big resort, but it's also a little spread out. 

The kids made up a Ninja Warrior obstacle course to get across the playground. There's also 2 pools, a mini golf course, and a volleyball net. 

The closest pool is a few hundred feet from our campsite. 

And it's got a waterslide! Both kids were excited!

Alli is going to be close though. The height requirement is 48" and she's not wearing shoes. 

A short time later, trying to hold back tears, she came back down the stairs. She's within an inch, but apparently not quite tall enough. 

Ian went a couple times, but then decided to join his sister, swimming in the rest of the pool. 

Ian was excited to show me the trees that he found near our campsite. Wow buddy, you found a black cherry tree! And it looks like they are ripe!

And what else did you find? 

My app that identifies trees says these are Black Walnuts. Ian and I busted a few open with a hammer. They aren't quite the same as the English Walnut, the brown ones you see in the stores. 

The kids are hoping to see some deer while we're here, so they gathered up loads of black cherries and black walnuts and set them out on our picnic table. We never did get any deer wandering through our camp though that we saw. 

It's a good thing we went swimming earlier in the day. It poured on us that night. 

The next morning we got to cleaning the RV. You'll see why shortly. Alli is a great helper. 

The golf course was calling our name, so we grabbed our clubs and golf balls, and drove to the course. 

The kids are getting a lot better! Around hole 14 we had to stop, go get washed up, and jump in the car. We've got a 1:30 drive. 

To go to the airport in Maryland! We're getting visitors! 

Chi and Richard have always wanted to come visit Gettysburg. Now that we're on the road, they can visit and have a place to stay! Plus the kids will get to hang out with their grandparents! They've been looking forward to this for weeks!

My brother Patrick had some Chick-Fil-A gift cards and treated us all to dinner. It was delicious! Thank you!

Pennsylvania sure is beautiful. 

The kids wanted to show off their homemade Minecraft costumes they've been working on. Ian is making a Skeleton and Alli is working on a Creeper. 

With Chi visiting, I knew I'd need to make some fresh homemade bread. This is my first time trying to make Rustic Bread in the RV. 

Using my pots, the glass lids, and the pizza oven, I was able to make something that was very much like the bread I made back home. 

It had a super crunchy crust and was very well received. 

Can Alli make faces? Oh yes, Alli can make faces. Like when she's getting her curly hair conditioned and combed. 

Or getting it trimmed. I might have encouraged this one with some faces of my own. 

Any time they could, the kids wanted to go swimming in the nearby pool. I walked them down from the RV and they swam for hours. 

I bought a bag of dive toys so they could practice holding their breathe and swimming under water. They're getting pretty confident now, which is great! 

S'mores are yummy. The kids have been asking for them, so it was great to have them with the grandparents. 

Many of the nights they were here, we watched old Disney movies together. Like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Strongest Man in the World, and newer movies like Garfield and Garfield: Tale of Two Kitties. They all love laughing together at the silly jokes in those sorts of movies. 

It's not always fun and games with the RV. We've been told that these are basically Earthquakes on Wheels and things will eventually go wrong. At 6am, Theresa heard a giant bang and the RV moved. She woke me up wondering if something hit the RV. Not seeing anything wrong immediately, we went back to sleep. Once we got out of the RV though, it was clear what was wrong. Underneath the RV there is apparently a panel that holds all the wires in and covers the water tanks. 

Upon further investigation it appears that on day 6 of our 7 day visit, the water inlet behind a panel sprang a leak. It had been dripping down to the panel, building up water, and at 6am it was too much and ripped the entire panel down. What a mess. 

That's quite a leak! I cut off the water and we headed into town to pick up some supplies. I'm glad this happened today versus tomorrow. It would have been a whole 'nother story if this was on a travel day. 

I'm sure this is probably covered under warranty somewhere, but I've heard of it taking months to fix things at a dealership and we have places to be. Theresa helped hold things up while I got the panel screwed back up, using spots a few inches from where it ripped off. 

That'll work! 

And this will work for the hose behind the panel. So far, so good. No more leaks. 

Before we go, we've got to finish our Putt-Putt game. Lucky Ian got a hole-in-one!

And then another! 

Theresa and I were neck-and-neck the whole time. If she makes this putt, she'll force a tie and send it to sudden death. Look at how close it was to going in! It was on the edge of the hole, but just didn't fall in! Whew! I'll take the victory!

It doesn't matter how much I try, the kids say Grammy's chicken nuggets are the best. They begged her to make them while she was here, so the night before it's time to go, she made them their favorite. 

And we've got to go swimming with whatever time we have too. 

I tossed them diving toys and we made a game out of who could come up with the most. 

The next morning was an early one. Richard and Chi have an early flight and it's a 1:30 drive to get them to the airport. At a stoplight, we noticed a fruit and veggie stand. Those birds next to the corn cob are taking the "Self Serve" quite literally. 

Everyone had a good visit. 

I know Chi and Richard had a good time visiting. We did lots of fun stuff together, which will be coming in the next few posts. 

For us, it's a 1:30 hour drive back from the airport and we've got to get the RV packed up. It's our travel day today too! Luckily it's a short one though!