Picking 101

Heartland Campground
Campbellsville, KY

Well we've started year two of Amazon.

Yesterday we had our orientation day,

got our pictures taken for our badges,

and did safety school.

All of that was the same as last year.

We got our assignments as well.

Amazon put us in picking,

with the hours being 6:30 am to 5 pm,

Sunday through Wednesday, and Thursday 

will be our overtime day.

Last year our jobs were in receiving for 

the most part,

and although we requested that again,

our second choice was picking.

There'll be lots of walking for sure!

Today we started learning how to pick!

In a nutshell, we are putting product

into yellow totes.

The handheld scanner tells us where

to go in the building,

and what bin the product is in.

At some point the scanner tells us to

put the tote onto the conveyor,

 then move on to the next one.

It's an easy process, but as usual it 

was very hot in there, I sweat off every

bottle of water I drank today :-)

We're only working 5 hour days this week,

to get used to being on our feet on concrete.

I feel pretty good after my first day,

and so does George.

Two more days left,

then next week starts our long 10 hour days!

It's Amazon Time!

Heartland Campground
Campbellsville, KY

Before we left Pennsylvania yesterday,

we had a few more days with family.

Jaelyn had another soccer game,

so we stopped by to watch.

Chris helping with shoes

Jillian watching her sister play

Jaelyn taking a water break

 We sure will miss everyone,

but we'll travel there again!

Friday we left around 9 am,

and took route 80 across PA and into Ohio,

where we took route 76 to route 71

and stopped at a Flying J in Jeffersonville, OH for the night.

We had the whole front of the place to ourselves!

This morning we woke to some rain showers,

but the result was stunning!

Today we had an uneventful trip to

our spot for the next 3 months,

at Heartland Campground.

We got to see our friends Harry & Jessica,

and Martin & Kathy.

Monday we will start our job at Amazon.

George and I are actually looking forward to it!

The money we make will sure help with all 

the expenses we've had in the last 3 weeks :-(

Some Family Time in Pennsylvania

Dallas Mobile Home & RV Park
Dallas, PA

We've been so busy here!

I'm recapping our visit so far..

THURSDAY

George went for an oil change while I got the wash done.

Afterwards he came and picked me up and we drove

by the property that was flooded 4 years ago this week!

We could barely tell where the house used to be..

Heather met us there and then took me to have a bit of a girl's day.

We went to the farmers' market in Wilkes-Barre

and I bought some great produce there.

I couldn't help but to stop at this cupcake food truck!

I bought a salted caramel cake..yum!

FRIDAY

George, his son Chris, John, and Chris' father-in-law went golfing.

Heather and I had another girl's day out,

but then Friday night she and John took us

to a winery for tasting and some good food.

It was a beautiful deck, 

and the view was very nice!

The food was terrific! 

We shared a fondue-type dish with pita bread,

and they also made personal pizzas.

 SATURDAY

Was a very busy day!

We drove down to see the granddaughters!

Jillian, on the left, is 8 years old,

and Jaelyn is now 5.

We followed the family to watch Jaelyn play soccer.

She's pretty good!

Afterwards we drove around a bit,

went to the cemetery to visit George's parents' and grandparents' graves.

At 4 pm we were invited over to John's parents' house for dinner.

The whole family was there, and we had a great time.

Nobody took pictures! :-(

SUNDAY

We definitely wanted to visit the church that we attended 

while living here.

It was certainly nice to see everyone,

and the monthly coffee hour after service was 

a perfect way to fellowship with everyone.

On the way back to the RV park,

we stopped by the local high school football field

to see Jillian and her cheerleading squad.

She does a fantastic job cheering, and loves it!

We were invited over to Chris & Gayle's house for dinner as well.

I worked with Chris at the water company,

and grew very fond of his wife and daughter Baylee.

Pizza was served, and we talked about work,

and their travels as they love camping as well.

Today George has been washing Harvey while

I've been getting caught up on our finances and budget.

We'll be going to dinner at Heather & John's house later on.

The next few days we'll be busy as well getting things taken care of

while we're in town.

We're going to need a rest...

but this is preparing us for Amazon!

We finally landed in PA!

Dallas Mobile Home & RV Park
Dallas, PA

When last we left you...

We were waiting for our new black tank to be 

delivered and installed so we could be on our way.

It shipped on Friday, but with the weekend,

it wasn't going to leave the UPS terminal in Cleveland

until Monday, and get to Akron on Wednesday!

So George and I hopped in the truck and drove

the 1.5 hour round trip to pick it up!

By the time we got back and they started working on it,

the tank was actually installed and ready to go on Tuesday night.

You can see here the separation of the top of the tank

from the bottom, on the bottom corner..

...and here on the left is our new tank..

It's amazing how thin the tank is,

but can hold 50# of s**t  :-)

The tank got installed just fine,

but when the tech was filling the tank up

to test for leaks,

he broke the pedal on our toilet!

Obviously they had to replace it,

but in Murphy's typical way,

they didn't have a 'bone' colored toilet,

so we got a white one..

It's the same style, but by that time, I didn't care if it was green :-)

They also noticed that our bedroom slide cable had snapped,

so that was replaced under warranty as well.

George got everything back into the basement..

..but not before we had one last dinner with our friends..

We slept in the RV on Tuesday night,

so we could make sure everything was good to go.

Wednesday morning we got going after a final review of our bill.

It was originally $912 which was for getting the wheel bearings repacked,

new valve stems in all 4 tires,

our a/c checked out,

and an overall PM of the trailer.

We got a $257 credit when we saw some things on the bill

that shouldn't have been there!

Seriously, $654 for that??

We had no issues driving to Pennsylvania,

where we are settled in a small mobile home park

that now takes RV's.

It's a lot closer to George's family, so it works.

George and I are going to be very busy

until we leave here next Friday.

Lots of family to visit,

granddaughters to hug,

and doctor visits.

Whew!

This and that

Camping World
Akron, OH
Greg & Connie's B&B

The latest on our RV:

The black tank shipped on Friday,

so as soon as it gets here

they'll install it and we can be on our way.

In the meantime, we've done some things with Greg & Connie..

I've fallen in love with Bella,

or should I say she's getting fond of us :-)

We took a ride to Geneva on the Lake

after picking up Subway sandwiches.

It was a beautiful day on Lake Erie.

We spied a heron on the water..

We've been earning our keep by helping out.

George was helping Connie with her computer..

The jets in the upstairs tub weren't working,

so George fixed that..

We took a ride to the Hartville Chocolate Factory

where we bought some goodies :-)

The rain came through last night and really cooled things down.

It's feeling like fall here!

We're loving it here, but miss our home.

With any luck, we'll be on the road by Wednesday.

We still have time to spend in Pennsylvania 

before we start at Amazon.

As promised, the saga continues..

Camping World
Akron, OH
Connie & Greg's B&B :-)

So, to continue...

we pulled out of the Ohio Rest Area

around 7 am on Monday,

making our way to the Camping World in Akron.

We had made an appointment to get the wheel bearings packed,

the brakes inspected, and a few little issues to be looked at.

George decided it would be good to get the valve stems changed

on the trailer tires, since this is not the only one that has failed.

He's also noticed a 'smell' coming from the basement,

and has noticed some moisture, or outright liquid in the basement at times.

Tuesday morning we woke up in the Camping World parking lot,

they pulled the RV in to get ready to tackle the issues.

Our friends Greg & Connie live nearby so they came 

and helped load the basement into the back of his truck.

The diagnosis?

Black tank split at the seam, 

and also cracked horizontally!!

On top of that, they found that our bedroom slide cable had snapped,

(apparently recently or we would have noticed).

We're waiting for the tank to come in,

and it's all covered under warranty...so far...

Thank God for Greg & Connie.

We're sleeping here at their house, 

they are such gracious hosts.

Connie and I had some fun yesterday.

We went to visit the National First Ladies Library

in nearby Canton.

It is housed in the Ida Saxton McKinley home,

where she and President McKinley lived for 23 years.

The current exhibit is The Forgotten First Ladies,

which showcases some of the china, gowns, 

and letters from some of the first ladies.

We had a lovely tour guide,

who was dressed as Lucy Harrison.

The house was beautiful, most of it recreated,

but there were a lot of original pieces .

I highly recommend the tour, we really liked it!

Last night we had a great Italian meal at Papa Bear's.

George got his spaghetti fix :-)

So today we are waiting to see when they can locate a black tank

to replace ours.

Connie and I decided we should take a ride to Elkhart and pick one up :-)

Stay tuned....

:-)

More Murphy stuff...

Camping World
Akron, Ohio
and
Greg & Connie's house

We finally hit the road after our huge repair to the truck on Thursday.

We had some time to make up in order to get to see some friends

on our trip back east.

We stayed in some Walmarts along the way,

and one Camping World.

Finally we made it to Lena, IL where we could visit our 

friends Mike & Terri.

They figured out for us that there was a site right behind them

that was open for one night.

It was so good to see them!

They took us to see their favorite place to eat in Monroe, WI,

Baumgartner's.

We had the best sandwiches, and Mrs. Mike's potato chips!

 Once we had our fill of their wonderful cheese,

we walked around the little square there.

George found a new friend :-)

 Mike wanted to go to a car show in Freeport,

the town that he was born & raised in.

We enjoyed seeing some classics..

The next morning we had a nice breakfast with them at a local diner..

..and then we had say our goodbyes until 'somewhere down the road'!

We took off and finally ended up on highway 80 toodling along,

and making good time.

Just after we crossed over from Indiana into Ohio

our tire pressure monitoring system started beeping.

I checked the number on the LED display to see that

one of the trailer tires was down to 86 psi. from 125!

George tried to pull over to the side of the road safely,

but with all the holiday traffic whizzing by, it wasn't easy.

He ended up pulling into the 'u-turn emergency spot' in the median.

By the time we got stopped, it was flat!

George was able to determine that the problem was a valve stem issue.

After calling Good Sam roadside service,

they sent out a tow truck guy who was able to change out the stem,

and for no charge!

We sure are so happy that the tire system worked!

By the time it was changed, it was getting late,

so we pulled into a rest area to sleep for the night.

The saga continues..

stay tuned...