August 27, 2014

Travel day from Elkhart, IN to Berlin Center, OH

Monte took a ride over to Ultra-Fab Manufacturing Company to pick up a extra set of mounting brackets for the landing gear. 
The following is his account:
 I had the landing gear installed by RV-Merchandising of Englewood Florida.  After they took over twice the time and labor to mount the brackets and mounted the landing wrong, I  called Ultra-Fab  while in Elkhart Indiana and talked to Randy.  I explained to him on how the legs were secured and sent him a some photos and he responded that there were two grease fitting on the legs.  The problem is that the legs were mounted with the grease fittings facing the propane bottles and the lower access hole was being blocked by the propane bottle bracket.  The brackets will have to be removed and remounted so the legs of the landing gear can be mounted properly.  All I can say is be aware of shoddy mechanics.  Stay away from RV-Merchandising in Englewood Florida. BEWARE..

When he returned we packed up and went into the office to pay the bill.  Monte called the insurance company and was told that it could take up to a week for a determination on the claim so we had to pay the entire $2,000 bill and hope for a partial refund from the insurance company.

Just as we were about to leave Linda and Howard Payne of RV Dreams came in—what a small world.  One of the biggest reasons we decided to become full time RVers was because of how exciting Howard made it sound on his blog—it’s all your fault Howard-Just kidding.  We love the lifestyle.

The last time we saw Howard and Linda was back in February in Florida when we attended their boon docking rally.

After chatting for a few minutes we all hugged goodbye and we were on our way.

After extensive research I found an Army Corps of Engineer park located in Berlin Center, Ohio that still had openings from now until after Labor Day.  Originally we were only going to travel 100 miles today and then another 200 tomorrow.  But I was concerned if we waited until Thursday to arrive at the park there might not be walk-in sites available.

When I called the number listed for the park the recording said the station does not open until 4PM on Wednesday so I called back after 4 and was assured there were still plenty of walk-in sites available that could accommodate us.

I goofed when I entered the information in the GPS when I failed to check off avoid toll roads.  We took I-80 for a portion of the route and it ended up costing us over $20.00 in tolls. 

 

 

To avoid further tolls we reset the GPS and it routed us through small towns. 

 

 

It took a little longer but it was a much more pleasant drive. 

 

 

 Then it got a little stressful as we hit rush hour traffic near Cleveland.

We finally arrived at Mill Creek Campground at 7PM.  The ranger gave us a list of available sites.  Monte came in the Jeep with me to check them out.  Of the 15 or so walk-in sites available we chose our first and second choice ones and returned to the station.  The site we settled on (Aspen 38) is next to a bathroom.  That was one of the factors in choosing this site.  With no sewer hook-up it would be convenient to have a bathroom so close.

I only paid for one night because I wanted to make sure we liked the site before committing to a few more nights, possibly even a week.  Because the site is a walk-in site we have until 3PM the following day to decide if we want to pay for more nights.

Before going to the site, we stopped off at the dump station

and then took the water station.

Mill Creek Campground is located in the town of Berlin Center. 

There are 348 sites ranging from wooded water sites to grassy sites in the sun. 

The campground is located on Berlin Lake.  Activities include boating, swimming, fishing and hiking. 

 The season runs from late May until September 6.