Not sure where to start with this one.  So much has happened and I haven’t been writing as much as I should.  I’ll go back to entering PA.

This state has seriously tested our morale.  Right now we’re about an hour outside of WV and I can’t wait to get there.  Let me repeat that – I can’t wait to get to West Virginia… that’s how bad PA has been.  Good riddance.  We  lost money on the house we bought in Philly earlier this year, Nicole got her car towed here during the bicycle race of ’09 and now… the last 3 days.  Goodbye, you old asshole of a state.  We’re done.

I’m pretty sure I mentioned that we were heading to Allegheny National Forest.  We didn’t make it.  We were on scenic route 6 and it was nice, but the kids were just done.  Scott filled up the tank to get us ready to camp and it smelled like gas inside the RV.  It was disconcerting.  I knew something was off.  We drove a bit to see if it would go away and after about 15 minutes it did.  I didn’t think too much more about it – maybe Scott just got some on his shoes or something.  What I didn’t know at the time was that Scott had switched to the second gas tank.  That would have been what I like to call “a clue”.

So we find a campsite in “The PA Grand Canyon”.  First and foremost, we’ve been all over.  When you ask smart foreigners what they would like to see in the U.S they always say “New York City and The Grand Canyon”.  It’s one of the premier tourist draws in the U.S.  If you’re going to name yourself after something that is larger than life, make it count.  While green hills are very pretty and I’m sure it’s impressive to folks who come from very flat places… for me personally, not so much.  On top of that… and the real reason I have a burr stuck up my butt… is that it had no internet.  I couldn’t get Verizon and the wifi that the campground supposedly offered was nonexistent.  I just spent 3 days without internet access.  For internet junkies like us, this was nothing short of hellish.  Finally, check out the digs.  We don’t love campgrounds and tight quarters.  Boondocking is definitely the way to go for us.

We made due – had a great time enjoying the playgrounds and pool. I even did laundry… in their washer and dryer.  Hauling the sack o’ dirty clothes behind the bike with the kids up a decent hill wasn’t my favorite part of the day but it wasn’t as bad as I thought either.

When we got ready to leave, everything went sideways.  If you’re with us on Facebook you already know… Evie, “Mommy, why is the Chief peeing?”  Me, “Oh Pip, The Chief doesn’t pee. He isn’t alive.”  Evie, “Yes he is.”  Me, “Ohhhhh shit…. turn it off, Scott!!! Turn it off and get out here to see this.”  All I saw was fuel gushing out of the Chief.  Picture one of those wonderful rain shower heads – you know… the kind we all love because you feel like you’re getting a massage and a shower.  That was turned on under the Chief.

Scott called Good Sam.  Good Sam got us a tow to a place about 30 minutes to the north of middle-of-nowhere-PA (otherwise known as really-really-middle-of-nowhere-PA).

It took the tow truck driver/mechanic less than 10 minutes to fix the issue.  When we fixed the first fuel line, we replaced the hose from the fuel filter to one side of the fuel pump.  There was another portion of hose from the other side of the fuel filter for a different part of the pump.  That was completely disintegrated.  The whole thing cost us $37 + $20 tip to the truck driver.  The tow cost Good Sam $525 (but they bought our business for the rest of the time we own an RV).  As for how much fuel we lost between when we filled up and our visit to the mechanic – about half of a tank.  That’s 30 gallons of fuel – most of which we unknowingly lost on the road.  Don’t think about how dangerous that was… just don’t even think about it.

After all that, I needed a night in a hotel.  Nothing fancy – Best Western did the trick.  The kids were delighted to jump on beds and watch cartoons and stay up late.  I took 2 showers.  Scott was able to work for 3+ hours.  (I didn’t get my ice cold beer, but that’s ok.)

We’re back on the road now… we’ll be sleeping in West Virginia tonight, enshallah.