We arrived in the Toledo area on Monday April 1 shortly after noon.  Our first stop was Tom's old employer, where the service technicians came to our aid.  Over the five nights of our trip back to Ohio we had noticed that our coach battery power was poor at best.  It had been five years to the day since we'd purchased our Bounder so it was no wonder that the batteries were worn down.  We had called ahead and they had two new batteries waiting for us.  When we pulled in the lot and unhooked the car, IT wouldn't start.  So, we added another battery to our shopping list.  (It had been a little "touchy" while we were still in Arizona.)  We spent Tuesday and Wednesday night parked in our old neighborhood and enjoyed the company of our former neighbors and good friends, Dick and Liz Lehto both evenings.  Wednesday during the day we took Tom's mother to the hospital for pre-surgery testing and to a doctor's appointment.  She will be having surgery April 8.

On Thursday we drove the Bounder to the "Covered Wagon Camp Resort" at Exit 5 on US 23 just over the Ohio line into Michigan.  The "resort" is technically still closed for the winter, but there are a few other RV's being lived in.  The resident of one is sort of an assistant manager and had us hook up in a site near her.  She then left for her other job, and we got settle on our own.  Thursday evening we went to dinner at the Maumee Elks Club with Tom's sister and her husband....great dinner at a very reasonable price.  Thursday evening the rains started and on Friday we decided that our temperature/humidity gauge was "upside down"...it read 35* and 97% humidity...we're used to the opposite!!!!  The rains continued all day and our site at the "resort"(?) is surrounded by several inches of water and mud.  As Tom says, "It's the Ohio I remember and love!!"  The weather forecast for Sunday and Monday is for 5 to 7 inches of snow and ice.  Won't that be fun??!!  But, we are happy to have the opportunity to do some personal business errands and to be here for Tom' mother.

April, 2003
We stayed at the Covered Wagon for two weeks, April 3 to April 17, and we certainly saw extremes in weather during that time.  During the first week we had to keep our water hose disconnected, the "trouble light" burning in the utilities bay, and the slide pulled in as the nightly lows were in the 20's. We were covered with several inches of snow and ice.  We did manage to stay warm and we have to admit that the countryside was beautiful when covered with white fluff and ice crystals glistening in the sun.  By the second week the snow and ice had melted and it was 85*.....much more to our liking.  Our stay at this privately-owned park has been an interesting experience as we see how the owners are struggling to get the place ready for the season ahead.  It appears that many units stay here for the entire season.  There is quite a number of units being stored here and among them we found the Bounder of a guy we'd met in one of our Bounder groups several years ago.  The acreage is wooded and has about 140 sites, a water-slide, minature golf, fishing pond, swimming pool, snack bar/cafe, store, game arcade, a small trackless train, shower and laundry facilities.  The owners are a 70-ish couple and appear to work from 8am to 10pm.  Our neighbor, the also 70-ish assistant manager, tells us that the place is for sale.                               Our main reason for being in this part of the country at this time of year was that Tom's mother had surgery.  They removed a section of her colon and she was in the hospital for a week.  We took turns sitting with her during the daylight hours to help keep her confusion to a minimum.  Her recovery is progressing well, and she has returned to her room at the Spring Meadows Extended Care facility in Holland, OH.

On Wednesday night, April 16, we enjoyed dinner at the River Cafe in Toledo with Mary's brother Bill and his wife Beth.  On Thursday we drove the Bounder to Waterville and made use of Kathy and Dennie Dew's telephone to make numerous calls on a "land line" while we waited for them to come home from work.  We then went with them to dinner at Gourmet of China.  After having dessert at their house, we drove on to the rest area on I-75 south of Bowling Green, OH and slept with the trucks.  On Friday we moved on to Marysville and parked in front of our daughter, Ann's, house.  Since ot was Good Friday, Matt was home from work.  So, we took their three children and two extras to the new local YMCA for a swim.  We had a great time in the beautiful new pool. 

Our next adventure was on Saturday when we drove the Bounder to the Thousand Trails Preserve in Wilmington, OH.  They were not officially open for the season, so they would not let us camp there.  We had been allowed to do that about this same time last year, but this not we could not convince them that we would be happy just to have a space with hookups.  So, we went through our various directories and ended up at the Beaver Valley Resort east of Springfield, OH.  It's a family resort with lots of facilities.  We went into Springfield to do some shopping.               On Easter Sunday we drove the car back to Ann's for dinner and fun with the grandchildren.  Late in the day the weather turned ugly and there were high winds, hard rain and hail throughout the area.  When we returned to the Bounder, we found it surrounded by water.  The temperature also had dropped...burr!!!
We set out to do some more exploring on Monday.  After seeing an ad on TV we realized that we were within an hour of Tom Raper RV in Richmond, IN...one of the area's largest dealers.  So, we set out to see what they had in stock.  We looked at quite a few models, but didn't see anything that we just had to have!  On Tuesday we drove southeast to the Jeffersonville Factory Outlet Stores and did a little shopping.  It remained cold and dreary and ducks were swimming in the little ponds around the campground.
On Friday, April 25 we drove from the campgroud up to Toledo where we took Tom's mother to her follow-up appointment at the surgeon (all things are looking good) and then drove back to Marysville where we picked up the three granddaughters.  We took them back to the campground for the weekend and let Ann and Matt enjoy their anniversary without the hastle of children.  We had a great time playing hide-and-seek (how many places can you hide in the RV??) and reading stories.  Saturday morning we took them to the Dayton KOA to visit with our Buckeye Bounder chapter and in the afternoon back at Beaver Valley we tried our hand at fishing (no luck) and feeding the ducks.  The rain had finally stopped, but the ground was still quite wet and muddy, so we spent a little more than usual time indoors.  We had a very fun weekend just being with the girls.   We baked a birthday cake for Ann and returned to Marysville on Sunday afternoon. 
Monday and Tuesday we enjoyed being at home with the girls and did a few "errands" for Ann....one of which was finding a new part for their dryer which happened to quit working while we were doing our laundry.  And on Tuesday evening it was back to Toledo.  Where did the month of April go????
Grandpa and the girls feeding the ducks.
Close, Coffey and Merrick at the edge of the duck pond at Beaver Valley Resort near Springfield, OH.