This is Bertha. At twenty-one years old, for her species she is well past her prime. She definitely needs a facelift (wash and wax), but even so the shine she no doubt exhibited as a much younger girl is long past. But she is, for us, our means of conveyance as well as our place to live. And the jury after two days with her is that she is much better as a "home" than as a "motor."
Bertha (named after Bertha Krupp--google her to learn all about her; the canon called "Big Bertha" is also named after her) has proven quite temperamental. Push her, and she gets hot--definitely hot. Yesterday we were on the road for about five hours when she blew her lid--well, blew a lower radiator hose. We sat, we were towed, we ended up on the side of a road across from the Lone Pine RV center, just outside of Washington, PA (south of Pittsburgh). there we spent the night with Bertha--free camping, if you will.
Dave, the Lone Pine guy, doesn't have a web site, but he got us up and on the road pretty quickly. A man who does not just have a job, but a calling, at doing what he does (he said some people think he is crazy--he has been at the same spot for 26 years.) Kudos to Dave!
Anyway, we are now very careful to watch Bertha's temperature as we go down the road. Which means, when it gets hot, she has little to no cooling capacity. From now on we are doing most of our driving in the morning!
So now we are where we wanted to be last evening--at Grandpa's Farm RV park in Richmond, IN. It is a great little place--after a dip in the pool and a hot shower, the stress of the last 36 hours was washed away.
Tomorrow, if Bertha lets us, we will go to Moline, IL, and the following day to visit some old China friends of Wendell's in Edgerton, MN.
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