Spoffords Travel

October 16, 2022 Day 8 Shelley’s house 0 miles

Today is mostly cloudy. The sunrise was beautiful again. The river is covered with fog which gives a different look. First order of business is to install the rear shocks on Shelley’s Model A. They got them installed and then adjusted a few other things. Then Rob and Shelley took it to Augusta just to check how it ran. Things went well. Later Michael and Shelley moved the horses from one pasture to another. The horses got really excited. The other pasture is much bigger but has been eaten down. Colder weather is coming and Michael was concerned the water would freeze. After supper Rob and Shelley tried to fix the grandfather clock. They worked with David but finally got to a point where they couldn’t fix it. Shelley is going to send it back to David for repairs. Michael and Connie looked at Shelley’s graduation quilt. Numerous pieces are full of holes. We think the cat has gotten her claws into it. Connie was going to try some repair options but the damage is too great.

October 15, 2022 Day 7 Shelley’s house 0 miles

Got up in plenty of time to see the sunrise this morning. It was very colorful. The skies are mostly sunny but the temperature is cool. Some wind but not too much. The plan for the day is to replace the radiator in the woodie. After a slow start the gang got to work. The process took until mid afternoon to get finished. The next job was to replace the shocks on Shelley’s Model A. That took until dark to install the front shocks. They also replaced the carburetor. The plan is to install the rear shocks tomorrow.

October 14, 2022 Day 6 Shelley’s house 120 miles

Today is foggy but clears off and is mostly sunny. We have not heard anything from FedEx about our package. Rob called Snyder’s about the package. They called FedEx and found out that once a package is rerouted it delays delivery by 3-4 days. Rob asked if we could go wherever the package is and pick it up. Supposedly that is true. So we decided to go right after lunch. The distribution center is about 51 miles away and takes about 1.25 hours to get there. We saw a deer beside the road on our way. The distribution center is huge. We found the package pickup door and went in. A security guard greeted us and said to wait 5-10 minutes because a shift change is going on. Rob waited about 3 minutes and called. Eventually someone answered. They explained the same thing only added that we should have called. Rob explained that since we didn’t send the item we could not get to a live person and were instructed to contact the sender. He explained more and asked if she could do something. She took his cell phone number and said she would look. After about 20 minutes she texted saying she found the package in the truck and would bring it to us. When she arrived she did have the correct package. After some discussion she gave out a local number and a classification of person to talk to. Rob has decided to no longer use FedEx. They don’t seem to care about problems with their delivery. Then before heading back we stopped at Costco for gas. The price there was at least 33 cents less than other stations. We also bought a few items in the store. On the drive back we went a short distance on a major freeway. It wasn’t quite a parking lot but close. Once we got off that the going was much better. We saw another deer on the way home. Both directions we followed the Ohio River for a few miles.

October 13, 2022 Day 5 Shelley’s house 0 miles

Partly cloudy today. Rob worked on both our Woodie and Shelley’s Model A. He got her car running. Several small problems but nothing major. Connie made cookies from cookie mixes and used a pizza pan to bake them on. Tasted pretty good. The day was pretty quiet waiting for news about the radiator. Rob ordered a radiator before we left Parkersburg. It was supposed to arrive on the 12th but FedEx couldn’t find the address. We called the sending company to have it rerouted, but it still didn’t arrive. We waited all day and no news of any kind. After supper Rob and Michael (Shelley’s husband) worked on Shelley’s Model A. He is trying to learn more about the mechanics.

October 12 , 2022 Day 4 Shelley’s house near Augusta Ky 22 miles

Mostly cloudy this morning and the wind is blowing. Received word that the radiator couldn’t be delivered because the address was bad. We know from personal experience that some of the GPS programs don’t get the address in the correct location. Contacting Fed Ex indicated that the sender would have to change the shipping address. One of the Walgreens in Maysville is a drop off point for packages. After some effort the package got rerouted and should arrive at the Walgreens sometime tomorrow. Shelley says most of their deliveries come via UPS so they must have it figured out. Rob worked on both Shelley’s Model A and the Woodie for the morning. In the afternoon Rob and Connie took the Woodie to Maysville to the grocery store. We had a lovely drive along the Ohio River. We are having a terrible time with our cell service. It doesn’t seem to work much at Shelley’s and it didn’t work in the grocery store. Connie wanted to use a digital coupon but it would not take. Fortunately the cashier said we could use the store’s WIFI and he helped download the digital coupon. It was worth $1 so worth the effort. Prices here seem high but I think prices at home are going up too. Gas here is cheaper at $3.84 per gallon. We got back just before a major rain storm hit. The rain really came down hard and plentiful. The rain fell off and on for the remainder of the night. Since we have had so much trouble getting on the internet here we all spent at least two hours on the phone with the provider trying to resolve the problem. The problem did not go away.

October 11, 2022 Parkersburg WV to Shelley’s house near Augusta KY 163 miles

Today is sunny and the wind hasn’t started to blow yet. We decided on our route and headed out. This time we are on a larger road. A divided highway with two lanes in each direction but some stop lights. It doesn’t go through the towns like the other roads did. The pavement is much smoother and not nearly as many curves. That also means the trees don’t form a canopy overhead. The traffic isn’t too bad though. The trees here have started turning but the colors don’t seem as vibrant. Still some pasture land with cows or horses mostly. We did see one horse drawn wagon similar to a small buckboard. We drove through the town of Athens Ohio where Ohio University is located. Lots of students walking in the area. More road kill today. At least two deer and several small cat sized animals. Not sure what they were, but definitely not raccoons or skunks. We had lunch in at Annie’s Place in Peebles Ohio. Nice little place full of locals. Shortly after that we came to a large bridge that crosses the Ohio River and into Kentucky. We are now on much smaller roads with more small hills and curves. The closer we get the smaller the roads. About 4 pm we arrived at Shelley’s house. She has a new rescue thoroughbred named Pharaoh who is the the son of Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh. He injured his leg in training and was unable to race. Beautiful horse. Inside the house Shelley’s husband Michael has decorated every room for Halloween. Lots of strange noises come from some of those. He didn’t put up the really big ones. He says the wind is too strong and blows over any outside.

October 10, 2022 Day 2 Cumberland MD to Parkersburg WV 183 miles

Today is sunny but cool. We still got a later start but decided not to go as far. Rob also decided to order a new radiator from Snyder’s Antique Auto Parts and have it shipped to his daughter Shelley’s house. That will be our next stop. That way he can replace the radiator. He added water before we left and filled the water cans. He adds about a gallon every time. The car started again without help and we are off. We took all back roads and the drive was beautiful. More small towns with houses sitting only a few feet from the edge of the road. Halloween is very evident based on the house decorations. Some of the places are covered with lights and blow up figures. Two neighboring towns had pink flags and ribbons honoring breast cancer awareness month. The streets of those two towns were lined with the flags. Fall festivals and special dinners were advertised in most of the towns. More road kill was along the road. At least four deer and two skunks. Thankfully we did not see any live animals on the road. One of the carcasses was being consumed by a pair of small vultures. We stopped more frequently today to add gas and water. We had a pizza for lunch at a local pizza parlor. Almost all of the trip was on scenic byways. Traffic is much lighter on these roads as well. Not as many farms today. Stopped to add water and found out that the radiator Rob ordered is out of stock. The phone call this morning said they had nine. Rob called and they said they were out of the one he ordered but they had nine of the cheaper ones. After some discussion they cancelled the one radiator and ordered the other to be shipped to Shelley’s by Wednesday. Sure hope that all works out. We got to our hotel before five pm so its still light. Great improvement. We went to the grocery store to get food for supper and breakfast. It happened to be a Kroger with gas pumps. We got ten cents a gallon off. That made the price $3.259 a gallon.