Ohiopyle State Park, Falling Water and Kentuck Knob

A week after I returned from Birmingham with my RV, Nadine and I went camping together in Ohiopyle State Park in PA. She booked two side by side campsites for 3 nights: that's her Thor Tellaro on the left and my Thor Rize on the right. We took this opportunity to plan our cross country RV trip next spring. It rained on my way to the Park. Google Maps misdirected me and I got lost on some rough roads. The drive was harrowing, with curves and steep up and down slopes; the evening got dark and foggy. It was a good test of the van's road handling capability. It passed with flying colors although the driver (me) was pretty stressed out by the time she finally arrived at the campsite.

Over the next 2 days, I spent time familiarizing myself with the RV, learning from Nadine who had 3 years of full-time RVing experience in her Tellaro. I used the stove to make cup noodles, the microwave to warm up food, made coffee and took a shower in the RV. I drove to the local Walmart to buy antifreeze to winterize the RV, it was so easy to park the vehicle! Later, we discovered that I did not have the right connector to pump antifreeze into the water lines, so will have to complete that at home. I did find and turn on/off the right valves to drain the fresh and gray water tanks. We visited Falling Water on Monday and Kentuck Knob on Tuesday, houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that were located near the Park. I knew about Falling Water, having read an article and saw photos of it when I was a high school student in Malaysia. Never dreamed that I would actually visit the place in person. What an experience!

Below is Kentuck Knob, another interesting house, one I've never heard of.

Finally, here are some photos of the Youghiogheny River rapids from the Ohiopyle Visitor Center. The area is beautiful, with a lot of hiking trails. Since it's late fall, was rather quiet but looking at the information displays related to kayaking outside the visitor center, I'm sure this place is very busy in the summer.

My New Rig

Here is my new RV, a 2023 Thor Rize 18M built on a Ram Promaster 1500 van. Bought it from Susan, an awesome lady who lives near Birmingham AL. We hit it off from the minute she picked me up at the airport on Wednesday, Oct 30th; it felt like we have known each other a long time. She offered me a room in her house for 2 nights as we went through the paperwork and she showed me how the RV worked. I also had a great time observing Halloween trick or treat in her neighborhood, with what felt like a thousand kids and their parents roaming their street, most of whom were very creatively dressed. I drove out with the RV the next day.

It took a few hours to get used to driving the RV as I headed north on Hwy 81. Susan was kind enough to set me up with comfortable bedding and pillows, so I had a bed for the night. I was not prepared for a leisurely drive. We had drained the fresh tank since we thought we were going to winterize the RV before I head home. But I decided not to winterize immediately, in case I wanted to do some camping since we are several weeks away from freezing weather in MD. Plus, we had taken the bike rack off the back door, and it took up a lot of space inside the van. So I drove about 6 hours, stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel in Kingsport, TN and spent the night in their parking area reserved for RVs. There were about 5 other RVs parked there.

I had my first RV lesson: how to turn on heat as the night got cold. Saw an error message on the Truma (heater) console, and finally figured that I had not flipped the propane switch on. Went outside to the driver side where the switch was located (brrr...) turned it on, and a couple of minutes later was enjoying warm air in the RV coach. The next day, I arrived home without any issues, driving a bit below speed limit all the way. The RV was as easy to drive as Millie, my Chrysler Pacifica minivan with which I had gone on many camping adventures a couple of years ago. The RV's small size made it easy to turn, backup and park anywhere: gas stations, rest stops, restaurants or shopping areas. The RV was equipped with nice amenities. Besides the heater, there is a generator that powers the AC and the microwave (not at the same time), hot water heater, refridgerator, 2-burner propane stove, sink, 2 fans, wet bath and a cassette toilet. And a solar panel and Wineguard wifi booster and tv antenna on the roof. Definitely a big upgrade from the rustic camping in Millie previously. I'm not sure yet what I would do with Millie, whether to sell her and use the RV (yet to be named) as our 2nd vehicle.

Oh, and both the front seats swivel around to face the back and the adjustable lagun table which made a nice dining set up. I'm looking at how to use my sewing machine in the RV on long trips. There is also a TV mounted next to the sink, which took up valuable space. I may need to relocate it, or do away with a mounted TV and use an tablet or bring out the TV on a stand when I need to. The TV can also double up as an exended display for my laptop. Storage for larger items would be a challenge; I would like to go minimalist but would also like to bring things like my camping chair, fishing rods and tackle, outside grill, etc. which may require installing external storage. Also the RV did not come with a spare tire, something I want to add. I'm going to have fun planning modifications and adding personal touches to this RV.

End of our trip to Japan

We returned home after almost 3 weeks in Japan, visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Himeji. It will take some time to post my experiences in the land of the rising sun, in reverse chronological order. Will also cover my month long trip in Italy back in May/June; that may take a while to complete.

To start, these are the luggage covers I bought from a Mega Don Quixote in Tokyo. We got covers only for the new suitcases that we checked in for the flight back to the US. The medium one was bought in Kyoto, the large in Tokyo as we, i.e. my daughter, accumulated more purchases. Sure made it easy to find the cases in the luggage claim area! Will describe Don Quixote a bit more in a separate post about shopping in Japan which we did a lot of!

I decided to stay at the Hotel Villa Fontaine Grand Haneda Airport, to make sure that we did not miss our morning flight. This was a very nice and modern hotel located in the Haneda Airport Garden, right past the new shopping arcade. Easy access to the check in and departure gates in Terminal 3. Wish I had taken a photo of the hotel entrance which was on the 4th floor of the airport. We got there by taking the airport limousine bus directly from our disney hotel in Tokyo Bay; it was a breeze to book via cell phone. They even took our large suitcases, so there was no need to transfer our luggage separately (more about that in a separate post). Below is a stage/exhibit area in the center of the Airport Garden; the area was rather quiet.

Lots of options for dinner: we went to the Oedo Food hall so that each could order different types of Japanese food instead of one type of restaurant, like the 2nd photo below which was a Chinese restaurant; others specialized in curry, sushi, udon, etc. Ordering was done on a kiosk with an English menu and lots of photos. Laurel ordered the wonton ramen set that came with beer, while I had sashimi over rice and sake. We swapped our drinks since she did not like beer and I did not care for sake.

Breakfast came with our room rate, the hotel's restaurant was located on the 1st floor. We were at breakfast when it opened at 6 am, to have plenty to time to make it to our flight at 10:30 am. The huge Japanese and Western buffet was amazing; I binged on my last Japanese breakfast for the trip.

The ANA non-stop flight was uneventful; it was not full, nice to have the middle seat empty. After arrival at Dulles Airport, I booked an Uber ride for the first time. It was so easy, came in just 5 minutes. Less cumbersome and cheaper than our other option which was to rent a car to drive back to Bowie and return it to BWI. We could have taken the metro to New Carrolton (like we did when we left for the trip) and an Uber home from there, but we did not feel like managing 4 suitcases and 2 backpacks on the train. Traffic was light and we got home in about 50 minutes.

DisneySea, Tokyo

We spent most of the day at DisneySea. It was cloudy but still humid. We were curious about this Disney park, available only in Japan (found out later that the Japanese parks were not part of Disney, but under license to use the name and characters/images). Bought tickets from home about a month ago, using the Klook app. A new attraction in the park, Fantasy Springs, opened recently and we hoped to get passes to that. Those free passes were only available through the Disney Resort app after admission into the main park itself. I have read that passes to popular attractions and rides are gone very early as many people arrive 1-2 hours before the official opening time, and the park lets visitors in before the official opening time. We simply could not get up early enough to line up at the entrance. Also, unlike Universal Studios Japan where our hotel was just steps from the entrance, we had to take the hotel shuttle and the Disney monorail to this park. Sure enough, once we got in, a big sign informed us that passes to Fantasy Springs were sold out for the day. But we managed to register for a priority pass to the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride in the afternoon, using the app. Most of the thrill rides had wait times of over 90 minutes. Like Tokyo Disneyland, we had to wait 1-2 hours before we could register for another priority ride; by none of the thrill rides was available.

My impressions of DisneySea: it was crowded but not as crowded as Tokyo Disneyland. There were distinct areas with beautiful buildings and designs, a few rides and attractions in each area. The concept reminded me a bit of Epcot Center. Above photo is the entrance just inside DisneySea. Past that is the Mediterranean Harbour with its Venetian look, complete with gondola rides.

Below, the American Waterfront with New York vibes and truck rides around the streets. I got on a car that looked like a police van transporting criminals, short ride but kind of fun. Also went on the Steamship Columbia, most of it was a restaurant with an ornate entry way, 1920s/30s decor. They allowed visitors to walk around the outside deck for a view of the harbour below.