Made it!

We left Shelby Sunday morning about 9:30AM and nearly made it out of the city limits, when my uh-oh light went off. Someone (whom I won't mention) had forgotten our satellite TV receiver. Needless to say, this is one of those must have necessities, so we had to double back to the home base to get it. The second time leaving Shelby was without incident and were finally on our way!  We traveled I-85 to I-485 to I-77 to I-81 where we stopped Sunday night at Walnut Hills KOA campground in Staunton, Virginia (Pronounced Stanton). Traffic was about average until we got on I-81 where it was very heavy. Anyway, we arrived in Staunton about 4:00 and got set up without incident. Staunton is a very scenic community of about 25 thousand and is in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. It's best known as the birth place of former president Woodrow Wilson and home of the Statler Brothers. We rode through the historical section of Staunton and enjoyed viewing the restored old business district along with the beautiful old homes in the area. While there we dined at Kathy's Restaurant, which was very tasteful and would definitely recommend. This was an overnight stop for us, but we definitely want to return and further explore the area.
           We pulled out of Staunton Monday morning and back on the super slab, I-81, heading north about 9:30. I would like to remind everyone I-81 runs parallel with the Blue Ridge Parkway and through the middle of the Shenandoah Valley and is one of the more scenic drives in the country on an interstate. We passed through a short section of West Virginia and Maryland before entering Pennsylvania. Traffic was again heavy, but thankfully, we had an uneventful and safe trip. We arrived here at Beacon Hill Camping facility in Intercourse, Pa. about 3:00. We were given an unusual site where we had to back the RV up a fairly steep hill on a gravel road. I had to put the truck in low range 4 wheel drive to get the rig into the site and finally "got er done" thanks to assistance from our neighbor across the road. Ordinarily, I wouldn't go to that much trouble to get on a site, but this site is really good. It has a nice wood deck with a view overlooking the campground and an Amish farm across the road. We plan to stay here for a week with day trips planned to Philadelphia, Gettysburg, Hershey and here in Lancaster County. We went to dinner tonight at the well known Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl, Pa, a short drive from here. The dinner is a buffet with many, many choices with the entree of the day being steak, which was tasty. They have a wonderful salad and dessert bar as well. The entire basement of the  large building is a gift shop where one could get lost if not careful. Oh, the cost of the meal was $17.58/person, less a 10% old fart discount. Not too bad considering the price included meal, drink, tax and gratuity, especially since the quality of the food was great. The facility is quite large. They told us they normally feed between 6,000 to 9,000 folks a day. There's a farmers market next door and several other stores that we need to check out.
           Our grandaughter, Bailey, says to tell everyone hi. She seems to be a having a good time hanging around with the "old folks". She seemed a little restless with all the seat time on the way here, but is good to go now!
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Our new trusty steed and rig in parking lot of welcome center in West Virginia

Very Attractive welcome Center

Our site at Beacon Hill

Pretty nice site

Outside of Shady Maple

Flowers being sold by Mennonite lady outside Shady Mapel

Part of parking lot which looked like Wal-Mart at Christmas time!

Main lobby