If you aren’t particularly handy, then owning a motor home will change that in a jiffy. Once you understand that taking your rig to Camping World every time something comes loose, falls off, leaks or gets stuck ends up costing you the biggest bucks, you quickly learn to figure it out and do it yourself.

Today’s fixes were minor; my rear air vent cover was loose, so I had a look at the assembly, took everything off and found two screws that had fallen out. I took the opportunity, while I was in there, to remove some of the twigs and leaves that had fallen into the recessed area where the bathroom fan sat, and then reset the screws and put it all back together again. This is the second time that I’ve been up on Imua’s roof this year fixing things and I don’t usually see people in parking lots doing that, so I wonder what folks must think as they go driving by.

Inside the coach, I replaced the broken catch on my silverware drawer so that I no longer needed to twist-tie it with rubber tie-downs. It’s not that the constant sliding in and out of the drawer as I drove around corners annoyed me. It had more to do with not encouraging the drawer to slide to the end of its track repeatedly, inviting catastrophic detachment, like what’s happened with a couple of the other drawers.

They build motor homes strangely; usually putting everything inside before they “wrap” the beast with exterior walls. So, replacing and repairing things can be a real bitch, especially if you’re not exactly sure where they’ve routed everything, like plumbing, electric, propane, etc. For the real involved stuff, I just take it to a professional. But the middling matters - some of it’s common sense and some of it is just a YouTube marathon of videos away from mastering.

Feeling handily accomplished, I went inside to top off groceries, picking up some malanga, a tuber that comes from South America and is apparently really good for making fries. I haven’t deviated from my basic menu much since the start of tour, so something new and different seemed like a fun idea.

I found a Wells Fargo Bank by accident and that simplified things quite a bit - made a deposit - then headed to Highspire, Pennsylvania, just south of Harrisburg, where a coin laundry aided in getting some of my wardrobe clean once again.

Then, for the first time this tour, I made a reservation at a KOA, specifically for the electric hook-up and the WiFi, so I could get a ton of work done before hitting the road and then rolling with a busy weekend of shows and workshops.

On the way down to Elizabethtown, I noticed a river by the roadside and decided to put the drone up for some shots. Once I got it into the air, a power plant suddenly came into view. After about ten minutes of flying, I brought it back down and made a mental note to do some research on the area so that I could appropriately title the footage when it showed up in a forthcoming Drone Zone segment for Patreon.

Imagine my complete and utter surprise when I discovered the name of the place: Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station.

Holy shit!

The China Syndrome for real! Three Mile Island. — *The China Syndrome* for real! Three Mile Island.

If you’re not familiar with this facility, it was the site of the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history back on March 28, 1979. It was our Chernobyl. In retrospect, it kind of gave me the creeps just standing so close to the place.

I settled into my site at the KOA and quickly discovered that the WiFi totally sucked and thus began a struggle for the rest of the evening to update blogs, upload video and answer e-mail. In face, I gave up on all but the blogs because I haven’t missed a day yet!

With about five and a half hours left on the road to New York, I planned on leaving fairly early to allow for stops and traffic, though I was taking the long way to avoid the New Jersey Turnpike. No offense to denizens of New Jersey or New York City, but I love my axles and would like to keep them in one piece, so, no Toyota-sized potholes for me, thank you.

After processing a couple of orders, I was ready to call it a night. The next phase of this adventure was about to begin!

Day 72

Day 71: Interstate Tour 2018