DAY 2: Cleveland. Again.

DAY TWO: Monday, Sept. 25th - Cleveland.  Again.  NOT Effort, PA like we planned :(

After our night at the Red Roof Inn, we woke up and left the hotel around 9:30am.  We were on the hunt for the nearest auto parts store to get our camper lights in working order and then be on our way to downtown Cleveland to find some food trucks!

We easily found an O'Reilly Auto Parts store about 10 minutes from our hotel.  We bought some new lights, windshield wipers, a wire harness receiver, an emergency LED light, and some electrical tape.  We got right to work installing the new lights and crossed our fingers that they would work and we would be on our way.

Installing the new lights.

Checking out the fuse box.

After working on the camper for a while in the auto parts store parking lot, a nice man named Bill Mantle pulled in the parking lot and approached me to ask me about our camper.  He was driving by and had to stop by to see it up close.  Turns out he was a vintage camper and vintage car enthusiast and had a vintage camper that he had just re-modeled at his house down the road!  

We explained to Bill what happened with the lights and he proceeded to help us try figure out what was wrong.  We finally thought we had the problem solved, gave Bill some handshakes and hugs, and we were all on our way.

Mitch and Bill Mantle (nicest man EVER!)

As we were about to pull out of the parking lot, Mitch jumped out of the car to check the lights one last time.  Good thing he did because they stopped working AGAIN.  Bill invited us to come to his house down the street where he had tools and more space to work on the camper.  We took him up on his offer and followed him to his house.  

Bill called his neighbor, Bruce, to come over who also happened to be a camper-owner and all-around handyman.  Bruce had us back the camper into his driveway and brought out a bunch of cords, tools and various items to work on it.  Him and Bill proceeded to get under the camper and re-wire the entire thing while Mitch and I watched in awe.  These guys were honestly the most genuine and kind men you could ever meet.  It was a true god-send that they were able to help us out.  

Bill, Mitch, and Bruce.

Bill and Bruce.

Contemplation.

Hanging out with Bruce's dogs.  They did NOT like Kingsley.

Us with the guys and Bill's pristine 1950's Chevy.

YAY! The camper lights were fixed!

After Bruce offered to let us stay at us house, then gave a us one of those bag/camp chairs and some granola bars, Bill showed us his remodeled camper and we met his wife.  We thanked them all profusely and wrote their addresses down (we're still thinking of ways to compensate them for their amazing hospitality and kindness).  It was about 5pm by this time - too late to hit up any food trucks in Cleveland and too late to start making our way to Effort, PA to visit my cousins, so we decided to find a campground and call it a night.

We stopped at a grocery store and stocked up on food for the trip (finally), bought some firewood, and then stopped at Best Buy to get a mobile internet hotspot for our car.  The Best Buy salesman ASSURED us that the hotspot would work anywhere.  Once I got it set up in the car and we drove off, I immediately began doing some of my online class homework and updating our blog - until the hotspot stopped working.  Turns out, the hotspot only works in large-ish cities where there is Sprint 4G coverage - NOT in rural areas outside the city.  Effffffffff......

Homework in the car.

Feeling a little deceived by the Best Buy salesman, we made our way out of Cleveland to the Streetsboro, OH KOA campground we made a reservation at.  It was about 40 minutes southeast of where we were.  There was a Home Depot down the road from it, so we stopped and got a small space heater for the camper since it was in the 40s that night.

Campfire

Making dinner - pan fried catfish sandwiches.

Happy camper.

Streetsboro, OH KOA

Total spent on Food Trucks for Day 2: $0 :(

Spending for Day 2:

Gas: $50

O'Reilly Auto Parts: $49 (Thanks for the Visa gift card Barb and Jim!)

Best Buy for the mobile hotspot device and one months worth of 4G service: $88

Groceries for the trip: $105

KOA Campsite: $26

KOA Membership card (year membership for 10% off all stays at KOA): $24

TOTAL: $254 (over budget)

Leftover from our $6000 budget: $5520

Obviously we are now a day behind schedule.  Tomorrow we will be headed to Effort, PA (about a 6 hour drive) to visit my cousin, Britta, and her family.  We talked about driving the 30 minute drive back to downtown Cleveland in the morning to check out some food trucks, but decided not to since we were already on our route towards PA.  

Tomorrow - Effort, PA (a small town about an hour west of NYC).

Thanks for the support everyone!

XO Mitch and Laurel