Wilmington, North Carolina

Tonight we are in Wilmington, North Carolina.  We arrived Sunday evening, after a rather long day driving.  We drove US 17, rather than the interstate.  It took a little longer, but we drove through small towns and were able to stop in various places along the way. 

We stopped at the Great Dismal Swamp State Park, a continuation of the national wildlife area by the same name in Virginia.  We took a walk along the boardwalk, and I took this cool picture of the still water, where its hard to distinguish where the water ends and where the sky begins.

 

In Wilmington, we are staying at a small KOA.  Wilmington looks like a pretty cool town.  It's population is 108,000, but there is lots of history here and lots of great old homes and buildings.  Along the Cape Fear River, that runs through "downtown", there is a lovely boardwalk with various shops, restaurants and fishing tours.  There is a huge old cotton mill that has been turned into a shopping area, with unique little boutiques and coffee shops.  I even came across a bead store! Yea!

We found a cool used book store where we spent some time, and they had this cool, "literary jukebox".  We had to get a picture of it to share with all the library folks!

We spent 4 or 5 hours downtown, and we must be starting to think of the trailer as "home", because by 4 pm, Noel was asleep on the couch and by 4:30, I was in my pjs!  I guess we're ready for the early, early bird specials!

Today was a BEACH day!  We drove to Carolina Beach - while they advertise a boardwalk and shops, the boardwalk was just that - a walkway made of boards.  But there - in all its glory - was the gorgeous Atlantic Ocean! 

 

It was a gorgeous, sunny day, but it was also quite windy.  The surf was rough, with 6-7 foot waves and the wind was blowing the sand so hard that is was like having mother nature's dermabrasion - but it was a beach - and I was staying!  Noel's not much of a beach fan, so he went for a stroll and to read in the truck while I was getting my fix of sunshine and surf, but after about 2 hours - I had pretty much been sandblasted all over and even had sand in my ears, so now we are tucked in back at the trailer and preparing to head to South Carolina in the morning.

Sunrise and Swamp Critters

We left Shenandoah on 9/11 and made what we thought would be a short day of driving over to the coast to Virginia Beach. A few miles before reaching the tunnel under the Chesapeake Bay, traffic came to a dead stop. We soon saw a flashing sign that all trucks and Rvs be prepared for inspection. After about an hour of waiting, only moving a few truck lengths, I looked on my smartphone to see what the problem was. Turns out someone had called in a bomb threat and all trucks and rvs were being stopped, checked with dogs and visual inspections. This was going to take a while….

After a few more hours in traffic, we made it to the inspection station. We watched as a uniformed highway worker stopped every 3^rd semi truck and asked a quick question and then waved them on. He asked us if our propane tanks were off and waved us on. We were glad to be waved on into the tunnel, but I couldn’t help but wonder about their “high level of security”. “Are you a terrorist?? No? Go on”…..whatever. We were just glad to be moving again.

We made it to the Holiday Trav-L RV park in Virginia Beach, and I must say, I am impressed. The place is huge - close to 900 sites, with several beautiful swimming pools, spacious shaded sites, and fabulous, clean, tiled showers that had a “rainfall” shower head coming out of the 9 foot ceilings. Camping heaven!

We cleaned up and Noel took me out for a late birthday dinner (mine was September 3^rd) as well as a birth-day (I had Jason 25 years ago as of 9/11) for a fabulous seafood dinner.

  The following morning we woke early to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic. Heaven…

 

The huge spider was under a drinking fountain along the boardwalk

 near the beach.  After seeing that thing, a good 3 1/2 inches long,

 I wasn't thirsty anymore!  Yikes!

 

.

In the afternoon we rode our bikes to the nearby Aquarium and watched “Flight of the Butterfly” at the IMAX in 3D. I highly recommend it - it’s a great story with a tear-jerking ending! Really! Fixed some dinner and then strolled the campground in the evening.

 

So that takes us to 9/13 - our 10^th day on the road. In spite of trying to pace ourselves and work in plenty of rest time, all this activity has caught up with me and the Fibromyalgia is kicking my butt. My pain levels have reached a new record high, so much so that it’s making me sick to my stomach. I got very little sleep, and Friday was spent on the couch.

We are very close to Camp Pendleton, and therefore every few minutes a fighter jet flies overhead. They are quite loud, and by the end of the day, I was ready to kill something! I love our soldiers, and I’m glad they are well trained, but I don’t know how people can live hear with the constant noise. I’m talking trailer rattling, can’t hear the tv, LOUD! I won’t miss this place, even if they do have great showers.

We heard from some friends back in Ohio that they were coming out this way for vacation, so we’ve decided to stay an extra day in Virginia Beach so that we could meet them for a hike at the Great Dismal Swamp. It was a bit of a disappointment as it was pretty dry, but if you looked closely, the place was full of life! Butterflies, birds, frogs, lizards, spiders, and while we did see some dear, I still haven’t seen a black bear, which I was really hoping to see.

A collage of the various frogs, fungus and critters at the Great Dismal Swamp.

 

 

A beautiful spider web in the sun - and it was large!

 

 

Our friends Fred and Suzzanne who just so happened to be heading to

 Cape Hatteras and also wanted to stop at the Great Dismal Swamp.

 

Tomorrow we head to Wilmington, N. Carolina.

Floating by the Bunnies

Today was another kick back day - sat outside reading most of the morning and this afternoon, here at the Shenandoah Valley Campground, you can rent inner tubes to float down the river, so that's what we did.  We parked our truck at the end, by the waterfall, then walked up to the office to rent the tubes.  You start at the far end of the campground (this place is huge!), drop your inner tube in the river, sit your butt in it and start drifting!  How easy is that?

 

It was a bit shallow in places so our bottoms got caught more than a few times on a rock, but all in all, it was relaxing and uneventful.  But we're Lemons, and we don't "do" uneventful!  LOL  So at the landing, we drug our tubes out of the water, put them on the tailgate of the truck, which we so thoughtfully parked there to save us from walking a long distance with wet shoes and tubes.  Of course, one fell off, so Noel backed up to get it, promptly ran right over the tube, where it got stuck.  He had me get in the drivers seat and slowly pull up, so he could un-wedge it from under the truck.  WHOOSH - it burst.  OOOPS!  The folks at the campground were nice about it and didn't make us pay for it, but we were sweating it, because these weren't just truck tires, they were nice "water park" quality, heavy duty tubes.  Whew!

This campground has it all, a nice pool, hot tubs, mini golf, a trout fishing pond, cabins, horseshoes - all the camping necessities.  And one extra bonus.  BUNNIES!  Lots and lots of bunnies!  I guess the owner had a few domestic rabbits, that accidently got out, where they promptly started reproducing, and now there are about 100 rabbits hopping around the campground.

 

Tomorrow morning we are headed to Virginia Beach - where I may not have wifi - so I'll post when I can.

Biking Downhill - and Driving Uphill

Riding down the Allegheny Bike Trail

 

 

While in Cumberland, Maryland we drove up US40 to Frostburg and parked along the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail.  We heard it was all down hill, and well, if we are going to ride a bike further than three quarters of a mile, it's gotta be downhill!  And it was!  We had a beautiful sunny, 70 degree day that we just coasted along, enjoying beautiful scenery, butterflies, a few deer and we kept an eye out for bear.  Much of the trail is alongside a railroad track, and we saw the old locomotive pass us by.

 

 

 

But even riding downhill takes its toll, so we had to stop and rest my back and legs - who knew coasting downhill was so much work?  LOL

 

 

The following day we drove about 4 hours south, into Virginia, to the Shenandoah Valley Campground.  It was a day of rest for me, while Noel went to the grocery.  Today we drove to the Shenandoah National Park and drove about 1/3 of Skyline Drive, passing beautiful overlooks and watching for wildlife.  Its been an overcast day and my pain level is pretty high, so we didn't do any hiking, so the only wildlife we saw was a few deer near the road and some monarch larvae.  We also stopped at a Goodwill store and stocked up on a few books.  I've already finished the two books on my Kindle - amazing how much reading you can do when you don't have tv to distract you!  (Much to Noel's dismay - he was really hoping to catch the Bengals game yesterday!)







On the Road!!

This is the inside of our camper.  We managed to fill it up rather quickly!

 

Our family going away party - one of many tearful goodbyes!

 

September 2^nd - the day before we left was a grueling day. We had spent the week saying goodbye to friends and family - and the never ending wave of “stuff”. We thought we were on schedule and had only a few things to do. We were wrong. By the end of the day, we were literally just throwing things in the trash, or into a bag and tossed it into the trailer. But at least it was over. The house was empty and relatively clean, and we had already been sleeping in the trailer since all the furniture was gone.


September 3^rd - my 51^st birthday was the day! After another tearful goodbye to my dear Addy, we pulled out of the driveway to begin our new, full time RV-ing life. We had been preparing for this day for months, and had been dreaming of it for decades. We had the trailer and truck both serviced and looked over, blood work and check ups for us both had been completed, our paperwork and affairs in order.

Ready to hit the road!

 

However, we are the Lemons, and nothing is sweet and easy when you’re a Lemon! So we had made it as far as Huber Heights on I-70 when we first heard the truck engine make a strange noise. “Was that us?” asked Noel. “I’m not sure” I replied. It only lasted an instant. But I began to pray. “Please God, don’t let us break down” - over and over.

The noise happened again, and again, and it got really bad as we started through the hills of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. It sounded like a clacking noise, as if a fan was hitting plastic or something. And I noticed that puffs of black smoke emitted from the tailpipe in cadence with the noise. More praying. And by this time I had a stomach ache and found myself urging the truck uphill - the only time the truck made noise was when we were climbing hills. “I think you can, I think you can” I was urging the truck.

We made it to the campground - Hidden Springs Campground in Pennsylvania - near Cumberland, Maryland. Our dear friend Retta met us at the campground with an amazing dinner - and a few wine coolers for me! - and we enjoyed the evening catching up.

The campground has no wifi or internet access, but our Camping World/Good Sam RV membership came in handy and they gave us a referral to a garage that works on diesel. Noel left bright and early to take the truck in, only to find out that Tri-State Fleet only works on semi-truck diesels. (Gee, thanks Good Sam!) They referred Noel to a mechanic a few more miles down the road. They were too busy to look at it that day, so Noel left the truck with the repair shop, and started to walk back. He finally made his way back to a gas station, where he called our friend Retta, and she thankfully picked him up and brought him back to the campground.

We spent the day at the campground. The weather was beautiful, we took a walk, there is a nice swimming pool here so I got some sun, we organized the trailer a bit, and did a lot of reading.

　

September 5^th - Retta picked us up and we drove into Cumberland and caught the Amtrak train to Washington DC - it was a comfortable ride and even had a dining car where we had breakfast, and my beloved coffee! We arrived at Union Terminal and took a cab to the Holiday Inn near the Capitol Building. We got checked in and then walked a few blocks to the Holocaust Museum. My back was already hurting from the walk, so we rented a wheelchair and Noel kindly pushed me through. It was heart wrenching and moving, and I couldn’t help but think of what my parents had witnessed during the war - my father, though not Jewish, had spent months in a concentration camp, and my mother, who couldn’t have been more than 10 or 11 when she had fallen into a pit of dead bodies in the middle of the night as she ran away from a German soldier with less than admirable intentions. I couldn’t help but tear up when I saw the gruesome video coverage - what a shameful time in human history.

We made our way back to the hotel, where Noel settled in to watch some football, and Retta and I took a taxi over the Lincoln Memorial. We walked the area of the reflecting pool and visited the various monuments and memorials. I had not seen the WWII memorial or the Martin Luther King memorial - they had both been built since my last trip to DC, and once it got dark we took a cab back to the hotel.

The various monuments around the Washington reflecting pool.

 

We stated at the Holiday Inn Capitol, at 6^th and Avenue C. It was a nice hotel, with a great shower, but the lumpy pillows and the cockroach I killed in the bathroom left me with a bad impression.

I was also in a bad mood because I had lost about $180 in cash. I was carrying the cash in my pocket thinking it was safer there than in my purse. So much for thinking! It must have fallen out when I pulled money out of my pocket to pay the taxi or on the train. Boy was I mad!

So after some much needed coffee, we took a cab to the National Zoo. It’s nice that the museums and the zoo are free - our tax dollars hard at work! The zoo was a lot of fun - lots of animals, and the weather was perfect. We borrowed another wheelchair, so anytime I needed to sit and rest, Noel again was a doll and pushed me around.

The National Zoo - I think if you click the picture it will make it bigger.

 

While at the zoo, the mechanic looking at the truck called - he replaced the EGR valve - cha-ching - there went $500 bucks. This was turning into an expensive first week on the road!

The train ride back to Cumberland was uneventful, we picked up the truck and said goodnight to Retta and are now settled in the trailer for the night.

　

It's HERE!

Heeeeerrrre's the trailer!  Our home for the next ??? days/weeks/months/years!  It is a Forest River, "Flagstaff" pull behind trailer with two slide outs - one for the living room and one in the bedroom.  We learned that we close on the house next week, so we've determined that September 3rd - my birthday - will be our departure date.  Today we are airing it out - its been closed up for almost 2 years - and tomorrow I will give it a good cleaning, and start loading and organizing.

Does it come as any surprise to anyone that I organized and planned my jewelry first?  And that I'm taking WAAAY more jewelry than I am clothes?  I put earrings in little bags and organized them in a bead box by color, all my rings are in a ring box from QVC, and bracelets, necklaces and pendants are in trays.  I may not be able to find the colander or the band aids, but I'll know right where by blue and gold earrings are! LOL

The Planning Phase

Things are progressing with the house and the packing, and I'm into the "Planning" phase.  We still don't have a closing date so I can't make any reservations, but we really don't want to be on a schedule, so we may not even make reservations!  At least for the time being.

It's been a little frustrating trying to find campgrounds.  There doesn't seem to be one "all inclusive" place to find a list of campgrounds.  Good Sam and Woodalls have books, but they only list their approved campgrounds.  Even AAA has some campground books, but that leaves me looking through several books as I scour the atlas.

Adding to that, its hard to believe that in this day and age, so many campgrounds have such outdated (and I have found some that have none) websites.  Some don't list their rates, and others cost as much as a house payment just to camp there for a month!  I did find a site, www.rvparkreviews.com, that has been helpful.  It lists actual reviews by campers and gives good insight into issues that the park's website might not mention.  Issues like narrow roads, dirty bathrooms, low water pressure, or poor wifi reception.  Kind of like a Yelp for campers.

I used the atlas and www.mapquest.com to route out distance and travel times as I start to plan our route.  Our first stop is going to be in Cumberland, Maryland to visit a good friend of ours.  While there we will camp at Rocky Gap State Park, and plan to take the Amtrak train into Washington, DC, a 3 hour train ride away.  We want to visit the Holocaust Museum, and the train ride will be a bonus.

Since we are heading to Florida to spend some time with our son, we figured we would take the "scenic" route and head down the east coast.  Leaving Maryland, we will go through the Shenandoah Valley and then head over to the Norfolk / Virginia Beach area.  We will skim the east coast going through the Carolinas (Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head) to Savannah, Georgia (and Tybee Island), before getting to Florida.

We plan to stay in Florida through the holidays, and then trekking along the Gulf Coast, stopping to see friends along the way.  We might as well see the sights in New Orleans (although neither of us are much on the party scene), before heading to Dallas to see my friend of 50 years.  After a few days with them, we will spend the rest of the winter in Mesa, Arizona.  There just so happens to be two HUGE gem and jewelry shows in Arizona in January and February.  How convenient.

Noel's last day of work is Friday, and we've already begun having "goodbye" lunches and dinners as we prepare to leave our friends and family in order to meet new ones along the way.