Goose Point & Assateague Island

The next stop on this maiden voyage was Goose Point Campground on  Philpott Lake in the rugged foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s an Army Corps of Engineers campground. They have a lot of nice sites on the water but they were all reserved when we arrived so we were in another section by ourselves. Sometimes having no neighbors is a good thing.

 We were never able to put our awning out on this trip. It was too windy everywhere we went. Other than enjoying the lake, there isn’t much that we could find around this campsite. The nearest town seems to have some furniture manufacturing plants.

The last stop on our trip was Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland. There is a herd of Wild Horses on in the park, they roam everywhere including through the campground.

The park rangers say they are like bears without claws. The campers are warned to keep all food locked up and not to try to touch the horses. There is a rumor that the horses steak hamburgers off the grill, however I’m not sure that I believe that. They may look like a backyard pet but they are wild. Tourists regularly experience bites or kicks when they get too close.

There was a small band of a stallion and 2 mares who inhabited our area of the campground. I was at the water spigot with one of the dogs filling our water jugs when one of the mares came over and clearly wanted the fresh water. Their access to fresh water is very limited. I waved the dog leash at her and she backed off a little. Then the stallion came over to investigate what I was doing with his mare. More leash waving, and we got back to the trailer without incident.

 

Our campsite ( complete with Gnome )

Gnome at the Visitor Center

Life of the March Trail

Lear and I did the Life of the Marsh Trail backwards. After completing it, I saw the sign at the entrance to the trail stating that no pets are allowed – oops!

Lear on a hike. He’s not very happy. Can you see him saying “Mom, I’m not a hiking dog! My paws are all muddy. Why did Bianca and Louie get to stay in the nice dry trailer?”

The south end of the island is in Virginia. There is a wild life refuge there that is open from 3 PM until sunset. No dogs allowed even in cars. There wasn’t a lot of wildlife to see but the egrets were beautiful.

I’m really glad that we visited Assateague in April. The bugs come out in May along with the throngs of visitors.

We were sad to have to leave Delmarva and head home. I see another trip to the area in our future. There is more to do and see there.

One of the nuggets of wisdom that we’ve picked up from other RVer’s is the 330 rule: “Don’t drive more than 330 miles or after 3:30 PM”. So we had another first on the way home. We spent the night in a Walmart Parking lot in Monrow NY. We were able to forage in the wilderness of that area, finding dinner at Outback and breakfast at Panera across the parking lot. Here is a map of our trip: Camping 2016

We are planning our next trip and here is a hint:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smith Mountain Lake State Park – Virginia

We left our campsite at Big Meadows earlier than planned because there was a prediction for cold weather and high winds. We can be comfortable in the trailer in pretty cold weather but with water in the tanks, we didn’t want to chance something freezing up.

 

 

 

 

Smith Mountain Lake was a VERY nice campground. Just one loop of campsites with mostly level gravel pads, electic and water hookups, hiking trails leaving from the campsite.  The dogwoods were blooming but there was another tree blooming in the woods and along the highways. Someone suggested that it may be Redbud. I know it doesn’t grow in VT whatever it is!

 

We visited Thomas Jefferson’s “other” home Poplar Forest. The building is a hexagon with elongated hexagonal rooms along the perimeter and a 20 ft x 20 ft x 20ft cube room at the center. There were no interior photos allowed. Apearantly TJ was obsessed with hexagons, even his china had hexagons in the pattern.

You may have detected a TJ theme to this trip. If you are interested in reading more about him, I found this interesting article in Smithsonian Magazine. He is a very complex character.

Time to break camp. Here are the puppies all ready to go:

PA, Shenandoah & Monticello

After seven(7!) weeks in the shop getting a new transmission, we finally had the truck back and left on our shakedown trip for the new rig. With no particular destination in mind, we ended up at Ricketts Glen State Park in PA. We were only there one night. I’d like to go back, they are open all year and have several waterfalls within the park. It seems that PA state parks are not very pet-friendly however. They have designated sites for pets and roads that are “pet-free”. There was no discount for sharing a surname with the park.

 

 

Getting an early start the next morning we drove through PA, MD and WV to get to our next destination, Shenandoah National Park.

 

 

Our Gnome on Skyline Drive.

It’s not the Blue Ridge or the Great Smokies but those names would fit.

Deer are everywhere in Shenandoah. The deer have no fear but tourists are warned not to touch them because they carry ticks.

This is in the Big Meadow Visitor’s Center. I read Rachel Carson in high school. Everything she wrote is still true today.

Turnout on Skyline Drive

There was a 10,000+ acre forest fire in Shenandoah after we were left.

We took a day trip to Monticello. Our Gnome and the puppies are greeting old friend TJ. The dogs were allowed to be on the grounds but not in the buildings and they couldn’t ride the shuttle bus. It was a half mile walk uphill from the Visitor’s Center to the top of the mountain where the house is. Bianca thought that was a bit much. She needed a nap!

 

 

 

 

 

Lee and kids resting while I had a VIP tour of the house. This is the rotunda on the third floor of the house.

Our next location: Smith Mountain Lake State Park, Virginia

 

Washington DC

March 2016

Update from the last post. We tried to leave VT on Jan. 31^st. After weeks of planning and packing, we were finally on the road headed south in search of somewhere warmer than VT.

All set and ready to go Jan. 31, 21006

It was all going well until we were about half-way up the hill out of Strafford on Route 132. The engine tried to downshift and there was a horrible thud. We looked at each other and said “what was that? But kept going. We got almost to the Windsor VT exit of I91 when the engine lost power completely. We were able to pull to the side of the highway and were relieved that we had cell service in that location.

We called AAA where we have an RV plan that is supposed to provide emergency service. They took the information and we waited…and waited… and waited. Calling them back, we learned that they would need to send 2 heavy duty trucks: one for our Dodge Ram 3500 and another one to tow the trailer. It was a Saturday afternoon and all of the tow truck drivers in the Upper Valley were unavailable.

After waiting for a couple of hours, it was starting to get dark. Lee tried the engine again. We could move forward, very slowly in first gear. We knew that we were somewhere north of the Windsor exit so we just started driving, slowly, in first gear. When we reached the exit, we got off, turned around and headed back home, in first gear. It took several more hours to drive the ~30 miles back home.

Skipping the gory details, the truck spend seven weeks in a transmission shop while we waited for the transmission to be fixed.

While we were waiting we took a trip to Washington DC. It’s not a good place to bring the RV or the dogs so this seemed like as good a time as any to go there.

It was certainly warmer than VT. The weather was in the 70s and 80s while we were there. The Cherry Blossoms weren’t out yet but the date for their expected arrival was moved up several weeks due to the unusually warm weather.

While on this trip, I started noticing a pattern of me taking a photo of Lee at the various attractions. It reminded me of the traveling Garden Gnome meme of a decade ago. Check it out here and see if you see any resemblances to anyone we know:

Traveling Garden Gnome

Here are some photos of our favorite Traveling Garden Gnome at some of the landmarks in DC.

World War II Memorial

The Vermont section of the WW II Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

 

Martin Luther King Memorial

Eleanor & Lee

 

FDR Memorial

Capitol Rotunda under construction

The capitol was under restoration while we were there. There is some information about the project here: U.S. Capitol Dome Restoration Project.

I was disappointed that I would not be able to show Brumidi’s work in the dome to Lee. But we were fortunate to be at the Capitol on a day when it wasn’t super crowded. We took the regular tour and the Brumidi Tour. Our tour guide for the Brumidi Tour did not know about the connection to the Morrill Homestead in Strafford VT and was very interested.

Enter a caption

 

 

 

Brumidi Corridor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could write a lot more about Brumidi,  Morrill and the Capitol. I urge you to visit the Homestead in Strafford and the Capitol and see for yourself!

 

 

 

 

 

Washington at Valley Forge

 

View from Arlington Cemetary

 

 

 

Our favorite Gmome at Mount Vernon

 

Gnome Lee visiting the Whitehouse

We took a Segway tour of DC which stopped at Lincoln Memorial

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Updates about us: We tried to leave on Sat. 1/30 headed to Harrisburg PA for the first overnight stop. We got to Windsor VT where the truck transmission started to have problems. After waiting for 2 hours on the side of I91 for AAA, we drove the rig home in first gear. The truck is now at a transmission shop in Barre. The trailer is still packed so stay tuned.

Backing – Part 2

Danny has been in the shop for the duration of hunting season waiting for the service manager to return from hunting to authorize a repair to the roof.

During that time, I have been practicing my backing skills with the following game. After much practice, I am able to get my boat into the water..YAY!

http://www.marops.net/portfolio/trailer-reversing-game

With Danny back and no snow yet, today was a good day for another backing up lesson.

The challenge given by my instructor (Lee) is to back the trailer between two pieces of wood that he placed on the ground in the parking lot. Practicing what I’ve learned from playing the trailer backing game above, I was able to get the trailer into the pretend campsite:

You can see the wood circle under the bumper on the right side.

Lee: “Other than jumping the curb a few times, practice went smoothly.”

Now that Danny is a back home, the process of upgrading and outfitting for full-timing can continue. So far we have:

• replaced the original equipment filament light bulbs with LEDs.
• added an Extend A Stay propane kit which allows the use of external bulk propane tanks
• planned and partially implemented an inverter/solar electrical system.
• reupholstering the headboard and the window cornices in the bedroom is in progress.

So we are back on track and moving forward. Till next time!

A New Chapter

Arnold & Danny

This idea hatched over lobster stew in a lobster pound on the coast of Maine near Acadia National Park. It was our second attempt to have a vacation in Acadia this season. Both trips ended with our 22 ft. 2001 VW Rialta van in the shop for repairs. The first time it was a CVC and new axle. The second time it was the transmission.

We were wondering if we could go full time, figuring out a budget on the paper napkin. It looked like we could. We are both experienced campers. The dogs like camping. We decided to see if this would work.

The next few weeks were pretty intensive RV shopping both online and in person. We learned a lot about the different manufacturers and product lines. We looked at Truck Campers ( not big enough, especially with 3 large dogs), travel trailers ( I don’t want to tow one) and finally settled on a fifth wheel trailer. We called some of our favorite Vermont State Campgrounds and asked them if they had any limitations on the size of RV they can accommodate. The answer was to stay at 30 feet or less.

So the mission is to find a 30 foot new or used-in-good-condition 5th wheel with lots of storage, good insulation, and heated tanks. Everything we looked at was a compromise on one criterion or another. I kept thinking that when we find the right one, we would know it. And we did!

Danny is a 30 ft. 2011 Forest River Wildcat. It has the insulation we were looking for, the enclosed and heated tanks and a lot of storage.

We had traded Lee’s jeep for a 2008 Ram 3500 diesel dually with a gooseneck hitch in the truck bed earlier this fall. He’s a monster so we named him Arnold. Arnold can tow anything! So we bought Danny on Halloween and brought him home on Tues. 11/3. My first towing/backing lesson was yesterday. Driving forward is not so bad. I still have a lot to learn about backing up.