Friday, October 3, 2008

Day 10, 3 Oct 2008, Salem VA to HOME

We had a great day today. We decided to take I81 home today instead of the back roads like yesterday. Street Atlas said we had a 6 hour trip via the back roads and a 3 hour trip via the interstate, so we opted for the interstate. We left the campground and drove about 20 miles and stopped at Waffle House for breakfast since we were running low on breakfast food in the motorhome.

We stopped in Bristol, VA to get some dry dog food for Blackie since it's hard to find Eagle Pack dog food in this area.

Then we went through Boones Creek, TN and saw gas for $3.509 so we filled up there since Gas Buddy said gas was $3.579 in Elizabethton.

From there we stopped at our vets in Johnson City to get Little Bear some dry food since she uses a special kind available only at vets.

When we got to Elizabethton we decided to stop at China King and had some great Chinese food. When we left there we found gas at WalMart was actually $3.539 so we still saved a little.

We got home around 6:30 PM after a great 10 day trip. We had a ball and of course it's always good to be home.

We did put up pictures for days 7, 8 and 9, so you may want to go back to those days and click on "Pictures" at the bottom of that days' blog to see them.

Check back soon as I'm sure Barbara has come pictures to put up for the day 10 blog.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Day 9, 2 Oct 2008, Centreville VA to Salem VA

Today was a nice leisurely drive. We broke camp this morning, had breakfast in the motorhome and headed home. Instead of heading out I-66 to I-81 and the boring drive home, we decided to go down Rt 29 south through Charlottesville, through Lynchburg and then west on Rt 460 which took us through downtown Roanoke and into Salem. We noticed the further south we went the more expensive gas became. We finally found a station in Thaxton that had gas for $3.579 so we filled up there.

We found a nice campground in Salem at Dixie Caverns and Pottery Shop right next to I-81. We managed to get here and get set up well before dark. Then we had dinner in the motorhome and settled in to wait for the VP debate.

Pictures

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Day 8, 1 Oct 08, Wilkes Barre PA to Centreville VA

We awoke this morning in the Sam's Club parking lot, had breakfast and filled up with gas for $3.459 and then headed south on I-81. In Harrisburg, PA we turned south on Rt 15 and took that route to the Bull Run Regional Park in Centreville, VA and signed up for a campsite. We refilled our potable water tanks, emptied the black water and gray water tanks and then set up camp and finished just before dark.

Centerville is where Barbara's daughters (Susan and Cindy) live. Cindy came to the campground and picked us up and took us to their place. Susan fixed an oustanding dinner consisting of grilled hamburgers (the best we've had in ages) and Texas style home fries (also outstanding). Then we had chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert to celebrate the girls' birthdays. After a great visit, Susan took us back to the campsite and we're calling it a day. This park is absolutely full of deer. We must have seen a couple of dozen on the trip to and from the girls' place. We also saw a red fox here.

Pictures

Day 7, 30 Sep 08, Portsmouth NH to Wilkes Barre PA

Wow, what a day today was!

We got up this morning and left our friends Steve and Kate's house and went back to Kittery, ME to the shipyard hoping to renew the base sticker on the motorhome four months early since we were here and had originally gotten the base sticker from here.

They were busy and after waiting for almost an hour they told me they couldn't renew it at this time. Wow, we could have used that hour.

We then headed south on Rt 1 back through Portsmoth and stopped just south of town and had breakfast (near noon) and stopped at a Market Basket (a really great grocery store) and bought some items we needed including some of the biggest sea scallops we've seen.

We went on south on Rt 1 and headed toward the ocean in Rye, NH and drove down Rt 1A to Hampton, NH and saw the beautiful ocean. We headed back to Rt 1 and stopped in Seabrook where we bought $3.399 gas on the way up and filled up, but this time it was only $3.359. Then we got back on I-95 and headed south until we got to I-84 in Massachusetts and then headed west. We went through Hartford, CT and then crossed into New York.

We stopped at a rest stop near Fishkill NY just before dark. We hemmed and hawwed and finally decided we could just spend the night there as one of the guys are the rest area said it would be no problem. Barbara fixed the scallops we bought earlier. Were they ever great! After about three hours at the rest stop we began to feel uneasy about staying overnight. Barbara "found" us a campground on the map about 3 miles off the highway just inside the NJ line. By now it was 9:00 PM. We headed on west on I-84 looking for that campground. Well, the campground wasn't there or it might have been a church or scout camp and was closed. Anyway, according to the map, there was another one a few miles down this country road so we drove on. We found a sign with a camper on it and foolishly turned onto the road. It was nothing but a cow path and had "no camping" signs on the trees! Worse, we couldn't find a place to turn around! We finally managed to turn around without getting stuck or scratching up the MH and getting back on the blacktop road, said a prayer of thanks and decided to keep going down the country road since it was the right direction toward home rather than head back. We crossed the Delaware River into Milford, PA where a guy at a quick stop gave us directions to a campground that was right next to the interstate! All after we'd driven 2 hours on back roads. Well, that campground wasn't there either (or was closed). So we headed on west on I-84 and the next thing we knew we were in Wilkes Barre, PA. There we found a Sams Club and spent the night there--at 1:30 a.m.!!

NY, NJ, & PA are really short on campgrounds. We've run into this problem before, but can't seem to find a solution short of staying in a motel.

What a long day!

Pictures