More Virginia

Cloudy day. We haven't seen much sun so far this trip. As soon as we got up, Jean noticed that one of the shades had come loose at the top. Now what?  RVs use what are called day/night shades. They consist of two parts, both pleated, that pull down on taut strings. The day part comes down first and cuts way down on the light. The night part pulls down behind that and is opaque. Investigation revealed that they are fastened to the top of the window with clips. Nothing seemed to be broken and I was able to put the top back onto the clip with some difficulty. I'm not sure whether the clip is broken or damaged so for the time being we are not pulling down the shade.

That problem solved (we hope), we went into the Walmart for some last-minute purchases, then headed back south to go to the Turner sculpture gallery. It is a father-and-son operation that does beautiful (and expensive) wildlife bronzes.

The gallery includes paintings by various people as well as the Turners' amazing sculpture.

 Then we headed back north again, destination Chincoteague. However, looking through an Eastern Shore guidebook on the way, Jean spotted a couple of interesting-looking side trips.

The first one was the town of Parksley, off the highway to the west. It's main attractions seem to be a number of Victorian homes and a railroad museum. So we drove in and took a look.

The houses were on one side of the railroad track, the museum on the other. There were a variety of cars, which I was too interested in to take pictures, except for one car with the steel structure on the outside (sort of like a crab).

In the same parking area was a produce stand. We bought two tomatoes and a cucumber. Fresh food tonight! Then we went across the street to see what was in this typical

small town. Among the stores we found a Carribean grocery store, run by a woman from Haiti. Lots of interesting smells.

At the end of the street there is an actual five-and-dime. We haven't seen one of those in years. We went in and, of course, couldn't resist buying something.










The next side trip we made was to a memorial to Francis Makemie, the founder of Presbyterianism in America. Jean was raised as a Presbyterian but had never heard of him. So of course we had to go find it. It is in a field overlooking a creek and extensive salt marsh.

The place was well-kept and very nice, but full of mosquitoes. So we retreated into the Roadtrek and made a late lunch of one of the tomatoes. Some of the simplest things can be the most pleasant: sitting in the van, soybeans behind us, forest in front, a quiet meal together in a quiet place. What more could you ask?

After lunch we checked out campsites and found one that had what we needed. So we finally headed to Chincoteague. It had been several years since either one of us had been there, so it was almost like new to us.

The campground is kind of funky, but it has reliable wifi and full hookups. The ground, being basically a barrier island, is sandy. I  tried to level up by driving up on blocks on the front. Instead I spun the rear wheels and we ended up digging a hole in the back. Oh well, that works as well; so I put the blocks away.

So here we are, Jean is watching television while I write this blog. Tomorrow we visit Chincoteague and Assateague. Then on to Maryland.

On to Onancock

Check out time at Cherrystone is 11:00, so we had to get up and get moving. The sun was shining today and the herons were back in the pool, so I took some more pictures. You can't go wrong with herons and egrets.

 Our first destination was the town of Oyster on the ocean side of the peninsula. We do not have any detailed maps of the Eastern Shore; neither in the Virginia highway map or the map in the Eastern Shore guide. After making a couple of guesses, we drove into a small settlement on the water. We parked by the water and in a little while a local drove up and parked nearby. I walked over and asked if this was Oyster and he said it was. I mentioned that I had met someone from there named Hardtimes Hunt. He pointed out a house and said it was his. He had since passed away but his son was still there. He had a very heavy accent and it was a little hard to make out what he was saying. I had not heard that accent before, but I assumed it was the local one.





Following our usual inclinations, we didn't go back to the main highway (13) but took a back road that headed north. The countryside here is mostly farming, lots of soybeans and some impressive tomato fields that were being picked. At one point Jean spotted a sign for a bird and wildlife viewing trail, and we turned off. The road got narrower and went into deep woods. Just before the end (where the birding trail began) we spotted a sign proclaiming "Office." We wondered what kind of office there would be way back here in the woods, so we turned around and followed the dirt road a short distance. We ended up in a parking area with a couple of cars in front of a substantial building set in a neat lawn.

It turned out to be the Eastern Shore office of the Nature Conservancy. We went inside and had an interesting conversation with a man who told us about the area that they control, and also gave us some useful local information to supplement our inadequate maps

Leaving there, we went in search of a fairly remote campground called Virginia Landing that we found on one of our campground apps but not the other. After driving for quite a while, we ended up about a mile from the Conservancy office  --- as the gull flies, but a long way if he has to walk. The campground was (or perhaps is, it wasn't clear) a unit of the Thousand Trails campground membership club (an expensive bunch) but we would be able to stay there if we wanted. After getting a lot of information, we decided to move on since it was still early in the day.

Our next task was to find some diesel since we were getting low. The ranger at the campground gave us directions to the nearest gas station and we were off again.

By now it was early afternoon and we were getting hungry. So we set a course for Wachapreague, where Jean had been once several years ago. There we went back to a restaurant where she had eaten before and had a nice (and filling) meal out on the deck overlooking the marsh with the barrier islands in the distance.

The view from the deck

We walked around Wachapreague a little, but there really isn't much there unless you are a fisherman, so we headed for Onancock.

Gene had been in Onancock several times before --- generally on a boat. We got information about the ferry to Tangier Island and after some discussion decided the cost was more than we were interested in. We walked around downtown Onancock (all two blocks of it) but it was late and many of the places were closed. This is a larger town than Cape Charles and not so much dependent on tourism, so there were mostly normal businesses. We stopped at a bakery and got some cinnamon pastries for breakfast, then went back out to the highway and found the local Walmart. We needed to do some shopping, both in the grocery and the pharmacy section.

Our campground apps did not show any campgrounds near Onancock and we didn't want to go all the way back to Virginia Landing so we settled in for the night on the quiet back side of Walmart. We will be dry camping tonight. Who knows what adventures await us tomorrow?

Cape Charles

Monday. The campground was almost empty. It is definitely off-season. The day was pretty much overcast which didn't make for very exciting photography.

We got up at more reasonable time today in order to meet someone at the hawk-watch. We got there about 10:30. This is a nice spot. Several people were set up on a raised platform with a roof over one end. People were spotting and identifying various hawks which I couldn't see even with binoculars. We met the person we had been told about and we (mainly Jean) had a long, interesting conversation with a young man who was very active in developing butterfly habitat. He was especially knowledgeable about Monarchs.

We left about 11:30 and prepared to head out. We had a fairly long conversation with the camp host before we pulled out. Our main goal for the day was the city of Cape Charles. I had been there several (15?) years ago and found a dying town with half the downtown buildings boarded up. Today it is a tourist destination and I was interested to see what it looked like now. I'm not sure what the attraction is for tourists, though I understand there is quite a bit of golf there now.

One of the first things you see as you come into town from the highway is the water tower. It has been tricked out to look like a lighthouse on legs. It even has a strobe on top.

Most of the buildings downtown have been fixed up, and obviously cater to the tourists.

There is now an Irish pub and an interesting coffee shop.

We walked around and checked out some of the things I remembered. Most had changed but some not. Down at the end of the main street, where there is a new fishing pier and the beach begins, we found one of the Love sculptures that have been cropping up all over the state.

 We both got into a long conversation with one of the shop keepers. Mine ran from historic ships to soldering techniques. Jean went into the shop next door and found someone from our home area. So we spent a pleasant half hour that way.

We don't play golf so there didn't seem to be much else to do. I was disappointed --- though I don't know what I expected. By now it was about 4:00 and we headed out to our next campground just north of town.

We checked in to Cherrystone camp ground and got a site right on the Bay. There was a great egret working a little inlet right in front of our site.

There were also a couple of colliers anchored in the Bay offshore. I got very curious because they were pointing in opposite directions. While examining them through the binoculars I got into a conversation with our neighbor and learned that this is the campground that got hit by a tornado last spring with the death of three campers. (And if anyone is interested, while we were talking one of the colliers swung around to point the same way as the other, so I guessed that they were riding in different parts of the tidal current.)

So a mostly quiet day but not without its interest.

Eastern Shore Adventures

Sunday night. We left Forest yesterday, but I didn't write anything because it was just a travel day. Today was very quiet, so I am combining the two days. Maybe it will add up to a whole day.

We left the farm a little after 10:00 and drove east all day. We arrived at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel a little after 3:00. For those of you not familiar with eastern Virginia, the CBBT is a 17-mile complex of trestles, tunnels (2), and bridges that crosses the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. It connects at the northern end with a long peninsula that separates Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. It is called the Delmarva Peninsula because it contains parts of three states: Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. But it is commonly referred to as the Eastern Shore.

We stopped for lunch on the island for the first tunnel --- the only place you can stop in the crossing. Out in the middle of the Bay, looking toward the ocean, we saw several empty colliers waiting to take on a load of coal in Hampton Roads (which is a major coal-shipping port).

Colliers anchored at Lynhaven. In the distance is a container ship putting out to sea.

It was a pleasant crossing, sunny, warm, and not windy. We arrived at the Visitor Center at the end just after they closed. Our usual luck.

We proceeded a few miles up the road to Kiptopeke State Park and got a site in the campground. We had stayed here once before and liked it. The campground was fairly crowded but not full, so we claimed a spot and then drove a few miles up the road to a Food Lion to get some additional groceries.

Back at the campground, we walked down to the beach (it's on the Bay side). Along the way we passed a camper with three kayaks on top of his car. Two of them were wooden. We talked with him for a while, comparing his Chesapeake Light Craft kits with my Pygmy kit and other kayakie things.

We arrived at the beach in time for sunset, then back to the Roadtrek for drinks and snacks and a quiet evening.

Sunday (today) the campground pretty much emptied out. Only one RV came in during the afternoon. I walked back to the office to pay for another day. We walked down to the beach to sign up for a kayak tour of the concrete boats and the bridge, but the tour operator was sick today. The black line along the horizon (above) is a row of WWII ships built out of concrete; since sunk off-shore to form a breakwater. There was a period in the 60's when ferro-cement (concrete) was the hot material for amateur boat-building (snidely called "sailing sidewalks") and some very nice boats were produced. More common were large, half-finished hulls in people's back yards.

With no kayaking, we took a walk on a boardwalk through the woods and down to the beach. Since we expected to be out in kayaks I didn't bring a camera so I have no pictures from today. After all that walking, I sat down on the fishing pier to rest. Jean had a long conversation with a park ranger and I looked for migrating hawks. She was much more successful.

By the time we got back to the Roadtrek, I was ready for a nap. We lead such a hectic life when we are on the road.

After supper we went on an owl walk with the ranger. Not much action, perhaps beause it was overcast and owls need at least some light to hunt. After much calling, a screech owl showed up, though you could only see it when it flew between trees. It answered briefly, and I learned that despite its name, the screech owl is the quietest of the owls.

Then back to the ranch for some Cuba Libres and to write this blog. Another eventful day.

Vermont and home

This will be a slightly different blog posting. In July, we took our annual Vermont trip. Unlike previous trips I did not post every night as we went. For a couple of reasons (probably none of them good) we forwent that procedure. I expect that in the future I will return to as-we-go posting. After returning, I decided to do an ex post facto description of the trip. Then I lost the written log book. I have now found it again, so here we go. This trip consists of three posts, so to read it in chronological order, start at two posts below (An Iffy Fourth).

9 July
A few days of relaxing in Burlington. Today, Jean went downtown to shop and I went with Alan to work on his boats (stored elsewhere). These boats consist of a Yamaha jet-ski and a boat called Shuttle Craft. This is the front half of a boat with a bay in the back in which to dock the jet-ski (which then powers the combination). Alan was having a problem due to the jet-ski not being tight enough.

First we cleaned the winter dirt off both boats. Then we pulled four bolts and went to a drive-through lumber yard to buy some wood. After a couple more stops we were back at the boats, where Alan decided to change plans. At first we were going to put a shim behind the liner to the docking place. Alan decided that adding a piece to the rub rail of the Yamaha would be easier and would work better. So we made some more measurements and went out and bought a bunch of nuts and bolts.

About 3:00 Jean came back and we went to the house for lunch, which consisted of a couple of Trader Joe's small, individual pizzas. That was something new for us and we enjoyed them. Too bad there isn't a Trader Joe's in Forest. We relaxed until Valerie came home, then went out to a nice Italian restaurant. We always eat well at Alan's.

10 July
The water tank ran out last night, so we had to flush using distilled water for the CPAP. First job in the morning was to refill the water tank. Another clear, cool day in Burlington.

I spent much of the day with Alan, working on extending the rub rails on the jet-ski. I soon learned that the best way to help him is to stay out of his way. He is a very fast worker and knows exactly what he wants to do and how to do it. Meanwhile, Jean walked downtown. Alan got the new wood cut and shaped and we were about to bolt them on when he decided to prime them first.

We got back to the house about the same time as Jean, and she and I hung out while Alan went for picnic stuff. After Valerie got home we joined their friends John and Lynne and went to a local park for a picnic and concert. I sat at the edge of the group so didn't hear much of the conversation because of the music, but it was a wonderful spot for people-watching. Afterwards we walked back to the house and spent the rest of the evening in quiet conversation.

11 July
It was a cool night, we needed a blanket about 5:00. But it turned into another sunny, warm day.

We left for home about 10:00. We stopped at the Wildflower Farm and Jean was able to buy the seeds she wanted, along with a nice mat printed with flowers and butterflies.

We stopped in Fairhaven for lunch at an old-time cafe called the Wooden Soldier. It was a touch of old Vermont. The burgers were also big and delicious.

Going back to the Roadtrek, we spotted a three-wheel car modeled after the classic Three-Wheel Morgan. It was hand-built, of which only a few were made. I had a brief opportunity to talk with the owner. Drool, drool.

On the way out of town we stopped to fill up on diesel. The place we chose had a unique system for fueling. After going in to pay, I was informed that in order to use the pump on the left side of the van (where the fuel fill is) I first had to take the nozzle from the pump on the right side and lay it on the ground. Then I would be able to get fuel from the nozzle to the left. It sounded weird, but it worked.

Alan and Valerie had both recommended that we visit a place called Bolton's Landing, on the west shore of Lake George. So we made a side trip when we got to New York. The drive in had lots of beautiful scenery, but you can't see the lake from the road. We found a parking place and walked around a little, during which time we spotted this tree stump.

Then we got back in the van and drove out to see the Sagamore, a classic, high-end resort in the grand style. Impressive.

We stopped for the night at the Walmart in Cobblestkill, NY. We had stayed here once before, on the return trip from taking Amanda to Vermont. Then it was nice weather when we went to bed, but in the morning we were the only vehicle in the lot, with strong wind and blowing snow (this was February). This time the weather was much better, though the stop was not without incident. I decided to move to what looked like a more level spot, but as I pulled forward, a low branch from the tree I was parked under ripped off the new vent cover. We never found the cover, which is shaped like a wind vane. The cover has since been replaced, but it leans back a little.

12 July
It was a chilly night, but nowhere like the last time we were here. Today we had a goal. We wanted to get to Winchester (VA) in order to visit with Jean's cousin, Beth. We stopped for lunch again in another Pennsylvania rest area (but no nap this time). Other than that it was just interstate driving.

As we were approaching the Virginia line, we got into a two-mile backup from and accident. At that time I got a long phone call from my granddaughter, Elizabeth. Meanwhile, Jean called Beth and arranged for us to meet tomorrow at breakfast (place to be determined when we know where we will be camping).

We checked in to a nice campground on the outskirts of Winchester. They had cable, so we hooked in and watched TV. We don't do that very often because we don't ever know the local listings. In this case we didn't have a very good picture either. We watch a lot of TV at home but almost none on the road.

13 July
In the morning we dumped our tanks to come home clean. We were successful, but it appears that we have a problem with the macerator/pump. Another problem to deal with when we get home.

We met Beth for breakfast in a nearby IHOP and had a long, pleasant visit. When we left we decided to try driving back on US11 instead of the interstate. It was a very pleasant drive, much better than the nearby interstate, though we did slip back onto I-81 briefly to go around Harrisonburg and to make the connection with I-64 for crossing Afton Mountain. We got home a little after 5:00.

Trip statistics: We determined that it is about 800 miles to Alan's from SW or SE Virginia. The total trip length was 1,808 miles.

On to Vermont

Sunday, 6 July:
Sunny and pleasant. We took a walk to the fishing pier at the other end of the waterfront. Not nearly as busy as yesterday. Chillie decided he wouldn't need us any more, so after chatting with friends for a while we left at noon --- destination Vermont.

Leaving from home, we usually drive up I-81 for a couple of days. Leaving from the other side of the state, we decided to  follow US17 until it intersects with 81 at Winchester. After the usual traffic between Yorktown and Gloucester it became easy country driving. The road varied from 4-lane-divided to 2-lane. It was a pleasant drive in the country, seeing the farms and small towns. This is our favorite kind of travel, calm and easy.

That is, until we picked up I-95 just south of Fredricksburg. We had to get on the interstate and follow it around Fredricksburg before we could get back on 17. Traffic in the interstate was bumper-to-bumper and moving slowly. It looked like all of Washington, DC, was heading back to town after the holiday weekend. Driving back to our usual route to Alan's meant taking a wide swing to the west, rather than taking the more direct route; but we were willing to add the miles to avoid the madness of the Northeast Corridor, especially on a holiday weekend. (As it turned out, the route we took wasn't significantly different from our usual one.)

Once we got back on17 and were clear of the traffic around Fredricksburg it was back to pleasant country driving again --- except for a few miles approaching Warrenton. Just before 5:00 we connected with I-81 at Winchester. The traffic wasn't bad, so we elected to stay on the interstate. Less than an hour later, we checked in to a campground in West Virginia. Once we got settled in, we recognized it as the same one we stayed in three years ago when we took Amanda to school in Vermont.

7 July
In the morning we bought more ice. There was block ice available at the camp store. So remembering my sailing days, I bought a block. That will keep longer than cubes, but in my sailing days we didn't make Cuba Libres every night --- and I later realized we don't carry an ice pick. We had to make do with a knife (not having Cuba Libres was not an option).

We also realized that we had left our New England maps home, so leaving the campground, we headed for the nearest AAA, in Hagerstown, MD. While Jean got the appropriate maps, I went in to a nearby liquor store to get some more rum. At $37 a bottle, it was the most I had ever paid for our favorite brand. I must remember not to buy liquor in Maryland.

In mid-afternoon we stopped for an hour in a Pennsylvania rest area for lunch and a short nap. Ah, the comforts of a motorhome.

We stopped for the night at a rural campground in New York. It was raining when we arrived, and then we had to wait briefly while our site was cleared of a capsized shelter tent and some pool toys that had blown over from the adjoining site. The rain ended shortly so we went to the office and camp store to pay our fees and find something for supper. Unlike most camp stores, this one had almost no food. Back at the Roadtrek we settled down for a "dinner" of chips, crackers, dip, pimiento cheese, Cuba Libres, and soft ice-cream sandwiches for dessert. Conditions were pleasant for a while, but then it got warmer again so we closed up and started the A/C.

The campground had wifi, so we got online. Jean did some bank business but was frustrated in one of the tasks she tried to do. Grrr! Then I got on line and caught up my checkbook and went through email. Then I discovered I also had a problem with the same web site. Grrr!

8 July
We turned off the A/C in the middle of the night and woke to a clear and sunny morning. But it soon began heating up. On the road, we ran into a traffic jam just south of Saratoga Springs, where we had wanted to take a short side trip. The traffic eased up just as we got to our exit.

We went in to town to see if we could find the dancing school run by Jean's late friend, Michael Steele. We stopped at the dance museum and made inquiries, but the one person Jean could find was new to the area and didn't know where it was. We headed toward downtown, but Saratoga Springs turned out to be a much bigger and more crowded place than we had imagined. Also, there was no place where we could find parking for the motorhome. So we headed back out, promising to try again another time.

Back on local roads, we entered Vermont about 2:30. Jean called Alan and he estimated we would be at his house in about two hours. At 4:05 we stopped at the Wildflower Farm to get some more seeds. The Farm closes at 4:00 so we were disappointed. Forty minutes later we arrived at Alan's, at the same time as him. He obviously knows traveling around Vermont very well.

We spent a pleasant time visiting on his deck overlooking Lake Champlain, then off to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. The wind and rain picked up after we got back, culminating in the portable garage he had rigged for an awning on the deck blowing down. A brief flurry of activity and everything was secured for the night.

In the past we have pressed on to make Vermont in two days. This time we took three and it was a more pleasant and relaxing trip. Traveling in an RV, our experience has always been that slowing down makes things better.

An iffy Fourth

Before the trip began we ran into a problem. Due to reasons too complex and embarrassing to go into here, we did not have a door on the refrigerator. So we had to do the trip using a cooler with ice. (The refrigerator has since been fixed.)

3 July
According to plan, we started by spending Fourth of July weekend at the Watermen''s Museum in Yorktown (VA) so that we could be available to help Jean's brother, Chillie-the Big Red Funnel Cake man. The weekend got off to an iffy start because Hurricane Arthur was coming up the coast and expected to be in our area about the Fourth. Heading toward a hurricane is something we don't usually do but what the hell, it wasn't supposed to be a big hurricane. We got to the museum about 5:30 on Thursday the third and settled in to our usual berth. The weather was in the high 90's. We learned that tomorrow's parade had already been cancelled due to predicted rain.

4 July
The rain happened during the night. By morning Arthur was off the Virginia-North Carolina border. There was no more rain but lots of wind. Friends stopped by from Williamsburg (they usually live in Seattle) and visited for a while.

With the parade cancelled, the morning was slow. Gradually the clouds cleared and toward late afternoon the wind moderated so that the fireworks were on as scheduled. By late afternoon business picked up at the funnel cake trailer and we had a line out the gate for a couple of hours. We eventually had to cut off the line because Chillie was running out of supplies. There were still people in line when the fireworks started.

Afterwards we walked down to the river. You could look across and in the distance see fireworks from four other cities.

By the time everything was wrapped up, there was no place left to eat but McDonald's. It was bumper-to-bumper getting there, and once there they were crowded and short-handed.

5 July
Morning was cool and pleasant. We walked to the Saturday market looking for something for breakfast. We ended up buying sandwiches and Linzer torts from the new Carrot Tree on the waterfront. After breakfast we drove to Sam's Club for supplies to replace what Chillie was in danger of running out of.

Back at the ranch, Jean rested and I worked on some knots for a new knot board for the museum. I found myself mostly doing whippings (2 per knot). In late afternoon, Chillie went to Richmond for more batter. After a while I joined his right-hand-man, Willie, and made lemonade. We had a steady stream of customers, but not a long line like yesterday. Chillie got back late, just as we were running out of batter; so we shut down and went to dinner at a real restaurant. Tomorrow we head for Vermont.