Where Have We Been? Part I

3/21 to 3/25/2022 -  Biloxi, MS to Bonifay, FL, 218 miles,  stayed at Outback Springs RV Park for four nights, $93.99

3/25 to 4/1/2022 - Bonifay, FL to Brunswick, GA, 197 miles, stayed at Coastal Georgia RV Resort for7 nights, $336/ week

4/1 to 4/8/2022 - Brunswick, GA to John’s Island, SC, stayed at Oak Plantation Campground for 7 nights, $404.22/week

4/8 to 4/13/2022 - John’s Island, SC to Myrtle Beach, SC, stayed at Briarcliffe RV Resort for 5 nights, $241.80

4/13 to 4/15/2022 - Myrtle Beach, SC to High Point, NC, stayed at Oak Hollow Family Campground for 2 nights, $45/night

4/15 to 4/19/2022 - High Point, NC to Max Meadow, VA, stayed 4 nights at Fort Chiswell RV Campground, $45/night

4/19 to 4/21/2022 - Max Meadow, VA to Greenwood, VA, stayed 3 nights at Misty Mountain Campground, for $215.10

4/21 to 4/28/2022 - Greenwood, VA to College Park, MD, stayed 7 nights at Cherry Hill Park for $81.90/ night

4/28 to 4/30/2022 - College Park, MD to Gettysburg, PA, stayed at Drummer Boy Camping Resort for 2 nights, $178.36

4/30 to 5/9/2022 - Gettysburg, PA to Ronks, PA, stayed 9 nights at Beacon Hill Campground for $336

Beaches and Battlefields

It has been a long time and many miles since I blogged last.  Let me say up front, it took me a good eight weeks to recover from my fall, and definitely blunted my interest in exploring on two feet for some time.  But, I’m back to it again, and just in time!  We’re going to spend two months in Canada!

Let me review, and then I’ll share what we’ve learned about getting into a foreign country post-COVID shutdown. 

In the last three and a half months, we revisited many favorite places and saw some new ones. We followed springtime from South Carolina to Vermont. There was A LOT of pollen and dandelion/cottonwood fluff in the air that made our eyes itch and our noses run. But the blooming trees and flowers have been GORGEOUS, and made the sneezing worth it.  And now, we’re enjoying a mild summer in the Northeast, while most of the rest of the country is under a blistering heatwave. Sorry. 

We enjoyed the beaches in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.  I will always be happy on a beach, even if I can hardly walk.  But we really started having fun when we reached Washington, DC and Gettysburg.  We’ve been to DC before, so vowed not to kill ourselves trying to do it again, because neither of us could walk the distance required. We stayed at Cherry Hill RV Park in Maryland, which has a city bus that picks you up in the park and takes you to the metro and a 30 minute train ride into DC.  We took a guided tour of all the monuments, which I think is better than the hop on/off bus, because the group is smaller, and the guide gets off, walks with you, and gives you time to explore before moving on.  The bus drops you as close as possible and stays near, so you can get back on when you want.  Unlike 20 years ago when we walked right up to the fence on both sides of the White House, our best vantage point was from Lafayette Square, and we didn’t even try to get into the Capitol. Again, we saw it from a distance. I was awed by the Jefferson and MLK memorials - on the far side of the tidal basin.  We hadn’t seen these before and we did get to walk up and around them. I was impressed at how respectful adults and school children alike were around these areas.  

We stayed two nights near Gettysburg, so we could take our time and drive through the battlefield.  We downloaded a self-guided app that played videos at each major stop along the driving route.   It’s amazing to see firsthand how the fighting ranged all over the countryside and through towns.  In three days, from July 1-3,1863,  51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing. The Soldier’s National Cemetery was designed and built to properly bury the union soldiers and was dedicated on November 19, 1863. Lincoln’s two minute address still hits home today. After the war, 3500 more union soldiers were reinterred there and 3320 confederate soldiers were removed from the battlefield and sent to cemeteries in the South. Every regimen from every state has a memorial at the site. Each one, special and unique. 

Later that day, we found a historic tavern in the basement of The Dobbin House. It was built in 1776 and believed to be the first station on the Underground Railroad north of the Mason-Dixon Line, where we ate lunch. I had cheesy French onion soup with chunks of beef and date nut bread.  YUM!

We spent nine days in Lancaster County, PA, in a town called Intercourse. Amish country has gotten extremely commercialized and overcrowded with tourists. I felt so sorry for the horses pulling the buggies through major traffic, with cars and 18-wheelers zooming around them. But on the off days (Sunday - Thursday), when it was quieter, it was lovely to walk through the countryside and observe the small happenings at the farm across the street, like chicks scratching for bugs in the yard, while the cat prowled nearby.  A Tom turkey puffed up his feathers in full display to impress the ladies, and a new foal rested with his mother.  Laundry day seems to be Monday, and the colorful shirts and dresses fly high with black trousers on long clotheslines in the breeze.  The air smells of manure, which we never got used to, but the sunsets over the planted fields was a sight to see. 

We made our way up the Hudson River Valley from Catskill to Peru, NY. My favorite day trip was to the Norman Rockwell museum in Stockbridge, MA.  I love how he tells a story with careful attention to detail in the costumes and faces and props in his MANY illustrations for the Saturday Evening Posts, or magazines and books. I enjoyed learning about his process.  He used friends, family and townspeople as models to find the most authentic characters. His painting, “Christmas in Stockbridge” is of the main street in winter. The town has not changed at all!  We ate at a cafe that was once the general store. 

 Another great stop was Lake George, NY, where you’ll find the real Fort William Henry, the setting for the novel “The Last of the Mohicans”. Of course we watched the movie, but didn’t visit the fort.  It was the end of the school year and there were MANY field trips going there.

 This is dairy country. Folks in this area of the country LOVE their ice cream and hot dogs. We visited Martha’s several times for soft serve, better than Dairy Queen! (Please don’t disown me, Texas.). A neighboring camper had to have me try a Michigan, cousin of the chili dog but not at all like a chili dog. The bun is a thick slice of bread wrapped around a red hot dog that snaps when you bite it, and the chili is pulverized ground beef in a gravy with not a lot of spice, and a line of mustard, maybe some onions. They love it!  There are Michigan roadside stands all over.  It was okay,  but not a chili dog.  We didn’t get to try the other delicacy called Poutine.  It’s a pile of fries smothered in brown gravy and topped with cheese curds  the servings are so big you could make a meal, but we didn’t.  

I was a little disappointed in the Hudson River Valley.  In know there are some beautiful places there, but I didn’t plan properly to see them, and we didn’t spend near enough time, as is always the case.  Even though we said we were going to slow down, I didn’t get to see any of the places in Virginia that I had wanted because of bad weather.  We are definitely not vacationers, which can be frustrating for me.  We couldn’t keep up such a pace or afford to do all the things we would normally do if we were not on a budget.  Chalk it up to experience.  We’ll have to come back for vacation.