Back home again!

Arrived home this afternoon at about 3:30.  Ground was bare and firm enough to drive on.  So the camper is parked in it's normal spot on the back lawn, ready for unpacking, repacking and the next trip in 2-1/2 weeks.

It was another nice drive on a nice day.  Really a pretty good ending to a fine trip.  I have taken a liking to the drive on US 209 along the Delaware River in PA on the NJ border.  Most of it is in the Del Water Gap National Forest.

12,265 miles, 255 hours of drive time, 16 states from Jan. 10 to April 11.

I have added a lot of photos to the past few days, back to 4/5 with a lot of bird photos from the wetland park in Gainesville.

Last camp in PA

Back in the yard in Vermont!

Pocono Mountain Vacation park, Stroudsburg PA, last night of the trip!

Nice day for a drive.  So, the weather was beautiful even if it was cool.  Traffic in Richmond was bad; took a half hour longer than necessary but a half hour is not too bad.  We got off I-95 in Fredericksburg VA to take US 15 north to Harrisburg PA.  We like that route and have used it a few times.  Mostly 4 lane but going through some towns.  Kind of like Rt 7 south of Rutland in VT.  Not heavy traffic; you can get around well, stop for fuel and get back into traffic again.  However I would not try to stop on the left side of the road.  More traffic approaching Allentown, going slow, and a fast but dense crowd north of there.

Some pretty nice scenery along this route.  Some big impressive houses that were too far into the trees to be photographed, I wonder why.  And a few very old houses that clearly had survived the Civil War.  Lots of signs for various battlefields and museums.  We really could spend some time around northern Virginia.

This is the same campground and the same site we had on Jan. 10.  I believe they keep this site for one-nighters.  This park, like so many of them, have a lot of seasonal or permanent residents.  As we walk around there are several trailers that have rooms built onto them.

And this place has WiFi.  Albeit a very slow system.  Probably overloaded with users.  But I'll try to get some photos included.

No. Virginia horse farm

Our last campsite

Pocahontas State Park, Virginia

Started out as a rainy day in NC.  Dave & Gale had a little packing to finish when we said our good byes & left them, but they only had a 2 hour drive.  We took about 7.  That's not bad.  We'll have a good 7 hours of drive time tomorrow, plus stops.

We were at this park just outside of Richmond VA on the way down, January 11, our second night.  Hard to believe it has been 3 months on the road, and hard to believe it is only 2 more days to be home with it all just a memory.  OK, a whole lot of very good memories!

Took a walk on some trails down to a pond and through the woods beside the campground.  Good to get out and walk after a day in the truck.

No WiFi and little usable cell service here.  Someday I'll update all the photos I have had to skip.

Pocahontas campsite

Cedar Point 2

Great day, even if it did begin with rain when we woke up.  It had stopped by the time we finished breakfast.  We all sat around a while outdoors while we decided what to do.
First we went down to the water at the boat launch to look around.  Then a walk on the nature trail next to it.  Nice boardwalk and gravel path around the local habitat.  Saw a crab, several birds and a few fish.
After lunch we went to the beach for a long walk and some sea shell collecting, primarily sand dollars. 
Finally we al went out to dinner at The Trading Post which specializes in southern cooking.  The Shrimp & Grits was excellent.
Connectivity remains an issue so once again I cannot include photos.

"That's a SQUIRREL!!!"

Collecting shells.

Shrimp & Grits
Now that's how to eat grits!

Cedar Point Campground, NC

Got an early start from the Wal Mart at 7:30 and arrived here at about 3:00 PM.  Despite it being a slightly ong day and some frustrating slow traffic at times it was not a bad drive.
Spent a nice evening with Dave & Gale and we'll all spend an extra night here tomorrow night so we have a bit more time.  Besides, it sounds like VT is still a little snowy and cold to return tooo quickly.
I seem to be having some technical difficulty with the laptop tonight.  It won't load the blog.  I am posting this from the tablet.  But the photos are in the laptop.  Maybe tomorrow.

Hardeeville "campground" at Wally

This little boat passed us on the highway.  Think that's enough power?

Hardeeville SC

Good bye Florida!

Finally got the truck fixed this morning!  We got on the road a little after 1 PM.  Kept running into slow traffic.  North of Jacksonville FL we had a long stretch of very slow moving traffic and again all around Savannah GA.  We have been through Savannah but have not seen traffic like this.  It was almost as bad as Atlanta.  It was so bad that we got off just south of Savannah to camp at a Wal Mart in Richmond Hills.  But we drove past the entrance because it was not marked and in the process of turning around we decided to go further north.  And back into bad traffic.
So we get here to the Wally in Hardeeville, the Wal Mart website says they have overnight parking but the store has 'no overnight parking" signs".  Yet there are 6 campers here.  We'll see.
Oh, we are here because I called around a dozen campgrounds in the area and they are all full.  There is not a campsite to be had for a good 50 miles around Savannah.


A couple views of Paynes Prairie:

Paynes Prairie 5 (final?)

What a day.  Another reset.

The Warranty company has denied the claim, calling this a pre-existing condition.  OK, remember that this started less than an hour after I bought the truck.  Now the selling dealer has agreed to fix it at their own expense.  So they are overnight ordering the part and having it installed at their own favorite garage tomorrow at 9:45 

If that all goes by plan (which will be a first for this adventure) we will be on the road around noon.  We can't make it to NC in that short time but should arrive late Saturday to see David & Gale, who are there tonight in a double site that we are supposed to be sharing!

This afternoon we found a very nice city operated wetlands park.  It is a man made wetland for water treatment, removing nutrients, sediment and trash form the stream before reaching Paynes Prairie.

Paynes Prairie is the name for a 22,000 acre state park and much larger savannah or marsh.

Took lots of photos today but the cell service still stinks so I can't load them.

Paynes Prairie 4

Still stuck here waiting for the truck.  The idiots at the warranty company cant get anything done, like authorize a repair that is clearly covered.
Went to a park in Gainesville for a little hike.  We each got a haircut.  Made numerous phone calls to try to get my truck back.
Maybe tomorrow.
No photos.

Paynes Prairie 3

The truck is in the shop and we have a rental to get around.
While I was in town with the truck Carlene was out hiking many of the trails here at the park.  I dropped her off at the Visitor Center about 1.5 miles away where she could hike her choice of several trails and walk back to camp if she so chose.  She and Callahan had a good time and we all got back to camp at the same time.  This afternoon we went out to a spot on the lake to hang out in the shade and relax.  Carlene had seen eagles there earlier in the day and we could see some large birds in the distance.  We also could hear eagle calls in the air but did not see any close enough to identify.

Carlene's view from the observation tower

Our afternoon relaxing spot