Spotsylvania VA to Kinston NC

Beautiful sunny day for a drive south.  We ended up in Kinston NC.  Looks like a nice place.  I think we'll stay a while.  Not that we have much choice.  You see, we had a little misadventure here.  We wrecked the truck.  Yup.  Made a heap big mess of it.  Quite likely totaled, at least I hope so.  WE are ALL OK!!  Carlene, Callahan and Andy are just fine.  Not a scratch.  And the other guy involved got one band-aid. So the human/canine factor is feeling fine!  I had recently named my frequently-ailing truck "Calamity Joe".  Maybe he took exception to that.  Anyway, he may be totaled.  Huge front end damage as a van came across in front of us and collided with our front end.

So tonight we are camping in the back lot of a body shop, the owner hauled the camper over here with his own truck and let us stay here tonight.  We;ll find a state park or something tomorrow and he will again haul us over there.  We'll stay here until something gets resolved.  Until the insurance company decides the fate of Calamity Joe  we won't know what we are doing next.  From the damage I can see I know I do not want it repaired.  We have a rental car but it won't pull the camper very far!

Well, that's about all there is to report today!  Maybe tomorrow I'll send some photos.

Stroudsburg PA to Fredericksburg VA

It seems that we left the bare ground and came south to get back in snow country.  Yup, snow covered ground in Virginia, and I do not mean up in the mountains.  We are about 20 miles north of Richmond VA.  You might have seen my comment about not coming down here this past weekend because it was going to snow.  It did; and it’s still here.  We had not seen this much since Albany NY.  The guy at the KOA here said they haven’t had this much in six years.

We came down US Rt 15 from Hassisburg PA to Dumfries VA.  It is all 4 lane but not interstate.  It is a nice route, scenic, unpopulated because it bypasses the few small towns along the way, not very crowded on the road.  Just a pleasant drive.  But there is a distinct lack of any place to pull off and change drivers.  I ended up driving all the way for lack of a place to switch without leaving the  is ][[highway and going into town.

We made a quick stop at Cabela’s this morning.  Those are such great stores to just admire the decor!

In Cabela’s

Bridge over the Potomac River 

Snowy Virginia

Our campsite in Fredericksburg 

Richmond to Stroudsburg PA

Made it to PA without a hiccup...  We got up at 0400, good grief. Gave the neighborhood something to watch as they woke up.  But got the rig off the lawn with no problem.  Nice easy day driving down here.  It was cool watching the changing scenery as we saw less and less snow all the way to Albany NY where it disappeared.

I am so glad to be away from ice!  I fell again while loading the truck.  More stinking ice.  At least I didn’t hurt anything this time.

Campsite at Pocono Vacation Park in Stroudsburg

At the truck stop in Ft Anne NY.

Dawn Launch tomorrow!

We got the right part delivered and installed today, the weather is cold but clear along the route so everything looks good to get out of Dodge tomorrow.  Everything that can freeze is in the camper or the truck.  Tomorrow morning we just have the food and some last minute things to load.  Hitch up and GO!

The truck part came in Thursday, I went over to get it installed and... it was the wrong part.  The warranty company insists on sending their own parts and sent the wrong one.  There are two nitrous sensors in the truck, just different length of electric cable.  Of course they sent the short one where they needed the long one.  Reordered the part and hoped for Friday delivery.  It id not come in yesterday so that will be a Monday fix (yeah, if it comes in-but it should).  So now it looks like A Tuesday departure.  That's a much better day to start out for the weather anyway.  It is supposed to be good all week all the way to the NC coast.
In the meantime my shoulder is getting better by the day.  I have recovered more range of motion in some directions than I expected.  Now I don't mean full speed or full strength, just the ability to move the arm.  It's just the outward rotation that's taking time.

It's Wednesday and we have a few inches of wet snow with more coming.  Maybe Sunday!
In the meantime my truck wants one more repair part.  That should be in Friday.  And last night I fell on the ice coming out of the camper and wrenched my right shoulder.  Went to the doc today and had it diagnosed as a damaged rotator cuff.  Dang it.  Very limited range of motion and painful when I try to go beyond a point.  She gave me a bunch of PT exercises to work it out.  If those don't do it I'll be finding a PT somewhere down the road.
So if we get the truck fixed Friday then we might get out on Sunday.  As it turns out once the snow is done here there will be more down south.  Forecast for a few inches of snow this weekend around Richmond VA!
We'll see!

Looking forward to another great trip this winter.  Current plan, or is it "hope" is to leave town on Wednesday.  IF the weather holds.  There is that snowstorm wandering around northeast of us that is uncertain about its course right now.  Thursday may be better.  Still watching several different weather sites.