Myrtle Beach State Park

Forgot to mention in yesterday's blog that while on the fishing pier at Virginia Beach I saw a dolphin swim by the end of the pier.  It had come up for a breath and I only saw the back but if I recall it correctly it was a dolphin.  I had to look up dolphin vs. porpoise.  We watched for a few minutes to see if there might be another but no such luck.

So today we drove (and drove...) to Myrtle Beach.  It's 365 miles and was 9-5 to get here.  But it was a nice drive, moderately scenic.  Now we have made it through both day 3 and all of NC without incident.  That feels good!

Poor connection tonight so this is it.  

Chesapeake & Virginia Beach day 2

Happy Perihelion Day.  Earth's closest approach to the sun each year.
It was only bout 48 degrees with a 15 mph wind on the beach, so we didn't get much benefit from being any closer to the sun today.
The beach was south of Virginia Beach on the Outer Banks.  We thought we could go a long way down the islands but ran into a snag.  US Fish & Wildlife Service owns a big chunk of the land south of Virginia Beach and they don't allow private cars on the roads beyond the visitor center.  Andy don't allow pets, not even in the car according to the sign.  We went in anyway.  It's not exactly too hot for a dog in a car in January!  Even in Virginia!  Carlene and I had a little walk around the boardwalk at the visitor center then went back up to a city park with beach access.  We walked 3/4 mile down the beach and ran into another USFWS sign and fence on the beach "No Private Access".  They sure are a fussy bunch of bureaucrats.  But we had a nice time and it was cool enough that we were ready to come back after that.
Went out for dinner in Chesapeake, had some crab and shrimp.  Mighty fine!
Off to Myrtle Beach SC tomorrow.

At the Visitor Center

Visitor Center

These are at the beach near Virginia Beach:

Some beachfront property in Virginia Beach:

The entry area to our campground.  This is actually a 100 acre property shared by the campground and this horse farm/stable

Callahan has a ramp to get in & out of the truck.  It's just too high for him to jump at 12 yrs. old.

Chesapeake Campground, VA

A rainy day with some sun.  Then more rain.  But we got a 2 mile hike and stayed dry, so it was a good day after all!
Had to make a run to Camper World a few miles south of camp first thing this morning.  When we got the water running in Stroudsburg we found a leak in the incoming water line at the toilet flush valve.  I twas clean water so it was just a nuisance leak.  I was able to disconnect the water line and got a plug for the hose so we had running water to everything but the toilet.  Still able to use it but with a dry flush.  Today we went to CW with a couple photos of the leak to see if we could get parts.  The parts guy was very friendly and knew exactly what I needed before I got far into my description.  When I got to camp tonight it took 10 minutes to fix, after the half hour of figuring out how to get it apart while hanging over the back of the toilet trying to work using the phone camera to see underneath the back of the thing.  There was a screw I couldn't see that was interfering with the simple "pull it out" design!  Nice to have indoor plumbing again!

So, the drive from Fredericksburg to Chesapeake VA was pretty good.  Only about 4 hours, light traffic, bypassed Richmond VA and headed out to the coast.  Tomorrow we'll probably get to the beach.  Supposed to be a nice sunny but cool day.  It was in the 60s today but 40s tomorrow.

Our hike otday was on the Jericho Ditch Trail.  There are a lot of these ditches in the area.  Built by slave labor in the early 1800s they aided draining swamp land and provided access to some areas.  So this hike was a mile out a perfectly straight flat road.  The road sign at the beginning was still (barely) visible when we turned around.  It was still nice to get out and walk for a while.

Fredericksburg campsite

Poco Loco restaurant, just looked cool

We hiked as far as you can see!

Same trail.  This is the Dismal Swamp State Park

Fredericksburg, VA

Kind of a not-quite-rainy but far from dry day coming down from Stroudsburg PA to Fredericksburg VA.  US 15 is mostly 4 lane and bypasses most of the towns, so we get to drive Interstate style 4 lanes through farm and field country after leaving Harrisburg.  There are very few places to pull over but we filled the fuel tank at the last truck stop and had a fairly easy trip.  Hit a back up of cars getting onto I-95 in Fredericksburg but that area is always a traffic jam.  Northbound looked much worse. 

We stayed at this campground last year too.  Nice place, much more attractive than last night.  But we're here just a night so it won't matter much.

We have not talked about tomorrow yet.  😜

My lapdog.  Cal's back legs are still in the back seat area, he's draped over the console.

Another Vengeance camper at Pocono.  This one was a 5th wheel

Odd little building at the campground

Cabela's!  Always a good stop.  Got a new indoor-outdoor thermometer

Cabela's fish

Traffic on I-95 in Fredericksburg VA

Stroudsburg PA

Made it to the Pocono Vacation Park, our usual first night stop.  Had a nice sunny day to start the trip.
We had to do some shoveling to get out this morning.  That had pack ice over snow didn’t let the truck get much traction even without the trailer attached.  But scoop that off to the grass underneath and we just rolled out nicely.  
Off to Virginia in the morning!

T minus 12 hours & counting

The camper is packed, the truck is ready!  All set to put in the last few items and be off at or before first light tomorrow morning. 
Stroudsburg PA tomorrow night.

Welcome to 2020

This is the first post of the Winter 2020 Blog.  We are packing for departure in 2 days!  There is a lot of gear in the camper and the truck but also quite a bit still on the living room floor.  Can't put the temperature sensitive goods out there to freeze yet. 
But I really just wanted to get this started again!