Summer of 22 - #1 - On the road again!!!!

May 16th, 2022

It was time to leave Mayport and head north on our summer trip, which has been drastically shortened due to fuel prices!!!  The plan had been to go north all the way to Maine but with the motorhome only getting 6mpg and prices steadily rising we decided we couldn't do it. We will spend extended time in the Norfolk, Virginia area where we can visit Ryan & Christina before heading south-west to visit Mom toward the end of the year.

Our first stop for one night was Creekfire RV Resort in Savannah, Georgia. We have stayed here before but were disappointed in the site we were given this time. It is not inexpensive and we felt crammed into our site. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures!!  I guess its time to look for another stopping point on the way north in future.  We will see!!

May 17th, 2022

Our next overnight stop was Santee Lakes KOA, Summerton, South Carolina.  This was a little better but still small sites, however a lot of them were empty!!

View from our site

Playground

Squirrel

Bryan coming back with Pizza, sold here.

May 18th, 2022

We travelled to Smith Lake Army Travel Camp, Fayetteville, North Carolina. We stayed here last year and it's not a bad campground.  This time we got a pull through site at the top. We like both areas so it doesn't matter to us where we are if we are staying a few days.

I love the Chick Fil A advertising signs, although this one isn't my favorite.

May 19th, 2022

We visited the U.S Army Airborne and Special Operations Museum

This is an interesting museum that covers Early Airborne through to present day:

Early Airborne - "On 16th August 1940, Lieutenant Bill Ryder led the Test Platoon to become the first American fighting man to stand in the door and jump into history."

WORLD WAR II - "World War II saw the most concentrated use of airborne operations, with five Army divisions dedicated to using this new method of putting men and equipment on the battlefield."

WWII Artifacts:

Camera

and timelines.....

German MP40 Submachine Gun

Italian Mountains Campaign - July 1943 - May 1945

Operation Overload - Battle of Normandy, 6th June, 1944 (D-Day)

Operation Market Garden - 17th - 25th September 1944

Battle of the Bulge - December 16, 1944-January 16, 1945

Operation Varsity - 24th March, 1945

I only recently realized that the UK and US aimed at different beaches, which makes sense.  I always thought all the forces intermingled. 

VIETNAM

Excerpt from the museum website.

"Nearby is a Viet Cong prisoner of war (POW) camp in South Vietnam's U Minh Forest, also known as the "Forest of Darkness," due to its dense jungle.  Here the visitor will see Green Beret, first lieutenant James "Nick" Rowe held in a bamboo cage plotting his escape. After five years of captivity Rowe escaped his Vietnamese captors in December, 1968. Because of his experience as a POW, Rowe was selected by the U.S.Army to design its Survival, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training program, which is part of the Special Forces Qualification Course."

Click the red link to read about the Black Hawk Down 61-1993 Somalia.

It was an interesting museum that covered a variety of eras.

May 21st-22nd, 2022

Our next stop was RV Resort @ Carolina Crossroads for a couple of nights. This was a good campground with pull thru sites that were easy to access. We didn't unhook the car.  We had problems with our electrics and the park handyman came over to help.  Bryan & he troubleshooted until they got back to our main plug into the sites power box. They found a loose wire in our main plug that had melted part of the plug. He had a new plug which we bought and he and Bryan rewired it. He saved us a lot of money in callout fees for an electrician and didn't want to take anything but we made sure to pay him what we thought was a fair price.  We were in the right place at the right time and someone was watching over us for sure. Phew!!!

Our next stop was Little Creek and a long stay so that we can visit Ryan, Christina, Trystan & meet our new addition Colton. Woohoo!!!!

Summer of 21 - # 48 - Moving Days & Campgrounds

August 9th - August 18th, 2021 

August 9th, 2021

We were supposed to have left Hickory Hollow Campground in Pennsylvania yesterday but were delayed a day by a flat tire. One of our new tires developed a leak.  We had roadside assistance and called them.  It took a day for them to get here as we weren't deemed to be an emergency as we were in a safe place.  Fortunately the campground had space for us to stay an extra night. We ended up having to pay for the service but can get reimbursed by completing paperwork. We had paid an extra premium to cover instances such as this and were very disappointed that Good Sams didn't keep their end of the bargain. So much so that we wont't renew it but will look for something else. 

However, the extended stay ended up in with me meeting a couple whose blog I have followed for a while, http://bkamericanodyssey.com. .They were doing a solar installation on a rig nearby. I went over and introduced myself as a blog follower of theirs and thanked them for all the information they share. 

Eventually we were on our way!! We had done a trial run of part of the journey today in Tilly car as I was concerned the "hills" might be a bit steep and curvy for us in Lily and towing Tilly but it turned out I was panicking over nothing and it was fine. Lets hope the next stage is just as easy!!!

Into West Virginia.

We arrived at Flatwoods KOA Journey, Sutton, West Virginia for a one night stay but decided to stop for 2 nights as we had two longish travel days for us.

August 10th, 2021

The weather was not good so we rested and didn't do much.  This lady was prepared with her umbrella hat as she got ready to pack up and leave.

We took some pictures of the campground from inside Lily.

There was an auditorium

August 11th, 2021

We headed to our next campground.  I was a little apprehensive about this journey as well, as there were more hills and curves!! We have a mountain directory which tells you where there are steep grades and I had checked that to find the best route to go East through the Allegheny Mountains. I even followed the route along the roads on google maps and was relieved it seemed ok. Do I overplan, YES I do!!! Sorry, I can't help it. Bryan wasn't concerned and he was driving so I tried not to stress. The weather wasn't good, it rained heavily for a good part of the way but Bryan still wasn't fazed, he's a champ!!!

Arriving in Virginia. The rain finally stopped.

Having a break at a rest area.

We finally arrived at Buckhorne Country Store & Campground, Clifton Forge, Virginia where we will be for a week. Well actually 6 days as we are arriving a day late!!  This campground was a huge disappointment but we only needed a place to sleep so we made do. They had told us a site number when we booked but tried to put us in another one that was a lot smaller, none of them were large, and we stood our ground and parked in the one we had been allocated. We told the girl we couldn't fit in the other one and I guess it was Ok because no-one asked us to move.

August 13th, 2021 We visited the  Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Blog and Falling Springs & Humpback Bridge Blog.

We didn't do much else here, just rested.

August 17th, 2021

We were back on the road for a one night stop at Small Country Campground, Louisa, Virginia. The weather wasn't very good again, heading toward the rain and mist!!

August 18th, 2021

Before we left I took some pictures of our site at Small Country Campground. We managed to get into it, although we had trees on both sides. Bryan had a walk to see what was the best way to get out and came up with a plan!!  

We will go down that road and around.

We made it out and were on our way.  I watched Andy play Hurkacz at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.  Unfortunately he lost. He will get there.

Arriving in Williamsburg

We arrived at Cheatham Annex Military Campground. We will be here for a couple of weeks and hope to visit some of the historic sites around here.

We thought we had caused this damage to a vehicle parked opposite our site when we moved our car but it turned out it wa from a previous collision. Phew, we only just clipped them and they said it was ok they couldn't see any additional damage. That was a big relief after a day of driving!!

Stay tuned for our sightseeing in this area.