Apr 28 - moving on to Gladys, VA

We left our campsite and drove to our last Virginia campgrounds, more inland, almost to the Shenandoah Mountains, in Gladys, VA.  On our way, we passed the Appomattox National Monument, where the Civil War officially ended.  And PETER DID NOT ASK TO STOP AND VISIT !!  Having been there twice before, one time at the exact time and spot 150 years later, he decided we should just drive on to our campgrounds.  I was rather amazed.
  This campground is sort of in the middle of nowhere, on a small lake.  It just opened for the season this weekend, so we got a good spot, overlooking the water.  It's hard to remember that it is just spring here.  We have been in continuous spring almost since we left.
  Took a quick walk around a portion of the campgrounds, just to check the place out.  Sunday evening Hangouts with the family, and dinner.

Lynchberg RV Campsite, Gladys, VA photos:

Apr 27 - George Washington's birthplace and Westmoreland State Park

  We did computer stuff this morning.  Peter on his blogs, me doing research into places to see in Oregon, and RV routes, and possible tours.  It looks really exciting, but a little overwhelming trying to figure it all out.  Once we know what we want to see and do, we need to figure out where to camp with the RV.  Then, that's just one State, still have Washington, Montana, California to do. 
  It was a beautiful sunny, light breezy day.  We drove the 11 miles over to the George Washington National Monument, which is the birthplace of George Washington.  There farm was VERY extensive, in between the Potomac River and the Popes Creek River.  Turns out the original house he was born in, burned to the ground in the late 1700's.  In the 1930's, the Park Service of the day recreated what they thought life on his farm must have been like.  Unfortunately, they didn't quite get it right, as determined by some archaeological digs done fairly recently.  But what they did do was still interesting.  They have some re-enactors doing some of the trades, so we saw the kitchen cooks and how they used to cook.   We also went down to the beach area on the Potomac, which is where their boat harbor was.
  Finally, we drove a few more miles over to the Westmoreland State Park, also on the Potomac River, which is very wide at this point.  The park was nicely done, and we walked the beaches for awhile.
Nice Day,

George Washington National Monument photos:

 Beach at George Washington National Monument farm photos:

Westmoreland State Park photos:

Apr 26 - Rainy day at Colonial Beach, VA

  It was slated to rain on and off all day, so we made it a "home" day.  I did the laundry in the morning.  The afternoon was taken up with conversations with our Thousand Trails representative, and online research about the same.  We are trying to decide if we want to continue with using the Thousand Trails campgrounds on our trip to the northwest, west, and southwest.  They actually have a lot of campgrounds in those locations.  If we do want to continue, what kind of membership do we want?  Some are annual, but not don't have as many percs, including being able to reserve a campsite up to 4 or 6 months ahead of time.  The annual ones only allow 2 month advance registration.  That served us well when we were traveling in the winter months.  But, going westward, it will still be prime season.  On the other hand, their other memberships, while more robust, only have lifetime memberships, which require an annual membership fee, and can only be sold, not canceled.  I don't like that part.  So, we are still trying to figure it out. 
  We spent the evening, watching YouTube videos of other RVers who have used Thousand Trails memberships, and their opinions. 

No photos today

Apr 25 - Sight-seeing in Washington, DC

  We drove 1.5 hours to the Metro in Maryland, and then took it into Washington, DC.  Peter and I separated, each going our separate ways.  He was off to the DAR Museum and then to a meeting with some folks regarding his Lafayette project.  I went to the Smithsonian Natural History museum.
  I was really impressed with the exhibits.  Not so impressed with the crowds and noisy kids.  There was an amazing wildlife photography, Audubon prize winners exhibit.  Some really beautiful shots and videos, from all over the world.  Then the exhibits about the earth, planets, solar system, along with volcanoes, earthquakes, hot spots, and plate tectonics were extremely informative and very well done.  The whole museum uses a lot of technology to explain and show the exhibits.  Then, there was the very large geology exhibits --which had amazing displays of minerals, crystals, rocks, simulated mines, etc.  I said--THIS IS WHAT CLAIRE WOULD LOVE TO PUT TOGETHER!
  There were many other types of exhibits, and I spent 4 hours there.  Then, I needed to sit down, and be outside.  So I went out to the park in front of the museum and sat and people-watched for awhile.  But, I still had a few hours until I was to meet up with Peter, and the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial were just down the park aways, and I couldn't visit DC and see them in the distance, without going to see them up close.  So, I walked the mile or so over to view them.  Always impressive.  The WWII Memorial is also in between them.
  Met up with Peter, walked back to the Metro, rode to the end of the green line in Maryland, and took the car "home".  A long day, but good.  I enjoyed myself, but realize I am NOT a big city girl.  Give me Mother Nature anytime.

Smithsonian Natural History museum photos:

WW II Memorial photo:

Washington Monument photos:

Lincoln Memorial photos:

Apr 24 - Colonial Beach, VA

  We packed up, unhooked, and drove off to our new site at Harbor View Thousand Trails RV campground in Colonial Beach, VA.  This spot is near another inlet on the Chesapeake Bay, but there is no harbor view, in spite of its name.  We set up "camp" (which actually means level the RV, hook up the electric, water and sewer-in that order, then unpack the stuff inside the RV), which we can now do quite efficiently.  This campsite is one I call a "staging area"--where it is basically a place to park the RV, while we sight-see.  We decided to hike the neighborhood, which is a peninsula along the water.  The loop was 1.6 miles, and had a lot of very nice private homes. 
  I made dinner, and made the final reservations for the State Park campgrounds for our trip from Michigan to Kansas (to see a friend of Peter's) to Denver to the Grand Tetons National Park- next summer. 

Photos of the harbor by the campground:

Apr 23 - shopping, oil change--still at Chesapeake Bay campgrounds, Gloucester, VA

  I went grocery shopping back in Newport News, VA at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.  It was one hour away, but I realize I drive that each time I go grocery shopping in Amherst.  On the way back to camp, I noticed that the car needed an oil change at 47,700 and the odometer read 48,900.  Oops!  So once I got back and figured out how to stuff all of the groceries into the refrigerator, the few cupboards, and my little cooler, we found a local Oil Change Express, in Gloucester.  So, we drove back into Gloucester and got an oil change. 
  At least I feel better about driving to the next campground tomorrow, and then sightseeing from there into Washington, DC.
  Nice chat again with our young Tiffin neighbors, dinner and relaxing!

No photos today.

Apr 22 - Outing to Gwynn Island and Deltaville, VA

 We decided to head over to the coast today and explore.  Fist, we went over to Gwynn Island--a quaint little fishing island, that used to be big in the fishing and oyster industry, but in recent years, has had a big decline.  Now, it seems that all of the shoreline, around the entire island, is private property, and doesn't allow you to enter.  The only inviting place was the little restaurant right at the bridge, that catered to land and sea folks.  It looked fairly new, and the food was really good.
  Then, we drove over to another town on the coast.  All of the coastline has lots inlets, big and little.  This town, Deltaville, had a Maritime Museum, which was interesting, and fairly well done, for such a small town.  On the museum grounds was a very nice "statue garden and walk". 

  Again, no public shore areas.  I am used to there being town beaches, or town or State parks along the coast. 
   Came back, and read, walked, hung out by the water.  Caught up with my blogging, and sent the vegans some of my vegetarian seitan recipes, along with a link to Aimee's blog.  Beautiful weather today.

Gwynn Island restaurant on the marina photos:

Deltaville Maritime Museum photos:

Museum Statue Garden/Walk photos:

Apr 21 - Hanging out at Chesapeake Bay RV campgrounds, Gloucester, VA

  Today is a stay-at-home-and-catch-up day.  Peter on his blog & computer, me adding to our Western trip itinerary.  Oh it's Easter and Passover-Happy Easter and Happy Passover.  We took a very nice walk around the campgrounds-around the lake and over to the cabin area.  Couple of miles.
  I walked over to the other Tiffin Wayfarer folks and introduced myself.  It is a young-ish couple.  We started comparing notes about our Tiffin experiences.  They actually downsized from a Tiffin Class A (35 ft) to the Class C (25ft).  As we chatted, it came out that they are vegans, and I ended up inviting them over after dinner for a campfire and to meet Peter. 
  It turns out that their Tiffin layout is just a little different than ours; it was interesting to see which things were better or worse.  Also, they had never heard of seitan, so we got to educate them on an additional protein source.  He is in the military, a navy air-traffic controller, and his wife (from Puerto Rico) is getting her PhD in psychology. 
  We tried to start up the campfire, but as it so happens, we apparently are no longer good scouts.  We didn't have enough kindling, or enough dry wood.  We barely had matches.  Just as well, it was cold, so we came back into the RV and continued chatting.  This is the first time that we "entertained" in the RV with 4 people. 
  Other than I missed our weekly Sunday Hangouts with the kids, it was a very interesting day.

Chesapeake Bay campground photo:

On our walk around the lake.

Apr 20 - Chesapeake Bay Thousand Trails, Gloucester, VA

  We spent the night at a hotel in Gloucester, VA.  Only one tornado warning alert, in which we went down to the hotel's cafe, and watched the live storm news and radar, as it went across our area, and towards the campsite on the peninsula we just left.  This morning, I got to take a long, hot shower--with strong water pressure and lots of hot water--enough to wash my hair, and shave my legs in the same shower time, without needing to turn off the water in between!  Oh, the simple pleasures of life!
  We settled into a nice camp site along the river.  This campground is the biggest one we have been to.  It has frontage along a very wide river, as well as along a small lake.  I would say this is a destination campground, especially for families.  This weekend is completely full, with lots of kids, golf carts, and large RV's.  Ours seem like a baby stuck in among these large ones. There are still lots of parking lot type of sites, which I do not prefer.  I also think I like the less populated campgrounds, although, that may have been the time of the year we visited (late winter, early spring), and now that it is warming up, the campgrounds are getting fuller.
  Finally did the laundry, walked a bit, had some ice cream.  Made dinner, hung around outside until dark. 

Chesapeake Bay Campground photos:

Apr 19 - on the road again, to Gloucester, VA

  We were going to spend a nice rainy day at the campground, doing laundry and catching up.  But when I went up to the office to get quarters for the laundromat, they told us that the storm predictions for today and tonight were severe thunderstorms, tornado watches, flash flood warnings, and very high winds--up to 80 mph.  Since we were nervous last night with winds gusting up to 23 mph, and since we were on a narrow peninsula with water on both sides, and since the tornado warnings were for the middle of the night (so we could have spent the night in the cement block bathhouse), we decided to move on 1 day ahead of time to our next location. 
  Unfortunately, lots of folks also decided that was a good idea, and getting across the Hampton Bridge/Tunnel had quite a backup.  Also, unfortunately, when we arrived at the next Thousand Trails campground, it was determined that even though we called, and they had a site, our free membership only allows us to stay a max of 4 days, without then needing to be out of the system for 7 days.  Since we already have our reservations, for 4 days at a time, going all the way back to MA, we ended up deciding to back into Gloucester, the town nearby, and stay in a hotel for the night.   That way, we wouldn't worry about being blown over by winds while in the RV, and we wouldn't have to change all of our campground reservations to accommodate their funky system. 
  Had dinner at a sweet little local pizza place, with hand-made ice cream from the local ice cream parlor.  Here's hoping for a calm, safe night.

No photos today.

Apr 18 - Kiptopeke State Park and Cape Charles, VA

  Yesterday we explored the east side of the Eastern Shore penisula.  Today, we went to the Western side, facing the Chesapeak Bay.  Viewing the shore on the Eastern side, isn't very beachy.  However, the Western side has incredible beaches.  We first went to Kiptopeke State Park.  This park has long beaches, hiking trails, and fishing piers.  The piers were originally put into place before the Chesapeak Bay Bridge was erected, and they operated ferries from this site to get across.  To do so, they put Nine WWII concrete ships as a breakwater.  They stopped using the ferries in 1964 when the bridge was completed, and the ships are still there.  It was such a beautiful day, we hiked the beaches and the piers, along with a few of the trails.
  Then we drove over to the nearby town of Cape Charles, a small town on the shore.  It used to be fishing and agriculture, but is now focusing a lot more on tourism.  They also have a really nice beach and very long fishing pier.  While sitting on the pier, we saw two peregrine falcons nesting on a nearby tower.  Impressive. 
  On the way home, we snapped a photo of one of the farmers field.  It was huge, and covered with beautiful yellow flowers.  There were several farmers fields with them, so I can only assume it is a cash crop, but we don't know what.  But it was breathtaking to see such a huge blanket of yellow.
  This evening is VERY windy.  As I type this blog at our dinette, we are rocking with the wind.  We haven't done that before.  I guess this is the edge of the big storm in the South.

Kiptopeke State Park photos:

Cape Charles photos:

Farm crop--huge fields of yellow flowers: