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Well, it is 17 years old so it wouldn’t be considered “pretty” in any situation. But it proved its worth last weekend when, en route to brother-in-law Ray’s cabin, I encountered a fallen tree that completely blocked the road.
Ray and his son Matt responded to my phone call and they arrived with an ax and a chain (Ray had left his chain saw at home). A few whacks with the ax removed enough branches that I could get close enough to attach the chain and pull the tree out of the road to allow the passage of vehicles.
My home for the summer – maybe – is the Quabbin Pines RV Resort in Orange MA. I say “maybe” because I am probably residing here illegally and could be booted at any moment. The campground is not finished – not even close – and is not permitted for use by paying guests. If you click on the campground link today all you get is a “Coming Soon” page. An empty website is not a sign of a campground on the verge of opening.
Living in this campground is bizarre. I have to think of this campground, in its current state (with a nod to Bizarro World) as Bizarro Campground. But before I describe the campground in detail let me describe how I learned of its existence and my experience on the day of arrival.
When I was speaking with my brother-in-law Ray early this year and moaning about the difficulty I was having in finding a summer site, he told me of the existence of a “new RV campground” very near to his summer cabin. He was kind enough to go check out the place for me and got a tour of the under-construction site in February. He reported that “there was a LOT of work yet to be done” and opined that it would not be ready by May. Nevertheless, the campground accepted both my application for a seasonal site and a deposit for $1000. Subsequent attempts to contact the campground, both by email and phone, were unsuccessful. I left messages but got no calls or emails in response. Still, they had taken my money and had not told me to not show up, so that was my destination on May 11.
My expectation was that the campground would be open but unfinished and still in the midst of construction. But when I pulled into the campground on Tuesday May 11 what I found was a ghost campground. No construction. No people. No one in the office. I called the number given by the sign on the closed office door and got a message saying that the mailbox was full.
So I sat in the parking lot, scratching my head. I called Ray to tell him that I had arrived but that the campground was closed. I started thinking about my options as I walked Rusty. Near the end of my dog walk I got a phone call from Mike, the campground owner. He asked if I had called and what I wanted. I explained that I was a seasonal tenant who had given him $1000 and was rather dismayed that I had no site. He said he could set me up in a “temporary site.” I didn’t question him as to how temporary or what the financial arrangements might be because even a temporary site solved my immediate problem.
The BigHorn in its “temporary site” in a closed campground
So Mike directed me to a spot next to his 5th wheel. He got me hooked up to a 30 amp power supply (not ideal but adequate) and put a splitter on the hose serving his RV and invited me to run my hose to it. Well, my 50′ of hose was too short, but a quick trip to Walmart got me another 25′ which was enough to get water. No sewer connection yet but he dismissed that as an easy thing that would be done by the weekend. “It’s what I do” he said.
Well, it is now Friday and it isn’t done yet. I can live another week without a sewer connection – the black water holding tanks are 60 gallons each and I have two of them. But the lack of any construction activity in the 3 days I have been here makes me doubt that anything will get done in a timely fashion.
So a brief history of the campground, as given to me by Mike. The campground was started by a relative (uncle?) and was operated for many years, mostly, it appears, as a traditional campground for people with tents and pop-up trailers. No sewer connections and the water and electric connections were spotty and not suitable for modern RVs. The uncle died and his wife tried to run it without him but failed. It closed over 25 years ago and has sat idle for a quarter of a century.
Enter Mike and his wife. They decide they can turn it into a successful RV campground. The original plan was to open in 2020 but the pandemic hit, so plans were delayed a year. More recent delays were due to permitting and shortage of construction materials (Mike says he waited over 3 months for delivery of the metal roof for the recreation building).
The campground currently has an office building that had been abandoned for 25 years which looks to be serviceable but in need of cosmetic work, a swimming pool which looks old but Mike says it has a new liner and just needs a water treatment pump and a new fence, new propane tanks, a new septic system and 3 structures under construction: a recreation hall, a bathhouse and a “pavilion” which I think means an open-air structure where people can gather to avoid sun and rain.
Bathhouse
Recreation hall
No site has upgraded electric service and no sewer lines have yet been run, except the one to Mike’s site. But Mike is confident that he will be open by July 4th, just 6 weeks away. I am skeptical. Maybe if he has an army of construction workers but no such army has yet appeared. He has booked a 70-RV rally for the end of July. I have no idea how he expects to have 70 RV sites – and all 3 buildings – ready in just over 2 months.
Mike is quite proud of the site preparation that has been done in the lower area – I believe an area that was wooded in the old campground. This is the area that will allow him to book a 70-RV rally and it is where the pavilion will be located. But it is just an open field of dirt right now.
The open field
The site of the pavilion-to-be
There are a couple of minor things that make this campground – and the whole quixotic project – somewhat bizarre. One is the only completed new structure on the property – the shed housing the goats. That’s right, folks. The goat shed was completed before the bathhouse. Another is the fire truck. Why is there a fire truck on the property? I don’t know. I can only speculate that Mike offered to store it as a favor to town officials. You know – those people responsible for issuing permits.
Completed goat shed
Fire truck
The siding on the goat shed – and the siding that apparently will be on all other structures as well – is pine boards that Mike milled himself from trees cleared from the lower area. He says he has 35,000 board feet of siding ready to be installed. Pretty impressive. And I think it will give the whole property a very distinctive look.
I have already given the summary – that the TN7 was the most pleasant, trouble-free RV trip I have undertaken since the trip west in 2017. There were some highlights and lowlights and I will get to those. But first… the numbers:
14 hops
30 nights
2,150 tow miles (154 miles per hop)
3,290 truck miles
$1,435 in campground fees ($47.83 per night)
Because there were no significant problems you might expect that the actual route would be pretty close to the planned route and you would be mostly right. But I changed my mind about stopping near Philadelphia and was forced to add a second stop in MD.
TN7 segment 1 actual
TN7 segment 1 plan
TN7 segment 2 actual
TN7 segment 2 plan
Highlights:
Almost no RV or truck problems. The lone problem – the check engine light in MD diagnosed as a “glow plug controller fault” was dismissed as a minor cold-weather-only problem that could be ignored. The truck performed flawlessly. Even on the mountain hops it barely broke a sweat.
Seeing my stepsons and their families in VA. The timing of the visit wasn’t great as they were in the middle of moving out of the house they had occupied for 17 years, but they made time for me. As always, a pleasure. And I got to hand-deliver one last box of Jett’s memorabilia to them.
Cartersville GA. I picked this location for its proximity to Atlanta but treasure it now for its proximity to the Booth Western Art Museum and the site of the Civil War’s Battle of Allatoona Pass. Both of these were more memorable than Atlanta.
Second visits to Civil War battlefields in Manassas and Chickamauga.
A really fine Italian spaghetti-and-meatballs dinner in Maryville TN.
A poignant return visit to Pigeon Forge TN.
A lovely lunch with an old friend who I hadn’t seen in 35 years in NC.
Lowlights:
A cracked windshield in VA.
Dodging a possible tornado in MD.
An embarrassing back-in debacle in TN.
A sunburn from that NC lunch.
Obviously the highlights outweighed the lowlights on TN7. This is important as this trip was a test of both the truck and my desire to travel solo. I think it was a success on both counts.
If the trip south in the fall is similarly successful I will seriously consider a full summer of travel – possibly to do the “30 MLB stadiums in one season tour” in 2022.
168 miles via Blue Mountain Road, NY 32, US 9W, I-587 in Albany, I-90, US 20, MA 9, MA 112, MA 2 and MA 122. Cumulative tow miles: 2150. Truck miles: 218. Cumulative truck miles: 3290. The extra truck miles were due to a trip to the Mount Calvary Cemetery in Kingston, a trip to Big Pink (thanks, John Bartel, for the tip) and a shopping and refueling trip after I got to my destination. I also made a wrong turn from I-90 onto US 20 and that added about 3 tow miles.
That concludes the TN7. I will do a wrapup soon, but the bottom line is this: the truck performed brilliantly and there were no major problems along the way. I have to rate this as the most problem-free trip since the trip to the west coast in 2017.
The route chosen was a toll-free route because (1) I am cheap and (2) it wasn’t much longer, time-wise, than the route up I-87 and over on I-90. The roads were mostly 2-lanes but traffic was light and there were very few points where I was delayed by traffic. The low point was Pittsfield MA which is an ugly industrial town and I did encounter some long traffic lights there. Otherwise, smooth sailing on a sunny, cool day.
The trip to Mount Calvary Cemetery was unexpectedly successful. I reduced the number of unphotographed graves from about 150 to 62, so about 90 graves photographed in a little over 3 hours. 30 graves per hour? Yeah, that is productive.
Big Pink, I think
The trip to Big Pink was less successful. Let me say that this house is remote and a bit spooky. It is at the end of a half-mile poorly maintained dirt road. “No trespassing” and “private road” signs were everywhere. The house itself is surrounded by trees and is fenced, probably to deter sightseers like me. I half expected a guard with a shotgun and a doberman to appear and escort me back down the road. Well, that didn’t happen but neither did I get a good photo of the house. If you want to see Big Pink, read the Wikipedia article.
But it was only 10 minutes from the campground. I had to try.
Where the rubber meets the road
The campground in question is the Rip Van Winkle Campground in Saugerties. Jett and I stayed here for a couple of nights last fall on our way south. I didn’t like it much then and I am still not a huge fan. I got the same site – #77, a huge pull-through – and that was nice. But the roads are narrow with sharp turns and steep hills. And the staff is not particularly helpful. I arrived at 1:30pm, which is usually late enough to check in. But I was informed that check-in time was 3pm and I should leave and return in 90 minutes. She didn’t even bother to see if the site was available. I had to execute a very tight U-turn (did I mention that the roads are very narrow?), missing the back end of a parked pickup by about 2 inches. I went a half-mile down the road and parked in a closed business parking lot (it was Sunday) and used the time to check emails and news. I had to execute another tight turnaround there – one that left some rubber from the RV’s tires on the asphalt.
The campground does have excellent cable TV, which was a treat after nearly a week with only very spotty over-the-air television.
My destination for the summer is the Quabbin Pines RV Resort in Orange MA. The arrival there was more of an adventure than I would have liked. But I will save that story for a separate post.
77 miles via US 9, US 9W, Glasco Turnpike, Kings Highway, NY 212 and Blue Mountain Road. Cumulative tow miles: 1982. Truck miles: 181. Cumulative truck miles: 3072. The extra truck miles were due to a sightseeing trip to the Bronx (to see how difficult it would be to drive near Yankee Stadium) and a couple of short shopping/refueling trips.
The would have been 76 miles, but the staff at the destination refused to register me at 1:30pm, so I had to turn around (missing a pickup by about 2 inches on the turn) and find a place to park for 90 minutes. Annoying because they made NO effort to see if the site was available.
A faster route was available, but I knew I would be early and the faster route had tolls. Why pay to wait longer?
This was yet another problem-free hop (knock on wood). The weather, though cloudy and cool, was dry. The roads, though mostly 2-lane, were level and the traffic was light. So, all in all, a very pleasant drive. And I got to use another Hudson River Bridge that I have never seen before: the Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie.
My home in Croton-on-Hudson was the Croton Point Park. This Westchester County campground was not at all what I expected. I thought that, being one of the campgrounds closest to New York City, that it would be very oriented to serving transients – RVs staying for short periods. I also thought it likely that there would be a strict limit on how long an RV could stay, as is the case at other regional parks that I have seen. Maybe two weeks max. Well, about half of the RVs had clearly been there longer than two weeks. Or even two months. Maybe two years.
A semi-permanent Croton Point resident?
Croton Point is a peninsula that juts out into the Tappan Zee, the broad lake in the Hudson River just south of West Point. As such, it is surrounded by water and should be prime real estate. Except that the chosen use for much of the peninsula is a garbage dump. The dump was closed and capped in the 1990s and now it is reclaimed recreational space. But what a waste!
Tappan Zee from one of Croton Point’s hiking paths
Another thing that makes Croton Point interesting is its proximity to commuter rail. To enter the park you must pass a commuter rail station and cross a bridge over a huge commuter train yard. I looked into it and this line is a direct shot to Yankee Stadium – a factoid that would be relevant if I actually tried to do the 30-stadium MLB tour – I could stay at Croton Point and be an hour by train from Yankee Stadium and about 2 hours by train from Citi Field, home of the Mets.
116 miles via PA 670, PA 191, US 6, I-84, NY 17, US 6 again, NY 293, US 9W, US 6 yet again, US 202 and US 9. Cumulative tow miles: 1905. Truck miles: 138. Cumulative truck miles: 2891. The 22 extra truck miles were due to a refueling trip to the nearest diesel depot, 11 miles away.
This was a difficult hop to plan and even more difficult to execute. There are a lot of “passenger cars only” roads near New York City and I very much wanted to avoid those. Also, the route chosen by both Google and the GPS took me over the Bear Mountain Bridge, a bridge over the Hudson River that I had never traversed before and looked like it might have weight restrictions. So my plan was to go a few miles further east, over the I-84 bridge, then head south on US 9. But when I got to NY 17 and both Google and GPS were telling me to take it, I caved. I was thinking that NY 17 could be taken to the Tappan Zee Bridge which would be close to my destination. But the Tappan Zee is too far south and I ended up heading to the Bear Mountain Bridge, images dancing in my head of my rig rolling over a scale and flashing lights and sirens going off. “Too heavy! Turn back!” In fact there was an ominous sign about a weight limitation of 10 tons somewhere ahead and I did mental calculations as I drove. Yup, pretty close.
But the weight limit on the Bear Mountain Bridge is 58 tons. I needn’t have worried.
What I should have worried about was the narrow, winding segment on US 202. It is a scary road. Beautiful, but scary, with a low rock wall all that separated my rig from a dive into the Hudson River. 10 minutes of white knuckles.
Not a long hop, but a memorable one.
My home in Honesdale PA was the Ponderosa Pines Family Campground. This campground is remote. I had to traverse about 5 miles of roads that didn’t have route designations and I could use only the GPS because my phone had no cell service (until I arrived, then the cell service was fine). When I checked in the office staff told me that I could take any transient site (there were about 8 along the lakeshore) because I would be “all alone down there.” I didn’t know quite what they meant because there were lots of seasonal RV sites all around the transient sites. But, as I discovered after I set up and took Rusty for a walk, none of them were occupied. This must be a weekend family getaway campground. I truly was by myself “down there.”
All alone in a very dark, very quiet campground. And by quiet I mean no sounds other than the owls – no planes, no trains, no automobiles. And no sounds from other campers. Downright spooky. But quite serene.
There was dense fog in the morning, followed by heavy rain all day. The lake rose about 6 inches. A nearby town, Prompton, had over 4 inches of rain and some street flooding. I prayed that those tiny roads that led out of the campground would still be passable when I had to depart. They were.
Morning fog at Ponderosa PinesMy site on the lakeshore, after the rain
This is #12 in the series of Preston and Child books that feature Aloysius Pendergast, FBI agent extraordinaire. It is the fifth Preston and Child book that I have read and the fourth in the Pendergast series, the previous being (in the order of my reading), #14, #10 and #6. Yes, I have been reading them in reverse order. Not a recommended strategy as this series has a lot of characters and plot elements that carry over from one book to the next.
One thing that is common in all of the Pendergast books is a plot which requires you to suspend disbelief. Pendergast is an FBI agent who seems to operate without supervision or rules, lives in a mansion and travels in a chauffeured Rolls Royce. He has a ward who is 140 years old and a brother and a son who are both serial killers. And in this novel we learn that his late wife was the product of a Nazi experiment.
All of this ridiculousness would normally make me toss the book in my fireplace (ok, my fireplace is electric so that might be less dramatic than it sounds). But Preston and Child are talented wordsmiths who keep the (ridiculous) story rolling along at a brisk pace.
If you think you can tolerate an “out there” plot, then this might be the series for you. But start at #1.
230 miles via MD 97/PA 97, US 15, PA 581 in Harrisburg, I-81, US 6 and PA 170. Cumulative tow miles: 1789, Truck miles: 380. Cumulative truck miles: 2753. The extra truck miles were due primarily to a trip into Frederick to get propane and diagnose the “check engine” light, but also about 30 miles spent avoiding a tornado.
Well, at least getting out of the path of a potential tornado. A tornado warning was issued Monday night and the projected path took it within 10 miles of the RV. Too close for me. So I packed Rusty into the truck, grabbed the laptop and drove about 10 miles south to a place where I could watch the sky and listen to the weather reports. I don’t think any tornado actually formed, but the winds were strong enough to knock down trees just north or the campground. A tree falling on the RV would do just as much damage as a tornado.
This was another hop where Google and the GPS were in violent disagreement. The Google route (which is the one I chose) was 230 miles – pretty close to my 1-tank limit (the “low fuel” warning sounded just 2 miles from the destination) so I didn’t have a lot of wiggle room. I certainly didn’t have the luxury of taking the 255 mile route suggested by the GPS. Even after traveling 20 miles north on MD 97 the GPS was telling me to turn around. Why traveling an extra 45 miles (which was the difference at that point) would be a faster trip puzzles me. In any case, I had carefully researched the Google route and it looked fine. It was.
Other than the tornado adventure and the worry about the engine, the 2 nights in Woodbine were pretty uneventful. My home was the Ramblin’ Pines Campground. This was a very nice campground and my site was a very nice pull-through. Very wooded (hence my concern about falling trees).
My wooded site at Ramblin’ Pines
This campground is about midway between Frederick and Baltimore. If the Orioles had been in town I would have been tempted to go see them at Camden Yards – a park I have always been curious to see. But as luck would have it, the Orioles were in Oakland which is on a completely different coast.
40 miles via MD 212, I-95, MD 32, US 29, I-70 and MD 97. Cumulative tow miles: 1559. Truck miles: 43. Cumulative truck miles: 2373. The 3 extra truck miles were due to a refueling trip.
Yes, just 40 miles, but that was enough to make a wrong turn. It was supposed to be 39 miles, but the wrong turn added a mile.
Perhaps more importantly, the travel day started with the appearance, when I went out to start the truck, of a “check engine” light. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it. I had to take a quick drive around the campground before hitching up, to see if I could sense any problem. Nope – all gauges were nominal, the engine was running smoothly and power seemed intact. So I hitched up, held my breath and hauled the RV up a fairly steep hill, heading toward the exit. No problem. So I kept going.
The dreaded check engine light
I had the problem diagnosed in Frederick: a “glow plug controller fault.” That means… well, I have no idea what it means. But since glow plugs are used to make starting diesel engines easier in cold weather, I suspect that the problem, if real, exists only in cold weather. I am going to ignore the problem until I get to Massachusetts.
My forced night in College Park was at Cherry Hill Park. If you have to kill some time somewhere, this is a great place to do it. As always, this park was superb. This time I took an inexpensive – well, make that less expensive (still $85) – back-in site. Backing in would have been a breeze if no neighbors had been there, but they were. I had to thread the needle, but did it in 2 tries. Not bad.
College Park is only slightly closer than Dumfries, but there is a huge difference in the over-the-air TV reception. In Dumfries I got nothing cleanly. In College Park I got 17 channels, all crystal clear. Not that I needed them, really, because Cherry Hill has cable TV. But I had to find out.
60 miles via VA 234, I-95 and MD 212. Cumulative tow miles: 1519. Truck miles: 245. Cumulative truck miles: 2330. The extra truck miles were accumulated due to numerous family events near Dumfries, a trip to get an oil change and one sightseeing trip to Manassas VA.
This was the first major departure from the TN7 plan. I wasn’t planning to stop in College Park at all and the only reason I did is that my chosen campground at my intended destination for this hop – Woodbine MD – did not have a site available for tonight. This is what happens when one waits to book, thinking that a truck problem is likely going to mess up the plan and I didn’t want to alter more bookings than necessary. The good news is that there have been NO truck problems (knock on wood); the bad news is what has happened here – campgrounds get filled when I don’t book early.
I still have one intended stop that I have not been able to book, so it is likely that there will be another change to the itinerary.
This hop was so short that I thought I might need to kill some time before arrival. So I pulled into the parking lot at the High Point High School (it was Saturday so the lot was empty) and called my sister. We had a nice chat that did, indeed, kill 30 minutes.
My home in Dumfries was the Prince William Forest RV Campground. I have stayed here at least three times before. It is a basic campground and only has a few full-hookup sites that can accommodate my 42-foot rig but I did book this one early so I was able to snag one.
Cristina on the pool deck
As usual, there was a lot of dining out on this trip, but the meals were forgetable. And that is being kind. I have to wonder if chefs have forgotten how to cook due to the pandemic.
Josh and Cristina’s new house
I visited Jett’s kids at a very busy time – the twins are selling the house that they have owned for 17 years and are separating, moving into two separate houses with two separate loved ones. Big moves, for sure. I was able to attend the walk-through for one of the houses but the other is under construction.
I also made a trip to Manassas with the dual purpose of filling one of my propane tanks and taking a second look at the Manassas battlefield. I struck out completely on the propane (the pump was broken) and was only partially successful at seeing the battlefield (the day was windy and very cool).
The Brawner Farm, the first day of battle
My first trip to Manassas, in 2015, was limited to the first Battle of Manassas (or, if you prefer, Bull Run) in 1861. That battle was relatively small, on a very compact battlefield which can be viewed on foot. This time I wanted to see the site of the second battle, in 1862. This battle was on a much larger battlefield. There is an 18-mile driving tour of the battlefield. I started this tour, did the first 2 stops, and discovered that there is a LOT of walking required. The day was very windy – 50 mph gusts – and chilly. Very unpleasant. I gave up.
I made a feeble attempt to get the truck’s cracked windshield fixed. I filed a claim and tried to contact a glass company. But I realized the the damage, which was originally just a star-shaped chip that could easily be patched, had grown into a full-fledged crack too large to repair. I will have to replace the entire windshield. I decided to wait until I land in Massachusetts.
Second day of battle, near the unfinished rail line
TN7 wrapup
I have already given the summary – that the TN7 was the most pleasant, trouble-free RV trip I have undertaken since the trip west in 2017. There were some highlights and lowlights and I will get to those. But first… the numbers:
Because there were no significant problems you might expect that the actual route would be pretty close to the planned route and you would be mostly right. But I changed my mind about stopping near Philadelphia and was forced to add a second stop in MD.
Highlights:
Lowlights:
Obviously the highlights outweighed the lowlights on TN7. This is important as this trip was a test of both the truck and my desire to travel solo. I think it was a success on both counts.
If the trip south in the fall is similarly successful I will seriously consider a full summer of travel – possibly to do the “30 MLB stadiums in one season tour” in 2022.