You are using an insecure version of your web browser. Please update your browser!
Using an outdated browser makes your computer unsafe. For a safer, faster, more enjoyable user experience, please update your browser today or try a newer browser.
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
230 miles via NC 96, I-85, I-95 and VA 234. Cumulative tow miles: 1459. Truck miles: 321. Cumulative truck miles: 2095. The extra truck miles were primarily due to the lunch I had with Mary Markunas, an old friend that I had not seen for over 40 years.
This was a very pleasant trip in beautiful weather, mostly on I-85 which is now on my list of favorite roads: flat, smooth and little truck traffic. However the trip was marred by two unpleasant incidents. The first was a violent disagreement between the GPS and Google. The Google route was 223 miles and took me to I-85 via US 1. The GPS’s preferred route was 274 miles and I didn’t even bothet to look at the details as that was unnecessarily long. So I started on the Google route and the GPS route was soon down under 240 miles. However, it was insistent that I not go on US 1. It advised me at least 20 times to turn or do a U-turn. The last time I encountered this kind of GPS obstinancy – in 2017, south of Buffalo – it was correctly detecting a low bridge on the route. This made me very nervous so I eventually caved in and took NC 96 to I-85 rather than US 1.
I am going to have to take a close look at that US 1 segment and see if the GPS was right to object.
The second unpleasant incident occurred about 40 miles from Dumfries on I-95. I let a large tow truck merge onto the road in front of me and it thanked me by immediately propelling a large stone into my windshield, cracking it. At first it was just a star but but the time I got to Dumfries it was a full-fledged crack. I will have to get the windshield replaced, either in Dumfries or when I get to MA. The crack is on the passenger side to it doesn’t interfere with my vision of the road.
I should also mention that before I left Wake Forest I had to climb onto the roof to reposition a piece of slide weather stripping that had slipped out of place. I discovered, on the roof, a large number of scrapes in the rubber roofing material. At some point on this trip I must have encountered some low-hanging branches. These scrapes are minor, but I will have to spend an afternoon patching them sometime this summer.
So the first two “dings” on the trip. Not bad, really.
My home in Wake Forest was the Holly Point Campground, part of the state-run Falls Lake State Recreation Area. I usually favor commercial campgrounds as I am never sure what I am going to find in a state campground. In this case the surprise was a pleasant one: the sites were HUGE and very secluded – lots of space between the sites. Although I didn’t use them, the campground also has a very nice bathhouse and beach on the lake. This is a very nice campground.
The beach in the morning
I did embarrass myself, though. I had picked a site which looked to be larger that most (before I knew how large the other sites were) and, surprisingly, was one of the very few pull-through sites in the campground. But did I take advantage of it? No, I did not. First, I passed the entrance and rather than back up to the entrance decided to back into the site. Then I decided that I was oriented incorrectly, with the utilities on the wrong side (I wasn’t), so I turned around and backed in from the other end. Only to discover that I was now incorrectly oriented. So I pulled out, turned around again and backed in from the other side.
It took me about 30 minutes to get positioned in a pull-through site. After 8 years on the road I should have done much better. Embarrassing.
The embarrassing pull-through
I had redemption of sorts in Dumfries – I backed into a fairly difficult site on a single try.
The woman that I had lunch with on Monday – Mary Markunas – was married for many years to one of my best college friends and had two lovely daughters with him. He died young, but after they divorced. I have many fond memories of the times my first wife and I had with them, including a wonderful week on the Outer Banks of North Carolina which included my one-and-only flounder gigging expedition with Bob.
I lost touch with them after they moved to NC and hadn’t spoken to her in 40 years. But since I was going to be near Chapel Hill – where they lived when I lost touch – I thought I would see if she might still be in the area. Surprisingly, I found a telephone number for her almost immediately and, even more surprisingly, she answered on the first ring. We agreed to meet for lunch at the Umstead Hotel in Cary. When I looked at the menu for the restaurant there I nearly threw a shoe – EXPENSIVE! But we dined on the patio at the bar which, though still pricey, was not outrageously so.
We had a lovely 2.5-hour lunch and pretty much caught up on each other’s lives. I would call it totally successful and satisfying except that I got a sunburned face.
A winter in Florida with 2 softball games every week and no sunburn, but a lunch in NC does me in. Go figure.
174 miles via I-77, I-85 and NC 98. Cumulative tow miles: 1229. Truck miles: 266. Cumulative truck miles: 1774. The extra truck miles were due to 2 shopping trips and a depressing sightseeing trip around Charlotte in the rain.
Top of a ride from the campground
This was a rare route: not a single mile on a road that I have traveled before. Not an exciting route, but a fairly smooth and pleasant route.
My home in Charlotte was the Carowinds Camp Wilderness Resort, adjacent to the Carowinds amusement park. I have stayed at amusement park campgrounds before and was concerned about the noise. Well, I needn’t have worried because the park doesn’t open until mid-May. It turns out the the only persistent noise was from the planes making their final approach to the Charlotte airport.
This is a decent park, but with a surprising number of long-term campers. Some units look like they have been there all winter. Or longer.
The weather was cold – a record low of 31 was set the first night there – and then turned rainy. I watched TV and read a lot.
Wednesday was a lousy day, weather-wise. Cool, wet, dreary. I got stir-crazy and decided to take a road trip to Pigeon Forge, about 30 miles to the east of Walland. I wanted to see the town again, which I first saw in 2012 in our first month on the road. I wasn’t expecting it to be any less tacky than the first time, but the town – and Dollywood – had a special meaning for Jett and me. It was the place where our desire to travel the country solidified.
If you aren’t familiar with our first month in an RV, it could be characterized as “hell.” Three blowouts, the last doing serious damage to the RV, and a miserable, rainy Columbus Day weekend in a Motel 6 in Knoxville while RV repairs were being made. Jett was in favor of scrapping our plans and returning to Massachusetts. I reminded her that we had rented our house for a year and had no place to return to. Didn’t matter. There were a lot of tears that weekend. Mostly hers.
On Monday we retrieved the repaired RV and made our way an hour south to Pigeon Forge, to spend a day at Dollywood. Our hearts weren’t really in it and the day, though sunny, was very cool, in the 50s. But we went.
And had a wonderful time. Dollywood was a revelation. I didn’t ride the many great roller coasters, but we had the best fried chicken dinner ever, toured Dolly’s RV, visited the dogs that we had booked for the day at Doggywood and generally shed all of the misery that had accumulated over those awful first 30 days.
Our trip – and our faith in our RV lifestyle – was saved.
The weather was even worse on Wednesday than it was on that Columbus Day in 2012 – highs in the 40s. I had no intention of going into Dollywood, but I had to do a drive-by and give it a salute. And I found my eyes getting damp. I was touched in a way that I didn’t expect. This was where our 8 years on the road really began.
Well, Jett, I made it back to Dollywood. Wish you had been with me.
244 miles via US 411, TN 338, TN 66, I-40, I-26, US 74, I-85, I-485 (southwest of Charlotte) and I-77 with a midway refueling stop in Hendersonville NC. Cumulative tow miles: 1055. Truck miles: 331. Cumulative truck miles: 1508. The additional truck miles were due to my sightseeing trip to Pigeon Forge and my two trips to dine out.
I was very worried about this hop. I thought it would be very hard on both me and the truck. Well, I was half right. It turned out to be a piece of cake for the truck – barely broke a sweat over the Smoky Mountains – but it was very hard on me. I woke at 4am thinking that I needed to find a better route. The route I was planning involved 20 miles over very narrow roads with no shoulder and, in places, a deep ditch which would have been a disaster if I let the RV wheels run off the pavement. Well, I opted for a longer stretch on US 411, which is not an easy road but has more shoulders and fewer ditches. That longer route meant it would be neccesary to refuel, but I found a truck stop in Hendersonville that would work.
So the really bad portion of the trip involved only the first few miles. Then a long stretch of US 411 where I had to remain focused. I navigated that successfully and made it to the truck stop. But there I saw a long line of trucks waiting and rather that incur the ire of OTR drivers to get less than 20 gallons of diesel fuel, I opted to try the car pumps. It wasn’t easy, but I finally got the truck to the pump and successfully refueled.
The last 110 miles were uneventful, though with a lot of traffic, particularly on US 74.
My home for 2 nights in Walland was the Whispering River RV Resort. I have stayed there before. I mentioned that the reservation was incorrect – they had my stay shifted by 1 day. I don’t know if it was my error or theirs, but it got corrected.
Note to self: read the confirmation email.
The RV at rest at Whispering River
Frost on the windshield
The main feature of the stay there was the cold. I had to scrape frost off my windshield the morning of my departure. I don’t like frost.
One of the reasons that I chose to return to Whispering River was its proximity the The Snoring Bear Diner, one of the best breakfast places I have ever encountered. This time I chose the “Denver Boone” – a sandwich made from two slices of french toast, stuffed with cheese, egg, sausage and bacon. “The Heart Stopper” would have been a better name. But delicious.
Unpretentious Amici
The previous night I also dined out, at Amici, an Italian restaurant in Maryville that looked interesting. The item on the menu that got my attention was the “Bison meatball” pasta. There were other items that sounded appealing but I had to try the bison meatball-and-spaghetti dish. Washed down with a couple of pints of craft beer. Verdict: best spaghetti-and-meatball dish I have ever had. The bison meatballs were great but so was the red sauce. Superb.
Needless to say, I didn’t lose any weight while in Walland.
Hop 6 tomorrow will likely be the most difficult of the TN7 – over the Smoky Mountains, which will be a tough haul for the truck. And 233 miles which, given the mountainous terrain, may exceed the range of the truck. So I may have to do a refueling stop in a gas station (I have been unable to find a truck stop along the way). On top of all that, it is going to be freaking cold – probably below freezing at dawn. It should warm up, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see some snowflakes in the mountains.
118 miles via I-75, TN 68, US 411 and US 321. Cumulative tow miles: 811. Truck miles: 298. Cumulative truck miles: 1177. The extra truck miles were due to the trip to Blue Ridge and my tour of the Chickamauga battlefield.
Finally, I am off of I-75. I chose to use the TN 68 exit, which was not the fastest route, because it had fewer turns and avoided some of the very narrow roads that exist near Walland.
There are a lot of trucks on the TN section of I-75, and a lot of hills. That made for a lot of lane switching. But it was a problem-free trip that took just over 2 hours. When I got to my destination my reservation couldn’t be found. We finally located it – for tomorrow! But it got straightened out and I got set up before 3pm.
My home in Ringgold was the Battlefield Campground and RV Park. I don’t know why they had to include both “campground” and “RV park” in the name because it is just an RV park – no tents in sight. This was obviously a KOA at one point, my first clue being its address: KOA Drive.
This park is built on a hill and the roads are both curvy and steep. Many of the sites are not level. Mine wasn’t too bad, but the front jacks were nearly touching the ground when I got the RV leveled. The park claims to have cable, but I found no cable connection on my site. Not a big deal as I was near a major city and was staying for just 2 nights. The real annoyance came when a staff person knocked on my door and asked me to move the truck because they were going to be sealing the blacktop. I had to move the truck a few sites away, to the bathhouse. I thought I would have to back out of my pull-through. That turned out to be unnecessary because they unblocked the roads by 10:30am, just in time for the 11am checkout.
The bottom line is that I wasn’t very enchanted by this park and got the sense that it wasn’t very well managed.
