Our Wander Years

TTS Hop 8: Douglas GA to Carrabelle FL

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Sparky

TTS Hop 8

196 miles via GA 32, US 221, US 41, GA 31, FL 145, FL 14, I-10, US 19, FL 59, US 98 and US 319. Cumulative tow miles: 1,849.

Does that route sound complicated? It was. This was arguably the most complex route we have had on any hop in any of our trips. The Google map initially offered 3 routes and I waffled back and forth over them for hours. The shortest route had too many turns. The middle route took me down a narrow street and through a roundabout. So I opted for the longest of the 3 routes.

Naturally, the GPS couldn’t find it. So I traveled over 50 miles along the route, hoping that the GPS would eventually catch up. It didn’t. I came to an intersection where – God forbid – I had to use my gut instinct and chose to continue further on US 221. So the route we took ultimately was “none of the above.”

This made for a pretty stressful trip. I was comforted only by the knowledge that I was traveling in approximately the right direction (thanks, compass) and that there were no low bridges within 100 miles (thanks, Low Clearances). Despite being, in a sense, lost, the route ended up shorter than the route I had planned to take.

The final error was that we entered the wrong destination address, using “US 98 W” instead of “US 98 E”. I was cruising along, thinking I still had 8 more miles to go, when our target – the Ho Hum RV Park – suddenly appeared on our left. Some quick braking and a sudden left turn and we were home. Whew!

Our overnight stay the night before the hop was the General Coffee State Park, about 7 miles east of Douglas, GA. This was just an overnight, but it was special in that it was our very first state park campsite. We have avoided state parks because most either don’t have RV camping or don’t have RV camping for a big rig like ours. General Coffee not only had RV camping but had lots of spacious sites. Most of them were 30-amp electric sites but they did have a couple of 50-amp sites. None of the sites have sewer, but they do have a dump station and in any case the lack of a sewer connection for a single night is no real problem.

Campsite at General Coffee

We got there just before sunset and didn’t have a lot of opportunity to look around, but I liked what I saw. First, the park is huge – we had to drive 2 miles into the park to find our campsite. Second, it seems to have a lot of amenities. Beach (apparently with canoe rentals) and possibly horseback riding as we passed a stable with 3 horses. Very nice. I don’t know what else is in the area – Douglas itself doesn’t have anything that would attract me – but if you ever find yourself looking for a campsite near Douglas GA, consider General Coffee State Park.

We picked a site (yes, they let you pick your own site) that was heavily wooded and pretty secluded. Very, very quiet and very, very dark. One negative: there is absolutely no television reception. No cable, no over-the-air. It was a quiet night with DVDs.

The dogs enjoyed the nature trail walk in the morning.

Morning walk

Categories: FL, GA, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TTS | Leave a comment

TTS Hop 7: Charleston SC to Douglas GA

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Sparky

TTS Hop 7

216 miles via US 17, I-85, GA 196, US 84, GA 203 and GA 32. Cumulative tow miles: 1,653.

Charleston market

This was a 4-hour trip with a midpoint lunch stop – no fuel, just lunch – mostly on roads that we had not taken before, except for I-95. I was expecting the roads to be narrow, but except for portions of the final stretch on GA 32, all were 4-lane roads in good repair. The traffic was fairly light and the weather was fine (partly cloudy, low 70s), to it was a pretty pleasant jaunt. Jett, who is still not feeling great, slept for an hour.

Because she was not feeling well, the 4 days in Charleston were less adventurous than we had planned. We made it into town just twice – on Saturday to walk around a bit, do some gift shopping and dine at the Charleston Crab House – and on Monday to dine at Tommy Condon’s, the Irish Pub that was one of the highlights of our first visit. We remember their fried green tomatoes – hand battered and served with a corn chutney. It was then – and is still now – the best fried green tomato dish that we have encountered anywhere. We also had some friend green tomatoes at the Crab House but there is simply no comparison. If you want fried green tomatoes in Charleston, go to Tommy Condon’s.

My entrée at the Crab House was a “shrimp steampot”, a nice steamed concoction featuring peel-and-eat shrimp complemented with a few red potatoes and chorizo sausage. Very good. My entrée at Tommy Condon’s was fish and chips, accompanied by a local ale. Excellent! Again, decision to Tommy Condon.

Shrimp steampot

Entrance to Tommy Condon’s

Our home in Charleston this time was the Oak Plantation Campground, a very highly-rated RV park about 10 miles west of Charleston. It was our second choice. We had wanted to return to the Campground at James Island Park, but they had no availability on the weekend. As a second choice, Oak Plantation was pretty good. Our site was huge, there was a dog park nearby and the other amenities looked very nice. However, the water was harsh and made for very bitter coffee and the check-in process was strange and quite annoying. They had lost my reservation, which delayed the checkin for about 10 minutes, then I had to sign a pledge promising I would clean up after my pets. That is a first. Almost every park has that as one of their rules, no surprise, but a separate signed form on which I had to list the names of my pets? Not their breeds or their sizes, mind you, but their names. Were they going to file complaints against the individual dogs if they fouled the property? Makes no sense. Just bizarre.

Oak Plantation

Our site at Oak Plantation

Categories: GA, Places, Routes, RV Parks, SC, TTS | Leave a comment

TTS Hop 6: Asheville NC to Charleston SC

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Sparky

TTS Hop 6

266 miles via I-26, I-526 (around Charleston) and US-17. Cumulative tow miles: 1,437.

This was a pretty straight shot down I-26 to Charleston, with a lunch/refueling stop at the midpoint. The NC portion of I-26 was hilly, but not as hilly as the approach to Asheville from the north. And once it crossed into SC it turned into gentle hills and then, as we hit the lowlands, into a very flat final 50 miles. Pretty straightforward, both literally and figuratively.

Cramped Bear Creek site

The lunch/refueling stop was made more interesting by the presence of a food truck selling fresh boiled peanuts. I had been curious about this southern delicacy(?) for a while, so I plunked down $3 for a pint-sized bag. I ate about 20% of them and tossed the rest. They weren’t totally disgusting, but they weren’t appealing, either. Kind of like eating peas in a soggy chewy shell. Roasting them would have been a much better path for them. I would have eaten them all if they had been roasted.

Our home for 3 nights in Asheville was the Bear Creek RV Park. The location of this park was very convenient. It basically has its own exit off of I-26; it was straight at the exit and up a short hill and the reverse to get back on I-26. I like that convenience. But I didn’t much like that the park was very hilly, with small, narrow sites. I can’t help but reflect on the comment of the person who checked me in: “Oh, that’s a HUGE site!” Believe me, the site was anything but huge. We had to back in right to the fence in order to leave enough space in front to park the truck sideways. It was probably the most cramped site with have had in the past 2 years. To be generous, maybe she was thinking of the site across from us which was larger, though not, I think, “huge.”

The site did offer a nice view out the back window – a nice panorama of the very pretty mountains that surround Asheville.

One quirk: we were given a remote control to access the channels of the park’s cable system. This is unique in our experience. Apparently each site has a cable box the picks the channels. I don’t know what the advantage, if any, of this arrangement might be. It certainly didn’t improve the quality of the cable reception, which was pretty poor.

Overall, not a bad park but probably just a 4 on a 10 scale.

View out the back of the RV

Categories: NC, Places, Routes, RV Parks, SC, TTS | Leave a comment

Blue Ridge Parkway – Pisgah section

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Sparky

View from the parkway

On our free day in Asheville, I was looking for some way to explore the area further and discovered that the very southernmost section of the Blue Ridge Parkway – the “Pigsah” section – ran very close to Asheville. And, in fact, very close to our campsite. That was all the encouragement I needed to take a road trip.

It was a clear day, but a bit hazy. Not a picture-perfect day, but not a bad day to capture the shades of blue and gray and the late fall colors. The drive itself was surprisingly challenging, rising from the 2,000-foot elevation of Asheville to over 4,000 feet in less than 10 miles. The parkway has many overlooks where travelers can stop to admire the view and take pictures and I used most of them.

Some of my photos are shown below.

Walnut Cove overlook

Bad Fork Valley overlook

Stony Bald overlook

Big Ridge overlook

Blue Ridge, with some fall colors

Categories: Adventures, NC, Places, TTS | Leave a comment

The Biltmore Estate

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Sparky

Biltmore

Overlooking the 8,000 acres

My bucket list is not very long, but The Biltmore Estate has been on it for a number of years. On Wednesday I checked it off my list.

I was expecting Biltmore to be similar to The Breakers in Newport, RI. And why wouldn’t they be? The Breakers was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt and Biltmore was the creation of George Vanderbilt, another of Cornelius’ grandsons. Both were completed in 1895. Both were designed by Richard Morris Hunt. But while the buildings are similar in scale and amenities, Biltmore has more of a French feel. And the grounds… well, there is just no comparison there. While The Breakers commands a spectacular view of Narragansett Bay, it is on just a few acres of land. The Biltmore Estate is nestled in the midst of over 8,000 acres of forest and gardens. It is immense, about 1/3 the size of Disney World. There may be larger private estates elsewhere in the world, but not many.

The first evidence of the size of the estate comes shortly after entering: you encounter a sign that says “Biltmore Estate 2 miles”. A 2-mile long driveway! I would hate to shovel that in a snowstorm.

Because we were in our dually, we were directed to a lot that was relatively close to the mansion. But we still had to walk about a quarter mile to the entrance (we got a shuttle ride back). We got the self-guided audio tour and were glad we did. The audio tour contains much more information than the brochure. We spent nearly 2 hours inside, then had a (very expensive) snack in the courtyard. Jett did some gift shopping while I did a quick tour of the gardens and conservatory. All of this under a bright sun on a warm day.

This was a bucket list item that did not disappoint.

Dining hall

Breakfast room

Kitchen

Library

Guest room

Gardens

Conservatory

Orchids

Who knows?

Categories: NC, Places, TTS | Leave a comment

TTS Hop 5: Natural Bridge VA to Asheville NC

Posted on November 3, 2016 by Sparky

TTS Hop 5

279 miles via I-81 and I-26. Cumulative tow miles: 1,171.

This was another “easy” hop in terms of navigation: down I-81, then down I-26 to Asheville. But it was a long trip, with a refueling stop, and a couple of problems arose. First, some rubber molding on the RV came loose several times, requiring uncomfortable emergency stops on I-81. After the third failure I had to dig out some Gorilla Tape to keep it in place. Second, I changed the refueling stop and made a mental note of its location: Exit 63 on I-81. But Mile 63 came and went and there was no Exit 63. So we kept our eyes open and picked a Petro Truck Stop at Exit 26. We got fuel and lunch at the Iron Skillet (a first – they make a pretty good grilled chicken sandwich) and got back on the road. Later, in Tennessee, we passed Exit 63. My memory had the right exit but the wrong state.

I had never traveled I-26 before and was surprised at how rugged the mountains were and at the steepness of the grades. For the first time since the Grand Canyon I kept my eyes on the engine temperature (it topped out at about 200 degrees – about 10 degrees below “hot”). I also had to watch the tach. Because I was in “towing mode” where the engine helped brake. On some of the downslopes the RPMs exceeded 3500, well above the 3000 RPM start of the “red zone.” In short, I-26 was very hard on the truck. But the repaired engine performed well and we arrived without incident.

Our one-night stay in Natural Bridge was at the KOA there. Like most KOAs, it was an older park, in decent but not great shape, with fairly tight sites. This one also had some pretty dramatic hills and dips, which made getting into the site interesting. And, for the second time on the TTS, I had to use multiple wood blocks to level the rig.

Jett still wasn’t feeling well, so we did takeout from a Wendy’s in Lexington, VA, about 10 miles north. I didn’t mind the extra driving as it gave me a chance to look around the area a bit. Lexington is a very pretty small town with some very narrow streets. The narrowness was an issue because I was there around 5pm on Halloween and there were oodles of youngsters trick-or-treating. I tried very hard to avoid running them over and mostly succeeded.

The extra 20 miles – after refueling – was the reason that I had to change the refueling stop. No big deal, but getting the state wrong added a bit of drama to the trip.

KOA office

Hilly terrain

Pool

Our site

Categories: NC, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN, TTS, VA | Leave a comment

TTS Hop 4: College Park MD to Natural Bridge VA

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Sparky

TTS Hop 4

212 miles via I-495 (around DC), I-66 and I-81. Cumulative tow miles: 892.

Luxury cabin

I consider this a “low stress” hop because it was almost entirely on interstate highways. I was worried that the first 50 miles – on the I-495 DC Beltway and out I-66 – would have a lot of stop-and-go traffic, but there was almost none of that. Pretty smooth, traffic-wise, though I-81 is always heavy. There are also a lot of hills on I-81, so the gas mileage was pretty lousy – under 8 mpg. But diesel fuel is cheap enough (I filled up at the destination for $2.30/gal) that I didn’t really care.

All in all, a pretty easy hop. But not particularly interesting. I was surprised that the foliage was past prime this far south.

The I-81 south trip reminded me of our first month on the road, way back in 2012. I-81 was the road where we had to leave the RV in the breakdown lane to go into town in search of tires as we had two blowouts in the same day. Good times.

Cherry Hill Park was, once again, awesome. This time we took a “luxury cabin” for two nights so that Jett’s son and grandson could stay with us and avoid multiple 100-mile round trips. We were very impressed. Large, clean, nice furniture, lots of dishes, nice bedding, very comfortable bath. This is probably the nicest cabin we have ever seen. Another plus for Cherry Hill.

We laundered our clothes at their awesome laundry. We later discovered that the park has a second laundry which was even closer to our site.

We used our two days with Jett’s son and grandson to play minigolf, dine out, visit IKEA (a first for me) and have smores around the campfire. A good time was had by all, but was marred by Jett’s severe cold. She couldn’t even hug them goodbye, for fear of making them sick.

Cabin living area

Cabin bedroom

Cabin kitchen

Messing around at minigolf

Categories: Places, Routes, RV Parks, TTS, VA | Leave a comment

Apple Island “Resort”

Posted on October 30, 2016 by Sparky

The featureless plain

Pitiful laundromat

Jett and I spent nearly 6 months this spring/summer/fall at the Apple Island Resort in South Hero, VT, about 20 miles north of Burlington, VT. I previously reported on our first workamping gig and won’t comment further on working there. This is just a review of the campground itself.

I have a problem with the “Resort” part of the name. When I think “resort” I think Normandy Farms, Gulf Waters RV Resort, Pine Acres Family Camping Resort or even the Seminole Campground (which doesn’t even claim “resort” status). These parks all have extensive amenities – all have a pool, game room, laundromat, playground and community center and some have pickle ball courts, tennis courts, golf (or Frisbee golf) course, card room, softball field, outdoor amphitheater, dog park and beaches – lots of activities and very attractive campsites/RV pads. Yes, Apple Island has a very nice community center with a room that could be used for cards (though I never saw anyone playing), pool and a 9-hole golf course, but not much else. It does have the marina, which is nice, but no beach, no tennis courts, no pickle ball courts, no softball field, no outdoor amphitheater, no dog park. The laundromat is, kindly put, minimal and unpleasant to use with no windows and no ventilation. The playground is pathetic – up a hill and consisting of little more than a slide and some plastic structures to climb on. The activities are also minimal. There are cookouts, Bingo and BBQs, but always at a price, and very few other activities. No FOB, no reading club, no genealogy, few community socials/pot lucks. There seems to be no sense of community.

Pitiful playground

And the campsites… let me tell you about the campsites. The “lower field” consists of a featureless (no trees, no bushes – see the photo at the top) plain where the RVs park on grass or thin strips of loose gravel. The whole area was designed with motorhomes in mind, with the unit facing forward (because the sites are aligned with the best view forward), so the utilities are on the left for the motorhomes, but are on the right (which is wrong) for all other RVs which would like to face backward because the best view for them is out the back of the unit. These sites have no sewer connections – they are water/electric only – because the park apparently built the sites without thinking about upgrading their ancient sewage processing plant. If you want a full-hookup site you must take one of the sites “up the hill” which vary greatly in quality but tend to be uneven and very cramped. Almost none of those sites have any view whatsoever; instead they are nestled amongst the park model trailers of the permanent and seasonal residents.

This mixing of transient RVs and permanent residents pleases no one. I think I am being charitable when I say that I think the park is “in transition.” They have a full-time sales manager whose job is to convert the transient sites into seasonal or permanent sites, so they clearly want more permanent/seasonal residents at the cost of reduced transient capacity. It would seem that the goal is to have all sites “up the hill” be permanent/seasonal sites and transient RVs all relegated to the “lower field.” Until this transition is complete – and it could take years – this awkward intermingling of transients and permanent/seasonal residents will continue.

I should also mention the tent sites. There are a grand total of 6 of them, all in a row in a strip of grass carved out of the woods above the field. Tenters are allowed to drive to the site to set up, but then must move their vehicle to the bottom of the hill. The restrooms and showers are also at the bottom of the hill, which is both a strenuous walk and, in the dark, quite difficult. For the privilege of using this inconvenient swatch of grass (with a fire ring and picnic table) the tenter pays $45. A much nicer site at the state park 2 miles away costs $21.

My first impression of the “resort” back in April was not very favorable. I kept thinking that I would learn to love it. I didn’t.

RVs amid the park models

Community Center

Library/card room

Categories: Places, RV Parks, VT | Leave a comment

TTS Hop 3: East Stroudsburg PA to College Park MD

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Sparky

TTS Hop 3

222 miles via US 209, PA 33, US 22, US 222, US 30, I-83, I-695 (around Baltimore), I-95 and MD 212. Cumulative tow miles: 680.

This was almost a reverse of the hop last spring, with a few minor differences. The biggest difference is that we decided to travel US 30 to its connection with I-83 rather than taking the shortcut. We regretted the decision as it not only added about 5 miles to the trip but also got us stuck in about a mile-and-a-half of very heavy traffic. We will take the shortcut next time.

This hop, though the best of the options (the other routes all involve tolls and city traffic), is not fun. It lacks any rest stops (I ate lunch while driving). We did, finally, make a rest stop about 25 miles short of our destination, to relieve Jett’s bladder. But other than the lack of places to take a break, it was an uneventful trip over roads that are generally in pretty good shape. But there were a few rough patches – enough to knock the broiler oven off its shelf in the closet.

I don’t have anything more to say about the Delaware Water Gap / Pocono Mountain KOA. It is a very nice campground that is in the perfect location for us for an overnight stop between Boston and DC. I am sure there are many recreational activities (and bears) in the area, so it might be a good choice for someone who would like to stay and explore a bit.

Our destination for 5 nights is the Cherry Hill Park campground. We stayed here on our way north last spring and it now is firmly established in our “best ever” campground list. We love this place! It is expensive (over $70 per night for a premium site), but it has many amenities and is close to everything. Jett’s sons and grandson will be visiting, so we will have a chance to catch up with family. Should be a fun five days.

If Jett stays healthy. She has sniffles this morning.

Categories: MD, PA, Places, TTS | Leave a comment

Taking out the docks

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Sparky

Most of the center dock removed

The final task in my marina mini-career was taking out the docks. The floating docks had to be removed from the lake and stacked on shore, to keep them from being crushed by the winter ice. This is normally a simple task, taking maybe a day and a half. This year it took a bit longer, due to the near-historic low water on Lake Champlain: the level when we started removing the docks was about a foot below the 100-year median and less than 6″ above the all-time low water of 1941. About a quarter of the dock segments were sitting on the mud and had to be dragged and/or lifted out of the non-existent water.

The launch dock came out first. I had started that process a week earlier by detaching the four segments that were still floating and tying them to the gas dock. I then removed the pins that connected the other 8 segments and just left them sitting in the mud. When the front-end loader arrived, it was used to drag all 8 of those segments to shore where they could then be lifted and stacked. The 4 floating segments were then floated to near the shore where they were also lifted and stacked.

The main docks – the ones that are rented to seasonal customers – were removed next. All but 6 segments could be removed by dragging them free and floating them again. I rode on those docks to shore, like Huck Finn on the raft. The final 6 segments took some heroic – and dangerous – work with the front-end loader, driven by the resort’s facilities manager. It took over 4 hours to remove those 6 segments.

The last dock to be removed was the gas dock. That was pretty trivial as those segments were all still floating (they were in the region dredged last year for the new state boat ramp that was next door).

The final task was to remove the 24 mooring balls. The general process was to string a “leech line” from shore to each of the buoys, tying the line to the anchor chain, removing the buoy and then dropping the chain to the bottom. This took longer than usual because 4 of the moorings were so shallow that the work boat could not get to them. we had to get a rowboat out of storage and use it to get to the final 4 balls. Even then we got stuck a couple of times because the water was less than a foot deep.

My final act at the marina was to take a photo of the dock-less lake. You can see the extensive mud flats. It looks kind of forlorn. Note the anchor block in the foreground – it was under more than 3 feet of water in May.

A long winter lies ahead.

Hopefully one with LOTS of snow.

Lifting a launch dock segment

Riding the docks

Removing a stuck segment

Docks gone

Categories: Places, VT, Work | Leave a comment