Month: August 2023

Saturday, August 26, 2023

We left Range Time early this morning in route to the Assateague Lighthouse and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.  We didn’t have time to really do much but we wanted to take some quick pictures and get the lay of the land so we could plan a trip back to this area.  We were there before any of the welcome centers or the lighthouse opened but we feel like we have a better idea of the area and will be better able to plan.  Great place and we look forward to returning.

We left there and began our trip south in earnest.  Today was our first crossing of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.  What an amazing engineering marvel. The original crossing was completed in 1964, 17.6 miles, with bridges and two tunnels crossing the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.  A major project to dualize the bridges was completed in 1999 and they are currently working to dualize one of the tunnels.  Today was a beautiful day with perfect views of the bridge, water, boaters, and huge sea going vessels as well as lots of sea gulls and at least 9 ospreys.  We may be a little strange, but it was just a fun crossing.

The rest of the day was just drive 2-3 hours, primarily on the interstates, change drivers and repeat.  Tonight, we are sleeping at a Cracker Barrel in Hickory, NC.  We traveled in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina today.  A much longer travel day than is our norm but we were still off the road before dark.  Today is the official end of our 2023 Summer Road Trip daily postings.  All that remains is another hard day of driving back to Alabama tomorrow, a few days there and then a drive back to South Carolina.  We will to a summation of the trip with all our statistics, but it will probably be a few days after we get back to SC before we pull all the information together for that final post. Today was an uneventful day, so it was another great day!

Friday, August 25, 2023

We had a good night of rest and were ready to hit the road again this morning.   We stopped at WaWa for gas and some breakfast sandwiches.  (Did you know that New Jersey is now the only state that does not allow drivers to pump their own gas?) We also bought some blueberry muffins for tomorrow because they are so good.  We had some dear NOMADS friends from NJ and Bobbie just loved WaWa so sometimes we just must stop there for the memories.  We also stopped at Sprouts, one of our favorite stores.  We haven’t seen one since we left SC 52 days ago so we picked up some more goodies for our trail mix.  Then it was time to put some miles behind us, which we did for a couple of hours.  Then we stopped at Big Oak County Park in Smyrna, Delaware for some walking and geocaching.  It was a very nice park and we got most of our exercise for the day.

Back on the road, we drove south to the small town of Millsboro, Delaware. It is a beautiful pastoral setting, corn and soybeans in the fields. Tonight we have another very nice Harvest Host who greeted us and made sure we were comfortable.  This host’s business is “Range Time”, a shooting facility.  Unfortunately, the food truck that sounded so good was not here today.  It will be here Saturday and Sunday.  Oh, well.  They also have knife and axe throwing lanes.  We have some friends that did a video of themselves trying throwing for the first time.  It was pretty funny, so since we had never experienced it, we gave it a try.  We were given a little lesson and after some practice we were getting a little better. Not good – still rank amateurs but it was a fun new experience.  Shoulders may be sore tomorrow.  It was another fun day and now have all states east of the Mississippi River on our map.  We know we will need to revisit New Jersey and Delaware because we haven’t given them the time they deserve, but at least we have visited.  Another very nice day and looking forward to another peaceful night.

Thursday, August 24, 2023

We left early this morning to be out of the way as our hosts prepared for their big (about 1,000 guests) event.  It was a great place to overnight and they have a great space for events.  Supper friendly and helpful.  We recommend The Farm at Carter Hill for anyone visiting in the area.

We made a quick grocery store stop and walked a couple blocks to find a cache and were then on the road to New Jersey.  Of course, Google in its great wisdom routed us directly through downtown New York City.  We did not follow that wisdom and instead took a route around NYC.  It was a little longer but was a pleasant drive.  Traffic was not nearly as bad as we feared.

After about 3 hours it was time for a stretch and walk and just then we came upon a nice-looking park in Piscataway, NJ.  There was a nice, paved walking trail where we got most of our steps for the day.  There was also the East Jersey Old Town Village in the park.  It is a collection of 16 historical structures that were relocated to the park and restored/rebuilt.  We didn’t have time to go through all the buildings but what we saw was well done.

We then went on to our host for tonight in Medford Township, NJ.  Super nice couple who just happen to be in the market for a Beyond.  They have already looked and talked to a dealer.  They plan to order a Beyond as soon as they sell their R-Pod trailer.  They were very excited to see us and BB.  We had a great time getting to know them and hope to see them on the road in their new Beyond soon.  It was an uneventful travel day, so it was a very good day!

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Today was another meandering generally southward day as we add more states to our “RV’ed in” map. We started out by finding a nearby hiking trail to get the majority of our walking early in the day. The New London Turnpike trail follows the old route of a road that was built in 1835 to connect Providence, RI to New London, CT.  As such it was one of the first interstate highways. It is listed as a 2.6 mile out and back trail. However, about midway it was flooded so we walked back to the parking area and drove to the other trailhead to walk the lower part of the trail.

After our hike we headed to Connecticut to spend tonight (remember, the map?). On the way we stopped at a local cemetery to find a geocache in the state. We are glad we did. Not for the cache but to find the oddest grave marker we have ever seen. Even Google had no idea about its history.

We arrived at our Harvest Hosts location early afternoon. The Farm at Carter Hill is an interesting event venue. We spent the first half hour just walking around looking at the buildings and displays. When we made the reservation, the host asked us to be gone early tomorrow because they are expecting over 1,000 people for an event. With that many people coming in we will definitely be gone. (Actually we volunteered to stay and help if they needed us to, but they declined.)

Now we are comfortably preparing for our Wednesday night online small group Bible study.