Lessons Learned on Our Southwest Trip

1. 3,000 miles is a long way from home.

2. Going 3,000 miles with touring stops along the way is nice. Coming straight home, not so much.

3. Six weeks is a long time to be away from home.

4. There is quite a difference in air when you live at 43’ above sea level and your destination is at 8,000’.

5. Be sure to put the cap on your makeup securely if you don’t want it to run out all over everything when going up in altitude.

6. When going up in altitude be careful when opening the mustard, catsup, etc., anything with pressure unless you want to be sprayed with it.

7. Release air in the sleep number mattress as you change altitudes.

8. Remember to check the bicycle tires too!

9. Hiking at a high altitude is quite a bit different than hiking at home. Breathe!

10. Remember to make sure the bicycles are securely affixed to the bike rack especially after we have gone over awful roads.

11. Check water lines, fuses, etc., anything that may need to be tightened after going over horrible highways.

12. Don’t overload your fuses.

13. We can dry camp for three days and nights.

14. We don’t need to try to save propane by using space heaters and letting everything underneath freeze up.

15. We have three hydraulic slides and one electric slide.

16. We can put a slide in manually.

17. Everything that is on a receptacle goes through the house battery.

18. You shouldn’t buy a cheap bike cover from Walmart. It won’t even last 100 miles!

19. Communicating with family is difficult when you are in different time zones.

20. National parks are so much fun!

21. We love state parks.

22. We love hiking but 7 miles is our limit.

23. I now know what a face plant is.

24. We like hikes that start with the ascent and then end by going down. Makes it a lot easier!

25. Sunset happens quickly. Have the camera ready.

26. Believe the campground reviews. Read in between the lines.

27. Love the Southwest.

28. Can now identify a saguaro and a cholla and can even pronounce them correctly.

29. The best part of any trip is always coming home.

30. There’s no place like home.

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The Same Question Arises

As usual the question arises – are we going or not? To preface this entry let me say that the weather in eastern North Carolina has been unusually cold. In fact when I get up this morning and it is below 10 degrees it is definitely not typical weather for us. I don’t ever remember it being that cold before. In fact, the entire week since we had brought the RV home to prepare for the trip had been frigid. I was uneasy about bringing it home because of the forecasted cold temperatures but Jerry wanted to bring it so last Wednesday, December 27, we went to the warehouse and brought it home. Since we have a 50 amp hookup at our house we could plug it in and have the heat and heat pad running and not have any difficulties – or so we thought.

Jerry got a new tool for Christmas, a skill saw and was anxious to get to the river for a couple of days to try it out but wanted everything in the RV and ready before we left we spent a few days at the river. Thursday and Friday were spent going from the house to the RV taking things in. I don’t like to do it that way because by the second day I’ve forgotten what I’ve put in so this time I listed each item before I took it out. Hopefully that way I’ll have what I need. (Quite frankly, I am not sure I left anything home). By Saturday morning we felt that we were mostly prepared to leave on Wednesday, January 3 for our first extended stop, Morrilton, Arkansas. With two auxiliary heaters running in the RV Jerry felt comfortable enough to leave so off to the river we went for a couple of days. The weather continued to be bitter cold with temperatures in the teens and brisk winds. Our return home was hastened Monday morning when we woke up to frozen water pipes – no water so we dressed, closed up the house, turned off the water at the street and headed home.

On Tuesday when Jerry went to fill the fresh water tank he couldn’t get a reading on the level plus he couldn’t get the water pump to come on. Uh oh – He also realized that it appeared that the heat pad was not working. He called Howard RV in Wilmington and they thought that the water pump was frozen. They told us to have the motor home in Wilmington at 8:30 on Wednesday morning and they would see if they would resolve the problem so we could continue with our planned trip.

Well, that precipitated a new problem. Jerry had a scheduled doctor’s appointment at 9:40 on Wednesday morning. As he was calling to reschedule I said to ask if they had anything that afternoon and amazingly, they did, 3:40. That presented another problem though. Jerry had a 5:00 appointment for a badly needed haircut. Unfortunately he was unable to reschedule that so he may be taking a trip to Great Clips! If so that will be the first time in over 30 years that someone besides his regular guy has cut his hair. He is threatening to wear it in a pony tail – Not!

In the meantime while Jerry was at his doctor’s appointment I went on out to program the GPS for Wilmington only to discover that the radio/GPS would not come on. Oh yeah, the battery was DEAD. To make a long, cold story short suffice it to say we eventually got the battery charged enough to start the RV. We left it running for a while so hopefully it would start on Wednesday morning. The monitor for the holding tank was still not working though and with the fresh water tank problem we still needed to go to Wilmington Wednesday.

We finished the day by getting everything else in the RV. We both admitted we brought too much and we were not even sure we were going!

Chattanooga Again!

Riding along on this pretty June day brings to mind that wonderful poem “what is so rare as a day in June” and it is certainly true today. After a good night’s rest Jerry and I were up fairly early but still had time for our “quiet time” and coffee, showers and then preparation for leaving. Jane brought Emma by on her way to school and we were nearly ready to go by then. Jerry pulled the coach up to the parking area and I followed in the car. Then we again hooked the car up to the motor home. Jerry does the outside work of hooking up and I do the inside “work” of putting the Jeep in the right gear to be towed. By 8:23 we were on the road to Chattanooga. It is a really pretty drive as everything is green and mountains are in the distance. It’s probably going to be a hot day but we’re cool inside so we are still enjoying the benefits of that rare June day.

After a couple of hours we stopped at a rest stop mainly just to walk around for a few minutes plus take advantage of the facilities. Back on the road by 10:20 and Emma has asked how many more hours. Um… After a week-end of dancing Emma was pretty tired so she took a couple of naps on the way. That makes for a much “shorter” trip”! Of course, an iPad and a movie help too! FYI – she is belted in!

At the Tennessee state line we stopped at the Welcome Center to take some pictures and get some information plus we had lunch. We had originally planned to use the picnic area but decided inside with the generator and air condition was a better choice! It’s hot in Tennessee!

We arrived at Holiday Travel Park of Chattanooga which is actually located in Rossville, Ga around 3:30 and had an easy check-in. We’ve stayed at this park on our Tennessee trip a couple of years ago and they have made improvements since then. The roads and the sites are graveled so we didn’t have to contend with mud if it rained. Also, the sites seemed to be further apart. They have a nice pool also. The only negative is its proximity to the drag strip. On Friday and Saturday nights the loud motors of the race cars can be heard but by the time they started we had ended our day and were inside so they didn’t bother us too much. We had a nice quiet spot almost at the end of the park, a pull-through although we needed to unhook before we pulled in in order to align the tanks with the pedestals.

A quick set up and we had the rest of the afternoon. Jerry surely didn’t want to drive anywhere so Emma and I went discovering. Since we knew that the campground was located on a Civil War battlefield which served as a skirmish site in 1863 preceding the Battle of Chickamauga we set out through the woods to find the marker denoting this information. We thought we were going on a long hike – nope, just a little walk and there was the plaque!

We then decided we needed to go to the grocery store so the three of us headed out with no idea of where we were going. After several missed turns and finding a not so good grocery store we realized that there was a Publix fairly close by. Emma and I got the silly giggles and then she wanted a picture not only of the Publix sign but one of her standing beneath the store sign. All the way to Chattanooga to get a picture of Publix grocery store! As we walked in the first thing we saw was a watermelon – heck, our shopping was done! I’m quite sure people looked at us as though we were crazy (Jerry surely did) but we were having fun and since we didn’t know anyone we could act as silly as we wanted to – and we did!

Back to the campground via a much closer route and then a nice dinner. Jerry had promised a treat after dinner so off we went again, to the local ice cream shop. A nice cone of chocolate ice cream is a good way to end a day!

On to Sycamore Lodge

We are finally getting back on the road and doing a little bit of traveling and it feels good! We must have been excited about it because neither of us slept well last night. I had hoped to leave by 7:00 and Jerry had said 8:00 and it was actually 7:46 when we pulled out of the driveway. At the end of the street Jerry put the coach in park and we had a moment of prayer asking for safe travel today. I’ll admit I’m a little skittish after our last “trip” but I know God has us in His hands.

Jerry knew that we needed to add some air to the tires and the small air compressor that he has at home just would not do the job so his plan was to stop by Mallard’s on the way out of town where there is an air compressor. At the last minute he decided to go to Universal Tire to let the professionals do it. Good choice I think. He had put the new sensors on the tires yesterday and was eager to make sure everything was working correctly. By the way, the TPMS system that we were using was from TechnoRV and when we contacted Eric about the system’s failure to alert us to a problem he quickly sent us a new set. Campers Inn and TechnoRV have been very supportive throughout the entire ordeal and I highly recommend them for products and service.

Wish I could say the same about Acme Tow Dolly located in Kearnsville, NC. We have called, e-mailed and even stopped by the business but have been unable to reach the owner. He did return one call but Jerry missed it and when Jerry tried to return the call leaving yet another message there was no response. The accident occurred April 15. It is now June 1 so we’ve been trying to speak with the owner nearly six weeks. According to the firemen the brake bearing on the tow dolly locked up causing the fire. The tow dolly was sold to us with a 5 year maintenance free guarantee. Guess you can offer that if you don’t plan to respond to an incident. I really hate that because I do want to support local businesses whether it be our city or our state but I surely don’t recommend Acme Tow Dolly to anyone. I do intend to alert the Better Business Bureau but other than that I guess we have no recourse other than to warn others.

We finally pulled out of the tire shop at 8:14 for a 100+ mile drive to Jackson Springs. We were not exactly sure where it is so the ride should be interesting. We were told to follow our GPS and that’s what we’re doing!

Have you ever heard the phrase “you can’t get there from here?” Well that may apply to Sycamore Lodge! We had two GPS’s plus MapQuest and so of course we got three different routes to take. Sycamore Lodge is located in Jackson Springs which I “think” is in the Pinehurst/Southern Pines area but I’m not sure! Although many RVer’s suggest taking the back roads we always stick to the four lane highways. At forty feet plus a toad we feel safer and less likely to get into a sticky situation if we continue on main highways. Unfortunately for this trip nearly half of it was on two lane country roads going through several small towns. Even at a slower speed it’s difficult to keep the coach in our lane on some of the curves. Jerry commented that only I would be able to enjoy any of the scenery because he had to keep his eyes on the road. Oh no, I don’t enjoy the scenery because in cases like this I’ve found it better just to keep looking down!

We arrived around 11:30, a little over three hours from when we departed. As we were driving in on nicely paved roads Jerrys’ comment was “great place to ride bikes”. More about that later. Registration was quick and we were told that we were scheduled for lunch and to meet with a representative on Friday at 2:30. Guess we’ll be having “lupper”!

Since we were free for the rest of the day we set up, had lunch and then decided on a bike ride. That was not one of my brightest ideas! Yes, there are paved roads but they are right in the center of the campground. Otherwise there are graveled, sandy roads – and deep sand at that. We rode two miles and I must say that is the hardest two miles I’ve ever ridden. It was hot and humid and in places the sand was so deep we had to get off and push the bikes through. Oh, it was about 1:00 in the afternoon too.

The campground itself seems to be very nice with a lot of amenities (not cable) but is in the middle of nowhere! I used the GPS to search for places to visit and there’s just nothing nearby. The closest Walmart is 14 miles away! The campground does have a nice pool and hot tub, a pretty lake for catch and release along with a pedal boat and some canoes on shore for use, horseshoes, volleyball, and some other outdoor activities. My favorite was the small putt-putt course.

We had a lazy afternoon which I guess we both needed after the previous busy days, weeks and months that we’ve had so it was sort of nice. Wouldn’t want too many of these days though! Perhaps tomorrow before the appointment we’ll have to take in the pool. It’s really too hot to do too much outside.

After dinner Jerry and I took a walk. We eventually ended up at the lake and just sat and chatted while we enjoyed the view. Since no one else was around it was so quiet and peaceful and restorative. It was a nice way to spend our 27th anniversary, nothing special, just the two of us appreciating the years we’ve had. On the way back to the motor home we played a game of putt-putt. I haven’t improved at all in the years since I last played but it was fun.

Needless to say it was an early night for us. Jerry turned the air condition down to 65 degrees and we slept snug as bugs in a rug!

And We Are Off to South Dakota

Our lives have been so up in the air since we found out that Jerry had DVT’s in his leg so we put off making any plans. As he began to improve we began to realize that maybe, just maybe we’d be able to go on our scheduled trip to South Dakota. With that in mind I spent Wednesday preparing all of the foods that we usually take (meat loaf, spaghetti sauce, sloppy joe, stuffed peppers – yeah, I know, a lot of beef) and knew that even if we didn’t go I’d have some foods in the freezer that we could use later.

Jerry’s doctor appointment was Thursday morning and we knew we’d know for sure then if we could travel. Our plan was to not mention South Dakota to the doctor but to just ask when we could travel again. When we did his immediate answer was anytime you want to! I asked about stopping every two hours and he said Jerry was in less risk of having a blood clot now than he’d ever been due to being on the blood thinners.

Yea – we were going to South Dakota via a week-end in Clemmons celebrating Olivia’s first birthday on Saturday. I couldn’t wait to see Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, the Black Hills and so much more but that meant we really had to hustle. The new plan was to go straight to the warehouse from the doctor’s office, pick up the RV and take it home. I had two hair appointments (yeah – it takes a lot for me) that afternoon but we were still fairly confident that we could get everything ready and leave Friday afternoon. With a bit of hope in the air on Wednesday I had made tentative reservations for Tanglewood for Saturday and Sunday nights. Since it was Easter week-end we were fortunate to get them although we would have to move Sunday morning to another site. That was fine with us and we’d just stay at the Cracker Barrel only three miles from our son’s house on Friday night. We’ve never stayed at Cracker Barrel before but we really had no other options at that late date.

After an exhausting Thursday we realized that we would not be ready to leave even late Friday afternoon so we decided we’d leave by 7:00 Saturday morning. Wow – that’s early! Because I seemed to have a bit more free time on Friday I went out to Eva’s school and had lunch with her and then went to see Mom for a bit. She really is not too happy about us going so far away.

After I returned home we finally got everything loaded, the car on the dolly and then exhaustion set in. Like I have said earlier, one day we’re going to have a peaceful restful preparation for leaving. Yeah, right! Little did we know.

Getting Ready To Roll Again!

I wish I would/could keep a chronology of my trip planning as I think it would be interesting at least to me to see the progression and changes to our routes and plans. I “knew” we were going to Texas in January and Arizona in March but had made absolutely no plans and it was December! Oh my –when do I get busy on this? With the holidays we stay pretty busy and this year was even more so. Jerry decided that he wanted to build the boys corn hole boards for Christmas and that could only be done at our river house so we made A LOT of trips down there. Our week-ends were filled with a trip to Charlotte for a Panthers game and a trip to Clemmons for our newest granddaughter’s christening so our weeks were busy going back and forth to Pamlico Beach. We had the absolutely prettiest Christmas tree this year that we’ve ever had but we had little time to enjoy it. We were the last to decorate in our neighborhood and the first to take everything down. I guess we look like a couple of Scrooges. To top it off we decided we wanted some flickering candle lights in our windows so we bought some at the Pottery. Oh yeah – they flickered but they were orange and looked like Halloween. Jerry liked them so … I quickly turned them off each night and when we took the decorations down I threw them away!

Back to planning. I picked the major places that we wanted to visit – San Antonio, Big Bend, Carlsbad Caverns (I know it’s in New Mexico) and Amarillo and then went to work on a route. With Jerry in the workshop working on the corn hole boards I had plenty of time to sit at the computer and research. Our route was going to take us close to Abbeville, La so I knew a couple of days at Betty’s RV Park would be in the plans. We were there last year for a week and met some delightful people, some that we will be seeing this time. I added Galveston to the route. As I kept adding up the time spent in each location I finally realized that I had to cut some things out and Galveston was the first to go. From what I’ve read it looks like it’s a real beach town and although I’m sure there are a lot of interesting thing to do there Jerry and I live part-time on a river and we’re only a little over an hour from the Atlantic Ocean so the beachy towns don’t have a lot to draw us.

San Antonio was next on the route. I went a few years ago when attending a conference and I knew that despite our reluctance to visit large cities that Jerry would enjoy San Antonio. I continued to research. Our original plan was to go to Chandler, Arizona in March for the FMCA International Rally. In talking with an RVing friend he suggested that we tour what we had planned in Texas, leave the coach somewhere, fly home to NC for a few weeks, fly back, pick up the coach and go on to Arizona. It would be much less wear and tear on the coach and our bodies. That made sense so I started looking into that plan searching for places to leave the coach and investigating plane fares. It really was beginning to make a lot of sense until I started considering where we would be traveling after the FMCA rally. We both really want to visit Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park and some other places in Utah. I quickly realized that we didn’t have enough time to attend the rally, visit places on our Bucket List and be home in time for a March 25 birthday so back to Plan A. Instead we would extend our trip in Texas just a couple of days perhaps taking in Austin and then take our Utah trip after the March 25 birthday. Oh yes, I totally forgot about the April 17 birthday but that’s another story!

I had completed our route and now was time to start looking for campgrounds. We knew that it would take us two hard driving days to get to Abbeville and we would be “camping” at a Walmart for one night. I began to look at RVPark Reviews, Passport and Good Sam’s for park reviews. As I have said earlier we have just started our “boondocking” but I found some Texas state parks that looked interesting so I decided to bite the bullet and made reservations at two parks. I’ll let you know how that works out. I was also lucky to find a Passport park near San Antonio that honors Passport every night. Some only do it for one night or on week nights so each one is different.

I finally got our route established, our sites reserved, our deposits mailed in (yes, some only take checks or cash) and now to get the coach ready.

When are we leaving? Well, that is TBD. IF we can we hope to leave in the afternoon of January 2. We’re keeping three of the grands for the weekend and we both have appointments in the morning of January 2. Guess it depends on how tired we are after a weekend with precious children. If we can’t make it on Monday, we’ll leave bright and early Tuesday morning and drive as far as we can. I put an extra “rest” day in Abbeville before heading to Texas just in case…

Stay tuned!

(BTW – we left Monday afternoon!)

Woodstock, Luray Caverns and More!

What a fun filled day and it lasted a lot longer than we anticipated. Our first adventure was to locate Woodstock Fire Tower. That proved to be a bit more difficult than we had thought. I downloaded the directions and it told us to turn east on a highway that only went north and south. After riding though the town of Woodstock a bit we finally stopped and asked and were told to turn by the old courthouse which we did. In reading the reviews on Trip Advisor I knew there were two entrances and the writer suggested taking the one with fewer curves and turns. Wouldn’t you know that we took the one going up that was winding, paved, graveled and hairpin curves? Jerry finally saw a sign denoting the tower so we parked and began a short walk towards the tower.

That’s a high tower!

When we arrived at the tower there were three people who had just come down and they encouraged us to go on up because the view was incredible. I looked at the metal tower, put my big girl panties on and up I went. In fact going up was easier than coming down! The climb was well worth it indeed though as we could see the seven bends of the Shenandoah Valley. As we were climbing down it began to sprinkle so we hastened on to the car.

This made the climb worth it!

Instead of going back the way we had come we ventured on only to discover that that was where we should have come in in the first place. It was just a regular road, no “oh my gosh I hope we don’t go over” road!

The Reflecting Pool

We decided to go on back to the RV for lunch and then go out for dinner as there was a restaurant in Edinburg that we wanted to try that evening. After lunch we headed to Luray to visit the Luray Caverns. Jerry and I have been to a number of caverns. In fact a few months ago Jerry said we had been to enough caves and caverns and to not plan anymore so I was hesitant to mention Luray Caverns but he had mentioned it so off we went. What a treat! The caverns are spectacular, by far the most impressive we have seen. In fact one lady on the tour said they were far better than Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico! I don’t know about that but they were pretty impressive. One of the most stunning things was a large pool of reflecting water. Though the water was only inches deep it appeared to be very deep. The magic of it was that it reflected all of the stalactites making it look like the ground was covered in stalagmites. It was incredibly beautiful and I could have stayed there for quite some time gazing at it.

Magnificent

Another interesting point was the sound of an organ being played. Strikers are attached at various points and then are gently tapped to make the different notes in the song. It took three years to build the organ and only a handful of people can play it. The song being played was “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”. Not a sound could be heard as the music sounded through the cavern.

When we left the caverns we went into the historic car museum. It is full of very old beautifully restored cars some dating from the 1800’s. A real treat for car lovers.

Next on our agenda was a ride along the Skyline Parkway however we were running low on gas. Along the highway we were on you could buy fruits, quilts, apple cider and any number of things but alas, no gas. We ended up driving 20 miles to find gas, then 20 miles back to the parkway entrance.

As we arrived at the gate we realized that there was a $20 charge per car and since it was so late we elected not to go but the ranger asked if by any chance we had the America the Beautiful pass and indeed we do so there was no charge.

No caption necessary

We decided to go on and she directed us to the southern route which had more lookouts. We saw some incredibly beautiful sites, things that no camera we own could do justice to. The sun streaming through the clouds was absolutely gorgeous. At that lookout we could see numerous photographers setting up equipment in order to catch that shot. Unfortunately it was very windy and pretty cold so we didn’t stay very long. We continued on the parkway occasionally stopping at some of the lookouts but finally gave up because it was so windy and cold. At one lookout I saw a couple sitting on the brick wall wrapped in a blanket. That’s dedication!

Can you see his small antlers?

As we headed out we saw two deer standing on each side of the road. I was scrambling to get my phone to take the picture and the deer waited patiently but dang it, it too me too long. She finally scampered off. The untagged young buck on the other side of the road crossed in front of us and posed for his picture before following the tagged doe. We saw three more deer as we rode out.

We finally got to the end of the parkway and began the rather long journey back to Edinburg, 55 miles.. Pretty sure our restaurant preference would be closed so perhaps we should instead head to Swover Creek Farms, a brewery, tap room and restaurant – I hope!

Oh well, eating out was not to be. We went back by the campground and then decided to go Swover Creek. Although it was less than 10 miles it was going to take nearly 20 minutes to get there. Wonder where it was. After leaving the two lane road, going over a single lane bridge though the dark country and then down another dark lane we finally arrived and realized that it was mainly a tap room and the store and the restaurant did not appear to be opened. Since neither of us drink beer we turned around, went back to the RV and had somewhat of a meal there.

It was a long but good day and a good way to end our Virginia trip. There is just so much to see here and we know we have just tapped the very edge of all of the beauty. Maybe another trip!

We didn’t leave Friday until 10:30 but had a very uneventful easy trip to Raleigh stopping only once at a rest stop for lunch. We stayed at the NC State Fairgrounds but up on the hill this time. The horse section was very quiet and dark and generally most of the State fans stay up top. Wi-Fi was almost not operable, in fact I could never get enough signal to even get the booster up. Naturally they have no cable but the Dish worked fine and Jerry was able to watch football!

We went to the game on Saturday and watched State lose to Boston College. Afterward we came back to the coach and sat outside. While the guys watched football on the outside TV (the first time we’ve really used it) the girls chatted. We ate our leftovers from tailgating and called it a night.

Sunday morning we got up and began washing linens and I cleaned the inside while Jerry washed the outside. Boy, did it need it. Sadly I guess it’s going back to the warehouse until after Christmas since we have no more trips planned in the near future. 😦

We finally got a fall picture – kind of.

Edinburg, Virginia

I just couldn’t go to sleep last night for some reason. Tuesday night is the only night I watch TV and I guess I stayed up too late and missed my sleepy time but when I did go to sleep I had a good night’s rest. Jerry quietly got up this morning and let me sleep in until almost 8:00. Love sleeping in a cold room. I heard him turn on the heat in the front so I knew when I got up and headed toward the den it’d be nice and warm and it was.

We took our time doing break down and it was 10:30 before we left. Interestingly enough our two GPS’s had very divergent routes varying in about 50 miles. I “thought” Jerry’s which is shorter was mainly two lane roads and I was right. We did get to ride through the absolutely lovely back roads of Virginia though. There are miles and miles of fences, some painted white (can’t imagine) and some plain. The leaves weren’t as vivid as they have been but were still pretty although a little more sparse. Horse farms abound along with cattle grazing in the pastures. Despite the loveliness of the drive I sometimes had to just look down as we passed through narrow passages and overhead bridges.

We arrived at Creekside RV Park about 1:00. I had read on RV Park Reviews that we shouldn’t follow the GPS directions to the campground and boy was that right! I called the campground and he told me what exit to take and then to just follow the campground signs. That would have been perfect except when we entered Edinburg and had to make either a left or right turn there was no sign so of course we turned left. We rode down the main street, saw the street that the GPS said to turn on and wisely said no way. It was very narrow and unbeknownst to us a sharp left angle turn and then a right turn and then a narrow bridge. I really think we would have gotten stuck.

The campground is small and our site backed up to a little creek full of quacking ducks. The guy a couple of sites down was feeding them throwing feed in the creek and then entrancing them to come up on the bank by throwing more food. Wow!

Edinburg Mill

After we got set up and had some lunch we rode into Edinburg and went to the Edinburg Mill. It is only one of a few pre-Civil War mills still standing. The Shenandoah Valley was the thoroughfare for both of the armies and whomever controlled the valley would control the war. Upon orders the Yankees began what it now known as The Burning. They burned everything, homes, barns, livestock, fields, crops, anything that would provide sustenance. In one instance when they took the horses from the owners one of the horses was a mare with a foal. The lady screamed that the foal couldn’t exist without her mother so the soldier just turned around and shot the foal then continued on. The Burning was referred to as a grim time in a very grim war. I was surprised to hear that the homes of widows and masons were not burned though.

The mill is three stories full of memorabilia from the Civil War until more recent times. In fact, it is a bit humbling to see items in a museum that I remember using in years past. Although I didn’t have high hopes for visiting the mill I was definitely wrong. I would surely recommend it to anyone that happens to be in the Edinburgh area.

Montpelier

After a great night’s sleep I woke up to sounds in the kitchen. The temperature had dropped again and it was in the upper 30’s so I hated to get out of my warm bed but was curious as to what was happening in the kitchen. Yes, my sweet husband was making a new batch of sausage balls. We have gotten in the habit of having sausage balls for breakfast and nothing else seems to tempt us – well, Pam’s Diner in Raleigh did one day!

Since our only plan for the day was to visit Montpelier we took care of some housekeeping. While Jerry was baking sausage balls I was paying bills with intermittent Internet – yep, that is so frustrating but I finally got it done.

We left about 11:00 for Montpelier located in Orange, Virginia. According to the GPS it is only about 20 miles from where we are staying but nearly an hour’s drive. We found out why it takes so long as we wound around the curvy roads. We are not in the mountains per se but we are definitely not in the flatlands either.

Visiting with President and Mrs Madison!

Approaching James and Dollly Madson’s home affords an absolutely breathtaking view as it is situated at the top of a slight rise with an immense lawn in front. Later we finally got some pictures but it was difficult to get one without random people standing around as there was a constant flow.

We arrived just in time to see the introductory film and then join the house tour. The film told of his life and his ascent to the presidency. He was quite a learned, well-read man and used it to his advantage. He was a believer in freedom for all – well except for the 129 slaves he kept and he believed in freedom to worship as one pleased. Known as the Father of the Constitution and the Architect of the Bill of Rights, the notes that he took during the early discussions of the formation of the Constitution became known as the Federalist Papers.

James Madison appeared to be a quiet studious man who married a young widow with a two year son, Dolly Todd. Later known as the “First Lady” she was quite the entertainer. Not only did she constantly entertain during their 16 years in Washington, eight as Secretary of State and eight as President, when they returned to Montpelier she continued to entertain a constant stream of visitors in addition to helping Madison edit his papers. Unfortunately Dolly’s son seem to often end up in financial trouble as the years passed and he put Dolly in quite a financial bind. The home was sold and Dolly moved to Washington.

Our attempts at selfies continue to fail

The home was actually sold a couple of times and ended up in the DuPont family. They made several renovations and changes to the original house but when it was later donated in 2000 archeologists began the continuing process of returning the home and grounds to what it was when the Madisons lived there at the end of his presidency.

The grounds are beautiful and we spent a fair amount of time walking around. A visit to their grave sites included the graves of other family members but most of the headstones were illegible.

As we entered the estate I noticed a riding course and jumps so when we were in the Visitors’ Center I asked about that. According to the last DuPont owner her will stipulated that the Montpelier Hunt would be held every year during the first weekend of November and it is still in existence today. I asked about tickets and they are only $15 with $20 for a parking pass, rather reasonable.

Montpelier

As we were leaving I asked Jerry which was his favorite, Mt. Vernon or Montpelier and he answered that if he were only going to visit one it would be Mt. Vernon simply because it was the home of our first president. Interestingly enough my original schedule called for a visit to Montpelier and if time provided a visit to Mt. Vernon as an extra. Glad it worked out as we have now seen the homes of four Virginia born presidents. The last two days we have heard a lot about government by the people, for the people, and of the people with representation. Wonder when it changed? When the media decided to slant the news instead of reporting the news that didn’t help. OK – off of my bandwagon now!

On the way back to the campground we stopped at a Walmart in Gordonsville and picked up some groceries and then headed on in. When we walked into the RV it was warm so we opened a couple of windows and used the screen door. It didn’t take long for it to cool off. I’m loving this crisp fall weather!

For dinner tonight I finally baked the other two pasties we got from Cousin Jenny’s in Traverse City, Michigan. I really like them and they are nice to have after a busy day of touring. A salad just completes the dinner for me.

In closing, if you ever get a chance to visit Montpelier be sure to go. One young lady there with her two children said she had driven three hours just to visit Montpelier and I’m sure she felt it was well worth the time invested.

Mount Vernon

We decided not to set the clock for this morning but I was hoping we’d get on up and out by 8:00 since it’s a couple of hours drive to Mount Vernon. That didn’t happen! We finally got on the road about 9:45 and after a slight detour were on the way. It’s close to Washington DC so I told Jerry if there was anything he wanted to see in Washington now was the time.

For some reason the GPS didn’t work initially, just giving us our location. When we finally figured out that we didn’t know where we were heading we put the information in again and this time it worked but… it took us the long way. In fact it took us nearly three hours to get to Mt. Vernon. Fortunately we hit the traffic at a good time so we had no delays or slow/stop traffic.

We got to Mt. Vernon around 12:30 and upon arrival decided to view the introductory movie that highlighted what there is to see an do on the grounds and also showed scenes from the French and Indian War. It was very good and enlightening. Our time for the house tour was 1:20 but we were told since it was a light day it would be ok if we weren’t there at the appropriate time. I’m glad it was a light day because there were a lot of people there!

The house sits right on the Potomac with an absolutely beautiful front porch view. I could just imagine George and Martha Washington sitting on that porch in their rocking chairs although from the sound of things there wasn’t a whole lot of sitting time. The rooms were recreated as they would have been when the Washingtons lived there and nearly every one of them had at least one piece of original furniture. Several of the rooms were painted with pretty vivid colors which was a sign of prosperity as paint was very expensive. It arrived in powder form and then was mixed with linseed oil. Any leftover was safely stored. There were lovely paintings all through the house, some of them original.

After the house tour we walked around the various out houses and viewed the gardens. We visited the tombs of both Martha and George Washington. General Washington as he preferred to be called was originally buried elsewhere on the property but it was near the shore line and was deteriorating. He had left instructions in his will for the mausoleum to be built and then their bodies were placed there. There are some other family members buried there as well.

On the walkway waiting to enter the house. See the Potomac in the background.

Our last stop was the museum and it was well worth the time spent there. It gave an overview of Washington’s life from birth to death. Some of the words that come to mind when I think of Gen. Washington are courageous, brave, humble, honest, leader, ingenious, hard working and devoted. After the war he resigned his commission and gave authority to the Congress. People wanted him to be king but he refused but later was selected as the first president. He served only two terms saying that no one needed to serve more than that. It was government by the people – can’t help but wish it was more that way now!

After the museum we were tired and hungry having missed lunch so we headed to the car. We discussed going to the grist mill and distillery but decided against it and that was a good thing because the Garmin took us right through a residential area and we never saw the grist mill that we had seen coming in. Unfortunately we were not as lucky with traffic in the afternoon as we were in the morning and it took FOREVER to get out of the Washington area. After looking at the route that Garmin gave us I put the information into MapQuest and discovered a different shorter way although the time didn’t differ much. Despite the fact that the distance is only about 90 miles the time is quite a bit due I guess to traffic. When we realized that we would be home too late to prepare dinner we stopped at a Hardee’s in Spotsylvania. I haven’t been to a Hardee’s in years and I don’t know if the food was really that good or I was that hungry but I wolfed it down! We had just a few items we needed to pick up from the grocery store and since there was a Food Lion right there we went on over and got most of what we needed. Apparently Monday evening is not the time to buy green grapes!

We finally arrived back at the campground around 8:00 and boy was it dark, not a light to be seen. Fortunately with the car lights and the lights on the ground by the RV we were able to see to get in. It didn’t take long for me to get ready for bed!