Monthly Archives: February 2023

Homeward Bound

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As with most road trips, once we start heading homeward, our sense of adventure wanes slightly. But we still try to break up the trip home with a few activities, mostly focused on stretching our legs between long hours of driving.

We left Wilmington, NC, on Wednesday morning, aiming for Dismal Swamp State Park in Camden County, NC. The name itself made us want to check it out. We found a boardwalk loop and other walking trails along a canal. As usual, we heard more birds than we actually saw. A foursome of deer surprised us on one of the trails. Or maybe we surprised them.

The park was on the North Carolina/ Virginia border, so we crossed into Virginia soon after leaving there. Wednesday night, we parked overnight at Chesapeake Golf Club in Chesapeake, Virginia, as part of our Harvest Hosts membership. Their restaurant was closed, so we took a ride downtown to eat supper. Then, we had the parking lot at the golf club to ourselves for the night.

Golfers started arriving early on Thursday morning, so we drove to a nearby Walmart parking lot to make our breakfast in the van. Then, we were off to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel before the traffic got too heavy. It was 79 degrees out, as it had been for days, but the wind was gusting. The bay waters were choppy, but strangely we didn’t feel the gusts while driving across the bridge. The bridge-tunnel spans about seventeen miles. It was an experience, for sure. I unexpectedly found myself a little motion-nauseous by the end. Here are a few pics taken as we crossed.

Just over the bridge, we found the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge. We needed to get out and stretch our legs anyway. As you can see, you never know what you’ll find at one of these places…

After that adventure, we made ourselves lunch in the van and got back on the road. We left Virginia for Maryland, made a pit stop somewhere in Maryland or Delaware where Mark made a new friend. Yes, that’s a pedal-powered car!

The temperature dropped from almost eighty to the mid-sixties as we traveled north. We arrived at Fordham & Dominion Brewing in Dover, Delaware, late Thursday afternoon. Just in time for Mark to sample their beer, share some Treehouse with a few people, and order barbecue from a food truck, before the trivia night crowd packed the place.

We retreated to the van where I joined my chorus rehearsal via Zoom. At 10 p.m. we heard faint music which we slowly realized sounded like Taps and was probably coming from the Air Force base nearby. Felt like we were being sent off to sleep in style. We spent the night parked at the brewery as the temps dropped into the forties.

Friday morning, after hitting yet another Walmart parking lot, we drove to Blackbird State Forest in Smyrna, Delaware, for a little exercise despite the cold wind.

From Delaware, we drove up to Poughkeepsie, New York, to stay at a Holiday Inn for our final night. The temperature had dropped into the thirties by the time we arrived and promised to drop into the teens overnight. We left the heat on in the van all night to keep everything from freezing. In the morning, we blew as much water out of the lines as we could before we left the hotel parking lot. Light snow fell as we finished up and pulled out onto the road.

The snow got heavier for a while, but then tapered and stopped completely as we entered Massachusetts via the Pike. We were glad to leave the flurries behind because we knew our driveway at home was already covered in snow and ice from the recent storm. And we’d heard reports that another storm would be coming in a few days. To our surprise, we arrived home to find that some nice neighbor had cleared a spot for us in our driveway.

At the end of another adventure, lest you think it was all fun and games, let me remind you that no road trip is flawless. Life doesn’t work that way. But that’s OK. We may have had a glass jar full of homemade maple-rosemary nuts come flying from an overhead cabinet and smash on the floor, and a leaky cooler that soaked my camera bag and sheet music and ruined my Peterson’s bird book. But it’s all part of the adventure. Hope you enjoyed it. We did. 🙂

Yet Another Wilmington…

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If you’ve been keeping up, we left Wilmington, MA, last week on our way to North Carolina to visit our friends, Cathy & Don. You can read the previous blog entry here.

We camped for two nights at Andrew Jackson State Park in Lancaster, South Carolina, and spent some time at Anne Springs Close Greenway on the way back to Charlotte. I forgot to mention at the end of the previous post that we stopped by Middle James Brewing in Pineville, NC, after hiking at the Greenway on Sunday.

On Monday morning, a week from the day we left home, we awoke to our final day in Charlotte. Cathy & Don were on grandparent duty, so we all drove over to Little Sugar Creek Greenway and walked for a couple of hours. Mark squeezed in a run while we were there.

The weather was beautiful and so was nature all around us.

Monday afternoon, Cathy & Don took us on a brewery walk not far from their neighborhood. We visited Legion Brewing,

Burial Beer Company,

And the favorite, Resident Culture Brewing.

Monday night, we enjoyed a home-cooked meal with Cathy & Don, their daughter, Kelly, and her husband, Mike. And on Tuesday morning we said our good-byes. Time with good friends goes by too fast.

On the way to the fourth Wilmington of our trip, we saw an amazing sight. A huge, I mean HUGE, flock of white birds, probably Snow Geese, flew over the highway, looking like a murmuration of starlings. It was impossible to get a clear photo, as we were driving about sixty mph, but here’s what we saw:

It was mesmerizing! And a little distracting for the driver. 🙂

We continued on to Wilmington, North Carolina, where we stayed overnight at the KOA there.

Our journey south was over now and the rest of the trip would be directed north, toward home.

Destination: Carolinas

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In this third installment of our recent van trip, we finally reached North Carolina. If you need to catch up on our adventures, check out From Wilmington…To Wilmington… and What Happens In Virginia…

We left the Holiday Inn in South Hill, VA, on Thursday morning, looking to take a walk/run before getting back on the road. We found a pleasant trail called Tobacco Heritage Trail in La Crosse, VA. The first sound to hit my ears there seemed like an unfamiliar birdsong, but after checking with a group of locals on the trail, I learned that frogs were making all that noise. More throaty than the ‘peepers’ we have up north, but not as low-pitched as bullfrogs. They were loud, but seemingly invisible, so no pics of them. We saw a few birds and a very small snake along the rest of the trail.

After walking/running the trail, we got back on the road and continued south, arriving at our friends’ place in Charlotte, NC, around four in the afternoon. Cathy & Don live in a separate in-law apartment on the property of their daughter and her husband. Their RV was parked alongside their garage, so we spent the night parked on the street next to it.

It rained overnight and was still spitting on Friday morning. We spent a quiet day doing laundry, blogging, and visiting with Cathy & Don & their new grandbaby, Evelyn. Around 3 p.m., we followed Cathy & Don in their Tiffin RV down to Andrew Jackson State Park near Lancaster, South Carolina, to camp for a couple of nights.

Cathy & Don were gracious hosts, even while camping. We ate supper in their RV and played cards until late. We taught them how to play Pitch. Team Mark & Cathy beat Team Chris & Don in spectacular fashion. On Saturday, we hiked around the park, found the site of Jackson’s boyhood home and a museum that was open for exactly one hour everyday. We hit it about eight minutes before closing.

Saturday afternoon, the four of us piled into our van and ventured over to Benford Brewing in Lancaster, SC.

From there, we checked out The Dream Chaser’s Brewery in Waxhaw, NC. What a cute little town! Perfect for browsing all the Main St. shops. The only drawback was that the whole town closed its doors at 5 p.m. Oh, well.

We left Andrew Jackson State Park on Sunday morning. On the way back to Charlotte, we stopped at Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mills, South Carolina for some easy hiking.

After all that fresh air and exercise, we headed back to Charlotte, ending the day with 5 p.m. Sunday mass at St. Peter in downtown Charlotte.

We spent one more day in Charlotte, but that will have to wait for my next post. 🙂

What Happens In Virginia…

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If you need to catch up on the first leg of our recent van trip, check out From Wilmington… To Wilmington… We left off in Fredericksburg, VA, on a drizzly Wednesday morning. The rain didn’t last long and we pulled out of the KOA about the time the sun was struggling to come out. We spent the entire day traveling and visiting in Virginia.

On the way to our third Wilmington, we stopped at lovely Lake Anna State Park. We hiked, ate lunch, and enjoyed the view.

When we left Lake Anna, we went in search of the next Wilmington on our list: Wilmington, VA. Having no idea what to expect, we were surprised to find it so obscure that we drove by it at first. This is all we found:

Apparently, Wilmington, VA, is an unincorporated community in Fluvanna County. Several online searches yielded very little additional information. So, we moved on to Richmond.

The two Richmond breweries on the itinerary were The Veil Brewing and The Answer Brew Pub.

At The Veil, Mark finished his tasting with a Double Raspberry Fizzy!

We ate dinner at The Answer, where we picked up a four-pack of a special-release dessert stout, Diablo Forever Coconut.

After supper, we drove south for another hour plus to the Holiday Inn in South Hill, VA. We treated ourselves to hot showers and a room for the night.

In the morning, we headed for North Carolina. Lots more adventures to come… 🙂

From Wilmington…to Wilmington…

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Do you know how many places in the United States are named Wilmington? Don’t know? (Don’t care??) Well, if the Google can be trusted, there are thirteen. And many are in the eastern part of the country. So as we set out from Wilmington, MA, on another van trip, we thought it’d be fun to step foot in a few alternate Wilmingtons along the way.

After spending Monday morning packing the van, we headed west on the Mass Pike, stopping at Wells State Park in Sturbridge, MA, for some exercise.

The fresh air prepared us for a long afternoon of driving through Connecticut and New York, and into New Jersey. After getting past a disabled truck on the George Washington Bridge on-ramp, we watched the sunset over NYC from the bridge’s lower deck.

We arrived at our first campsite in Clarksboro, NJ, after dark and settled in for a cold night. Check out our site number. 🙂

On Tuesday morning, we headed toward Wilmington, Delaware. Not sure what we expected, but it was more city-ish and crowded than our own Wilmington.

After that, we crossed into Maryland, drove through Baltimore, and into Virginia.

We had to Google the three beautiful white towers. Turns out they’re part of a huge Mormon temple in Kensington, MD. In Virginia, we stopped at Tyson’s Corner Center to meet my brother, who lives and works nearby, for lunch.

From there, we drove south to Fredericksburg, VA, and camped for the night. We awoke to light rain on Wednesday morning. I’ll leave you with this image of our morning visitor.

More Wilmingtons and trip highlights to come… 🙂