Monthly Archives: February 2025

Warmer Weather

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We did find warmer weather, eventually, as we drove south from Massachusetts to Virginia and on to Florida. You can read about the chilly start to our trip in Escaping the Snow. After leaving Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, we set our sights on North Carolina.

Last March, we took a similar route south and discovered The Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park in Wilson, North Carolina. You can see some of the photos I took of the huge outdoor whirligigs in last year’s post, Homeward Bound. Last year, we visited the park on a Monday—the day the store/museum is closed. So, we thought we’d stop by this time on a Wednesday to get the complete experience.

The museum was small, but it held many small whirligig creations by Vollis Simpson. They made me want to go home and start tinkering with something! One sculpture was covered with pieces of old signs made of reflector material. When flash photography is used, it appears to light up in the photograph. You’ll see what I mean in the photos below.

Of course we had to visit Casitas Brewing again, which is adjacent to the park. They’re under new ownership and management. We met the new owners and Mark enjoyed one of their regular beers. The buildings nearby sport some very colorful murals, which is always fun to see.

That night, we landed at Old North State Food Hall in Selma, North Carolina, through our Harvest Hosts membership. The Food Hall was like a large food court you’d find in a mall, but without the mall. The place was clean and bright with nice bathrooms and good wifi. We parked overnight in the back lot where only a couple of other trucks and one RV were parked. They were opened late enough at night and early enough the next morning to make it a very convenient stopover.

The night was a little rainy and the next morning we stopped at the Dunn-Erwin Rail Trail in Dunn, North Carolina, for a muddy walk/run before driving farther south to Richmond Hill, Georgia. There, we stayed at the Savannah South KOA. We happened to park right next to some fellow van travelers, Lucy & Larry, who had also taken a trip to PEI last August. Small world. We exchanged Instagram IDs and they were gone early the next morning.

Before we left, we discovered a bit of wildlife at the KOA.

Since we were so close to Savannah, and this was our second time passing through the area without spending more than a few hours there, we thought a trolley tour of historic Savannah would be a nice idea. It was interesting. But because it was a bit chilly, our driver left the plastic barrier up over the open trolley sides, so we couldn’t take any photos. And his heavy southern accent, layered with slurring over an obviously practiced script, made it hard to understand much of what he said. Oh, well.

We were back on the road by lunchtime and heading into Florida. We stayed that night at a KOA in Fort McCoy, Florida. Beautifully peaceful scene behind our camp site.

The next morning we found the Florida Trail Land Bridge Trailhead—a popular place for biking and horseback riding, apparently.

After a great hike and a run on the trail, we hit the road again and arrived in Naples, Florida, in time for dinner with my Dad. Naples would be our southern-most destination on this trip and a welcome stretch of beautiful, warm, sunny days.

Escaping the Snow?

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The day before we left on our latest adventure, it snowed about a half-foot. At least two more storms were in the forecast. We left home on a Monday and drove south, as far as Jonestown, Pennsylvania. It was still frigid in Jonestown and the campground was covered in a layer of icy, crusty snow. The next day, our first planned stop in Gettysburg was half indoors, out of the elements, and the second half was out in the biting wind around town.

We’d never visited Gettysburg before, and I’m not a fan of war history, but it was very interesting and informative. We browsed some of the museum artifacts while we waited for a short film about the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) to begin.

The narration at the beginning of the film included some eerily relatable words about national divisiveness and political unrest. I found myself empathizing with those who lived in 1861. Please, let’s not let ourselves turn against each other like that again.

After the film, we viewed a cyclorama of the battle, painted by French artist Paul Philippoteaux in 1883. The 360-degree depiction of Pickett’s Charge on the third day of the battle is fascinating. We got to see it in brighter light than usual because it was undergoing its annual cleaning and restoration. In the following photos, look at the foreground which is not part of the painting but rather actual 3-D materials. This helped to make the whole painting look three dimensional. And note that, hidden among the battle scenes, the artist inserted himself, some of his assistants, President Lincoln, and even an older, gray-haired pair of men whom he’d actually interviewed during his research about the events of that day.

Back outside, we grabbed a quick lunch in our van before heading off to a few chosen spots on the self-guided Gettysburg tour. And I caught my first sighting ever of a Red-headed Woodpecker before we left the parking lot. We visited Gettysburg National Cemetery where Lincoln gave his famous address, the Eternal Light Peace Memorial dedicated in 1938, and Little Round Top from which we could see some of the battlefields spread out before us.

The biting winds were a precursor to a snowstorm predicted to start later that afternoon. So, we left Gettysburg before 2 PM, hoping to visit The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland, before the end of the day. Flurries started before we arrived. And when we arrived we were greeted by someone coming out of the building to tell us that the museum was closed due to the weather. But we could look in on the Basilica where mass had started about twenty minutes prior. Disappointing, but we did get to view the beautiful mosaics and marble work, and the Altar of Relics where her remains are kept.

It was snowing when we left—they closed the Basilica as we departed. We arrived at Harper’s Ferry KOA in West Virginia about an hour and a half later and hunkered down for a snowy night, dreaming of warmer weather somewhere south.

That Old Car/ New Car Feeling…

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A few months ago, we celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary. And last month it dawned on me that I’ve been driving the same vehicle for half of my married life. Twenty Januaries ago I received that phone call every parent dreads: “Mum, I crashed!” Thankfully, my teen was fine. But my minivan was not. It was totaled. We replaced it with a brand new Toyota Sienna. And 200K miles later, it still gets me where I want to go.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s dinged, scratched, and sporting a fairly new patch of rust. There are a couple of cracks in the dashboard, the driver’s door creaks, the steering wheel squeaks, and the radio display screen looks like hieroglyphics most days. The molding around the inside of one of the sliding doors keeps coming unglued. It scared the #@%*! out of me one day when I opened the slider and thought a black racer snake had stowed away in the back seat. My Sienna is getting older. But aren’t we all?

There’s much more to love about it, though. The driver’s seat fits me like a glove. It’s got a lumbar support and controls to adjust the seat, tipping it slightly forward so I can reach the pedals. I’m shorter than the average person, but I can adjust the seat to reach those pedals while still maintaining a bit of distance between my face and the steering wheel. The sloping front end and large windows afford me an uncompromising view of my surroundings.

The seats are cloth-covered, so they don’t reflect the extreme temperature swings that vinyl and leather seats do. The cargo space is ideal. The second row of seats is removable and the third row stows nicely into the floor. It’s been more than a little handy for college dorm, apartment, and whole house moves, as well as for those necessary trips to Home Depot and IKEA.

But my absolute favorite feature is the fold-down table between the front seats. With the squeeze of a small lever, the tabletop swings down flush with the side of the driver’s seat. This leaves a good amount of floor space for walking between the front seats to get to the back. It also makes keeping a purse or a small cooler within reach while driving possible. I’m so not ready to give up this convenience. I hate driving cars where I need to throw my purse onto the passenger seat where it can’t be reached, and where it will slide off upside-down in the event of sudden braking.

But, as I said, my Sienna is getting older. And one of these days the decision to move on will probably be made for me. So, I thought I’d check out the new minivans out there. Boy, was I in for a rude awakening. I actually test-drove a Chrysler Pacifica, a Kia Carnival, and a Honda Odyssey. And I sat in a new Sienna. Some of them don’t have removable seats. Most of them don’t have cloth seats. The seats themselves are shaped for hunching over while driving, similar to most airplane seats, with headrests that force themselves into my personal space. Ugh! And the seat adjustments: why would someone who needs to tilt forward in order to reach the gas pedal want to be elevated just before reaching their target? But that’s what happened when I tried to adjust the driver’s seat enough to reach the pedals and also see over the steering wheel. In the new Sienna I literally had to pull myself up using the steering wheel in order to see over it. Who are they designing these vehicles for? And the front end on most of them (the Pacifica being the exception) is so big and boxy that I don’t know how anyone can see the road in front of them.

But worst of all, all the new minivans have consoles between the two front seats. No option to remove them, either. So disappointing! Just sitting in the driver’s seat brings out the full manifestation of my claustrophobia. Unfortunately, the same is true for every new car out there. I’ll have to bite the bullet someday. But not today. I’ll keep my trusty Sienna going as long as I can and appreciate every mile.