Pine trees and Kudzu

Departed:  Natural Bridge, VA  7:-00 a.m

Arrived: Home Sweet Home 10:30 p.m.

622 miles…. A new record for one day driving!

Hey Friends,

I can’t believe it ….. that we drove all this way in one day. We really did not set out to do that, it just kind of happened. We did mean to set out early today and thought we would get to the Augusta area for tonight.  We came down I-77 out of Charlotte turned right at Columbia.  Bill said, "pine trees and kudzu I think we're finally in the south." 

We started looking for camping places in the Augusta area… there’s not much over there…. Continued on to Milledgeville where we had seen an ad for a campground that was on Lake Sinclair. Got there at 5:30, office closed, no instructions and campground looked pretty full with permanent type trailers. So Bill said heck let’s just go home, so we took off. Had a supper break in Warner Robins, went through a major thunderstorm and here we are.

So, after approximately 3,000 miles of wonderful sights, beautiful scenery, 12 campgrounds and driving through 13 states, it's home sweet home! Thanks for riding along!

Happy Camping!

Carla

Bottom line, They won, We lost.

Departed:  Gettysburg, Pennsylvania  12:00

Arrived:  Natural Bridge, Virginia  4:45 p.m.

Natural Bridge KOA

232 miles

Hey friends,

First thing this morning we took off to the Gettysburg National Park Visitor’s Center. A very impressive place in itself. We saw a short video about the Battle of Gettysburg narrated by Morgan Freeman., love his voice!  I guess the biggest thing I came away with was, what was General Lee thinking. He had more men, but trying to storm the Union soldiers when they had higher ground just was not going to work. Hard to imagine 50,000 soldiers lost in that one battle (pretty even on each side). And then for the people of Gettysburg, which only numbered about 2400 at the time, to try to deal with all of the wounded and dead.  After the video we saw an awesome cyclorama of the battle by some French guy. They did such a good job it was hard to tell where the painting ended and the foreground props began.  We then rode around to some of the sites where the different battle outbreaks took place in the area around Gettysburg. When you then see the terrain of the area where the Confederates were trying to storm the Union, you really see why it was such a bloody battle. 

You can't really tell from this picture but the Confederate troops at one point were going up this wheat field with no cover to the Union troops at the top of the ridge.

One good think about Bill and I and our sightseeing mode, we are a lot alike, that we are happy hitting the highlights and getting the gist of the area and moving on to something new. The Bell’s are like that, too, so it made for smooth sightseeing.

 So after hitting the highlights we head west to I-81 which we hop on to speed south.  We got through the rest of Pennsylvania, a few miles of Maryland, and a few miles of West Virginia, before getting to Virginia for the majority of this afternoon. It was a lovely drive through the Shenendoa Valley, with valley in the foreground and the Appalachian Mountains in the background. 

We have stopped at a campground that we have actually stayed at before at Natural Bridge, Virginia, not far from Lexington, Va, the home of Washington and Lee University. Lovely shaded campground, although not too level. I wish it didn’t cost 20.00 to go see the Natural Bridge, as it is a very neat area, but we have been there, done that, so we  aren’t going to pay 20 just to get another picture. Although, I know my blogging buddies would love it!!

So it looks to be a quiet night, light supper, computer and tv time. A bit too hot for much else. The last time we were here I believe it was cool enough, that we broke out the jackets, built a fire and made smores….. how about smores in the microwave,  my kind of camping!

Happy Camping,

Carla

Departed:  Lewisburg, Pennsylvania  8:45 a.m.

Arrived:  Gettsyburg, Pennsylvania  4:45 p.m.

221 miles (mostly in a circle)
Gettysburg KOA Campground

Hey friends,

What a gorgeous day!! We left Lewisburg and headed for Hershey, Pennsylvania and then Amish Country in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.   It was a very lovely ride along the Susquehanna River. It is a very wide river that flows through much of the area we were in today.

We arrived fairly soon to Hershey, Pennsylvania. I had checked online and saw that there were short tours that were free and that you got a free sample of Hershey's chocolate at the end. Perfect.... well apparently everyone else on the east coast thought it would be perfect, too! We turned in and waited for about 10 minutes just to get into the parking lot. Needless to say, wasn't worth that much to us, so we decided just to drive through the town. Here's a few pics of the town,  Hershey Kiss street lights and neat shrubs spelling Hershey.

I had found online last night where you could tour an Amish farm, ask questions, buy fresh bread, homemade items etc. So I entered that address, and we continued on our quest.

We were going down Highway 30 east a very busy thorough fare and I saw that  the Amish Farm was right up ahead. I’m thinking no way, jose…. We’re right in the middle of suburbia, Walmarts, Target, the usual. Well sure enough right across from an Outlet Mall no less here is a “replica” of an Amish Farm complete with covered bridge. That is not exactly what I had in mind. I was thinking rolling hills, “ oh look there’s a little roadside stand with the cute Amish girl in her long dress and bonnet waiting to sell me fresh produce, and homemade bread with jelly.” NOT…. So we pulled in to eat a spot of lunch at the OUTLET Mall (no shopping) and decide to follow a road that Bill had read about being very scenic through Amish Country.  Good Move, daddy-i-o!! We pulled out and found state road 772 and followed it for about 35 miles through the most gorgeous countryside you have ever seen. One silo after another, we saw quite a few Amish farms, which we discerned by the lack of electricity, buggy in the barn, and clothes on the clothesline.  I do believe Pennsylvania is now the favorite state of the week! And they have good roads! Mind you there were quite a few being worked on, which slowed us down a bit, but who’s complaining.  (I told myself before I started writing this that I would try to stay in one tense, that being  past tense,… sorry English teachers , can’t seem to do it!) Here are a few pictures. I was a little embarrassed to be seen taking pictures of them. Didn’t want them to think I was staring….

Another thing we noticed was the Amish girls on bikes, well they really weren’t bikes. It was like a combination bike and scooter. Bike wheels and the scooter stand where the seat would have been. Thank goodness I have a picture so you can understand it better. Actually this is a little boy. I’m guessing the girls couldn’t manage their dresses on the bicycles.

I was too quick on the trigger with this picture!

And then too slow on the trigger with this one!

 And I think this is the town of Lititsa.

An interesting tidbit about the Amish, their cancer rate and heart disease rate is half that of the rest of the country. Could it be all of the “natural products” that they produce themselves or maybe all of the hard work they put in to support themselves off the land. Either way, it’s a good thing. Wonder what would happen if I told Bill no more electricity, and I’m going to have a garden! No point in wondering, neither is  going to happen!!

We drove through quite a few small towns, after leaving Lancaster, went through Intercourse, PA( kind of an ironic name being in the middle of the most conservative people ever)  a very nice little village that was tourist heaven. Then there was  Lititsa, PA, another gorgeous village, which I had the feeling was a college town, but I never saw the college. A lot like Tville, very cute downtown.

 While we were in the Amish countryside we came up behind this guy who was the most talented tractor grass cutter, I have ever seen. We were behind him for quite a ways because there were curves, hills, etc. and we couldn’t pass. He could take the blade right up to the pole he was about to run into pull  up the blade and plop it back down in perfect position right after he passed the pole.( You see it doesn’t take much to keep me entertained while on the road!!)

So by the time we finished our scenic tour we were just about back to where we had started our journey this morning, and were ready to head to Gettysburg. Just get on the 30 west interstate and take off. Now a funny thing about Pennsylvania interstates, they can just stop being interstates with  the placement of a sign!! (however, they are in good shape, which I’ll take any day) So 30 west the interstate turns into 30 west the very busy 2 lane road through untold small towns and it takes about 2 hours to go about 50 miles. But we are here in Gettsyburg at a lovely campground, very shady lots, not on top of each other( which I was afraid of in a touristy area), slide out is out, hookups hooked up and toddie poured! Life is good!

Tomorrow we’ll head to the visitor’s center at the Gettysburg National Park. I may have to do a little boning up on the Civil War tonight. Where is Rick Fenlon when I need him? He is the expert! I think he took his family to every Civil War battlefield he could find one summer!!

And a last note to my teacher friends, have a good day tomorrow, on your first official day at work, ( I think)! Here’s to a great 2011-12 school year!

Happy Camping!

Carla

From the falls to the mountain tops

Departed: Niagara Falls  11:45 a.m.
Arrived:  Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
Nittany Mountain KOA Campground

248 miles

Hey friends,

We were able to laze around a bit this morning waiting for a little rainstorm to pass us before we went up to check out Niagara Falls. We decided to stay on the American side to see the falls so that we wouldn’t have to go to customs. I understand it takes longer to go through customs than it does to see the falls. So with that we drove through the city of Niagara Falls, which was not very impressive, paid 20 dollars to park the motorhome, that’s right I said TWENTY dollars. Anyway  walked to the falls, took a few pictures, and headed off.

 The water right before it falls over the cliff, racing pretty fast!

 The falls from the American side. You can see in the background all of the hotels etc. on the Canadian side. I was shocked the first time I went there. I had assumed it would be like a national park, etc..... but it is very touristy, developed, etc.... there's even a Hard Rock Cafe and a casino!

Bill chose not to take Maiden Mist Boat Tour as I had been there before. (Now that’s another story with a Tommy Harrison tour, when we got to our hotel after being at the falls, the hotel had literally that afternoon just burned to the ground, had to put us in a hotel that was being remodeled…… nightmare!) Anyway, it was so hot and muggy I was not complaining about not doing the tour.

So we took off south, not real sure where we were going, just knew it would be somewhere south. Finally decided just to type in a city in the Garmin in the general direction of Amish Country in Pennsylvania, knowing we wouldn’t be able to make it that far, but at least we’d be headed in the right direction. Good move by Mr. Garmin! He picked a great route that was 4 lane but not interstate through the Allegheny Mountains. Gorgeous!! Reminded me a lot of the Great Smoky Mountains. A lot of low clouds, making it look like there was smoke in “dem thar hills!”

  However, it did rain on us pretty steady for a couple of hours.  As we round a curve, I look out to the right and see giant flames appearing to come from the top of a mountain. Mind you it’s pouring rain…I’m thinking what the heck. As we got closer it looked like there were two smoke stacks with flames coming out the top. Bill guessed that it may have been something burning off natural gas. Sounds good to me, but a strange sight! I took a picture but doubt you can tell anything. If you click on the picture and make it larger you might can see the flames.

  I had picked out a campground that I thought would work that had wireless and added bonus… cable TV! I might get to catch up on my HGTV watching. The directions in the book said explicitly DO NOT USE GPS directions…. So now I’m kind of in a pickle, so using our handy dandy map skills and a little bit of Garmin, just to make sure we weren’t totally messing up, we did make it to a pretty nice campground, complete with chickens, goats, and pigs! Yes we are in the boonies!! Now I am sitting outside where it is a most comfortable 72 degrees working on my blog! Maybe we'll stay here a couple of days... doubt it... on to Lancaster, PA tomorrow to drive through Amish Country and then to Gettysburg where we'll probably spend the night.

Bumpty-Bump-Bump

Departed: Wauseon, Ohio  8:00 a.m.
Arrived: Niagara Falls   2:40 p.m.
Niagara Falls KOA

Hey friends,
Not too much to report today other than the roads in northern Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York are awful!! We got beat up today, you can imagine in our rolling box of tin that everything that could rattle, did!

We went through more farm land and I had one of those "aha" moments about harvest time. I always felt it was silly for us in Georgia to be talking about Fall and harvest time when harvest time for us starts in July. I guess those farms not in the deep south or California do harvest the crops in September and October.  Most of the corn around here looks like it has at least 2 more months to go. As we got closer to the rolling hills of New York we also started to see lots of grape vineyards.

Oh, about last night. We did walk down to the pavilion to the concert by the Skeeter's band. A typical cover band of some country, some oldies, etc.  Trucks were surrounding the pavilion where those in attendance had pulled up their trucks with the tailgate down in the back to sit on and put their coolers in. The little kids were dancing, the 11-13 age groups were shoving and flirting, and the teenagers were probably in the woods somewhere. :) We walked Halle around part of the campground, made it back to our site where we could hear the music quite easily.  At least Bill's loud television drowned it out while I read a bit.

So we did make it to Niagara Falls to the campground this afternoon, but we are tired and have decided that we'll go to the falls in the morning, since we can't hit the road early anyway due to Buffalo traffic.

Since we have great free wireless here (should be, since this is the most expensive campground we've stayed in...66 dollars) I've been surfing a bit and saw that UGA and Glen Arven's own Harris English won a Nationwide Tour Event... awesome...too bad he's still an amateur, walked away from a 144,000 pay day! I understand he's staying amateur in hopes that he'll be able to participate in the Walker Cup.

Here's a couple of pictures from today, not too exciting.

 Downtown Buffalo

Bridge going over to Grand Island, which was yet another 2.00 toll. I think today's toll roads were a total of 18.00 for crummy roads!

Happy Camping!
Carla

Jeff Foxworthy is My Hero!

Departed: Ludington, Michigan  9:30 a.m.
Arrived:  Wauseon, Ohio 5:00 p.m.
Sunny's Campground

Hey friends,


We started out today in a little cloud cover, drove down to South Bend, Indiana where we stopped at Notre Dame and had a bit of lunch, looked around there a bit before saying good-bye to the Bells. The campus would not allow RV's to drive through the campus. I must say they have nothing on UGA, well except maybe the Pope.

Don't know if you can tell but that rock says Irish Green.

We then got on I 80/90 and drove west paying several tolls on the way.  My thought was, o.k. I don't mind paying tolls for nice highways, but these are getting pretty rough. I guess winter takes a pretty hard toll (no pun intended) on these roads.  After looking through our campground books we decided we could make to Wasueon, Ohio by 5 ish and go to Sunny's Campground. So here we are.... lovely setting the middle of some farm land.  There is a 9 hole golf course in the middle of the pasture, 17 dollars for nine holes including cart, (cow paddies free), horseshoe pits that were very busy with many players and their cheerleaders and their coolers, 5 lakes, 800 campsites and 1000 golf carts!! Every kind of cart you can imagine, all with an ice chest on the back full of beer.  Nothing wrong with that, huh!  The title to today's blog may give you a hint of the folks that are here.  We are trying not to stare too hard.  Lots of wife beater shirts and women too old and too fat to be wearing tank tops and short shorts! Bill promises that he's going to get a tank shirt before we finish our trip!:)  I do hear my favorite country songs loud and clear coming from my neighbor's radio.  We understand there's a live concert later on tonight by the Skeeters.You get the picture??? However they are having a great time for not much money!  There's something to be said for that! But we do have wireless and several television channels so I'm not complaining.

So we are sitting outside smelling the ribs and corn our neighbor is cooking on his homemade grill.  We are a bit jealous.  But nothing a Blue Moon and a little Jim Beam won't cure!

 The neighbors cooking ribs next to that red cooler.

Happy Camping!
Carla

Camping, kids, dogs, and bicycles

Departed:Empire, Michigan  9:30

Arrived:  Ludington, Michigan  4:00
121 miles
Kibby Campground

Hey friends,
Lots of Lake Michigan shoreline today. We started at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.  But first I must add that we were a little late getting started not because of the curling irons but because of having some minor rv issues but they were quickly resolved. Couldn't figure out where a smell was coming from... kitchen sink...

We started our day off with the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive in the National Park.  (I have noticed that Michigan has this thing for naming everything for somebody...like next two miles are named for Susie Q, etc...) Anway the scenic drive was awesome.  We stopped at several scenic overlooks that were looking down at Lake Michigan.  One stop in particular was 450 feet high above the lake.  We were standing on top of sand dunes that were also formed by glaciers, just as Lake Michigan was formed.

 You can see how much the wind is blowing as we are high above Lake Michigan.

 Those dots along the sand are people trying to climb back up the dunes.

 And of course the pups get to enjoy the scenery and the smells, too.

After leaving the national park, we continued south on Highway 22 which went along the coast through many neat villages.  There are so many smaller lakes along the way as well.  Every village seems to have their own lake and the coast of Lake Michigan.  It's no wonder the tourism industry is thriving here.  We were trying to go to another state park in Ludington today, but the campground was full.  Camping is a BIG deal in Michigan.  Many natives buy "season" spots at their favorite campground and go there all summer as often as they can.

So here we are at another campground, which has to be your average 6-10 year old's idea of heaven. I have never seen so many kids flying around on bikes, going back and forth from the swimming pool, the pond to fish, riding the little "train", etc,  And for every kid there has to be two dogs! And you know how much Halle likes that.... she is very territorial... and lets us know if anybody is walking by on two feet or four! Glad we're only here one night!

All good things must come to an end and tomorrow the Inmans and the Bells will part ways :( as the Bells are headed to see their son and his family and we are going to the border of Michigan and Indiana and take a left and go toward the northeast. Thinking about going to Niagara Falls and then come back down through Pennsylvania etc. We'll see where this next adventure takes us!

Happy Camping!
Carla

The Long and Winding Road (that leads me to your door)

Departed: St. Ignace, Michigan  8:00 promptly

Arrived:  Empire, Michigan   2:45 p.m.

162 very crooked miles

Indigo Bluff Campground

Hey Friends,

We took off right on time this morning, a first, I might add.  I won’t say why we sometimes don’t meet our Estimated Time of Departure, but a certain someone has to use two different kinds of curling irons on her hair every morning!

 And for the first time in a week the compass is pointed south! We are headed for a scenic drive around the western coast of Michigan.  I had read about a scenic drive on U.S. Highway 31 called “Tunnel of Trees”, which was named one of Reader’s Digest top 100 scenic roads of America.  So we exit off I-75 and head for the tunnel of trees. We are following the Garmin, turn left onto the right road, and Bill comments, “this looks like a one lane road”…… we see upcoming signs that say narrow and winding road for the next 20 miles. I am excited this is it, the Tunnel of Trees.

 The Tunnel of Trees Road... Long and Winding it was!

 Kudos to the drivers as they didn’t moan as we avoided bicyclists, ran other cars off the road and held on tight maneuvering on this very scenic road. There were neat places along the way like Devil’s Elbow, where thankfully, we did not meet another car coming. One of us would have gone off the side of the bluff. Our altitude rose during the day to as far as 1000 feet above sea level.  Every now and then there would be a clearing through the trees where we could see the beautiful green water of Lake Michigan.

This scenic route had many gorgeous mansions along the way looking out over the water, but many were for sale. I’d say just as many for sale as not.  We finally made it to the first town, Harbor Springs, where we had planned to eat breakfast, just didn’t know it would take us two hours to go that short distance. So we are quite hungry when we arrive to Harbor Springs.  Anyway, it is a neat small town with a gorgeous harbor with million dollar yachts docked all around.

We walked around a bit and ate a late breakfast there. Actually, I have to tell you more about where we did NOT eat. We got a recommendation from a lady biking around the harbor to go to a little place that served fabulous breakfasts, Cupula, up on the hill in the neat gray clapboard house. We go in and I notice right away it is a very French Provencal looking place, with blue and yellow paisley tablecloths, white eyelet curtains,  blue and white teapots, an old iron oven serving as the waiter’s setup place, iron pot racks serving as light fixtures, etc.  Of course, my first thought is oh gosh, will they have anything Bill will eat, being French I figure there will be lots of cheese and cream sauce, which you know he does not eat. He asks the little lady that seems to be in charge, who is dressed in a very stylish dress with fancy apron, do ya’ll serve regular stuff like bacon and eggs…yes we’re very flexible she says. So we sit down at the properly set table and wait, and wait, and wait…. We notice not one table is eating, they are all waiting. We still don’t have coffee, still waiting, we see the proper little lady come out with 4 plates of waffles piled high with strawberries, peaches, whip cream, etc. We drool. - This one little lady gets that table served and goes to the next table, takes their order and continues on, we still have no coffee. We make a group decision that this is not for us and politely tell the little lady she has a lovely restaurant, but we must keep moving! All that to say, we went down the street to another small restaurant, Cornichon (French, meaning little pickle)and  had a great breakfast in a timely manner!

So on we go, moving south as we continue on Highway 31 seeing one stunning vista after another.  Went through lovely towns all having lovely harbors and as I keep saying such an abundance of flowers!!! After Harbor Springs was Charlevoix, which we originally wanted to stop in, but was very congested due to a Venice Festival?? Next stop Traverse City, which was another resort town, and the World Capital of Cherry Growing. I would not disagree, one U-pick em cherry farm after another. I don’t know that I had ever even seen a cherry tree. They look a lot like peach trees.  I know by now I’m hoping there’s cherry cobbler in my immediate future. We stop for a stretch break and discuss what campground in this area we want to go to. We pick one, plug in the Garmin and are headed to Indigo Bluff Campground in Empire, Michigan.  We ride through more farming areas of cherries, hay, and corn, about 17 miles toward the coast, passing several golf courses along the way. 

                                                                  Cherry Trees

Finally made our way to the campground, to find that they have two sections, one is a “resort” campground for Class A only (ours is not, Gene’s is) and the other section is for the rest of us. So for the first time we are not side by side. We find our site and since it is fairly early decide we would play nine holes of golf. We get our golf gear and head to The Dunes course right down the road.  Had a good time, although our scores did not reflect it, (I did have a bogie or two which is good for me) enjoyed the change of routine of riding and sightseeing.

Since we had a late breakfast and no lunch, we decide to eat an early supper. The campground had recommended a restaurant not far from the campground. As we pulled out of the golf club, Gene said go past the campground, turn right and then turn left. Gene takes off. We pull out shortly there  after and can’t catch up with Gene. Bill says I think I missed the turn, I don’t see Gene. ( I the trusty navigator have been in the back taking off golf shoes, feeding Halle, etc.)We turn around, go back to where we think we are supposed to turn. Keep going, I am trying to call Gene on the walkie talkie, too far away, then call on the cell phone, no answer. So we are thinking what should we do, go back to the campground?  We don’t even know the name of the restaurant, Gene had talked to the lady and we had not. We called the campground, got the name of the restaurant, plugged it into the Garmin and continued. We keep going, and soon see Gene coming toward us, the walkie starts blaring, with Mary saying turn around that’s not the right way. We say, yes it is, we plugged in to the Garmin. So we keep going, the Bells go turn around and we find the restaurant!! Our first major screw up where I got a little nervous, would we ever see our camping buddies again?

 The Manor, restaurant that we finally found.

View from the restaurant

And the restaurant was awesome. And I had cherry pie for dessert!

Another exciting day on the road!

Happy Camping,

Carla