We were up and moving around early getting the motorhome prepared to be placed back in the storage lot. After cleaning out the things we wanted to be taken home along with food items we had quite a car load. So Tom made a trip to the house with that car load before taking the motorhome to the storage lot. We were home a little after 11am. It was good to be back home after an enjoyable trip.
Sunday, July 31, we travelled 319 miles from Fort Chiswell, Virginia to Walterboro, South Carolina. We stopped for the day about 2pm at Green Acres RV Park. A hot day and with a swimming pool in the campground, Parker, Gabi and I went swimming for a while until threatening clouds made us go back to the motorhome. We had a few claps of thunder and a couple drops of rain but nothing more.
Today, August 1, we continued on south for a total of 333 miles to Wildwood, Florida. We did stop in Brunswick, Georgia to get fuel and then to get the motorhome washed. We really don’t have anywhere to wash the motorhome so we decided to give a commercial truck wash a try. For $64.50 we had the motorhome and the Jeep washed and RainX applied. We were very pleased with the outcome- both vehicles looked good. A crew of men did the washing while we sat inside the motorhome as Tom was outside paying the bill. We did stop at the Florida welcome center where Tom and the grandkids went into the center while I fixed some lunch. We did eat out on a picnic table. About 3:40pm we arrived in Wildwood, Florida at the Villager RV Park. We are only about 15 minutes from our house but we opted to stay here tonight so in the morning Tom can take a loaded up Jeep to the house and then dump our tanks before taking the motorhome to the storage lot. Today, being my birthday, we went to a favorite restaurant, Los Magueyes, for dinner and then another favorite ice cream store, Ollies, for dessert. A good day but looking forward to being home tomorrow. Parker is especially anxious to get to our house since this will be the first visit down here.
With a lot of distraction I have gotten a little lapse in doing the blog. so to catch up here goes.
July 28, 2016 we were in Gettysburg. In the morning we did some grocery shopping for our trip on south to Florida. At noon we were in Frederick, Md. for lunch at a favorite restaurant of ours, La Paz, to meet up with Todd and our 2 little grandkids, Parker and Gabi. Parker and Gabi returned to Gettysburg with us as they were going along to Florida.
July 29th we started an early day by going to Taneytown, Md. for me to get my haircut at a former salon. We then ate breakfast at the Country Kitchen and stopped by the senior center to say ‘hi’. Returning to Gettysburg we drove about the battlefield stopping for some rock climbing at Devil’s Den and then to Little Roundtop. In the evening we went for steamed crabs at Dave and Jane’s in Fairfield. Boy, those crabs sure tasted good. Florida has seafood but not Maryland crabs!
Today, the 30th, we started our travels toward Florida. We were on the road by 8:25am and stopped at 2:30pm at Fort Chiswell Campground in Virginia, 325 miles. Parker and Gabi did pretty good for the long travel day. This evening the pent up energy is coming to the forefront. we were only able to get a 30 amp site and it is quite hot out. To keep heat down we have decided to go out to a local restaurant for dinner in stead of cooking.
We left Bristol, Ct. before 8am this morning and travelled further than we had planned. We were going to stop in Jonestown , Pa as we had on our way north. As we got in the area of Jonestown we were seeing road signs about Harrisburg and as we looked at the distance and the time- about 1:30pm- we thought we could continue to Gettysburg as we had planned tomorrow to do. So a total of 340 miles we arrived at Artillery Ridge Campground at 2:45pm. Since we had not eaten lunch we quickly set-up the motorhome and headed into Gettysburg to one of our favorite restaurants, Montezuma’s. We love Mexican food and that was no where to be found in Canadian Maritimes. After enjoying that lunch we went to a car wash for a badly needed wash job on the Jeep. Then before returning to the campground another favorite stop at ‘Rita’s’ for a gelato (haven’t had one of these since leaving this area, none in The Villages). We will be here for 3 days. Tomorrow we will be getting 2 of our grandchildren, Parker and Gabi, to take along to Florida.
After going to the Canadian Maritimes I am going to list some of our positive and negative aspects of this trip.
1. The Bay of Fundy area is a very interesting area. St. John has the Reversing Rapids, Truro has the Tidal Bore and Hopewell Cape the Flowerpots- all well worth seeing along with the rising and falling tides all along the coast of New Brunswick.
2. The International Royal Tattoo performance was a highlight of the trip. We changed our travel plans to go to this performance and are so thankful that we did. A wonderful show of one performance after another for 2.5 hours. Precision military groups, bag pipes and drums, acrobatic acts, chorus of over 100 people- it was a show like no other that we have ever seen.
3. Seafood galore but mostly always served with mounds of French fries and occasionally a small (1/8-1/4cup) serving of cole slaw. The seafood fresh and delicious.
4. Campgrounds are available most everywhere. Usually only 30 amp. electric, frequently just water and electric hook-ups. Most had WiFi at no extra cost. We did encounter one place that charged $2.00 for wifi and only one device could use it and the quality of this wifi was the worse of any.
5. The Halifax Citadel and the Louisbourg settlement were well worth the time spent.
6. St. Andrews was a nice entry point into the Maritimes. The Kiwanis campground is on the edge of town by the bay. It is also used by caravans entering and leaving the Maritimes so can get filled up as we found out at the end of our time up there.
7. St. John is a town built on a hill and it seemed to be tricky getting around but seeing the reversing rapids make it a worthwhile stop.
8. We dodged the heat that the states were experiencing. There were times it was chilly and a jacket was needed. Also had some rain but nothing that we couldn’t work around.
