Trying to Outrun the Rain (Feb 27-March 4, 2021)

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“The nicest thing about the rain is that it always stops. Eventually.” - Eeyore

If I had to summarize the first leg of our trip with one word, I’d probably choose rain. Or maybe cold? Wind would also be appropriate. Out of the first five days of this adventure, I’d say it’s rained about 80 percent of the time including the vast majority of our travel time. The strange thing is though, it really hasn’t been bothersome. I’m sure if we were on a seven-day vacation and it rained 80 percent of the time, we’d be pretty annoyed. Considering the fact that we are essentially living in our camper, rain is just a part of life and we knew coming into this that we wouldn’t have perfect weather 100 percent of the time. Having come from Upstate NY where it’s still cold and snowing, we really can’t complain. Although in fairness, Charley could probably complain because he’s had to tow the camper in some pretty heavy downpours but he’s been a trooper and hasn’t complained once.  

In spite of the yucky weather, we really are having a fabulous time. Experience from prior RV trips has taught us that marathon driving days are no fun for anyone. So although we had to get out of the cold northeast pretty quickly, we took a few days, driving approximately four hours per day, to get to our first big stop in Carolina Beach NC. After leaving home at about 10:30 am Saturday, Feb 27, we stopped for the night at a Harvest Host location in Shippensburg PA. (Please check out Harvesthosts.com if you don’t know what a Harvest Host is. We are not affiliated with the program at all. Just members who think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. I will more than likely mention them a lot in upcoming blogs) Spending the night on a farm was everything you’d imagine it to be – wandering goats included. The hosts were super nice and in exchange for parking our rig next to their barn for the night, we purchased some local beef, cheese, onions, and organic maple syrup from their self-serve farm store.

Another four hours down the road we stopped for the second night at another Harvest Host location. This time an antique truck and tractor museum in Colonial Heights VA. Charley had been looking forward to this stop for a while. He loved it and quite honestly, even though wheels and engines aren’t normally my thing I did too. The museum spans about three acres and houses one man’s private collection of tractors, cars, big rigs, motorcycles, and even an impressive collection of toy tractor-trailers. It’s really an incredible display! I’d recommend a visit if you’re ever in the area and have at least a few hours to spend there. The overnight stay in the parking lot was fine. We arrived fairly early and got what we assume to be the premium parking spot along the fence line at the back of the lot. Before the night was over, three other campers had pulled in.  It definitely wasn’t the scenic view that we had on the farm but it was convenient and we felt very safe there.

Check-in time at our campground in NC wasn’t until 4 pm, but we left Virginia early on Monday, March 1st hoping to beat the rain that appeared to be moving west to east across North Carolina. We weren’t very successful but thought we finally outran the storm as we pulled in to Wilmington (about 12 miles from our campground) where it was sunny and 80 degrees.  That didn’t last long though. As we were eating lunch and killing time in Wilmington the downpours began again and the temperature dropped to 62 degrees. Thankfully the campground at Carolina Beach State Park let us check in a few hours early which allowed us to begin the process of de-winterizing our camper. This means we (and by “we” I mean Charley) had to rid the water lines of air and RV antifreeze. This process usually takes place at home but since it was still freezing at home we couldn’t do it before we left hence the need to get to warmer weather quickly.  All is well and I’m happy to report that we had no broken water lines and in spite of the fact that we haven’t actually used our camper in nearly two years, everything else is still in good working order.

We had no grand expectations for our stay at Carolina Beach as this stop was really just to give our camper a good shakedown and to organize the storage areas inside. We also wanted to stick our feet in the Atlantic Ocean just to say we did because we hope to do the same at the Pacific Ocean a few months from now. We had to settle for sticking our fingers in the water though as it was way too cold to take our shoes off let alone get our feet wet. Tuesday, March 2nd was the only semi-decent weather day in Carolina Beach – unseasonably cold and windy but dry. We were able to take several walks within the State Park, one along the Flytrap Trail hoping to spot a Venus Flytrap. Fun Fact – the only place that the Venus Flytrap grows naturally in the world is within a seventy-mile radius of Carolina Beach state park. We weren’t able to spot one on our walk (I was beginning to think flytrap equaled tourist trap) so we stopped at the visitor center to see if it was just too early in the season to spot one. The lady in the visitor center explained that because it’s been so cold in the area many of the flytrap’s leaves have turned brown so they are harder to spot. We were able to see a few that the visitor’s center had in captivity – in planter boxes on the back deck of their building. Turns out both Charley and I had been looking for much larger plants (google makes them look so much bigger!). I wish we had seen the ones at the visitor’s center before heading out to the trail. Note to self – always stop at the visitor’s center first! Also on Tuesday, we took a quick 7-mile drive down the coast to Fort Fisher, a confederate civil war fort that was about 90 percent destroyed prior to WWII so that the area could be used as a landing strip during that war. Steve, the docent, told us several stories on the history of the fort. He was so knowledgeable and his stories were fascinating. I found myself wishing he had been my history teacher in high school. I would have learned a lot from him.

As of this writing, Wednesday, March 3, it’s raining buckets again. Tomorrow is another travel day but the good news is the sun is supposed to shine the whole way!

***According to google, a good blog post should be between 2100 and 2400 words. I’m at about 1200 but a picture is worth 1000 words, right? I’ll let our photos tell the rest of the story. Enjoy J

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Muddin, a Yorkie Mafia and the Best Donuts in South Carolina (March 4-10, 2021)

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