Assateague State Park to Kiptopeake State Park - June 18 Thursday

Pouring hard rain greeted us when we woke up – enough to keep us in bed for a while. The rain on the roof and the flapping of our TN flag let us know the weather was fairly bad. We have had rain a couple of other nights but none in the daytime. We finally got ourselves up; Jane tried to make coffee but charging the computer all night had eaten up our electric battery power so no coffee! Should have charged the computer as we drove – just did not remember we had to conserve for this one night with no electric. So we took down camp – which did not amount to much since we had not connected to power and had not put up the tent.

We plugged in our next campground in the GPS with a mid way stop at Chincoteague and were ready to stop at the first coffee spot we found. We found a Dunkin Donuts about 30 miles down the road in Pokomoke City, the last town in Maryland and got some coffee. We drove out to Chincoteague and visited the beach and several sites. The surf was very rough and the sky still very threatening although it has finally quit raining. The trail to the lighthouse was closed so Jane had to settle for a shot from the bridge. Since this lighthouse is in a forested area – that may be the only way to get a good shot.

Chincoteague Light

We stopped by a Comfort Inn in Chincoteague to check email and so forth. Then we headed on down the Eastern Shore looking for a seafood truck or shop to buy something to cook for dinner. We found a guy with shrimp, scallops, crab, and clams….bought ½ pound of shrimp and ½ pound of scallops for $7 total. We arrived at Kiptopeke Campground about 2:00 and since we will be here two nights and it might rain we put up the tent. Nice flat campsites with electricity, water, and cable TV.
This campsite is probably ¾ full. The same was true of Assateague last night. It really appears we could have found spots everywhere we have been so maybe the reservations were not necessary. From what we hear from everyone the season is getting a late start this year.



Campsite at Kiptopeake State Park near Cape Charles VA


Old Ships sunk as a break at Kiptopeake State Park

Our supper was great – shrimp scampi on rice and lightly breaded fried scallops. We investigated a little and this campground has a nice beach, fishing and crabbing area, huge playground, and several hiking trails. Ben will crab tomorrow, Jane will explore several shops she saw on the way in today and the village of Cape Charles. Depending on Ben’s catch we will have steamed crabs and/or fish.
Today we realize we are on the way home – two nights here, one at First Landing in VA Beach, and then a night a Jeff and Robin’s in Durham. The time has gone by very quickly.

Wilmington DE to Assateague State Park June 17 Wednesday

We left Lum’s Pond Campground and were almost immediately on the freeway headed south. We turned on our CD book and as we approached Dover DE we stopped at a Comfort Inn Parking lot and downloaded email, uploaded the blog, and caught up on a few on-line bits of news. We then headed on south stopping for lunch along the way. The weather was cloudy – no rain but wind and cloud cover. The temperature hovered around 70 degrees all day. We stopped at a grocery for coffee, juice and water. Our groceries otherwise have seemed to last well. We drove right to our campsite at Assateague State Park. We are in a campsite right behind the dunes from the ocean. The surf is rough and the wind blowing but NO MOSQUITOES ! I will take the wind any day over mosquitoes.

Campground at Assateague State Park

Ben spoke with the campground host about his solar panel as we have considered buying one. This campground has no electric. The inverter and batteries on the Sprinter do fine for keeping the computers and camera charged and will run the lights and make coffee tomorrow morning. That is about it…so it would be nice to have the solar panel if it is not too expensive and works…. The campground host told Ben the panel cost $89 and has worked great for them for several years. But he has been here all of June and has not had one day of sunshine – so he had to go get his battery charged up!

Ben had a great time flying his kite, purchased at Kitty Hawk several years ago. The wind was great for flying.



Ben Prepares to Fly Kite


Successful Kite Flying

We drove into Ocean City (about 9 miles) for supper. Jane was going to cook but this will be our last chance for a seafood buffet and so we selected one and enjoyed a little bit of everything. We drove back to camp and noticed the sky is clearing and the sun finally making a little appearance. Maybe tomorrow morning will be nice. We will drive about 100 miles south to the Virginia section of the Eastern Shore and stay 2 days.

We hope for a quiet night after the last two with helicopter maneuvers for 2 hours each evening! This has been a slow restful day – but that is what vacations are for!

Wilmington DE - June 16 Tuesday

The helicopter talk around camp was that they had been searching for an escaped convict last night along the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal that is a short distance from here – maybe ¼ mile. We had thought that last night as a possibility as well as searching for a drowning victim, or a huge wreck but we heard no rescue vehicles. We will buy a paper this morning to see what we can discover or try to find internet somewhere. Another story from a young ranger was the helicopters were a training exercise from one of the nearby military bases. Who knows? Very quiet morning here with overcast skies.


Winterthur Country Estate and Museum

GPS led us the 15 miles through Wilmington suburbs to the Winterthur Museum, Mansion and Library. This was the home of DuPont and was given to the Museum Foundation prior to his death in 1969. He had three loves – in addition to his business and family – Holstein cattle, American art and furniture, and naturalistic gardening. Winterthur was fully captured the American Art and Furniture and the Gardening. We toured some of the Galleries and had a nice lunch before Ben’s appointment with the curator of metals for the museum. I note this just so I will remember it to make a similar pita sandwich one day – Antipasto Pita – with mozzarella chunks, Italian meat, sweet red pepper, and tomatoes. It was great.

Ben was meeting with the curator to review their sword collection and resource materials on metalworking. Ben, an amateur silversmith, is currently working on a silver dagger. Ben reported a wonderful visit with the curator and swords that were from the personal collection of the older DuPonts. One of the DuPont Great Grandfathers used one of the swords in the Civil War.


Ben researching in Winterthur Library

While Ben was studying swords and silversmithing, Jane toured the DuPont home, the Campbell Soup Collection of Soup Tureens, and watched a film narrated by the DuPont daughters. One is still alive and one died this year. They must have been an interesting family.

This building was unique – part home and part museum - it was large (175 rooms) with numerous bedrooms and drawing rooms etc. The original home was modest 12 rooms or so…then Mr. DuPont began collecting Americana -rooms and furnishings – He would hear about a period home being torn down somewhere in the country – he would buy it and move it to Winterthur – use the panels, fireplaces, woodwork, etc for the rooms in his home and then find furnishings to match the period of the room. Jane saw about 8 such rooms on the general tour. There were many, many more – One of the most exquisite was a drawing room papered in 16th century Chinese wallpaper that had been purchased by a woman in New York and never used. It was too large for the room he had so Mr. DuPont made the ceiling cove so it would be tall enough and moved a wall. There was also a 3 story circular staircase from a home in NC was used to replace an existing staircase. It was a most enjoyable tour. The soup tureen collection from Campbell was moved here from the Campbell soup factory because the location of the factory was not conducive to being viewed by the public. It was nice with antique china, silver, and even modern whimsical tureens.


Winterthur Room with Chinese Wallpaper


Gardens at Winterthur


Silver Turtle Soup Tureen


Reflecting Pool outside Winterthur

Jane found Ben in the Library when she went there to view an exhibit of the around the world cruises taken by the DuPont family. He was hard at work taking notes from several books from their collections. They had really given him the royal treatment. He reported one of the items he had asked to see had never been viewed by anyone since that curator had been at the museum. Ben says every item in the home that belonged to the DuPont’s had been catalogued and stored in boxes in climate controlled areas.

We visited the reflecting pool, the gift shop, and book shop before leaving to find Little Italy. Ben has been wanting a cannoli for several months. We were going to also eat dinner somewhere. We found Papa’s Pastry Shop and bought cannoli’s and a few other treats. We then drove around wasting some time until we could eat dinner. Lunch had been early so we were hungry and ate dinner about 5:45. We saw much interesting architecture in varying state of repair. We finally stopped at Grotto’s Pizza and Ben had a great Stromboli and Jane Spaghetti and Meatballs. We shared a salad. All was great and it was reasonably priced.



View Across Lum's Pond

Back at camp we finally ate our cannoli and are closed up in the Sprinter writing this blog and reading. The temperature is 70 degrees with a rather stiff wind. It appears a front is approaching and we will probably have rain off and on for the next couple days. It will be very comfortable sleeping tonight – if we just do not have helicopters! Well we did from 8:30 until about 10:30 and then they went away – at least not as long as last evening!

Cape Lookout to Lum's Pond - June 15 Monday

Drum Point Light


Cove Point Light

We left camp a little later than planned – 9 AM and drove to Lexington Park where a McDonalds was supposedly located – this one did not exist and as we drove on down the road came to where the new one was being built. We tried a Days Inn for WIFI – secure site. Stopped at a Starbucks – they had it but you had to get a card and password to use it on line! Well we enjoyed the coffee! Then we found a Comfort Inn and were able to connect and Jane uploaded the blog for 3 days – did not take time to do photos this morning so will add them later.

We headed on to our two lighthouses. Jane had to drive over a very high bridge over the Pautuxet River and was as nervous as driving along the Columbia River in Washington State. High above water with very little guard rails! The first lighthouse, Drum Point, was incorporated into the Calvert Co. Marine Museum. It was one of the octagonal type. Jane got a photo but not a perfect one as we were not interested paying to see the entire museum just to take one photo. We found the second lighthouse, Cove Point, and got a good photo there. The Chesapeake Bay is wide along this section and there was another petroleum terminal – this time natural gas. We continued up Route 2 to near Annapolis stopping in Prince Frederick at a Walmart for Ben to get the duck tape and something other tool he could not get at Target yesterday.


Francis Scott Key Bridge, Baltimore

We continued on to join up with I 95 to I 695 around Baltimore. We crossed the Frances Scott Key Bridge and thank goodness Ben was driving now. It was very, very high over the Baltimore Harbor. About 15 minutes after Baltimore in the midst of a downpour we had to make a sudden stop due to traffic ahead. We did fine but there was a 4 car wreck behind us that Ben saw in his rear view mirror. I did not actually see it – all I saw was the empty 4 lane freeway behind us. We continued on and in about 20 miles came to a very nice rest area. Two gasoline vendors, about 6 food vendors including Phillips Seafood! We headed for the picnic area and had our crab from Saturday with cocktail sauce and crackers – umm, umm good! We saw an interesting group of monks at the rest area traveling in a van with California plates. Long way for that many guys in a van!


Monks at MD Rest Stop

We continued on up I-95 – into Delaware. We had now paid tolls of $2 for one bridge; $5 for another bridge; and paid $4 to get on the Delaware Turnpike – then the GPS voice says take the first exit for your destination. Our campground was probably ¼ mile into Delaware! If we had only known we could have gotten off one exit sooner and saved the $4!

Lum’s Pond is a lovely campground. The campsites are widely spaced around a circular meadow. There are big shade trees throughout the area. We had set up the screen tent under a tree and can pull the Sprinter right up beside it. We have electric here and water a little way down the road. Since we have the tank of water in the Sprinter we really do not need it right beside our site. Across the road is a view of the pond which is fairly large and there are many birds around. I would imagine there are 10 other camping units here. Only 10 – 12 of the 70 sites have electricity so I would assume that is why the others are not filled. Most people want power these days.
We have researched the Winterthur Museum for tomorrow – it is 15 miles. We are eating Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches for supper tonight. Jane did a little research on the best locations before we left home and Capriotti’s it is….there is one only 5 miles from here! Time will tell but it had good reviews. Tomorrow night our plan is to find Little Italy and a restaurant there.

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich from Capriotti’s was great. The one close to us in Middleton did not have much eat in area so we brought it back to camp and ate the whole thing! We then sat around camp and explored Lum’s Pond Park. Jane did some clean-up of the Sprinter.

We read for about an hour until we heard what we assumed was helicopters. They seemed to be going back and forth, very low, over the pond, campground, and surrounding area. This continued getting very loud and then fading away and then returning for over 2 hours. At several points we looked out but all we could see were faint lights through the trees. Ben called 911 that said they were probably medical transports. Finally at 12:19 according to Ben – I have to admit I finally fell asleep –they left.


Lum's Pond Campground, Bear DE

Oakville VA to St, Mary's City MD June 14 Sunday

Hard rain storm through a good part of the night – woke up, went back to sleep, woke up again but never for long. We had left the chairs out since the sky was clear when we went to bed – they were VERY wet. We ate breakfast and broke camp and left before 9 AM. We drove up state route 205 towards US 301 to cross the Potomac into Maryland. We passed the home of James Monroe but did not stop to view. We did try to stop at the McDonalds in Colonial Beach for WIFI but no luck. It was Sunday Morning and the smallest McDonalds we had ever seen – of course it was a small town – but no WIFI.

We crossed the Potomac into MD on the Gov Nice Memorial Bridge – which the map said was a toll bridge. There were toll booths if you were entering from MD side but none on the VA side – strange but to our advantage since we are not returning this way. The toll on the Bay Bridge Tunnel on return will be more no doubt than this bridge.
We were hoping to find a Wal-mart and maybe internet and found a Target as we continued north on 301 to LaPlanta where we visited the Thomas Stone House. Thomas Stone was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. From MD he was a very low key but dedicated politician and that is how they must market his National Memorial too! Rather difficult to find. No paved road, one ranger. Nice visitor center, short movie and a rather plain but unusual colonial home.


Thomas Stone National Historic Site
We got the stamp for our passport, visited the Target and got most of the things on our list and set off down the St. Mary’s peninsula to the St. Mary’s Crab Festival. We found the fairgrounds in Leonardtown without any trouble. We ate clam strips, fries, and a crab cake sandwich. The clam strips were great – the crab cake sandwich OK but no anywhere near as good as the crab cake in Reedville. We walked around and looked at the crafts, car show, and watched them steam the bushels of live crabs. They were $36 a dozen. That seemed like a lot compared to signs we had seen along the road. We passed that up. They had bands and line dancing and were going to have singing later on.


Crabs into the Steamer at St. Mary's Crab Festival


Crab Races at St. Mary's Crab Festival

Back into the van and on to the Piney Point Lighthouse. It was a short squatty white lighthouse. The location was interesting as it was the site of a large oil tank terminal. We also saw an osprey nest near the pier and watched them for a while and Jane got her photo.


Piney Point Light


Osprey Nest at Piney Point

There were many nice homes along the sliver of land which led to the lighthouse. We drove on to our campground and the lighthouse at Point Lookout. This is the point of land where the Potomac joins the Chesapeake Bay. Today we followed the Potomac River side of the peninsula; tomorrow we drive up the Chesapeake Bay side of the peninsula to Annapolis and then on to Wilmington. We really have two choices of route for tomorrow and will determine the path forward.

We found our campsite easily and set out the wet chairs to dry before leaving to view the lighthouse while the light was good.


Point Lookout Light

This is a very nice park – lots of fishermen, swimmers, and quite a few campers. The loop we are on has only 4 electric sites (one is us) so it is not as full as the other loops. It is fine with us to be by ourselves. We drove out to take the photos – could not get past the wire fence. The lighthouse here is open only one weekend a month. This area has housed a huge military hospital, a prisoner of war camp during the Civil War, and of course played a huge part in navigation.

We got back to our campsite to find our chairs gone! We were just sure someone had taken them – only thing ever taken in all our years of camping besides a skillet once at Roan Mountain Campground years ago. We reported it and about 30 minutes later the ranger showed up with our chairs. It seems when checkout time came and all that was at our campsite was 2 chairs a “rookie” ranger thought they had been left behind by someone and took them to headquarters! As Ben said it restored our faith in humanity! Not that they were worth that much – it is just the principal!

We are eating in camp tonight – Jane is cooking Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy -a change from all the seafood. Then we will try out the TV antenna and or read. Tomorrow will be a longer driving day but we will stay 2 nights in Wilmington. We cleaned up everything for the mosquito spraying at 7PM and then Ben took out the air mattress to find a slow leak. He found it and made a temporary patch. The mosquitoes have been medium bad – Jane who gets the most bites has kept the spray on all the time and has only gotten 4-5 bites but by taking Benedryl when they itch too bad is keeping them under control. Tonight Ben said he was putting on repellent!

We bought a small fan at Target. One night was very hot, tonight is pleasant. The internet connections are not that great so will add the photos when I get home. We finally found one this morning at a Comfort Inn that worked fair.


Campsite at Point Lookout State Park

Reedville VA to Oakville VA June 13 Saturday

Family of Geese at Reedville VA

It was fairly quiet during the night with only a few loud people arriving in one of the cabins about midnight and the fishing boats leaving very early to fish or crab. Neither bothered us very much as we slept until after 8. We were able to get a weak internet signal so checked email and some blog activity while having coffee and breakfast. A highlight of the morning was a family of geese who made their way through our camp. Mama led the way with children next and dad bringing up the rear.


Reedville Fisherman's Museum

After breaking camp we headed back to Reedville to visit the Fisherman’s Museum. It was very nice with several restored boats, historical information about the area and the fishing/crabbing development on the Chesapeake. The place was run by mostly volunteers who were very knowledgeable about the area. They had lots of models of ships, lighthouses, and even a train set up with to scale replicas of 3 towns in the area. It was around noon when we left heading west up the “northern neck” toward Oakville and Westmoreland State Park.

We stopped in one small town under a huge tree and ate lunch. We continued on through very nice countryside. Farms with wheat and corn and the various seafood industries seemed the most prevalent businesses. There are many new homes in the area – from reading it appears these are retirees, summer and/or weekend homes. Some seem to be restored old mansions and others built from scratch. The real estate is not cheap from reading one of the sale papers.

We stopped at a small market and bought crab and fish to cook for supper. We also got some yellow squash at a roadside stand. Then we made our way to the George Washington Birthplace National Memorial.


Monument at Washington Birthplace National Monument


200 Year Old Hackberry Tree at Washington Birthplace



View towards Potomac from Washington Birthplace

It was very nice – a film again which was on the ancestry of George Washington. His grandfather had come in 1600’s from England and eventually purchased and farmed a large estate. His father as well as older brothers all had large estates in the area. The men were all successful farmers, and involved in government, military and community. The estate on which George Washington was born is on Pope Creek where it joins the Potomac. It is a beautiful site. The home had burned and one was built by the state of Virginia after much research as a memorial to the president. When the park was given to the National Park Service, they of course did more research and found the house had not been built on the correct spot! Thankfully someone had the sense not to tear down the beautiful house that had been built and just marked the foundation nearby for everyone to see. The view to the Potomac was beautiful. Also of interest was a 200+ year old Hackberry Tree that stood beside the home when Washington lived there! They had a working farm area but we skipped that as we were getting tired and left to find our campground.


Campsite at Westmoreland State Park, Oakville VA

Westmoreland State Park was about 5 miles back down the road from The National Park Site. We found they were expecting us this time – our campground is full! Good we had the reservation – of course it is the weekend. At our site the electricity was off for some reason but we could run our extension cord to the site behind us and all is well. Jane prepared a great supper of the crab, fish, and squash. Squash is great coated in seafood crumbs and fried lightly. The blue fish was good and so was the crab. Jane is finishing up this blog entry so we can post tomorrow. Ben is studying about the swords that he will see in Delaware at the Museum. Our special TV antenna gets several channels so we will see what we can find on one of them tonight.

Chippoaks to Reedville June 12 Friday

We finally saw the campground host when he made the rounds about 7:30. Jane made coffee and some breakfast – ham and cream cheese on a bagel.


Chippoaks Plantation

We drove out to the historic Chippokes Plantation. The home was not open yet but the grounds were nice.


Butterfly Weed at Chippoaks Garden


Chippoaks is a large working plantation. The volunteers were preparing for a wagon ride and sheep shearing that would take place later today. Too late for us though as we were on our way after a visit to the Visitor Center to view one of the films. The farm has been continuously farmed since the 1600’s. There have been several families own the land and the last one willed it to the state of Virginia. It continues to be farmed by local farmers who lease the rights to different acreage amounts and grow corn, peanuts, wheat, and perhaps other crops.

A ferry operated by the state of Virginia operates between Surry and Jamestown. It is a large operation with 4 ferries in a fleet. They are fairly good sized ferries. We arrived and were lucky to only wait about 5 minutes. We were one of the last vehicles loaded – there were 48 cars/trucks/vans; 3 motorcycles, and 1 large truck on our ferry. There was also a fairly good sized observation tower but we did not go up into it. The ferry ride took about 25 minutes – including loading, crossing the wide river, and unloading.


View from James River Ferry

We drove right off the ferry to the Colonial Parkway and were at the Jamestown National Park. They have a new visitor center since we were there before. All we remember about the place was the downpour of rain and they were excavating the area of a church under a tent. We were here during rain before Hurricane Dennis hit the costal VA and NC towns. We watched an excellent movie in their new visitor center and viewed displays and some of the historic buildings.


Church at Jamestown

Then we were down the road to Yorktown. We drove along the Colonial Parkway which is similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway in that it has no commercial signage or buildings. There were very limited access for crossroads and all the overpasses were brick – it did indeed look “colonial”! There were beautiful views of the James River on the northern portion of the parkway, we went under Williamsburg in a tunnel, and then there were beautiful views of the York River on the southern portion of the Parkway.


View down the Colonial Parkway

We arrived at Yorktown and ate lunch under the trees in the parking lot. We viewed another good film and reviewed the exhibits in their Visitor Center before hopping on a trolley for a ride through historic Yorktown. We got off down near the river and walked around the waterfront and browsed in several very nice shops. One had nice jewelry and one very nice hooked rugs. The rugs would have been Jane’s purchase of the trip so far – if she had lots of money and a place to put the rug! Her favorite was in pastel colors with various sea shells.

A large tall ship was docked nearby – a visitor for the weekend from Wilmington Delaware. There was another sailboat that gave daily tours along the York River. There was also a sunset cruise. That is for another day! We hopped back on the trolley and were back at our van.


Tall Ship visiting at Yorktown

Our next venture was to find an internet connection for Ben to send the photos from his inspection yesterday. Jane did not have blog entries ready to upload. We were headed to a McDonalds thanks to the GPS when we passed the Yorktown Library. Ben went in and managed to upload his photos. Jane called and talked to her Mom. Then we were on our way across the York River to the Gloucester County and the middle neck of this eastern Virginia area.

We followed the GPS directions through numerous small towns in Gloucester Co.; Mathews Co.; and crossed the Rappahannock River to the upper peninsula or the “Upper Neck” as they call it here. We drove through Lancaster Co. into Northumberland Co. where Reedville was located. Jane had selected a campsite on this peninsula – there were 4 – and we needed 2 – so she selected this one right on the end in the Chesapeake Bay and the second almost the other end of the northern neck. Chesapeake Bay Resort had a nice web page and appeared to be a nice place. Reedville was indeed out of the way but it had restaurants, bed & breakfasts, and a nice museum….so we expected a fairly nice campground. It was the most expensive of our trip at $40. Well when we arrived we could find no one – a repeat of the night before! We finally found one man who said – “well, he ain’t back from the cruise to Smith Island yet.” Knowing there was a daily cruise boat from this site to Smith Island we did not think too much more about it – just drove around the deserted campground and picked out a site right on the water. About an hour later the owner drove up in his golf cart to see who we were. We remained the only campers in the entire park that could have accommodated over 50. There were about 10 small cabins and by the end of the evening most of them were full.


Ben Relaxes at Reedville Campground

We drove into Reedville (about 3 miles) and found the Crazy Crab restaurant right at the end of the road next to the marina. We had a fantastic dinner. Jane had crab cake topping Fried Green Tomatoes and Ben had Crab on Crab – sautéed crab topping a soft shell crab. Both were fantastic and some of the best crab we have ever tasted. We viewed the rest of the town – one street with churches, a few businesses, and numerous large Victorian homes. They called that are Millionaire’s Row.
We found our way back to the campground, watched the activity on the bay, read our books and fell asleep.

Kingsport to Chippoakes State Park VA June 11 Thursday June 11th

We left Kingsport at 8:30 anxious to be on the road for our venture to Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. We will primarily visit the Chesapeake Bay region, take in some history and eat seafood. Today our drive took us north on I 81 and then east on route 460. The trip up I 81 was uneventful. We made one stop in Radford for Ben to do a quick inspection. He had told all his inspection companies he would be away starting Thursday but one called for an inspection on Wednesday which he agreed to do on Thursday since it was right on our way north. We had a book on CD and the miles clicked quickly by.

We got off I 81 in Roanoke and headed east on 460 and began to look for a spot to stop and eat our lunch. The sky that had been looking rather threatening opened up for some of the most torrential rain we have experienced since getting the Sprinter. We had to turn off the CD as the noise of the rain would not allow us to hear the book! Finally past Lynchburg we ran out of the rain. We continued on to Appomattox Courthouse National Monument where Jane pulled out the lunch and we ate a quick bite. Then we walked up to the Visitor Center to get a passport book stamp. We had spent some time visiting all the buildings here at Appomattox on a previous trip; but due to losing the passport book thought we would replace this stamp since we were here. We got drenched before we could return to the Sprinter- the rain storm had caught back up with us!

After a quick change of clothes, we were back on the road. We continued on across Virginia, bypassing Petersburg, and then headed southeast towards Chippoakes State Park which is only about a mile from Jamestown – on the opposite side of the River. We arrived about 4:15 and were greeted by a nice young man in the entry gate who directed us to the campground. We got to the campground to find no host (an empty RV with no one home), went to the camp store – no information; went to the visitor center – closed at 4:30! So we went back and picked out a site and enjoyed a little rest assuming the host would be around soon to check on everyone. Other campers were also arriving but the place was largely deserted! We were meeting Ben’s college roommate, Buck Pickard, and his wife Peggy at a restaurant in Surry (about 10 miles from our campground) for dinner. So we thought we could check-in as we went by the entry gate – it was now closed. We can only assume this park has had major cutbacks in staffing!



Campsite at Chippoaks State Park, on James River VA

We arrived at the Surry House and had a delightful dinner with the Pickards. They live about 30 minutes south of here near Smithfield. It is nice to find old friends to catch up with when you travel. We may see them when we come back through Virginia Beach on the way home.

We returned to camp about 8:30 – hoping we were not going to be locked out! Luck was with us and we arrived back at our camp. We had left our internet reservation form on the site clipboard but no one had been by in our absence. It took us a while to get the camp set up – we had not used our van screens since Alaska so had to get them up as the temperature was into the 80’s and we knew we could not shut the doors to the Sprinter. We got everything set up and got into bed to read about 9:00. I think maybe we made it to 10:00 before we fell asleep! It had been a long drive and Ben was very tired.

We had a heavy rain during the night but no wind so we stayed nice and dry and comfortable with both the back and side doors open with their screen covers up. This was the first time we had slept with the doors open. All our travels have been spring, fall, or winter except our trip to Alaska. On the Alaska trip when we got back to the states we drove two long days just to get home and stayed in motels because of the long days. We were pleased with how this night passed – now we will see how this trip goes. It is a first in several ways for us – summer camping for one and secondly we have reservations in campgrounds every night for eleven days. We haven’t had a trip we can recall where we had this much structure….usually we have a tentative plan but had not made reservations and paid so we could just drive and stop when the mood struck us….

No photos today- rain and gloomy skies…but the sun is shining as we begin Day 2.

Blue Ridge Parkway in Rain May 11th 2009

We left about 8 AM on an adventure that was part business and part pleasure. Ben had two inspections to complete for Trillium Works and Jane went along for the ride. Our GPS was set for first visit near Hillsville VA. We plugged in a Tony Hillerman book and were on our way north on I-81 and 77. We stopped at the Red Barn General Store for Ben to complete his first inspection and then began a rather long trek to Rocky Mount VA.

We stopped at a couple locations in Floyd VA which has turned into quite the Arts Community. We saw some very nice baskets, metal work, paper, and pottery work at the Over The Moon Gallery and Cafe. They also had a good selection of various food items. We had Google Map directions as well as the GPS and followed some rather confusing directions but did finally reach Rocky Mount - in fact came into town on the road where Uttermost Industry was located!

It was lunch time so we set off to find Bowlings Place - Jane had read about it on the internet site for the Crooked Road - this is a scenic route through southern Virginia that goes through many small towns that are part of the Country Music History of the Area. We were in the area but did not follow the entire route. Bowlings Place was known for the best hot dogs in the area serving 400 - 500 a day! That just seemed like a lot of hot dogs so we found it - a small place that did indeed serve lots of hot dogs. The menu was hot dogs, soup beans, and slices of hoop cheese. We each had two hot dogs and a drink. They were good and from the buns stacked on the shelves and traffic in and out during our 20 minutes there - they probably do sell that number each day!

We got back to Uttermost and Ben completed his inspection. We then headed off toward the nearest entrance point to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had chosen this as our route south instead of I-81. It was not raining but still very cloudy and we were afraid we might be in the clouds on the Parkway. It was a nice drive south to where the Parkway crosses US52 at I-77. We saw many yellow and orange azaleas as well as some rhododendron. We had never been on this section of the Parkway and were surprised to find that in many locations - while it was beautiful scenery - the parkway only owned a very narrow section of the land.

We stopped at Mabry Mill which we had seen so often in photos but had never visited. The weather was cool and there was very little traffic on the Parkway. The fog or clouds were hanging in valleys off and on and gave our drive an unusual feel. I wish there had been a little more light so I could have taken some photos.

At US52 we got off the Parkway and Ben enjoyed seeing a short portion of the road he used to travel back and forth home from NC State years ago. We got on I-77 and headed back south towards home. We stopped at Red Lobster in Bristol for a good dinner before reaching home about 8:00. A nice 12 hour trip into a close-by home area but one where had never seen.

One Day to Franklin NC - Saturday May 9, 2009

We had planned a weekend camping trip to Western NC Mountains with a couple visits to the Gem and Mineral Show (always lots of beads)! We had reservations at Van Hook Glade campground and were looking forward to a great weekend - but the weather had other things in mind. Friday we had storms and even a tornado warning so did not leave. Saturday am was not great but we left with enough gear to stay or not stay the night depending on the weather. Trip over to Franklin was pleasant with only a few sprinkles but no sunshine. We got to Franklin and ate lunch at the City Grill - OK but not great. We then made our way through the huge vendor tent - Ben looking for a star sapphire for his dagger and Jane searching for the beads on her "list" so she can get back to beading. We found some of the things on the list including some nice amazonite beads to go with the turtle Ben cast in silver over the winter.

About 2:00 there was a huge storm - the sound on the roof of the more than football field size tent was staggering! Wind and hard rain for about 15 minutes and then it was gone. We finished our shopping and left to find the Sprinter in a muddy lake parking lot! We decided to drive back home and not stay in what would be a VERY wet campsite. We will miss our dinner in the Thai Restaurant in Franklin - one of our favorite places.

Coming through Ashville we searched for the River Arts District. Thanks to the GPS and maps Jane had found on the internet we looked around for a while. There are a number of galleries in old buildings but none that peaked our interest. We drove on home arriving without any further rain storms.

No photos - Jane forgot her camera and there was no sun!