2 days, 577 miles via I-95 and some local roads.
Day 1: Lorton, VA, to Wade, NC
QTS Hop 3, Day 1
293 miles, of which all but 10 miles were on I-95, with a refueling stop in Rocky Mount, NC.
As usual, tears were shed when Jett said goodbye to her sons and her grandkids. We had her 8-year-old grandson, Patrick, overnight on Friday, which is always a pleasure. But everyone was tired from an exhausting (physically and emotionally) week and we were all in bed before 10am. Patrick’s father, Josh, picked him up at 8am Saturday morning, as planned, but we were surprised by an early morning visit from Jett’s other son, Devin. Coffee was consumed, tearful goodbyes were exchanged and we were on the road by 9:30am.
Jett doesn’t like to navigate (thank God for GPS!) but even Mr. Magoo couldn’t have gotten lost on this trip. Straight down I-95. The only “difficult” part was the refueling stop in Rocky Mount, NC, which meant leaving I-95 at the correct exit, traveling a quarter of a mile to the gas station, refueling (me), grabbing sandwiches (Jett) and getting back on I-95. We almost got Jett some Marlboro’s at $48 per carton (read it and weep, Massachusetts smokers), but the cashier leaned over the counter and drawled in my ear: “Between you and me you can get them cheaper somewhere else.” So we passed on the cigs and eventually got them on Sunday for $46 in South Carolina.
Patience at Fayetteville RV Resort
Our destination for the evening was the Fayetteville RV Resort in Wade, NC. I had planned this hop so that no refueling would be needed at our overnight stop, so we didn’t even unhitch – just pushed the slides out, hooked up the utilities and relaxed. For this kind of quick, overnight stop just about any park would do. But this park was so nice that I found myself wishing we were staying longer. A beautiful office, two swimming pools, two dog parks, a clubhouse, a fitness center, a walking trail and a large open space in the middle for activities. And CLEAN. The sites didn’t have trees, so there weren’t even leaves on the ground. No trash anywhere. Spotless. This park is now on our Top 10 list. I don’t know which park got bumped, but we certainly haven’t seen 10 others as nice as this one.
The open field
Enjoying the 70-degree day
Day 2: Wade, NC, to Savannah, GA
284 miles, all but 6 of those miles on I-95, with a refueling stop in Florence, SC
Hop 3, Day 2
This was another long day of pretty boring driving – I-95 is flat and tree-lined along most of this route, making for good gas mileage (almost, but not quite, 10mpg) but hard to stay alert. We listened to a book-on-CD (Jonathan Kellerman’s Gone) and that helped pass the time. We refueled at a Pilot truck stop in Florence, SC. Jett loves truck stops – they are easy to get into and out of and they usually have a nice mini-mart and some good food. We made the stop at 11am, which was a little early for lunch, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying a nice meal from Wendy’s. This truck stop also had something I have never seen before – some diesel pumps dedicated to RVers. I didn’t have to choose between the gas pumps which are generally very tight for our rig or the truck pumps which usually don’t take credit cards at the pump and have a passenger-side hose that has to be laid on the ground(!) in order for the driver-side pump to work.
Later in the day we stopped at a rest area to let the dogs stretch their legs and water the bushes.
Our destination and home for the week was the Savannah Oaks RV Resort in Savannah, GA. I will report on the park more fully when we leave, but I will make two preliminary observations: (1) the Wi-Fi is pretty good, which was fortunate as our Verizon hotspot was pretty iffy at this location and (2) there must really be oak trees in the park because something dropped on the roof of the RV pretty regularly. I am hoping it was acorns.