Our Wander Years

STS Hop 8: Myrtle Beach SC to Charleston SC

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Sparky

STS Hop 8

94 miles via mostly US 17.

The only thing difficult about this trip was ignoring the GPS when it told us to make a U-turn.

I don’t know what is going on with our (relatively) new Rand-McNally GPS, but on the last two hops it has insisted that we make a U-turn when none was needed. And the GPS was set to “avoid U-turns”. Makes no sense.

And there was a tight right turn about a mile short of The Campgound at James Island Park. We ran a tire over the curb, which seemed to be a better choice than colliding with the traffic waiting at the light. But the tires tolerated it well and we made it to our destination in just under 3 hours. That is an average of about 30 mph which is very slow for a trip with no stops. But US 17 has a lot of lights and about a dozen construction zones. About the only good thing about the route was that it was flat.

We will be in Charleston for 5 days. The weather promises to be good and James Island Park looks very interesting. Should be fun.

Categories: Places, Routes, RV Parks, SC | Leave a comment

Ocean Lakes Family Campground, Myrtle Beach SC

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Sparky

Campsite at Ocean Lakes

Our ocean view

We planned originally to stay 3 nights at Ocean Lakes Family Campground in South Myrtle Beach SC. But we lost a day due to our truck problems. Then the forecast turned bad – the day we were scheduled to travel to Charleston was to be windy, with heavy rain. It is never fun to tear down/set up in the rain. And since Charleston was a flat daily rate rather than a weekly rate, we didn’t lose any money by cutting the stay there short.

All of which is why we ended up staying 4 nights in Ocean Lakes.

This is a HUGE campground – nearly 4,000 sites total, with 863 campsites (the rest are houses that are individually owned, with many available for annual lease). Besides the beautiful beach, the campground has five small lakes (hence the name). Amenities include a take-out restaurant, a huge camp store, a laundromat with over 100 machines and wash-and-fold service, a recreation center, a video arcade, two pools – one indoor, one outdoor – and probably a lot of other stuff that we never saw because we did not tour the entire property.

This campground is top-rated by Good Sam and I can’t dispute that assessment. The sites are level, with large concrete pads and lots of room for slides. The cable is outstanding with over 100 channels. There is daily curbside trash pickup. If there is a dog park I didn’t see it, but there are many places to walk the dogs (including on the beach, off season) and biodegradable poop bags are provided. There is a playground and a beautiful elevated public deck, both right on the beach. The beach has soft sand and is swimmable. Overall, a very nice park. And we had an ocean view!

The only bad thing about the park: the water is terrible. It ruins a cup of coffee.

The Ocean Lakes beach

The elevated patio

The beach playground

The laundromat

One of the rental properties

The outdoor pool

The indoor pool

Beach grass

Categories: Places, RV Parks, SC, STS | 1 Comment

STS Hop 7: Stony Creek VA to Myrtle Beach SC

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Sparky

STS Hop 7

302 miles via I-95, US 117, I-795 (through Goldsboro NC), I-40 and US 17, with a refueling stop near Sharpsburg NC.

It is true: the night is darkest before the dawn.

The plan was to do a 20-mile test drive, hauling the RV, around 8am. If the check engine light came on we would book 2 nights at a campground in Emporia VA, near the GMC dealership, and put the truck in for repairs Monday morning. In that case we would have to cancel the entire 3-day stop in Myrtle Beach (one day of which was already canceled) and at least one day in Charleston.

If the check engine light remained off, we would head to Myrtle Beach, with fingers crossed.

The check engine light came on 3.5 miles into the test drive.

So we canceled Myrtle Beach, booked the stay in Emporia and, with very heavy hearts, loaded the RV, checked out of the Hampton Inn and headed out for the 15-mile trip south. I figured we could “limp” there at 40 mph on US 301. But when we left the Hampton Inn parking lot the truck exhibited a whole new level of sickness: I could not get it above 15 mph. We drove about a mile, then pulled over in a parking lot next to Chester’s other shop location (which we had visited briefly on the test drive Saturday). I opened the hood, pushed (ineffectively, I am sure) on some connectors, then sat back to wait for 10 minutes in the hope that the truck would recover enough to make it the 15 miles.

At that point I was more down than I have ever been in our years of travel. We were looking at a potentially extended stay in a small town in Virginia, without transportation, with expensive repairs likely and with Myrtle Beach – one of the stops I was most looking forward to – canceled. This was even worse than that awful, rainy weekend in Knoxville in 2012. I was in a black, curse-our-fates mood.

Then Chester pulled up.

Chester in the engine

He asked how the truck was behaving (stupid question, I thought), but told him that the truck was worse than ever. He offered to run the diagnostics again. I wasn’t wild about the idea, but because the truck was acting up in a different way I thought it might have a different code. So I said ok, realizing that this might boost the total diagnostic cost to over $400.

We limped to his shop less than 2 miles away. Jett took the dogs for a long walk. I watched Chester perform the diagnostics again (same code), then dig into the engine doing God-knows-what. Then we went on a test drive, hauling the RV. I was a bit nervous letting Chester haul our home, but he said he had a lot of truck driving experience and “this was nothing.”

20 miles. No check engine light.

I asked Chester what he had done. He said he had tightened the #7 fuel injector connection – the same thing he had done on Saturday – but was “more aggressive” this time.

I wasn’t completely convinced that the problem was fixed, but as we had just successfully completed the same test drive that I had failed at in the morning, we decided to push for Myrtle Beach. As Chester put it, if we made it to Exit 11 (the Emporia exit) without the light going on, we should “put the hammer down” and keep going.

I waited until we reached North Carolina (over 30 miles) before calling to cancel our Emporia reservation and to un-cancel our Myrtle Beach reservation. Then we put the hammer down and kept going.

We made the entire 300-mile trip without incident (which I regarded as a minor miracle), set up at our site at Ocean Lakes Family Campground just a few feet from the beach (we have an ocean view!), then sat back and lifted a toast to Chester Carter, who saved not only the day but the entire week.

And, hard to believe, his additional charge for fixing the problem? Zero. Free. Gratis.

Chester – you are my new hero.

Categories: Adventures, NC, Places, Routes, SC, STS, VA | 1 Comment

STS Hop 6: Petersburg VA to Stony Creek VA

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Sparky

STS Hop 6

27 miles via I-85 and I-95.

Well, you guys obviously did not wish hard enough. We made it just over 10 miles into our planned 300-mile trip before the “check engine” light reappeared. We limped (which turns out to be exactly the right word – more on that later) to a truck stop just north of Stony Creek VA. I phoned Good Sam Roadside Assistance and they were almost no help at all. What I needed was a diesel mechanic and all they could offer was a tow.

We quickly concluded that we were going to be stuck in rural Virginia for the weekend unless we could find a mechanic. So we decided to check into the nearby Hampton Inn and use that as a base of operations. We parked the RV in the corner of the parking lot, checked in for 2 nights and set about finding help for the truck. We quickly determined that the nearest GMC dealer was about 15 miles away and arranged an appointment for Monday morning. Then I started calling around, hoping to find a local mechanic who could at least diagnose the problem. I figured if I arrived at the dealer with a diagnosis in hand it would speed things along.

The truck at Carter’s

I found a tow/repair company about 6 miles away that claimed to offer 24/7 roadside assistance. A call to that number wasn’t answered but I thought it might be worth a trip to the address to see if I could scare up some help (driving the truck without the RV was no problem at all – the truck ran fine when not stressed). I had a bit of difficulty locating the company and in fact stopped first at a place across the street. There was a mechanic there working on a diesel truck – a good sign – but he said he dropped his diagnostic computer and would be unable to determine my engine code. He sent me to Johnny’s Tow Service across the street. Which was closed. But a call to the number on the tow truck there yielded a referral to Chester, down in Stony Creek. I called Chester and he told me to come down and he would take a look.

Chester Carter is the proprietor of Carter’s 1 Stop towing service and truck repair emporium in Stony Creek, Virginia which was a town of 202 souls in 2000. And it looks like it may have gone downhill since then. The tiny town is littered with vacant and crumbling buildings. It had a creepy feel, to be honest. With Halloween approaching and the truck very unwell, I began to wonder if there was any escape. Even the Hampton Inn was empty. Would Jack Nicholson appear?

Abandoned grain storage near Carter’s

Chester was a man of few words. And when he spoke it was in a quiet, mumbled Southern drawl which my Northern ears had to strain to understand. He went straight to work and pretty quickly diagnosed the engine code: P1295 which suggested that one of the fuel injectors had lost electrical connectivity. He poked around the engine for an hour, cleaned some connections and, after interrupting work on my truck to change a tire on an RV – which I didn’t mind since he was helping a fellow RVer in need – we took the truck on a 30-mile test drive during which the “check engine” light stayed off.

I paid him about $250, which I thought was fair, and went on my way. I had spent nearly 4 hours watching Chester work (and learning quite a bit about my diesel engine). Chester said that Chevy/GMC diesels were prone to loose connections on certain fuel injectors – especially injectors 2 and 7 (my problem injector). The clip holding the electrical connection to the injector could corrode and work loose, causing the kind of problem I was seeing. Specifically, as soon as the computer detects a problem it puts the engine into “limp mode” which somehow protects it from severe damage, but severely diminishes the power, which lets the truck “limp” to a place to be repaired. He said he had tightened the clip on #7. All of which sounded plausible, but I had very little confidence that he had actually fixed the problem. But I figured that the diagnosis alone was worth the price.

The plan is to do a test drive with the RV in tow Sunday morning and, if successful, head to Myrtle Beach. If unsuccessful, we will move to a campground, deliver the truck to the GMC dealership Monday morning and then cool our heels until they are done with it. In the latter case we could be stuck in Stony Creek for days.

Maybe until Halloween.

Categories: Adventures, Places, Routes, STS, VA | Leave a comment

STS Hop 5: Lorton VA to Petersburg VA

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Sparky

STS Hop 5

128 miles, mostly via I-95.

This was not the hop that was planned. We had to abort about 100 miles short of our intended destination (Wilson NC) when the “check engine” light came on just north of Petersburg VA. Accompanying the light was an alarming loss of power: I had difficulty maintaining 45 mph going uphill.

As I had experienced similar symptoms just prior to the start of the STS, I was pretty sure it was an emissions control problem. I was also pretty sure that I could continue for a short distance. I was also totally sure that I had to get the problem diagnosed immediately. As the time was 2pm on a Friday, I knew I didn’t have much time to make that happen.

So, a quick rerouting. We found a campground about 14 miles away, called them to make sure they had a spot for us and gently, gingerly, made our way there. The 15-minute rest did the engine some good and we made it about halfway before the symptoms reappeared. Another 10-minute rest fixed the problem again and we made it without further difficulty.

We checked in, quickly unhitched, got a recommendation from the office for a local shop that could take a look and ran the truck over. Unfortunately, the shop did not have diesel experience. But in the short (less than a quarter mile) trip to the shop, the “check engine” light turned itself off. The shop gave me the number of the local GMC dealer and I called them but they said they couldn’t diagnose anything if the check engine light was not on.

So I returned to the RV park with good news/bad news for Jett: the “check engine” light was off and no one knows why. She insisted that I take a test drive and stress the engine (as much as it can be stressed when not hauling). I drove 25 miles and the truck performed flawlessly.

So Hop 6 is now 300 miles, with a truck of dubious health. Should be an “interesting” day.

When we first had the problem, I read the manual and it suggested that I check the fuel cap. Apparently a not-tight-enough fuel cap can cause emissions control problems. So I tightened the cap and it is just barely possible that that caused the light to turn off. Wishful thinking? Probably.

Anyway, wish us luck.

Picture Lake Campground

Our site at Picture Lake

Picture Lake Campground was an emergency destination, but it has high ratings from Good Sam. From our limited experience, it is overrated. The sites are bare dirt and not level and the facilities (playground, volleyball court, restrooms) are ordinary at best. It does have a somewhat picturesque lake (which looked even better in the sunset – see below), but the ambiance is marred by the presence of the Virginia Motorsports Park on the opposite shore. If there were loons in the area, their calls were completely lost amid the roar of the drag racing engines. Apparently the speedway has racing only on weekends. But it was Friday.

Lucky us.

Picture Lake at sunset

Categories: Adventures, Places, Routes, RV Parks, STS, VA | Leave a comment

Gunshots, acorns and drag racers

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Sparky

Answer: gunshots, acorns and drag racers.

Question: what noises have kept us awake in the last 3 campsites?

Explanation: I told you about the shooting range near us at Pinch Pond. That was followed by 7 nights of staccato acorn explosions (at least they sounded like explosions) on the roof of the RV at Pohick. Now we are at Picture Lake Campground in Petersburg VA (more on that later) and we are adjacent to a drag racing speedway.

They say the racing will be over by midnight.

Good, because I need some sleep.

Categories: Adventures, Places, QTS, RV Living, RV Parks, VA | 1 Comment

Manassas

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Sparky

The turning point

In case you didn’t know, I am a bit of a Civil War buff. I think Ken Burn’s Civil War series is the best documentary I have ever seen. I have visited about a dozen Civil War battlefields and think Gettysburg is one of the 5 most interesting places in the US.

So it is a little surprising, given the dozens of times I have visited northern Virginia, that I had never visited the battlefield(s) at Manassas. Or, if you prefer, Bull Run. But Wednesday was picture-perfect and I took the opportunity to knock that item off of my bucket list.

View to the north

Manassas/Bull Run was the site of two battles: First Manassas, which had the distinction of being the first major battle of the war (and the one which gave “Stonewall” Jackson his moniker) and Second Manassas, about a year later, which was a major Confederate victory and is considered to be the “high point” of the Confederacy. Both were important Civil War battles, but I think First Manassas is the more interesting, from a tactical perspective. And the battlefield is a little more compact and can be explored on foot. Which was what I did on Wednesday.

One of the fascinating things about First Manassas is that it was a spectator battle. Dozens of DC citizens made the 25-mile trip to witness what they expected to be a quick Union victory. When it turned into a day-long battle and, eventually, a rout of the Union army, the spectators found themselves running for their lives, amid the troops doing the same, back to DC. I wanted very much to see the battlefield, to get a sense of what they witnessed that summer day in 1861.

What the Confederates saw was the Union army approaching from the north – the view in the photo here. I assume the spectators were also to the north, probably arrayed along what is now US 29, which runs east/west in this photo. The road rises to the east and much of the battle could probably be seen from that vantage point.

Farmhouse

The battle was initially an artillery battle. Each side had about a dozen cannon, positioned only about 300 yards apart. The Union army held the higher ground for much of the day, but the Confederates had the advantage of being shielded by trees. At the right side of the Union line (left side of the Confederate line), the forces were less than 150 yards apart.

Another distinction of First Manassas is that it had the first civilian casualty. An elderly bedridden woman was killed when the Union army shelled her farmhouse, thinking it housed rebel troops. The house (see right) is still standing.

For reasons that are not obvious, the Union deployed two cannon at that side of the line and positioned them to fire at the Confederate artillery, completely ignoring the Confederate infantry less than 200 yards away. The Confederates at that location were wearing blue uniforms, probably because the army had not yet fully standardized on gray as the color for Confederate uniforms. In any case, the Union batteries, when then saw them approaching, assumed they were friendly. They realized their mistake too late and the two cannon were captured. There was additional fighting back-and-forth, but this capture of the federal cannon is widely regarded as the key turning point in the battle.

If the Union army had won this battle it is possible that the Civil War would have been shorter – and much less bloody – than it proved to be. To think that such momentous things hinge on the accidental color of some uniforms… fascinating.

The photo below is a view of Henry House Hill, which was “ground zero” in this battle. And a very nice place to stroll when the sun is out and no cannon balls are exploding.

Henry House Hill

Categories: Adventures, Places, STS, VA | Leave a comment

An introduction to the pumpkin patch lifestyle

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Sparky

Zachary and dad

Tractor train ride

When I was a kid Halloween was a one-evening event. You dressed up in some wacko costume, grabbed a large shopping bag and went out – without adults – and extorted as much candy booty from your neighbors as time and upper body strength would allow. Followed by a week of sugar overdosing.

But now Halloween appears to be a month-long event, with all sorts of decorating activities (I previously described the contest here at the campground), Halloween greeting cards and pumpkin patch experiences. Even the public schools get involved. My grandson, Zachary, had a field trip last week to a pumpkin patch extravaganza. Apparently it had a variety of fall-themed carnival-style activities and opportunities to purchase hot cider and pumpkin-flavored treats.

So schools that have banned birthday cupcakes now put kids on a bus to buy pumpkin cupcakes. Make sense to you? Not to me.

But I digress. What I wanted to describe was my own, personal, introduction to the pumpkin patch lifestyle. I accompanied Zachary (who apparently had not overdosed on pumpkins on his field trip) and his dad to a small pumpkin patch event in Woodbridge VA. It wasn’t much as festivals go, but it was a cold day and we didn’t want to stay long anyway. It did offer a bouncy house, a tractor-pulled train ride and a hayride. It also had a really cheesy maze which took about 2 minutes to navigate.

We also got to warm inside the concessions trailer which was owned and operated by Uncle J, a friend of Zachary’s dad.

So, yes, it was fun. But I still don’t quite see the need for expanding the Halloween experience. That one night was plenty for kids of my generation.

Cheesy maze

Warming up with Uncle J

Categories: Adventures, Commentary, Places, STS, VA | Leave a comment

Boo to you, too

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Sparky

Zombieville

The Pohick Bay Regional Park Campground is really into Halloween. Besides having a Halloween-themed scavenger hunt this past weekend, they also sponsored a campsite decorating content. Which our neighbors won, hands down. They put a lot of effort into building a little Zombie town on their site, populated by 4 animated zombies, a very scary animated clown and a supporting cast of moving spiders, crocodiles and snarling dogs.

Our grandson, Zachary, loved it. And, to the best of our knowledge, didn’t have any nightmares.

Brain-eating zombie

Contortionist zombie

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STS Hop 4: Manheim PA to Lorton VA

Posted on October 17, 2015 by Sparky

STS Hop 4

161 miles via I-76, US 15, I-270, I-495 (MD and VA) and I-95.

This was, for the most part, a familiar trip on familiar roads. We have done it before, most notably on our GTW way back in 2012. US 15 in MD is memorable as the site of our very first (and very traumatic) blowout.

No blowouts this trip, thank goodness. We encountered the usual heavy traffic in and around DC, which is never fun. But, all in all, a pretty uneventful hop.

Except for getting out of Pinch Pond. Apparently the expected exit route from our pull-thru site was down the hill, through the woods and up the other side. But both Jett and I had walked that route and it was narrow, with rutted dirt roads and overhanging trees. We opted instead to try to make a tight right turn. We made it, but not before the campground authorities had rolled up to us in a gold cart and chided me for doing it wrong. I told them that I had no interest in the roundabout exit route and they reluctantly let me proceed.

They were probably saying “good riddance.” Same as us.

Getting into our spot at Pohick Bay Regional Park was also more difficult than I expected. It was tight and had a few trees that got in the way. But with the help of the neighboring campers we made it.

Now if we can just get out next Friday…

Categories: PA, Places, Routes, STS, VA | Leave a comment