Our Wander Years

TN7 Hop 14: Saugerties NY to Orange MA

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Sparky

168 miles via Blue Mountain Road, NY 32, US 9W, I-587 in Albany, I-90, US 20, MA 9, MA 112, MA 2 and MA 122. Cumulative tow miles: 2150. Truck miles: 218. Cumulative truck miles: 3290. The extra truck miles were due to a trip to the Mount Calvary Cemetery in Kingston, a trip to Big Pink (thanks, John Bartel, for the tip) and a shopping and refueling trip after I got to my destination. I also made a wrong turn from I-90 onto US 20 and that added about 3 tow miles.

That concludes the TN7. I will do a wrapup soon, but the bottom line is this: the truck performed brilliantly and there were no major problems along the way. I have to rate this as the most problem-free trip since the trip to the west coast in 2017.

The route chosen was a toll-free route because (1) I am cheap and (2) it wasn’t much longer, time-wise, than the route up I-87 and over on I-90. The roads were mostly 2-lanes but traffic was light and there were very few points where I was delayed by traffic. The low point was Pittsfield MA which is an ugly industrial town and I did encounter some long traffic lights there. Otherwise, smooth sailing on a sunny, cool day.

The trip to Mount Calvary Cemetery was unexpectedly successful. I reduced the number of unphotographed graves from about 150 to 62, so about 90 graves photographed in a little over 3 hours. 30 graves per hour? Yeah, that is productive.

The trip to Big Pink was less successful. Let me say that this house is remote and a bit spooky. It is at the end of a half-mile poorly maintained dirt road. “No trespassing” and “private road” signs were everywhere. The house itself is surrounded by trees and is fenced, probably to deter sightseers like me. I half expected a guard with a shotgun and a doberman to appear and escort me back down the road. Well, that didn’t happen but neither did I get a good photo of the house. If you want to see Big Pink, read the Wikipedia article.

But it was only 10 minutes from the campground. I had to try.

The campground in question is the Rip Van Winkle Campground in Saugerties. Jett and I stayed here for a couple of nights last fall on our way south. I didn’t like it much then and I am still not a huge fan. I got the same site – #77, a huge pull-through – and that was nice. But the roads are narrow with sharp turns and steep hills. And the staff is not particularly helpful. I arrived at 1:30pm, which is usually late enough to check in. But I was informed that check-in time was 3pm and I should leave and return in 90 minutes. She didn’t even bother to see if the site was available. I had to execute a very tight U-turn (did I mention that the roads are very narrow?), missing the back end of a parked pickup by about 2 inches. I went a half-mile down the road and parked in a closed business parking lot (it was Sunday) and used the time to check emails and news. I had to execute another tight turnaround there – one that left some rubber from the RV’s tires on the asphalt.

The campground does have excellent cable TV, which was a treat after nearly a week with only very spotty over-the-air television.

My destination for the summer is the Quabbin Pines RV Resort in Orange MA. The arrival there was more of an adventure than I would have liked. But I will save that story for a separate post.

Categories: MA, NY, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN7 | Leave a comment

TN7 Hop 13: Croton-on-Hudson NY to Saugerties NY

Posted on May 9, 2021 by Sparky

77 miles via US 9, US 9W, Glasco Turnpike, Kings Highway, NY 212 and Blue Mountain Road. Cumulative tow miles: 1982. Truck miles: 181. Cumulative truck miles: 3072. The extra truck miles were due to a sightseeing trip to the Bronx (to see how difficult it would be to drive near Yankee Stadium) and a couple of short shopping/refueling trips.

The would have been 76 miles, but the staff at the destination refused to register me at 1:30pm, so I had to turn around (missing a pickup by about 2 inches on the turn) and find a place to park for 90 minutes. Annoying because they made NO effort to see if the site was available.

A faster route was available, but I knew I would be early and the faster route had tolls. Why pay to wait longer?

This was yet another problem-free hop (knock on wood). The weather, though cloudy and cool, was dry. The roads, though mostly 2-lane, were level and the traffic was light. So, all in all, a very pleasant drive. And I got to use another Hudson River Bridge that I have never seen before: the Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie.

My home in Croton-on-Hudson was the Croton Point Park. This Westchester County campground was not at all what I expected. I thought that, being one of the campgrounds closest to New York City, that it would be very oriented to serving transients – RVs staying for short periods. I also thought it likely that there would be a strict limit on how long an RV could stay, as is the case at other regional parks that I have seen. Maybe two weeks max. Well, about half of the RVs had clearly been there longer than two weeks. Or even two months. Maybe two years.

Croton Point is a peninsula that juts out into the Tappan Zee, the broad lake in the Hudson River just south of West Point. As such, it is surrounded by water and should be prime real estate. Except that the chosen use for much of the peninsula is a garbage dump. The dump was closed and capped in the 1990s and now it is reclaimed recreational space. But what a waste!

Tappan Zee from one of Croton Point’s hiking paths

Another thing that makes Croton Point interesting is its proximity to commuter rail. To enter the park you must pass a commuter rail station and cross a bridge over a huge commuter train yard. I looked into it and this line is a direct shot to Yankee Stadium – a factoid that would be relevant if I actually tried to do the 30-stadium MLB tour – I could stay at Croton Point and be an hour by train from Yankee Stadium and about 2 hours by train from Citi Field, home of the Mets.

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TN7 Hop 12: Honesdale PA to Croton-on-Hudson NY

Posted on May 7, 2021 by Sparky

116 miles via PA 670, PA 191, US 6, I-84, NY 17, US 6 again, NY 293, US 9W, US 6 yet again, US 202 and US 9. Cumulative tow miles: 1905. Truck miles: 138. Cumulative truck miles: 2891. The 22 extra truck miles were due to a refueling trip to the nearest diesel depot, 11 miles away.

This was a difficult hop to plan and even more difficult to execute. There are a lot of “passenger cars only” roads near New York City and I very much wanted to avoid those. Also, the route chosen by both Google and the GPS took me over the Bear Mountain Bridge, a bridge over the Hudson River that I had never traversed before and looked like it might have weight restrictions. So my plan was to go a few miles further east, over the I-84 bridge, then head south on US 9. But when I got to NY 17 and both Google and GPS were telling me to take it, I caved. I was thinking that NY 17 could be taken to the Tappan Zee Bridge which would be close to my destination. But the Tappan Zee is too far south and I ended up heading to the Bear Mountain Bridge, images dancing in my head of my rig rolling over a scale and flashing lights and sirens going off. “Too heavy! Turn back!” In fact there was an ominous sign about a weight limitation of 10 tons somewhere ahead and I did mental calculations as I drove. Yup, pretty close.

But the weight limit on the Bear Mountain Bridge is 58 tons. I needn’t have worried.

What I should have worried about was the narrow, winding segment on US 202. It is a scary road. Beautiful, but scary, with a low rock wall all that separated my rig from a dive into the Hudson River. 10 minutes of white knuckles.

Not a long hop, but a memorable one.

My home in Honesdale PA was the Ponderosa Pines Family Campground. This campground is remote. I had to traverse about 5 miles of roads that didn’t have route designations and I could use only the GPS because my phone had no cell service (until I arrived, then the cell service was fine). When I checked in the office staff told me that I could take any transient site (there were about 8 along the lakeshore) because I would be “all alone down there.” I didn’t know quite what they meant because there were lots of seasonal RV sites all around the transient sites. But, as I discovered after I set up and took Rusty for a walk, none of them were occupied. This must be a weekend family getaway campground. I truly was by myself “down there.”

All alone in a very dark, very quiet campground. And by quiet I mean no sounds other than the owls – no planes, no trains, no automobiles. And no sounds from other campers. Downright spooky. But quite serene.

There was dense fog in the morning, followed by heavy rain all day. The lake rose about 6 inches. A nearby town, Prompton, had over 4 inches of rain and some street flooding. I prayed that those tiny roads that led out of the campground would still be passable when I had to depart. They were.

My site on the lakeshore, after the rain

Categories: NY, PA, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN7 | 2 Comments

“Two Graves” by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Sparky

This is #12 in the series of Preston and Child books that feature Aloysius Pendergast, FBI agent extraordinaire. It is the fifth Preston and Child book that I have read and the fourth in the Pendergast series, the previous being (in the order of my reading), #14, #10 and #6. Yes, I have been reading them in reverse order. Not a recommended strategy as this series has a lot of characters and plot elements that carry over from one book to the next.

One thing that is common in all of the Pendergast books is a plot which requires you to suspend disbelief. Pendergast is an FBI agent who seems to operate without supervision or rules, lives in a mansion and travels in a chauffeured Rolls Royce. He has a ward who is 140 years old and a brother and a son who are both serial killers. And in this novel we learn that his late wife was the product of a Nazi experiment.

All of this ridiculousness would normally make me toss the book in my fireplace (ok, my fireplace is electric so that might be less dramatic than it sounds). But Preston and Child are talented wordsmiths who keep the (ridiculous) story rolling along at a brisk pace.

If you think you can tolerate an “out there” plot, then this might be the series for you. But start at #1.

5 out of 10.

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TN7 Hop 11: Woodbine MD to Honesdale PA

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Sparky

230 miles via MD 97/PA 97, US 15, PA 581 in Harrisburg, I-81, US 6 and PA 170. Cumulative tow miles: 1789, Truck miles: 380. Cumulative truck miles: 2753. The extra truck miles were due primarily to a trip into Frederick to get propane and diagnose the “check engine” light, but also about 30 miles spent avoiding a tornado.

Well, at least getting out of the path of a potential tornado. A tornado warning was issued Monday night and the projected path took it within 10 miles of the RV. Too close for me. So I packed Rusty into the truck, grabbed the laptop and drove about 10 miles south to a place where I could watch the sky and listen to the weather reports. I don’t think any tornado actually formed, but the winds were strong enough to knock down trees just north or the campground. A tree falling on the RV would do just as much damage as a tornado.

This was another hop where Google and the GPS were in violent disagreement. The Google route (which is the one I chose) was 230 miles – pretty close to my 1-tank limit (the “low fuel” warning sounded just 2 miles from the destination) so I didn’t have a lot of wiggle room. I certainly didn’t have the luxury of taking the 255 mile route suggested by the GPS. Even after traveling 20 miles north on MD 97 the GPS was telling me to turn around. Why traveling an extra 45 miles (which was the difference at that point) would be a faster trip puzzles me. In any case, I had carefully researched the Google route and it looked fine. It was.

Other than the tornado adventure and the worry about the engine, the 2 nights in Woodbine were pretty uneventful. My home was the Ramblin’ Pines Campground. This was a very nice campground and my site was a very nice pull-through. Very wooded (hence my concern about falling trees).

This campground is about midway between Frederick and Baltimore. If the Orioles had been in town I would have been tempted to go see them at Camden Yards – a park I have always been curious to see. But as luck would have it, the Orioles were in Oakland which is on a completely different coast.

Categories: MD, PA, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN7 | 2 Comments

TN7 Hop 10: College Park MD to Woodbine MD

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Sparky

40 miles via MD 212, I-95, MD 32, US 29, I-70 and MD 97. Cumulative tow miles: 1559. Truck miles: 43. Cumulative truck miles: 2373. The 3 extra truck miles were due to a refueling trip.

Yes, just 40 miles, but that was enough to make a wrong turn. It was supposed to be 39 miles, but the wrong turn added a mile.

Perhaps more importantly, the travel day started with the appearance, when I went out to start the truck, of a “check engine” light. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it. I had to take a quick drive around the campground before hitching up, to see if I could sense any problem. Nope – all gauges were nominal, the engine was running smoothly and power seemed intact. So I hitched up, held my breath and hauled the RV up a fairly steep hill, heading toward the exit. No problem. So I kept going.

I had the problem diagnosed in Frederick: a “glow plug controller fault.” That means… well, I have no idea what it means. But since glow plugs are used to make starting diesel engines easier in cold weather, I suspect that the problem, if real, exists only in cold weather. I am going to ignore the problem until I get to Massachusetts.

My forced night in College Park was at Cherry Hill Park. If you have to kill some time somewhere, this is a great place to do it. As always, this park was superb. This time I took an inexpensive – well, make that less expensive (still $85) – back-in site. Backing in would have been a breeze if no neighbors had been there, but they were. I had to thread the needle, but did it in 2 tries. Not bad.

College Park is only slightly closer than Dumfries, but there is a huge difference in the over-the-air TV reception. In Dumfries I got nothing cleanly. In College Park I got 17 channels, all crystal clear. Not that I needed them, really, because Cherry Hill has cable TV. But I had to find out.

Categories: Adventures, MD, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN7 | Leave a comment

TN7 Hop 9: Dumfries VA to College Park MD

Posted on May 1, 2021 by Sparky

60 miles via VA 234, I-95 and MD 212. Cumulative tow miles: 1519. Truck miles: 245. Cumulative truck miles: 2330. The extra truck miles were accumulated due to numerous family events near Dumfries, a trip to get an oil change and one sightseeing trip to Manassas VA.

This was the first major departure from the TN7 plan. I wasn’t planning to stop in College Park at all and the only reason I did is that my chosen campground at my intended destination for this hop – Woodbine MD – did not have a site available for tonight. This is what happens when one waits to book, thinking that a truck problem is likely going to mess up the plan and I didn’t want to alter more bookings than necessary. The good news is that there have been NO truck problems (knock on wood); the bad news is what has happened here – campgrounds get filled when I don’t book early.

I still have one intended stop that I have not been able to book, so it is likely that there will be another change to the itinerary.

This hop was so short that I thought I might need to kill some time before arrival. So I pulled into the parking lot at the High Point High School (it was Saturday so the lot was empty) and called my sister. We had a nice chat that did, indeed, kill 30 minutes.

My home in Dumfries was the Prince William Forest RV Campground. I have stayed here at least three times before. It is a basic campground and only has a few full-hookup sites that can accommodate my 42-foot rig but I did book this one early so I was able to snag one.

As usual, there was a lot of dining out on this trip, but the meals were forgetable. And that is being kind. I have to wonder if chefs have forgotten how to cook due to the pandemic.

I visited Jett’s kids at a very busy time – the twins are selling the house that they have owned for 17 years and are separating, moving into two separate houses with two separate loved ones. Big moves, for sure. I was able to attend the walk-through for one of the houses but the other is under construction.

I also made a trip to Manassas with the dual purpose of filling one of my propane tanks and taking a second look at the Manassas battlefield. I struck out completely on the propane (the pump was broken) and was only partially successful at seeing the battlefield (the day was windy and very cool).

The Brawner Farm, the first day of battle

My first trip to Manassas, in 2015, was limited to the first Battle of Manassas (or, if you prefer, Bull Run) in 1861. That battle was relatively small, on a very compact battlefield which can be viewed on foot. This time I wanted to see the site of the second battle, in 1862. This battle was on a much larger battlefield. There is an 18-mile driving tour of the battlefield. I started this tour, did the first 2 stops, and discovered that there is a LOT of walking required. The day was very windy – 50 mph gusts – and chilly. Very unpleasant. I gave up.

I made a feeble attempt to get the truck’s cracked windshield fixed. I filed a claim and tried to contact a glass company. But I realized the the damage, which was originally just a star-shaped chip that could easily be patched, had grown into a full-fledged crack too large to repair. I will have to replace the entire windshield. I decided to wait until I land in Massachusetts.

Second day of battle, near the unfinished rail line

Categories: Family, MD, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN7, VA | Leave a comment

TN7 Hop 8: Wake Forest NC to Dumfries VA

Posted on April 28, 2021 by Sparky

230 miles via NC 96, I-85, I-95 and VA 234. Cumulative tow miles: 1459. Truck miles: 321. Cumulative truck miles: 2095. The extra truck miles were primarily due to the lunch I had with Mary Markunas, an old friend that I had not seen for over 40 years.

This was a very pleasant trip in beautiful weather, mostly on I-85 which is now on my list of favorite roads: flat, smooth and little truck traffic. However the trip was marred by two unpleasant incidents. The first was a violent disagreement between the GPS and Google. The Google route was 223 miles and took me to I-85 via US 1. The GPS’s preferred route was 274 miles and I didn’t even bothet to look at the details as that was unnecessarily long. So I started on the Google route and the GPS route was soon down under 240 miles. However, it was insistent that I not go on US 1. It advised me at least 20 times to turn or do a U-turn. The last time I encountered this kind of GPS obstinancy – in 2017, south of Buffalo – it was correctly detecting a low bridge on the route. This made me very nervous so I eventually caved in and took NC 96 to I-85 rather than US 1.

I am going to have to take a close look at that US 1 segment and see if the GPS was right to object.

The second unpleasant incident occurred about 40 miles from Dumfries on I-95. I let a large tow truck merge onto the road in front of me and it thanked me by immediately propelling a large stone into my windshield, cracking it. At first it was just a star but but the time I got to Dumfries it was a full-fledged crack. I will have to get the windshield replaced, either in Dumfries or when I get to MA. The crack is on the passenger side to it doesn’t interfere with my vision of the road.

I should also mention that before I left Wake Forest I had to climb onto the roof to reposition a piece of slide weather stripping that had slipped out of place. I discovered, on the roof, a large number of scrapes in the rubber roofing material. At some point on this trip I must have encountered some low-hanging branches. These scrapes are minor, but I will have to spend an afternoon patching them sometime this summer.

So the first two “dings” on the trip. Not bad, really.

My home in Wake Forest was the Holly Point Campground, part of the state-run Falls Lake State Recreation Area. I usually favor commercial campgrounds as I am never sure what I am going to find in a state campground. In this case the surprise was a pleasant one: the sites were HUGE and very secluded – lots of space between the sites. Although I didn’t use them, the campground also has a very nice bathhouse and beach on the lake. This is a very nice campground.

I did embarrass myself, though. I had picked a site which looked to be larger that most (before I knew how large the other sites were) and, surprisingly, was one of the very few pull-through sites in the campground. But did I take advantage of it? No, I did not. First, I passed the entrance and rather than back up to the entrance decided to back into the site. Then I decided that I was oriented incorrectly, with the utilities on the wrong side (I wasn’t), so I turned around and backed in from the other end. Only to discover that I was now incorrectly oriented. So I pulled out, turned around again and backed in from the other side.

It took me about 30 minutes to get positioned in a pull-through site. After 8 years on the road I should have done much better. Embarrassing.

I had redemption of sorts in Dumfries – I backed into a fairly difficult site on a single try.

The woman that I had lunch with on Monday – Mary Markunas – was married for many years to one of my best college friends and had two lovely daughters with him. He died young, but after they divorced. I have many fond memories of the times my first wife and I had with them, including a wonderful week on the Outer Banks of North Carolina which included my one-and-only flounder gigging expedition with Bob.

I lost touch with them after they moved to NC and hadn’t spoken to her in 40 years. But since I was going to be near Chapel Hill – where they lived when I lost touch – I thought I would see if she might still be in the area. Surprisingly, I found a telephone number for her almost immediately and, even more surprisingly, she answered on the first ring. We agreed to meet for lunch at the Umstead Hotel in Cary. When I looked at the menu for the restaurant there I nearly threw a shoe – EXPENSIVE! But we dined on the patio at the bar which, though still pricey, was not outrageously so.

We had a lovely 2.5-hour lunch and pretty much caught up on each other’s lives. I would call it totally successful and satisfying except that I got a sunburned face.

A winter in Florida with 2 softball games every week and no sunburn, but a lunch in NC does me in. Go figure.

Categories: NC, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN7, VA | Leave a comment

TN7 Hop 7: Charlotte NC to Wake Forest NC

Posted on April 25, 2021 by Sparky

174 miles via I-77, I-85 and NC 98. Cumulative tow miles: 1229. Truck miles: 266. Cumulative truck miles: 1774. The extra truck miles were due to 2 shopping trips and a depressing sightseeing trip around Charlotte in the rain.

This was a rare route: not a single mile on a road that I have traveled before. Not an exciting route, but a fairly smooth and pleasant route.

My home in Charlotte was the Carowinds Camp Wilderness Resort, adjacent to the Carowinds amusement park. I have stayed at amusement park campgrounds before and was concerned about the noise. Well, I needn’t have worried because the park doesn’t open until mid-May. It turns out the the only persistent noise was from the planes making their final approach to the Charlotte airport.

This is a decent park, but with a surprising number of long-term campers. Some units look like they have been there all winter. Or longer.

The weather was cold – a record low of 31 was set the first night there – and then turned rainy. I watched TV and read a lot.

Categories: NC, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TN7 | 2 Comments

Return to Pigeon Forge

Posted on April 23, 2021 by Sparky

One of the many Pigeon Forge tourist traps

Wednesday was a lousy day, weather-wise. Cool, wet, dreary. I got stir-crazy and decided to take a road trip to Pigeon Forge, about 30 miles to the east of Walland. I wanted to see the town again, which I first saw in 2012 in our first month on the road. I wasn’t expecting it to be any less tacky than the first time, but the town – and Dollywood – had a special meaning for Jett and me. It was the place where our desire to travel the country solidified.

If you aren’t familiar with our first month in an RV, it could be characterized as “hell.” Three blowouts, the last doing serious damage to the RV, and a miserable, rainy Columbus Day weekend in a Motel 6 in Knoxville while RV repairs were being made. Jett was in favor of scrapping our plans and returning to Massachusetts. I reminded her that we had rented our house for a year and had no place to return to. Didn’t matter. There were a lot of tears that weekend. Mostly hers.

On Monday we retrieved the repaired RV and made our way an hour south to Pigeon Forge, to spend a day at Dollywood. Our hearts weren’t really in it and the day, though sunny, was very cool, in the 50s. But we went.

And had a wonderful time. Dollywood was a revelation. I didn’t ride the many great roller coasters, but we had the best fried chicken dinner ever, toured Dolly’s RV, visited the dogs that we had booked for the day at Doggywood and generally shed all of the misery that had accumulated over those awful first 30 days.

Our trip – and our faith in our RV lifestyle – was saved.

The weather was even worse on Wednesday than it was on that Columbus Day in 2012 – highs in the 40s. I had no intention of going into Dollywood, but I had to do a drive-by and give it a salute. And I found my eyes getting damp. I was touched in a way that I didn’t expect. This was where our 8 years on the road really began.

Well, Jett, I made it back to Dollywood. Wish you had been with me.

Categories: Adventures, Places, RV Living, TN, TN7 | Leave a comment