Len and Jo
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We are in Roanoke Va this pm doing 2 weeks of laundry. Jo's goal is to carry 4 so we never have to do it on the road. Will need bigger rig to meet that goal.
Below is our trip report do date with some new pictures. Last report (#2) ended at day 9, so if you have been reading skip down.
Pennsylvania's Route 6 across the Alleghenies and the Delaware River Loop
Route 6 was the longest continuous highway in the U.S. until 1965 when Route 20 claimed the title. Route 6 runs from Bishop, California to Provincetown, Massachusetts. Rte 6 from Warren to Scranton crosses in northern Pennsylvania is very scenic. It follows old Indian trails, crosses the Allegheny National Forest, and is close to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.
The Delaware River Loop is a magnificent scenic drive around the Kittatinny Ridge. It goes through both New Jersey and Pennsylvania and covers about 100 miles of roads. The north end is at New Jersey High Point State Park and the south end is at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Kittatinny Point visitor center. The drive starts at Kittatinny Point visitor center (where I-80 crosses the Delaware River) and going clockwise routes 615 north, 521 north, 23 south, 519 south, 206 west, 521 south, and 94 south back to the visitors center.
Day 1 May 20 Home to Geneva St. Park, Ohio
Geneva on the Lake State Park has about 100 camping sites and most have electricity and can be reserved in advance. The park is in excellent condition with new paved roads, camping pads and freshly redone restrooms and showers. Of the many sites only 5 were occupied the evening of May 20th. The camping fee was $26 per weekday night and a dollar more on weekends.
Day 2 May 21 Geneva St. Park, Ohio to Canyon Country RV Park, PA
Ate lunch at Snubby's in Warren (at Hickory St and Route 6 intersection). The wraps and French onion soup were very good.
If you want to see the really old mansions in Warren, get off Rte 6 and go one the streets just north of it, such as Fourth Street. 6 east from Warren goes though the half-a-million acre Alleghany National Forest.
The campground (30 sites) at the Leonard Harrison (Pennsylvania's spectacular Grand Canyon) was closed to camping. We stayed at the Canyon Country Campground (Good Sam's) just outside the park. They said the State Park campground was closed for two years for renovations and then opened for three days this April and then was closed again. Expected to open again in June. Assume not all of the renovations went well. The Canyon Country Campground is very small and tight, but also very clean and the showers are in excellent shape. The camping fee was $27 per night. Only two camp sites occupied this evening but they are 100% booked for the holiday week end starting tomorrow night.
Day 3 May 22 Canyon Country, PA to HighPoint SP, NJ
Eggs in a bag! We used our hot pot to do more than warm water this morning for tea and coffee. We put scrambled eggs in a zip lock bag in the pots boiling water. Kneaded the bag every minute or so and in 3-4 minutes had hot cooked scrambled eggs ready for breakfast. Got the idea from my Girl Scout sister. Another day we will have to try pouching some eggs that way. No dirty frying pan to clean or Colman stove to put away.
Went to the scenic overlook at Leonard Harrison SP this morning. We were here
maybe 10 years ago and the view is still wonderful. The temperature is in the low 40's, windy and hints of rain.
Day 4 May 23 High Point, NJ 2 nights
Many of the old river towns along the route have beautifully restored homes. The town of Towanda is really one to drive as slow as can along Route 6 as it goes through the town on the western side. The houses line both sides of the highway and it was hard to drive slow enough to take them all in.
Last year on our US-2 trip we had no trouble camping during the Memorial Day weekend, indeed with so many campgrounds and the western areas low population density we could tell no difference except that maybe some grounds were getting near half full. Not the same story here in the east. The state campground sites appear to be almost 100% advance reservations and parks are 100 percent booked. We called ahead to get a site for tonight at High Point. No reservation needed for Thursday night but starting Friday they are full. We got to High Point just before the Ranger office closed (4:00pm) and had to wait because of a group in front of us. It appears that the Governor of New Jersey wants to close ALL State Parks to help balance the state budget. Lot of talk in that regards. When we got to the window after 4pm they said site 17 was available and for us to take it and come back at 9:00am in the morning to pay for it and that we could also have it for Friday night. Ya.
Glad we are staying in this park. It is a beautiful place. The sites are well spaced and lots of woods. Our site is right on the lake and has a small stream running by it into the lake. Thursday night most sites were empty. Friday night one of the two sites we can see on our left was occupied and none of the sites to our right had anyone in them. Both nights the area was very quite. We saw two beavers in the lake and many geese with babies, a great blue heron was in the lake in front of our site until the geese chased it away. While driving around we had to stop for turkey hen as she led her chicks across the road.
It was chilly this morning, but I think the rain is finally gone. After breakfast we drove back to the office register for one more night, went back to camp to put our card on the post, and took off for the day to do the Delaware Cut circle. We found The Gap and Kittatinny Point Visitor Center (closed for season yet) found a map and drove the Old Mine Road which follows the Delaware River. It's a very pretty forest road. Stopped at Wallpack Center (an 1800s historical rural town), but it's only open on weekends. We walked around the village a little. Drove through Peters Valley Craft Education Center and by Dingmans Falls on the way back to camp. We took about eight hours for the trip but really needed twelve hours to see it all.
Day 5 May 24 High Point, NJ to Sacony Park CG, Kutztown, PA
Retraced our route to Peter's Valley Craft Education Center to tour the shops. There was only one because it truly was an education center and the shop sold what the students made. Really neat stuff. We spotted a young bear, maybe one year old, running at the side of the road. It ran off thru someone's yard as we came near, but we got a good view of it. They really can run fast. We also saw some deer a couple times this morning before entering PA again. Then it was on to Dingman Falls by way of a VERY narrow toll bridge. We had to stop each time a car came the other way: The falls were very pretty: high over 2 tiers of rock. The walk in was all on boardwalk or smooth tightly packed gravel which made the walking very easy. We then headed south-east along Routes 209 and 222.
Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway ending at Smoky Mountain National Park
Day 6 May 25 Sacony Park CG, Kutztown, PA To Front Royal RV Park Front Royal, VA
We stopped at a diner for a late lunch so no supper is necessary tonight. We were concerned with finding a place to stay with this being Memorial Day weekend. Stopped at 5pm at a private camp about 6 miles off the road. It's an "interesting" spot: lots of families together, lots of kids, lots of dogs. Lots to watch. We have a shady spot on a small river which makes it nice.
Beautiful day today. Sun is out and nary a cloud in sight. The approach to Gettysburg is through small towns where homes and shops are within an arms length of the road. If a person were standing on the porch you could shake their hand from your car window. We are driving south along Routes 222, 30, 15, and 340 today. Speed limits vary mainly from 44 to 55 mph with a few spots of 65 mixed in.
We stocked up on groceries and ice today (Weis Market 1800 Roosevelt Ave. York, Pa. - north side of Route 30 at Roosevelt Ave.) and got some shrimp and cocktail sauce to have for lunch. We also will use up much of the lettuce we have left for a salad. Weis Market was very large and complete grocery store, had great looking meat and reasonably priced gas pumps. But no wine....rats!?must be Pennsylvania. We stopped for lunch on the south side of Gettysburg National Park. There was a quite short road inside the park named Howe Rd. and it had several shade trees and several monuments to Union divisions that stopped there in reserve for Little Round Top and other places. A fitting Memorial Day weekend stop.
Looks like we will make Front Royal today sometime after 3:30pm. Front Royal is at the north entrance of the Skyline Drive. There are two private campgrounds near there and a national forest one about 30 miles down the Skyline. We will figure out what we will do when we get to Front Royal. Holiday weekend they may all be full. The Harpers Ferry area is really busy. Lots of kayakers, rafters near the Potomac and may people on foot at the National Park.
Oh, oh gas is 'only' $3.79 or so in the Front Royal area. Oh, oh. The outside temperature is now up to 80F. We are staying the night at the Front Royal/Shenandoah RV Park. The park is a former KOA park and is located on Koa road.
Because of the shrimp and salad lunch today we are having a small late supper tonight. A simple meal. One can of Campbell?s vegetable soup supplemented with one quarter cup dried corn, peas, and macaroni. Also some chopped carrots and a small can of green beans. Boiled the hard stuff until soft and then dumped in the soup and green beans. A simple but good one pot supper.
The couple camping next to us just got a 10 year old Roadtreck 190 and it really looks in excellent shape. They have slept in it twice in their driveway and now are taking there first trip this weekend. They think they like it. We ended up talking to them for over an hour and a half tonight looking rigs over and comparing notes. Tomorrow we start the Skyline Parkway.
Day 7 May 26 Front Royal RV Park Front Royal, VA to Mathews Arm CG Shenandoah National Park, VA
One of the fun things about this kind of camping is meeting all the nice people. The couple we met last night from Roanoke with the Roadtreck were out and packing so, of course, we started talking and showing quilt projects (she?s just learning) and sharing more camping ideas and experiences. Soon another couple from Augusta, Ga. walked by and they also have a Roadtreck. Well, more showing and sharing started and by the time we left the campground, it was about 11:30. But what an enjoyable morning!
We begin the Skyline Drive which is in the Shenandoah National Park by stopping at the Dickey Ridge Visitor center. We bought some books for the girls and postcards and then moved on to our drive across the mountain tops. We could see for hundreds of miles from the many over-looks and could see the Shenandoah River winding its way to the Ohio River(?).
It was already 3:00 when we reached Mathews Arms Campground so we decided to stop for the day rather than push it to Big Meadows. Did not cover as many miles as we expected to but we do not have a real schedule to keep.
Joanne struck up a real conversation with our campground host. She noted the cross Jo was wearing was a Daughter?s of the King cross and that they belonged to the same Episcopal national prayer group. They spent some time comparing their individual prayer groups. The hosts live in Florida but travel north for the summer to avoid the heat.
The campground was full for the Memorial Day weekend but now is a ghost town. We did see a black bear ambling though the woods within 100 yards from our campsite.
Day 8 May 27 Mathews Arms To Big Meadows CG, Shenandoah N.P. VA
A little drizzly again today, but it wasn?t bad. The knats, however, are pretty bad. They fly all around our heads and into our faces. I think it?s because of all the rain. When we got to higher elevations in the breezes, they weren?t so bad.
Before going too far down the Drive, we took a detour into Luray, Va. for gas and groceries. We got some chicken breasts to cook in the Dutch oven tonight.
It was another day of beautiful views from the lookouts. The colors of the mountain ranges as they were farther away went from dark grey blue to a light grey blue. We couldn?t help taking lots of pictures. We saw Indigo Buntings again; one was very cooperative and stayed on a bare branch for a long time singing so we got a really good look at it. We also saw lots of deer again: at least a couple dozen along our way.
And again we met nice people. We had pulled into one turnout and were talking to our daughter via cell phone when the Augusta, Ga. couple with the Roadtreck drove up. We talked a little while before moving on. At another stop there were two couples from England on motorcycles. They had rented their Harleys here and were touring the Parkway. They like to get all their Harley stuff here because it?s twice as expensive in England. They also said that a bear had crossed the road in front of them just a short time ago.
We took a hike to Dark Hallow Falls which was 0.6 mile down a rocky path. It was very pretty and worth the exercise. We were both huffing and puffing when we returned to the top. Need to do that kind of thing more often.
We stopped for the night almost across the road from the falls at Big Meadows Campground and baked a loaf of bread and cooked the chicken breasts with potatoes and carrots around them in the Dutch oven. There were several deer around our site when we arrived. The campground is maybe 10% full. There are no hookups but there are coin showers and a laundry mat. The roads are paved and so are the RV pads. Many of the sites have ample shade trees. Several class A?s in here. Assume they must drive off the parkway and come back on for camping.
We used our Dutch ovens tonight to bake chicken (w cream of mushroom soup, 2/3 can beer, carrots, potatoes and onions. We also baked some fresh bread. Joanne found some disposable heavy preformed aluminum pans that fit in the 12 inch oven. Only thing we have to clean up after supper is our silverware and plates.
Day 9 May 28 Big Meadows CG To Lewis CG, Shenandoah NP, VA
Temperature outside this morning was 47F. Took showers this morning and will get ice later. It would be nice if we could find block ice rather than cubes for the ice chest.
We started the day with a nice hot shower. It was $1.00 for five minutes, but we went into a large one together and both had plenty of time to lather and rinse. It felt good after not having one for a couple days. Birdie baths are OK in a pinch, but there?s nothing like a real shower.
We were really late leaving camp this morning, it was almost noon. We drove to Harrington, Va. to visit Sutor Furniture Store. They make cherry, maple, and mahogany solid wood furniture in the back and have three show rooms in front. The business has been in the family for six generations and was started in 1832. Anyone who enjoys woodworking or just fine heirloom quality furniture could spend several hours going through their showrooms. If you have an extra $3k to $15k laying on the dash of your RV you can have a real nice piece of furniture shipped to your house. They make reproductions as well as original designs. Their joinery methods are 100% traditional (ie: furniture should last one to three hundred years if taken care of.
We stopped for lunch at the Thunderbird Diner on our way out of Harrington for a late lunch. We had real chocolate milk shakes with our lunch. The diner looks new and is 7 miles east of Harrisonburg on Route 33 at Route 649 on the south side of 33.
We came back into Shenandoah and to Lewis Campground for the night. Again there are very few people camping here tonight. We don?t need much supper because we stopped at The Thunderbird Diner on our way out of Harrington for a late lunch. Oh dear! We ate too much. They do expect to fill up on the coming weekend. Well it is now 10:30pm and the temperature is now down to 49F outside and 65F inside so it is time for bed. We will through on extra blankets tonight.
Day 10 May 29 Lewis CG To Loft Mountain CG, Shenandoah N.P. VA
Today we are going back to Harrington to tour the Virginia Quilt Museum and then down US-81 to Staunton to tour the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia.
We saw some very beautiful quilts dating back to the 1820?s and the history about them was interesting as well. Many of them were made by local Quaker women. The museum though would not allow pictures to be taken of the quilts or of there intricate stitching. Not sure why. I would have enjoyed getting some good shots.
After looking at quilts we drove on down I-81 to Staunton, Va. to tour the Frontier Culture Center. It is just north of the expressway exit. We discovered that after we drove in and through the town. The entrance is within 400 yards of the x-way exit. The Frontier Culture Center is a very well done outdoor museum of early farm life. The centers idea is to show the style of farms the first area settlers would have come from. Original farms were taken apart, brought here, and re-assembled from England (1600s), Ireland (1700s), with a 1700s Irish Forge, Germany (1700s) and American farms from the 1740s and the 1800s are also preserved. People were in each of the buildings re-enacting life as it was in the time of that particular farm. Sometime this summer there is also going to be a farm from Nigeria to show. They will be bringing over four Nigerians for the summer to help with the project. It was all very interesting and a beautiful day for a walk through history.
We were south of our planned camp for the night so we entered the Skyline Drive near Waynesboro and drove north. There has been a forest fire here last fall because there are acres of dead trees and the ground is charred. Fortunately Loft Mountain Campground was not affected. It?s a high campground, about 3200 feet, hence the name probably.
There are lots of birds in the campground area. Joanne loves the place. We saw Eastern Towhees, Cedar Waxwings, Gray Catbirds, Robins, Chipping Sparrows and a Brown Thrasher . It?s a great place to be outside.
It is now 10:30pm and the outside temperature is 59F and inside the van it is 70F. We have roof vents open but fans not turned on. It will be warmer sleeping tonight. Tomorrow we will tour Monticello and enter the Blue Ridge Pkwy.
Day 11 May 30 Loft Mountain CG to Sherando Lake R.A.,
Got up and had a walk around the perimeter of the Loft Mountain campground. It is a beautiful day with very little clouds in the sky. The tent campers really have the morning view. Many of their sites overlook the valley. Loft Mountain does have a store/showers/laundry facility and we made use of the showers before hitting the road. We stopped an outlook for breakfast and then got off the parkway and proceeded east on I-64 for 20 miles to Charlottesville Va. the home of Thomas Jefferson?s loved Monticello. We arrived at the visitor parking and ticket area about 11:30am and got tickets for the 12:20pm tour. The ticket cost was $15 each and they take you on a small shuttle bus from the visitor area to the estate. It made for a very enjoyable time but we did miss lunch and had to rely on two Snicker bars to see us through. After touring and photographing we did go to the gift shop. We purchased two Lewis and Clark t-shirts. Last year on our Great Northern trip we covered much of their route to the west cost and this year we visited the estate of the man who commissioned the trip. The tee?s will do double duty.
At 3:00pm we left Monticello and stopped for a late lunch or early dinner at the 1784 Michie Tavern which is near Monticello. The buffet lunch was very good, a reasonable price and the only menu choice. The tavern midday fare features fried chicken, hickory smoked pork barbecue and a variety of southern delicacies (cold slaw, pickled beets, green beans, tomatoes stewed in a crumbled biscuit sauce ? Joanne asked). I had a Sam Adams beer with my lunch, seemed fitting for the days activities.
We are now camped at Sherando Lake RA and will spend both Friday and Saturday hear. Have talked to several of the park staff along the way and it appears that parkway parks are now filling up on the weekends. So we will stay put until Sunday morning and continue our trip.
Day 12 May 31 Sherando Lake R.A.
It is a small world. Everything here looked vaguely familiar to us. Finally after much ?no we didn?t? and ?yes we did? we concluded that we had stayed here AND on the exact same camp site in 2001 on our last Blue Ridge Parkway trip. We liked this site then with many to pick from this time we liked it again!
Slept in late, read books and cooked brunch in our small (8?) Dutch oven. Loaded the bottom of the oven with cubed bread, poured egg/milk mixture, add meat (our case cubed spam), topped with cheese. Kind of like one pot French toast. Joanne got the idea from a woman who was cooking it at one of our other stops this trip. Sat back read books, had a cup of coffee and in 20 minutes when the coffee was gone the brunch was ready to eat.
We rode our bikes around the campground loops this afternoon. ?A? loop today has several empty sites and ?B? loop, the electrical loop has about 30 sites and 5 of them were empty when we toured the area. ?A? has more trees and shade and ?B? is more open and flatter.
We rode over to the beach area and the store there has ice, $2.00 for 10 lbs. We got a bag for our cooler. The temperature today is 80F, breezy, and sunny. Glad we are in the woods. The campground restrooms also have showers. This whole place is VERY CLEAN. When we pulled into our site it had been policed and flat crushed stone covering the non-asphalted parking pad had been freshly raked. When I went over to the restroom this morning to check the showers, a women was in process of giving both the men?s and women?s a ?quick? cleaning and she said she would be back at noon to give them both a ?good? cleaning. Each restroom has two shower stalls with one being very large. Because of scarcity of water in the mountains, all water is activated by 3-5 second push buttons. We had to push the button a lot while showering but the water was hot and restrooms very clean and airy.
Day 13 June 1 Lake Sherando Nat. RA To Peaks of Otter NP CG, VA
We got a good start today even with taking showers and having breakfast before leaving camp. We were on the road by 9:30. The Blue Ridge Parkway makes Joanne much more nervous than the Skyline Drive because the shoulder is much narrower before it drops off into nothingness. Also, there are very few guard rails. There were times when we were on the peak of a mountain and it dropped off on both sides. The views are breath taking. And we are really getting into the Rhododendrons now. They line the roadside in places. Really gorgeous!
We stopped at several points of interest along the way the first one being Big Spy Mountain Overlook. It was a short walk up a hill to a beautiful vista of the surrounding mountains. Next we came to an old reconstructed narrow gage logging railroad near Wigwam Falls. We walked around there for a while taking several pictures of the tracks and many cascades. That particular 50 mile long railroad line carried out 100 million board feet of lumber ( that is equivalent to about .18 million eight foot 2x4?s).
When we came to Otter Creek Campground, we drove through it just to see what it looked like: very woodsy and wild looking. Neat! Otter Creek has two loops, one for tents and one for RV?s. Me thinks smaller rigs would be more comfortable then larger ones. I noted thought that there was one class A in the loop. There was a gift shop and restaurant near there so we decided to stop for lunch. Saw some locals in their Sunday best coming in so figured the food had to be good (or there was no other restaurant for 50 miles). The menu was simple but the food was good and every table has an outside woodsy view.
Just a mile or so after that we came to the lowest point on the Blue Ridge Drive at James River (649 ft). We went to the visitor center there and learned that there used to be a series of locks along the river to the coast. There was one preserved at this site so we took the walk to see it. It reminded Joanne of the Trent Water Way trip she took as a kid with my folks.
Then in about 13 miles we climbed up to the highest elevation on the Parkway in Virginia (3950 ft). It was a steep, winding, twisting road again with many narrow shoulders. But again the Rhododendrons were blooming along side the roads. We arrived at Peaks of Otter National Park Campground at about 4:00. This campground is wild and woodsy too. We chose a site (there were many to choose from as there was only one other camper here.), went to get ice from the store, set up camp and this time I made a fire.
At 6:00pm it was still 790 and then a front came through with some wind and a little rain the temperature dropped to 610 by 9:00pm. We thought it might be a warm night for sleeping, but it certainly cooled off nicely!
Peaks of Otter has about 140 sites on three camping loops and only two loops were open when we were there. The ?A? and ?B? loops are mainly for tents and the ?T? loop is for trailers and other RV?s. Peaks of Otter CG is built on a very hilly area and you need a little mountain goat DNA in your makeup to camp there. It was easy for us in that when we pulled in we had the pick of ALL the sites in the loop. Once the place gets ? if ever ? over a third full you will need to borrow leveling blocks from several of your neighbors. For us though it is a delight, very woodsy, cool air and very empty (next morning I counted 4 out of 100 sites open occupied).
Below is our trip report do date with some new pictures. Last report (#2) ended at day 9, so if you have been reading skip down.
Pennsylvania's Route 6 across the Alleghenies and the Delaware River Loop
Route 6 was the longest continuous highway in the U.S. until 1965 when Route 20 claimed the title. Route 6 runs from Bishop, California to Provincetown, Massachusetts. Rte 6 from Warren to Scranton crosses in northern Pennsylvania is very scenic. It follows old Indian trails, crosses the Allegheny National Forest, and is close to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.
The Delaware River Loop is a magnificent scenic drive around the Kittatinny Ridge. It goes through both New Jersey and Pennsylvania and covers about 100 miles of roads. The north end is at New Jersey High Point State Park and the south end is at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Kittatinny Point visitor center. The drive starts at Kittatinny Point visitor center (where I-80 crosses the Delaware River) and going clockwise routes 615 north, 521 north, 23 south, 519 south, 206 west, 521 south, and 94 south back to the visitors center.
Day 1 May 20 Home to Geneva St. Park, Ohio
Geneva on the Lake State Park has about 100 camping sites and most have electricity and can be reserved in advance. The park is in excellent condition with new paved roads, camping pads and freshly redone restrooms and showers. Of the many sites only 5 were occupied the evening of May 20th. The camping fee was $26 per weekday night and a dollar more on weekends.
Day 2 May 21 Geneva St. Park, Ohio to Canyon Country RV Park, PA
Ate lunch at Snubby's in Warren (at Hickory St and Route 6 intersection). The wraps and French onion soup were very good.
If you want to see the really old mansions in Warren, get off Rte 6 and go one the streets just north of it, such as Fourth Street. 6 east from Warren goes though the half-a-million acre Alleghany National Forest.
The campground (30 sites) at the Leonard Harrison (Pennsylvania's spectacular Grand Canyon) was closed to camping. We stayed at the Canyon Country Campground (Good Sam's) just outside the park. They said the State Park campground was closed for two years for renovations and then opened for three days this April and then was closed again. Expected to open again in June. Assume not all of the renovations went well. The Canyon Country Campground is very small and tight, but also very clean and the showers are in excellent shape. The camping fee was $27 per night. Only two camp sites occupied this evening but they are 100% booked for the holiday week end starting tomorrow night.
Day 3 May 22 Canyon Country, PA to HighPoint SP, NJ
Eggs in a bag! We used our hot pot to do more than warm water this morning for tea and coffee. We put scrambled eggs in a zip lock bag in the pots boiling water. Kneaded the bag every minute or so and in 3-4 minutes had hot cooked scrambled eggs ready for breakfast. Got the idea from my Girl Scout sister. Another day we will have to try pouching some eggs that way. No dirty frying pan to clean or Colman stove to put away.
Went to the scenic overlook at Leonard Harrison SP this morning. We were here
maybe 10 years ago and the view is still wonderful. The temperature is in the low 40's, windy and hints of rain.
Day 4 May 23 High Point, NJ 2 nights
Many of the old river towns along the route have beautifully restored homes. The town of Towanda is really one to drive as slow as can along Route 6 as it goes through the town on the western side. The houses line both sides of the highway and it was hard to drive slow enough to take them all in.
Last year on our US-2 trip we had no trouble camping during the Memorial Day weekend, indeed with so many campgrounds and the western areas low population density we could tell no difference except that maybe some grounds were getting near half full. Not the same story here in the east. The state campground sites appear to be almost 100% advance reservations and parks are 100 percent booked. We called ahead to get a site for tonight at High Point. No reservation needed for Thursday night but starting Friday they are full. We got to High Point just before the Ranger office closed (4:00pm) and had to wait because of a group in front of us. It appears that the Governor of New Jersey wants to close ALL State Parks to help balance the state budget. Lot of talk in that regards. When we got to the window after 4pm they said site 17 was available and for us to take it and come back at 9:00am in the morning to pay for it and that we could also have it for Friday night. Ya.
Glad we are staying in this park. It is a beautiful place. The sites are well spaced and lots of woods. Our site is right on the lake and has a small stream running by it into the lake. Thursday night most sites were empty. Friday night one of the two sites we can see on our left was occupied and none of the sites to our right had anyone in them. Both nights the area was very quite. We saw two beavers in the lake and many geese with babies, a great blue heron was in the lake in front of our site until the geese chased it away. While driving around we had to stop for turkey hen as she led her chicks across the road.
It was chilly this morning, but I think the rain is finally gone. After breakfast we drove back to the office register for one more night, went back to camp to put our card on the post, and took off for the day to do the Delaware Cut circle. We found The Gap and Kittatinny Point Visitor Center (closed for season yet) found a map and drove the Old Mine Road which follows the Delaware River. It's a very pretty forest road. Stopped at Wallpack Center (an 1800s historical rural town), but it's only open on weekends. We walked around the village a little. Drove through Peters Valley Craft Education Center and by Dingmans Falls on the way back to camp. We took about eight hours for the trip but really needed twelve hours to see it all.
Day 5 May 24 High Point, NJ to Sacony Park CG, Kutztown, PA
Retraced our route to Peter's Valley Craft Education Center to tour the shops. There was only one because it truly was an education center and the shop sold what the students made. Really neat stuff. We spotted a young bear, maybe one year old, running at the side of the road. It ran off thru someone's yard as we came near, but we got a good view of it. They really can run fast. We also saw some deer a couple times this morning before entering PA again. Then it was on to Dingman Falls by way of a VERY narrow toll bridge. We had to stop each time a car came the other way: The falls were very pretty: high over 2 tiers of rock. The walk in was all on boardwalk or smooth tightly packed gravel which made the walking very easy. We then headed south-east along Routes 209 and 222.
Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway ending at Smoky Mountain National Park
Day 6 May 25 Sacony Park CG, Kutztown, PA To Front Royal RV Park Front Royal, VA
We stopped at a diner for a late lunch so no supper is necessary tonight. We were concerned with finding a place to stay with this being Memorial Day weekend. Stopped at 5pm at a private camp about 6 miles off the road. It's an "interesting" spot: lots of families together, lots of kids, lots of dogs. Lots to watch. We have a shady spot on a small river which makes it nice.
Beautiful day today. Sun is out and nary a cloud in sight. The approach to Gettysburg is through small towns where homes and shops are within an arms length of the road. If a person were standing on the porch you could shake their hand from your car window. We are driving south along Routes 222, 30, 15, and 340 today. Speed limits vary mainly from 44 to 55 mph with a few spots of 65 mixed in.
We stocked up on groceries and ice today (Weis Market 1800 Roosevelt Ave. York, Pa. - north side of Route 30 at Roosevelt Ave.) and got some shrimp and cocktail sauce to have for lunch. We also will use up much of the lettuce we have left for a salad. Weis Market was very large and complete grocery store, had great looking meat and reasonably priced gas pumps. But no wine....rats!?must be Pennsylvania. We stopped for lunch on the south side of Gettysburg National Park. There was a quite short road inside the park named Howe Rd. and it had several shade trees and several monuments to Union divisions that stopped there in reserve for Little Round Top and other places. A fitting Memorial Day weekend stop.
Looks like we will make Front Royal today sometime after 3:30pm. Front Royal is at the north entrance of the Skyline Drive. There are two private campgrounds near there and a national forest one about 30 miles down the Skyline. We will figure out what we will do when we get to Front Royal. Holiday weekend they may all be full. The Harpers Ferry area is really busy. Lots of kayakers, rafters near the Potomac and may people on foot at the National Park.
Oh, oh gas is 'only' $3.79 or so in the Front Royal area. Oh, oh. The outside temperature is now up to 80F. We are staying the night at the Front Royal/Shenandoah RV Park. The park is a former KOA park and is located on Koa road.
Because of the shrimp and salad lunch today we are having a small late supper tonight. A simple meal. One can of Campbell?s vegetable soup supplemented with one quarter cup dried corn, peas, and macaroni. Also some chopped carrots and a small can of green beans. Boiled the hard stuff until soft and then dumped in the soup and green beans. A simple but good one pot supper.
The couple camping next to us just got a 10 year old Roadtreck 190 and it really looks in excellent shape. They have slept in it twice in their driveway and now are taking there first trip this weekend. They think they like it. We ended up talking to them for over an hour and a half tonight looking rigs over and comparing notes. Tomorrow we start the Skyline Parkway.
Day 7 May 26 Front Royal RV Park Front Royal, VA to Mathews Arm CG Shenandoah National Park, VA
One of the fun things about this kind of camping is meeting all the nice people. The couple we met last night from Roanoke with the Roadtreck were out and packing so, of course, we started talking and showing quilt projects (she?s just learning) and sharing more camping ideas and experiences. Soon another couple from Augusta, Ga. walked by and they also have a Roadtreck. Well, more showing and sharing started and by the time we left the campground, it was about 11:30. But what an enjoyable morning!
We begin the Skyline Drive which is in the Shenandoah National Park by stopping at the Dickey Ridge Visitor center. We bought some books for the girls and postcards and then moved on to our drive across the mountain tops. We could see for hundreds of miles from the many over-looks and could see the Shenandoah River winding its way to the Ohio River(?).
It was already 3:00 when we reached Mathews Arms Campground so we decided to stop for the day rather than push it to Big Meadows. Did not cover as many miles as we expected to but we do not have a real schedule to keep.
Joanne struck up a real conversation with our campground host. She noted the cross Jo was wearing was a Daughter?s of the King cross and that they belonged to the same Episcopal national prayer group. They spent some time comparing their individual prayer groups. The hosts live in Florida but travel north for the summer to avoid the heat.
The campground was full for the Memorial Day weekend but now is a ghost town. We did see a black bear ambling though the woods within 100 yards from our campsite.
Day 8 May 27 Mathews Arms To Big Meadows CG, Shenandoah N.P. VA
A little drizzly again today, but it wasn?t bad. The knats, however, are pretty bad. They fly all around our heads and into our faces. I think it?s because of all the rain. When we got to higher elevations in the breezes, they weren?t so bad.
Before going too far down the Drive, we took a detour into Luray, Va. for gas and groceries. We got some chicken breasts to cook in the Dutch oven tonight.
It was another day of beautiful views from the lookouts. The colors of the mountain ranges as they were farther away went from dark grey blue to a light grey blue. We couldn?t help taking lots of pictures. We saw Indigo Buntings again; one was very cooperative and stayed on a bare branch for a long time singing so we got a really good look at it. We also saw lots of deer again: at least a couple dozen along our way.
And again we met nice people. We had pulled into one turnout and were talking to our daughter via cell phone when the Augusta, Ga. couple with the Roadtreck drove up. We talked a little while before moving on. At another stop there were two couples from England on motorcycles. They had rented their Harleys here and were touring the Parkway. They like to get all their Harley stuff here because it?s twice as expensive in England. They also said that a bear had crossed the road in front of them just a short time ago.
We took a hike to Dark Hallow Falls which was 0.6 mile down a rocky path. It was very pretty and worth the exercise. We were both huffing and puffing when we returned to the top. Need to do that kind of thing more often.
We stopped for the night almost across the road from the falls at Big Meadows Campground and baked a loaf of bread and cooked the chicken breasts with potatoes and carrots around them in the Dutch oven. There were several deer around our site when we arrived. The campground is maybe 10% full. There are no hookups but there are coin showers and a laundry mat. The roads are paved and so are the RV pads. Many of the sites have ample shade trees. Several class A?s in here. Assume they must drive off the parkway and come back on for camping.
We used our Dutch ovens tonight to bake chicken (w cream of mushroom soup, 2/3 can beer, carrots, potatoes and onions. We also baked some fresh bread. Joanne found some disposable heavy preformed aluminum pans that fit in the 12 inch oven. Only thing we have to clean up after supper is our silverware and plates.
Day 9 May 28 Big Meadows CG To Lewis CG, Shenandoah NP, VA
Temperature outside this morning was 47F. Took showers this morning and will get ice later. It would be nice if we could find block ice rather than cubes for the ice chest.
We started the day with a nice hot shower. It was $1.00 for five minutes, but we went into a large one together and both had plenty of time to lather and rinse. It felt good after not having one for a couple days. Birdie baths are OK in a pinch, but there?s nothing like a real shower.
We were really late leaving camp this morning, it was almost noon. We drove to Harrington, Va. to visit Sutor Furniture Store. They make cherry, maple, and mahogany solid wood furniture in the back and have three show rooms in front. The business has been in the family for six generations and was started in 1832. Anyone who enjoys woodworking or just fine heirloom quality furniture could spend several hours going through their showrooms. If you have an extra $3k to $15k laying on the dash of your RV you can have a real nice piece of furniture shipped to your house. They make reproductions as well as original designs. Their joinery methods are 100% traditional (ie: furniture should last one to three hundred years if taken care of.
We stopped for lunch at the Thunderbird Diner on our way out of Harrington for a late lunch. We had real chocolate milk shakes with our lunch. The diner looks new and is 7 miles east of Harrisonburg on Route 33 at Route 649 on the south side of 33.
We came back into Shenandoah and to Lewis Campground for the night. Again there are very few people camping here tonight. We don?t need much supper because we stopped at The Thunderbird Diner on our way out of Harrington for a late lunch. Oh dear! We ate too much. They do expect to fill up on the coming weekend. Well it is now 10:30pm and the temperature is now down to 49F outside and 65F inside so it is time for bed. We will through on extra blankets tonight.
Day 10 May 29 Lewis CG To Loft Mountain CG, Shenandoah N.P. VA
Today we are going back to Harrington to tour the Virginia Quilt Museum and then down US-81 to Staunton to tour the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia.
We saw some very beautiful quilts dating back to the 1820?s and the history about them was interesting as well. Many of them were made by local Quaker women. The museum though would not allow pictures to be taken of the quilts or of there intricate stitching. Not sure why. I would have enjoyed getting some good shots.
After looking at quilts we drove on down I-81 to Staunton, Va. to tour the Frontier Culture Center. It is just north of the expressway exit. We discovered that after we drove in and through the town. The entrance is within 400 yards of the x-way exit. The Frontier Culture Center is a very well done outdoor museum of early farm life. The centers idea is to show the style of farms the first area settlers would have come from. Original farms were taken apart, brought here, and re-assembled from England (1600s), Ireland (1700s), with a 1700s Irish Forge, Germany (1700s) and American farms from the 1740s and the 1800s are also preserved. People were in each of the buildings re-enacting life as it was in the time of that particular farm. Sometime this summer there is also going to be a farm from Nigeria to show. They will be bringing over four Nigerians for the summer to help with the project. It was all very interesting and a beautiful day for a walk through history.
We were south of our planned camp for the night so we entered the Skyline Drive near Waynesboro and drove north. There has been a forest fire here last fall because there are acres of dead trees and the ground is charred. Fortunately Loft Mountain Campground was not affected. It?s a high campground, about 3200 feet, hence the name probably.
There are lots of birds in the campground area. Joanne loves the place. We saw Eastern Towhees, Cedar Waxwings, Gray Catbirds, Robins, Chipping Sparrows and a Brown Thrasher . It?s a great place to be outside.
It is now 10:30pm and the outside temperature is 59F and inside the van it is 70F. We have roof vents open but fans not turned on. It will be warmer sleeping tonight. Tomorrow we will tour Monticello and enter the Blue Ridge Pkwy.
Day 11 May 30 Loft Mountain CG to Sherando Lake R.A.,
Got up and had a walk around the perimeter of the Loft Mountain campground. It is a beautiful day with very little clouds in the sky. The tent campers really have the morning view. Many of their sites overlook the valley. Loft Mountain does have a store/showers/laundry facility and we made use of the showers before hitting the road. We stopped an outlook for breakfast and then got off the parkway and proceeded east on I-64 for 20 miles to Charlottesville Va. the home of Thomas Jefferson?s loved Monticello. We arrived at the visitor parking and ticket area about 11:30am and got tickets for the 12:20pm tour. The ticket cost was $15 each and they take you on a small shuttle bus from the visitor area to the estate. It made for a very enjoyable time but we did miss lunch and had to rely on two Snicker bars to see us through. After touring and photographing we did go to the gift shop. We purchased two Lewis and Clark t-shirts. Last year on our Great Northern trip we covered much of their route to the west cost and this year we visited the estate of the man who commissioned the trip. The tee?s will do double duty.
At 3:00pm we left Monticello and stopped for a late lunch or early dinner at the 1784 Michie Tavern which is near Monticello. The buffet lunch was very good, a reasonable price and the only menu choice. The tavern midday fare features fried chicken, hickory smoked pork barbecue and a variety of southern delicacies (cold slaw, pickled beets, green beans, tomatoes stewed in a crumbled biscuit sauce ? Joanne asked). I had a Sam Adams beer with my lunch, seemed fitting for the days activities.
We are now camped at Sherando Lake RA and will spend both Friday and Saturday hear. Have talked to several of the park staff along the way and it appears that parkway parks are now filling up on the weekends. So we will stay put until Sunday morning and continue our trip.
Day 12 May 31 Sherando Lake R.A.
It is a small world. Everything here looked vaguely familiar to us. Finally after much ?no we didn?t? and ?yes we did? we concluded that we had stayed here AND on the exact same camp site in 2001 on our last Blue Ridge Parkway trip. We liked this site then with many to pick from this time we liked it again!
Slept in late, read books and cooked brunch in our small (8?) Dutch oven. Loaded the bottom of the oven with cubed bread, poured egg/milk mixture, add meat (our case cubed spam), topped with cheese. Kind of like one pot French toast. Joanne got the idea from a woman who was cooking it at one of our other stops this trip. Sat back read books, had a cup of coffee and in 20 minutes when the coffee was gone the brunch was ready to eat.
We rode our bikes around the campground loops this afternoon. ?A? loop today has several empty sites and ?B? loop, the electrical loop has about 30 sites and 5 of them were empty when we toured the area. ?A? has more trees and shade and ?B? is more open and flatter.
We rode over to the beach area and the store there has ice, $2.00 for 10 lbs. We got a bag for our cooler. The temperature today is 80F, breezy, and sunny. Glad we are in the woods. The campground restrooms also have showers. This whole place is VERY CLEAN. When we pulled into our site it had been policed and flat crushed stone covering the non-asphalted parking pad had been freshly raked. When I went over to the restroom this morning to check the showers, a women was in process of giving both the men?s and women?s a ?quick? cleaning and she said she would be back at noon to give them both a ?good? cleaning. Each restroom has two shower stalls with one being very large. Because of scarcity of water in the mountains, all water is activated by 3-5 second push buttons. We had to push the button a lot while showering but the water was hot and restrooms very clean and airy.
Day 13 June 1 Lake Sherando Nat. RA To Peaks of Otter NP CG, VA
We got a good start today even with taking showers and having breakfast before leaving camp. We were on the road by 9:30. The Blue Ridge Parkway makes Joanne much more nervous than the Skyline Drive because the shoulder is much narrower before it drops off into nothingness. Also, there are very few guard rails. There were times when we were on the peak of a mountain and it dropped off on both sides. The views are breath taking. And we are really getting into the Rhododendrons now. They line the roadside in places. Really gorgeous!
We stopped at several points of interest along the way the first one being Big Spy Mountain Overlook. It was a short walk up a hill to a beautiful vista of the surrounding mountains. Next we came to an old reconstructed narrow gage logging railroad near Wigwam Falls. We walked around there for a while taking several pictures of the tracks and many cascades. That particular 50 mile long railroad line carried out 100 million board feet of lumber ( that is equivalent to about .18 million eight foot 2x4?s).
When we came to Otter Creek Campground, we drove through it just to see what it looked like: very woodsy and wild looking. Neat! Otter Creek has two loops, one for tents and one for RV?s. Me thinks smaller rigs would be more comfortable then larger ones. I noted thought that there was one class A in the loop. There was a gift shop and restaurant near there so we decided to stop for lunch. Saw some locals in their Sunday best coming in so figured the food had to be good (or there was no other restaurant for 50 miles). The menu was simple but the food was good and every table has an outside woodsy view.
Just a mile or so after that we came to the lowest point on the Blue Ridge Drive at James River (649 ft). We went to the visitor center there and learned that there used to be a series of locks along the river to the coast. There was one preserved at this site so we took the walk to see it. It reminded Joanne of the Trent Water Way trip she took as a kid with my folks.
Then in about 13 miles we climbed up to the highest elevation on the Parkway in Virginia (3950 ft). It was a steep, winding, twisting road again with many narrow shoulders. But again the Rhododendrons were blooming along side the roads. We arrived at Peaks of Otter National Park Campground at about 4:00. This campground is wild and woodsy too. We chose a site (there were many to choose from as there was only one other camper here.), went to get ice from the store, set up camp and this time I made a fire.
At 6:00pm it was still 790 and then a front came through with some wind and a little rain the temperature dropped to 610 by 9:00pm. We thought it might be a warm night for sleeping, but it certainly cooled off nicely!
Peaks of Otter has about 140 sites on three camping loops and only two loops were open when we were there. The ?A? and ?B? loops are mainly for tents and the ?T? loop is for trailers and other RV?s. Peaks of Otter CG is built on a very hilly area and you need a little mountain goat DNA in your makeup to camp there. It was easy for us in that when we pulled in we had the pick of ALL the sites in the loop. Once the place gets ? if ever ? over a third full you will need to borrow leveling blocks from several of your neighbors. For us though it is a delight, very woodsy, cool air and very empty (next morning I counted 4 out of 100 sites open occupied).
